Burning Man 12:01am

So as of right now, Matt and I are in Carson City at a Budget Motel. He says, "You're going to get pregnant if you keep lying on that nasty comforter...." but it's comfy so I'm not going to listen. So we're headed towards Reno in about an hour. I have two shoots, which are direly needed moneywise. I am so broke planning for the festival that my bank account balance is $0.00 and I've put more money on my credit card in the last week than I have put on it in the last six months - it sucks a lot. But on the upside..... the mustang now has a bike rack with real bikes on it. We have our costumes and our food....and if the mustang makes it a few more hundred miles, we will have just about everything we need to make a week in the desert work....

We'll be driving into the festival at 12:01 am this morning, with all the crazy hardcore BM people - I feel like it's the only way to do it. Plus the heat here is a killer and it seems to make the most sense to set up at night......

Favorite Street Names...

"What do you do to keep busy while you drive?" ... great question!!! Since Matt doesn't drive (he is a product of the NYC subway system)... Sometimes I will do a straight eight hours.... ... it is a long time, so I have to find things on the road to keep my attention. Like ROADS! I love the name of roads.... here is a great list of names to remember:

• Jay Day Hay Way
• Wimble Road
• Fart Road (yes, I giggled like I was five)
• What Road
• Nothingness Lane

These are roads you can find just about anywhere:

• Park Street
• Frontage Road
• Main Street
  

Most overused word in a road name?

• Lake

Why do you need to know this? I'm not sure but this is how I live day to day - street names.

Drunken Saloon

Went out drinking at the oldest Saloon in California last night. Matt and I sang very bad karakoke..... .....on a stage..... ..... in front of a room full of people.... ..... and they all square-danced!!!! 

 Anyways, we're back in Yosemite for the day, wading in rivers full of fool's gold and hiking through woods - Headed to Reno soon with all the other Burners..... ooooh, speaking of Burners, Matt and I hung out at the house with the cutest lesbian couple after a shoot yesterday and they told us all about Burning Man and showed us their costumes.... they also offered to let us stay at their camp. 

Sacramento

Seriously, I worked with the most flattering photographer this morning - He paid for a hotel for Matt and I for two nights, showed up with a London Andrews poster to sign, gave us both a gas card and a Denny's card. As for right now, Matt and I are sewing costumes for Burning Man - I am trying to do a checklist for the festival. Tickets have been purchased. We are headed back to Yosemite for a few days (that place is just magical... it will be good to go back).....we're then going to head up to Reno on Sunday.

 Looking over the "things to get for Burning Man" list, I am a bit freaked out (who wouldn't be, the necessities for this trip are to help you survive the desert) - I worry about the mustang, I don't want it to drag on the ground... which it very well might. According to the BM website, they recommend 1.5 gallons a water each day for every person... not sure how the car is going to cart 24 gallons of water. We can't bring a stove, because there is just no room - so it's all dry foods and things. Matt got some fabric and he's putting together this completely white outfit Gandalf-lord-of-the-rings cloak - Matthew has never sewn a thing in his life, but right now he is on the floor of Motel 6, making his masterpiece. 

I am camping in Yosemite,

...and how wrong is it, that they have internet in the woods? Haha.... even worse, how wrong is it that I am I using that internet in the woods. So Matt and I bought half the gear that we need for Burning Man. A tent, a lantern, and some other stuff.... it's great that camping gear can translate anywhere. Headed into Yosemite this morning - and I was like, "Oooh look, lets camp" So we grabbed hot dogs, some marshmellows, goldfish crackers...... Struggled with the tent for awhile. Went and sifted for gold in the river.... Matt took off to go swim with French students and I headed back to camp to work on emails. I am now writing a blog and sippin on a bottle of California wine (given to me by such a gracious photographer in San Jose) - Life is so good. Backing up a bit - spent the last two days in San Fran. Matt both took these photos and edited them himself (with a shirt over his head, in the car, blocking out all the light) - so I'll post those here.... Although our stay was brief...... the city was magical - and it's easy to understand why all my east coast friends have relocated to the city on the bay...... this is me at the palace of Fine Arts....

Why don't you post more photos on here?

I keep getting emails about this - the answer is easy
My family, friends, and people who I don't want to see me naked
read this blog often.... : )

But I will try to post more photos of un-nakedness as I go.
There have been some kickass shoots in the past two weeks....
.... like kick your ass, holy hell, no way, that's fucking awesome - work.
x0
Lo

Wash out in Santa Barbara

Shoot in Malibu shoot went well. The photographer picked a cute little park in the mountains. Matt wanted to help out (he very rarely does). He climbed some trees to pose as our lookout - unfortunately, suprise suprise.... he fell asleep.... or he was meditating or something because the next thing I knew I was standing there waving-a-half-naked-Hello to a girl on a horse. She waved back but I could feel that ewwww-you're-naked stare.

It's 9am. Just woke up...

... from a dream - See, I am driving my car and all of a sudden, there's this gigantic hill in front of me - I cannot see the top of it..... and it sucks, because I need to get to the otherside..... so I put my foot to the floor and pretend that it is a rollercoaster. "I'm not in my car, I'm on a rollercoaster," I say.....the car chuggs upward, everything is good, everything is awesome - Things change quickly though - from the new perspective I see the road is no longer slanting up..... No no no. It is going up and over my head.... like a big cement wave crashing upon itself.... The car is going too fast. The car is going to flip over..... I am in slow motion, upside-down, I see cement..... and I wake up..... 

 ....... just had that dream now..... Years ago, that same dream was a nightly occurrence...... (The catalyst for my terribly pointless fear of hills) Took awhile but eventually I realized that the only time that dream Is when I feel out of control of my life. Used to be boyfriends, jobs, sexual trauma - things like that would set it off.

