Burning Man 2011: Dear Temple Video
As joyous as the Burning Man video “Home” is, “Dear Temple of Transition” by Ian MacKenzie is solemn yet equally moving.
For the first time, this year I only visited the inside of the Temple at Burning Man at night. I have always visited the Temple the morning after the Burn but this year it was closed early: its huge size required more preparations than usual. (How huge? Only the third tallest wooden structure in the world–until it burned.)
I did get out to the Temple of Transition three times and
went inside twice. The first time was Thursday night. It was very beautiful in every aspect as you can see from the video. People were quiet and respectful. Hundreds of people were laying on the ground in the center silently listening to the gamelan play. Hundreds more roamed the structure placing their own tokens of mourning and grief, their rites of passage. Read more…
Burning Man 2011: Video Takes You Home
Searching the web for Burning Man stuff?
Having a hard time adjusting to the default world after your Burning Man experience? Trying to understand what happened to your friend, co-worker, partner, family member?
Over the years, I have seen a lot of Burning Man videos but this one is my all time favorite. It’s got great joyous images and music using the song “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and it really captures the spirit, the art, the people of Burning Man
“KJ and Stefan Spins present their HOMEage to Burning Man 2011” brought tears to my eyes–tears of happiness and so much more.
Yes this video shows many of the highlights of this year’s burn–epic art, the Man and the Temple burns, but more, it shows the fun and freedom that participants express.
If you’re missing your “home” (and I know you know what I mean!), give this video a whirl a few times.
And plan on attending your local Decompression! It’ll help you adjust back to the default world by connecting you again with some of your Burning Man family, theme camps, art, and costumes. Los Angeles Decompression is Saturday Oct. 1 2011 from 1pm-2am; SF Decom is the following weekend, Sunday Oct. 9. Stay tuned for details on both events (subscribe!).
Burning Man 2011 Photos by Shane Butler & 3:15 Experiment Poem: What Beckons
Tuesday August 2, 2011
3:15am
Toni’s on Turk, SF, CA
From deep sleep
the alarm beckons
I scramble to obey
to do its bidding
The dream so real
so complex moments before
has all but whispered
into the foggy depths of night
It was warm & pleasant there
and I’m ready to scurry back now
c. Gwendolyn Alley
2011 3:15 Experiment
If you’re local to Ventura, I hope you will join me for a reading of my 3:15 experiment poetry and book signing this Thursday 9/15 at Bank of Books on Main near downtown Ventura at 7pm.
Middle of the Night traces my journey from being a daughter to becoming a mother to losing my mother from the perspective of poems written at 3:15am in August from 2002-2010 as part of the international 3:15am poetry writing experiment.Read more sample poems or a review of Middle of the Night Poems by Robert Peake or a review of Middle of the Night Poems by
Sonnet for September 11: written 9/13/01
In Friday’s Ventura County Star, Karen Lindell wrote about “how seven local residents – two painters, two sculptors, a digital artist, a songwriter and a poet-artist – channeled their particular variation of mad, sad and overall helplessness after 9/11 into creativity.”
And Art Predator is the poet-artist featured in the article: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/sep/09/the-art-of-coping/#ixzz1XbEXNMYu
Middle of the Night traces my journey from being a daughter to becoming a mother to losing my mother from the perspective of poems written at 3:15am in August from 2002-2010 as part of the international 3:15am poetry writing experiment.Read more sample poems.Read a review of Middle of the Night Poems by Robert Peake. Read a review of Middle of the Night Poems by Danika D
insmore.Burning Man 2011: Time Lapse Burn Night Video by Grant Kaye
I’m sorry I haven’t posted since last Wednesday during Burning Man. I’m a bit overwhelmed with unpacking and cleaning up as well as moving my mom’s belongings to my house.
There’s so much I want to write about that that’s overwhelming as well–posts about art cars, bicycles, the Temple, Burning Scouts, Kidsville, and more. And I have been having the wildest surreal dreams! In them, there’s a time and space travel portal to Black Rock City…
In the meantime, I had to post this wonderful time lapse video by Grant Kaye of this year’s Burn night from sunset to 4am. In case you weren’t out there this year, that’s the Temple all lit up and large and glowing to the left. The Man is in the Center of all that glowing activity made up of Art Cars and EL Wire on bikes and people and art.
