On the inside, looking out

Pantheogenesis Fundraiser 8.8.8

giselle — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:27:34 GMT

On the mystical night of 8.8.8 we will co-create a simultaneous string of beautiful intentional fundraising events from coast to coast, and, we hope, across the globe. We will share these energetic fields and intentional spaces, to co-manifest our work in the material world and at the same time feed our co-creative intent and build on the deep work we are all doing for the planet and our fellow beings. We have events confirmed so far in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Reno - details are below. If you live in one of those cities, please contact the local organizer listed below, and offer your support, whether in creating an intential event around sacred space, or just getting the word out. We need your help. We have much to secure and make happen before the playa...... If you don't live in SF, New York, Chicago, or Reno, we invite you to create your own Pantheogenesis benefit event that night. It can be as simple as inviting a few friends round and asking them to donate $10-20 for the cause. We hope, with your help, we hope to have live video hookups connecting all the events, so really this is ONE event happening in multiple locations, and wherever you are and whoever you are with, you can join us, connect with us, and enjoy the night! These events sort of co-manifested themselves....spontaneously....we invite you to join us now too!!! We are in an accelerated timestream with lots of expanding heartspace! Please pass on the below far far and wide :) SF...color PDF....coming to you tomorrow..... LOVE!!!! www.temple08.com San Francisco: A Spiritual Revival with Rob Brezny and Friends Soul Revival with Rob Brezsny and Friends! 08.08.08 9pm-4am Generously hosted by: Gallerie N!NE@ ANON GALLERY 285 9th Street @ Folsom/ SF Suggested Donation:$15-$30 Contact: Robin Sol (707)889-0687 Or Azula (773)793-9143 Special Features: A Benefit For Temple Pantheogenesis at Entheon Village www.pantheogenesis.com A Burningman gourmet appetizer of visionary art, dancing, shrine creation, and elevating films, all tied together by a blasphemously reverent sermon. A Sacred Uproar sung into being by Rob Brezsny, astrology columnist for the Village Voice and SF Weekly and author of the book PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA! 9-10pm Happy Hour Gallery Opening with Visionary Art by Karma Moffett and many other visionary artists 10-11pm Rob Brezsny with A Sacred Uproar 11pm-4am Soul Sounds dance magic by Adam Apollo, KnowaKnowone, and DJ Dragonfly w/ Full Bar New York: Crystallization 8.8.8 Contact: Alex Gordon-Brander <agbrander@gmail.com> Location: Alex's apartment The New York Entheon crew will be hosting a crystal grid benefit with DJs, fine food, cocktails, and a whole lot of love. The complete energy grid for the Heart space will be created and activated that night, with all the Heart crystals present in their final configuration before they are packed up and shipped to the Burn. Chicago: The White Event Contact: Alobar : "Alobar Jones" <spiralspinning@yahoo.com>, Location: TBA A marriage ceremony, and art project, a spiritual procession, an offering of healing to the great lakes.... and they are donating part of the proceeds to US!!! Unity, divine union, indeed!!!! Reno: Contact: Jill Snyder <jillyflower@charter.net> Location: TBA Goddess-focused evening of beautiful experiences, co-sponsored by the Vajra Knights and some beautiful amazing tribe here in Reno.

Leaving RhythmWave -- Moving on to Pantheogenesis and the Global Dream

giselle — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:29:31 GMT

One door closes, another opens. By releasing RhythmWave, last week, Spirit lead me to the next step on the journey. http://www.greyotter.com/PantheoVision.pdf It wasn't easy to decide to leave RhythmWave. I cried and cried for most of a day when I let go. It was a co-creation, my identity, my community for the past year. I don't think anyone can possibly understand how much it meant to me -- leaving was like cutting off my right arm. But sometimes you just have to release your attachments in order to grow. Where ever we look, things are changing. Bubbles appear for a time and vanish and leave no trace. Burning Man communities appear and disappear, a constant flow of new ideas and creations. I learned a lot from RhythmWave, and I think that the Playa learned a lot from us too. Now, I'm being called off to bring that knowledge to an even higher vibration. And that too, shall pass. Knowing that it is temporary, I can be less attached to the process or the outcome. Last summer was one of the most magical learning experiences of my life--a deep love affair with an idea and some earthy, loving people who taught me how to open up, be less possessive, to dance in the flow of Presence. Personal conflicts are pretty normal in Burning Man camps-- when you're working under such intense conditions and experimenting with new forms of co-creative leadership, (and new forms of relationship), living closely with a mix of intimate friends and total strangers. Sometimes we destroy what we love too much just by fearing that it will end and holding on too tight. Within hours of letting go, and a series of coincidences pointed to Pantheogenesis, I arrived at Entheon Village - and was immediately embraced there with a pretty challenging role -- co-creating a Temple and a healing space. (One clue was that I first heard of it when I bumped into Rick Doblin during Harmony Festival. Then, I ran into Kim Hicks, an Emmy Award winning set designer from LA who told me about Pantheogenesis again. Then, while in New York City on business, I traveled all the way to the artist Alex Gray's Chapel of Sacred Mirrors -- and stumbled on the temple fundraiser.) Was it a sign? I'm reading Depak Chopra's new book "The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire," -- he says coincidences are messages from Source. Coincidence means things are happening at the same time, synchronistically, in the flow -- where present and future are one. He says these are messages from God and to listen to them for direction. A similar set of coincidences seduced me into RhythmWave last year -- which I first encountered on the day after the Harmony Festival. And so this time I paid attention. Sight unseen, they took me in and gave me a pretty challenging role. The camp, Sacred Spaces, does all their decision making by consensus. They are a crew of artists who are so talented, so self actualized, they take my breath away. Aesthetics were an accessory to RhythmWave, but they are everything here. We are co-creating and decorating two 40-ft.Visionary Healing Yurts (as well as possibly some of the main altars.) The yurts are filled with a magnificent matrix of crystals, visionary art by an artists collective, and contemplative music. A complimentary yurt is devoted to Sound Healing. Out of the detrius of our consumer society -- cheap stuff from Costco, dumpster dive trash and found objects, with volunteer labor and almost no money, we create magical space. We are the dream makers. And in the spirit of the temporary nature of all things in life, we build our temples, destroy them, purify and cleanse with fire, and then recycle the pieces return to build again. RhythmWave was made out of parts of Connexus Cathedral, and I will be bringing pieces of RhythmWave to this temple. Last night, in his talk at Spirit Rock, Jack Kornfield said: "We are not solid. We are a river that is always flowing. The more you identify with things and claim them as your own, the more you will suffer. You're not even the same person--you're different every time. You get rope burn if you hold on to life too much -- because it's always changing." Sometimes it's not the holding on that makes us wise, it's the letting go. Time to let those rope burns heal. By the way, RhythmWave is still dancing along in the flow and will be bringing some fabulous 5 Rhythms DJs to the playa -- they're looking for campers now at http://www.rhythmwave.org

Seeking people in the Tribal fashion scene

giselle — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:45:35 GMT

I've been asked to write an article for Daniel Pinchbeck's online magazine, Reality Sandwich, on the underground Tribal fashion scene. If you have any favorite designers you want to put me in touch with, drop me a note.

Is Obama an Enlightened Being?

