Observed over the course of two years, How to Make a Rainbow is the story of a young girl and her mother, as they move together through transitions of home, identity and name.
Directed by Synchronicity-member Ryan Maxey
Featuring and Produced by Synchronicity co-founder and former resident, Jade Phoenix Martinez
How to Make a Rainbow from Maxey Fish on Vimeo.
Synchronicity LA is turning 10 years old this October. ⓌⒶⓊⓊⓊⓌ.
and it’s gonna be
°°°·.°·..·°¯°·._.· ᴀ (DAY) ᴘᴀʀᴛʏ ·._.·°¯°·.·° .·°°°
October 6, 2018
2pm – Midnight
at Synchronicity LA
open bar happy hour 3-5pm!
ɆӾ₱Ɇ₵₮
vegan tacos from de la luna catering
music!
film!
art!
sync museum
tiny house tiny bar
giant free store
dance
local beer on tap
₣Ɇ₳₮ɄⱤł₦₲
johanna chase
mc draperies
ahee
heartwurkz
roycetafari
deceptikon
special head
belinda julep
wesley francis
+MORE!
BLVD Friendsgiving in About a Minute – Twenty Seventeen
Friendsgiving goes down hard style at sync every time this year give thanks you turkeys.
BLVD Friendsgiving in About a Minute – Twenty Seventeen from Ryan Maxey on Vimeo.
I love LA, love biking, love making videos… here’s one I made for Brompton, the maker of my lil foldy.
-Ryan
Happy 100th Birthday National Parks Service!
HAPPY 100th BIRTHDAY NATIONAL PARKS SERVICE! Here’s my perspective on how insanely hard it is to protect lands from our destructive human race. The best and worst of humanity has been on full display throughout this journey. Shout out to the artists, scientists, and yes, the benevolent richfolk with their head in the right place. And above all else, we must acknowledge and pay respect to the native people who were stripped of their homeland.
Hope you all are getting out there and feeling the power of these awesome lands.
-Ryan
Follow Synchronicitite Wesley as he tries to get to the bottom of a local mystery… Why the hell is there a 20 foot ‘USA’ rocket on the roof of a nearby apartment building?
Made by Synchronicitite Ryan Maxey and Synchronicimate Josh Polon.
Synchronicity LA Salon: Nice Comeback!
The Synchronicity LA Salon is a monthly night of creative expression that started in our living room. It began in January 2010 as a safe space for the folks of Synchronicity and our friends to share finished or unfinished works of art, poetry, song, or any form of creative release. The idea was to encourage people in the community to create, share, and hear thoughts or ideas from friends. It has since expanded, outgrowing our living room, and we have enjoyed works of musicians, poets, storytellers, palindromists, historians, novelists, ramblers, gamblers, painters, filmmakers, drunks, fathers, mothers, lovers, dreamers, and psychedelic clowns from all over this land!
BLVD/Synchronicity Gaggle: Drone Jam on LA Bodies of Water
Time to welcome water back to Los Angeles.
A group bike ride with miniature musical instruments and droney jams on our lakes and rivers.
Each person carry along a mini guitar or uke or harmonica or melodica or clarinet or anydamnthing or just your voice. We’ll stop at our bodies of water and offer sweet droney jams to the Water Gods asking for plentiful but non-destructive rains this El Niño season.
A drone jam is EASY. It’s just playing for many minutes on a single chord. Everyone can play. All you need to do is learn a single chord OR even just a note on an instrument of your choice, and play it for minutes. When surrounded by the textures of different instruments, it’ll sound special.
All are welcome. There are a large amount of spare instruments at Synchronicity LA (I have a mini guitar/balalaika/pianica/thunder machine/and more)
Wednesday, October 21
Easy Ride. Slow pace. About 15 miles round trip. 3-4 stops.
Meet at Sync at 8pm with an instrument or borrow one.
Ride at 8:30 Sharp.
