the temple at burning man 2011 was one giant musical instrument powered by the wind.

it looked like something out of star wars, and the music that it played was chaotic but entrancing. as the wind blew, it pulled strings that would activate gongs and cymbals and drums and percussion of all sorts.

it had to be destroyed, and immolation was the only acceptable means.

on the last day, they burned the temple in silence.

other highlights included the giant mechanical fire breathing octopus…

…and a guy wearing the Mr. Freeze suit with an enormous tesla coil that fired off bolts of lightning at him.

what craziness.

I didn’t expect them to deliver an 18 wheeler to my front steps. holy moly. I get to fill it with literally everything inside my house and ship it directly to my doorstep back on the mainland.

but words cannot begin to express how much I am going to miss this place. I was actually fighting back tears today when the kids came in and pleaded with me to hide and shelter a baby kitten they had found. They wanted me to keep it in my house until I left because their parents wouldn’t let them have it. I realized in that moment that this is exactly the kind of experience I won’t have again until I have kids of my own. it choked me up a little bit. Hanging out with soluna and lehua over the last 8 months has taught me so much about life and about spirit.

catharsis. n. the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, especially through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music.

five hours under the needle with a truly gifted tattoo artist and I feel like my emotions and emotional tensions have been purged out through my stomach, ribs, armpit, chest and back.

supernatural. adj.
1. above or beyond what is natural; unexplainable by natural law or phenomena; abnormal.
2. characteristic of, or attributed to God or a deity.

what does the octopus represent to me? the octopus is a supernatural being, and is my connection to the supernatural world.  Sy Montgomery sums up most of the bizarre characteristics in Orion Magazine:

“No sci-fi alien is so startlingly strange. Here is someone who, even if she grows to one hundred pounds and stretches more than eight feet long, could still squeeze her boneless body through an opening the size of an orange; an animal whose eight arms are covered with thousands of suckers that taste as well as feel; a mollusk with a beak like a parrot and venom like a snake and a tongue covered with teeth; a creature who can shape-shift, change color, and squirt ink.”

The octopus is a fucking alien from space.

To date, I’ve had three encounters in the wild with octopus.

1.) The first time I ever went scuba diving I was in the virgin islands and did a “fun dive.” I saw a tiny zebra striped octopus.

2.) When I got scuba diving certified in monterey, I found an octopus while exploring some rocks. It was hiding in a crevice between two large rocks and when I found it, for a moment I just stared into its eyes and tried to get inside its head.

3.) In Santa Cruz, near natural bridges, I found a baby octopus in a tide pool one sunday morning with a friend. It was about an inch long and purple.

Every time I’ve seen an octopus in the wild, I’ve felt like I’m in the presence of god. It’s this weird feeling that just comes over me. maybe its just the awe inspired by such a mystical creature. or maybe it’s the part of me that really believes the octopus most likely came to earth on a meteorite from the other end of the universe.

Because the octopus is so similar to us anatomically, and so clearly has consciousness, but has several inputs to its consciousness that we don’t have, the octopus also represents other states of consciousness. One biologist, Lisa Mather, suggests that octopuses “may have consciousness in a way we may not be able to imagine.” Imagine being able to see and taste with your arms and legs and hands and feet?  The octopus deepens our understanding of what it means to think, to feel, and to know.

One big mystery currently surrounding the octopus is that of its eye. Their eyes are nearly identical to ours anatomically.  In fact, Canadian zoologist N. J. Berrill called it “the single most startling feature of the whole animal kingdom” that the eye of the octopus and the eye of the human are so similar: they both have transparent corneas, regulate light with iris diaphragms, and focus lenses with a ring of muscle. This has opened room for academic speculation as to whether or not we share a common ancestor with the octopus, when our shared, complex eyes were first evolved. And as absurd as the notion of sharing a common ancestor with the octopus seems, if we don’t have an ancestor in common, how can you possibly explain such complex similarities? what’s going on here?

Other bizarre facts about octopuses:

-Three fifths of the octopus’s brain is dispersed through it’s tentacles. Imagine if our brains ran through our legs and arms…
-An octopus can see in some ways using the sensory tissue on the skin of its tentacles
-All octopuses are equipped with funnels that shoot water, and they use it as a means of propulsion

space alien.

I hate to admit this but its true that I have never truly understood the art of photography. For one reason or another, it’s specific value as a medium had always eluded me. what is it that photography has to offer that no other medium can? I never had an answer for this and it felt unsettling because for years I’ve actually had a passion for photography. I would go on excursions into nature for days, sometimes weeks at a time and capture a thousand images or more just to get that one shot that would actually make me feel something. And yet in the deep recesses of my brain, nagging away at me, was a feeling that still photography was dead -obsolete compared to the rich media titan of audio/video. This feeling subtly ruined photography for me. The feeling of obsolete. .

Today for the first time I finally truly understood what it is about photography that I love so much. Far from obsolete, photography allows you to behold a scene, no matter how complex and dynamic, and explore whatever segment you find to be fantastic or beautiful, and isolate it from any context.

for example, I was photographing a herd of goats grazing on the grass around my house. In the background of the shot was a broken down mini van, an old trailer and a bunch of wood. The whole scene was way too busy, and the objects in the background were by no means unique or marvellous or interesting in any way. It was all just ugly.

So instead I focus in on a goat, eating leaves off a vine right in front of me. It offers me a powerful and fantastic shot. This process of focusing in is subconscious to the photographer. Without thinking I adjust the zoom on my lens to achieve a shot’s desired composition. You focus in on an interesting subject so that the ugly and cluttery objects in the background can’t be seen anymore. Focus in on what you find interesting, focus out what you don’t like, and capture the beauty of any moment.

Theoretically you could do this for just about every situation you face in life.