Burning Man 2022: “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” from “Home” to “Secretly Abandoned Spaces” While “On Fire”
Burning Man 2022: Secretly Abandoned Spaces by Valerie Mallory as photographed by Elain Prager
For the Chumash, the people who lived here first along the Ventura County coast, who lived here near where Ventura College is today in a village named Shishilop, and who live in the region today, autumn is the new year: it’s the time of harvest, the closure and finish of one cycle and the beginning of the next.
For people who go to Burning Man, the night the Man burns on the first Saturday of September during Labor Day weekend it’s the start of a new year as well.
And so the school year, which starts up each fall, is a new beginning, a fresh start, a new year.
I like to start off each semester with a book by Dr Seuss, Oh the Places You’ll Go! which first came out in 1990, and quickly became a beloved best seller. The narrative takes the reader on a journey through life — the good and the bad, the challenges and the pleasures. While recognizably a book by Dr Seuss from the writing and illustrative style, it’s different also: it’s written in second person and in future tense.
You probably already know this Dr Seuss book– but do you know this version of it? Read more…
Waking Dreams
This year’s theme for Burning Man is “Waking Dreams.” As Stuart Mangrum, director of Burning Man Project’s Philosophical Center, writes in announcing the 2022 Burning Man theme of Waking Dreams.“After a long hazy blur of pandemic insomnia, unanchored in time and adrift between sleeping and waking, it’s time to start imagining the future again…Whether it’s a dream of artistic expression, a yearning to connect with others in a fractured society, or simply a desire to live a more meaningful and authentic life, Burning Man is the place where dreams can and do come true.” Read more…
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song, A Documentary, and A Review by Ron Wells
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song
On August 12, 2009, President Barack Obama presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Sidney Poitier. Image Credit: Source: http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/
BY RON WELLS: The first film I ever saw with Sidney Poitier was Lilies of the Field. I was mesmerized not just by the role he was playing, but by the dignity and kindness he displayed on the screen. Though one shouldn’t make judgements about actors by the roles they play in films, for me at least, it seemed an extension of the man himself.
In 1959, the first ever Academy Award nomination for an African American went to Sydney Poitier for The Defiant Ones, . In 1963 he became the first black to win the Academy Award for Lilies of the Field.
Read more…
Giving Thanks for HOME (and Wine too!)
HOME — Black Rock City, Nevada aka Burning Man
The Thanksgiving story we learned in school growing up is largely a myth that erases the people who lived here for millennia before the Pilgrims and the Puritans made their way to these shores.
Wet Leg: DSCVR’s Artist to Watch 2022 + New Vevo Video
Wet Leg does Wet Dream
If you, like me, have been entranced by Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers new band Wet Leg surreal songs as featured on LA’s KCRW and here on Art Predator, you’ll be thrilled to watch right away this BRAND NEW RELEASED TODAY performance for the Vevo DSCVR “Artists to Watch” 2022 campaign.
Not familiar? In England’s remote and tiny Isle of Wight, post-punk-pop duo Wet Leg Read more…
Fourteen years ago I registered Art Predator on WordPress.com, on the night of the time change when I took that extra hour, and I began my blogging journey. Today I have 2052 posts and I received the following message from WordPress: “14 Year Anniversary Achievement. Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com! Thanks for flying with us. Keep up the good blogging.”
Art Predator (CC) Randy Stewart, blog.stewtopia.com.
It’s been quite the trip…and you can find 13 hits from the first 13 years here.
Inspired by the Wet Leg “Chaise Longue” which I heard first on KCRW, and then an actual iron chaise longue a friend gave me, I invited the Daughters of Dada to join me today to do a video shoot wearing our CottageCore Target Challenge Prairie Dresses which would include a Clos des Amis vineyard visit,.
Daughters of Dada at Art City, CA March 2021
“Is Your Mother Worried?” UK’s Wet Leg: Quirky Summer Hit “Chaise Longue” Leads to Fall’s “Wet Dream” Plus US Tour Dates
Wet Leg photo courtesy of Domino Records
“On the chaise longue, on the chaise longue, on the chaise longue
All day long, on the chaise longue
On the chaise longue, on the chaise longue, on the chaise longue
All day long, on the chaise longue”
So sings Rhian Teasdale with backup by Hester Chambers in the catchy chorus in the 2021 summer hit single in the catchy chorus; she actually sings “Chaise Longue” 47 times! Post-punk-pop duo Wet Leg wrote “Chaise Longue” in one go on an actual chaise lounge Hester Chambers inherited from her grandfather and where Rhian Teasdale sleeps when she’s visiting. The duo, who met in college where presumably they “got the big D” say that they wanted to experiment with words and sounds — to do something different — Read more…
Indigenous People’s Day
Today celebrate indigenous culture and presence. Acknowledge we live on unceded lands.
I live on Chumash land here in Ventura County, near a Chumash village known as Shishilop. Thousands of Chumash lived here in this sliver of land between the hillsides and the Pacific, between two rivers, the Ventura and the Santa Clara. So much water flowed through the area that it created mudflats, even though this area is technically a desert. While a maritime community, the Chumash here were known as “mud people.” Read more…
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