It is crazy what one-single-popped-tire will do to your mindstate.... huh? 

So the mustang popped it's first tire for the trip... Matt and I were driving to my next shoot, Got lost (as is the trend for LA these days)... ... pulled over in Santa Monica, parked the car, asked some people for directions, got back in the car and.. *thump thump thump* Luckily a homeless man showed up and helped us. I was skeptical at first. But he jacked up the car, put on the donut. He was telling us about how he travels the US on a universal $300 greyhound ticket.... and how he gets medical marjauna because he has cancer. He did not want his family to go into medical debt so instead of getting chemo like they wanted. He bought a greyhound ticket and decided to go on a final roadtrip. We all sat on the beach in Santa Monica for a few hours. We are on different roadtrips but for some of the same reasons. We all want to feel alive, regardless to how much time we have here.

Brooks

It's poppin....(what's poppin?) It's poppin...

My lipgloss is cool. My lipgloss is poppin I'm standing at the locker and all the boys keep stoppin.... We shouldn't admit to this, but that crazy-annoying-Lipgloss song by Lil Mama.... has become the theme song for this roadtrip. It doesn't matter what we do - it all comes back to poppin lipgloss... I'm telling you. We're poppin, you're poppin, it's poppin; we ain't frontin. Burnt out. LA is burning us out big-time. We shoot from 10am-9pm on most days and everyone we work with is fucking amazing... just amazing. How many amazing people can you fit into a single week and still entertain? Not gonna lie - the photographer who cancelled this morning... it was so needed... So we're at Panera's and Matt is meditating (he got a jaywalking ticket earlier today and he needs to listen to The Secret on his Ipod for awhile) and I am trying to catch up with work, which is proving itself nearly impossible at this point. Shot a clothing line for Demongirlclothing the other day - I am going to send them a christmas card - they were all so cute. And Raven's Laughter rehabilitates wild birds - there is an actual live raven in his kitchen. Shooting at his place was madness, tellatubbie girls and makeup artistry, the guy has real talent and real passion, I love that... a salt water pool and Applebees. Turning around on route 14, cops going crazy on people... a loud policeman yelling "Great Idea you fucking Dumbass" into his speaker was pretty entertaining. Yesterday I was dressed up like an Aqua CareBear and the photographer was telling me to lick my nipples - and that was just weird. CareBears and Nipples - at least to me - don't mesh too well. Photoshoot ended early.... I was a little disturbed. A photographer I spoke to last night wrote me with this great piece of advice "just laugh at any photographers who are sexually frusterated and miserable."

Busy busy

Sometimes I get so overwhelmed looking at this blog..... trying to sum up a few days in just a few words. It's hard. Plus I think I have sunscreen in my eye... and that doesn't make things any easier..... So lets see

Tucson:
Matt and I stayed with a photographer and his wife....
....this little old nudist guy.... with big specticals
made us homemade apple pie for dinner.
Entertained us with stories about how his home
got raided by the police, once, because they were nudists
... and how back in the day, he cooked for big-time celbs
at resorts in the mountains of Vermont.
He owned a donut shop and was justice of the peace.

San Diego:
Broke out our sleeping bags and slept on green army cots
While in San Diego -
Matt and I made it to the Zoo -
We discovered an animal called a Tapir....
Which would make a great poke-mon character....
Look it up!
Yesterday we went to Black's Beach for a nudie
shoot on a nudie beach.

Photographer of the day - gave me one of his Polaroid
cameras.... I am all excited to go buy some film.


Yesterday I shot with the Vic Huber who
does all of the GMC car ads.....
You should SEE this office - whoa.
He shoots sexy cars by day
and sexy women by night for his book.

Seventy Second Post

I'm sitting in a laundromat watching Matt wash our clothes....Quarters like a gamblin man.... Ding Ding. Eight loads of laundry - bing bing, whirl whirl.

To tell you the truth - we're pretty sure most of the stuff is clean - but it's gotten to the point where every last article of clothing reeks..... as does the car, right now (we are specifically blaming it on Vegas which consists of stale cigars) So we're just dousing everything with downy and hoping the car will smell better in the morning.

Currently, we're in Arizona, hanging out in Phoenix. I've managed to catch myself up with booking .. Taking that week off for Burning Man gave me that extra week that I need to get back on track. Photographers are no longer replying with, "I've already booked my models for this month, perhaps next time."

We're headed to San Diego - it will be my first time in Cali, and I am fucking ecstatic!!!! There is such a killer line-up of photographers.

It's so completely ON...

.... just

bought

Matt

and

I

tickets

to

Burning

Fucking

Man...

.....
and that
is all
I need
to say
about
that.

Heck Yes! : )

Grand Canyon and the BO Hotel

Grand Canyon was beautiful, we tried to make it back up there today - but the canyon storms made it a bit too difficult. So instead we detoured to wonderful town of Flagstaff, bought some jeans, repacked the car,  .... right now we're in a cute little cafe on Route 66, drinking some delicious Hot Chocolate. Matt is sitting across the table gluing postcards together and I am trying to dig up some work in San Fran. LA is booked. 

Always wanted to visit Portland more than any other place in the US anyways - hopefully I can pin down a week's worth of work there. Tonight we stay with a surfer who used to be one of my little brother's best friends back in Syracuse..... Really weird that I emailed him on couchsurfer and then realized five days later that went used to play kickball together as kids... I miss my cat a lot. And I've been thinking about home more than usual - I think it's because fall is just around the corner... I want to be lonely in October, drinking some warm cider, on a bench, in front of a lake, all by myself. Hope things are going well on your front - things are pretty good here in AZ. x0