Julie & Ryan

I’m still thinking about this wedding. Julie and Ryan are one of those couples who exude togetherness. To anyone around, its quite obvious that they’re meant for each other. It’s hard to explain, but they just fit. It’s romantic and sappy perhaps, but I believe there is true love and I’ll go on the record as saying these two are going to be together forever.

Aint love grand?

We hit it off with this couple right away. Ryan is a space geek and we couldn’t stop talking about NASA and telescopes and planets, etc. Julie and I both go to the same college. We couldn’t have made a better connection with a couple in the short time we had before their wedding. When they said they wanted to shoot their engagement session at Griffith Observatory, I was beside myself.  A 2 hour session turned into 5 and I was ready to stay. That night we looked through a few telescopes (one belonging to Tuvoc for you nerds out there) and saw a pass of the International Space Station.

If a great fit and an amazing e-session wasn’t enough, they got married at Le Chene. My wife has been telling me about Le Chene for 15 years, but for whatever reason, life probably, we never made it there for dinner.  She’s told me over and over again how good the French cuisine is there. They say that its the best food in northern Los Angeles County and is the oldest building in the area. I don’t know about the history, but I can confirm that the food was phenomenal.

From the gorgeous ceremony outside in the garden, to the grapevines, to the accommodating staff, Le Chene really impresses.  I’ve never been fed so well fed photographing a wedding or any other job. Though working a little and dining a little, I’ve seldom had a better meal in my lifetime when I was sitting down and I was on my feet. The staff there took special care of me, seeing to it that I was fed and hydrated throughout the night. I can’t see why more Antelope Valley brides choose this great location. While other venues might be more extravagant, Le Chene delivers a fine experience, even if you’re just the photographer.

This wedding had an amazing vitality that surrounded it. The day, the couple, the venue, were all amazing and I was fortunate to be along for the ride. Once again, I was allowed to live my dream and take photographs for a living. Not everyone can do what they love for a living and that’s a privilege I don’t take lightly. I wish Ryan & Julie happiness and contentment forever and Ill never in that time be able to thank them enough for having me.

They asked for cheestastic photos and came up with this idea.

I think its kinda awesome.

Over Los Angeles

Griffith Obsevatory.

Le Chene was beautiful.

The place settings were simple and elegant.

The food here was definitely the best wedding food I’ve ever had.

Julie & Ryan were high school sweethearts.

This is one good guy.

A lovely ceremony in the garden.

Aint love grand?

This couple has a great sense of humor and they know how to have some fun!

Lots of fun.

Is it me or do we get the best looking couples?

Burning Man 2012: Fertility 2.0

I always struggle writing about the burn. In 2011, Burning Man changed my outlook on the world and renewed my love for humanity forever. I had a hard time writing about it then. Any description of Burning Man is too reductive. There is too much to relate in one tiny conversation or blog post. It’s too important to me to be haphazard with my words, so I’ll try to be careful, but brief. At the risk of sounding cliche, it really is the kind of thing you have to see to believe.

All descriptions of Black Rock City start something like that. Your mind needs time to cope with happens out there in the desert and I went to my 2nd Burning Man having not had the time to process the first one. I suspect I’ll be thinking about it for the rest of my life.

Its the unconventional convention. People from all over the world come to this ancient dry lake bed to do it their way without the boundaries that may or may not hold them down in the real “default” world. People shed their notions about how life is supposed to be lived. People shed their clothes. People shed their minds.

Everything you’ve ever heard about Burning Man is probably true, but there’s more to it than the naked, drugged out hippy/raver bonfire you may have seen on Malcolm in the Middle, and I bet you CAN find a re-birthing ceremony out there, but there’s more to Burning Man than meets the third eye. Black Rock City also has churches and airports, AA meetings and Kidsville, Hushville and a hospital. There are every manner of liberal weirdo, but fully 1/4 of burners self-identify as Republicans according to last year’s census. Sure, there’s a lot of art and a few orgy tents, but Burning Man is a complex man, who’s average age is in the late thirties and he just doesn’t think about partying all the time. He spends the week halfway between humanity and the temple. Somewhere in between a spiritual place and earthly celebration, he keeps his head above the din, watching and learning.

Burning Man always teaches me something. If I open my eyes and listen carefully, my head explodes with some amazing truth. This year, my truth was family.

