Two Transformus Tickets Available

The person who was taking my remaining two available tickets is bailing, so I still have two Transformus tickets available. Face value $75 each. Anyone?

Please contact me at 240-603-9676.

Thanks,
Ember

Concerned about our pet food and health

I've been receiving the Environmental Working Group's email newsletter for a while now ( www.ewg.org/ ), and they've started up a new effort for pets and their owners: www.petsfortheenvironment.org/ . I'm concerned about our pets' health and thought I was feeding them high-quality pet food (Nutro brand). Well, today I found out I was wrong.

Short of feeding them what they're truly meant to eat: ground raw meat with bones, organs and connective tissue (which is expensive, but we've bought it before from a family-owned farm in Pennsylvania: hare-today.com/ ), I'm looking for a kibble food to suit our dog and cats. My search led me to these useful sites, so far only for dogs, but I'll be investigating cat food next:
www.dogfoodanalysis.com/
www.iheartpaws.com/articles...age3.html
I now have decided on a few dog foods appropriate for my 55 lb. dog (based partly on my beliefs about the benefits of higher levels of Omega 3 fatty acids and avoiding all grains, which dogs and cats aren't supposed to eat ... and probably humans neither); soon I'll compare prices.

In the meantime, I wanted to give you all a chance to check out "Pets for the Environment" ( www.petsfortheenvironment.org/ ), which appears to be a great new resource for becoming more informed about your pet's health. The attached photo is the first panel of Eddie's Story, which introduces the viewer to the challenges our pets face today. You can read the entire five panels starting here: www.petsfortheenvironment.org/abo...tory

Hope this is helpful to some of you!

Wicker Man Burning instead of Spring PDF

We've decided to forego spring PDF this year in favor of getting in on the inauguration of a new burn just over the PA border at Four Quarters Farm (4qf.org): Wicker Man Burning, which happens the same weekend. After the bugs, rain and heat of last year's spring event, we almost didn't go back for fall PDF (my art grant changed all that). Fall was very nice, maybe nicer than is typical, so I figure we'll consider fall again, but for spring we're bailing.

Four Quarters Farm is 100 miles from the DC/Baltimore beltways. If you've been out to Western Maryland and driven through the Sidling Hill road cut (a geological delight of exposed folded rock) the hill is named after nearby Sidling Creek, which wraps around 4QF on three sides. Twist and I were there for Fires Rising in 2005 (GREAT event), plus we've visited again in the last few months when I was trying to encourage PDF to reconsider moving there.

Four Quarters Farm has:
* more hot showers in more locations
* nice bathrooms (rather than porta-johns)
* piped water throughout camp
* electricity so sound camps won't need to bring generators
* a stream with swimming holes surrounding the venue on 3 sides
* few flying bugs
* TREES to camp among as well as sunny spots
* a road loop for art cars
* some areas are flat, some are hilly, just like Transformus
* there's already a designated area for "adult" camps (Sin City) that has been used for other events and has the best swimming hole just adjacent
* sound problems SOLVED: If you've heard of Gaian Mind (www.gaian-mind.com/), a popular psytrance festival, this is the place where it happens (and there's another swimming hole by Sound Town)

Finally, word is that Wicker Man Burning will have one of the most impressive effigies outside of Burning Man, planned at 40' tall.

I know of a number of DC burners who are seriously thinking about trying the new burn (me and Twist, Sherri and Wil, Joel Traylor [JET], Tony and Christina, Candygirl, and more). Anyone else considering going? Got any questions?

The Big Global O for Peace

Time for another www.globalorgasm.org/

"Last year's Global O! was a huge success. Madrid had the highest number of hits on the site. Everyone had a Global Giggle, the world's press got the message and, who knows, it may have helped delay the invasion of Iran by a year! But that was just the warm-up... .

Time for another GlobalOrgasm for Peace, but with a big difference - this year, we are aiming to synchronize at the actual time of the Solstice – Saturday, December 22 at 06:08 Universal Time (GMT) [That's 1:08am Eastern on the 22nd, 10:08p Pacific on the 21st]

Which means that Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Palestine, Israel and their neighbors get some choice morning hours. A gift with the intention of peace from GlobalOrgasm.org!

WHO? All Men and Women, you and everyone you know.

WHERE? Everywhere in the world, but especially in countries with weapons of mass destruction and the countries threatened by them.

WHEN? Solstice Day (Winter in the Northern Hemisphere, Summer in the South) - Saturday, December 22nd, 6:08 a.m. Universal Time (GMT). That's right, this time we're asking everyone to synchronize their orgasms at the very moment of the Solstice, to get the greatest possible effect. This may take some preparation, so plan ahead - and practice!" [Again, that's 1:08am Eastern on the 22nd, 10:08p Pacific on the 21st]

P.S. I missed the actual day last year, but remembered later in December. When I did, I felt as if a stream of energy was flowing out of the top of my head and raining on the valley below. I've done this several times since ... the world could always use a little more peace!

Burial, Nature and Ecoshamanism

I was just reading this interesting article on Reality Sandwich about Ecoshamanism: realitysandwich.com/node/785 . In it the author describes (among other things) a reconnecting-to-the-earth ritual where the person digs their own grave and lies buried in it (with an air hole) for a night. "After undergoing this ordeal, one participant noted, 'So even as I had the sensation of losing myself into the earth—in effect, dying—the peace I was experiencing and the feeling of being transformed into the living soil made the transition from life to death seem more like a transition from life to life.'"

This touches on a conversation I was having with Twist (my bf) last night. I was saying I think embalming and burial in a manufactured metal/wood/plastic and fabric box, under a field cleared of native habitat and marked with mined stone is SO unfriendly to the ecosystem. Up to now I'd figured I'd donate organs when I die, the rest of me to medical science, and have the remains cremated. However, cremation takes a lot of energy and gives pretty much nothing back to the environment from which we came.

Now I think I just want to be buried as-is (sans needed organs) somewhere so I can decompose and come back as soil for flowers or whatnot. Or better yet, just throw my body in the woods for scavengers. Or put me up on a platform like some tribes used to do and let the birds have me. It's all the same to me, just don't remove my fluids, fill me full of wax and stick me in a metal box under a cleared field!

Ecological awareness may be the only thing that has an impact on our funeral home embalming and/or cremation system of "disposing" bodies. Heh, reminds me that my dad used to say "viewings" are an atrocious out-of-date tradition (and communion in church is thinly veiled cannibalism).

I like what they reportedly did with Edward Abbey's body when he died ... took him out to the desert and buried him in an undisclosed location: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwa...and_burial . That's for me.

In the meantime, I think I'll try to reconnect with nature and my senses even more by spending a ritual hour each week in the woods. And come warmer weather, anyone want to help me bury myself for a day?

Check out the Ecoshamanism article: realitysandwich.com/node/785