giselle — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:10:26 GMT

I swear this article came from the mainstream San Francisco Chronicle. What do you think? Is Obama channeling the vibe of JFK and Martin Luther King? Or is it all a manipulation that has been created with his wife's 60s-style wardrobe? He does seem to be bathed in a serene presence, an aura of light. But is he a light worker here to save us and the planet? What do you think? http://www.sfgate. com/cgi-bin/ article.cgi? f=/g/a/2008/ 06/06/notes06060 8.DTL&nl= fix Is Obama an enlightened being? Spiritual wise ones say: This sure ain't no ordinary politician. You buying it? By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist I find I'm having this discussion, this weird little debate, more and more, with colleagues, with readers, with liberals and moderates and miserable, deeply depressed Republicans and spiritually amped persons of all shapes and stripes and I'm having it in particular with those who seem confused, angry, unsure, thoroughly nonplussed, as they all ask me the same thing: What the hell's the big deal about Obama? I, of course, have an answer. Sort of. Warning: If you are a rigid pragmatist/literalist, itchingly evangelical, a scowler, a doubter, a burned-out former '60s radical with no hope left, or are otherwise unable or unwilling to parse alternative New Age speak, click away right now, because you ain't gonna like this one little bit. Ready? It goes likes this: Barack Obama isn't really one of us. Not in the normal way, anyway. This is what I find myself offering up more and more in response to the whiners and the frowners and to those with broken or sadly dysfunctional karmic antennae - or no antennae at all - to all those who just don't understand and maybe even actively recoil against all this chatter about Obama's aura and feel and MLK/JFK-like vibe. To them I say, all right, you want to know what it is? The appeal, the pull, the ethereal and magical thing that seems to enthrall millions of people from all over the world, that keeps opening up and firing into new channels of the culture normally completely unaffected by politics? No, it's not merely his youthful vigor, or handsomeness, or even inspiring rhetoric. It is not fresh ideas or cool charisma or the fact that a black president will be historic and revolutionary in about a thousand different ways. It is something more. Even Bill Clinton, with all his effortless, winking charm, didn't have what Obama has, which is a sort of powerful luminosity, a unique high-vibration integrity. Dismiss it all you like, but I've heard from far too many enormously smart, wise, spiritually attuned people who've been intuitively blown away by Obama's presence - not speeches, not policies, but sheer presence - to say it's just a clever marketing ploy, a slick gambit carefully orchestrated by hotshot campaign organizers who, once Obama gets into office, will suddenly turn from perky optimists to vile soul-sucking lobbyist whores, with Obama as their suddenly evil, cackling overlord. Here's where it gets gooey. Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul. The unusual thing is, true Lightworkers almost never appear on such a brutal, spiritually demeaning stage as national politics. This is why Obama is so rare. And this why he is so often compared to Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., to those leaders in our culture whose stirring vibrations still resonate throughout our short history. Are you rolling your eyes and scoffing? Fine by me. But you gotta wonder, why has, say, the JFK legacy lasted so long, is so vital to our national identity? Yes, the assassination canonized his legend. The Kennedy family is our version of royalty. But there's something more. Those attuned to energies beyond the literal meanings of things, these people say JFK wasn't assassinated for any typical reason you can name. It's because he was just this kind of high-vibration being, a peacemaker, at odds with the war machine, the CIA, the dark side. And it killed him. Now, Obama. The next step. Another try. And perhaps, as Bush laid waste to the land and embarrassed the country and pummeled our national spirit into disenchanted pulp and yet ironically, in so doing has helped set the stage for an even larger and more fascinating evolutionary burp, we are finally truly ready for another Lightworker to step up. Let me be completely clear: I'm not arguing some sort of utopian revolution, a big global group hug with Obama as some sort of happy hippie camp counselor. I'm not saying the man's going to swoop in like a superhero messiah and stop all wars and make the flowers grow and birds sing and solve world hunger and bring puppies to schoolchildren. Please. I'm also certainly not saying he's perfect, that his presidency will be free of compromise, or slimy insiders, or great heaps of politics-as-usual. While Obama's certainly an entire universe away from George W. Bush in terms of quality, integrity, intelligence and overall inspirational energy, well, so is your dog. Hell, it isn't hard to stand far above and beyond the worst president in American history. But there simply is no denying that extra kick. As one reader put it to me, in a way, it's not even about Obama, per se. There's a vast amount of positive energy swirling about that's been held back by the armies of BushCo darkness, and this energy has now found a conduit, a lightning rod, is now effortlessly self-organizing around Obama's candidacy. People and emotions and ideas of high and positive vibration are automatically drawn to him. It's exactly like how Bush was a magnet for the low vibrational energies of fear and war and oppression and aggression, but, you know, completely reversed. And different. And far, far better. Don't buy any of it? Think that's all a bunch of tofu-sucking New Agey bulls-- and Obama is really a dangerously elitist political salesman whose inexperience will lead us further into darkness because, when you're talking national politics, nothing, really, ever changes? I understand. I get it. I often believe it myself. Not this time.

The Intensification is happening now. It's time for the heroes in us to awaken. Anything holding us back has got to go.

giselle — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:22:11 GMT

I found this today on Spicey's Tribe page and it affected me so deeply, it felt so "YES! That's exactly how I feel!" that I had to share this with all of you. Tune into the messages that are guiding you and telling you what your role is. Stop messing around with your ego, with your game playing and roles and silly arguments and back stabbing, and jealous lovers, and pettiness and all of it -- and think about what your talents are and what you can contribute. As kaia (the person who wrote this amazing essay) says: "The Intensification is demanding that we each individually stop making excuses for not living our deepest purpose. I don't have the money, the time, the energy, the whatever our excuses might be just simply no longer cut it. We each incarnated at this time to save the planet. Period. If you don't yet know what your role is in that, drop everything you are doing, you must make it your top priority to find out. Drop all distractions and go within." So what's your excuse? What's getting in your way? Think of your highest purpose, your greatest desire, your secret wish and GO DO IT. As one of the speakers at the Harmony Festival said this weekend: "One fact that Al Gore left out of the "Inconvenient Truth" is that we have to reduce greenhouse emissions by 98% IN THE NEXT 5 to 10 YEARS or we're toast -- the planetary tipping point is near, and the climate will go into total chaos." As David Ulansey, the head of the Species Alliance, said to me the other day: "If we continue losing species at the current rate, HALF of all plant and animal species remaining on this planet will be extinct in the next 30 years. The environment and the web of life will slip into total chaos. Literally, you can either turn this around, or you can start saving up canned goods. Because if we continue to lose species at this rate we'll have trouble growing food in ten years." It's not your imagination that things are breaking down. Things are breaking down because they need to. We need to build a new world. A more loving world. And what an incredible opportunity to build the world we always secretly wanted to live in! We have five to ten years left to turn this fragile blue ball around. There is no "them" that will save us -- there is only "us." We are the ones we've been waiting for. - gigi --------*******-------- Hello beloveds, I have just learned that the time we are in right now is called in the Mayan calendar: The Intensification. Are you feeling it? As my grandfather would say, Lord have mercy! The Time of Intensification is really not comfortable. Man, have I been uncomfortable! Everyone I talk to is facing serious deep challenges at the core level. Death of friends and family, divorce, accidents, moving to a new country or city, serious relationship challenges, simultaneously alongside the most incredible acts of Divine Protection, Guidance, and Unbelievable synchronicities to blow the knickers off Carl Jung. I think better known as miracles. At this time, any karma that has not been dealt with, including karmic relationships, are all being brought to the forefront to be cleared and healed and opened to God. Some of them must be released, while others will be transformed into a higher state. Because of the Intensification, the greatest temptation will be to blame others. Thoughts will arise in us that say, Well this person is just bla bla bla and They did this and They said that and they're a jerk etc. And our minds will want to distract us from our own lessons by thinking about theirs and what they should be learning and how they should be living. Wow. The ego will do anything to get us out of the incredible discomfort of The Intensificaiton. Old addictions, old thought patterns, and old non-dealt with issues are going to arise for their final vanquishing. As my Higher Self put it so well this morning in my meditation. You can't deal a dragon a death blow when it's asleep. It's un-heroic. And this is the time for the heros in us to awaken. So many of us are on the battle fields right now, having it out with our dragons. The Intesification is demanding that we each individually stop making excuses for not living our deepest purpose. I don't have the money, the time, the energy, the whatever our excuses might be just simply no longer cut it. We each incarnated at this time to save the planet. Period. If you don't yet know what your role is in that, drop everything you are doing, you must make it your top priority to find out. Drop all distractions and go within. The Intensification is very alchemical. It is literally burning up in us all the garbage that no longer serves our highest. As my beautiful mother pointed out this morning, it's really easy to just get lodged in the story about the garbage and miss the whole point of the new birth! If you came upon a woman in the woods and she was screaming and bleeding and making a huge fuss, you would probably think, OhMyGod, it's an emergency! But then, a baby comes, and she cries tears of love and the beauty of that birth is worth everything. My friends, we are in The Narrrows. We are in the birth canal of consciousness. We are being asked to drop all our bullshit, and our stories about who did what to us, and how this always happens, or fill in the blank with your own stuff here. We are being asked to have the courage to open to Love in the face of our deepest fears. We are being asked to let go of anything that isn't serving our highest vibration. And most importantly, we are being asked to forgive Ouselves, each other, and especially those who have been acting out of unconsciousness. (Which is all of us unless you think you're enlightened. But be careful what you boast, the gods are always listening and they love a good laugh.) As one of my clients always used to say, People are insane, Kaia. No one is awake. Everyone is doing their best. Well, especially in the face of this incredible shift, we are bound to be stepping on each other's toes all over the place. Here's what my Inner Guide said to do: Meditate. Don't play any games. Trust God fully instead. Be brave. Be willing to own your shit. Bless the Earth and love her. Trust more. Actualize your purpose every day. Pray constantly, for yourself, the planet, and everyone. The good news is, on the otherside of The Intensification, just like that mother in the woods giving birth, is a deeper love than we ever dreamed possible, with ourselves, each other, within our intimate relationships, and the Universe as a whole. We are being midwifed by our beautiful planet into the bandwidth of compassion, grace, and beauty. Of magic, power, and the presence of God in everything. And love is not general. Love is not distant. Love is intimate, and immediate, and pouring through our eyes if we let it. Anything holding us back has got to go. Why? Because we are going home. I remember when I was riding horses back in my mid-teens and my trainer always used to say to me about my horse: Make him work! Kaia, if you don't make him work he'll just run off to Disneyland! Wouldn't you rather go to Disneyland? Me too! This last month, I keep catching my ego running off to Disneyland. The work appears. The challenge appears, and off I go, running away to avoid it and invest my energies elsewhere, usually in things that feel good. But it's pure avoidance, not working stuff through. The stuff gets dragged along behind. And it's so subtle. As intelligent and creative and brilliant as we are is as intelligent creative and brilliant as our inner demons are as well. In my meditation, I got that I was supposed to write my friends who are carrying the highest vibration of love in them (that's you), and tell them what this time is about so that we don't take it personally. The angels are doing their work on us, and all we have to do is open and let go. Be gentle with yourself. Ask for God's guidance and blessing and you will have it. If you feel confused in any way in your life right now, about your direction or your relationships, or your own inner self-talk, just surrender to God and ask to be guided in the way that is the highest good for all beings everywhere in each moment. Some of the great mystics among us are saying that we are entering the Age of Enlightenment. We are entering a time when each of us has the power to become God-actualized. There has never been a time on the planet like this before. If the storm is upon you or anyone you love right now, send them your heart's highest wish for their happiness and take care of yourself first. Make sure your energies are full so that you can then meet others in a place of fullness. Don't try to give to anyone else if you are empty. Especially if you tend to alter your truth to make other people happy, watch out! This is a time that calls for radical honesty and truth-telling. Otherwise, you jeopardize your growth, and theirs. Ironically, if you try to avoid hurting others or alter your truth to spare their feelings, you are going to create exactly what you fear so that you can deal with it and heal it. Karma is coming back at us instantly now. What once took years to come around, now takes hours. Remember how in the movie The Secret they said constantly not to focus on what you don't want, but to focus on what you do want? It's time we invest all our focus in blessing ourselves, others, and the planet. Our truth and our love are the gifts that we give. Thank Christ, astrologically, this energy will begin to abate, sliding us into a much more mellow integration. If you get the lessons and clear the karma in this round, the next round is full of the actualization of Love on the planet through our relationships and our businesses. We will literally pull in the power of Divine Love into our cells like never before, and spread it like a healing balm upon the beautiful Earth. Many, many deep breaths my friends. Even if this email doesn't resonate with you, pass it along to someone in your life who is struggling with The Intensification. If we hold to love, beauty, wisdom, and God/Goddess at this time, we will be celebrating very soon! Sending you so much love, kaia

