Dragon & JudgeCal : Water to water, dust to sand

Many in the NY Burning Man community have heard the doubly tragic news of Dragon's (IamTony) and JudgeCal's passing away.

Tony was caught by a riptide while surfing in Costa Rica on July 21st, 2008. Like many who knew him, I was crestfallen and overwhelmed at the news.

For a few years now, Lowroad and I have been going to a little piece of heaven on Fire Island. Every summer , sometimes 3 or 4 times a summer, we would gather a few of our favorite people, pack up tents, guitar and whiskey, and go back-country camping in the dunes of Fire Island, falling asleep on the sound of crashing waves or late-night singing.
It was as we were planning this year's trip that Lowroad informed me of Tony's disappearance.

We immediately planned on celebrating his existence by a beach memorial, which we were to make of stray material granted by the sea. It seemed only fitting as his body now belonged to the ocean ; the water of his cells having returned to the primordial waters.

On August 1st, as we were walking to the train that would lead us to Fire Island, Lowroad informed me of JudgeCal's tragic fate.
Cal's inert body was found by his landlord ca July 25th. The causes of his death are still unknown at this time.
A beautiful obituary can be found here : www.huffingtonpost.com/belisa...45.html

I was also in shock, and everyone immediately felt like the memorial should be dedicated to them both.

The next day, at sunset, we set out to build it near the high water line ; it was to live for a few hours, then get dissolved by the Sea.
Lowroad set his footprints in the sand , facing the ocean, and drew what seemed like concentric circles around them, in a revolving river of sand escaping to the ocean. I gathered shells of various sizes and was looking for ways to generate two intertwined spirals out of them, when Lowroad , looking at me with slight surprise, said "El Niño, this *is* a spiral". He had beaten me to it.

I started randomly dropping stones and shells inside the spiral, before a scheme coalesced, whereby large shells would occupy the periphery and shells of decreasing size and more delicate aspect would converge to the center. All were organized in tight radials making the spiral only slightly depart from axisymmetry.
DaFong, Big Dawg, Sera, Lowroad and I worked in silence to ornate this impermanent monument to our friends.

I felt frustrated that my attempts to reach the center would always mar the periphery, as sand is such a movable material under our clumsy feet. Thus, once all ornaments were in place, I seized a large shell and redrew the spiral by lifting the stones& shell one by one. Once i was done, Lowroad nodded and simply said "It is proper".

I rose up from the sand and looked at what we had all achieved. With no prior design and little conscious effort, a beautiful spiral mandala had emerged from the Sea. It was a circular path from the immense waters into the vortex of human existence, their presence (the footprints) left by our friends, for the short time they had had on this planet, and the even shorter time we had been lucky enough to know them. The crooked wood piece in the center symbolized the more organic and unpredictable element that their soul was made of ; there is no such thing as straight line in our non-Euclidean universe. The water was starting to flow into the trenches and we sensed it would soon all return to the sea.

All who were present (the above crew plus my girlfriend Vanita and two of her friends) then grabbed hands and gathered in a semi-circle facing the ocean. We stood in silence for a while. Sera led the ceremony by sharing her emotions about the tragic loss. Those who felt like words best honored their souls spoke a little ; those who felt that silence best honored them, remained silent.

I knew too little of Cal and not enough of Tony. Both always struck me as men of few words - and many thoughtful actions. It felt proper to honor their shining trajectory through our lives by making a piece a collaborative piece of art in silence - that is the way most of us had first and last interacted with them.

We then parted and let Lowroad and Sera's baby Sequoia wander into their spiral ; her irresistible life taking over the temporary remembrance of their passing, as a timely reminder that nothing is eternal and that we should cherish the time we have we those who love. Within a few hours the Sea had eaten everything.

Rest in Peace, Live like you mean it.

To Everyone their own Pollock

Draw a genius fractal of drip paint yourself : all you need is a mouse.

jacksonpollock.org/

(requires Flash installed on your browser, so unless you're reading this from a beach-shack internet café in Myanmar, you should be all right. )

Enjoy !

Name in a Circle

Everyday brings its lot of wonderful surprises. Today, at the favor of a seemingly banal Wikipedia search, i discovered that my playa name (El Niño, better known in the scientific community as ENSO) also means "circle" in Japanese. No amount of jumping and prancing would do justice to the extent of my excitement at this wondrous idea.

See for yourself : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enso

That only inspires me to further follow the teaching of the father of Aikido ( the Art of Peace), Sensei Morihei Ueshiba

"Move like a beam of light:
Fly like lightning,
Strike like thunder,
Whirl in circles around
A stable center. "

So today is Earth day and it reminds me that the same wise man once wrote :
"Those who practice the Art of Peace must protect the domain of Mother Nature, the divine reflection of creation, and keep it lovely and fresh. Warriorship gives birth to natural beauty. The subtle techniques of a warrior arise as naturally as the appearance of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Warriorship is none other than the vitality that sustains all life."

(from "The Art of Peace", www.aikidonj.com/pages/ueshiba.html)

So i ask you today to get in touch with Nature. Put your feet in a natural body water, your fingers in the ground, breathe in air and flowers, and make a commitment to use your energy to help protect your Mother, the ones you love, the ones you don't know yet but love already - and thus you will do the best for yourself.

Ah, and yes, today is 4.20. So don't be shy about moving in circles (of the smoke-ring kind) ...

Peace to you. Keep moving in circles around a stable center.
El Niño

The art of French living in a freek world - lesson # 2 : Of the distinguished use of canned foods.

Ban all canned foods from your diet... except the ones that send fresh ingredients to 11.

For instance, obstinately refuse any pre-made hummus... but rush for canned garbanzo beans (chick peas), open the can as in lesson #1, and empty the water out of the can.
Place the beans in a blender with 2 large spoonfuls of tahini, one lemond juice, as many cloves of garlic as your vampire neighbors can stand, and enough extra virgin Olive oil to make the blender not choke.

Press "play". Tweak proportions until the "Yum" LED sign lights up in your brain. Add salt , pepper and a little paprika.

Once all is smooth, pour out in a small , deepish dip dish.
cover with a sizable drop of Olive oil.
Sprinkle with paprika. Garnish with parsley.
Voilà ! You have used canned food to noble ends.

Other acceptable use of cans :
- canned coconut milk , for cardamom chicken stew, piña coladas, thai -style curry, and just about anything tasty because coconut milk is da bomb.
- canned refried beans, to mix with mexican salsa.
- canned cocktail mix, for nefariously ethylic purposes.
- canned mac&cheese, only to use on "international I'm-being-crass-and-i-like-it" day.
- (develop your own here)

The art of French living in a freek world : lesson # 1

Move into an apartment, preferably in an artist community.
If you own a can-opener, DISCARD it, sell it on eBay, ship it to the moon, or burn it.
If you don't, RESIST the temptation to buy one at all costs.

Anytime you need to open a can, go knock on someone's door whom you do not already know.
Ask politely if you can borrow their can-opener, and invite them for a drink afterwards .
Give them your best cognac, drink their finest bourbon, feed them you best hummus. Stay up until 4 am sharing stories.
The next day, go return their bottle opener with a blender container full of carrot-apple-ginger smoothie in hand.

Repeat until you know everyone, but change the smoothie every time.