Poetry from the 3:15 Experiment
August 28, 2010 3:15am home
A dog is barking
some where across the barranca
The fog has come in thick again
the sky now a ghastly orange
around the sycamore tree.
It’s in full green leaf still but
any day now as it finally warms
here after a long cold foggy drizzly summer
the leaves will turn orange too
and curl and turn brown.
The dog will one day STOP barking
and a time will come again
when I will sleep all night
Because today’s the last summer, I posted this 3:15 Experiment poem. Have a wonderful Fall full of fabulous colored leaves crunching underfoot…
Burning Man 2010 photos by Wade Scribner
It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day! I AM A SCARY SMELLY SKELETON PIRATE
In honor of “Talk Like Pirate Day” and this weekend’s Pirate Festival at Lake Casitas, here’s an oldie but a goodie “I am a Scary Smelly Skeleton Pirate!”
My son and I did this video two years ago when he was almost 5 based on a poem he wrote with other kindergarten and first graders in his class. Enjoy! And maybe we’ll see you at the Pirate Festival! Arghh!
via art predator
International Observe the Moon Night Saturday: A Gawker & Geeker-tunity!
What better place to observe the almost full moon tomorrow but at NASA in Mountain View California?
The NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI) joins local amateur astronomers to host a free Observe the Moon night at NASA Ames on Saturday, Sept. 18 from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. The moon will be in the waxing gibbous phase that night and participants will be able to view the moon through approximately 40 telescopes set up by members of the San Jose Astronomical Association and the Peninsula Astronomical Society. Speakers include David Morrison, former NLSI director, Barry Blumberg, a Nobel laureate and former director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute and Greg Delory, LADEE mission deputy project scientist.
Not in the San Francisco Bay Area?
For more information about the very first International Observe the Moon Night, Read more…
Poetry from the 3:15 Experiment 2010: August 2 Night Terror
Poetry from the 3:15 Experiment
August 2, 2010 home
The night terror tonight
took the shape of my husband
& hid under the bed
until he died a dramatic death
his arm up & reaching frantically
as if drowning & counting down
with my head on his chest
I pondered which was real
what was real
perhaps this was the evil one
& the good twin had gone down
like a sinking ship?
how did I know the feet
rubbing mine were truly
doing so with love?
I didn’t know I decide
I didn’t really know anything
except I needed to go back to sleep.
Gimme five! From Work in Progress: Burning Man 2010 Top photo detail of Bliss Dance by Marco Cochrane originally uploaded and taken by Mic
hael Holden
I’ve participated in the 3:15 Experiment since 2001. As a participant, I get up every night I can at 3:15am to write. Hundreds of poets all over the world this year did the same; many of them are now transcribing their nightly scribbles and will then post on the site.
Middle photo of Bliss Dance by Wade Scribner, a Burner from Portland who shares my birthday!
Bottom photo credit of “Bliss Dance” Burning Man 2010 by Marco Cochrane to: Margaret Lambert. Margaret and I attended junior high and high school together!
Who is Ganesh? And where is Mt Kailash?
Yesterday was Ganesh’s birthday and the close of the 10 day Hindu Festival Ganesh Chaturthi where figures of Ganesh are placed in water to dissolve and float back home to Mount Kailash. I don’t know how many candles would be on his cake, but several thousand might get close.
Last year at Burning Man, as we gave out bandanas and stickers with Ganesh riding a bike on them, we discovered that many people didn’t know who he is. Some did of course, but fewer than I expected, so I thought it was about time to take a moment and explain a little about who Ganesh is and where Mount Kailash is.
Basically, Ganesh is a Hindu deity, the remover of obstacles, the patron saint of artists and writers. And more, of course. Many people pray to him for prosperity. In fact, he is the most popular deity in the Hindu pantheon. Most of the time, he lives on Mount Kailash located high in the Himalayas. He moves among during the days before, during, and after an eclipse and during the 10 days before his birthday.