Scenes from Lightning in a Bottle...

giselle — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 23:10:04 GMT

Here is a beautiful little video about the Lightning in a Bottle festival. It really captures the green intention of this cutting edge event and how warm and open hearted the people were. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_De1Y12jWM The jam band Zilla played Sunday night on the treehouse stage -- made of bamboo that was locally grown and supposedly recovered from other art projects. When lit with multicolored lights, the bamboo took on an otherworldly glow and reminded me of the "Belgian Waffle" at Burning Man.

Lightning in a bottle....s w e e t!

giselle — Thu, 29 May 2008 07:03:32 GMT

I am still buzzing on the warm glow from Lightning in a Bottle....a sweet little festival of 5,000 sentient beings in an oak forest near Santa Barbara that is like a cross between Symbiosis and Burning Man. When we weren't in the tent grooving on the thump of the sound systems pumping trance beats through the earth, marveling at the stars, the twinkling light sculptures in the trees, or hanging out in our little camp with new friends, or dancing to an epic set by Bassnectar by the tree house stage, we spent most of the time in this chill space -- which was cleverly made out of recycled wooden pallets. The ceiling was a patchwork of bed sheets, with "lamps" made out of cardboard and string. Lovers swung back and forth on the hanging couches, suspended from the ceiling from rope. People taught bellydancing or yoga classes spontaneously, hugged and kissed, drank coconut cacao out of the shells, or ordered teas from an incredible holistic cafe, or munched organic vegan pizzas that were baked in a wood fired oven. And yet so little made so much. This is all we need to be happy. We don't need shopping malls, Disneyland, billboards, cars, Big Macs and Super Sized anything. All we need is some trash, some tunes, and connection with each other. Strangely, almost everyone I ran into there (who I knew) was on my Tribe Friends list. You know who you are! When I get some more photographs to post, I'll write more. I didn't want it to end. Why can't the "real world" be like this every day?

No Spectators...Thoughts about Participation at Burning Man

giselle — Wed, 07 May 2008 22:55:48 GMT

(The photo here is of an incredible service camp from 2006 Burning Man -- a healing spa that gave massages.) Sometimes in the emails that are going around while we try to get the RhythmWave camp rekindled this year, I hear this weariness and fear that it will be too much work so maybe we should just kick back and do exactly what we did last year, or even less--and put in the bare minimum effort. It's even easier to drop out and say: "Forget it, I'm going to just party and have fun at Burning Man this year and watch everyone else create." But if everyone was a spectator and nobody was a participant? What would Burning Man be? A bunch of tents and RVs in the desert. Or worse, Disneyland! The same passive, spoon fed, corporate-driven, for profit entertainment that we are tired of, that we are trying to replace with meaningful self expression. And if Burning Man didn't get better, bigger and more ambitious every year it would still be 500 people camping in the desert and lighting a stick figure on fire. We'd still be in the early 90s, with spoon fed corporate media and no Internet, and no You Tube or Google or Macintoshes or routers or Wikis or Blogs or social networks or portable solar generators, or Internet radio stations or Big Purple Fur Coats That Light Up or all the other incredible creations that ambitious, hardworking, creative, brilliant Burners invented. (Yes, WE created those things and we changed the world and continue to!) Back in the early days of Burning Man, there used to be a big sign at the entrance: NO SPECTATORS. It was a radical concept at the time. In those days, everyone who went to Burning Man actually had to sign up for a task and volunteer or they weren't allowed to go. (Anyone who hauled a porta potty from Reno got free admission!) In the last decade, that intention has been seriously diluted. Burning Man is starting to resemble the "default" consumer world -- with wealthy people flying in on private jets, luxury hotels that will take care of you on the Playa and tour buses packed with tourists toting cameras. There are 50,000 people there -- but only a handful (probably less than 5%) show up in the first week to build this temporary city. We have the opportunity in this cultural incubator, Burning Man, to change a dominant culture that desperately needs change-- but only if we PARTICIPATE. It won't happen if everyone shows up and expects to be entertained, fed, pampered and have someone else haul out their garbage. You are responsible for our own experience on the Playa, and taking responsibility for your own experience is f___ing hard work! But there are so many rewards for that -- friendships, compliments and praise, the reward of seeing your vision materialize and saying WOW I MADE THAT! I can do anything. I can make a difference in the world.... It's the first step toward feeling empowered and capable instead of passive and helpless. I went to Burning Man six times since 1993 as an observer hanging out in a little tent on the fringes. I often felt isolated, overwhelmed and cut off from everything. In 06, I finally joined an official Burning Man camp, Media Mecca, and did my obligatory 4 hours of volunteer work -- but still felt "other." I performed on stage at Center Camp and felt even more connected. But it was only last year that I finally became an active PARTICIPANT and helped co-lead and organize a "service" camp - a camp that provides a service to the rest of the Playa. Being a PARTICIPANT was one of the most rewarding experiences of my entire life. I learned something empowering -- I can do and create anything I imagine. I'm not going to pretend that it isn't hard, brutal, selfless (often thankless) work to provide a gift to thousands of people. Or that it doesn't suck when you work so hard and people criticize everything you did (without pay, while they partied and you worked your #$%^ off). We're programmed to expect the mythical "THEM" (government, corporations, illegal immigrants) to make the decisions and do the grunt work instead of feeling empowered to actually help out when we want things to change. We're programmed to pay for experiences instead of creating them. Burning Man is about reprogramming that conditioned response to be a spectator. So if you don't want to work, if you're afraid of the dust, if it's too expensive, if it's too noisy, if you don't like big crowds of pulsing throbbing chaotic exuberant humanity, if you're too tired to haul out a bag of garbage, or scoop slimy water out of an evaporation pond, or carry 5 gallons of water over to the showers, or spend two hours setting up and knocking down and making a meal to share with others....please don't join a Burning Man service camp! A Burning Man theme camp is NOT the place for a vacation. For anyone expecting a pampered, relaxing vacation, Burning Man is more like their worst nightmare. I need a 2 week vacation to recover from a week at Burning Man! If you don't want to participate (aka: work), you can stay home alone and watch TV and feel isolated and cut off and helpless about the state of the country we live in -- the country we let "other" people create for us while we were sitting back passively being SPECTATORS. The world is full of opportunities to be a consumer and a passive observer. But if you want to feel connected, essential, needed and empowered, go to Burning Man and participate! It won't be easy, but it will not only change you, it will change the world. You are responsible for our own experience on the Playa, and taking responsibility for your own experience is f___ing hard work! But many hands make light work, and the more of us who participate, the richer (and easier) that experience will be for all of us. http://www.burningman.com/participate/ From the Burning Man 10 Principles: Participation Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.

