Hey folks – I just got back from Burning Man & as usual it was a BIG time. I had a lots of fun & some not-so-fun as is my usual at BM. I am left with some pretty interesting thoughts/questions (some even disturbing) & some fantastic images.

As usual, the thing that makes Burning Man the most worthwhile for me, is the creativity:

• Dance Dance Immolation by Interpretive Arson – when Dance Dance Revolution meets Burning Man. Ridiculously fun. (big thanks to my friend Nina at the DDI camp!) – for those of you who don’t know what Dance Dance Revolution is, click here
  You MUST HAVE QUICKTIME 7 to Play the Movie
  
  CLICK PIC TO PLAY MOVIE (large 8.1MB)
  Click here for small version (3MB)
• The most beautiful dragon I’ve ever seen (& very different from all others I’ve seen at Burning Man over the years) from Sean Sobczak. We spent a lot of time trying to come up with the right word & eventually settled on “exquisite” – a quality you rarely find on the playa. (see the video below)
• Why ride solo when you can ride tandem… with a partner ON FIRE. (see the video below)
• The Big Round Cubatron by Network Wizards: My wee video doesn’t do this justice, but the cylindrical array of LED ping pong balls was beautiful, elegant, fascinating and inspired. The more you watched, the more you wanted to. (Thanks for tracking down the name & link Bob!) (see the video below)

You MUST HAVE QUICKTIME 7 to Play the Movie

CLICK PIC TO PLAY MOVIE (large 10.9MB)
Click here for small version (4.1MB)

• Dancing my ass off at The Deep End. At least it was good techno
• Neverwas Haul – a giant roving Victorian – Steampunk!

A big shout-out to Camp Run-Amok for letting me be a part of their troop.

Here are the quick & dirty highlights from my trip to Paris – but if you really want to see many more cool pix of Paris & Budapest – you should go here….

Paris seems to have discovered my love for all things glam & sparkly (& no, it doesn’t quite do it justice – but it is still awesome) & is my Favorite New Thing from this trip to Paris:

Click here to watch the movie (2.5MB)

I also enjoyed viewing the end of the Tour De France from my mobile viewing platform rented from the city no less)….

Click here to watch the movie (8.3MB)

The “mobile moving platform” was VERY cool – basically the city of Paris rents bikes for reasonable rates from various locations around town & also from a bus that sets up at special events! I did a good bit of biking in both cities…. Here is a shot from Budapest…

The other thing I loved about Paris & even Budapest was that since the cities were bigger – things were up and available til all hours. My cousin & I did a LOT of dancing – which rocked…. < PEEVE MODE >And before any of you SFer’s go – “yeah I wish…”- how often do you go out late? < PEEVE MODE OFF >

Again, for all my favorite pix from Paris (& Budapest) click on over to my pix page…. Click HERE for more…

I just got back to Paris from Budapest & since that means a dedicated DSL line again I feel at home*. (whew!)

What did I do in Budapest?….. Why, I performed live in front of my adoring fans of course:

You MUST HAVE QUICKTIME 7 to Play the Movie

90 sec small video version (2.8MB)
90 sec big video version (8.6MB)
(looong download – but worth it)

Well actually, my cousin (the cameraman & Mr. never-done-karaoke-before!) & I stumbled into a “Hungarian Idol”-type night at a local club & after much hemming & hawing, I went for it. Unfortunately, the contest was over before they let me on, & much of the audience had left, but dammit – someone needed to bring the funk to Budapest!…. so I pressed on…. and lest the video fools you, there were more Hungarians there than the footage shows….

Can anyone figure out what the announcer is saying at the end? Near as I can tell from my 3 day immersion course in Hungarian, it is something like “and his hovercraft is full of eels.”**

‘deep
writing from Paris…

* The other thing that made Budapest feel alien was the fact that you can spend hours upon hours with nary a latin root as far as the eye can see! These people should have been conquered by the Romans better or something. The only respite lay in words like, my favorite, “szandvics” (sound it out). Makes Paris & French feel downright homey.

** bonus points if you know the reference Click HERE for more…

So 2/3rds of my trip to India were spent visiting my Mom’s sisters & their families. The term for an aunt in Hindi is Massi. My research indicates that Massi’s are strong, sweet, intelligent, understanding women whose ultimate goal in life is to fatten nephews beyond reason and to generally fuss over them no end.

Here are a few amusing moments of my trip into Massi-dom: Click HERE for more…

As some of you know, on my recent trip to India, I spent a good bit of time trying to see a tiger at Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan. After many attempts, this is the tiger as I saw it:

Actually I was pretty happy with that until some folks on the next %$#@#$% safari saw this (BUT NOT ME)

Oh Well – I had fun hunting anyway…. & I’m pretty lucky to be able to see what I did…

BIG thanks to Stefanie Phillips in Hong Kong for taking the pix! Lucky Bastard!

I’m writing this somewhere over the Pacific on the way home from 16 days in LOMP – the Land of My People – India*.

I guess my favorite moment of the trip was the most surreal one & it happened late in my stay. It was this Dance Off / Freak Show (guess who was the freak) / Guest of Honor (guess who was the VIP) Experience at a wedding in Rajasthan. The pinnacle of that pinnacle was a surreal close-dance with a grinning 50 year old Rajasthani man with red betel-nut juice stains on his front teeth to “Who Let the Dogs Out” on 5 hours of sleep. I suggest trying this & trying and not to freak out. Go ahead try it. I dare you.

I’ll warn you now that this story is a little rambly, and I’m not sure it has a point (or a plot) but it is definitely amusing to me at least. It was one of those great travel moments when you find yourself outside your comfort zone and unexpectedly learn something about the world and the way you move through it…. Click HERE for more…

The last few weeks have left me obsessing about the upcoming Presidential election as if it were a movie with hobbits in it, in fact I’m so obsessed with it, the movie would have to have hobbits riding dinosaurs fighting sharks…. and somehow Charlize Theron would be involved…. Wow….

Sorry, anyway, my obsession has lead me east and I’m writing this from ground-zero itself, Florida. That’s right, Hurricane Deep has hit FL!

Click HERE for more…