Last year, I left my wife and very young child at home to help paint the Bank of Unamerica building in Otto Von Danger’s “Burn Wall Street” project. It was extremely difficult being away for even just a week, but I felt like I really needed to give myself to a project and really participate in the event that had changed my life forever. I wanted to give back to the community that had opened my eyes. I anticipated spending a lot of time away from my family and I tried to adapt. Working on that project was hard work and I was merely painting; many gave blood, sweat, tears and a full 3 months to that build. I rationalized being there by thinking “if soldiers could leave their families to go to war, then I should certainly be able to do it for a good cause.”

When it appeared as though my wife and child couldn’t join me at the Black Rock City until mid-week during Burning Man, I went stupid in anticipation, thinking I could act out a week-long Dionysian Bacchanal binge event with no parental responsibilities and husband duties to distract me, all the while having given myself to Burning Man, the big wooden guy I love so much. I wanted to wake up in the dust at sunrise after an all-day long bender-explosion of fun and creativity, weak and powerless under some piece of art whose days were numbered in a psychedelic dehydrated heap of hang-over skin and bones, all bonds, covalent and ionic, weakening in the Sun. You know, like a good burner should.

This might be my last chance. Fatherhood and responsibility were upon me and extended to the horizon line.

After a week of being in Reno, both my wife and I were feeling the distance. After 15 years together, this week had doubled the amount of time we had ever spent apart. The stress of caring for a baby and working a full time job, so that her husband could ‘make art’ was too much to bear. I came home after a week on the project. It looked like we’d all be going to Burning Man together and the my hopes for one last crazy week of crazy, craziness were dashed. My cliche Burning Man mind explosion would have to wait.

The drive to Lake Lahontan, the ancient dry lake bed where the event is held, is about 10-12 hours from Southern California through some of the most beautiful terrain in the country. It’s a tour of the Eastern Sierra Nevada that’s hard to forget. We made this trip together with a good friend from New York we were chauffeuring to his virgin burn in a vintage “53 passenger bus. This alone made any change of plans advantageous and as they say, “you’re at Burning Man as soon as you leave your door.” I was thrilled and I hadn’t even made it past gate.

This year, we stayed at Kidsville. We simply picked our spot, volunteered for a greeter shift and was embraced by seemingly the only part of the city where you don’t get points for every decibel over a 100 you can broadcast your personal faves. The constant ever present boom of music at Burning Man actually gives way to the sound of pedestrian traffic and kids playing in the dust, along with a little Bill of Rights bullhorning by the Nevada ACLU across the street. You can actually get a good night of sleep, which, already critical in this harsh desert, was even more important to 9 month old Scarlett Varden and her Mom.

When I realized my little girl was coming with us on the first day, my 1st concern was that we’d be forced to leave early because we couldn’t get Scarlett comfortable in the hot dusty environment. After much research, I built a Hexayurt, a rigid shelter built with insulation, complete with a battery-powered swamp cooler that I built just to make sure our little lady had a place to stay cool. Confident that I’d be able to spend the whole week at the festival, I tried to look forward to viewing the party from a distance (so as not to corrupt our daughter), concentrating more on the art and family-friendly happenings. I should have grown up years ago, anyway.

Showing our little girl the city that she had only heard while in her mother’s womb the previous year was amazing. She was more stimulated and well behaved than the previous week spent in the default world. She took to the playa like an old dusty veteran, parents in tow. She even learned to crawl that week.  The citizens of Black Rock City made her feel like a rock star. We realized after only a short time, that Burners love babies. Her getting so much attention meant a lot to Heather and I.  It does seem to lend credibility to the idea that this isn’t a party, it’s a community,  and after all, communities encompass all demographics. Someone called her an “ember.” I love that.

The families that comprise Kidsville made us feel very at home. New families arrived throughout the week, each one solid gold. I love Burning Man’s edge. Sometimes its dangerous and sexy and on fire, but here just East of Center Camp, lies the innocent, quiet heart of city. That is until Deathguild showed up during a dust storm to hold a Kidsville version of Thunderdome inside a hemispheric jungle gym resembling the dome on Esplanade. One day, we saw a Yellow Submarine tow a Peanut Butter and Jelly cart to the heart of Kidsville for an impromptu feast with kids singin’, “peanut butter jelly time, peanut butter jelly time….”

Midweek, the captain of the Nautilus from Distrikt knocked on our Hexayurt door and handed us a ticket to board his craft for a special Kidsville event in deep playa. Off he went to each and every family in the ville, knocking on every door to make sure no kid missed out. They drove us to the Black Rock Bijou, a glorious and unbelievable movie theater miles from anything in the middle of desert for a special showing of the Wizard of Oz. They even handed out free candy to all the kids. There truly is “no place like home.”

