Home, Sweet Home

I'm back up to speed in this world - but still in that longing for the escape of that world.

Someday we'll find it, The Rainbow Connection, The lovers, the dreamers and me

Who said that every wish
Would be heard and answered
When wished on the morning star
Somebody thought of that
And someone believed it
And look what it's done so far
What's so amazing
That keeps us star gazing
What so we think we might see

Someday we'll find it
That Rainbow Connection
The lovers the dreamers and me

Sometimes, I wish it were this easy to make the world disappear.

Today I wish there was a chair in my path.
A chair that I could crawl in, and sleep and no one would care.
Except the people who thought I looked pretty and peaceful in a random place.

Interesting.

Out of my 100 Most Interesting Pictures on Flickr (I snap shot them every 3 months to see how they change), 43 are related to Burning Man and Decompression. Does that mean without Burning Man, no one would find my pictures interesting?

Center Camp Espresso Bar

We got winners, we got losers
Chain smokers and boozers
And we got yuppies, we got bikers
We got thristy hitchhikers
And the girls next door dress up like movie stars

Hmm, hmm, hmm I love this bar

We got cowboys, we got truckers
Broken-hearted fools and suckers
And we got hustlers, we got fighters
Early birds and all-nighters
And the veterans talk about their battle scars

Hmm, hmm, hmm I love this bar

[Chorus:]
I love this bar
It's my kind of place
Just walkin' through the front door
Puts a big smile on my face
It ain't too far, come as you are
Hmm, hmm, hmm I love this bar

I've seen short skirts, we got high-techs
Blue-collar boys and rednecks
And we got lovers, lots of lookers
And I've even seen dancing girls and hookers
And we like to drink our beer from a mason jar

Hmm, hmm, hmm I love this bar
Yes I do

I like my truck (I like my truck)
I like my girlfriend (I like my girlfriend)
I like to take her out to dinner
I like a movie now and then

But I love this bar
It's my kind of place
Just trollin' around the dance floor
Puts a big smile on my face
No cover charge, come as you are
Hmm, hmm, hmm I love this bar
Hmm, hmm, hmm I love this bar

We got divorcees and a big bouncer man
An old jukebox and a real bad band
We got waitresses and we got barflies
A dumb-ass and a wise-guy
If you get too drunk just sleep out in your car

Reason number 672 why

Hmm, hmm, hmm I love this bar
Play it on out boys
Beer-thirty's over
Got to take it on home

Hmm, hmm, hmm I love this bar
I just love it

Burning Man 2008 Art: Temple of Community by Lancelot Smith and Rue Morgue

The Temple of Community is a thirty-foot-high rendition of an origami crane. Encircling this central figure are individual, unique renditions of smaller cranes created by other theme camps. The expansive Gateway to the Future archway welcomes visitors into this circle.

The crane is a strong, graceful and beautiful bird. In Japanese, Chinese, and Korean tradition, the bird is a majestic symbol of longevity, happiness, and wisdom. It is said that a person who folds 1,000 cranes will be granted his or her greatest wish. On the playa, the crane symbolizes the act of letting go – of people, places, feelings, ideas – making wishes, discovering hope, finding peace, and building the wisdom, happiness and longevity of a community that is united in this experience. Anyone can participate with this piece, leaving notes, inscriptions and mementos. When the cranes are set ablaze, may all wishes come true.

Contact: socallegalvideo (at) yahoo (dot) com

Burning Man 2008 Art: Torii Gate Wind Chimes by Dave Keller

A 9' Tori Gate made with 4 X 6 timbers has a carving of the Burning Man on the upper cross beam and a carving of Buddha eyes on the lower cross beam. Hanging from the lower beam is a 7' homemade wind chime along with two smaller wind chimes and two sets of flags, one set representing different religions of the world and the other depicting the word "Peace" in many languages. The piece also houses small carvings from Nepal and Peru and is lit at night with blue-green e-l wire.

This installation represents the hope for peaceful coexistence of all of the world's religions and it also shows the great freedom of art expression we have in this country; as we are allowed to create any art piece in the US without fear of arrest or persecution.

Contact: davekeller (at) micron (dot) com


With Basura Sagrada in Background

Burning Man 2008 Art: The End by Bob Marzewski

Twenty foot tall 3D letters held in place by ropes laden with Tibetan-style flags on which participants can write what they see coming to an end. THE END is located at the end of the playa and will burn at the end of the event.

