Hey beautiful people! I just returned to the Bay Area from an amazing life-changing, mind-opening, playful, inspiring, awesome time at my 5th Burning Man! I am tired and ecstatic and hoarse from singing my heart out all week!

Some highlights - well on my way to Burning Man, i was thrilled to hear at the last minute that my soul brother and fellow troubadour of the light Nate Stevens - www.myspace.com/natestevensmusic - was gonna make it out to the playa this year! Totally a dream come true getting to share some epic adventures together and and dance and trip around being silly and singing love songs til dawn and beyond! NATE ROCKS!

I also got to meet and hang out in real life with another amazing online friend out there this year - Marya Stark - www.myspace.com/maryastark .... It was funny how it happened... It was early in the week, and I hadn't found Nate yet, but I had just booked him and me a playa gig at the Lost Penguin camp for thursday and then Marya came along and was looking at the schedule where i had put in our names.... She says, yeah, i know Maria Mango, she's a friend of mine," to my friend John and I'm sitting right there, and say "Really?" and i don't recognize her yet, nor her me.... Then we figure it out that we're myspace friends (and have shared some really beautiful heartfelt correspondances and have a deep mutual appreciation of each other's music) and are actually meeting in real life for the first time at Burning Man! A perfectly synchronistic moment! We hugged and giggled and squealed with delight and then cuddled up on a couch for a couple hours to catch up on this lifetime while being served wine and chocolate (the Penguins really know how to do it!).... What an amazing moment! She is such a soul sister with some of the most cosmic heartfelt healing sensual songs my ears have ever been blessed with, and it's a great honor to know her!

Nate and Marya and I all ended up adventuring together on the playa thursday night after Nate and I played the Lost Penguin... We went and danced our asses off to some delicious grooves at the Root Society with Bass Nectar - www.myspace.com/bassnectar - WOW! What a party!! I LOVE when you can FEEL the music with every cell of your being! After that we all ended up sharing songs around a mellow campfire with some folks at the Cosmic Elves til dawn, it was a most perfect evening, it felt like we were in heaven! Oh and speaking of HEAVEN - i spent my last night on the playa in Diane Patterson's RV, weathering out the dust storm in there and being serenaded with the most beautiful moving music and prayers for pacha mama! She is such a goddess folksinger! I was exhausted and had lost my voice by this point so it was the most beautiful thing that could have possibly happened! I fell asleep there and awoke just before the magical pastel playa dawn to a song playing over and over and again -

"Woke beneath the light
of the morning star
rising on the water
Honest in your arms
so come with me tonight
it cannot be far
til we reach the horizon
to the love we're reaching for

This must be heaven
Cuz it shines so bright
Heaven, cuz we're living in the light, livin in the light
Heaven, cuz you're standing by my side
Heaven... this must be, must be, must be

Cuz i can see for miles
to the whisper of the dawn
to the end of time
when the world has come and gone
so come with me tonight
it cannot be long
til we reach the horizon
to the place where we belong"


It is the most perfect soundtrack for the experience of seeing the sunrise on the playa! Turns out it's called "Heaven" by Tina Malia - go to www.myspace.com/tinamalia to hear it!

I also got to play Center Camp Cafe randomly on Saturday morning - I had actually slept a bit the night before so i was up all bright and early and i walked in to center camp and a performer wasn't there for their gig (who can blame them? - not like many folks there are wearing watches!!!) And so i've got my ukulele with me as always and volunteer to play some tunes and it was super fun, i got people singing along, "Love is something is you give it away, you'll end up having more!" - What a great way to start the day! It was funny cuz i had tried to book something at center camp thru email earlier this year but then it just ended up happening in the moment!! I absolutely LOVE playing at Burning Man - it's the ideal place for my music, where everyone is open to sharing, loving, being free, co-creating, and making the ideal real, yeah! The new world is here! Heaven is a place on earth!

Other things i am so grateful for experiencing at Burning man this year: Sunrises, sunsets, morning yoga at HeebeeGeebees, camping with the Hawaii ohana at Ka Pilina, right across from Big Puffy Yellow, who i am grateful to for letting me use their shower, for all the beautiful friendly colorful generous AMAZING freaky free people, costumes, dancing, singing, playing, praying, painting, storytelling, the 1000 free yellow bikes someone anonymously donated to Black Rock City to help the bikeless get around (but for some reason the yellow bikes are green!), many massages, laughter and tears shared, spontanious being, flowing moment to moment, mind blowing synchronicities, learning about all the wonderful ideas people have to save the world, Entheon Village, dancing til dawn, singing at sunrise, hunkering down in a random dome during a dust storm, the 3-d monkey merry go round, the rainbow solar-powered ping pong blinkie lights installation, WOAH!, partying like a rock star, bloody marys for breakfast, cruzing around in crazy art cars and party buses, kickin it with Nate Stevens and Marya Stark (worth another mention!!), jamming sacred songs around the oil rig fire with Althea and Fantuzzi and friends, releasing, grieving, and being reborn at the Temple of Forgiveness, and again at the temple fire, which coincided with the 40th Anniversary of the Summer of Love in SF, here's to keeping the spirit of the Summer of Love alive forever and ever!!!!!!!!!!! It was amazing connecting with so many old friends and also making so many new ones, the experience gets more and more layered year after year as we continue to meet in the dreamtime of the playa....every day i am learning more and more about unconditional endless infinite love and enjoying and celebrating unity and diversity and creativity!!! WE'RE LIVIN THE LIFE OF LOVE AND LOVIN IT!!

I want to bow down and kiss the universe's feet in gratitude....


Namaste,
Maria Mango


"Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand." ~ Mother Teresa