The Cart before the Horse

My mode of operation (the olde M.O.) is usually to put the cart before the horse as demonstrated below. We started the process of buying a house a few weeks ago at this point and since then I have already shopped all the furniture, placemats for the table, the two dogs I plan on getting, and today I purchased a security system for it. I mean, the paperwork is not signed until the end of this week. 

I am excited and anticipating when I can tell the world about the amazing changes coming into our lives. This year has been pretty stellar and it has to be said, that it is a huge leap from some pretty traumatic years in the past. For example, 2018 was a year of breaking down and just breaking. 2019 was a step higher, but really was tough, but ended well. And it’s only been getting better since. Not sure I need to talk about those years on this post. I will see what the history says. Maybe I will write about it in another post. 

So, now we think about the move. The new stress ball in  my life, picking up one household and moving it to another. A bigger, giant wooly mammoth in the desert. It is a place to create and grow in new ways. That is really what this year has been!

This is the Year of the Steele Rabbit. When I read about the year, it is a year of growth and wealth. Next year is the Year of the Wood Dragon, which is my year. It should be a very successful year for me. And for those of you who poo poo astrology, you’re wrong. It’s up to you to see how it all links together and tough-noogies if you can’t be bothered. 

Anyway, I will share the new information when all the ink is dry. 

Just another blog site

I am writing my first post in my new blog. Having an online blog is something I have had for very many years. My previous version was at www.UrielsJournel.com. That web site is going to go away this year and I am going to start a new journey moving forward. The thing is… I am not exactly sure how that is going to become.

The place I am in now, at this moment, is new. It is the same for many of us who went through the last 2 years. I would say that in 2018 I broke… like full on broke and for about 2 years I was living in a weird hell full of privilege and anxiety. When my mom and step dad started having serious medical issues was in that year. I had no one but my partner to talk to about what it was that I was going through. It was lonely, frustrating and sad at the same time.

Then in 2019 we found a new home in Oakland and it is really lovely. It is also really far from things that can get me in trouble, far from places I would hang out at (also trouble), and yet near to some newer people I have started to really care for.

So, lets see where this goes. UrielsJournal started to turn into a place to complain and I do not want this to go in the same direction.

Music Rules!

I have a special place in my heart for DJ’s and music. And I am blessed with so many that have crossed orbits with each other. It began in my life in Las Vegas with my Burning Man community there.

I know a good many Vegas DJ’s whom I adore like no one’s business. I will write something about them soon. I feel like this is long overdue.

Considering NO ONE is reading this blog there is no real news flash here, but I will start giving it a shot.

Today’s focus is on a couple DJ’s who came to me through Pandora.

Ticon

Not one person.

Ticon are Filip Mårdberg and Fredrik Gilenholt, a Swedish progressive/psychedelic trance project. With a deep background in the technoscene they started playing around on their computer in 1995 and this step brought them along many paths they hadnt dreamed of. The experience aquired along the way has switched the scene from the amateur thing of the beginning to the standard of today; an acclaimed production with an exquisite feeling for sounds and percussion. – from last.fm

1987 is the first piece I heard that gave me a DJ boner. But they had a lot of other cool pieces that caught my attention.

2013 Cargo Cult Trip Report

Another year passed and I would have to say this was my finest; with the exception of my first year. One could point out my last two years were so awful, but for that I only have myself to blame.

I did threaten fate, as it were, by swearing I would have a drama free burn. I brought my own theme camp. It was SunGuardians positioned at 7:45 & I with a 60′ x 60′ span of land that resulted in pure heaven.

I developed this project almost 3 years ago and finally found the right opportunity to see it to life. 3 other people saw my vision and jumped in and together we made it happen. It was a real group effort and I could not have expected that a first year theme camp could have gone more right.

My burn was fantastic because of the people I was surrounded by. It was the people I got to know better and the new people that crossed into my life.

Las Vegas in da House

Seeing my old roomie, Gemini, was sublime. I spent a lot of time with her in her camp called Whofarted? Camp.

I got to spend some time with others including Dirk and Holly at Kosmic Dust and Gary and Damien at FUCK Camp. Yes, that was the name.

I also met Barb and Tom who happen to camp right next door from us at Sun Guardians and I kept thinking of all the people they needed to meet in Vegas. Their initial encounter with certain Vegas leadership left them cold. But! I assured them that city is packed with amazing burners!

One night on the Crisco Disco art car my camp-mates from

To and From Burning Man 2010

The trip to and from Burning Man itself was a whole separate event than being at Burning Man itself. Nacie and I were traveling together again this year. I adore this girl and will go with her again.