Contact: bobmarzewski (at) yahoo (dot) com

Burning Man 2008 Art: Shark Fins by Oleg Lobykin

Shark fins is a representative image based on a stereotype of fear and danger. The shiny metallic surface is a sign of today's highly technological and complex world and is a consideration of the physical impact of progress on nature. There is both fear and danger in how man uses (abuses) planet Earth.

Contact: lobykin (at) bigfoot (dot) com

Burning Man 2008 Art: We Come In Peace by Adam Ebel

A group of hive-mind-like alien's from Mars crash land their silver spaceship onto a strange planet (i.e. the playa). This planet is alive and the people who inhabit it are brimming with excitement and possibilities. Every evening at dusk, the alien's leave their ship to try and communicate using an interactive polyphonic sound set from various sound producing instruments and their natural voices. What do they want? To form a report with the surrounding creatures. To learn about and explore this strange new planet… and teach them about their homeworld.

Contact: adamebel (at) gmail (dot) com

Burning Man 2008 Art: Mutopia by the Flaming Lotus Girls, San Francisco, CA

Mutopia has germinated and is evolving, creating an intentional place of growth, mystery and possibility. Starting as one strange Seedpod, Mutopia sent out a runner root touching down with its node, and a new Seedpod was formed. Each successive plant repeats this process, evolving as it matures and remaining connected to the whole by a long umbilical-like root structure. Its evolution is not just mere mutation and adaptation; it is willfully incorporating features and forms of the plants, animals, and machines it interacts with in its surroundings. Through this absorption Mutopia elaborates its form, incorporating these elements into its future stages of growth. In a very direct way, participant interaction is influencing the growth of this life form and helping something new emerge. Thirteen generative Seedpods illustrate this new evolutionary concept of intentional and interactive evolution. Metals are reshaped into a sinuous evolving form growing in a giant spiraling formation. Mutopia entices one to enter its space, interact and contribute to its informed patterns of growth.

URL: mutopia.wordpress.com
Contact: dynama9 (at) yahoo (dot) com







Fireworks Show Friday Night was INCREDIBLE. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures of the colored flames or fireworks, but Stefan Did. This is my attempt:

Burning Man 2008 Art: Wheel of Thwarted Ambition by Anton Viditz-Ward, Telluride, CO

A horrible picture of them shoveling back in the embers to give it another go. I was cold and impatient and headed out before it got going again.



This kinetic fire sculpture represents change, rebirth and creation. Driven by a hand crank, a vertical wheel hung with buckets of burning wood is spun, creating a ring of fire and producing lots of fireflies.

Contact: Antonviditzward (at) hotmail (dot) com

Burning Man 2008 Art: ZsuZsu: The Crybaby Drama Queen by Mister Jellyfish, Sparks, NV

ZsuZsu's former lover dragged her to Burning Man. In an attempt to make her happy, he built her a custom heart-shaped trailer, complete with tanks of French air. She refuses to come out but demands your attention and gifts. ZsuZsu blames you for her discomfort and inconvenience. She also hates heat, dust, loud music, art and "Heepies". ZsuZsu's Spiteful Tower is a replica of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, erected in front of her trailer and festooned with red lights-- a bar graph "mood meter" to indicate her current state of angst. Participants are invited to push buttons that communicate different messages to ZsuZsu through her intercom in an attempt to influence her feelings. When ZsuZsu's mood reaches its peak, the door opens and her robotic body leans out for a surprise tres magnifique!

URL: www.MutantVehicle.com/zsu_zsu.htm
Contact: sinktrap (at) charter (dot) net

If you want to know, if he loves you so, it's in his kiss.

Fragile.

Out there, she is limitless.
Even afraid, she storms ahead.
Here, she is alone in a maelstrom of grief.
Her passion pains her.