One of our most favoritest websites, Curbed LA, wrote words about us!
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2015/06/synchronicity_la_intentional_community.php
Synchronicity LA/BLVD Friendsgiving in Two Minutes or Less!
Each November we celebrate our chosen family with a humonsterous feast of food and tables that span our entire downstairs. We also make a photobooth and take way too many pictures.
Synchronicity LA Presents: The Salesman
One of the reasons we created the Synchronicity LA Salon was to motivate ourselves to experiment and create. At 3pm, the day before the Salon, Ashley, Wesley and I sat down to watch some crap on the Internet. But she proposed we make something for the Salon instead. So we made this. A little welcome-to-October gift from Synchronicity LA.
-Ryan
A Music Video Love Letter to Los Angeles
I was not a fan of LA. After four years of college here I left swearing never to return. But I came back for what I thought was a short stay. Then I was invited to dinner at Synchronicity. That was over five years ago, and I’ve been at Sync since. This house played a key role in redefining my relationship with this city. I’ve been surrounded by kind, creative, curious people… and together we’ve peeled away the layers of this amazing city. It’s a tough city to love. It took me a long time. But I really have come to love its expanse, its cultural and creative diversity, its challenges, and its rewards. Hard to sum it up with words, so here is a video love letter I made with our neighbor Mackenzie and her band The Wild Reeds. Check out their new album, Blind and Brave… it’s a helluva ride. -Ryan
A music video collaboration between a few Synchronicitians, and BeLoVeDs (members of our extended BLVD Community). Featuring the music of Synchronicity’s own AHEE and a few filmmakers and box folk from around the house and block.
Synchronicity LA Salon on the Eel River
Our July Salon took place on the majestic Eel River in the Old Growth Redwoods of Humboldt County. 50 friends of Synchronicity past and present migrated northwards to get our fix of trees, river, and friends!
It was in LA, on an early Tuesday morning
By our very own Wesley Francis
We caught the mouse in a trap
And it was my job
To dispose of him
I took both the mouse and the trap
And drove down Washington boulevard
But there were no secluded fields
Or little tin can mouse towns
Full of cute mouse families
And Fievel-esque adventures
Just mowed lawns
And apartment complexes
And people tired of hiring pest control
I turned right and left
Zig zagged through side streets
Looking for some sweet mouse habitat
Finally, tired and sleepy in mid-city,
I found myself parked out back
Behind a Ralph’s grocery store
I opened my car door
And shook the trap
And the mouse leapt out and vanished
I’d like to think that he dodged
Corporate sponsored mouse poison
And hungry packs of stray cats
That he navigated the concrete jungle
And found a paradise of bagged pasta
And expired boxed cereals
But we all know the truth
That there is danger everywhere
And the world is not kind
So as I backed up and drove off
Leaving the parking lot behind
I guess there is only one thing I really hoped
That he enjoyed his last final minutes
That his dying was not such a hard thing to do
Happy Birthday to our Beloved Peter!
Piru from Maxey Fish and Sea on Vimeo.
We went on a birthday adventure bike ride to celebrate Peter’s Birthday and had no fun at all.
BLVD Friendsgiving in a Minute or Less
Every year at Synchronicity LA we host a Friendsgiving Feast for all the folks of our extended community, The BLVD Collective. Here’s a flavor.
In our sprawling city, It’s not uncommon to find the most incredible flavors in a hole-in-the-strip-mall joint that’s squeezed between an auto zone, a 99 cent store, and a 24 hour donut shop. That is certainly the case with Palm Grove Ethiopian Restaurant. It’s a tiny, unassuming eatery that is full of surprise after surprise. The food is colorful, delicious, abundant, and very affordable. The injera is fresh baked, the menu diverse, and the coffee is not just brewed to order, its roasted to order! It’s the best option in the neighborhood for vegans and vegetarians, and the top choice for the folks of the BLVD Collective. We are a group of about 60 people on and around Westmoreland BLVD that share ideas, meals, friendship, and monthly art events. When we heard that Palm Grove was struggling, we put our heads together and thought up a way that we could use our power in numbers to help them out.
