Friday, October 24, 2008
Ha, And Then There Are The Burntards...
Gotta love the forums.
ePlaya Forum Index -> ePlaya :: Burning Man for the other 51 weeks -> Year Round Connections -> Lost & Found -> Found... -> Found on-playa -> 2008 Humans -> One hippie and a *lot* of garbage left behind!
Gotta love the forums.
ePlaya Forum Index -> ePlaya :: Burning Man for the other 51 weeks -> Year Round Connections -> Lost & Found -> Found... -> Found on-playa -> 2008 Humans -> One hippie and a *lot* of garbage left behind!
Burning Man Lost and Found Camera Images
I loved this link. This came to me via the Jack Rabbit Speaks newsletter, which is the official BM newsletter. I always enjoy reading JRS. It is one of the small things that keeps that feeling going year round.
People's lost cameras at Burning Man are collected and one of the ways organizers can reunite people with their cameras is to publish some of the photos on the cameras.
The photos include people's real world pics and their BM pics. Their friends and families. Their road trip out to BM. Other trips and travels (forests! Snow!). Smiling faces from the default world immediately followed by the same smiling faces from Burning Man. People in their costumes. People sleeping unaware that they have been snapped. Dust storms, parents, tired eyes. People at work. People gardening. People in bunny suits. Camp construction. Birthday parties. The ubiquitous close up of a face, one arm raised at the side of the frame: the person holding up the camera and photographing themselves. People in wigs. People.
I loved this link. This came to me via the Jack Rabbit Speaks newsletter, which is the official BM newsletter. I always enjoy reading JRS. It is one of the small things that keeps that feeling going year round.
People's lost cameras at Burning Man are collected and one of the ways organizers can reunite people with their cameras is to publish some of the photos on the cameras.
The photos include people's real world pics and their BM pics. Their friends and families. Their road trip out to BM. Other trips and travels (forests! Snow!). Smiling faces from the default world immediately followed by the same smiling faces from Burning Man. People in their costumes. People sleeping unaware that they have been snapped. Dust storms, parents, tired eyes. People at work. People gardening. People in bunny suits. Camp construction. Birthday parties. The ubiquitous close up of a face, one arm raised at the side of the frame: the person holding up the camera and photographing themselves. People in wigs. People.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
In That Past I Was Cold, Hungry And Alone
This is something that I discovered last winter. I was cross-country skiing with Toni. We had the trails to ourselves. We were talking about hard stuff. Childhood stuff. As I was speaking I was remembering, and the memory was so shocking that I fell off the trail and had an asthma attack. I couldn't stop crying and gasping, and I think I scared Toni because she wanted to get the ski patrol. It was so awful and I had completely forgotten. And now that I remember I don't know what to do with this information.
This is a true story. Our house was cold. I wasn't allowed to turn on the furnace. I had no clothes that fit me. I wore my brother's and sister's clothes that they left behind when they were away at school, or else I wore my school uniform. I would wear my uniform on civvies days. My school uniforms were not clean. My clothes were often dirty. I was dirty. I had a knot in my hair the size of a banana and it stretched across the back of my neck. I wasn't allowed to get my hair cut (I think due to the expense). I had the knot in my hair for about 6 months, until a neighbourhood kid finally cut it out for me. I used to go over to neighbours' houses at mealtimes hoping to be invited for meals. I was supposed to make my own lunches but there were often only apples to eat. At school, after lunch, I would wait for the kids to leave to go out to play, and then I would pick through the garbage for their leftovers. I would pick through the garbage for their leftovers. I was hungry for a year - with the exception of being at summer camp. I think I grew 6 inches that year. Finally my Aunt Margaret came to help us.
The reasons why haven't changed. Why did this happen? How could this happen to an affluent family, to a child in a private school? I don't know what to do with this information. Holidays are still hard. I told my sister about this today. She was so sorry. She wishes she had known. It wasn't like I was keeping a secret at the time, I just didn't have a clue. For the most part I didn't know what was happening to me when it was happening to me. And now that I know it's difficult to process.
Before my dad got sick holidays were days-long occasions of preparation and fun and eating and long dinner and stories and dishwashing and more talking and eating and drinking and long nights in front of the fire. And afterwards... it was bewildering shit show of adults behaving like zombies, and neglected children fending for themselves. And no one seemed to know.
Holidays are still hard. Up and down. I do my own thing, sometimes with families and sometimes without.
This is something that I discovered last winter. I was cross-country skiing with Toni. We had the trails to ourselves. We were talking about hard stuff. Childhood stuff. As I was speaking I was remembering, and the memory was so shocking that I fell off the trail and had an asthma attack. I couldn't stop crying and gasping, and I think I scared Toni because she wanted to get the ski patrol. It was so awful and I had completely forgotten. And now that I remember I don't know what to do with this information.
