We wear masks.  All of us.  Masks from all over. The fake blissful Venetian mask with its shiny gleam.  The half intimidating, half pretending Balinese mask with its straw whiskers.  The majority of these masks are tarnished with its lack of real-ness - as if it were stolen off the uniformed shelves at Pier 1 Imports instead of the dust-wrinkled hands of an Indigenous. 

Alma Desnuda, Naked Soul, symbolizes the acknowledgment of this ritualistic mask donning, and in so doing, allows us to take it off…allows us to bare the soul and open that proverbial third eye.  We see each other, for once, not as another human, but as humanity incarnate.  I look at you, tilt my head to the left slightly, and focus long enough until the lens of my mind's eye dilates - and I see it.  I see myself in you. 

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-Alma D is a message of unity - a plea for communion so that we can share this experience.   This now. 

-Alma D is a socially digestible pill.  It's the bubble-gum flavored medicine that seeks to rid our community with the thought of the 'other.' This done with the realization that the first thing all us Living Things have in common is just that, we are all alive.  We are both sharing this present moment.  We are both creating this Now.

-Alma D is a product that springs organically from the bond we have for each other.  Our music is a tangible representation of the most intangible of all concepts.  Love.

-Alma D is the acknowledgment of our power to gain enlightenment, peace, and self- actualization through actions, which hold this end as its sole motivation.        

Paul- 11/18/08