Burning Man 2009

People keep asking me what Burning Man is. My answer to that is: Whatever you want it to be.

50,000 people journey towards Reno every September.... to celebrate the Burning Man Festival. Held in-the-middle-of-nowhere desert - an entire city is created. Difficult festival to explain - because it not so much a festival but a CITY! Black Rock City has it's own police, post office, waffle house, music venues, tea houses, yoga centers, clubs, magic shows, a circus, even a Ballet show from NYC. Fire dancers, hoola girls, vampire strippers!..... Everything is Free. No currency. Kindness and bartering. An eclectic crowd. Residents come from all over the world - I have held conversations with scientists from NASA, teachers from the inner city Bronx, a 20 year old kid sailing the world in his sailboat, stealing food from wedding parties and surviving off adventure....

Every minute at Burning Man - something fantastic is being created and experienced. Want to know what I am talking about? Check out the Burning Man website - read through their Theme Camps - experience the photography - you will (kinda sorta) understand what I am talking about.....

Where else can you find a REAL diner with stainless steel counters, with coffee and grilled cheese sandwiches, and a pretty lady in a hair net..... 3 miles in the middle of no where at 5am in the desert?

Where else can you get lost in the desert and find a pay phone and talk to God?

Where else can you ride a bike in your underwear, covered in Camel Fur, wearing Swim Goggles, with two fingers up your ass? And when you get off that bike - someone with a Hippo suit will want to give you a hug?

Burning Man creates a culture that should exist in every day life.... Neighbors are golden! Judgment is rarely passed. Respect for the weird and the outrageous! Breaking out of the box. Art and hugs. Everything is so weird and so strange and new and beautiful - it is hard to keep up with the city as it grows.... Matthew and I spend a lot of time at the HeebieGeebie camp, a healing camp, a meditation camp full of soft spoken spiritual types - I strive for the way that I feel at Burning man. Want to bottle it up and encompass it in my everyday life.... I find myself there, I get lost, I get scared, I meet new people, I ride my bike till I cannot breathe, I roll in the dust, I hug strangers, then the sand storm comes and dusts up my glasses.... Fucking Burning Man. So grateful it exists. So so so grateful that this will be my third year attending.

As I type this, thousands of hard working volunteers are out in the desert - staking out well organized roads, setting up the perimeter, building camps, creating a trash fence, preparing for the rest of the family to show up.... next year... I want to go in early. I want to see the city rise out of the lake-bed and into city.....

Oh Sunday cannot come quickly enough..... 2,500 miles stand between me and that glorious moondance across the desert. Bring it!

Big Fish! Tim Burton!

Few years ago - Tim Burton was struggling to decide where to shoot Big Fish - Somehow, he fell in love with a tiny sleepy town outside Montgomery Alabama - an island - an itty bitty getaway...... the beauty is outrageous down there - Spanish Moss, lush greenery, towering trees, smiling butterflies, talking unicorns - the whole bit. You have never felt so much magic in nature - I always enjoy driving through Alabama.

Last week a photographer hired me to crawl around the Big Fish set - naked! Whoooo! Remember the town that Ewan McGregor stumbled upon in the movie?! The town of Spector! I got to shoot there.... boobs out... dusty butt.... barefoot....

In order to bring more tourism and film production to Alabama - guess, the Alabama Film Commission implored Tim Burton to leave his the props behind. From the looks of it - the Film Commission never got around to actually using the set for anything.... so the entire town, the houses, the church - all is in disrepair. Nature is reclaiming the town, trees growing through the road - really sad.

Briefly researching this information - I stumbled across a story about the lady who owns the island.... Guess, she also owns a bunch of goats and one night, the goats ate half Tim's set. Ha. They had to build all her goats a goat-proof home while they filmed.... No goat sightings - but it was a very eventful afternoon climbing around all the houses...

Nashville - Envy and the Crew

Nashville was a blast. Introduced Patrick to my girl, Envy.... First night on the town, the three of us traveled down to Broadway.... ran around with Squirt Guns. It was comical - drunkenly abducting people with water guns... Envy is like a ray of sunshine. One of those beautiful, giving, selfless kind of people I wish I could strive to be! Most hospitable host - gave Pat and I her bedroom (while she slept on a back-breaking couch for three nights), blessed us with the key to her place, helped us out with Perry, showed us around town, bought good smelling things for my car, made me a mixed a CD - Even got all domestic and cooked Pat and I home cooked meal on her grill.... 

The following day, while I finished up some Internet work, Patrick divulged himself in Nashville Scene Magazine: The Low Anthem and Langhorne Slim were in town! Had just caught Low Anthem the night before we left Cleveland. We showed up at the Tennessee show- Josie was like, "Uh? How? Huh? How are you guys in Nashville!? We just saw you six days ago!?" Great night, great show in a cozy local joint....

Everything was fan-fucking-tastic....... Oooh - And then I fell down a flight of stairs (who polishes their floor with Pledge?  Seriously!?). Landed in a strange position where my left foot was tucked up under me - Heard my bones crack..... Two days later, it is still really swollen, bruised, and painful. Living off ace-bandages, Ibuprofen and lots of sleep..... not sure what else to do..... Without health care - Xrays, bone setting, and casts would cost a small fortune.... Plus, how the hell would I model with an ugly cast on my foot!?