Mount Kailash, 22,028′ high, is one of the most sacred places on Earth but one of the least visited because it is so difficult to get there in this remote area of Tibet and to be there; people do visit Mount Kailash and now write about it too like in this blog with photos. You can also see for yourself in viewing these slides which show Divine Mother Audrey visit there and circumnavigation of the Mount Kailash in 2006. Here’s a third site with both tectonic and spiritual information about Mt Kailash.
Ganesh is well known, admired, and prayed to beyond the Hindu tradition to Jains and Buddhists as well– just as Christians know who the Jewish King David is, just as they know the stories of Moses and the Red Sea, and honor their stories, so do various Eastern religions honor, worship and celebrate Ganesh.
Different forms of Buddhism express Ganesh in various ways also. The Tibetan Buddhists call him Ganapati, and have a somewhat ambivalent view of him, at times worshiping as the powerful Destroyer of Obstacles and other times having his power subdued.
In Japanese Shinto and Shingon Buddhism, Ganesh is worshiped as a god of love and he is associated with bliss.
Thai Buddhists call Ganesh “Phra Phikanet” and see him as a remover of obstacles who brings good fortune. At Tipps Thai Restaurant where I went for soup the other day, they told me he brings prosperity. Because he is the god of the arts, you can find him incorporated in the emblem of the Thai Fine Arts Department as pictured.
Even in mostly Muslim Indonesia, you’ll find Ganesh in every Shiva shrine.
Here’s Wikipedia on the Hindu Festival Ganesh Chaturthi and more about the elephant headed god and the patron saint for writers from a post I wrote.
Who is Ganesh for me? As a writer, I love his playfulness; he reminds me to not take everything so seriously. To write is to rewrite, to play with words and language and sounds and ideas. I love that he loves what I do–he loves to dance, he loves literature and art and travel. As the Remover or Destroyer of Obstacles, he is perfect for someone who wants to get around on two wheels as often as possible, and certainly perfect for someone who participates in bike rides to art shows!
This past year has been full of huge challenges for me, certainly one full of obstacles. My husband had lip cancer and surgery, he broke his C2 vertabrae (the hangman’s break), my friend Paul died suddenly and then my mom died the next day.
But it has also been full of opportunities. I went to Portugal, miraculously obtaining a passport in time, and made my flights. My husband didn’t die instantly when he broke his neck (95% of the people who break this bone die immediately and of the 5% who live, only 3% fully recover like my husband did). Small and large impossible obstacles have been removed many times this past year. I am grateful to Ganesh for the ways that he has been a vivid part of my life for over a year. I appreciate him in all of his forms and I look forward to getting to know him better in the coming years.
I even plan a trip to Mount Kailash. After all, he’s been to visit me; it is time to go visit him.
Happy Birthday, Lord Ganesha! He’s heading back to Mt Kailash today!
Saturday, September 11 is Lord Ganesha’s birthday and the close of the 10 day Hindu Festival during which time he is said to visit us here on Earth. On his birthday, people parade through the streets carrying large and small elaborately painted plaster of Paris figures. So many toxic statues immersed at once has caused an environmental disaster and now “Eco-Gods” like the ones made of clay as shown in the video above. Here’s more from Wikipedia on the Hindu Festival Ganesh Chaturthi and more about the celebration of the elephant headed god and the remover of obstacles, and the patron saint for writers from a post I wrote.
Last August, a group of us made small clay figures of Lord Ganesha out of earth and clay. They dried in the sun, then on Lord Ganesh’s birthday o
n Friday Sept. 3, on the four day of the new moon, several people took their figures to the sea.
I took mine to Burning Man, where we gave out Ganesh bandanas to those experiencing the obstacle of windstorms; I intended to dunk him in a bucket of water, dissolve him, then spread the water out on the playa. But I thought better of it, and placed him in a red mesh bag pillowed with lavender flowers, and brought him to do more travels in our car for this year.
Now it is again the fourth day of the new moon and time to send him to the sea, time for him to return again to Mt Kailash.
Good Bye, Ganesh! I am grateful for all the obstacles you removed for me this past year! Thank you for being with us!