We too watched the Burn from a distance instead of right up on the perimeter as usual: we were up on the “Poop Deck” above the operations computers and satellites just behind First Camp where a lot of the Burning Man staff big wigs play. It was quiet and peaceful and relatively dust free up there. We didn’t get jostled or squashed and we didn’t have to worry about someone stealing our bikes. It was an awesome Burn all around and you can tell from the images in the time lapse that the conditions were perfect–rare is the Burn night without wind and accompanying dust storms and white-outs!
Pictured: the Man after the Core Burn before it was opened again. More Burning Man photos and reports to follow. Soon. I promise.
August 31, 2011 3am
3:15 Experiment
Black Rock City, Nevada
An art car just
drove by Kidsville
playing the
Squirrel Nut Zippers loudly
and waking me up
The voice was surreal
and the sleep was deep
and it seemed as if
it had to be 3am
at least and yes
there’s a lot you can sleep through:
the two men walking by talking
far off music moving further away
the clanking of one piece of metal
on another
general sorts of traffic noises
a live band that sounds like Tom Waits or Nick Cave
flashing lights
things blowing up
but the air is full of
the unusual & the magnificent
the night sky outside rich with stars, neon, lazers
EL wire frames The Man in the distance glowing yellow
& the sleeping imagination
wants to wake up & play
call out in wonder
go back to sleep I say
halfheartedly as I
inspect the thick dry yellow callous
on my foot
It is Ganesh’s Birthday
and it is time to celebrate
We will be telling
everyone in sight
wearing our silk screened bandanas
with Ganesh on a bike
& giving away stickers of
Burning Man 2011
Happy Birthday Ganesh!
Please remove all obstacles
so we will roll
seamlessly across the playa
from one adventure to
another
This year’s theme at Burning Man is Rites of Passge. In all my years of coming out here, I never participated in one particular ritual or rite–that of being a Black Rock City Lamplighter.
Well, last night we were Lamplighters. It takes a village of 150 volunteers and nightly about 200 volunteers to light Black Rock City with kerosene lanterns at the major intersections. Kidsville’s Black Rock Scouts and so about 30 Kidsvillians headed over about 5pm.
By 7pm we were all robed and ready to go. As the sun slipped over the mountain, a gong was sounded t
hree times and solemnly we walked through the center of camp toward the fire cauldron where a prayer was given. We all went out into the city to give it illumination. We were done by 8pm and all were moved by the experience.
Lighting a city of 50,000 people by hand is an enormous and necessary task. If you ever go to Burning Man, I encourage you to volunteer for this sacred duty.
Today as I’ve been riding my bike around Black Rock City with a Burley trailer attached with two kids in it, I’m wearing my dress that I tie dyed with flames and that has Lord Ganesh riding a bike silkscreened onto it; we’ve been busy passing out lots of stickers this week with Lord Ganesh riding a bicycle and telling everyone about his birthday today, Weds August 31, 2011.
You can celebrate too! You don’t have to take the traditional route of making a statue of him and put it in water so he will float back to Mount Kailash; simply let the Remover of Obstacles and Patron Saint of Artists (and Bicyclists!) into your heart and let him do his work!
You could also light a white candle, let him know about the illusion of any obstacles you’re experiencing, and let if burn for as long as you can before blowing the candle out and making a wish.
Keep reading to learn more about Lord Ganesh.
via art predator
After 25 years of various sorts of mayhem, profit and loss, Burning Man LLC is becoming a non-profit. This might dispell some of the naysayers who do the math–50,000 people x $300 a ticket is a lot of money and they wonder where it goes (read more about how much money Burning Man makes & where it goes here.)
An article on Burning Man’s growing pains, the NY Times quoted my friend Helen as saying: “I don’t care if he takes a quarter of a million. If it’s there, let him take it. There’s people who make $2 million a year and work for DuPont and all they do is pollute the planet,” said Helen O’Neill of Ventura, Calif. On matters of liquidation, she said: “It’s his baby and that’s his prerogative.”