The next day, we were taken on an art tour of the playa by the Surly Bird, another fantastic art car created by someone I never had the opportunity to thank. As a family, we watched the greatest city in the world roll by effortlessly. I had another in a long series of moments and realizations here that tiptoed around like ninjas in my head waiting to pounce at the right moment.

It wasn’t until later that I realized how wrong I was about this Burning Man and what it meant to me.

My wife was nice enough to crash out with the baby when it was time and let me explore the city late into the night. This made for a slightly more lonely burn that previous year, but allowed me to see almost every piece of art and more importantly allowed me to think. I spent many a late night riding out to deep playa contemplating art, community, philosophy and family. Each night stacked new revelations up against the levy, that was now trembling and ready to burst.

When asked how her burn was going, Rockstar Librarian told me in 2011, “never quite what I want, but always exactly what I need.”

The damn broke at the Temple burn. I met Heather and Scarlett just South of the Temple of Juno. When they saw our baby, we were invited by an awesome fuzzy rabbit art car, to lounge on their cushy plush accomplishment and promptly offered drinks. They gave their hospitality without hesitation and welcomed us with open arms. It wasn’t until I saw the first flames licking the temple that I started to realize what I had learned that previous week. When Scarlett started to cry, Heather and I leaned into to convince her to keep quiet. We wanted to honor the temple burn and not disturb our hosts. They reassured us it was no trouble and let us off the hook with knowing smiles and love. Seconds after that, I began to weep.

In the light of the fire burning one of the most beautiful buildings Ive ever seen, I felt more complete than I ever have. I felt ashamed and foolish at my brain-cell-killing, late-night, early-morning, last hoorah, party-of-the-century, wacked-out plans. There, in our city’s spiritual center, was my family, my artistic, desert-adventuring, life-savoring, wilderness-camping, burner family. I’ll never forget the beauty of my wife and child, their faces bathed in fire light. I loved myself for the first time in a long time at that moment and forgave myself for being an idiot. My mind explosion happened anyway. Clutching my wife and child and letting go of myself, the week, the temple and the universe, I realized that this, a family burn, was the burn I wanted all along.

If you’d like to attend Burning Man, feel free to ask any questions. Also, check out their Survival Guide here: http://survival.burningman.com/

Our guest of honor. The Man base served as a great meeting place and was much larger than previous years.

The Cosmic Carousel by Michael Walsh

Star Seed by Kate Raudenbush

Burn Wall Street. I was fortunate enough to help out on this project for about a week. It took some very hard working folks about 3 months to put this whole thing together. It took about an hour to vaporize the whole thing.

Looking out to deep playa from Burn Wall Street.

This piece was covered in graffiti, something you don’t normally see here.

Burn Wall Street pre-wedding.

Bouquet toss; from the wedding of Short Fuse and Ninja.

Close-up of our guest of honor. I wonder if the guy on the right is looking right at me.

The movie theatre, Black Rock Bijou and the amazing art-car the Nautilus, organized a special showing of the Wizard of Oz, just for the little ones from Kidsville. They even gave everyone candy. Amazing. Best theatre ever.

Home Sweet Home. My father loaned me his vintage bus for this year’s burn. I thanked him by overheating and killing the motor on the way home on the 395. Turns out you can’t get tow insurance for one of these things. Ouch. All in all, we had an awesome time.

Our little lady, who learned to crawl right there that week, happy as could be in Black Rock City.

“Guess where we’re from?,” they said. We hit the neighbor jackpot, thanks to Siberfi, Bel, Julius and Rhea for being awesome.

Illuminaughty

Our little Scarlett got a lot of attention. Someone said,”Burners love babies,” and we won’t disagree. Another admirer called her an “ember.” We both thought that was brilliant.

Our buddy and crazy awesome photographer, Patrick Roddie.

Center Camp tension.

My Scarlett & Heather.

Do not bring feathers to Burning Man!

…and Be Free.

Unicorn Man and Guy with Airplane Ring!

Ninjas and pirates and lazers n shit.

This guy had the same vintage bus we had.

Black Rock Roller Disco, no broken bones this year!

Yeah, if you’re old enough, you know what this is.

Someone please tell me what liquid nitrogen was doing there!

Akihilesh, one of the amazing Burn Wall Street Crew.

Body Paint by Harry Daily

Good advice.

Byron, our neighbor in 2011, driving his Anubis art car.

