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lookout update (and a couple pics from the epic journey home)
Lookout tonight at the arclight at 8:10.
I apologize for late notice - I do hope to see you there.
perhaps good ole hollywood thai food supper after?

check out this pillow fort/sculpture I made in the airplane between chiang mai and bangkok. it was completely uplifting to have an airline employee playing along! the word in thai is "sabai" it means no pressure or relaxed... sabai culture is one of the things I love about thai people.

I met this japanese guy and his entourage of friends. we each were sporting watermelon colors and a bamboo hat. the posse, in which everybody had a camera and bowed was archetypal.

pamcash welcomed me at the airport in seoul in watermelon shoes and bearing the awesome welcome sign. I have such a thing for signs welcoming people to the center of the universe. particularly at airports. and particularly on handmade korean paper with cool cutouts and swirly drawings and watermelon colors. I had an 11 hour layover en route from bangkok to LA and I spent it wisely running around with pam.

I'm back in LA. In the meantime, come see Lookout
brother joe is in a movie which is opening tonight. as I JUST got back from 5 months in thailand, I've yet to have time to put together any sort of todo, but I'm going to be seeing it this weekend. likely saturday. I'll post when I know when and where I'll be seeing it. I hope to make a smallish todo. see it anyway, it's allegedly quite good and worth seeing.

fyi my "day" today started in thailand on the morning of the 28th and will end when I go to sleep sometime around noon tomorrow - afternoon of the 31st in LA. via pam in seoul.

a funny thing happened on the way to the california
I've left paris.

in fact, I left paris about a month ago. since leaving paris, I've been to london, all over(ish) ireland, frankfurt, driven the autobahn from frankfurt to innsbruck (austria), planned to drive from innsbruck to portugal, canceled that plan and am writing this on an airplane back to los angeles earlier than expected.

I left europe early largely because I'm a bit weary of the constant traveling baselessness, and because I miss her. while I was in the airport to board this flight, I was planning on writing this entry about the time I've spent tooling about and not living in paris. in fact, I look forward to writing those adventures and showing you those pictures. however, I had quite a time in the airport and that quite a time is the story y'all get this time forthwith posthaste.

( Here's a longish prelude to my tale... it's boringer than that to which I'd like to subject you. but I've already written it so here it is if you want it )

I'm waiting in the lounge and looking at pictures I've taken over the trip and reminiscing and looking forward to seeing krista.
long about 1:45, my mad dash commences.

they finally announce the gate for my flight. I'm off to a gate which turns out to be about a 20 minute walk from where I sat.
unsurprisingly, and in this case, quite fortuitously, I was "randomly" selected for the extra security check bit. I'm selected for the random search about 10% of the time I'm flying from LA and about 80% of the time I'm flying to LA. I suspect they hate the player and the game.
security guy: passport?
dan: here you go
sg: take off your bracelets
dan: as you wish
sg: take off your shoes
dan: aye aye
sg: take off your hat
dan: done and done
sg: can I look through your bags?
dan: go for it. but please be careful - that bag has a camera, laptop, harddrive, and drawy tablet and that bag has another camera
sg: thanks. please take out the camera and take off the cover
dan: cover?
sg: lens cap?
dan: outta there
sg: fine. now take off the lens
dan: no problem
sg: thanks. now turn on the small camera
dan: your wish is my command
sg: now sample your water
dan: rum punch - quite satisfactory
sg: now take out the laptop and remove the battery
dan: ok.
dan: uhhhh not ok. I need to go back right now - it seems I've forgotten my laptop in the lounge. can I leave all this stuff here?
sg: no. talk to the ticket counter folk first. and when you return, we'll need to go through this again.
dan: ok (packing up, putting on shoes, bracers, hat, putting everything away)
dan (to ticket counter folk) I forgot my laptop out there... I need to run and go fetch it quick like a bunny.
ticket counter: ok take your passport and ticket.
dan: ok - running off.

