Burning Man Holiday Party Photos part 2

And there are photos on flickr from Traci Bungi: Thanks Tracy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ms_trouble/4114856118/in/set-72157622828646340/

And the always amazing Mr. Nightshade http://theblight.net/09/bmholiday/

Fabulous and extensive Santa photos and some of the performers on stage from the generous and great photographer Eric Nielson:

http://ericnielsonphoto.com/burningman/

Thanks to all of the photographers for taking the time and effort to take photos rather than just hang out at the party. Thank you all.

Burning Man Holiday Party Photos

Jay Sittler’s Fabulous Photos, Thanks Jay

I will be posting links to all of the photos I can find from the Burning Man Holiday Party, here are a few to start you off.

blogging, blogging, blogging

As most of you know, most of my blogging can now be found at the Black Rock Arts Foundation blog: http://blackrockarts.blogspot.com/

but just recently I have also started blogging on the Burning Blog http://blog.burningman.com/

I miss blogging here but am feeling pretty overwhelmed so do not expect to keep this us to date currently.

soma

Shortly before I saw Jessica's photos, we stopped by http://boxshopsf.org/">The Box Shop on a Wednesday evening to check out how the process of creating SOMA was going. We got there just in time to see the casting crew dig an aluminum practice piece out of the dirt where it was cooling, then it was doused in water!

Best Morning for a long time

French local breakfast outside on Polk Street now ready to go to work....ARTumnal Meeting for BRAF at the Bently Reserve this afternoon. Having a great life.

Grateful

The photo should actually say "Am Grateful." because I am. Workin' on my mantra...Is it "Bring it On!" or "A joyful spirit is a reflection of a grateful heart"?

The latter in this moment!

photo: SnoShuu

GREEN Street Art

I can't even tell you how much I loved this blog about the intersection of environmentalism and street art!!

Renegades both.

http://webecoist.com/2009/05/11/green-graffiti-environmentally-friendly-street-art/

photo: ecomonkey

Who Gets To Call it Art?

I hate the cover of this DVD but LOVED the content. Amazing overview of the transition of abstract impressionism to modern art. Clever, fabulous clips, intimate. THIS IS A MUST SEE!

Awesome and Important Document of Art & Commerce History -
WoWewoahwaow!!!!!,
25 March 2007Author: czarnobog from United States

This little gem may represent the last gasp of healthy symbiotic intersection between pure art and the world of commerce, a centuries old tradition that died with the rise of corporate supremacy in the latter half of the 20th century. Henry Geldzahler is lovingly memorialized by world class artists Frank Stella, Jasper Johns, David Hockney and others. Born into a wealthy family of Belgian diamond merchants, Geldzahler transcended his illustrious materialistic roots to inject himself as a potent and active force in the world of modern art. A maverick assistant curator at New York's Metropolitan Museum, Geldzahler was prescient enough to recognize the future of art and instrumental in establishing America's modern artists as a force to be reckoned with. Geldzahler stands primarily as an example of someone who was born into incredible privilege, yet used his social advantage as but a starting point for a career that influenced American culture at the highest intellectual level. Testimony to his importance lies in the multitude of flattering portraits of Geldzahler completed by the greatest American artists of his era, many of whom appear in this documentary to lend oral tribute to him as well.

While Geldzahler's story makes this a must see for anyone interested in the arts (particularly Modern American art) or in the depiction of a brilliantly realized upper class life, the most precious clips are those showing Geldzahler's friends at their best: Andy Warhol's brief but trenchant observations are well worth sitting through this on their own, and Frank Stella's comments brilliantly illuminate the state of the arts in 50s and 60s America, and Geldzahler's place in that scene. Anyone interested in the arts will appreciate Geldzahler's incredible ability to recognize art at its inception, years before the slugs of Middle American society were able to grasp its significance, and only with the aid of forward-thinking guides like Geldzahler to explain it.Geldzahler was that rarest of species: a person who could have easily coasted through life on the coat-tails of his ancestors, fat and happy on the dregs of their accomplishments, yet rose beyond their limitations to affect the course of art history by recognizing and supporting worthy and brilliant artists who may otherwise have been overlooked, with no social or political agenda to affect his artistic judgments.Geldzahler represents the last of an extinct breed.

