Subjective Response

Pictures of this temple remind me of how it feels for me to miss a year of Burning Man. The year was 2002, and I couldn't make it out that Labor Day for the first time in three years. All I could do was look at online photo galleries later and admire. I spent hours looking at images others had captured. The Temple of Joy was one of the art pieces I most wished I could have been in, because of the deep significance it has for us to remember our dead. My friend told me he left something there for his mother, because her name was Joy. So I think this year will suffer the same envy. I can't go, but my closest friends and family are. Well, if 2005 is anything like 2002, then they should have the best time and enjoy the kindest weather.

There's something so soothing and hypnotizing about watching the ocean. Today I was feeling extra tense. "Need to relax," I thought. Since going to the beach wasn't an option, I just looked at pictures of beaches. Most of them made me wish I could take off and go to some tropical isle somewhere, but this one almost brought me the sounds of the sea. Can you hear it?

What is it about frogs? Sometimes I think they're so cute, and at others I feel squirmish. It's true that some people love frogs and think they're all adorable, but not me. I like the tiny golden frogs you find in NorCal ponds. Bullfrogs scare me. As a four-year-old, it was terrifying to listen to their noise at night and I couldn't fall asleep. To be fair, though, I think that if I were to come across even a huge one on a walk, I'd probably be enraptured at the sight. Frogs fascinate me. The urge to go near one outweighs the instinct to run away. After all, the stories I heard as a girl about the ones that squirt blinding venom at people... well those involve toads, don't they?

Okay, I know I'm behind on this one, but if you haven't seen these, Kid Robot's Dunny Show NYC from 2004 was way cool. Dunny is a vinyl figure/collectible toy designed by artist Tristan Eaton and the show exhibited Dunny pieces customised by artists such as Tim Biskup, Frank Kozik and Gary Baseman. Further photos from the Detroit leg at CPop can be seen on the Flickr page of Shidoshi. I'll admit I got all flushed when I saw them.

Photo by mediaeater

When this popped up in my FlickrFox sidebar, I was riveted. Back in 2000 my b-boy friend exposed me to a lot of breakdancing. It would always make my heart beat faster. Even standing on the outside of the circle watching them dance, eveyone nodding heads to the rhythm, rocking along and cheering the moves. Headspins were one of those that got the people clapping. What a rush when everybody tuned in. No haters jealous of the space taken by breakers, everybody craning and nodding and rocking together, and the lightning-fast dancers in the middle of it all. B-boys and b-girls crouched on the inside edge, ready to jump in. Show off the fancy footwork or gymnastics. Crazy flexible bodies bouncing back and forth. A battle nobody had to die in. If the flow was good one would pounce up, the other give way. If the timing was off, they might both throw down. Play against each other. Fierce and sweating. We went wild for a tricky freeze or flip at the end.

Photo by pearwithlegs.

Momentum and motion of clouds running along wide expanses almost sucks me up into space. I drift along with them. Swift face of creation passing up and beyond the trees, the land. Beyond my body. Feet no longer touch the ground. Rising undulations take my breath away. Astonished.