it was actually more of a waddle as I'm packmuling all the aforementioned heavy stuff. but it was a fast waddle. picture burt in the cartoon penguin scene from mary poppins.
I power-waddle the 10ish minutes back to the spot where I'd previously lounged.
unfortunately, as I power-waddled, the external hard drive fell out of my backpack and slapped the tiley ground somethin fierce.
I didn't have time to mourn - and I still hold out hope that it'll still work.
I return to the scene of my idiocy.

the russian guys who had been sitting near me told me that a couple minutes after I'd left, a girl in a black shirt came by and walked off with the laptop saying she was taking it to information.
I power waddle to the nearest official looking person and ask them what I should do and where I should go.
check security, they say. they gave me vague directions to find it.
I vaguely wander (waddle) off in that vague direction.

after a while, I find security. they've seen not hyde nor hare of my computer. but will announce it on the PA if somebody turns it in.
long about this time, I'm realizing that I don't know what I've done with my passport and ticket and travel notebook full of notes from the last weeks. I will further note that I've had this passport for 9 years. it's near full of stamps. I'm a bit slack when it comes to not losing things and I've always been impressed that I've never lost it and I was planning on retiring this passport after this trip and going to get a new one. to lose it at this stage would be frightful - not to mention logistically trying.

at this point, I've got no laptop, no passport, no boarding pass, a maybe dead hard drive, and am not all that far from missing my flight. whereas an hour ago I was golden, recall.
so I doublecheck everything again - no laptop, no passport, no ticket. but I did find my boarding pass. that's a small step in the right direction.

I powerwaddle back to the gate.
I stopped every single official looking airport guy along the way and asked if anybody had given them a passport.
what got frustrating is each and every one of them wanted me to stay and discuss my problem with them as if they're the first person to whom I'm reporting this problem.
when was the last time you had it?
have you checked security?
did you go to the loo?
you'd better tell your airline about this straight away.

I appreciated it from all of them. but I didn't have time for that and I didn't want to be rude. I was brisk. after the 4th time, I was quite brisk.
halfway through the 15 minute powerwaddle back to the gate, I ran into a black shirted girl holding a laptop who told me I'd forgotten my laptop.
I gave her a huge hug and asked if she's seen my passport.

I put my laptop away and waddled off.
after the 10th time of being asked if I'd left my passport in the loo, I may have stuck my toes on the too-brisk-for-brisk side of the rude/brisk line.

I waddled up to the gate and ask the ticket counter guys if they'd seen my passport or travel notebook.
no travel notebook, but they do have my passport. I distinctly remember them telling me I had to take my passport and me taking it. they, along with the evidence, say it ain't so.
at this point, I've got the laptop, passport, and boarding pass. all I'm missing is the travel notebook. and potentially all the pictures I've taken on this trip on the maybe-dead hard drive.

I go back to security guy and recreate the above rigamarole near verbatim.
during which I found my travel notebook in my bag.

I'm still on the plane, landing in about half an hour, being picked up by my mom, and taken to a warm bed and bath.
after about an hour fifteen of waddling and maddashing and being leaden, I managed to briskly alchemize myself back to golden.

last night was once-in-a-lifetime
there's not a huge list of stuff on my list of I-really-really-really-really-wanna-but-I'm-never-gonna.
last night I checked one of those off the list.

that there is a picture of roger waters and me. the listy task off which I checked was seeing pink floyd in teh oncert in hyde park. granted, I saw roger waters, nick mason, and supporting band - not pink floyd. but the music was powerful, the show was huge, roger waters was on, the crowd was hyped. I felt so 60s anti-war. he was playing songs about and the crowd was shouting about bringing the boys back home, the bads of war, the sucks of the american regime, and the brits' shameful association with the american sucks.

if I had to pick one town in the world to see pink floyd, london would be it.. it's their home turf.
I'm in london, by the way.

since getting here, I've gotten together with friends I haven't seen in too long and made them do odd things...

like taking a mouthful of fizzy effervescent emergen-c, eat your cereal with chopsticks, and simulate famous photographs.

I hotboxed a flat - by making flapjacks.