I gave away many of the photos I took at Burning Man this year, attempting to GIVE pictures rather than take them. It was difficult to let go of some of them, but the result was a selfless act that sent me home with the joy of the interactions and the people nice enough to pose for me got to keep their photograph, a one of a kind, with their privacy and anonymity intact, no internet involved. It felt great.

Starseed

Neverwas Haul

On board the Surly Bird for a Kidsville art tour.

Anubis

The A.C.L.U camped across the street from us. There were times we couldn’t even see them. Dusty.

Prepping the Man for the burn.

Heart Deco

I’m in love with the playa just after sundown. It’s magic.

The Temple of Juno

This was an amazing place. Ill hold it in my heart forever.

The C.O.R.E. burn, where regional effigies representing communities spawned from Burning Man all over the world burn in unison in one giant circle.

Scorpio and Sagittarius over Artemis Moon, one of my favorite pieces this year. It was simple, but the detailed mosaic was just beautiful and when you push on it, the piece jingles with the sound of a hundred copper leaves. A small, personal experience, that contrasted the large art-peices made with broad strokes. This was intimate and interactive.

I love this community.

Nothing Lasts Forever

Anubis burn.

….and the fire personnel were showered in sparks and embers.

After the wind picked up, the perimeter folks moved every one back….

Zonotopia and the Two Trees with Star Seed.

Ursa Major or the Big Dipper over Black Rock City and an awesome art car.

Ill never forget rounding the corner to this sight. Everyone around was just aghast and mute and immobilized. This was my favorite piece of art this year.

I couldn’t resist some long exposures with all of the lights flying around the city.

Gather.

The Man’s final hour.

The Man burns and dust and ash devils carry him away.

The Man was still burning the next day.

Jazz funeral for the Man. There are some awesome, talented folks in this shot.

A Yellow Submarine brought the PB&J cart to the center of Kidsville one day. The kids were on the P.A., singing “peanut butter jelly time, peanut butter jelly time, where y’at where ya’t, peanut butter jelly, peanut butter jelly with a baseball bat.”

My transportation for the week.

Deathguild came to Kidsville and held a mini-Thunderdome. Kids dueling with pool noodles. Yes.

My wife and daughter, nice and cool in the Hexayurt. We made a battery powered swamp cooler to make sure we had a cool spot for Scarlett during the day.

This person chose to remain anonymous. Staying incognito is sometimes important in this city.

The dust creates its own atmosphere.

No war but class war.

Scarlett

Ok, ok, so I’ve not been around much lately. I’ve had a good reason. I present to you, my little girl Scarlett.

Will and Jenn

These two people live far away from me, but somehow distance doesn’t separate us. I’m from Georgia originally. Will and I were in our first band together. We went to high school together. So when I heard that Will and Jenn got engaged I was beside myself with happiness. Will was one of my groomsmen just 4 short years ago, before I even started shooting weddings. I wouldn’t have missed this one for the world. It was a grand evening catching up with old friends and making some new ones.
I traveled light on this one and although I brought an umbrella and a softbox, I was unable to use them due to the wind and lack of proper sand bags or assistant. So it was all about bounce flash, or fill flash and for this I used and promptly lost my beloved Rogue Flashbender. Ill definitely be buying another one of those. So I ended up shooting the whole thing without modifiers, something I haven’t done for about two years. All shots are with either 10-22 or 70-200IS II and Canon7D. I did get to shoot two bodies, I usually shoot one. I thought it would be too cumbersome, but it turned out to be quite convenient and I didn’t miss fumbling around and changing lenses, that’s for sure. Glendalough Manor turned out to be one of the most accommodating, photographer-friendly venues I’ve ever worked< I can't to shoot again in Georgia, I'd love for it to be there again. In a shocking coincidence, Winslow Thomas, an old buddy from my days at the Atlanta Shakespeare Company, turned out to be the officiant. I've been in California since 1998, but I return to shoot this wedding and I ran into two old friends in a town of millions. What are the chances?
It felt amazing to catch up with old friends, take some photos and visit the state I grew up in. As I flew West, I must have been polluting the heartland with contrails of nostalgia. Click here for the full set of high resolution images.
It was a beautiful day, one I won't forget.

Burning Man & The Great Ticket Shortage of 2012

Today, the Burning Man Organization will announce its new policies regarding tickets to this year’s event. Growth, permit concerns and an aging ticket system has taken its toll and has caused, what many burners see as a huge disaster. Many of the amazing and mind-blowing art and projects that makes Burning Man what it is each year are threatened, because theme camps and project teams have received only about 25% of the tickets they need to complete their projects.