This is a true story. Our house was cold. I wasn't allowed to turn on the furnace. I had no clothes that fit me. I wore my brother's and sister's clothes that they left behind when they were away at school, or else I wore my school uniform. I would wear my uniform on civvies days. My school uniforms were not clean. My clothes were often dirty. I was dirty. I had a knot in my hair the size of a banana and it stretched across the back of my neck. I wasn't allowed to get my hair cut (I think due to the expense). I had the knot in my hair for about 6 months, until a neighbourhood kid finally cut it out for me. I used to go over to neighbours' houses at mealtimes hoping to be invited for meals. I was supposed to make my own lunches but there were often only apples to eat. At school, after lunch, I would wait for the kids to leave to go out to play, and then I would pick through the garbage for their leftovers. I would pick through the garbage for their leftovers. I was hungry for a year - with the exception of being at summer camp. I think I grew 6 inches that year. Finally my Aunt Margaret came to help us.
The reasons why haven't changed. Why did this happen? How could this happen to an affluent family, to a child in a private school? I don't know what to do with this information. Holidays are still hard. I told my sister about this today. She was so sorry. She wishes she had known. It wasn't like I was keeping a secret at the time, I just didn't have a clue. For the most part I didn't know what was happening to me when it was happening to me. And now that I know it's difficult to process.
Before my dad got sick holidays were days-long occasions of preparation and fun and eating and long dinner and stories and dishwashing and more talking and eating and drinking and long nights in front of the fire. And afterwards... it was bewildering shit show of adults behaving like zombies, and neglected children fending for themselves. And no one seemed to know.
Holidays are still hard. Up and down. I do my own thing, sometimes with families and sometimes without.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Halloween Costume Ideas
The Six Million Dollar Man, Doll Style
Requirements: Steve Austin - carefully combed 70's hair, sideburns, top-stitched polyester pant suit, plaid shirt, muted bell bottoms, rugged good looks. Motherboard-looking attachments on arm, head, etc., to simulate the "bionic" innards that the dolls had. Soundboard or small tape recorder hidden on the body which randomly make the high-pitched "D-de-de-D-de-de" bionic noises. Possible costumes for friends and sidekicks: Lindsey Wagner as Jaime Sommers, the Bionic Woman; Farrah Fawcett as Farrah Fawcett; Oscar Goldman; Fembots.
Bubbles and Julian
Requirements: Julian - dark hair (a little in the Patrick Swayze / Dirty Dancing style), black jeans and t-shirt; old fashioned filled with ice, rum and coke. Bubbles - dirty blond slightly greasy hair, carefully combed sideways, plaid shirt, Lee jeans, googley-eye glasses from Value Village, underbite, kitten. Possible costumes for friends and sidekicks: anyone and everyone from the Sunnyvale Trailer Park.
Logan's Run People
Requirements: Logan - Black jumpsuit with white trim, laser/phaser weapon, groovy ankle books, and the hot 70's look of Michael York, crystal flower hand thingy. Jessica: sexy diaphanous mini dress, flowing locks, crystal flower hand thingy. Possible costumes for friends and sidekicks: Large silver insane cyborg guy; Peter Ustinov. Note: no one will understand this and you will be explaining yourself all night.
Stephan Hawking
Requirements: Nerdy clothes, tweed jacket, googley-eye glasses, posture caving in on itself, foolish grin, motorized wheelchair, DECtalk DTC01 voice synthesizer which you must know how to use. Possible costumes for friends and sidekicks: Someone dressed as a black hole.
Daleks
Requirements: Large metallic-looking cone, ability to say the annoying line "EX-TER-MI-NATE!" Possible costumes for friends and sidekicks: Any Doctor Who people; Tardis.
The Six Million Dollar Man, Doll Style
Requirements: Steve Austin - carefully combed 70's hair, sideburns, top-stitched polyester pant suit, plaid shirt, muted bell bottoms, rugged good looks. Motherboard-looking attachments on arm, head, etc., to simulate the "bionic" innards that the dolls had. Soundboard or small tape recorder hidden on the body which randomly make the high-pitched "D-de-de-D-de-de" bionic noises. Possible costumes for friends and sidekicks: Lindsey Wagner as Jaime Sommers, the Bionic Woman; Farrah Fawcett as Farrah Fawcett; Oscar Goldman; Fembots.
Bubbles and Julian
Requirements: Julian - dark hair (a little in the Patrick Swayze / Dirty Dancing style), black jeans and t-shirt; old fashioned filled with ice, rum and coke. Bubbles - dirty blond slightly greasy hair, carefully combed sideways, plaid shirt, Lee jeans, googley-eye glasses from Value Village, underbite, kitten. Possible costumes for friends and sidekicks: anyone and everyone from the Sunnyvale Trailer Park.
Logan's Run People
Requirements: Logan - Black jumpsuit with white trim, laser/phaser weapon, groovy ankle books, and the hot 70's look of Michael York, crystal flower hand thingy. Jessica: sexy diaphanous mini dress, flowing locks, crystal flower hand thingy. Possible costumes for friends and sidekicks: Large silver insane cyborg guy; Peter Ustinov. Note: no one will understand this and you will be explaining yourself all night.
Stephan Hawking
Requirements: Nerdy clothes, tweed jacket, googley-eye glasses, posture caving in on itself, foolish grin, motorized wheelchair, DECtalk DTC01 voice synthesizer which you must know how to use. Possible costumes for friends and sidekicks: Someone dressed as a black hole.
Daleks
Requirements: Large metallic-looking cone, ability to say the annoying line "EX-TER-MI-NATE!" Possible costumes for friends and sidekicks: Any Doctor Who people; Tardis.