On Saturday we hosted a “Save Palm Grove” lunch and filled every one of the 30 available seats. It was important for us to come together and show the owner that our community values her business. And we wanted to make sure we strengthened their presence on Yelp. A positive Yelp profile is really essential for a restaurant in an area that doesn’t have much foot traffic. A few of us are photograhers, so we snapped some shots during the lunch to spice up the Yelp profile. And after the lunch, we hosted a “Yelping Party” and all created accounts and gave positive, well thought out reviews. The event was a great success, and will hopefully help bring more business to our neighborhood treasure!
graveyards or, today – A Poem by Jamie Criss
A portrait of our neighborhood with words by our neighbor.
Synchronicity LA is part of a greater collective of folks who have moved to our BLVD. We share our art/music studio, meals, ideas, and collaborate together. We recently ventured up to the hills of Simi Valley for some workshops, good times, campfires, group feasts, tequila in watermelons, music making, leisure sports, boggle and, yes, a 600 ft. zipline to play on.
The Golden Scarab Synchronicity – Inspired by Carl Jung
Took a trip to Austin. Read some Carl Jung. Got inspired. Had a conversation. Recorded it. Made a video with Tinny.
Mr. Bolivar – Waste Vegetable Oil vs. Diesel Emissions
Rogelio Bolivar lives in Denver and converts diesel engines to Waste Vegetable Oil as a hobby and way of life. A day after Tin and I met him he was on his way to a diesel emissions test center to see the difference in emissions between diesel and WVO.
DIY Culinary Adventures at Synchronicity
Hot Tub Yoghurt
I spent some time in Bolivia, and whilst working at a cafe/bar, i feasted daily on homemade granola and yoghurt made in my boss’s backyard. I’ve always dreamt of waking up and tasting that homemade deliciousness here in LA. So I researched making homemade yoghurt and it turns out the trickiest part to making it is keeping the yoghurt at 105-115 degrees for 6 to allow the cultures to spread. I was struggling to find a way, then it hit me! That’s the temp of our hot tub in the backyard! hooray! So Ever since january I’ve been keeping Synchronicity stocked with gallons of homemade yoghurt by sealin’ that yoghurt up tight, thrown it in the tub, and lettin’ it cook!
Rounding out my bolivian dream.. my dream of a lady (above) and I have been cooking up some homemade granola to top off that yoghurt! Yummy concoctions of late have featured pumpkin spices, quinoa, flax seed, crispy rice, and maple candied nuts! Oh me oh my. Lately we’ve made a batch to raise money for a trip to Bangladesh, where we are helping start a One for One Restaurant company that could feed many hungry kids around the globe. Learn more and donate if you wish here!
An interactive web series featuring the talents of Synchronicity LA and the surrounding BLVD!
Love Letters to the End – Teaser from Love Letters to the End on Vimeo.
Love Letters to the End – Episode 1 from Love Letters to the End on Vimeo.
The world might end this year. Well, that’s what people are saying anyway. You and I may not think so, but let’s make believe for a moment.
If the world were to end this year, what would you want to share with it? What memories, yearnings, gratitudes, regrets, triumphs, and wonders call out?
This is an invitation to be a part of a community art project. “Love Letters To The End” is a dramatic interactive world wide web series and collaborative community letter-writing project. Your letter might be short or long, pivotal or insignificant, melancholy, joyous, or sublime.
Write your love letter to the world before it ends.
The anonymous letter you send to the address below will be shared on the website, and could even be included in the narrative of the web series. This project will bring in collaborators from all over and what we make together might just inspire others. We hope you will join us on this journey.
Love Letters to the End
P.O. Box 17693
Los Angeles, CA
90017-0693
Synchronicity LA Salon Presents Ariel Climer
Cycling is live music!
