Actually, no. But there's an island named for him up north of Vancouver. There's one named "Hernando," too. Neither part of the great explorer was there. But that doesn't matter to the unusual, entirely non-mainstream residents of this island reachable by ferry or floatplane.

I just got back from a six-day escape there at my sister's cabin on Cortes Island.  People go to amazing places to do amazing things. Like sound healing and body work. There are cool people there, eking out a living in a small place with high prices.

My nephew was at a camp called Power of Hope while we were there. Interesting premise.

Beautiful scenery. Clear air. People with accents.

But now I'm back in my crazy real world, soaking up TiVo'd episodes of Doctor Who and Stargate Atlantis and The Closer and the Tour de France. And catching up on email and mail-mail. And chatting with friends.

It's amazing how many different ways there are to be in this world.

It's nice to be back exploring in my own backyard. 

I just spent the last few days at a Global Sound Conference in Los Angeles. As a musician, I've long intuited the calming/healing power of music, or, fundamentally, sound. The glorious image at left was painted by Michael Garfield during the live concerts, which featured luminaries such as Yungchen Llamo and the awesome-forever Sheila Chandra! (On his site, scroll down to the lower right Slideshow of all the paintings he's done at different concerts. You can buy giclees or laser prints. He stands on stage with an easel and light and paints away!) All of it gave me some new ideas for my own music work, and exposed me to some incredible people with incredible visions doing incredible things. People leading drum circles in the northern part of Iraq with Shiites and Kurdes all in the same group playing *together.* (See the Health Rhythms and Drum Circles sections at Remo.com.) People designing sound environments into hospitals and hospices. People exploring the field of cymatics and how vibrations shape liquids or particles into incredible patterns. People playing drums and gongs and quartz singing bowls. A key message to wrap your brain around is that we're all made of energy, a.k.a. sound waves. Drill down into the smallest structure of your being and you'll still find sound waves. Health and education and human development and conflict resolution structures of the future will integrate music and sound within their operational practices because they "get" that sound is a fundamental re-energizer, re-aligner, re-lifer force.