There’s a lot of debate out there right now and a lot of people who are devastated. I get it. I’ve only been once and there hasn’t been a day since I got back that I haven’t thought about its effect on me on how I can re-arrange my life to fit Black Rock City into it. Should Burning Man move to a private location? Should we use non-transferable tickets? Many questions remain unanswered. I’m not sure what will or should happen, but I do know that we can all find ourselves back there again. I have hope that this will create a better Black Rock City and that we can all be together again.

It is speculated that later today, they will announce a plan to place the tickets in the hands of those who have the know-how, resources and experience to make Burning Man amazing. I don’t consider myself on of those people, but I still hold hope that I’ll make it back. There’s still Burning Man’s STEP program, which is supposed to help facilitate a secure exchange of tickets at face value amongst burners. I’ve got my fingers crossed. Hopefully, today will be another step towards a better event and you can bet your ass there’s thousands of people holding their breath right now.

Last year, the planets finally aligned and I was privileged enough to make it to the playa. For years, I made excuses or had my head in other places, so I never made the trip. When I finally did, it was everything I hoped. It changed me forever.

Thank you citizens of Black Rock City, from DPW all the way to the Sparkle Ponies. Whatever happens today,  I hope to see you at home and good luck with tickets!

 

I will never forget the time I spent in the desert with 50,000 of my closest friends sharing ideas, living with wild abandon and being astounded by each other. It shook me up and poured me over some ice.

Every day since, I’ve been trying to hold on to what I learned there. I left some of my prejudice and judgement out there on the playa, gasping for air and I thought I didn’t bring any. I don’t know how long its going to last, but I see things differently. It’s easier to be in the moment and its easier to open up to people. Those were two things I thought I was good at. I know now that I do not know how to give.

I can hardly describe the feelings I had over the course of that week and I won’t even try to. I will say that my heart and my brain are different now and I want to stay this way. I want to hold on to that Its-A-Wonderful-Life feeling that I have right now and I want to carve in stone the truce I’ve made with everyone in the world, good or bad. Its easy to write it all off as some giant desert art party, but it is a very special place on the border between personal freedom and the law where people treat each other with more respect and empathy than I’ve ever seen. People are more real, less diluted.

They say it’s the 4th largest city in Nevada (for a week). They say its the most educated city in the world. I’ve been to a thousand cities and it is impossible to compare Black Rock City to any of them. It’s more a feeling than a place.

Black Rock City is now my favorite city. I had too much fun to take the time and really take careful photos, a mistake I won’t repeat next year. I was perfectly content at the time to just be in such a wonderful place with such amazingly talented and creative people. I was told not to shoot at all, but thats just crazy talk.

I normally shoot digital, but I decided just before we left to shoot film and I wasn’t even really prepared, I just grabbed the stuff I had lying around. I did however acquire an instant camera that I fell in love with.

Now, I’m find myself shopping for toyhaulers, golf carts and scissor-lifts, planning my future around how I’m going to make it back and how I can apply what I learned there to my everyday life. I miss the playa more and more everyday, but one of the lessons of Burning Man is live in the moment, so I’m off to be with my lovely wife. Hopefully, I’ll see you there next year.

Meant to Be – Jonathan & Charity’s Wedding

Jonathan and Charity are some of our closest and dearest friends, so you can imagine how elated we were when we found out they were getting married. These two are meant for each other.

It’s not every day some of your best friends get married in a mind-blowing building built in 1929 in Santa Barbara, but January 6th was one of those days. Rest assured, this is the most beautiful courthouse wedding you’ll ever see! If you know these two, its impossible to miss that they belong together. They’re a runaway freight-train hauling car after car of destiny, inevitability and meant-to-be. It has been a privilege to witness.

Jonathan and Charity have worked weddings with us in the past, either shooting video or helping us run around with equipment and lights, so we’ve all been in that setting together before. Being so close to them, the comfort level was amazing and they felt secure enough to get silly and run around madly, which led to the image above. It’s one of my favorite wedding shots I’ve ever taken, not just because I know and love them, but because of the way it makes me feel. I’ve been there running hand in hand on the beach with Heather and the feeling is phenomenal. Heather used to grab my hand in the early days without warning and seemingly tow me at light speed down the beach damn near removing my arm from joint, proclaiming we were flying.

This shot is a peak at what it feels like to be in love.

