9/05/06 - Like Describing Colors To A Blind Person

that's what someone told me more than once, when describing what it's like to try and explain Burning Man to someone who hasn't been.

So what can I do to explain... Amanda, Gabriel, Zelis and I loaded 8 coolers full of coconuts into an airplane, a minivan, an RV and finally into Black Rock City, nevada.

Hilarity, clarity, enlightenment, pain, pleasure and everything in between ensued within the backdrop of an unimaginably creative dreamscape. The Playa is like a blank canvas on which every human being with the dedication and the ravenous need to express themselves visually, audially and behaviorally splattering their imprints as far as the eyes can see. Robot walking spiders, time machines, seahorses and alien belgian waffles. People on stilts with wings and horse hoofs. A naked man spraypainted bright red with tennis shoes on and a cane.

And all with no hint of centrallized organization (because there is none). It is the most beautiful, disturbing and exciting display of cultural emergence on the planet. A city, built up in the dusty barren desert of Nevada, celebrated and burned to the ground one week out of every year. There are no rules, and if there are, they are not followed. Have you ever seen the order in chaos? If you haven't, then you haven't been to burning man. To witness that no matter how far out you push the limits, the thing that ties a community together is its limitlessness, this dreamscape we shared for one week.

Wow.

I didn't think anything would blow my mind more than Maui. And I suppose one can't really compare the two experiences, as they enrich each other in the life I am blessed to call my own.

Everything is accelerating. Gabe and Z wanted to go to Tahoe and Amanda hitched a ride back to L.A.

I wanted to go back to San Francisco, to see Kate and Maryanne, and just because I felt the pull. So I hitchhiked from Black Rock City to SF, first in an RV full of sleep-deprived acid casualties, which was as hilarious as it was dangerous, and then from Berkeley to the Headlands with a troll of a guy named Timmy, who flipped out on me, dumped me and my stuff into a shopping cart next to a grocery store in Mill Valley and drove off.

I laughed out loud to myself because here I was, homeless, with my stuff in a shopping cart. A ha!

It wasn't so bad though because I happened to be 10 minutes away from Kate, who showed up randomly because she had to mail a letter in the post office next to said grocery store.

So here I am in the Headlands across the Golden Gate Bridge from SF, at an artist's commune established in an old army bunker with a sexy boy sitting next to me (sweet!). As soon as I showed up I helped Kate with her worktrade work, which wasn't much different from the work I did in Maui. Had delicious homemade pizza in the mess hall... the place is a much bigger commune than the one in Maui, with a totally different vibe (SF is a bike ride away) and I washed dishes in exchange for my delicious dinner. The library is cush and I just watched the sun set over the fog while eating fresh baked german chocolate cake.

Tomorrow I head into the city with Kate to meet up with Mitch and then who-knows-what. Friday I fly back to Maui and Nick is picking me up in Justin's sweet ass white convertible. Then we will feast on Opaka Paka and I will give Nick the big fat hug and kiss I've been thinking about giving him. That boy is an angel. I'll be staying with Willem and Erin over at the Hui, which will be AWESOME. I keep wondering why I'm leaving Maui. It's so wonderful.

Fly back to L.A. on the 18th, just in time to see Carl on Jeopardy in L.A. an reunite with him. I LOOOOOVE that boy and I can't fucking WAIT to see him! It's been too damn long. Kate and Carl and I are about to have an L.A. reunion of epic proportions. 9/23, back to Texas for a week or so, and then onward to Boston to do the Good Work.

Life is colorful, babies.

I think I'm gonna go shower now. For Christ's sake.