I've done some walking around this town and found assorted cool stuff

it was canada day, so I took a picture of me all canada'd out for my far off fiancee.
I've been wearing watermelon stuff, and specifically hand-painted watermelon converse for years. further, I've been finding that the trends of fashion have been copying me of late. and here's no exception. I mean really - watermelon converse? who else wears this?
the man set up a wall over 2m tall blocking our view of the lovely clean thames. as if that was going to stop me...

on the other side of the highway/bridge, was a busker to whom I gave some ruegelte in exchange for a photo
I don't think I'll ever own a SUV in my entire life. they suck on any number of levels. but I will tell you this - if I ever get a SUV, I'm going to put a YETI license plate on it.
this mad scientist guy makes big machinations of plastic tubing and wind power - they walk around and look creeky.

tis photo series is one of my favorite pasttimes in the london tube:

two tickets to suburban parisdise
here's my life, of late...

I met a russian clown/artist in new york last year. I went to his art opening in brooklyn and we made, amongst many cool things, this picture:

I was recently busking at sacre coeur (note the big crowd of suckers at the bottom of the picture who just wanted a peaceful evening overlooking paris from a gorgeous church but who instead got roped into seeing my show because they were too lazy to leave) and made this picture:

which I sent to him because it had the jumping orange theme going on. lo and behold, he tells me he's staying at his parents' house just outside of paris, that tomorrow is his dad's (another russian clown) birthday, and why don't I come on over and have some laughs.

I packed my stuff and hotfooted it to the train for a 45ish minute ride to parc disneyland, which is in the suburbs of paris. I've been thinking about going to parc disneyland since I got here (on and off (mostly off), not like it's been a pressing thought). not so much to go and see the features of the parc. but to see the differences between it and the disneyland in whose shadow I was raised. but I had not the motivation to actually haul my cookies all the way to the parc just for that reason. and I didn't want to spend a whole day there in any case. hence being picked up there and going in far enough to use their plumbing was perfect.

I've spent the last week here, feeling a bit like I'm in russia. the few times I've ventured forth into the world, I've been momentarily surprised when the people speak the french. everybody here speaks between broken and good-but-russian-accented english. my collective hostive is about the same with french. they all speak better russian than anything and mostly speak in russian. sometimes they translate for me, sometimes I just watch and follow the gestures and sounds of conversation. these are world class clowns (and the family thereof, who spend a lot of time with world class clowns) hence divining meaning without words isn't as hard as it otherwise would be. my friend was raised in this environment and is one of the more creative people I know. this kid will be raised in at least as cool an environment and ought to take over the world some day...

you saw her here first

I've felt so creative here... it's been amazing. I feel like this environment is tailored to foster creativity while providing an excellent life for those living it. we gave the jumping orange dot picture a second go...

the outtakes are quite amusing

though the main project has been a fire spinning video I've been trying to make for about a year and a half. no link yet.
while here, I met another russian. this one is a guy who runs a zen monastery/yoga center/steam bath house/martial arts camp/day spa in the south of russia. he invited me to go be a student/artist/performer there for free (waiving the normal 400 euro per day fee for guests). and what I've got to do to earn my keep is spin some fire every night. how cool is that? I've been wanting to go to russia since A) I missed the st petersburg 300 year anniversary a few years back B) joe went to russia with these self same clowns C) rocky IV.

life is like my feet are kicked up on the railing, watching the sunset, overlooking a beautiful river and trees.
except when it's more creative, exciting, and precarious...

sorry mom

ps - if you haven't heard of zbig rybczynski or seen his short film tango (his others are darn cool too, but tango's my favorite) and you do not have a pay-by-the-byte internet connection, check this out... it's downright flabbergasting. tango

update from paris
life is swell here. french is better than it's ever been. by a lot. I can talk to strangers and I only need to tell them to talk more slowly about half the time. in fact, I was surfing the free wifi (pronounced weefee) outside a cafe with cherry and jimi when a guy asked if he could take our picture. we talked for about 20 minutes and the resulting results resulted.

I've finally made myself a website. burningdan.net. it's got all my favoritest photos (many of which have never been posted here) and some words and cheesy pink rollovers!

