Random Noteworthy of Jan '09

Architects of a New Dawn launched 1/1/09
Carlos Santana's Media Channel

Carlos' 'vision for AOAND is a multi-tiered media company whose approach to building a new reality for the planet is based on inspiration, creativity, love & forgiveness. This is where my passion lies, and I wish to bring it forth by combining music, sacred thoughts and inspirational media. ." For more on that vision, visit the site.

Burning Man Announces '09 Theme Evolution: A Tangled Bank
prompting three related questions:
What are we as humans beings?
Where have we come from?
How may we adapt to meet an ever-changing world?
Burning Man is now accepting art proposals for the 2009 event until February 1.

GraceNote gave a first look at their CarStars Stereo system at CES "which scans your music collection and selects an artist to be your personal musical guide, giving you track suggestions depending on where you happen to be driving" Check out this video review from CNET

The company announced their support for video formats (in addition to their patented music recognition technology, a core component of ITunes and other music players).


Grissom Says Goodbye
CSI's hot thespian, William Peterson, is staying true to his core artist roots, and finally leaving CSI (after 9 seasons) for theatre back in Chi town.

Paradise Lounge , the old mainstay rock club in San Francisco, has re-opened after another reprieve between owners. A dance club, not sure if there will be any live shows. If you catch a show/event before we do, let us know. For a walk down memory lane in the locale -

Voyage in Utopia

Premiers Tonight (7/18)- Castro Theatre
(source: SF Bay Guardian)
Burning Man: Voyage to Utopia" is a celebratory tribute to the event and its central players, particularly founder Larry Harvey and temple builder David Best.
Filmmaker Laurent Le Gall, whose work premieres Friday at the Castro Theater (followed by afterparty at Cafe Flore), gives viewers an inside look at the 2003 event, starting pre-playa with the Temple crew and other attendees, through the arrival of the first dozen people on the playa, and continuing to the Temple burn that culminates the event and brings emotional closure to some of the film main characters, who came from France to attend the event.
Unlike in Oliver Bonin's "Dust & Illusions," where Harvey's disconcerting intransigence during his interviews reinforced accusations of a leadership vacuum, Le Gall shows Harvey at his creative best: engaged, inspiring, playful, cerebral and capable of dropping thought-provoking rhetorical bombs whose impact lingers long after the conversation ends. And Best comes through as the amazing artist and individual that he is.
This is a sweet film, maybe too sweet for many jaded old burners. But at a time when tens of thousands of Bay Area residents are busily preparing for their annual pilgrimage to the playa next month, it's a film sure to get many people's juices flowing.

Serpent Mother -On Tour

One of the highlights of my last trip to Burning Man ('06) was the "Serpent Mother" installation created by The talented Flaming Lotus Sisters based in Oakland, CA.
Currently on tour http://serpentmother.com/


The Mythology:
Serpent Mother embodies power, fertility, alchemy, and immortality. She and her egg tell the story of transmutation, of how fear is harnessed and transformed into hope. She is the mother of all primal life forces: fire, breath, movement and birth. As the primordial protector, she evokes deep fear to protect what she loves - the future that dwells within her egg. The serpent is ancient and wise, having lived through many ages, yet all that remains is her immense skeletal structure and her spirit that blazes to life every night.

As we approach her egg, she cautions us with fierce fiery warnings. She warns us of the danger of not actively imagining our future. She teaches us how to embrace the unknown and inevitably we are drawn inside her body. Here, we discover that by controlling her burning powers we can safely digest her deadly venom.

Only after we embrace the fiery medicine of transmutation and the serpent knows all is safe, does her egg rumble and crack. The birth begins with hissing steam, colored flames and flickering sparks. The transformation of one life into another is now complete and the creative forces of all life manifest into this world as a fountain of massive spiraling fire.

Bed of Nails & The Inner Circle

While recently deconstructing the tale of my visit on a bed of nails in the desert some years ago- I recounted my crazy experience with Chan in Jim Mason's procession to the inner circle carting flame thrower fire cannons -aka the Impotence Compensation.

Big Fire Cannons around the Man a.k.a. Impotence Compensation Project
by Jim Mason, 1998
Once again on the night of the burn the Man will be saluted by Jim Mason's fire cannons. Four cannons will circle the Man, shooting out flames to a height of 120 feet. In front of the Man another cannon will blast out a tower of fire 160 feet in the air. The Fire Cannons will perform for us a very high-altitude pyrotechnic ballet, monumental, overwhelming, and curiously intimate.


We still think about that V-8 Engine margarita mixer Jim brought around town in those days. Pix to come...(can't find that Bed Of Nails one, but found this of my PIC Cyn)