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Don’t Forget: 7 Last Minute Packing Tips for Burning Man

August 18, 2013

The gates at Burning Man open on Sunday August 25.bmirbg

Which means that 60,000 Burners are madly packing for the Playa.

So if nothing else, what should you be doing to prepare for Burning Man?

ONE: Get turned on and inspired by BMIR.

That’s Burning Man Information Radio–the Voice of the Man! Read more…

The Return of Wine Blogging Wednesday: #80 is Dry Roses

August 12, 2013

Coming up this Weds Aug 14 is Wine Blogging Wednesday #80! So check out this post for all the details and get your Dry Rose on this Wednesday!

Gwendolyn Alley aka Art Predator's avatarwine predator.............. gwendolyn alley

Once again  Lenn Thompson of LENNDEVOURS (now New York Cork Report) and Tim Elliott (of Winecast) have resurrected Wine Blogging Wednesday (WBW). Hatched in 2004 by Lenn,  each month a different blogger “hosts” a virtual tasting by developing and publicizing a theme. Participants write on that theme and post the results on their blogs on the designated Wine Blogging Wednesday and let the host know.  Then the host posts a summary soon after linking to the participating blogs.

Wine Blogging Wednesday seemed to run smoothly enough for about five years then it ran out of gas. (See my December 2010 posts about whatever happened to Wine Blogging Wednesday.) WBW was tuned up, but again seemed to be…

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Cargo Cult Clothing for Burning Man 2013: Part 1 Retro-Future Space Explorers!

August 10, 2013

FaabrikaBMansale2013UPDATE: FAABRIKA is having another sale on TUESDAY AUG 13! Call for details! Faabrika
310-597-3727 or Sweettart 310-925-2621.

Some people consider this year’s Burning Man theme of Cargo Cult too complicated (as expressed by none other than Hitler in this parody).

277311_10151213074687272_859418208_oBut many will be rising to the occasion.

Will you?Faux Furry People from PLanet RAVE by Faabrika

There are five main directions to go, in my opinion, in terms of thematic clothing. None of them include a Utilikilt! And they don’t depend on knowing how to solder el wire.

Goggles: awesome for steampunk & Burners175966_4856912828722_1888123722_o1. Retro-Futuristic 50s Space

2. Aliens

3. Tiki

4. Faux furry people from the Planet Rave.

5. Animal Planet.

6. Steampunk.

7. Military.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll share some creative clothing ideas (better not call them COSTUMES) but this post is dedicated to Retro-Futurist Read more…

Burning Man 2013: Cargo Cult’s Bike Cult

August 7, 2013

bikecultGoing to Burning Man this year? Have you got your bike in gear? Have you been riding it around –day and night? Got lights?

You may still have time to make yourself this Cargo Cult bike and bike trailer!

bamboo-bicycle-trailerHonestly, I think you’d do better on the playa with rubber tires but hey, this bike’s got a lot of potential!

This year will be our first year in a long time that we won’t have our Burley trailer. At nine, our son doesn’t quite fit in it like he used to.

If we had more room, we’d bring it anyway. Read more…

Ventura County Fair: A Local’s Best Secrets

August 6, 2013

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“Each act of memory calls to mind the past, is aware of the present and anticipates the future; each act of understanding presupposes the memory of first principles; and each act of will presupposes the act of understanding and moves the mind to further acts of memory.”  (Noone and Houser, 2010, discussing the philosophy and theology of Saint Bonaventure)

“When people inhabit a particular place, its features inhabit their psychological field, in effect becoming extended facets of their selfhood. The more they repress this local, multifaceted sense of environmental presence, the likelier its features will reappear unconsciously as symbolic, animated forces seething from within and from without.”  (Chalquist, 2007, p. 7)

Last weekend, for grad school, I wrote a paper for my Ecopsychology 2 class with Dr Craig Chalquist about Two Trees. Those quotes above are the epigrams from it.

And somehow I found that writing about Two Trees, I wrote about the Ventura County Fair, the Mission, and my great grandparents.

They are related but you’d have to read the whole paper to see how. It’s pretty convoluted, but you can get an idea from a few paragraphs about the fair below.

So instead of going to see Styxx with my son and husband at the Fair, I listened to “Lady” and “Come Sail Away” from my house. They didn’t even play my son’s favorite Mr Roboto:

And instead of hiking up to Two Trees during a spectacular sunset, I just wrote about the history of Two Trees –and the Ventura County Fair–from my couch.

But before I share those historical  tidbits, I want to share a few of my best fair secrets. Read more…

Burning Man Ticket Update + Hitler & Cargo Cult Theme

August 4, 2013

Did you ever think about how good news and bad news depends on your perspective?

That what might be good news for one person or for one species might not be so good for another human or another species?

So with that in mind, Burners every where certainly celebrated the news that on July 23, 2013 BLM  approved Burning Man‘s use permit for FOUR MORE YEARS. (Read all about it) Which means that we can all plan ahead. For the Burning Man organization, they don’t have to spend as much energy on getting approved for next year but focus on the event itself in the years to come instead!

The other news, which also depends on your perspective, is that BLM has approved an increase in the population of Black Rock City to a whopping 68,000 people.

While that doesn’t mean that there will be 68,000 people out there the whole time, it does allow  Burning Man to release more tickets this year:

Instead of only selling 1000 OMG tickets next week, they will be offering 4000 tickets at $380 a piece.

And it will be easier to get your tickets because pre-registration by making your Burner profile has been extended until TOMORROW MONDAY AUGUST 5 (so do it NOW  http://profiles.burningman.com/)

First come, first served fully transferable tickets, limited to two (2) per person, starts Weds. August 7, 2013 at 12pm (noon) PDT. Tickets are Will Call.