When we found out they were getting married at the Santa Barbara Courthouse, we were drooling over the opportunity to photograph it. When the director of our local planetarium showed me photos of the place a few years back, I began anticipating the day I shot there and now I was very happy that the day was coming soon and that it would be our best buddies pledging their undying love in such a historic place. We were thrilled.

We set out to get there early, but due to baby circumstances, we arrived at the courthouse just in time. Heather had to watch our newborn, while I ran through the courthouse past some of the most beautiful architecture I’ve ever seen, searching for the Mural Room. I’d seen it before in photos and couldn’t wait to get in there.

Unfortunately, when I arrived, it became suddenly clear to me that it was VERY dark. This makes for bad images that strain your equipment to the limit. (Warning- photo geekery ahead) I turned my ISO up to 3200 and 6400 to get the exposures I was looking for and threw on my 50mm 1.4 and opened it to f2.0 and was still having problems. I feel like the images I captured are great, but I was stunned to see how little light there was in there to work with, my tiny on-camera flash was blasting the atmosphere right outta that beautiful place, so I had to give into noise.

It wasn’t hard to get caught up in it all, all the love in the salt air and the history in that beautiful courthouse set us all up for an afternoon fairy tale.

When I left the courthouse, I knew I’d never be done photographing that building. One could shoot there for years and not capture it, I highly recommend a visit if you’re passing through or in the area. The coast of California is one of the most beautiful places in the world in no small part because of the amazing Spanish architecture and an endless highway of charming Mediterranean-like towns where you could get lost forever. Santa Barbara is a jewel. Fitting that such beautiful people chose to couple amongst the water, sand and Sun in one of the greatest towns on Earth.

Congratulations to Jonathan and Charity. It’s hard to find better people. Selfless, kind and extremely talented, we are the lucky ones to witness as their adventure continues….

Webcam Update #1

I’m going to try this vlog thing since, I can’t seem to type a few words.

Chase Jarvis shoots Sir Mix-a-lot’s album art live!

Awesome Chase Jarvis live today. Watch Chase shoot Mix and you can even contribute. They’ll be taking lighting and posing cues from the internet. Who posed Mix on his latest album cover? IT COULD BE YOU.

http://blog.chasejarvis.com/live/

Rental Car Rally, L.A. to Tahoe

500+ miles, 36 hours awake, a # of checkpoints, 4 luchador masks, dozens of eggs, 2 cans of shaving cream, a couple of laps at Irwindale Speedway, silly string, a bandolier filled with shots and 5 hours, a supersoaker, a healthy dose of sabotage, 1 blizzard, some fish rocks, 1 set of tire chains, Death Valley, 1 joust and 1 speeding ticket = $500 in quarters and 1 Golden Gas Pump.

The Rental Car Rally is sort of like Halloween and Canonball Run had a love child. Its basically a photo scavenger hunt where teams compete for the best odometer reading from checkpoint to checkpoint with the best style and yes, I’ll say it, zazz, snapping photos along the way for proof and sabotaging each others vehicles with shaving cream, grenadine, silly string, maple syrup and about a farm’s worth of eggs freezing to windshields 4X4-ing in the dark and snow.

In the end, we sat, fat with buffett food overlooking the immaculate Lake Tahoe Sunday morning trying to figure out how we possibly came in first over the amazing stylings of the Tiki Bar Car or The Bruces (Springsteen, Campbell, Lee & Willis [who was actually in the snow barefoot a la John Mclain]) or Shawskank Redemption, a van full of prisoners and cops. It seemed like maybe all computer hell broke loose at the last minute and it all came down to who hit all checkpoints and had the lowest mileage. It might be hard to tell based on the photo above but, if style was a factor, we lost, big time.

I suppose this subject deserves a long, descriptive narrative about each and every minute of our trials along our crazy journey; instead, I’ll be brief.

1. We all had heaps of fun.

2. We were very cold and tired and broke.

3. We won.

4. We still can’t figure out why.

5. We think you should try the Rental Car Rally, too.

Our hats off to Pants, Supreme & Mustache for putting on such a cool event.

Burning Man Decompression L.A.

Back on October 2nd of last year, Heather and I went to Los Angeles to attend a Burning Man party in anticipation of our first trip to Black Rock City in 2011. We had an unbelieveable time which made us very anxious for August. The art everywhere was amazing. From the XyloVan ( a giant xylophone on wheels) to the tent giving away sun-dried tomato quesadillas to the amazing music and stage show of  The Mutaytor, good vibes and culture was all around us. We definitely look forward to it and we’ll keep you posted.

Thanks again to everyone out there who encouraged us to go. We’ll post more images as they come….