Why are we building a dance floor in the middle of the desert?

giselle — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:06:18 GMT

Today, I was beginning to question the value of devoting hours and weeks of hard sometimes brutally physical work to help rebuild RhythmWave dance camp and take it to Burning Man again this year. What is the point? The world is so messed up, and we're building a DANCE FLOOR in the middle of the desert? In a time of crashing economies, resource wars, impending mass extinction, rising sea levels and global warming, it feels incredibly self indulgent and decadent. Isn't there something more important I could be doing to help promote green values, raise consciousness, create healthy relationships or save us from our own greed and self destructiveness? Then, as if answering my question, I found this article today during my lunch break here in LA, in a little throwaway New Age tabloid called Vision magazine. It was an interview with Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who founded the Institute for Noetic Sciences in Petaluma. The question posed to Mitchell is: **What one practice do you believe if practiced by all people, would shift our world toward peace and sustainability?** Mitchell answered: "I believe it would be some form of deep meditation. Mystics have been telling us for years, that these types of experiences are not unknown; they have been known in all the cultures of the world for a long time, with different names. These types of experiences are the same as my space experience, and which some of my colleagues have reported as well. They have been found in all cultures and especially in the deep spiritual traditions of those cultures forever. One of the basic elements of our existence is that we have distinct abilities to see deeper than where we live. Meditation practice is about going within your self, quieting the mind, learning how to manage the mind and utilizing those deeper resources." That sentiment speaks to the question of what is consciousness? ...A greater plane of knowledge and intellectual thinking comes when we get to a higher plane─to ourselves. We then have to think about our thinking, and the ancient metaphors do speak to this progression of trying to understand consciousness. The beauty of 5 Rhythms and other forms of dance meditation is that the meditative state comes effortlessly--and without the need of drugs to bring us to that state of esctatic union or bliss. Seated, static mediation has always felt like hard work to me -- and it took me years to finally quiet my mind and reach that state. But the first time I ever did Sweat Your Prayers that state just appeared effortlessly, and joyfully -- in the collective state of consciousness raised by everyone in the room. I've also experienced this in other barefoot and all night dance events--that sense of connection and union that just flows from others into you. From Edgar Mitchell’s website: My vision is that the third millennium will bring a new dawn of awareness such that the genius and creativity which we exhibit as individuals will be harnessed together in concert, globally, to resolve the problems which we have unwittingly collectively created and which threaten existence as we know it. This vision cannot possibly become reality without each of us, as he or she awakens to the dilemma, to first make a personal decision to live life productively toward creating a sustainable civilization for all, then to reach beyond our personal commitment to self and family to assist others and also to recognize that our cultural traditions have created the crisis and must be re-examined. For more information about Dr. Mitchell please visit http://www.noetic.org and http://www.edmitchellapollo14.com

Yuri's Night -- is this the future of Burning Man?

giselle — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:18:18 GMT

Burning Man met NASA and Big Government last Saturday at Yuri's Night -- the giant space party at NASA Aames research center in Mountain View. It was a surreal mix of burners, cops, Air Force pilots, NASA employees, trippers, Symbiosis hippies, raw foodists, geeks and Indian families with their children in tow. Rumor has it that the event was an intentional effort to build a bridge between conventional high technology and the government -- and the unconventional creative minds who have the ingenuity and vision it will take to create innovative alternatives to fossil fuel. It felt hopeful. http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=yuris+night+2008 But why would They support Us? People were speculating. My friend saw a FEMA truck and swore they were just inviting us inside so "they could put us under observation and study us." Some said it was NASA's attempt to look hip because the cool geeks weren't working for them anymore. Others said it was like the space agency was having a bake sale because Bush cut their funding. And one friend said: "This is the future of Burning Man" -- we're decentralizing it and bringing it closer to home where we don't have to deal with the dust." Another rumor is that the idea was launched when a Burning Man radical lit up one night at a party with the General in charge of NASA Aames, and they brainstormed the idea as a way to jumpstart consciousness and kick it into high gear. Whatever the "real" reason, nearly 8000 attended that night. The word is that it was so successful that NASA plans to repeat Yuri's night next year on every NASA facility worldwide. The message was "Radical Technology for a Sustainable Future," and in addition to amazing techno jam bands and some of the most stunning sculptures and art pieces from past and present Burning Man installations, there was an enormous science fair of exhibits, like the world's most energy efficient car (171 mpg -- goes 0-60 in 3 seconds), a Tesla sportscar, and a solar panel that looked like the eye of a fly. Most surreal were the psychedellic art displays (just beneath the wings of a NASA jet) and the chill space under the jet engines where tripped out people were relaxing on big cushions. Jonathan Trent of NASA gave a stunning presentation that launched the night. "What is the population that Earth can sustain?" he asked. "What is sustainable for all life forms -- not just humans? Will life disappear? Very very likely not. There are organisms that live in the sulfuric acid of volcanoes in the depths of Earth so clearly no matter what happens, some form of life will go on. So the question is not if life can live under these conditions of global warming, but if the sustainable of our civilization, culture and lifestyle will continue. NASA calls this "Sustainable Energy for Spaceship Earth," he said, as he displayed a visual of the earth as a fragile blue ball rotating through space with us traveling aboard her. "We are the crew of a spaceship we don't understand. The radical technology we need is not just for us, but the life forms on Earth with us." This fragile ball, veiled in the ethers, spun in beautiful visuals as Kenji Williams played Bella Gaia, a collaboration he created with the artist Alex Grey on electric violin. And I thought, in that moment, that there was hope for us all. That we are the chosen ones with the ideas, the technology and vision to save this fragile ball. And at that moment, I felt like our government was finally "getting it" -- that this creative force needs to be nurtured and supported if we are to survive as a species. We are the future. And the future is us. Now get to work.

Am I paranoid, or are we living in uncertain times?

