fete du test-day 2

I woke up in Desert Hot Springs, I slipped into my swimsuit and left A in the room to sleep. I swam, in the small way I know how to swim, dipped in the medium hot and super hot, mineral springs. And I sat there head back contemplating life's most recent events, a hairy backed man strikes up a conversation in broken English about how loud he finds Mexican people now that the pools population has suddenly swung south of the border. He wanted to know if I were American, which I guess is the burning question on most people's minds. His friend joined him and we began having a broken conversation, they are from LA and before I get asked questions on where I live and would I like to possibly go dancing or out to dinner, I feign how hot the pool is. They are very disappointed that I am checking out of the hotel and want to know where I am going.

There is something that Eastern European and homeless men find insanely irresistible about me.

Where I am going is back to Joshua Tree and the Test to experience performance art and see a man made crater. Our first stop is to replace the map we lost and stock up on waters. Our second stop was a dry bed lake after all to see a dance with ribbons.

That goes a little something like this:











The desert is such a monochromatic place, but it is amazing in its monochromaticness. It was however nice to see it broken up with color, even if it was an hour, once a year. I think colors become more brilliant there, like they like to show off.

Next stop was the Yucca Crater installation that was, for lack of a better term, in the most beautiful middle of nowhere. That made me shout "praise the Lord for the GPS, and the 4G and the smart phone." sorry, still riding on the gospel high.

It ended up being a very surprising installation. It ended up being an oasis for you to swim in, unfortunately for us there were too many bodies.

Even though I didn't get to experience test as much as I wanted, a conundrum of time and space, I did get the chance to take a lot of great photos. The desert seems to want to be the star of the show.

I will definitely be at Test next year and this trip was a very good HDTS 101 for me. I will have more of a strategy instead of the zen like tumbleweed I was this year.

amendment of the amendment

I know it feels like I can't let it go, but this post from my lovely friend and favorite healer, made me a little sad.

read.

fete du test- day 1

When two things you haven't done before suddenly coincide you have no choice but to run toward that direction. Even if that direction is in the middle of nowhere.

My desert experience has been very limited, a drive through the Valley of Fire where I watched a sidewinder cross the road as we were coming toward it and a day were I shot a prison riffle w/ a bunch of republicans. (that thing can kick)

Living so close, an hour and a half, I felt the need to make that experience list be more than venomous snakes and assault riffles. I needed to touch a dry bed lake, be creeped out by windmills, see stars unobstructed by lights and hear gospel songs sung by people in handmade crocheted garments.

The answer to this yearning was High Desert Test Sites .

A and I climbed into the car and headed an hour an a half east armed with new music and sunscreen. We watched the landscapes become more alien. Fields of windmills and precariously stacked rocks that slowly revealed more rural places. I wondered what it is that people do out there. A said cook meth. I thought a bit more G rated, like get a lot of reading done.


We rolled into town in just enough time to grab a map and directory. They had gluten free fudge cookies available by donation-they must have known I was coming. We booked it, the two blocks to Art Queen gallery to catch the World Famous Crochet Museum Gospel Revival. And they revived and they sang and I felt the Lord and I felt a tremendous guilt for not crocheting more.

So feeling uncomfortable by the heat and my guilt, we moved on. We headed to Pioneer Town to have margaritas with friends at the famous Pappy and Harriets and it was filled to the brim with leather and bandanas. (and some shockingly white teeth) I guess the same weekend was a biker rally in Palm Springs. The drinks were strong and everyone was having a good time, it was jovial, but I was secretly was hoping a bar brawl was going to break out because I have always wanted to break a beer bottle over someone's head and string a sentence together that had expletives and scorned woman dialog in between the expletives, but alas, I can't do everything I have never done all at once.

Then we left, taking pictures along the way, speeding steadily towards one of the worst meals I had in 12 years.

carpocalypse-an amendment

When I moved to Los Angeles, I lived in an apartment building for a couple months and there was a caretaker who was a very chatty guy, he spent a lot of time at the Self Realization Fellowship , and liked to talk about that experience with me. I think he thought maybe it would help me in some way, to live vicariously through his spiritual wanderings. He once said to me:

"If you have an issue that is plaguing you and you cannot change that issue to your favor, maybe the only thing you can change is how you react to it."

I was reminded today that I had an original intent when writing the post Carmagideon Time . It was mainly to compare how peaceful carmageddon was to the agony it is whenever Obama comes to town. I think with the experience of Obama coming here, as a rule, in rush hour traffic made people freak out about Carmaggedon a little more than was rational.

Understandably so, Obama coming to town is a beeping, angry mess of near fatalities. Twenty minute commutes turn to hours and it is just a bunch of people sitting in tin cans not moving just getting more and more pissed off, making stupid decisions, almost hitting pedestrians with their cars, just wanting to go home.

I think that is what people expected with Carmaggedon. This, what happened today and what happened a month ago, and what will continue to happen until 2012.

Obama is never not going to come during rush hour.

At first I was angry, then I tried to beat him to my destination and when that didn't work I went to have a dinner with a friend and just let him pass by.

Thanks creepy apartment caretaker.

blogger vs blogger

I love the blogger vs blogger interview. While I am ruminating on HDTS, read the interview lala did with me. Insight perhaps, almost a full photo of my face, oh no!

Doing lala land w/ kitty cattaraugus.

Casta Diva -Maria Callas was one classy lady.

The feeling is mutual

Dear one fan of my blog,

You are very smart and attractive.

love,
kitty

Interview pre-wild west

T and I were sitting at Joe's eating a very hearty breakfast of eggs, hash browns and vegetables and I thought it was the perfect setting to do another "blogger vs blogger" interview.

I have known T for over 3 years now, and she has an amazing blog about exploring the wilds of California called Western Wilds . I have been on some of her excursions. I am referred to as K. She introduced me to tide pooling and for that I am eternally grateful. Before I get all mushy, here is our chat.

Kitty: So, what did you do today?
T: Woke up super early and took a boat to Catalina in the fog.

Kitty: See anything interesting on the way?
T: I saw a super cool Blue Whale w/ a big tail and I am totally going to write about it in my blog. (See here )

Kitty: Where are you from?
T: A little suburb outside of Detroit in the great state of Michigan.

k: Why did you move to Los Angeles?
t: (a pregnant pause) Following my man.. and to go to UCLA to be a librarian, but mainly following my man.

Her man is outside on a park bench recovering from the realization that he is not a sea person. Not a great time to find out. Especially because on the way back it is choppier. And although I was up top, because of the lack of places to sit together, I heard that a baby started a vomiting chain reaction that can only be likened to.. remember that scene with the pie eating contest in Stand By Me, we have all seen it, you know what I am talking about.

k: How long have you been writing your blog?
t: two years-she looks up in puzzlement- I can't remember. I cheated though and went back and retroactively posted. I started the blog in November of 2009, although the posts look like I started the blog in January.

k: why do you blog?
t: before the blog I would keep track of the tides and then decided to share the information w/ others. A close friend V inspired me to explore the world (in SoCal) and wanted to share that with others.

I like to show people that you can escape the city within a half a days drive.

Since starting the blog, many California explorers contact T about things she has seen. She often contributes photos of "what the heck is this" to iNaturalist which is a forum for people to share all the naturey stuff they see and help to identify naturey stuff for other people. They helped identify the 20 legged sea star we saw-which is actually called something I can't remember.

I hope she has inspired you to explore. She and I will be bringing a report to you next month-ish on Mono Lake, one of the many California state parks that they will be closing by next year due to budget cuts. See them while you can.

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