Since I was speaking at the LA Decompression 2010 EcoSalon, we arrived bright and early–about 1:30. Even though the event started at noon, in true Burning Man fashion, most of us were struggling with wind and shade structures. There weren’t too many people around; most were working on their camps as well!
Soon people sauntered by the EcoSalon to enjoy some tea and conversation sprawled under canopies of fabric and on top of blankets and pillows. We passed around a mic and shared stories of our successes and our strategies. We asked questions and we proposed answers. People wandered in and out at will, but many people, like us, hung out most of the day.
The rock star was Mark Lakeman of Portland’s City Repair. He was inspiring and awesome and he had my husband and the audience hanging on every word. What I loved most was the way he presented in such
a fashion that it felt like a conversation and that he respected everyone’s contribution.
The last presenter at the EcoSalon was Greg Wendt on “Sustainable Wealth.” Dora! who owns Wild Planet stopped by for a hug and settled down next to me to enjoy beverages and snacks; his soul was fed too by what Greg had to say. Here’s a photo of Greg pouring tea he brewed and brought to share while a small boy I know hoops behind him.
What was Enviro
nmental Studies 101 for me was enlightening words of wisdom hitting Dora!’s ears at the right time and will lead to us having conversations about business and the Triple Bottom Line.
Yay! Shift happens!
People who had never been to the playa were enthralled and enthused by the spectacle of LA Decompression 2010. Those of us who have been smiled, and nodded or shook our heads. Until you’ve been there, you really can’t imagine Black Rock City–the vast expanse of desert, the mountains, the dust, the wind…or the creativity.
While most people seemed to congregate around the music stages, a highlight for us was the interactive events, like the XyloVan (pictured above). What fun! We also enjoyed a 3D tent–they provided the glasses of course.
In all my years at Burning Man, I have to admit that I have yet to put on a pair of skates at Black Rock Roller Disco. You’d think this would have been the occasion with my son ready to roll at any time, but with a freshly broken toe, the best I could do was catch some pictures. In the night shot, the crowd is dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”– a sight you had to see to believe!
Lots to do, hear, and see on the 8 stages plus theme camps. Hmmn, we might just head up to SF Decom next weekend! Maybe they need an EcoSalon too.
Did you go to LA Decom? What were highlights for you? Are you going to SF or San Diego Decompression Parties?
Burning Man 2010: Decompression Today!
LA Decompression 2010 offers: 8 Stages of Entertainment, Tons of Art and Activities for All Ages
Here are some fun interactive ways you can participate in LA Decom . .
The Burner Bizarre is setting up and you are invited to clean out the closets! Clothing for all ages is welcome from infant to full grown. Also hats, handbags, gloves, shoes, and other accessories are welcome as well. And of course costume items are always welcome. Bring a big bag or just a few items. And while you are there gifting your stuff, go through what others have brought and take home some new duds. All left over clothing will be donated to “My Friends Place” www.myfriendsplace.org
Tabula Rasa is also coming back again this year. They are the beading and jewelry making camp. At BM this year they were place at Center Camp on Ring Road and therefore their beads were pretty depleted. They are asking everyone to bring their broken necklaces, left over beads, buttons, and crafting stuff. Anything that you could make jewelry out of and help resupply. And of course stay for a while and make something for yourself.
EcoSalon invites you to please bring your favorite teas (bagged) to Decom to enjoy with others at the EcoSalon 2010: a place to share environmental knowledge, meet the experts (including me!) and ask questions over a nice cup o’ tea! Please remember to bring your reusable mug (or water bottle)!
Here’s the specifics:
| 1:30-2:15 | Bobby Gadda and Gwendolyn Alley
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Car Free in BRC – Why not LA? Read more… |
BORN TO BE WILD? show us, you wild thing on October 1st FFArtRide!
Were you “Born to Be Wild”? Then show us your wild thing and take a ride on the wild side Friday Oct 1!
via Bikergo Gal
2010 Burning Man Photos & 3:15 Experiment Poetry: turn the light on
Poetry from the 3:15 Experiment 2010
August 23, 2010 3:15am home
I keep trying to turn on the light
by my bedside table.
Night after night it doesn’t come on;
during the day I forget
that there’s a problem here–
did the plug come loose?
did the light bulb burn out?
Dropping my pen I see the problem:
bits of broken glass
and the socket is empty.
The solution is simple.
I hope tomorrow I do it.
As a metaphor, my life
is harder to clean the glass up
remove the sharp painful pieces
find a new bulb
& screw it in.
I’m almost done with a manuscript for a chapbook of 3:15 poems about writing about life and death at 315am, being a mom and losing one. It’s about 1/3 from this year. I’ve also got a work in progress, Love & Terror at 3:15am: poems from the 3:15 Experiment from 2001-2009. I’ll let you know when it’s ready for purchase!