Uncorrupted and uncompromised, he intersected with the creative community in a way that is impossible even for the most powerful of today's media moguls, who ultimately must answer to their brainless corporate uberlords. Art lovers should watch this, and appreciate that there was a time when art for art's sake had its champions, and wealthy educated patrons were as pure of heart as the artists they championed. Artists will watch it, and wish they had been born when Geldzahler still walked the earth. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472210/usercomments

for more information
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472210/

Hunnybunny's James

Latte Animal Pours

Also from Laughing Squid:




this is another friday afternoon challenge basically it was last 20min of trade an i gave myself the challenge to pour as many different animals that i could think of any any coffee or hot choc tha...

Anonymous Hugging Wall

http://laughingsquid.com/the-anonymous-hugging-wall-for-social-facilitation-mood-elevation/

Oh my God!!! I love this!!!

Art Supplies

It has been a long time since I ordered art supplies. The photo includes 2 brushes that I will be using exclusively to paint with gold metal clay http://www.pmcguild.com/gallery/gold/gold.html

And the 3" by 3" square, which looks like a piece of paper is a sheet of precious metal clay that I will be pressing a stamp into to create an impression. Then I will fire it and only the fine silver will remain, but in the shape I created.
http://www.wholelottawhimsy.com/wo/p/context/shopping/Product?c=138&p=2200889

Spirited Away

A Japanese antimation film, called a masterpiece. Beautiful, surreal. "Spirited Away" written/directed by famed antimator Hayao Miyazaki. If you liked Coraline you will love this!

Leaves

When I was in about 3rd grade it was decided I needed glasses and I got my first pair. It was life changing.

Since I am from Palm Springs there weren't a lot of trees around but even for the few that there were I had not known you could see the leaves on the trees individually from the ground. It was a fabulous revelation!

"You're Gonna Miss me"

Interesting documentary about Roky Erickson a luminary in the Austin music scene in the mid 60th. Lots of drugs and rock and roll a little short on sex. Illuminating, boring, painful, confusing, no spoilers here.

If you see it then read the Wikipedia entry, not before.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roky_Erickson

In the cold waiting for Poi Festival

Going to David Copperfield in Marin

This is MonkeyBoy, Nancy our hostess and our friend Sanchez on the way to David Copperfield. Berndt, Nancy's boyfriend and our other host was ill and did not get to come, we missed him.

We had a great time seeing something that might not have occurred to us. Copperfield was mostly charming, and accomplished. I of course found the mixed media aspects of the show interesting. But 2 best parts of the day. Seeing Nancy's house and having drinks on her patio in the forest, one of my favorite things in the world as y'all know. Then I spoke to my jewelry teacher, did a little consult on the phone and I think he solved a problem for me....

David Copperfield

Our friends are taking us to see "Grand Illusion" the David Copperfield show at the Marin Civic Center tomorrow night. I am really looking forward to it, and am touched that my sweet friends want to take us because we "create so much fun in their lives!"

Zinfandelic

My friend and neighbor, Danny LeFrancois has a new wine - Zinfandelic - that is now available at wine.com.

It is a medium bodied Zinfandel from Amador County. Nice fruit with hints of spice.
http://www.wine.com/v6/search/?term=zinfandelic

He brought over a bottle to share recently and we liked it a lot, so check it out!

Wine.com has two promotion codes that can be used for free shipping or a discount:

VISAWINTER – free ship on $99
ZINFANDELIC – 15% off

Wine Label Designer: Grant Phelps

Elizabeth Warren - My HERO

Elizabeth Warren is the Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel on Toxic Asset Relief Program (TARP.) She is smart and articulate.

In the earlier clip (part one) she said it was her job to to ensure Transparency, Accountablility and Clarity.

In this clip from the Daily Show she said that after the depression 3 protections were implemented.

• FDIC - to ensure it was safe to put your money in the banks


• Glass Steagall Act so banks won't do crazy things, i. e. it also put in place regulations allowing the Federal reserve to regulate interest savings rates


• SEC Regulations

Those protected us somewhat for 50 years, and then the government began to pull the thread from the regulatory fabric and here we are in a financial crisis. First consequence was the S&L Crisis, 700 institutions failed. Then long term capital management issues and then Enron which told us the books were dirty. And we continued to pull the thread out of the regulatory fabric.

She summarizes by saying we need smart regulation that adapts to the fact that we have new products and what we will have going forward is stability and properity for the ordinary folk.

So wow, I am grateful that plain girls get to be smart and articulate. She may make the difference in our economy in the next year or two.

Susan Boyle

There has been a lot of buzz lately about Susan Boyle, a plain woman with grace and talent who had the courage to be radically self expressed.

I am and was pleased by her celebrity and bravery, although somewhat dismayed that there are people who do not think plain people have talents that they often don't show because the world is not really interested in plain people.

