Art Predator on the Prowl for Wine Wonders of the World!
Art Predator has been invited to go on the prowl on the slopes of Mt Etna in search of wonderful wine!
September 19, 2012 I will definitely be doing wine related activities. And lots of wine tasting. And yes, a lot of spitting too.
First, I was invited to join the September 19 Thirsty Girl Twitter Tasting of Handcraft Wines. Then I was invited to join the next Cafe 140 Twitter Tasting. Then I received an invitation to an industry tasting of the San Francisco International Wine Competition award-winning wines. All on the same day.
Fortunately, September 19 is a day that I can devote to wine tasting.
Then, on Wednesday morning, as I was preparing to run some errands and then post about #CabernetDay and #PinotSmackdown, I checked my email and saw one from Elisabetta Tosi, a wine blogger and the Italian Ambassador to Palate Press.
She was writing to invite me to join a wine blogging tour of the Mt Etna wine region in Sicily. In two…
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Relics from Burning Man 2012
The photos and video have begun surfacing from the playa, and the myth that is Burning Man 2012 is being constructed through memory and image, story and revery.
While I didn’t make it out to Burning Man in 2012, many of my friends did, and they are posting their experiences on Facebook, twitter and blogs. One of my friends posted the video above by Reuters photographer Jim Urquhart; here he shares his images and personal reflections and I now share it with you.
Like me, many of my friends didn’t get to Black Rock City this year for various reasons. Some of us gathered at my house the night of the Temple Burn and we made a Burning Bush which we decorated with inscribed egg crates for fertility and in which we stuck sparklers. We gave the kids sparklers too and put them on the large mound that we stuck our bush in, then we lit the sparklers. We had a beautiful, surreal, and moving Burning Man at Home. 
I was busy creating the burn so I didn’t get any photos. Thanks to Vincent for these; I hope to post more from other people one day soon.
Related articles
- Oh, The Places You’ll Go: Burning Man 2012 (artpredator.wordpress.com)
- How To Do Burning Man At Home: Watch LIVE on ustream & listen to BMIR (artpredator.wordpress.com)
- Burning Man 2012 Videos by Mark Day (laughingsquid.com)
- Heading Home? Burning Man 2012 (artpredator.wordpress.com)
Last year’s Cabernet Day at Burning Man…I have more photos to post also!
Personally, I can’t imagine a #Cabernet Day better than last year’s at the Burning Man Festival in the Black Rock Desert. I was joined at my Art Predator and Wine Predator camp in Kidsville by Jim Morris (aka Sonoma Wine Guy on Twitter) and Tony Fletcher (blogger, dj and author of several books on music and musicians including Keith Moon) plus author Mark Lorentzen aka Puma who always brings over $1000 worth of fine wine to Burning Man.
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0650 (Photo credit: DangerRanger)
on BMIR from 11:35pm Sat. 8/25/2012
posted on Facebook and
turned into a found poem:
if you want to have a lot of friends,
you need to have some extradonuts.Donuts.
Donuts.
The main thing
that brings us to Burning Man
there are all these walls
the way we find connections
things we can’t even put words to
that’s why we come to this ephemeral city
to make these connections.
So if you’re stuck at the gate
keep that in mind.
That is your introduction to your city.
Keep BMIR locked.
We try to impart grand ideas and infinite wisdom.
At the same time if you come over
here to the radio station
I might be convinced to give you a shot
of cheap liquor from an animal skull.
Donuts & photos & beer…!!!
OK can we play some music?
This is really boring
to people on the other side of the radio.
We love ourselves.Play some music!
And you can watch what’s going on on playa here:
http://www.ustream.tv/burningmanAnd the sound track is BMIR!
Related articles
- Oh, The Places You’ll Go: Burning Man 2012 (artpredator.wordpress.com)
- Heading Home? Burning Man 2012 (artpredator.wordpress.com)
- It’s A Buyer’s Market – For Burning Man Tickets (ronslog.typepad.com)
Oh, The Places You’ll Go: Burning Man 2012
This is another fabulous video from last year’s Burning Man Festival. While the video in the previous post took a popular song and illustrated it with people and places at Burning Man, this brilliant video riffs off a Dr Seuss bo
ok and has people at Burning Man recite the lines and act it out too.
I know there’s a lot of newbies going out to Burning Man this year. Many of them have been inspired by i
mages and videos like these. Since I was one of the early Burners (I first went in 1992), in 1996, I wrote an article for a local weekly paper and then in 1997 I wrote one for the local daily. These articles introduced many people to Burning Man. Now it seems like most people have heard of it and even know people who have attended.
But there is nothing like actually being there in the Black Rock Desert during the Burning Man Festival.
Oh, The Places You’ll Go!
More Burning Man posts to come– including sharing wine and Cabernet Day, photos from our wedding on the pier, kids at Burning Man, and some other fun stuff…
PS If you like this post, please share it with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, etc!
Heading Home? Burning Man 2012
This Burning Man video using the song “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros captures the joy, vitality and energy that is Burning Man. It encapsulates the art and the vibe, and more than anything, what it means and feels like to go “home.” For many Burners, or people who attend Burning Man, where they feel most at home at Burning Man–and with the friendly, accepting and accommodating people who live there.
