Antigua

After a couple months of planning and talking about leaving the country, here I am at the start of my journey in Antigua, Guatemala.  I intended to go to Quetzaltenango, or Xela, this morning when I arrived but ran into somebody at the airport who was on their way here and thought I´d check it out before settling into Xela where, where I will be spending the next couple of weeks.

Its  an incredible feeling to actually start the trip after so much thinking and preparing and warnings and excitement.  Arriving was quite easy, no hitches, no craziness at the airport or anywhere else as I had expected.  I´ve been here a few hours, am staying in a quiet hostel called El Hostal and have been wandering the city for a few hours.  I had an amazing lunch of Pollo Pipian, which is a mole made from Pumpkin Seeds I believe.  Served with Chips and Guac of a great homemade variety in a courtyard.  And all for under $5.

Antigua is a beautiful but very touristy city.  The pastel colors and colonial architecture sorrounded by jungle covered mountains make for good walking and photography, but I have not felt much warmth from the locals or from travelers. I am waiting to see how it feels here, but will probably not spend more than a day or two.

I look forward to hearing emails or comments from those that read this blog and send all of my love home.  I will post pictures and write as I can.

November 5th

If any of you are still wondering, I’ve bought a ticket for Guatemala and depart LAX the morning of November 5th. That will mark the end of 3 great and full months in Los Angeles. Burning Man, a beautiful trip to Kings Canyon (I haven’t posted any pics to the blog yet - they’re here), a photo published in Citizen L.A. (see below) and now a gallery show at the Dale Youngman Gallery in Downtown L.A. (featured photos are here).

Leaving Burning Man this year, I said I wanted to take my photography more seriously. I didn’t imagine it would be the photos I took there that would lead to this being a reality. Ever since being offered the gallery show, I’ve thought a lot about what it means to be an ‘artist’. With so many possible meanings, I’ve come to the conclusion that anybody who believes in their own creative potential can be an ‘artist’; a photographer, a DJ.

I’ll leave with a link to The Dynamics‘ sublime cover of Curtis Mayfield’s immortal ‘Move on Up’; I think it is apropos for this evening. The Dynamics are a contemporary Reggae group out of Lyon, France currently playing mostly cover songs. Their album drops soon - watch out for it!

Move On Up

Man Burning

Its Friday evening now, 4 days after returning from Black Rock City in the Nevada desert. I won’t seek to explain what Burning Man is; enough people have already and will continue to do that. One great series of posts on Burning Man can be found on an Uber blog that I found here. Suffice to say that spending the time that I did with 48,000 people last week was incredible and impactful. I figured that in this space I can provide some memories that were particularly meaningful to me.

Arriving at Burning Man is quite an experience, and one that all of the preparatory materials don’t address. After an 11 hour drive from Los Angeles out to Gerlach, Nevada, we spend another two hours waiting to get inside. Those waiting are truly shown that convenience and speed are not important aspects to those in charge at Burning Man LLC. The line at the gate seems to be there to reinforce the boundaries between the default world and Black Rock City within. We arrived Monday night, just in time to unpack a few things and wander the playa to see the lunar eclipse. So complete was my disorientation that I completely missed the first (early) burning of “the Man.” I was too busy watching an eclipse I guess. An eclipse being a perfect way to start a trip like this, as a familiar, everyday object is blocked from view.

(This post has taken a while to finish - its now the Tuesday following the initial Friday mentioned in this post). The next week is a jumble of events, certainly much more than the sum of their parts. There was the woman who cleaned and moisturized my cracked and dry feet, even providing me with a pair of socks to take home. This one event provided me with a wealth of energy and goodwill. The was the sheer amazement at the amount of work that goes into building this city in the Nevada desert, which exists for only one week a year, only to be built again the following year; the scale of the structures, the incredible sound systems, the immensity of the city. Also, riding across the playa on a bike, hearing ‘Lookout Weekend’ by Debbie Deb playing out of a giant bus dressed up to like the Cheshire Cat.