giselle — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:30:35 GMT

I have this 6th sense that gives me that uneasy feeling that we need to be prepared for something...I'm not sure what. It seems like a time when, as Pema Chodron's book title goes: "things fall apart." Gas is $4 a gallon and rising, bookstores are full of survival books and titles about the coming Armegeddon, financial markets topsy turvy, foreclosures, tanking housing prices, the end of Peak oil, the end of suburbia, the escalation of bird flu, global warming, war in the middle East, riots over food shortages in developing countries, genocide in Tibet. Friends are buying land in the country, or getaways in Costa Rica, or thinking of relocating to intentional communities. Yeah, it's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine. Things also feel optimistic, as if we're at the near this global reboot -- we'll go down for a bit, but come back up and running without all the bugs. But I have a feeling that we may be in for a rough ride before things get better. When it will happen, we don't know. What it will be, we have no clue. But we know something's up. This week, my brother and I decided to create a family survival plan in the event of shortages, power outages or a natural disaster. I remember in 1989, only minutes after the San Francisco earthquake hit, store shelves were stripped bare of batteries, candles, matches and water. I lived in the San Francisco Mission district then, and had to survive more than two weeks without utilities. It was strange looking out at twinkling candlelight all over the dark city, and the clear night sky with shimmering stars. The first thing people did was rush into the bars for a drink. We got to know our neighbors for the first time. One of my neighbors had a propane stove and boiled water to make coffee, and passed it out to all of us in a thermos. Funny how in a disaster the first thing you want is hot coffee - and booze! My brother found this interesting list online from a person who survived in a Saravejo war zone -- the top 100 things predicted to be in high demand in times of extreme peril. People horde everything at the first sign of disaster. Funny, isn't it, how this looks exactly like a Burning Man camp packing list? Well, everything except the goats and chickens! 100 Items to Disappear First 1. Generators (Good ones cost dearly. Gas storage, risky. Noisy...target of thieves; maintenance etc.) 2. Water Filters/Purifiers 3. Portable Toilets 4. Seasoned Firewood. Wood takes about 6 - 12 months to become dried, for home uses. 5. Lamp Oil, Wicks, Lamps (First Choice: Buy CLEAR oil. If scarce, stockpile ANY!) 6. Coleman Fuel. Impossible to stockpile too much. 7. Guns, Ammunition, Pepper Spray, Knives, Clubs, Bats & Slingshots. 8. Hand-can openers, & hand egg beaters, whisks. 9. Honey/Syrups/white, brown sugar 10. Rice - Beans - Wheat 11. Vegetable Oil (for cooking) Without it food burns/must be boiled etc.,) 12. Charcoal, Lighter Fluid (Will become scarce suddenly) 13. Water Containers (Urgent Item to obtain.) Any size. Small: HARD CLEAR PLASTIC ONLY - note - food grade if for drinking. 16. Propane Cylinders (Urgent: Definite shortages will occur. 17. Survival Guide Book. 18. Mantles: Aladdin, Coleman, etc. (Without this item, longer-term lighting is difficult.) 19. Baby Supplies: Diapers/formula. ointments/aspirin, etc. 20. Washboards, Mop Bucket w/wringer (for Laundry) 21. Cookstoves (Propane, Coleman & Kerosene) 22. Vitamins 23. Propane Cylinder Handle-Holder (Urgent: Small canister use is dangerous without this item) 24. Feminine Hygiene/Haircare/Skin products. 25. Thermal underwear (Tops & Bottoms) 26. Bow saws, axes and hatchets, Wedges (also, honing oil) 27. Aluminum Foil Reg. & Heavy Duty (Great Cooking and Barter Item) 28. Gasoline Containers (Plastic & Metal) 29. Garbage Bags (Impossible To Have Too Many). 30. Toilet Paper, Kleenex, Paper Towels 31. Milk - Powdered & Condensed (Shake Liquid every 3 to 4 months) 32. Garden Seeds (Non-Hybrid) (A MUST) 33. Clothes pins/line/hangers (A MUST) 34. Coleman's Pump Repair Kit 35. Tuna Fish (in oil) 36. Fire Extinguishers (or..large box of Baking Soda in every room) 37. First aid kits 38. Batteries (all sizes...buy furthest-out for Expiration Dates) 39. Garlic, spices & vinegar, baking supplies 40. Big Dogs (and plenty of dog food) 41. Flour, yeast & salt 42. Matches. {"Strike Anywhere" preferred.) Boxed, wooden matches will go first 43. Writing paper/pads/pencils, solar calculators 44. Insulated ice chests (good for keeping items from freezing in Wintertime.) 45. Workboots, belts, Levis & durable shirts 46. Flashlights/LIGHTSTICKS & torches, "No. 76 Dietz" Lanterns 47. Journals, Diaries & Scrapbooks (jot down ideas, feelings, experience; Historic Times) 48. Garbage cans Plastic (great for storage, water, transporting - if with wheels) 49. Men's Hygiene: Shampoo, Toothbrush/paste, Mouthwash/floss, nail clippers, etc 50. Cast iron cookware (sturdy, efficient) 51. Fishing supplies/tools 52. Mosquito coils/repellent, sprays/creams 53. Duct Tape 54. Tarps/stakes/twine/nails/rope/spikes 55. Candles 56. Laundry Detergent (liquid) 57. Backpacks, Duffel Bags 58. Garden tools & supplies 59. Scissors, fabrics & sewing supplies 60. Canned Fruits, Veggies, Soups, stews, etc. 61. Bleach (plain, NOT scented: 4 to 6% sodium hypochlorite) 62. Canning supplies, (Jars/lids/wax) 63. Knives & Sharpening tools: files, stones, steel 64. Bicycles...Tires/tubes/pumps/chains, etc 65. Sleeping Bags & blankets/pillows/mats 66. Carbon Monoxide Alarm (battery powered) 67. Board Games, Cards, Dice 68. d-con Rat poison, MOUSE PRUFE II, Roach Killer 69. Mousetraps, Ant traps & cockroach magnets 70. Paper plates/cups/utensils (stock up, folks) 71. Baby wipes, oils, waterless & Antibacterial soap (saves a lot of water) 72. Rain gear, rubberized boots, etc. 73. Shaving supplies (razors & creams, talc, after shave) 74. Hand pumps & siphons (for water and for fuels) 75. Soysauce, vinegar, bullions/gravy/soupbase 76. Reading glasses 77. Chocolate/Cocoa/Tang/Punch (water enhancers) 78. "Survival-in-a-Can" 79. Woolen clothing, scarves/ear-muffs/mittens 80. Boy Scout Handbook, / also Leaders Catalog 81. Roll-on Window Insulation Kit (MANCO) 82. Graham crackers, saltines, pretzels, Trail mix/Jerky 83. Popcorn, Peanut Butter, Nuts 84. Socks, Underwear, T-shirts, etc. (extras) 85. Lumber (all types) 86. Wagons & carts (for transport to and from) 87. Cots & Inflatable mattress's 88. Gloves: Work/warming/gardening, etc. 89. Lantern Hangers 90. Screen Patches, glue, nails, screws,, nuts & bolts 91. Teas 92. Coffee 93. Cigarettes 94. Wine/Liquors (for bribes, medicinal, etc,) 95. Paraffin wax 96. Glue, nails, nuts, bolts, screws, etc. 97. Chewing gum/candies 98. Atomizers (for cooling/bathing) 99. Hats & cotton neckerchiefs 100. Goats/chickens

As if our environment isn't tainted enough...now they want to spray toxic pesticides over the Bay Area

giselle — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:57:26 GMT

STOP AERIAL PESTICIDE SPRAYING IN MARIN http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teHq5vX2OYU&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qa-GB-me2s&feature=related http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/10/12/18453681.php?show_comments=1 The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) in an effort to eradicate the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM), will start aerial spraying of a carcinogenic pesticide over Marin County on August 1, 2008, -- this is not just one time -- it will continue for several years. There have been no independent studies to determine either the short or long term health or environmental effects of the pesticide, CheckMate, (made of course by our good friends at Monsanto) on any species. Last fall citizens of the Monterey Bay communities were assured there would be no adverse health impacts and yet at least 643 people in Santa Cruz and Monterey reported illnesses. Hundreds of shore birds were found dead. GOAL: STOP THE SPRAY until the CDFA publishes a full list of all ingredients and conducts independent safety tests on human health and the necessary environmental impact studies and publishes the results. The public needs to be categorically assured there will be no harm to people or the environment and that the spraying is necessary. ACTION: Call Governor Schwarzenegger and ask for an Executive Order to stop the spraying! Call our legislators and request support to withhold funding for LBAM aerial spraying. GET INVOLVED: Sign up now ( stopthespraymarin.org ) Contact our elected officials : Governor Schwarzenegger (916) 445-2841 CDFA Secretary Kawamura akawamura@cdfa.ca.gov Senator Carole Migden (415) 479-6612 Assemblymember Jared Huffman (415) 479-4920 RECENT PRESS COVERAGE: Marin I-J: http://www.marinij.com/ci_8268623?source=most_viewed SF Chronicle/AP: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/03/10/state/n125039D79.DTL&hw=aerial+spraying+marin&sn=001&sc=1000 http://www.snwmf.com/phorum/read.php?f=1&i=157655&t=157655 Support our efforts: To make a donation, log onto http://stopthespraymarin.org

One more reason to filter your drinking water...pharmeceuticals found in drinking water supplies

giselle — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:28:18 GMT

An expose by the Associated Press discovered that water supplies around the US are tainted with pharmeceutical drugs -- San Francisco's water contained sex hormones! A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe. But the presence of so many prescription drugs — and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health. The full story here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080310/ap_on_re_us/pharmawater_i;_ylt=AhQ1L6iueIgTaR3eEcT6H0is0NUE