PS Next year, Ganesh Chaturthy 2010 once again occurs during Burning Man…and we will be celebrating it out there once again! I think he’d enjoy another bike ride.
Seth Godin’s Linchpins Meet: Ventura Sunday 9/12 7pm (via The Write Alley)
I’ve been struggling with a cold for a week now, but I’m hoping to join fellow Linchpins in Ventura tomorrow to share what we are doing and to learn from each other. I also heard today from Donna of Betty Belts that there’s some big plans in the making and I want to be part of that for sure!! (hint–it might include a visit to Ventura by blogging guru and bestselling author Seth Godin! A little bird told me at the Stewart Brand warehouse sale today!)
via The Write Alley
Burning Man 2010 Style: how to make your own furry hat with ears
Because of the cooler, mild temperatures, Burning Man 2010 was a very furry year. If you were out there, you might have noticed. But if this was your first year, you might not have because in general, Burning Man is a furry place.
Whether you went to Burning Man or not, you may be feeling you need to get your fur on. Above is a simple video which shows you how to make your own furred eared hats much like the one Colorado Burner and fire conclave member Margaret Tetris is wearing in this photo from a potluck at Burning Man 2010.
Bonus: the instructor in the video is naked. And she’s adorable too.
PS The video is in three parts. It goes fast, it’s easy, and fun. Please send photos of you in your hat! Oh and you can buy a furred eared hat already made by her here.
It is not easy for Burners to return to the Default World. Everything that’s been to the Black Rock Desert has a healthy patina of dust. Everything has been transformed. It is a new year. It is hard to “clean up.” Not everything can get vacuumed up or wiped clean with vinegar or club soda.
On Wednesday Sept. 8, we had a New Moon in Virgo. This also means that the most popular Hindu deity, Ganesha, has a birthday on the fourth day of the new moon, which this year is Saturday Sept. 11.
Next year, it will be during Burning Man again on Thursday.
What does it mean to have a new moon in Virgo? What else is up astrologically?
LOTS!! Lots of ENERGY! Especially for Burners transitioning into life back into the default world!
According to Astrology.com, new moons in general are about “the cosmic balance of the male and female energies, the Yin and the Yang — both in our individual selves and in the universe.” Because duty drives industrial, methodical, and efficient Virgo, “This New Moon is about balance — the balance between what we want to do and what we need to do — service to others versus service to self — spirituality versus practicality.”
“This is also a Super New Moon, which occurs when the Moon is at its closet approach to the Earth. Super Moons generate greater gravitational and electromagnetic pulls on the Earth’s oceans and tectonic plates as well as on our psyches. After all, the human body is about 60% water in adult males and 55% in adult females!”
In general, this New Moon in Virgo is full of energy: “Not only do we have the Sun and Moon holding hands in Virgo, we also have Mars and Venus in close conjunction with each other in Libra. Mercury, ruler of Virgo is retrograde. Later, in the day, Venus moves out of Venus into seductive and passionate Scorpio.”
“The energies of the cosmos want us to analyze elements of our present behavior that may be out of balance and set them right. This New Moon helps us recognize truths about ourselves and wants us to focus on our particular path this lifetime.”
This is a perfect forecast for all those Burners coming back from the Playa seeking to balance the truths they’ve learned about who they really are with who they have become by habit because in general, September astrologically gets us back on track to be who we really are.
Venus stays in intensely sexy, seductive Scorpio through November 7, which is also great fun for Burners heading to Decompression Parties but Astrology.com warns, “Beware — feelings may run deep, and strong passions may flare up during this period.”
Jupiter moves back into Pisces on September 9, and stays there until January 23 2011. For Burners who had a spiritual awakening, or found the Temple stirring deep feelings, Jupiter here brings “a spiritual note into our lives, since this transit has a charitable heart, deep compassion and a sense of the importance of inner peace.” Why? Because Read more…
Big News!!! Style Network Selects Art Predator!
Here at Art Predator we have some very exciting news–the Style Network called back today! Learn all about it over at The Write Alley.
via The Write Alley
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