Why I leave town this time of year....

Albert Kaufman

The car is almost packed - headlamp, water, sleeping bag, tent, footwear, bike, pillow, headphones for sleeping through the pounding all night thump thump, and it's time to head south through the beautiful Oregon countryside, down down south, central, Paisley, summerlake, tulelake, seeing friends along the way, clear skies, seeing the beautiful countryside pass by while listening to compilation CDs and counting the miles till I get to

BURNING MAN

for year 8. yes, I can't believe it either. that I've spent that much time in the Black Rock Desert - that much energy hauling myself and my clothes back and forth to this desolate place. There are the gorgeous sunsets, the quiet, the noise, the friends, the family by now, the Post Office where I participate in a kind of improv theater that has probably done more to spice up my life than anything before... and it all begins for me tomorrow with a turn of a key in a starter. Ah, so simple. Goodbye work. Goodbye BlueOregon. Goodbye Daily Kos - for a brief 10 days which will pass too quickly and then all of it will come rushing back.

This year should be interesting. They've been having dust storms and wind storms like noone's seen in years. Seems the lake that usually fills the area in the Winter never developed this year and so it's a big dusty mess out there. One year it was a big dusty mess - I don't ever remember smiling so much. This year's theme is Greening the Man and there will be all sorts of carbon balancing, trading - and camps are being encouraged to go above and beyond to be green - though we've had a LNT - Leave no Trace, ethic at this event for years.

And, it's more political than one might think. And very smart. I've never been around such a big bunch of smart, thinking people before - feels very supportive and interesting in that way.

May the general trend towards righting the ship of state continue while we're all out there finding ourselves. Power to the Peaceful!

By Albert Kaufman Aug. 24, 2007