Oh and the theme, if you haven’t heard yet, is Cargo Cult. Posts coming up about BICYCLES at Burning Man and what to wear to a Cargo Cult Party!

Please subscribe! It’s easy, it’s free, and you never quite know what will land in your in box!

Getting Skooled: A Burning Man Biblio

August 1, 2013

Layout 1Back in April 2013, right after (and I mean right after!) I submitted my Burning Man paper to my professor (read part 1 the shadow grows, part 2 integrating the shadow, part 3 Ten Principles/New economy), Will Chase on Jack Rabbit Speaks posted a link to the Burning Man Bilbiography. When I noted and emailed that they had missed Chris Carlsson’s book Nowtopia which has a chapter on Burning Man, LadyBee thanked me and responded that:

“The bibliography is abridged – I included published books that are factual in nature, either entirely about Burning Man or with significant chapters on it. I didn’t include every book with a Burning Man mention, nor did I include fiction. Typically writers let us know about books with writing about Burning Man, and the authors generally send us copies of their books.”

My hope is to slowly but surely add hotlinks, images, and some comments about each of these resources as I get a chance to check them out. The content below is from here on the Burning Man website.

But what I really want is a list of all the academic articles on Burning Man! That I will have to build another way. Keep reading to see LadyBee’s curated list of Burning Man books and prepared to be skooled! Read more…

Burning Man 2013: Get Your (OMG) Tickets!

July 31, 2013
Burning Man 2013 Theme

Burning Man 2013 Theme

What’s more important than what you’re going to wear at Burning Man? Other than water? (Upcoming posts on Cargo Cult theme costume ideas soon!)

It’s this–

Do you have your Burning Man ticket yet?

Gratefully, we do! (And we have our camp placed in Kidsville next to the Cactus Garden on Desiderata at 5:15!)

If you don’t have your ticket, and you’re planning on going, don’t delay.

Tickets to this year’s Burning Man event have NOT sold out–YET. But you can’t just show up and buy a ticket either.

burning-man-tickets-2013At noon today, July 31, the STEP program closed. That’s where a lot of my friends who needed tickets got theirs. (STEP was a way that Burners could sell their tickets to other Burners at cost. ) Even without STEP, Burners will be wanting to get tickets to Burners, so you can keep an eye out on various Burning Man lists, facebook, Craigslist, etc and snap one up. People’s plans change and there are always tickets available at the last minute.

But if you don’t want to wait that long, register NOW by making a Burner profile (if you haven’t already) for the OMG sale of 1000 tickets at $380 each with a limit of two. If you’ve already bought two, you can’t buy more; you’ll have to get someone else to fill out a profile.We go through all of this BS to deal with scalpers…

CRUCIAL DEADLINES:

Th. Aug 1 by 6pm: Make your Burner profile http://profiles.burningman.com.

UPDATE: You can still create a Burner Profile! Which means you can still register for the OMG sale!

Fri. Aug 2 noon: register for OMG. Registration closes noon Aug. 5.

Weds. Aug. 7 at 12pm (noon) PDT.  Sale. Tickets will be held at Will Call and are fully transferrable.

Read more about tickets to Burning Man here: http://tickets2.burningman.com

You’re Invited to The 3:15 Experiment’s 20th Anniversary Party August 1-31, 2013 3:15am

July 30, 2013

manrayjumpssm2The 20th Anniversary of the 3:15 Experiment

(Note: Last summer my doctoral fieldwork was on the 3:15 Experiment; below is one of the papers I wrote on the topic illustrated with some of my 3:15 poems that were published in ArtLife Limited Editions. This year, my fieldwork is on Burning Man which takes place during the last week of the 20th anniversary of the Experiment. Everyone is invited to give it a whirl!)

             “Even sleepers are workers and collaborators in what goes on in the Universe.” Heraclitus.

“For it is here, where we stand, that we should try to make shine the light of the hidden divine life.” Martin Buber (2006, p. 38)

“Remember here that the “word” in our culture is inked in black, and this selection of color for ink may be more than merely convenient and efficient. The very blackness of the linked letter supports its indelible fixity and the cursing power of literalism.” James Hillman (2010, p 93)

             In 2013, the 3:15 Experiment celebrates its 20th anniversary as an annual “collective consciousness” ritualistic writing experiment where poets from around the globe wake every August morning at 3:15am to write poetry: “writers searching for words from another place” (Dinsmore & Alley, 2006, p. xv). By exploring hypnogogic and hypnopompic states (between sleeping and waking), this experimental exercise challenges writers, and goes beyond the individual act to provide insight into the collective sleeping/dreaming mind to create an epic conversation through an unusual ritual that is individual yet collaborative, disciplined yet open. (Read the text of “Man Ray Kitty Jumps” and see a larger image here.)

On the Experiment website, poet Anne Waldman described the 3:15 Experiment as Read more…

Fruitvale Station: Review by Ron Wells

July 29, 2013


movie review by Ron Wells

Fruitvale Station is based on the true story of the last day in the life of Oscar Grant, a 22 year old African American man who had previously had his trouble with the law, but was attempting to turn his life around.Fruitvale Station poster
The film is the first full length feature by director Ryan Coogler, who was a graduate film student at USC when the shooting of Grant occurred on New Year’s night in 2009 at the BART Fruitvale Station in Oakland, California.
The film opens with actual video footage of the confrontation between BART Police officers and Grant and his friends after a fight had occurred on the BART train. The video shows a lot of mayhem and then  ends with a popping sound.
From there, Coogler takes the audience back to earlier in the day and we begin to get a sense of who Oscar Grant was as a person. Read more…

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