I'm in love with my new computer (for the first time)

giselle — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:39:21 GMT

When I unwrapped it, it was like a gift to myself. An exquisite jewel. Sparkling, white, clean. When I opened it, it played a symphony and said: "Welcome" in many languages. Stars and galaxies appeared and I was swept away into hyperspace. A world where art, music, film, and an infinite library of facts and figures were at my fingertips...where everything can be bought, where any film or song can be played, where anything I imagine can be created. I was proud to think that in the years since I entered the technology industry in 1983, in all those years I limped along with acoustic coupler modems, and green or amber monitors, and squinting to read the fuzzy type from dot matrix printers and grappling with CompuServe (we called it "Confuserve") and Unix and HTML commands, and horrible unreliable 5 1/4 inch floppy disks and God forbid, punch cards and Fortran -- it had finally come to this. I opened it up and turned it on... and It Just Worked. I almost cried. All those years of torturing ourselves with lousy technology and the blue screen of death and GPF faults... all those years my generation spent laboring at mind numbing jobs and sleeping on cots or under or desks in abusive startups and grappling with things that hardly ever worked or barely did... and now, in 2008, 25 years after I started, technology was finally ... amazing. It finally enables us, liberates us, unites us. Yes, we really changed the world! Today, when I opened my new MacBook (which I found by punching in the address of a store into my the GPS in my new telephone, which actually talked to me and told me where to go), I didn't feel like my life or my technology career was a waste of time anymore. We did it! We created the Internet and the PC and all these amazing little devices that connect us and help us collaborate and communicate. And now that we have the tools -- we can move on to the next step. And this cost about $1000 -- far less in 2008 dollars than the original 8 bit Apple II. I worked with teams of people who created all of these things -- the first full color video games, the first color ink jet printer, the first handheld wireless PC, the first desktop video editing system, the first multimedia applications, the BIOS in the PC, the first CD ROM players and MP3 players, the early soundcards, the chips that helped process graphics, the first PC/Mac/Unix network, the first Mac clone, the first email system. I even ostensibly helped create the first web page. (It was a magazine on CompuServe, which was the predecessor to the Internet experience we have today.) http://www.textfiles.com/magazines/ZNET/0012.txt I was one of the first girls who hung out on CompuServe (only because I had a free press account and didn't have to pay the outrageous $6 an hour it cost then!), and then the Well (which was kind of a Deadhead and Nerds predecessor to Tribe). And I was the one of the very first people who ever met (and got scammed by) a two-timing guy on the Well. Which lead to a story in Time Magazine where he was referred to as "Mr. X" and I was Thank God never mentioned by name. Yes, it was the birth of the deceptive, lying, cheating world of internet dating as we now know it. Every step of the way, it always felt so geeky and wierd. But I guess as Einstein said, more or less: "Everything revolutionary is always ridiculed when it's still recent." I remember seeing one of the first demonstrations of Mosaic and this inconceivable thing called the World Wide Web and this thing called a Web Page. Mark Pesce showed it to us in this cafe in SOMA under the Anon Salon which at that time, in the early 90s, had a bathroom with walls lined with old PC motherboards. And he described it all in these spaced out terms of Technopaganism. CyberSpace would be a place where we would eventually connect with the Divine. It was all very far out, and yet I was in awe of what Pesce was saying, and his way of envisioning that place, and I hung on every word and I knew I was witnessing the birth of something big. Then, about that time in the early 90s, upstairs at the Anon Salon, my friend Daniel asked me to go to this festival in the desert called Burning Man, and I wrote about it. And sometime after that, this guy I met at Anon Salon, Craig, asked me to be one of the first 15 people on a little email event list he created called Craigslist, which came to me over the Well. And then a few years later, I met this guy Adrian who asked me to join this thing called a social network with the funny name of Ryze. And then my friend Jonathan created this dating service called Friendster--and once again, I reluctantly joined. And I now see that what Mark Pesce envisioned is here now, a way that the Earth has become one breathing, communicating organism, where technology links us all and transcends language and time zones and cultural barriers. Where it is the envoy for the consciousness that binds us. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.07/technopagans_pr.html And I remember thinking: "Ugh. This is so boring. I wish I could find something creative to do for a living. I wish I didn't have to work with these geeks and (ugh!) computers. Isn't it funny that I and so many others couldn't see the forest for the trees -- we were stuck on the far edge of a limb creating a little piece of it and couldn't see the big picture. Where it was all going. Where we would end up. Here. It was the most creative place anyone could possibly be and it attracted the most creative people, the outcasts and geniuses, the iconoclasts. The people who I now realize, are always on the cutting edge of everything. As John Markoff noted in his book, "What the Dormouse Said," the Personal Computer was the logical outgrowth, the true end result of the sixties' countercultural revolution. Many of my best friends, including people here on my Tribe friend list, were pioneers who made that happen. We created these tools. And the world is finally waking up, and changing. And we did it. And we should be very proud of that. Ok. It's not perfect yet. The keyboard sucks. Apple still makes those annoying chicklet keys. And the edge of the laptop is sharp and practically cuts my wrists. Also, I can't use my mini disks in the wierd slot-like DVD player. But opening it up was like getting a gift to myself -- instead of that dark drudgery (ugh, this is work!) feeling I get from the PC. I turned it on and it found the wireless connection all by itself and it started to work. It was intuitively obvious. If my bicycle is an extension of my legs, of my body, this little white Mac is like an extension of my brain. I haven't owned a Mac since I bought one of those 1984 Macs with a slot in the front and the smiley face that said: "Hello." It evolved. And now I can too. I'm finally liberated from the drudgery of dealing with technology -- and I can just create. Wow.

It feels good to let things go.

giselle — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:52:57 GMT

Today I stopped fighting, released my resistance to face the truth, and finally saw it with clarity. I feel such a sense of relief.

One simple thing you can do to stop global warming -- eat a veggie burger

giselle — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 09:25:53 GMT

http://www.alternet.org/environment/69275/ Eating Vegetarian Is Taking Global Warming Personally By Kathy Freston, HuffingtonPost.com. If you want to decrease you carbon footprint, you can start with your dinner plate. The U.N.'s latest report on global warming has bad news and good news. On the downside, a lot of scary stuff is heading for us at breakneck speed. On the upside, we still have time to do something about it -- and one thing we can all do is actually fun and delicious. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a panel of thousands of the world's top climate scientists, has described the existence of human-caused global warming in its final assessment report as both "unequivocal," and as having "abrupt and irreversible" effects on global climate. Worse still, these effects are coming stronger and faster than expected in the panel's last report just six years ago. Alarmingly, some effects that had been predicted to arrive decades from now are already here. The report warns that hundreds of millions of people are threatened with starvation, flooding, and weather disasters. Rain-fed crop production will fall by half, a quarter of the world's species will go extinct, and arctic ice will completely disappear during the summer. We will see more deadly heat waves, stronger hurricanes, and island nations completely obliterated from the map by rising sea levels. And the good news is...? Fortunately, there's still time to save ourselves -- but not very much time. The U.N. says point blank: "immediate action is vital." According to the report, we have just a few more years left to avoid the worst effects of global warming. A problem of such scale will require governments, industries, and private citizens to work together to address what many believe to be the greatest challenge of our time. As with most solutions, the approach must be varied and come from all angles to really make the kind of quantum difference that is necessary. Here's but one -- albeit one of the most powerful -- way to add to the momentum of a turnaround: eat a plant based diet. Give up eating animals and go vegetarian. Seriously. A U.N. report from just this past November found that a full 18 percent of global warming emissions come from raising chickens, turkeys, pigs, and other animals for food. That's about 40 percent more than all the cars, trucks, airplanes, and all other forms of transport combined (13 percent). It's also more than all the homes and offices in the world put together (8 percent). So, one of the simplest and most elemental (and most delicious) things you can do to decrease your carbon footprint is to choose a veggie burger over a hamburger, "un-chicken" patties (try Garden Protein, the new and much talked about faux chicken/turkey) over actual chicken, or some grilled Portobello mushrooms with marinated tofu (I swear it's really good!). Order the vegetarian option whenever you go out to a restaurant -- and ask everywhere you go that they expand the vegetarian section on their menu, since it's good for owners of restaurants, hotels, airlines, etc. to know that there is consumer interest for tasty plant-based entrees. I'm all for participating in the myriad things we can do to assist turning back the tide on human-made global warming: writing to a corporation about being environmentally responsible, turning off unnecessary lights and keeping the heat or a.c. on "low", voting for the politicians who will lead us into cleaner living, and driving a smaller more fuel efficient car. But on an ongoing more fundamental level, we can make a huge shift by simply eating differently. Being vegetarian is being green. Eating a plant-based diet isn't just kind to animals and good for your health (and waistline!), it is also the single most effective thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint. We can each think creatively about how to use our roles in our families, jobs, and social circles, and join as part of the solution to this serious global threat. With so much at stake, it's the least we can do. After all, the U.N. says there's still time if we act now. Surely that's something to be thankful for.