Where do you think all that money should go? How do you think it should be handled?
And yes I am blogging live from Burning Man! And hiding out from a dust storm while my son naps. I took the photo above yesterday when the weather was stellar! (That’s The Man in the far distance–we have an even better view from our camp–I need to post a photo!) The wind blew some Monday afternoon, then more seriously most of last night and it’s been steady most of today.
Here’s more about the weather in Black Rock City: Read more…
Tuesday August 30, 2011
3:15 Experiment
Black Rock City Nevada
When you’re awake &
you best to be asleep
you’re lying there
startled by a noise
or your own thoughts
the night itself is a
character in an unseemly play
it stretches & yawns
endlessly
Out here at Black Rock City
the temptation is to
ignore the truth
the grainy bleary eyes
& go on another bike ride
to slake that thirst
with an adult beverage
or 2
But the 
truth is
everyone on playa is
going to be happier
if you persevere
tame the yawning beast
tell it you are at least
take a nice long nap
So say goodbye to the art car
& climb into bed
& concoct sleep
no dust storms
stars twinkling
in the endless sky
Written at 3:15am; posted while my son naps so we can go play on the playa tonight!!
Sculpture Exsuscitare Tralectus by Orion Fredericks; my iPhone photo…photo of new friend by permission.
Today’s schedule includes:
Breakfast
9-3 Playing with my kid & someone else’s kid (Artery)
1-4 Slip n slide (Duckpond 9 & Engagement)
3pm Playa info –3:15 poetry & wine (get & bring wine! fix burley)
2-6pm Henna Workshop (9 & Keyhole)
430-630 Blind french wine tasting (445 & Divorce)
5pm Lamplighters with Burning Scouts
5-7pm Burning Man iron ons (D & 7)
DINNER?
7-10pm Barbie Bistro wine tasting (Barbie Death Camp 330 & engagement))
8-10pm another wine tasting ( 3 & grad)
9pm pickle joint music
Mon Aug. 29 2011
3:15am Experiment
Black Rock City NV
Last night at 3:15am
I was
driving my vw van
3 hours out
away from home
and I certainly wasn’t
going to stop
to write!
I did pull over
30 minutes later
at 345am
campground just after Little Lake
where I slept for
3-4 hours before I continued
on my way
I arrived at Black Rock City
just before they started letting
letting everyone in
so much for having
an early arrival pass
in the thick of the lane
to get in
the van decided NOT
to turn on
A few neighbors helped
including a mute woman
who wrote me a note saying “sorry”
when I tried to explain
why I was stopped
We made it to
Will Call and
the Rangers there
ordered a tow truck
to Kidsville
Fortunately the van started
& I kept it running until
it was determined we
could have some
prime estate
My campsite has a glorious
view of the Man resplendent
in rainbow neon.
Yay! We made it!
The Man is the tall yellow object somewhat in the middle; it’s night and I took this with my basic iPhone app..the lighted object in front is someone riding by on a bicyle.
Most Mondays I post poetry. Since it’s August, and it’s 3:15 Experiment time,Read more about this year’s Burning Man art projects which received honorarium.
Writing at 3:15am is a ritual certainly, one that seeks to take you out of the context of normal writing and normal experience.
Read more 3:15 experiment in my poetry collection Middle of the Night Poems from Daughter to Mother :: Mother to Son, now available from en theos press in print or ebook; it’s also at Amazon.com, and in stores including The Best of VC Marketplace in Santa Paula. Middle of the Night traces my journey from being a daughter to becoming a mother to losing my mother from the perspective of poems written at 3:15am in August from 2002-2010 as part of the international 3:15am poetry writing experiment. Read more sample poems. Read a review of Middle of the Night Poems by Robert Peake. Read a review of Middle of the Night Poems by Danika Dinsmore.
Another ritual at Burning Man is gifting and I’ll be gifting copies of my poems and chapbooks out there.
Catch a ride on the Monday Poetry Train and see what other poets posted today.
And subscribe in the upper left hand corner for more Burning Man news and info from a veteran Burner! Yes, I will be posting more from Burning Man this year!
art predator 