kurt on stage at anarchapulco

"To Acapulco"

The story of the first song

Around the end of 2015, @juansgalt put out a call on Facebook asking for music to accompany his documentary series Seeking Freedom: The Acapulco Files. I said I think I could put something together, and with some hard work, inspiration and a few ideas from Juan about his vision of a story about a real life "Galt's Gulch", the utopia for freedom lovers describe in Ayn Rand's book "Atlas Shrugged". I came up with this song, "To Acapulco":

The stories in the song

The first verse tells the story of a young man who decides to quit his country and seek freedom, illegally sneaking across the border to arrive in Acapulco. Though few of the facts align with Juan's story, the verse is, in a roundabout way, inspired by his journey. The second verse tells the story of a technical professional who decides to flee the US, fearing the safety of his family, inspired by some friendly characters known in Acapulco - Nathan Freeman, Travis Boyd, and Ryan Herbison. The third verse describes some current problems with authoritarian governments, and concludes with a call to come to Acapulco. Of course, there are references to Ayn Rand's work scattered throughout the song.

You can read a little more about the story of writing and releasing that song on The Paradise Paradox. The short version is, Juan used it for his documentary, but also, @dollarvigilante heard it, and invited me to perform at Acapulco.

The song was a great success among Anarchapulco attendees, and though I was a little embarrassed at the degree of praise that was bestowed on me, I was grateful that people appreciated my little song.

Part 2

This year @dollarvigilante asked me if I could create another song to use on promotional videos. I'm still not sure if or how he's going to use it, but here it is:

The stories continue

This song is a sequel, continuing to go through and describe some of the characters that we love to see at Anarchapulco. The first verse tells the story of a war veteran, who, having seen the horrors of war, realises that it's senseless, and that he was deceived - inspired by @adamkokesh and another man, whose name I might avoid mentioning for the moment. The second verse describes some parts of the psychedelic process, with some influence from @emancipatedhuman, @maceytomlin, and from my own experiences.

Lyrics

sippin margaritas with some fly mamasitas
liberty and peace, freedom on the beach
acapulqueñitas chaparritas y bonitas
liberty and peace, freedom on the beach
see the whole city from the villa in the hills
liberty and peace, freedom on the beach
all my ancaps makin $100 bills
freedom on the beach, liberty and peace

many vets enter you'll see many more
every wounded soldier turned anti-war
looked straight in the face of the machine
each one repented and wiped his slate clean

stared in the matrix learned to break free
burned his chevrons stands in plain jeans
jeans fresh pressed, soul damaged torn
but you can see the peace sign his hand forms

he never read the contract he'd signed to
anxious for battle no telling what he might do
saw the destruction his first fly through
first deployment realised he'd been lied to

looked in the face of death a couple times
remembers the moments lost his fuckin mind
for the PTSD weed blew smoke
chillin on the beach in acapulco

i'd like to welcome all our cosmic travellers
who've seen the universe as pure mathematics
experienced eternity everlasting
and felt their mind do triple backflips

now we know life is more than a bad trip
i know you know you're shiva just acting
don't be afraid take off that human mask kid
there's something behind it we can bask in

San Luis Potosí the complete squad
a date in the desert a chance to meet God
though that midnight wind blew super cold
better to be on the beach in acapulco

sippin margaritas with some fly mamasitas
acapulqueñitas chaparritas y bonitas
see the whole city from the villa in the hills
all my ancaps makin $100 bills

Credits and acknowledgements

The instrumentation was produced by my friend Super Ego - definitely check out his work if you're an MC or singer and need some beats. It was mixed and mastered by a fellow named Dr. Aquafresh.

Also thanks again to Dan Dicks @pressfortruth and Doug Scribner @dougscrib for the footage of my performance at Anarchapulco, and Pete Gorman for being the sound guy that night.

I hope you enjoy the song, and I hope to see you next year at Anarchapulco.

About me

My name is Kurt Robinson. I grew up in Australia, but now I live in Guadalajara, Jalisco. I write interesting things about voluntaryism, futurism, science fiction, travelling Latin America, and psychedelics. Remember to press follow so you can stay up to date with all the cool shit I post, and follow our podcast where we talk about crazy ideas for open-minded people, here: @paradise-paradox, and like us on Facebook here - The Paradise Paradox

Some other cool posts

Here are some other posts of mine to check out:
Impossible! A conversation with a statist about starting a business
Liberty in a nutshell: 3 quick arguments to make you think about smashing the state
Freedom trumps fear: Everything you do is an act of liberty
Automation: An age of unseen prosperity

Freedom seekers' song: "Freedom on the beach (To Acapulco Part 2)"