Whoever is manifesting this bad luck, who ever keeps punching the London Andrews Voodoo doll in the face.... quit it!? 

Silver lining: It was not my driving foot! Hell yes it was not my leg!

Night it happened, Envy would not let me sit

 around and wallow in my pain.... "Lets go out! Know this place with lots of couches at this 80's night bar!" So Patrick, her roomies, herself and I all went out for dollar-well-drinks..... had a blast...

Even with the handicap - I pulled off a two hour shoot with Huntsville Jim yesterday! Between sitting and standing, everything was ok. Will have to cancel my wrestling shoot next week... but I think I can work manage glamour and art without the heels....

Photos:  You can thank Envy for these... :  )  Taken at the 80's bar on the night I messed up my foot...  !!!

Perrydactyl - Meth Motel

If you read my twitter posts, you are probably hip to the fact that I now have a five-month old kitten on the roadtrip... 

 Huzzah? 

 Not sure how it happened exactly. Jesus.... this has already been a whirlwind trip and I have only been on the road for three days! Left Cleveland late (... as usual... my whole life is Late). Landed myself in Dayton Ohio overnight. Picked the cheapest, seediest motels-of-all-motels ($19.99 a night...) Closed-office, a small notebook sign hanging on the window, "Please knock on door 195 for a room or service. Thank you. Management." A man with one arm answered the door, his wife was all wrapped up in bed sleeping. Bought the Motel five months prior. Key in hand, I walked to my room, passing a bunch of young kids smoking meth (burning plastic and bathroom chemicals smell - ewww). My neighbors were having sex so loudly, I thought they would bust through the drywall. Also noticed a couple kitties hanging around the parking lot. The meth kids were trying to burn one of the kitten's whiskers off with a lighter - Being the way that I am, I just walked right by the kids and without saying a word, I grabbed the kitten out of their hands and walked right back into my room. 

I ended up inviting all the kittens in a for a kitten party! I lured them in with pizza. Three of the kittens were feral and skittish -They wanted Out. The other two were friendlier.  One kitten cuddled up with me on the bed and the other one slept in the bathtub... I seriously fell in love with the one that slept next to me all night. Purring, cuddly, ball of fur. Kept sneaking closer to me. 3am - Woke up to my nextdoor neighbors bile-puking - gut wrenching - so so loud - spattering all over the floor. Both the kittens were meowing at the door so I let them out.

Next morning, opened the door of my room - And there was that adorable kitten - Sitting on the hood of the mustang.

Come on!? What was I supposed to do!? I wanted to save them all but it would have been impossible. So many stray cats in Dayton. Before loading the kitten into my car, I asked the owner of the Motel if I was OK if I took her. He said, "Yes. Please give her a good home" and handed me a baggy of cat food. I didn't want to tell him that I don't have a home. 

Originally my plan was to find her a good home on the road. Maybe with a photographer or another model. But the more that I get to know her, I think that she can handle the roadtrip life. She loves everyone - great with the litterbox - super chill. Motel 6 is cat friendly! - Patrick always joked that the first animal we adopted would be called, "Perrydactyl" (god knows why he chose that name).... so now - we have a five month old kitten named Perrydactyl - Perry for short. This changes SO much. I cannot even explain to you. I now need to plan pet-friendly places for every city that I stop at for modeling. 

Two months on the road...

... starts now! After much deliberation from the jury, Patrick and I decided to pack two vehicles (not one)... I shall drive the DeathGypsy and Pat shall drive the Outback. My mustang is brimming full of lingerie, make-up, heels, and nice smelling girl stuff! The Outback is carrying blankets, dishes, laundry, tools, books, kitchen utensils - things we will not have to remove from the car till Texas.

I am pretty lucky, in the fact, that I own almost nothing at all.... Packing took me less than forty-minutes. When you live out of your suitcase for so long, you learn what of materialistic things you need in your life and what kind of things you do not... Unfortunately for Pat, he owns about half the stuff in this apartment - It has taken him most of the week to pack away all his belongings.

The actual trip.... is a month-long roadtrip down to San Antonio, dropping off our stuff with friends, leaving my car, repacking for Burning Man, driving to Reno for the festival. This will be my third year at the Burn - Originally I was not attending (there is just so much going on this month, ridiculous to add something as huge and expensive as the Burn) But Matthew, my best friend in all the world, gifted Patrick with a free $300 ticket this year - making it possible to attend the festival. 

Still do not have a laptop! Driving me crazy! Using my old ancient laptop that I donated to Pat a year ago - Sooo slooow.... bogged down with music and porn. Keep wanting to upload photos to the blog - but I cannot, all my personal stuff is on the crapped-out laptop! Once I settle down into an apartment in Austin, I should be able to either repair or buy a new computer.... until then.... this stone-age computer is my new traveling buddy....

Roadtrip starts today!! Incredibly excited!

I leave a day before Patrick. Out of the apartment at 11:30am today. He leaves tomorrow afternoon..... lets get this show on the road! (hehehe..... on the road... literally!)