Ariel is one of the founding members of Synchronicity LA. Hear her speak some poetry in the Synchronicity LA arts studio.
Synchronicity LA Salon – Johanna Chase and Damon Turner – “Sister Pico”
Pico BLVD cuts through the heart of our city, from the garment district Downtown through Japanese and Persian neighborhoods, kissing the Byzantine-Latino quarter and Koreatown, and all the way to the breakers of the Pacific.
This collaboration of two Salon veterans certainly pleases the masses in the Synchronicity studio.
www.johannachase.com
www.facebook.com/WHOISREAL8
www.RyanIsYourFriend.com
We had the honor and privilege this last summer to take an amazing idea; to share ourselves and our expression, wrap it up in our passion for community and sharing, pack it up in a veggie oil bus and take it on the road! In our travels we hit up the west coast and were able to be a part of a beautiful and uniquely creative manifestation of ourselves and our community. In taking to the road and sharing with you all, we came to learn so much about the world around us. In discovering new places, meeting new people, and communing with old friends in new ways, we were able to redefine for ourselves what it means to “heart”, and what it means to”Heart” people.
These are questions we are faced with at almost every turn we encounter. And as we set out on this journey to share and to give to others, perhaps we might have underestimated the things we were going to learn for ourselves along the way. Like how difficult it is to find the truest expression of who we are in ourselves and to trust each other enough to work together in empowering each and every person to chase that down in whatever way that looks. From our own vantage point the discovery of our unique and personal art, music, poetry, film, screen printing, cooking, dancing and so much more has become the rallying point by which we can find a starting point or a common ground to making our individual songs join together in a beauty filled collective chorus. In working together and opening our hearts to those who strive to find their expression, we aid each other along the path. The Iheartpeople tour proved to be a truly remarkable testament to our ability as individuals to seek to fly as high in our own selves while in the process discover how to encourage each other along the road as we reach for our destinations. Inevitably, as the road stretches, the hours pass, together the question is posed to each and every one of us in every encounter we experience, “what does it mean to love people?” and what are we really saying when we take a bus across the coast, blast “I heart People” across the side and spread our message from city to city? We all have our own reasons for being here and doing what we do, but in the end, it’s about what we can learn from each other and ourselves in each individual encounter that will teach us what it means to “heart” people.
One thing is for certain, we recognize that we could not have done this without the remarkable support from all of the people around us in our community. From the people we met on the road, to the people that supported us from home, we felt your presence and your strength with us in every step of the way. We are held up by our community, and we celebrate that. We also took our community on the road, set out to share ourselves to strangers and friends alike, 15 people in a bus, 1000+ miles, 200+ hours later and we are faced with so many realities of triumph and struggle, laughter and pain, confusion and anger, compassion and sympathy. The range of emotion and encounter become a wider pallette by which we can draw from. The tour, was simply a small microcosm of what we experience everyday; there are people all around us, and every day is a chance to discover how to “heart” them. Perhaps there is one thing we did learn, working together in harmony and unity is important to creating a new narrative of our future, and by creating a new reality by which our consciousness can evolve and grow we push the boundaries of what it looks like to heart people beyond the every day encounters we have become so numb to. We have been discovering that we do not have to live lives that are isolated and wasteful, consumptive and afraid, we recognize that we have the power to reach out to those around us, in bravery and honesty to jump out in a step of good faith and trust, knowing that we can travel to greater distances together than we could have alone. And in that knowledge we venture bravely into unknown territory chasing down with relentless passion the infinite possibilities that are before us all.
In this journey of exploration and connection, some individuals have turned to alternatives like cbd vape oil as a potential means to find moments of relaxation and relief from the challenges they encounter. Just as we’ve come to understand the importance of unity and shared experiences, it’s vital to approach such choices with a balanced perspective. While CBD vape oil might offer a temporary respite, it’s essential to recognize that the true transformation of consciousness and connection comes from fostering genuine human interactions, open conversations, and collective efforts to build a more empathetic and understanding society. As we navigate uncharted territories of personal growth and societal change, let us remember that the most profound transformations arise not from substances, but from the bonds we forge and the shared aspirations that guide us forward.
