What I want to say I can’t even put into words today…. But I’ll try anyway and probably lose a few people along the way. So let me get some great stuff to share off my chest first!
In a photography forum, I found this great photo of Pyramid Lake in Nevada. We pass it going to and from Burning Man, and last year we spent the day swimming there to wash off the week of dust on our way home. I asked the photographer, Scott Thompson (no relation) for permission to post it here…
(Side note! Since I’ve been studying up on photography, I’m going to crack down a lot more on making sure people understand copyright protection and photographers rights. If you want to use ANYONE’S photo but your own, and it’s not publicly listed with a Creative Commons license or a statement that you can use it, ASK FIRST! And always credit/link to them! I’m no expert, but if you have any questions about what you can or can’t do and don’t have time to look it up, you are welcome to email me and I’ll do my best to help you find an answer.)
Copyright Scott Thompson. Click for larger image!
I also need to share this blog post by Amanda Palmer on Lady Gaga, freedom, and authenticity. A must read!
We celebrated July 4th at the second annual PEX Fest – I worried as we were on our way that my expectations were too high, based on the amazing time we had last year. I had nothing to worry about as it was blown out of the water again, and it was definitely one of the best weekends of my life.
Despite this time being bittersweet – my Grandma Betty who passed had annual July 4th gatherings – I know that divine intervention or whatnot had a role in how things turned out. I never had to risk her wrath for missing her picnic for PEX fest (or, more likely, miss PEX Fest), and the first summer that the picnic didn’t happen after she died, I was surrounded by my second family and felt so full of love.
PEX fest is summer camp for burners. It’s a little like Playa Del Fuego (PDF) but it’s completely different. It’s not community run, but PEX has wonderful vision and core values that overlap with Burning Man’s principles. There’s a little commerce, but mostly just for food/ice (except for an unfortunate vendor agreement with the camp property, which had a tie dye t-shirt vendor on site – I went from being annoyed to feeling sorry for them because this was NOT going to be a killer sales weekend for them with mostly burners in attendance!) (And I’m tie dye loyal, I ONLY get mine from my awesome friends in Reno!)
As usual, the schedule was chock full of amazing workshops but despite best efforts, I attended 2 and Random attended 3. Quality outshone quantity, as they were absolutely amazing experiences.
Random attended Lucky’s contact staff workshop, and we both attended the Porno Jim Show (hysterical, shows the best and worst of porn and talks about how bad porn is bad for expectations/sexual practices in real life) as well as a class from Camp Chemistry. And without going into any details too embarrassing for the general public of the internet, the class was life changing. Really!!!!! I was a bit nervous going in, but knew that it was a safe and respectful space and that we could leave at any time. We stayed through the whole class, and it was definitely worth it. If it sounds intriguing to you in any way, please consider checking out their events and classes. They are good people, and no matter how much you think you know, you’ll learn something new! And that’s all I have to say (publicly) about that 
Between sunny days in the pool and long nights on the dance floor until sunrise…. Living on an angle and having a constant beat 24/7…. PEX Fest is a place of love, beauty, joy, creativity, fire, sensuality, music, dancing, authenticity, acceptance, laughter, family, and more. There’s no better place to celebrate freedom than here. I am STILL on cloud 9 and loving it! See you all next year!