I fi
rst discovered Burning Man in 1992, when I was in grad school at the University of Nevada Reno; then there were only 600 of us out in the Black Rock Desert. That year, by day many of us ventured to the Black Rock Hot Springs where we slathered on the mud and soaked in the sun. At sunset the night of the Burn on Sunday, the wind kicked up and we hid out in a huge canvas tent and ate dinner. My first dust storm caked my hair and skin with fine sand and thoroughly invigorated me. I removed a wreath of sage from my hair and burned it with the man.
I attended again in 1995 with about 6,000 other people. I started spoken word in the Cafe even though Larry Harvey said it wouldn’t work but he wouldn’t stop me, then continued every year from 1996-2002 as Burning Man steadily grew in size. In 2005, 07, 09 and 11, we brought our son –who is now almost 9! That’s him riding the bike at Peter Hudson’s zoetrope in 2007…
This year, the BLM permits restricts attendance to under 60,000.
As you’ve probably heard, Burning Man sold out during an ill-conceived and poorly-executed lottery. Lots of long-time Burners were burned and left out. And now, as the gates of Black Rock City prepare to open, there are plenty of tickets floating around, squelching the desires of the scalpers to make a killing.
Me? Am I going to Burning Man this year? You never know. I am praying for a miracle. Since I MUST work this week, I desire a winged passage, a flight to take me to Black Rock City on Friday and return me to Southern California on Monday or Tuesday before 2pm…
If you have a lead, please let me know! I would love to bring my doctoral field work out there–to do some experiments in social dreaming and in writing in altered states of consciousness.
Because yes, I am feeling homesick. I do want to go home.
There’s lots of info about Burning Man on this site including stories, photos and advice. And I’ll add a few more posts this week if I can find time, reflecting on my Burning Man experiences, past and present.
Speaking of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, I heard they just recorded a new album in nearby Ojai CA and they will celebrate with a concert at Libbey Bowl on Thursday, September 6, 2012. Presented by Ojai Valley Community Nursery School in association with Club Mercy, tickets are $40 and the gates open at 6:30; showtime 7pm. For Ticket Information & Questions, call 805-390-0937.
Poetry (Photo credit: Kimli)
We’re more than halfway through the 20th year of the 3:15 Experiment. But you can still join in! This year, I am also inviting people to record and track their dreams and other active imaginational experiences of writing in altered states. I’d also love to lead some social dreaming out at Burning Man this year and host a active imagination writing experiment. I was actually the first person to do spoken word in the cafe at Burning Man and I’ve also done magnetic poetry on my car and on a refrgierator door that I brought out there! We’ll see if it comes to pass that I get out there again this year…
But what is the 3:15 Experiment?
The 3:15 Experiment is an unusual and annual writing experiment where poets around the globe wake every August morning at 3:15am and write. By exploring hypnogogic and hypnopompic states (between sleeping and waking), the exercise challenges writers, provides insight into the collective sleeping/dreaming mind, and creates an epic conversation through an unusual ritual that is individual yet collaborative, disciplined yet open.
In 2001, Anne Waldman described The 3:15 Experiment as an act that Read more…
Big House Birdman & Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at Beach
Great wine for outdoor adventures including BBQs and Burning Man! Remember the oysters! PS What’s your favorite fair food? Memory?
If it’s the first week of August, it’s time for the Ventura County Fair.
And that means Fair food and Fair entertainment including fireworks every night and music too! Last night we were on the Ferris Wheel when the fireworks went off; another highlight was a deep fried hot dog with a spiral of potato chips which my son and I were going to share but he polished off by himself!
This year, like most,
don’t tell anyone but
my family, friends and I ride our bikes down to the beach to enjoy the fair’s concert from the “cheap seats” –our bike seats or a bench on the beach!
That’s what I did on Saturday to see Joan Jett and that’s what a bunch of us did tonight for Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
Out there by the 
beach the sound isn’t too loud–a bonus as we’re not blowing out our…
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Where did July go?
I am shocked that it is already August, the naked ladies and hydrangeas are in full bloom, and somehow I neglected Art Predator in July.
I know how it happened–just way too busy with teaching and writing projects, not to mention graduate school.
Somehow I missed reminding people to set their alarms at 3:15am to join the 3:15 Experiment!
And I never got around to posting about the two poetry readings I was in last week!
I have been posting over on my other blogs including Wine Predator. So if you’ve been missing me, nip over there and subscribe!
In the meantime, know that now that summer school is over, I have a few blog posts up my sleeve and I promise to attend to you a little more regularly.
So where did July go for you?
There is still room in next weekend’s Poetry Bootcamp in Ojai! Hope to see you! And if you can’t make it, but you know others who might be interested, please share this on twitter and facebook; feel free to reblog!
Is your writing on the flabby side? Do you need a good workout to get your poetry in shape or revitalize your writing practice?
Next Saturday, I will be teaching at the Ojai Writer’s Conference Poetry Bootcamp which runs Saturday, June 30 and Sunday, July 1.This is the last weekend of a month long series of writing activities, workshops, and events.
You can attend one or both days–it’s $50 for either Saturday or Sunday or $99 for the whole weekend which is a great deal for 6 hours of workshops from 4 teachers!
Saturday, June 30:
1-3 pm: “Hello, Nature, What Do You Have to Tell Me Today?” with Gwendolyn Alley {Read Bio Here} – Take the lessons learned from Haiku (expressing emotion through observations of nature) and apply them to other forms of writing. Also learn to transform writing (prose) into poetry.
3-5 pm: “Speak Your Heart – Unravel…
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art predator 