I've started busking the streets of paris - the parisians have been swell ruegelt givers and the police have not hassled me once (knock on wood).

I've been posting flyers about teaching photo lessons in english (ie teaching photography and english simultaneously) and I've gotten some bites.

I've been pondering life, the universe and everything. I've been doing a fair amount of yoga. I've been making friends and influencing nipples.

I certainly miss my friends, family, her and the produce of LA. but the better mustard, better cheese and challenging language tries to make up for it. I cannot believe what a high percentage of my brain cycles go to language these days... even thinking about english differently. thinking about french idioms and learning how one says things makes me think of how we say various things in english. my favorite so far is that to have a crush on dan is literally translated "to have a stutter for dan" which is unbelievably cute and accurate.

I've been appreciating the way the city lights dance on the seine.. really in a new way. sometimes it even looks contrived and controlled; the way they sparkle when observed from one particular bridge near notre dame.

and I've been taking some pictures...

(ps - I assume everybody has checked out zefrank's the show. if not, check it out. daily)

last week was the first day of the rest of my life
appropriately, at the outset of this voyage, a vial of glitter came unscrewed in my pocket. I'm covered in glitter. all my stuff is covered in glitter. everywhere I've been is sporting a trail of glitter. it's been a Glitter Incident. quite auspicious.

this here's the story of the start of the biggest trip I've ever taken. let me tell you a bit about my life...

I've worked at the same job since 1993. she's treated me well; we've enjoyed a wonderful symbiotic relationship. however, over the last few years, my interests have shifted and I've wanted to spend my 9-5 doing more artistic things. in fact, my primary goal at work for the last 4ish years has been to shuffle things around and get stuff done such that I could telecommute part-time and not leave her in a lurch.

after one of the more trying and interminable battles I've ever waged, I finally did it - last thursday was my last day in the office. which means that, unlike what southwest offers, I'm now free to move about the world.

I'm typing in the dallas airport - the obvious logical place for a stopover between LA and my new digs - paris. for the reefer madness crowd, today is 4/20 and my plane to paris boards at 4:20.

I've never lived outside LA. never. LA is just something I've sort of assumed forever (it's been the assumed setting for my movie, not that I've assumed I'd live in LA forever). it wasn't until recently that I even noticed that I'd never lived anywhere else. it wasn't until even more recently that I realized I recently set a new personal record for longest duration of consecutive days outside LA - about 7 weeks in australia and new zealand. I'd never spent 2 months away from my parents house (not that I've lived with my parents the whole time, but just that I've never been far from the vicinity)? I recall being somewhat shocked when I encountered a 25ish year old girl in south dakota who said she'd never been more than a couple hundred miles from where we were standing. and I've never gone two months without seeing the 405? damn...

off I am and off I'll stay. leaving a wake of glitter, apparently. the good news is that I'll have more time to take pictures, update my lj, spin poi, and not have such pressing compulsory hustle and bustle. the more good news is that I intend to speak markedly better french than I do today (which, with a week of hindsight, is amazingly true. my french is WAY better than it's ever been).

the less good news is that I'll be away from Her.

a while back, I wrote that I'd found the girl. as it turns out, I was right. my statuesque canadienne (who here in my lj, for the sake of innocence-protecting name-changing, I call krista) and I are happily embarking upon the rest of our mutual lives. she and I are engaged to be married at an unspecified date in the future. at a specified location in the future - burning man.

years ago, I was talking with an ex girlfriend who'd recently gotten married. she told me that getting married changed her relationship. she said that it wasn't like before getting married she'd had a crap relationship. she had intimacy and trust and all the fixins. but, she claimed, when she got married, it suddenly hit a new level that she didn't even know was missing before. at the time, I dismissed it as newlywed hysteria. or warm feet. or something. I defer. my own thoughts and feelings toward krista and our relationship took a giant leap in the aftermath of our engagement. my theory is that the knowing that I'd made a life-long commitment is what that's about. I think.

the way it all happened was relatively fairytalltale... she and I broke up and up we stayed broke until thursday night at burning man. we'd talked during the broken upness, but we were not a lingering breakup or on-again-off-again (jiggity jig). during the broken up time, we both grew and changed. except at the time, I only saw how she'd grown and changed.

during the breakup talks, krista told me she had planned on proposing to me saturday night as the man burned. also during the breakup talks, I told her I didn't think I'd have said yes. by thursday night, I'd forgotten about that exchange.