In the end, we all travel along on our own journeys, and at some moments we find that we travel together, its important that we remember in each unique moment before us, the places we have come from, the places we are going, and the current moment that we have stepped into, by remembering that these are all just collective moments in the history of our existence. Tiny blips on the radar of the human consciousness we find ourselves evolving into and as we each become who we are supposed to become by “giving joy and watching it be” we are learning to love ourselves and all that comes with our expression, unique as it may be each person for themselves. It is there, in that bright light that each person shines we learn to make room in ourselves to let others be who they are without judgment knowing that the very thing that makes us beautiful is the same shining light that shines within and without. Sometimes its not easy to love ourselves, and sometimes its not easy to love others, but we gotta strive hard for both, so that the moment one happens to out shine the other, maybe we can remember how similar those lights are from all angles. “Heart” yourself and maybe that’s what it means to “Heart” others.
-The Iheartpeopletour
Halloween Ghoulish Gaggle Bike Ride
Once again the BLVD Gaggle Riders took on the streets of LA on our two wheelers. This time in costume through the spirited streets of Hollywood.
The BLVD Collective: A Los Angeles Story of Radical Inclusion
Our home was founded in October of 2008 and in that time we have brought all sorts of friends, new and old, through our doors. In an effort to expand our community, so many of those people have moved onto our block.. and now we have a little village of 30-40 Boulevardians. We share the Synchronicity music and arts studio, open our meal plan to anyone on the BLVD, and recently we’ve taken steps to make our collective a bit more intentional by having monthly meetings. We’ve been talking about what we kinds of things we can do, and what effect we can have on our community given our power in numbers. One of the gems spawned from our meetings is the Gaggle Ride (a few posts below) and there are more BLVD exploits to come! Here’s a picture of our first meeting. 
Energy Exchange: Dustin and An Epic Family Table
We love having new faces find their way into our home, for a community dinner or even a stint in our hospitality room. When someone stays for good while in our hospitality room, we appreciate payment ;). But cash is our least favorite form of exchange–we tend to prefer some kind of energy exchange! So cook us a delicious home-made curry, or play us a song, or, in the case of Dustin, design us a 12 foot picnic table for us to share meals on! Dustin builds treehouses and had a job in Los Angeles! So he was our guest for a couple of months. And in exchange for his stay, he designed us a beautiful picnic table that would fit all the hungry folks at our community dinners. So we found repurposed woods, pulled the nails, sanded them down, and all put our hands to work.
Synchronicity LA is part of a greater community known as the BLVD. There are over 30 individuals calling the same block of Westmoreland BLVD our home. We have monthly meetings and share creative workspaces and community meals 4 nights a week.
We love riding our bikes. Our first BLVD gaggle was a success! Stay tuned for more in the future!
The BLVD Gaggle Ride
08.19.11
Meet at 8 — Ride at 9
The BLVD Collective: a Los Angeles story of radical inclusion. The BLVD is a village of artists, musicians, social activists and the like working collectively to create and celebrate urban community. Come chill on the BLVD and learn about living in community, sharing recourses, meals, ideas, friendship, and creative expression. And then fly with us. Meet at 8 at Synchronicity LA (1666 Westmoreland BLVD, 90006) and ride at 9.
This is an easy paced ride — ALL BIKES WELCOME!!!
No riders left behind. Bring the essentials: tubes,tools,cash.
We’ll make at least one stop to consume beverages. bring a can of your favorite liquid courage.
For more info make an electronic mail for ryan: ryan.a.maxey@gmail.com
Remember, a gaggle can ride 71% further than a lone rider.
