Burning Wine

I don't know what to say about the vacation I just got back from. It's one of those things that you want to come up casually in conversation. But as I'm not conversing with anyone at the moment, I'll just jump right in.

This was a 3-part trip, of which I participated in 2 parts.

First was California. About 5 days. First night San Francisco. Next day to Monterey for whale watching and south to Big Sur. Next day to Calistoga in Napa valley and wine tasting. Next day to Healdsburg in northern Sonoma valley and more wine tasting. Then back to San Francisco (Richmond) for clothes and camping gear.

Then to Nevada for part 2 of the trip.

On our way to Reno, we headed through Donner Pass. Then on to Sparks, Fernley, and up to Empire and Gerlach. Finally around 10pm, we pull into Camp Fishie in Black Rock City, aka the Burning Man festival. Sandstorms and headaches, red eyes, dust everywhere, sore bottoms from cycling on washboard earth, punishing heat, more sandstorms, and thumping music. I can't possibly do it justice except to say that we all wanted to leave, we all seemed to lose valuable things there, and yet... It was like being a kid in a grown-up Disney, with all the hassle, noise, exhaustion, and amazement. I saw maybe 1/2 of 1% of it in 4 days, and I already wish I could go back.

More Pictures:

Someone else's Burning Man slideshow

Video to come.

Taking out the wallet

Read this today:

Lives, like money, are spent. What are you buying with yours?
- Roy H. Williams

Remember when

...you were a high school student, or an undergraduate, and things were just *cool*?

Not everything mind you, but a ride late at night with someone's new CD, or the bar you'd go to after classes, or this new book or this class you were taking...

it was just cool, like it made you think,

"hey, a lot of life might be boring or tedious or crappy, but there's this place that isn't like that, I'm gonna find out more about it, and though it isn't a physical place, I'm still gonna move there, because all travel is mental travel."

I'd say that, for the moment, I've found it in Houston.

Of course, that doesn't mean that Houston is all *cool*, or that there is more cool here than in in DC or London or Opelika for that matter.

It just means that, tonight was cool like Coronas with lime and philosophy class. And that matters not because I think for one moment that work tomorrow won't be frustrating and tedious. That's not the point. The point is that, it occurs to me that that feeling of cool that existed in college wasn't illusion. No, that's not the point either. Hard to express this... maybe this: you don't have to be young and naive to feel that way. Or, it is possible to feel that way in spite of knowing what in time you inevitably find out about the world.

Tonight, in case I didn't mention it, was a house concert with Sarah Golden and Anais Mitchell. But more than the concert (which was amazing), tonight reminded me of sitting around at Maps while T and KP played guitar and sang Indigo Girls, reminded me of A & H coming over to Opelika and drinking tequila shots and doing thrashy dancing with black eyeliner. Cruising the Alabama cyclone with T listening to Counting Crows before they recorded Big Yellow Taxi. Making tiny snowmen in Auburn at 2am during a freak snowstorm for while A was in bed.

Etc etc. Point is that it doesn't require lots of alcohol or a teary movie or photo album. Just spending an evening with a lot of open, lovely people who enjoy music. Who talk to each other. I could tell the story here but I'll save it.

And, for the record, I missed all of you and wished you were here to enjoy it with me.

***************

About the videos below. Started big, then small, then camera died. Quicktime format. Sorry about the guy's elbow. If you only have time for one, try The Wall (Hadestown).

Oh, and these are ridiculously big files, so it's gonna be Monday probably before they are up.

Namesake
Friday Night
Dont Fail Me Now
The Wall (Hadestown)
Changer
Venus
Out of Pawn
Before the Eyes of Storytelling Girls
Shenandoah
The Belly and the Beast
Autumns Ashes
I Wear Your Dress (start)

Others not recorded:
Orion
Hades and Persephone
Song of the Magi
Your Fonder Heart
Time after Time (Cyndi Lauper sing-along)
Two Kids
1984

That's what I'm talking about

Everyone has time for a 12 minute vacation