I am not able to embed the video but here is a link if you happen not to have seen it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OcQ9A-5noM

Valentino - The Last Emperor

This movie is a must see, it is charming, loving, beautiful, let me say that again, beautiful. Go out right now and see it on the big screen.

http://www.valentinomovie.com/#theatre

USPS Issues Simpsons Stamps

Kudos to Black Rock Arts Foundation Advisory Board Member, David Silverman!!

The US Postal Service issues Simpsons Postal Stamps

2008 Photo Book

http://community.shutterfly.com/gallery/post/start.sfly?postId=/gallery/1/post/GMGDBg1YtGLhyxcgShQKCg

Jennybird Alcantara:
Treacherous Gardens
'Treacherous Gardens' a solo show of her latest work opens April 3rd at Varnish Gallery in San Francisco.

Jennybird Alcantara's Treacherous Gardens solo exhibit of paintings explores "the garden of the mind" and its vast, beautiful landscape filled with inherent pitfalls. Duality, water themes, dreams and nightmares figure prominently in this series of detailed fantasies in oil and acrylic on panel.

"I have always been a daydreamer," says Jennybird, "and get many of my ideas during that state of semi-consciousness. My inspirations come from a wide variety of sources including fairytales and fables, mythology, the natural world and freaks of nature, melancholy...broken dolls and objects out of place." With a narrative at its core, Alcantara's minutely detailed paintings are filled with objects that possess un-borrowed symbolism contained within each piece and within the series. The artist's love of animals and their instincts is seen and felt in her use of folklore and metaphor. Dual natures addressing the veils between human-animal, internal-external, and life-death embody the characters central to each work of art. Treacherous Gardens draws the viewer deeper into a world both strange and beautiful, guided by a generous hand.

Opening Details
April 3rd
7PM till 10PM
Varnish Fine Art Gallery
77 Natoma st.
San Francisco CA
for directions please visit the Gallery website http://varnishfineart.com/artwork/

Some days you just want to boogie

thanks Chez NamasteNancy, always lovely blogposts

http://cheznamastenancy.blogspot.com/

Musings

You are correct! I love it! Not the hard times, but that our politics are actually impactful, and I love your commitment to do it differently.
We too are eating home more, and have actually always lived modestly.
But I have some concerns that all we are doing to improve our financial situation is hard on the rest of the economy. I just painted my 1986 mercedes rather than buy a new car. I does great on the smog test, so why not.
MonkeyBoy got laid off 3 weeks ago and my job is precarious since I am a contractor. We do have the advantage of being in our 60s so the impact is different and we have a lot of saving, I am a retirement attorney after all....
Thanks for telling it like it is. You have inspired me to blog about it myself.

Road Trip

Quick trip to Southern California for my best friend's 60th birthday. We drove thru Lancaster to go to the Poppy Preserve then to Palmdale then down thru the Cahon Pass to Riverside.

Great birthday surprise for my friend and her kids and grandkids...

Burn the Fllor

My friend and I went to see Burn the Floor this weekend at the Post Theatre. It was a little uneven for me because I like some styles of dance more than others. But there were amazing moments, like when the dancer floated as someone twirled her, and the great rendition of Rolling on the River...16 dancers, 2 percussionists and 2 singers, all amazing.

Just through this weekend in San Francisco.

For a great review:

http://tangobaby2.blogspot.com/2009/02/burn-floor.html

For tickets and more information:

http://www.burnthefloor.com/pages/home.asp

Serpent Mother and Homouroboros

Serpent Mother at Opulent Temple's "Massive" on Friday Night photo: poetrosakranse

Serpent Mother: photo by eeetthaannn

Ryan, Sierra' s fiance, and Sierra

affinity & Sierra hanging out

The Scheuer's soaking up the atmoshpere

The Monkeys were on break but it was great to see them

MonkeyBoy, eggchairsteve and Tate


We got out to see the Serpent Mother on Treasure Island last night and we were surprised to see so many of our dear friends there that we did not know were coming, beginning with Homouroboros (But the Monkeys were not spinning), it was great to see them. Then our good friends all, Mark and Janet, Annetta and Greg and Sierra with her new fiance and their friend Ryan, and then Steve and Tate (Tate is gorgeous and getting taller) suprised us, and Nelda stopped to say hello on our way out.

It is always a special treat to see everyone when you are not expecting them and get big hugs.

Serpent Mother was gorgeous lit up, although we missed the fire.