PS Thanks to Wade Scribner for the Burning Man 2010 night time light time photos. Wade has also asked me if I’d be interested in doing some writing to go with a book of Burning Man photos he’s working on!
DECOMPRESSION! Bring Burning Man home: LA, SCruz, SF, SDiego, & more
Each year after Burning Man, many people experience a lot of conflicting emotions. They miss their new friends and their new lifestyle, they miss the art and the freedom. Often frustration with the default world and depression sets in.
Or maybe you’re bummed you didn’t go this year. Or maybe you’ve never been or the drive or the desert or the cost just isn’t your thing.
Never fear, Decompression is near!
Decompression is where as many Burners as possible congregate in the default world to recreate a little bit of Burning Man.
Okay, I admit, it’s not even close. But it’s a fun party. Last year I went to Decom in LA and in SF. The one in SF is QUITE the party: streets are closed and bars get so full no one can get in those either. Music and theme camps, costumes and fun.
But no, it is not Burning Man. People keep the naughty bits covered and hide the booze and drugs. People are very happy to see each other but they may not express it quite as flamboyantly as they might on the playa.
You could say Decompression is Burning Man lite.
But like I said, it’s still fun. I’m planning on being at the one in LA where I will be facilitating a discussion on how to create a bike culture. Here are the details and links to learn more about when and where various decompression parties will be held: Read more…
STATEWIDE: California Coastal Cleanup Day 9-noon
The 26th Annual California Coastal Cleanup Day
Saturday, September 25, 2010
California Coastal Cleanup Day is the premier volunteer event focused on the marine environment in the country. In 2009, more than 80,600 volunteers worked together to collect more than 1,300,000 pounds of trash and recyclables from our beaches, lakes, and waterways. California Coastal Cleanup Day has been hailed by the Guinness Book of World Records as “the largest garbage collection” (1993). Since the program started in 1985, over 800,000 Californians have removed more than 14 million pounds of debris from our state’s shorelines and coast. When combined with the International Coastal Cleanup, organized by The Ocean Conservancy and taking place on the same day, California Coastal Cleanup Day becomes part of one of the largest volunteer events of the year. Read more…
Harvest Moon & Children’s Festival Sunday at Buddhist Temple in Ventura
Here in coastal Southern California, in summer we’re often enshrouded in fog and we miss the moon.
But once fall descends, we are often blessed with glorious clear sky visions of Moon in all its phases.
This particular Harvest Moon has been exceptional all week, and last night’s full Harvest Moon was glorious, energizing and inspiring as you can see from this photo by David Pu’u.
We celebrated the Harvest Moon by taking the clay Ganesh we made last year down to the water so he could return to Mt Kailash. Traditionally, this would have been done on Sept 11 and we fully intended to. But I was sick and it just didn’t feel right so I decided on the next full moon. And I’m so glad! It was such a beautiful night. My son, my husband and I walked to where the water that flows behind our house joins the ocean when the tide is high. Since it was low, the water flowing from the hills behind our house and down Prince Barrance, and from the hills behind my mom’s house, and San Jon Barranca, was calm. We took turns kneeling by the water’s edge and rubbing the clay in the water to moisten it so he would soften and dissolve.
We will continue to reflect on how our obstacles have been removed, for how much we have harvested, and to be grateful for so many gifts. On Sunday, September 26 from 11am-8pm, we will attend the free Mid-Autumn Festival at the An Lac Mission 901 S. Saticoy Avenue in Ventura’s far east end. Organized by the An Lac Mission and the Vietnamese Language School, this is a family friendly event with music, entertainment, dancing, a magic show, children’s competitions, a Vietnamese Elvis impersonator, costumes and free moon cake for children.
Personally, I am looking forward to the vegetarian cuisine! At an event last year, I fell in love with all the wonderful ways the Vietnamese use tofu. The flavors of the dishes I tried last year were exquisite. There will also be Sri Lankan food.
While the event is free, they will be charging for the food and certainly accepting donations. This is a fundraiser for the Jade Buddha exhibition which is coming in February.
While you are there, enjoy the garden and say hello to Guan Yin The Compassionate Rebel!
No Surrender: Bruce Springsteen and Fans Celebrate His 61st Birthday Today!
I married a Bruce Springsteen fan, a serious Bruce Springsteen fan, a fan with over 100 shows under his belt, someone who made it clear right away what it meant to go to every show that he could possibly go to. He also made it clear that I didn’t have to go, and unless I could appreciate the show from the depths of my being like him, then I shouldn’t go. Actually, our first show together was a make-or-break deal: if I didn’t “get” it, there was no hope for our relationship.
But I made the cut. I don’t mind that he wears a button that reads “On the 8th Day God Made Bruce Springsteen” or that there’s a picture of Bruce Springsteen and my husband hanging in our closet. I understood how getting it signed by Bruce was important and I helped make that happen a year or so ago.