I started thursday the way I had started every day since breakup - not thinking that she and I would get back together. but I had a revelatory thursday and conciously realized that she'd grown and changed. and I re-realized what a wonderful badass she is and how she and I will make each others' lives better forever.

I strode up to her, gently grabbed her chin and turned her face toward mine.
I said yes.

and that was all.
it was clear to me that I'd just asked her to marry me.
I subsequently learned that she understood it as well.
surprising how much sense it makes.

I didn't get a picture of it - except in my mind. I have this wonderful snapshot in my head of her in chloe (the green faux-fur watermelon cloak pictured below), with half her face obscured by shadow, and the rest glimmery inridesent... like a flashbulb or fireworks are going off around her. that image, more than anything I've ever experienced makes me want to be able to draw. at least I've got it in my head.

as I missed the opportunity to physically capture the amazing mind's-eye-only picture, I cannot show it to her, you, or anybody else. but I've got two others that work in its stead.

one of the cool things about getting engaged is that I got to be right about this picture. I was a bit overcome with herness during an alone moment shortly after we met. pragmatically speaking, I took that picture to hedge my bets - if I turned out to be right about our future, I'd have quite an amazing present to give her. if I turned out to be wrong, I'd never show it to anybody. I didn't show it to anybody until we were engaged. I contemplated saving it for a wedding gift, but I was too excited to share.

about 6ish hours after the yes, I got this picture of our first together sunrise.

4/20 is genuinely the first day of the rest of my life.
and I start it covered in glitter.

thank you jessica and everybody else who helped this transpire
yes - I know it's not 4/20 anymore and I know I'm not in dallas - I've spent quite a week in paris, but quite an internetless week. having a great time - wish you were here

Brick opening - come and see it (and me)
last time I posted like this, it went well. this time, it will be a smaller production.

I'm probably going to see the opening of brick thursday night at midnight at the arclight (friday at 12:01 am, for the sticklers). you should come.

unlike manic promotions, there's not going to be an afterparty this time. so it goes. but it will probably be one of your last chances to see me for a while as I'm moving out of los angeles indefinitely in roughly 3 days (sort of to paris, but more like to out there)

if you don't make it to that show, go see this movie. it's amazing. I won't bore you with my review, but I aspire to use brickisms in daily speech. everybody everybody has given it glowing reviews. brick won a special jury thing at 2005's sundance film festival.

this is not a red carpet premier. this is just a movie. there's no list or anything. buy a ticket and enjoy the show. while you are welcome to ask me if it's going to sell out, if there's still space, if it has sold out or anything of that ilk, it won't do you any good as I don't know.

hope to see you there

PS the subject's "and me" is a probably/tentative. while I fully expect to be there, I reserve the right to not)

( and here's a list of tentative cities and release dates (none of which are one-time showings)... go see it! )

Current Mood: proud again

photology 20

click click click - clickety click - click that picture...

it kind of feels like cheating to use burning man pictures.
there is sooo much cool stuff from which to make photos, I sometimes feel like you've just got to point your camera randomly and you'll come out with a cool something or other.

"whose universe is it?" my friend asked when she took me out to the man, straight away after I showed up.
see, the man was pink and green this year. which, this whole 80s craze notwithstanding, has been my color combo for a while now.
it all started with that watermelon thing I do. and it keeps working for me. I give away watermelon gum and keep warm in chloe - my watermelon cloak. some people have taken to calling me watermelon.

the interesting bit is that I'm not even particularly fond of natural watermelon. but it's more striking than cateloupe.

photology 19

click the above picture.