Burning Man 2008 Mutant Vehicle: Mutoid Waste Co. presents: Spaghetti West Ten , London, UK

UK scrap-metal sculpture collective Mutoid Waste Co. brings a trio of bone-crunching mobile sculptures to the playa, led by Spaghetti West 10. This animatronic fire-breathing metal horse pulls a covered wagon - one-third Little House On The Prairie and two-thirds Horseman Of The Apocalypse. The horse is flanked by a pair of dinosaur-like machine-beasties: the Dino-Dumper and the Clamp-O-Saurus. The covered wagon features a stage for music and performance.
Contact: ohmissblues (at) googlemail (dot) com

Burning Man 2008 Art: Legends of America by James Cole, Auburn, CA

Contemporary photographs represent legendary Americans who lived their lives outside the conventions of society, and who embodied the rugged, self-made individual.

URL: www.jamescolephoto.com/burningman
Contact: james (at) jamescolephoto (dot) com



Drive By on the Space Bus -



There was a lot of vandalism this year. It was kinda sad.

Burning Man 2008 Art: Elevation by Michael Christian, Auriah Milanes, Scottie Chapman

Elevation is a fully climbable mountain constructed of winding tube steel ladders that elevate to a seated perch for one on its peak, at 54 feet.

URL: xianspace.com/bm2008/
Contact: mc (at) michaelchristian (dot) com

Clear or Cloudy...It was beautiful.

Burning Man 2009 Art Theme: Evolution

Next Year's Theme Has Been Announced.

It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth,and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner,have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with Reproduction; Inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life: a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection… There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers… and that, while this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and wonderful have been and are being evolved.
  -- Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species

Nature never made a plan, nor does it seem to copy very well.  No living thing is ever quite the same as others of its kind.  Charles Darwin called this Natural Variation.  There is a kind of subtle chaos,a supple element of chance and change, residing at the core of living things.  We've learned that DNA, the code that programs life, is subject to continual mutation.  This enables generations to evolve within a changing world.  This year's art theme contemplates the power and the meaning of the process we call evolution.

Design by Rod Garret and Larry Harvey. Rendering by Andrew Johnstone and Rod Garrett.

When at last I had disabused my mind of the enormous imposture of a design, an object, and an end, a purpose or a system, I began to see dimly how much more grandeur, beauty and hope there is in a divine chaos – not chaos in the sense of disorder or confusion but simply the absence of regular order – than there is in a universe made by pattern.  This draught-board universe my mind had laid out: this machine-made world and piece of mechanism; what a petty,despicable, micro-cosm us I had substituted for reality.
  -- Richard Jefferies

In 2009, the Burning Man will rise above a 'tangled bank' consisting of irregular wooden triangles.  No two elements of this organic composition will be quite the same; together they’ll create what’s best described as a chaotic truss.  At night the tangled bank will come alive with luminous life forms scratching, crawling and slithering their way through it.  This space will also house a pond known as the Gene Pool.  Strange Ur-creatures will peep outward from the surface of this primal soup.  The central tree supporting Burning Man, be ribboned with a double helix, will exist in flux: switching on and switching off, changing colors unexpectedly.

At bottom every man knows well enough that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time.
  -- Frederick Nietzsche

The human species, Homo sapiens, has existed for approximately 200,000 years. The genus known as homo has a lineage stretching back two million years. Homo erectus, the first human ancestor to walk upright, and Homo habilis, the toolmaker, are among our relatives.  We are a bud belonging to a twig of this ancestral tree. 

The process of trial and error that has made this possible is called Natural Selection.  Genetically encoded traits that aid survival tend to spread throughout entire populations.  Living entities that bear these genes endure and reproduce, but maladaptive traits are not passed on.  This causes species to evolve to better fit the world in which they live. However, this rigorous weeding out of 'unfit' individuals has gradually ceased to occur within our species.  Medicine and mutual aid assure that nearly anyone is able to survive and reproduce.

Now adrift in our own gene pool, we have encountered a new phase of evolution.  We've become a conscious breed of culture-bearing animals. Black Rock City is a kind of Petrie dish, and Burning Man is an experiment in generating culture.  We've learned that culture's a spontaneous phenomenon.  It thrives as a result of numberless and unplanned interactions.  All that's really needed is a fitting social vessel to sustain it.  This happens best within communities that harbor many different modes of self-expression.  We've also learned that cultures effloresce when human beings feel free to offer up their gifts.

Our theme this year prompts three related questions: What are we as human beings, where have we come from, and how may we adapt to meet an ever-changing world?

I barely recognize the weak girl with walls I am in this world.

It is amazing how quickly again I become guarded, shy, closed.
My walls are back up. I am safe from time.