Do you need a story?

giselle — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 17:46:21 GMT

I'm hoping to step it up in the New Year when I finally get the courage to study with David Ford at the Marsh http://www.themarsh.org. The Marsh was incubated in a venue in North Beach where Lenny Bruce performed in the 50s, and then moved to a small theatre in the Mission District that has spawned famous performance artists like Marga Gomez, Josh Kornbluth -- I think even Whoopi Goldberg hung out there way back when. That workshop culminates in a live performance at the Marsh, and the best of the best are given a "one woman show." I'm not an actress, I'm a writer who likes to hide behind the computer screen -- so I've been terrified and avoiding it for three years. But 2008 will be the year I finally jump on that stage. I If you need entertainers for a benefit or holiday party this month, I donate performances gratis to causes I care about. MEMOIR SPOOL Tales of Mistaken Identity December 3 Bazaar Cafe, San Francisco 7 pm Free

The ghost of parties past at the RhythmWave reunion

giselle — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:48:34 GMT

On Saturday RhythmWave had our first reunion since the playa...fittingly, it was in an amazing space where 7 of the RhythmWavers live in community on a 13 acre hilltop Marin estate that once belonged to the 70s funk band Sly and the Family Stone. With hits like: "I wanna take you higher." and "It's a family affair" Sly and the Family Stone are credited as one of the first racially integrated bands in music history, belting their message of peace, love and social consciousness through a string of hit anthems that fused R&B, soul, funk and rock n roll. What a party history that beautiful Spanish house has -- and we kept moving that message of peace, love and consciousness into the future. The fire roared in the Great Room as our huge speakers thumped and we jumped and bumped to two 5 Rhythms sets. I bet even Sly and his family never rocked the way we shook the floorboards that night.

The best Halloween Party ever....

giselle — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:07:40 GMT

A friend in the know told me about an underground party, Brass Tax, that happens every year around Halloween, at sunrise on Sunday. It's a renegade party, in the spirit of the "old school" raves--a participatory party by the people for the people. We waited until midnight, and then called the secret number for the location....a meadow tucked in the trees in Golden Gate Park. It was everything that the Space Cowboys party the night before wasn't--friendly people, great music, sound gentle enough to hold a conversation, furry soft places on the plush green grass to lounge and chill, pancake breakfast, people wandering around handing out free ice cream sandwiches and popsicles, psychedelic trippy colorful creative costumes, warm sunlight, girls in dog collars and dogs in girly outfits, boys in ballet tutus, bubbles blowing in the breeze... oh and did I mention it was free, free, free? A beautiful bumble bee taught me to hoop, we danced and danced and danced as bubbles filled the air and balloons bobbed in the breeze, and as soon as it started it was over--one brief perfect moment. As we danced, I imagined hippies in the sixties made spontaneous magic like this in the park, and it felt good to continue that grand tradition of reclaiming our public lands and remembering that this park is our land...and that the space between each other isn't that wide, and that we are all one people, and that we can make each other so very happy with so very little. Here's a link to a photo set from the day. http://mvgals.net/gallery/brasstax-102807/IMG_0523

Are cellphone text messages subject to censorship?

giselle — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 21:52:02 GMT

This outrageous news came today from freepress.net. Email your congressperson/senator and fight to protect our right to free speech on our personal cellphones. You may have missed it in the fine print. Phone companies like Verizon and AT&T reserve the right to block your free speech and terminate your cell phone services "for any reason or no reason." Not scary enough? Here's the shocker. There are no laws that prevent these giant companies from censoring your speech on their networks. Fortunately, some in Congress are calling for an immediate investigation so that they can stop censorship on cell phones and the Internet ... forever. But they need your support. Now. Recently, Verizon censored text messages from NARAL Pro-Choice America. In an op-ed in the Washington Post this week, NARAL's Nancy Keenan joined with Roberta Combs of the Christian Coalition to call on Congress to convene hearings on whether our laws guarantee the free flow of information everywhere. "Free speech shouldn't stop when you turn on your computer or pick up your cell phone," they wrote. "Recent actions by the nation's biggest communications corporations should be of grave concern to all who care about public participation in our democracy." Sen. Byron Dorgan just responded -- calling on Congress to convene hearings to keep the Internet and cell phones free of gatekeepers. Tell your members of Congress to stand with Dorgan and stop cell phone censorship: Tell Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Barbara Boxer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein to Stop Cell Phone Censorship There is an urgent need for Congress to take action now. We simply cannot trust phone companies to protect our most precious democratic freedoms. 1. Read the Washington Post op-ed at http://www.freepress.net/news/27062 2. See what people are saying about Verizon's recent efforts to block text messaging at the Free Press Action Network. View more information about this campaign at: www.action.freepress.net/campaign/cell_freedom Tell your friends about this campaign at: www.action.freepress.net/campaign/cell_freedom/forward

It's all about vision

giselle — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 20:37:28 GMT

I was so inspired by the simplicity of this equisite flaming mandala when i saw it last year, and to imagine that it would once again touch me as part of a creation I participated in... it shows that when we dare to dream we can create anything. Burning Man is about exploring and manifesting any vision no matter how ridiculous or sublime ... and bringing it to life in community. This year, we proved that we are capable of creating anything -- and that the people left to their own creativity can out disney-Disney and out Las Vegas vegas. We can create cathedrals, art, dance, poetry, music, software, fashion, technology and exquisite food. We are rediscovering our own power in a communal creative orgasm. We create, destroy, wipe the slate clean, clear away the moop, leave no trace, and create again. We are unstoppable and we plan to rebuild this world in our image -- a place of beauty, harmony, giving and sharing. Not a place of sprawl, tension, commerce and greed. Small is beautiful and less is more. We are learning how little we need in order to be indescribably happy -- and how happy we are when we are together, not separate.

Dance with RhythmWave at Decompression, Sunday, October 8

giselle — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:51:29 GMT

If you missed us on the Playa, there's still a chance to dance! RhythmWave will be bring our slightly dusty but amazing sound system and DJs to the Burning Man Decompression Heat the Street Fair this weekend. Come dance with us! We'll be playing two Sweat Your Prayers sets and we'll have a furry plush comfy chill space with cushions, tea and chai. It's 12 pm to midnight and beyond on Mariposa Street in San Francisco. $10 in PlayaWear, $20 in street clothes. http://www.burningman.com/blackrockcity_yearround/special_events/decompression/decom2007.html#expressives Photographs of RhythmWave's bamboo dance floor and dance camp are now posted at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/504392@N23/

Gigi's fall storytelling schedule

giselle — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:27:54 GMT

Everything is true. September 17 Porchlight How may I help you? The customer service show. at Cafe du Nord, San Francisco 7 pm www.porchlightsf.com September 26 Storytelling Night w/ Renegade Women and Unrepentant Men Mill Valley Library, Mill Valley, CA 7 pm www.millvalleylibrary.org October 1 Taping for "A Taste of Sex" Podcast 7:30 pm One Taste, San Francisco www.onetastesf.com October 3 Memoir Spool "I Got Thrown Out!" 7:00 to 9:00 PM Bazaar Cafe, 5927 California St. @ 21st Ave., SF, CA 94121 [map] www.bazaarcafe.com October 8 Decompression the Heat the Street Fair time & stage TBA Mariposa Street, San Francisco Other story events you can't miss: Tell it On Tuesday September 25, 7 pm Julia Morgan Theatre, Berkeley www.tellitontuesday.org Litquake This week long festival kicks off with a tribute to San Francisco writer Armistead Maupin, with readings (alas not storytelling) by noted authors, and ends with a Lit Crawl through the pubs of the Mission District.