I get quite a kick out of making things look like what they're not.
I'm not sure why that is. I don't know what I specifically enjoy about the "what in the name of god is that thing?!" "oh... it's my nose!" effect. but I know I specifically enjoy it.
this is one of those that nobody guesses what is this is to be is.

this picture reminds me a bit of death guild and stun runner and teenage wasteland and sort of a return to oz style yellow brick road

photology 18

click the above small firey hair for the roaring fiery hair

I was at a costume party at the monster house when the bartender, who had been dressed in corsetry and a wig, ripped her wig off and did the librarian hair toss thing. did you notice how her hair actually resumbles a roaring fire?

roaring!

photology 17

click the above pic. no really

I'm not sure how this point has eluded me heretofore, but what I need is a green picture of cassandra.
we've got a red one. though she and I have imminent plans to do a bedder redder one.
and we've got a blue one.

my favorite photography teacher said that photography is about solving problems.
I don't know that "about" is how I'd describe it, but solving problems and eliminating detractors from the final picture is as much of my process as trying to figure out what goes in.

this is one of those instances. with help from

boymaenad, I snatched victory from the jaws of bad lighting defeat.
we were in the tiny backstage dressing room at a club where the Blue Dan's Troupe had just performed.
the background was cluttered. the lighting was overhead track and unattrackive.

somebody spotted a dusty spotlight in the corner, found a blue gel, bounced the spot off a mirror, feared shorting the entire club's electrical circuits, closed our eyes and thought lovely thoughts.

uhhh diane.

photology 16

click the above picture for the bigger version

I have/had more trouble with this picture than most figuring out what's so appealing about it.

I kept not being able to figure out what kept drawing my eye into this picture. it vortexly sucks my eye into the center. the rule of thirds is largely out the window. the center of the picture (top yellow light) is almost exactly in the center of the picture. and yet it vortexly sucks my eyes.

my mom said it had to do with the shape of the clouds. like they're making a shape that criss crosses and makes you follow their slightly curving lines? she said the clouds make a box shape. almost swastakish, she said.

does this picture's mojo work on you? either way, any idea why?

photology 15

click up here

diane,

this time it's purple. I think we're closing in on the owls and the coffee.

coop

photology 14

hurry hurry hurry... click right up (there)

diane,

aliens? pictures?
this is an interesting take on the venerable "alien picture" format some friends do.
an alien picture is when the camera is aboe you and at an angle such that your forehead takes up half the frame.
I think I saw the man from another place with a camera above his head recently.
the other hand held some good morning america.

coop

photology 13

click to get the bigger detaileder defeateder picture

diane,

bob's former former partner in crime, who has both his arms, paid me a visit.
he said he's sorry about his prior affiliation with the crazed spirit and he wants to make ammends,
but he was in the midst of hearing news that his only daughter died while an anvil landed on his toes.

coop

photology 12

in my day, we didn't have no links to click to see bigger versions. pictures were the size of a postage stamp. and we licked it!

I love taking pictures of older, character laden faces. I mean, I like young character laden faces as well, but character is so much more obviously laden in wrinkles than in smoothness.

photology 11

click for bigger version

ok everybody... breast, tummies, necks and hands. necks and hands
(seriously, check that second link)

photology 10

click me! click me! (meaning the picture)

diane,

I'm driving through the endless wheat fields of south eastern iowa. I need to find somewhere to fill up. but the last rest stop was 117 miles ago and didn't serve coffee.

I came across what may be a clue that unravels the mystery of the owls. a girl stepped out of the wheat field. as soon as she emerged, the sky turned yellow and green and she pulled out an axe. I'm not talking about a run of the mill wood chopper. I mean she should be chopping off heads with this thing.

no sooner did the sky turn green and the girl wield the axe, an owl flew overhead and she disappeared. I think this means something.
a minute later, there was an off-ramp with the internationally recognized icon for coffee and pie.

coop

( Read more... )

photology 9

if you click it, she will come

if you haven't been to burning man, go. I've told lots of people about it and not a single one has gone and come back to me later complaining about how it's not all it's cracked up to be.
if you've been to burning man and haven't been there early enough to see that much open playa, go earlier. it's a vastly different scene.