I’ve also met some of the other hardcore fans, including Ron Wells who wrote the following essay in celebration of Bruce Springsteen’s birthday. I’ve written many other posts about Springsteen on this blog, including one on his birthday last year; you’ll find links to them below. Read more…
Burning Man Book Now Out: Theater in a Crowded Fire Author Speaks in SoCal
Every summer, thousands gather from around the world in the blistering heat of Nevada’s Black Rock Desert for the seven-day celebration of art, community, and fire known as Burning Man. Culminating in the spectacular incineration of a wooden effigy, this festival is grand-scale theater for self-expression, personal transformation, eclectic spirituality, communal bonding, and cultural renewal. In this engrossing ethnography of the Burning Man phenomenon, Lee Gilmore explores why “burners” come in vast numbers to transform a temporary gathering of strangers into an enduring community. Accompanied by a DVD, which provides panoramic views of events, individuals, artworks, and, of course, the climactic final night, the book delves into the varieties of spirituality, ritual, and performance conducted within the festival space. UC Press
Anthropologist Lee Gilmore, author of the recently released Theater in a Crowded Fire: Ritual and Spirituality at Burning Man (University of California Press 2010) will speak at a series of fall events to discuss her findings on why so many Burners describe Burning Man as a spiritual and transformative event and the significance of this event for the future of religion.
According to a review by Sarah Pike, author of Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves: Contemporary Pagans and the Search for Community
“Gilmore’s study brings new voices and experiences to current debates about religion versus spirituality through her richly textured descriptions of the characters, events, and spaces that make up the seemingly strange but culturally significant Burning Man festival. Readers will discover that Burning Man is a wonderful illustration of the dialectic between self and community at the heart of much of American religion today. Gilmore persuades us that those who trivialize this event by seeing it as a huge party, miss the ways in which Burning Man provides an unusual snapshot of diverse forms of American spiritual-seeking.”
(And yes, I plan to review the book here myself as soon as I get my copy of it! AND a DVD too –wow!)
Lee knows what she’s talking about: she teaches in the Religious Studies and Anthropology departments at California State University, Northridge and her previous publications include AfterBurn: Reflections on Burning Man, co-edited with Mark Van Proyen. She has been attending Burning Man since 1996.
The first event is this Weds. Sept. 22 from 7:30-9pm at The Bodhi Tree Bookstore Annex, 8583 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, CA 90069. For more info about this event see: http://www.bodhitree.com/event_september.html
Lee will also be at the author booth at Pagan Pride LA/OC on Sunday September 26 from 11:30-12:30: http://www.paganpridela.org/future/futuremain.html
The details are still coming together, but watch for a USC event on a Wednesday night in October with Larry Harvey, the man widely credited for starting Burning Man 25 years ago.
Lee Gilmore teaches in the Religious Studies and Anthropology departments at California State University, Northridge. Her previous publications include AfterBurn: Reflections on Burning Man, co-edited with Mark Van Proyen. She has been attending Burning Man since 1996.
For more info about the book see: http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520260887
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Theater-in-a-Crowded-Fire/118329614875358
Burning Man 2010 photos from the portfolio of Wade Scribner–thanks Wade! Top photo of the Man from Burning Man 2010, middle the Man Burns at Burning Man 2005 in Wade’s favorite photo, and finally, the tangled bank of evolution with the Man standing above form Burning Man 2009.
Today is the International Day of Peace: Breathe in JOY, Breathe out PEACE!
Happy International Day of Peace! Take a moment for silence and reflection. Breathe in joy. Breathe out peace.
It may be cliche but it’s true: Peace starts within. If it is to be, it is up to me because we can only change ourselves.
Now that you’ve spent a moment to breathe and reflect, together, let’s help find peaceful resolutions for all living creatures!
There are observances in every nation on this planet, in all segments of society, by thousands of organizations and hundreds of millions of people around the world. National Public Radio is currently airing radio broadcasts, including playing ‘peace music’, in observance of – and as a way to inform the public about – this occasion Find out about events here: http://www.un.org/en/events/peaceday/2010/broadcast.shtml
The event is organized by Pathways To Peace, the International Secretariat of the Culture of Peace Initiative, a UN designated Peace Messenger program, involving over 4,000 organizations across the globe. Pathways To Peace has been involved with the International Day of Peace since its inception in 1981 and has nurtured this occasion into an annual global observance that is intercultural and intergenerational in nature, and reaches hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Governments, religions, educational institutions, businesses & professionals, NGO’s (non government organizations), the media, grassroots organizations and people from all walks of life are involved. Pathways To Peace is a nonprofit organization, whose work would not be possible without our volunteers. Please click here to donate.
So why the Burning Man photos by Wade Scribner? What does Burning Man have to do with the International Day of Peace?
Black Rock City and the culture of Burning Man teaches us the importance of community and creativity. And, possibly more importantly, Burning Man teaches us to be both self-reliant and how to give to our neighbors as well as strangers and that instead of spectators, we must be participants.
art predator 