Dancing Under the Stars & Above the Dust

giselle — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 01:43:36 GMT

Our vision, that grand, bold, crazy vision of bringing a real wooden dance floor to the middle of the desert wilderness materialized, and like all dreams at Burning Man, it was temporary and passed like a dream in the night. Now, as I look at my heaps of dusty laundry, and the marble Buddah that was once on that dance floor has returned to my living room, it feels like a heat mirage. As if it might have never happened at all. But we built it, we carried it there, we heaved it in an out of a truck, transported it more than 1000 miles, and gave that floor to the universe. And it gave back to us. The dance floor was charged with some sort of magical energy...the moment you stepped on it, your feet were transported on a cushion of air and you danced -- oh you danced! The floor was infused with a force that carried us to the sun above. From the front of the floor, we had a dead on view of the glowing green neon Burning Man, above, a stained glass mandala cast rainbows of light, turning that dance floor into a sparkly container of bliss, a sacred space, a sanctuary in motion. This is our dance church, a recycled cathedral of sacred movement, an oasis of esctatic dance in a desert of boom boom and trance. You didn't dance on that floor--you floated on a film of dust, above the playa, in the clouds. With a mirror ball casting a spiral of light on the floor, and the shooting stars above, that floor lifted us off to heaven. It felt like a time warp, a glittering fine gem on the playa, a sureal vision that enchanted people, and urged them to take their shoes off...and float above the dust. Sometimes it felt as if the entire floor was moving and spinning above the earth and we rode it like a magic carpet as it carried us to other places. It was sensual, smooth underfoot and it glowed in the moonlight. People stopped just to stare at the dancers, in awe. We had Capoeria, jazz, yoga, tango lessons, concerts, amazing DJs, fire dancing and even a visit from celebrity yogi Shiva Rea (who almost taught a class on the floor, but canceled when the storm hit.) And the sound! It was a big, full, rich sound, so clean that even when your ears were right up against those speakers, it felt good and pure and when you laid down on that floor, the sound moved right through you and gently rocked your bones. Kosho projected video on our shade dome, and people spilled out of that floor and danced in their own shadow play. By Wednesday, the floor was so packed for the morning sweats that dancers flowed onto the playa, and bopped on their bicycles, and boogied on the street. The universe is run according to principles that are far greater than we can comprehend, and at times I felt we were guided by this larger force, as if it was just conducting this and telling us what to do. Somehow it all came together -- a shipment of bamboo flooring that John got at a discount when it was mistakenly ordered, Pandora's chill dome, a table that appeared on the street when Dan was driving in Oakland, a statue from my living room, dancers like Ann and her partner, who magically appeared to teach classes in delightful costumes, the arches from the Cathedral that fit perfectly over the floor, the stained glass window that somehow magically fit inside that arched space, the blue pillars and bamboo arch that Richard painted, the mail box that magically appeared, the mirror ball from Robin... somehow these individual elements all fit together in synergy and formed a space that seemed like we had planned it all along. On the night of the full moon eclipse, we had a small ritual to celebrate, and as the moon went dark, the music fell silent. Later, when the moon returned, Samsara slyly cranked up Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and howled across that lonely playa in the night. Of all the days and nights in my two weeks on the playa this year, that moment felt most sacred to me. That tiny dance floor was so insignificant in the face of a universe so much larger than us, and yet so connected to it all. It was one of those perfect moments that can only happen if you bring a dance floor to a place like Burning Man. When we are dancing together there is no other -- only us. As the days passed and the heat intensified, as we got more comfortable in our skin, the skirts got tighter and shorter. Women wore translucent slips. Men wore lingerie and furs. It was one of the most sensual places on the playa, but in an innocent and unintentional way. So many people fell in love, so many affairs sparked and ignited, deepened and intensified and flamed out on that floor, that by the end of the week I was thinking we should rename the camp "Rhythm Method" instead of Rhythm Wave! My best moments, my most joyous moments on the playa were there. There are other ways to elevate your mood, but after comparing them all to the sheer joy of dancing chaotically on that floor, embracing in a lyrical moment on that floor, lying entwined in stillness on that floor -- making love to that floor and to the rhythm that flowed right through me -- I now know with certainty that dancing to the 5 Rhythms is my greatest high of all. Stars ignite, planets form, and life begins. Eventually it is all consumed by its own fire and returns to dust, ready for the cycle to begin again. Everything at Burning Man must be created and destroyed, and while that wasn't our plan, nature took care of it for us. The shade arches (made of two of the welded steel ribcage-shaped bones of last year's Connexus Cathedral) collapsed and to our shock, twisted and snapped in a windstorm, the night before the burn. It was magical while it lasted and we already dream of bringing it back again, maybe to the Esplanade where it will influence the sound of Burning Man and bring stacatto, lyrical and stillness to the thump thump chaos of incessant trance... bigger floor, bigger sound, more beautiful lighting.... We muse about creating night time events, and of extending the community beyond 5R to include other groups. In the end, it was not about bringing Sweat Your Prayers to the playa as much as building a community that brings conscious intention and spirited ecstatic meditative joyous dance to a parched desert. When people said: "This is the best dance music I've heard on the playa!" it all felt worthwhile. If we all share that intention, co create, and share the work, it can happen again. It was immense work, and I am drained and exhausted from it now--but it feels like we created something lasting and important. We also jelled the dance community here at home, and I can already feel stronger ties growing like roots around me.

It's going to be a HOT Burning Man - report from the Playa

giselle — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:55:04 GMT

I'm writing this to you from Black Rock City -- on a live internet connection. There is wireless access all over the playa this year, thanks to a generous donor. (Hint: I bet it's those wacky guys who started Google, who were sighted at BRC last year body painted in Green and Blue!) I've been to the Playa 6 times since my first Burning Man in 1993, but this is my first time experiencing it as a member of the setup crew in a theme camp, and it's so -- quiet! It's more of a nature experience when you arrive so early, peaceful and serene. The stress of the city just melted away as soon as we got here. It really does feel like home. When you arrive early, the excitement and energy aren't pulsing yet, and instead of waiting in a long line for hours, you just breeze in. But the cute signs aren't posted yet, and there are no greeters to greet you. We showed our ID and tickets at the gate, and then some tough DPW chicks asked us "are there any hippies in there? Do you have any live plants? Any sage? Sage causes a serious MOOP problem. Yesterday can you believe it, someone tried to sneak in here with...eucalyptus!" Then she proceeded to climb percariously onto the huge pile of gear in the back of our truck clad only in a pair of skimpy panties, and prodded around with a golf club looking for, presumably, illegal aliens, hippies or, perhaps a basil plant? After passing inspection, we then approached the flat, wide, blank canvas of the not yet built BRC. The man had just gone up 3 hours before, and we could see his faint outline from our plot of territory, which was marked in little blue flags. Robert was already here with a huge truck, his own generator, some very comfortable chairs, and a shade structure. We then immediately started unloading the truck and surveying the camp, building the small dome and setting up a rudimentary kitchen. We discovered that there is internet access set up in Center Camp --Dan set up an antenna and we have wireless at RhythmWave camp! It's a little spotty and infrequent, and you have to keep charging up your PC to use it. (A car charger is a good idea--because the generator isn't always running.) Today, it's even hotter, at least 100 degrees, but gorgeous! Calm, clear, and almost beach like. Reports of dust have been greatly exaggerated, and the wind is calm so there is almost no dust in the air. The playa is unusually soft and crumbly, and in center camp, there are already deep ruts in it, at times, you can sink into ten inches of powder. Bicycling is slow and your tires drag in the dust. You definitely need to be prepared for dust -- but at least now, it's calm and peaceful. When hundreds of art cars and thousands of bikes start chewing it up...that might change. We now have two huge trucks and and an art car. Coyote arrived today and set up his own personal shade structure too. Just a shadow of what the camp will become, but already quite comfortable and one of the most elaborate camps in BRC so far. Here's what you should bring: - A straw hat - light, loose clothes to wear in the heat - dark sunglsses - a bandana - lots of sunscreen - a spray bottle of water - work gloves to protect your hands while you set up camp - shoes that cover your feet, and thick socks, because the playa is HOT - shade cloth to go over your tent - more baby wipes than you think you'll every possibly need - a silver shade thingie for your vehicle windshield - silver insulating material or tarp to go over your cooler - lemonade, Gatorade, and lots of electrolyte powder - more beer! Bring your beer to 4:30 and Estuary, and share it with us! Last night, we finished our first dinner--shrimp tacos and chocolate cookies. We sat around drinking beer and looking at the moon, which is in 3/4 crescent and so bright you don't need a flashlight. We marveled at our great location, with a perfect view of center camp and the Man, mountains behind us-- and best of all, walking distance to the porta potties! It's unusually quiet on the playa, with only a few lighted camps. Mexican music is drifting in the distance--not throbbing techno. You can feel and sense that we are in the deep wilderness and nature--it's not a city yet. The man was just erected, and around midnight, he suddenly became illuminated in green neon. I can see him against the lavender ridge of mountains in the distance, as I write this. Early on, Burning Man is about hard work, and most of the sounds you hear are people pounding rebar and using power tools. It's the opposite of the sleep in the day party at night ethos of the main week -- right now, during setup, everyone goes to sleep early, and rises at dawn to work again. Two of the arches from last year's Connexus Cathedral have arisen, and are now topped with a pink flag and black shade cloth.(Robert joked: "Your spending a lot of money to shade a U Haul truck!") Tonight, after dinner, we will work in the cool of the night to build the dance floor. For now, this is what RhythmWave looks like. See you all in a few days -- this is going to be incredible!