Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Arizona to Texas, I always considered the interstate to be the best bet - straight, fast, lots of lanes to pretend I am driving a roadster - Will say that I was incredibly elated, though, to find out that you can cut through Alamogordo NM, into the Guadalupe Mountains Range. Same mileage, the sluggish speed limit adds about an hour and a half to the trip - but worth it. Felt like I was back in Colorado! The higher altitude makes everything so green. Towering trees - deer - cute little cottages, in the middle of nowhere.... Screw Interstate 10 - from now on I planning on driving through the mountains range.....

Stopped at a little pet-friendly motel in Carlsbad for the night. Nine hours on the road, Perry was pretty excited to finally get out of her cage. She was jumping all over the windows, climbing in the tub, running over the table.... finally she climbed up in the cubbyhole next to our bed, stuck her paws over the side, and passed out.... ha... love that cat.

Carlsbad Caverns is fantastic. One of my favorite National Parks... created by an inland sea that dried up - The caverns were carved by sulfuric acid which was created by the combination of oxygen in water with hydrogen sulfide gas from the oil deposits far below the surface. As the mountains rose, the water table dropped, dissolving the limestone and leaving behind immense underground chambers. The 'Big Room' at Carlsbad is large enough to hold six football fields. Pat and I hiked in 750 feet below the earth's surface - still amazes me when I think about it.

Later that evening, Pat and I returned to the cave to watch the Mexican freetails bat fly - something that I have never had the chance to experience.... The audience is so silent during the bat-flight - was really beautiful.

Harbin/LA

After exchanging emails with our neighbors at Burning Man - Patrick, Matthew, and I packed into the car to enjoy our three hour line out of the festival. Matt, who was sleeping before he climbed into the backseat, quickly disappeared behind the bike tires, the sleeping bags, the camping equipment....

Passing through Sacramento - I saw my first brush fire in California. Sky darkened by smoke, helicopters circling overhead, dumping water. As we made our way to Harbin Hot Springs, I was sure that we were going to drive head-first into the blaze - Every switchback in the road had me digging my nails into the passenger seat....

I have written about Harbin - I will do so again. This place is a total gem. Set back from the town, built on the side of a mountain - a spiritual retreat for the naturalist soul. Many full-time residents live at Harbin - Many full-time residents teach different classes on New Age Thought through dance, movement, and community. Matt and I attended a fantastic Brazilian dance one night with artists visiting from South America... Barefoot feet leaping, pounding across the floor, bodies undulating in a smokey darkness, collapsing in exhaustion. Community. Harbin has always been a love of mine since I stumbled across it last year... Matthew was so blown away. I see Harbin as being a staple in our lives for a very long time...

Once I hit LA, it was back to work - Left Matthew and Patrick with my good buddy Denny, who is a photographer, in Pasadena. Ha. Seriously - Denny is such an awesome dude.... As soon as we walked into his home, he handed us each a homebrew beer and challenged everyone to a blowdart competition. Spent a lot of time working while I was in Los Angeles but I cannot explain to you, how nice it was to come home to a house full of people that I love. Last day in LA, Denny photographed Patrick, Matthew, and I together with his large-format camera.... He printed it on cyanotype. Great photo - Matt is skinny, Patrick is comfortable hanging out in boxers, and I am wearing someone else's underwear.... ha... If I was not a topless shot, it would make the perfect roadtrip card to send home to the family....

Photos: San Fran with John Grey and Kimmery

Gallery Show - LA - Steve Anderson Photography!

G-chatting up my dear penpal, Jacob Cruz, the other day (whom I have known for 15 years now) - He bumbled, "Did you know who I just saw in a super fancy gallery opening this afternoon?" - Thinking that it must have been some B-list celebrity like Courtney Love or Ron Jeremy or something - I went with that... "Nope," exclaimed Jacob!, "It was YOU!" - And true, it was! Fancy gallery show for Steve Anderson in LA this week!

You can thank Tracy for the photos... : )

Writing this blog...

.... sprawled out across a leather couch somewhere in San Francisco. Patrick, Matthew and I are staying with John, our new Burning Friend, for a few days...

As always, Burning Man was fantastic, exciting adventure... Matthew, once again, caravaned across the country with a trailer full of kids he did not know. Pat and I drove in together, I got to watch him roll around in Playa dust....

Had the best neighbors this year! Pimped out bus full of kids from Eugene Oregon let us set-up our tents in their bus-shade... Our other nextdoor neighbor, Squirrel, rollerbladed all the way from Arcadia California just to attend Burning Man. I really do believe that Squirrel is a brilliant homeless skitzo who snuck into Burning Man somehow... he would play his guitar in the morning and we would give him food to eat. Also camped next to a guy worth twenty-million dollars who stocked up on an entire freezer full of vegan icecream (which Matt absolutely loved)....

So much happened - I cannot really attempt to recreate a week like that! John the Zebra -Bohemian Rhapsody with Europeans in Steam Bath - Mushrooms and the Moon - Meat and Bewbs - Bloody Mary's at the Vomiting Sparrow - Pink Mammoth - Pimp-my-porta-potty! - Dust Storms at Tracy's tent - Pat's double Tequila shots at the Misfits bar - The Man Burn (Why is he made out of wood? Why do they burn a man?!) Artiste!? Monkey Chant! Hugging my boyfriend - Cubatron with 3D glasses - Balinese Band.... Sitting alone in the dark, drinking red wine, handing out necklaces, watching glowing taillights wash over the winding road out of Black Rock....

First year felt like: Growth, adventure, new-ness
Second year: Sandstorms and Relationships
Third Year: Home and belonging somewhere

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...