My Ticket to Burning Man 2010 Nacie with her ticket to Burning Man 2010

So, I was looking for options to get us to Burning Man a cheaply as possible. Free sounded pretty good, right? The deal was that I drive a piece of someone’s art car to Burning Man, they pay gas, and we get there at no cost. Basically, they employ me to get their stuff up there.

Departure

We tell them we want to leave Friday morning on the 20th of August, which is why I wanted to pick up the van to be used on the Thursday previous.

Even with 5 days notice nothing is ready and I am told to be at their house at 6am to help clean out the van before I can begin loading our camping gear. It is at this point I am told we will not be able to leave until the middle to late afternoon. Stressed and sleepy, cleaning the van takes as long as it takes Frick and Frack to examine each piece they are pulling out. Meanwhile, Nacie and I are taking arm loads of shit and piling it into the garage.

He forward the guys who owned the art car will be known as Frick and Frack… but that will change in part 2.

Fast forward to 4pm when I have picked up Nacie, packed the van with our crap, and called to confirm the transporting trailer for their art car was present. Ideally, at least in my head, we could be heading north by 6pm.

Frick and Frack are still working on their art car so we are once again delayed and sitting around waiting… waiting… waiting.

Somewhere after dusk the train was ready to be loaded and we had been sitting their for hours and were losing patience faster then the ticking seconds on a clock… grrr. Frick and Frack decide it is time to take their car on a joy-ride through the neighborhood.

Soon the art car is loaded and all the nice things going along with it, which lands us somewhere around after 10pm. By this time I was completely at peace with the fact it will be a night long drive. Meanwhile, Nacie is slowing checking out psychologially on me. However, soon, we are on our way.

The first thing I do is clip a pole and we’re all back to the house for a long discussion about whether or not it can be fixed that night or not. Thankfully, Burner veterans and friends who made the arrangement appear convincing them we can still go that night if a repair could be made. An hour later the fender looks like was almost new again – a miracle… and by midnight-ish we were gone. Frack was a genius with a welder.

Return Trip

Frick and Frack arrived a few days later at Burning Man with the second piece of their art car and it was an amazing week. That is detailed elsewhere.

When preparing to leave Sunday, Nacie and I are informed that we will be departing Monday evening at 5pm. Which, according to the Burning Man guide is one of the worst times to join the Exodus.

We are also told that we, Frick and Frack, all have to travel back together. This is because their RV barely has any tread on their tires and broke down 3 times on the way up.

5 hours waiting to get out of Burning Man at a slow crawl meeting fabulous people on the way… 1/3 tank of gas to get me close to 100 miles in a pig of a machine. The refusal of Frick and Frack to acknowledge my concerns… Frick and Frack  was to become Drunk and Drunker! Drunk and Drunker drank from sun-up to sun-down and getting ready for a long road trip was nothing different.

5 hours of waiting, we only could imagine how many Miller Lites that Drunk and Drunker put down.

They skipped the first gas station and as we did I saw straps were loose on our trailer so I signalled Drunk and Drunker to pull over while we checked them… and off they went into the distance without a though.

We picked them up further along the way and explained what happen, but reminded them I barely had enough gas; Drunk and Drunker were unfazed.

The empty gas light came on 20 miles previous to the next gas station.

WE HAD to stop at Walmart in Fernley so Drunk and Drunker could get spark plugs because their 6 cylinder engine was working only on 4. They bought 6 quarts of oil, spark plugs and a new oil filter. Heading back out to the cars 6 hours after attempting to leave a place that was literally 100 miles away Nacie and I were starving. Hold on Frack says, whcile checking the engine oil and confirming they needed to get some work done further down the road. They urgently prepared for departure, but Nacie and I had to put our foot down demanding we be allowed to get some dinner.

We went to Jakes at the Silverado Casino that was across the way… the same place we ate at last year and loved it.

Upon returning the RV housing Drunk and Drunker is dark, but the door is ajar. “Where are they?” we wonder… after about 15 minutes we call inside seeing they were napping.

It is at this time they decide to install the spark-plugs instead of doing it the 1 hour we were eating close by… so more delays.

Then by 11pm we are back on the road once again.

30 Miles South of Tonopaugh, an hour in which I refused to look at a clock, we stopped to nap.

Sunrise: they decide to change the oil on the van I was driving. Theydumped the oil into the side of the road, Frick chucking the used oil filter into a close berm, and off we go.

The last miles back were just as painful and grating as the time spend at their house waiting for the art car to be loaded. We made it back though in one piece and no break-downs… we’ll call that a win.