Another beautiful thing was the freedom of transportation in Black Rock City. I found it beautiful to be able to ride my bike on a large flat expanse, without worrying about hills or cars hurtling at me at 40 MPH. Not to mention the limiless stimulation and potential for exploration. One could stop pretty much anywhere and see a sculpture or art project, or meet somebody new and speak to them for a moment or at length. At night, there were probably a hundred places to  stop and dance, all of them free and within easy walking or biking distance of one another. It truly felt like limitless possibility.

And then there was the Temple of Forgiveness. One of the most powerful spaces I have ever experienced. A place people used to find peace with lost loved ones, part with aspects of themselves they wished to be done with and multitudes of other cathartic experiences. Everywhere I looked there were photos, drawings, notes and personal affects, all imbued with emotion. People cried, I cried. Someone came up to me and gave me a pen and a notebook to write; I did. And left what I wrote as notes inserted into the intricate woodwork of the temple to burn. I deeply respected the inclusion of this sacred space within the larger framework of Black Rock City.

In the end, I would never wish to to explain the entirety of my time at Burning Man within this forum, or any other. My week in Black Rock City held parallels to a week anywhere — there were good times and bad, easy times and hard. Time was spent exploring, eating, resting, loving, learning. A 24 hour a day, 7 day a week opportunity to experience.

T-Minus One Day

Well, one day left till Burning Man and just lost the post I was working on so I’ll make this short. I’ve been experiencing a mix of excitement and anxiety in anticipation of a week of who-knows-what out there in the Nevada desert. Lots of preparation for dust, wind, camping, fun and comfort. A full SUV that will be my home for 7 days. I’ll have you all in my thoughts and look forward to sharing pictures and stories upon my return.

To share something quickly, I got a new haircut. Please see below for detail:

Junctions

There was something about this image that struck me. I was about to go into the Santa Monica DMV to take care of some business and saw this girl taking a bite into a donut. So there it is.

Two weeks into my Los Angeles adventure here, and having scattered thoughts. Society has provided me with so much conditioning to NOT be OK with doing anything but focusing on work in the traditional sense. Today I woke up and did some shopping for Burning man in downtown L.A. Explored the fashion district and wholesale toy district. I enjoy being able to enjoy a city that I’ve lived in on and off my whole life but now have a different type of freedom to explore. In any case, the trick for me at the moment is to internalize a feeling of being ‘ok’ with what I’m doing. I want to set off to Latin America knowing that a) it is the right thing to be doing and b) I will be involved with passion in new and exciting things when I return.

This time now is for preparing for preparing for the trips I am setting out on guilt free, and then for enjoying them, and THEN for being present in my life when I return. I think part of the problem is that extended time in L.A. provides me with a certain stagnation, even though there is so much going on. I went to the Sunset Junction last weekend, sort of a hipster-fest in Silverlake. Fun, saw the Buzzocks for a second, met up with D from Santa Cruz. I’ll post a few pics form that day below:

And also this picture, which to me speaks volumes about being back in my hometown, around familiar architecture, culture and religion. And I loved the shot:

Think on These Things

In a way this is the first day of a new life situation. I spent the last night last night in the room that has been mine for the last two years. I’m sitting now in my backyard, listening to Roots Manuva waiting to go to the greater Bay Area for the weekend. There are many ways to look at the time coming in my life. In one sense, it is just a city move & a decision to travel. In another though, this is the first time in my life I’ve allowed myself space to be without plans and see what develops. Shall I be cheesy and call it a right of passage? Sure, why not. I can’t say it feels easy to be on the verge of 26 and not have a ‘life plan’ but its the only sensible option, for today anyways. The change feels important. I’ve seen those around me gain varying amounts from traveling. Its certainly an experience that will give from what it is given. It’s funny to read people’s experiences at places like realtravel.com and travelblog.org and see people interacting so little with the cultures around them; people often seem oblivious. But I guess I will have more to say on these things when I leave, which I hope to be in October after a few months in L.A. and a week at Burning Man.