Our beloved neighbor, friend, lover, and community member, Tin, just recorded an album in the Synchronicity LA studio. Check it out!
The lovely Jennifer Sharpe spent some time at our house capturing our soundwaves! It was aired this morning on 89.3 KPCC. You can Listen HERE!
Two singer/songwriters (Johanna Chase and Tin Santos), an Illustrator (Andress Yourself), a filmmaker (Ryan Maxey), and friends are taking to the road on The I Heart People Tour, a tour with stops at 7 cities along the West Coast that aims to share music, art, and spread the word on urban intentional community living!
“On a veggie oil/solar powered bus, our crew will depart from our home in Los Angeles: The BLVD, a community of more than 30 friends in 5 houses, including Synchronicity LA. Recently featured in an article in GOOD Magazine, Synchronicity LA is part of an intentional community in LA that focuses on ‘generating community through hospitality, intentionality, artistic action, and a dedication to the reduction of harm.’”
“We hope to share the spirit of community by hosting bus-side potlucks in each city before each gig played by Johanna and her band. Bring some food to share, and join us around the bus for music from Tin Santos, live screen printing (tour shirts) by Andress Yourself, photo booth portraits on the front of the bus provided by Maxey Fish and Sea Reels, and you can add some color with your paintbrush skills to the community mural on the side of our bus! Underlying all of the fun, we want share community and original expression!”
….Learn more about this incredible tour on its Kickstarter page!
Jamie Criss is perched up at 1660 Westmoreland Blvd, at the beloved Treehouse. Here she is at the Synchronicity LA Salon reading a piece on life on the BLVD. I love these words, they paint such a vivid picture. I’m so happy that I’ll forever have this to bring me back to the beautiful days on Westmoreland BLVD.
A small taste of community living. All of our cups seemed to have disappeared. So i went on a cup hunt in all the nooks and crannies of Synchronicity LA. I found over 75 of them. Then I washed them and took pictures and sound.
Hi it’s Tin and Ryan. We like to take trips and also like to substitute put M’s in words where they don’t belong. Here we are gandering up Highway 395, seeking advemture within valleys and mountains. Moo.
bill (the red river) in our living room!
I remember listening to The Red River’s Little Songs About The Big Picture when it was released last month and thinking, “If our house had a spirit band, it would be the Red River.” The album captures so much of the essence of our house, both in the way that we unashamedly get wild, sing, dance, and celebrate our friendship and free spirits… and in the way that we share our quiet, more painful and vulnerable moments together. And, truly, can one exist without the other? It reminds me of an excerpt from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet:
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your
laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your
tears.
Bill from The Red River brought his music to Synchronicity LA’s living room. Here he plays the track “Dirty Dave” from The Red River’s latest release, Little Songs About the Big Picture, which, by the way, was named Top Ten Albums of the year by NPR’s music guru Bob Boilen (http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2010/12/08/131862104/bob-s-favorite-top-9-for-2010) ! Tin Santos and friends help out with the vocals on this track!
MC Draperies is a rapper and resident of Synchronicity LA. He sings about sex, drugs, and community living.
Johanna is a founding member of Synchronicity LA! She is, will be, and always has been a singin’ fool!
Maxey Fish and Sea presents a premiere of Tin Santos and Julia McAlee’s “Monkey Paws” as performed at the most recent Synchronicity LA Salon.
This work in progress is brought to you by two spirited souls of Westmoreland Blvd. The performance is not without its bumps and bruises, but the song is too terrific not to give a glimpse. And the love that resonates through the Salon and its attendees is good and evident.
Sprawling across Cochabamba’s urban center is La Cancha market. It is well known for being one of the largest, most overwhelming markets in South America. Julia strapped on her guitar and took a casual stroll through the meat aisle, past the puppies, around the underwear, brushing shoulders with the carrot juicer, and ending amongst the veggies.
Julia McAlee is a singer-songwriter living in Los Angeles. You can visit her website here: http://juliamcalee.com/
