LA Decompression

It is Decompression season and my favorite time of year.  This was our 10th year at San Francisco’s Decompression. It feels like home, we have a spot where we hang out with friends and we can take a cab there and back, talk about easy…but we were going to be in LA last week and went to check out LA Decompression and it was fabulous.

We stayed at my friend’s house in the Valley, we have known each other since the early 80s and are very close so I wanted them to know more about this big thing in our lives known as [BM].  We had dinner outside at their house, it was balmy, and then got in the hot tub, where it was like we were at a spa with a waterfall pouring over us.  What a luxurious way to start LA Decompression weekend.

On Saturday off we went to “the cornfield” in downtown LA.  We had a blast, we walked around, Aiden’s favorite moment was dancing among the bubbles at Disorient, sat in the rickshaw, had some great food, watched the hoopers, and then it was time for them to go.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     But Decompression was just heating up and it was time to make some new friends.  I was sitting in the shade and “some guy” (to the left in the photo) comes up to me, kind of gets in my face and says “I’ve made a Burning Man Movie and you are in it!”  Beyond Belief: Honeymoon at Burning Man

He goes on to say, “Didn’t you make Tara that year and she burned in a niche of the Man?”   That may be more than I remember about 2003, so clearly he was legitimate.  Their names are “Happy Lord Geoffrey” the co-director and “DJ Noj” who wrote the music for the film, of Graven Image Films.  So if you get a chance, you should check out their movie, who knows you might get to be in the next one.

So at this point I felt like I had spent some time with my beloved friends, made some new ones and then CameraGirl and her friend Mark Roemer arrived.  CameraGirl is the head of Burning Man’s Technology Dept as well as calendar production and just all around factotum.   When I first started volunteering at Burning Man CameraGirl was one of the first people I met, so it felt great.  I had introduced my good friends to Burning Man, heard I was in a Burning Man movie and had run into one of the first people I had known on the Burning Man staff, and it was still early.  Then I ran into Vadym Vasylenko.  Vadym is one of those guys with a great big camera hanging from his chest, and we talked for a moment and he sent me these fabulous photos.  ENJOY!