October 3, 2022
Burning Man 2022
It was the harshest Burn I've been to, weather-wise that is. If I ignore the many-hours-long wind and rain that blew one early night and somehow fucked up the timing belt in my truck, and if I ignore the second intense night wind that destroyed my shade structure, the weather was really nice right up until the Gate opened for Burn week itself. Then the weather got hellish. You know I can tolerate trans-100°(F) temps, and I don't mind the dust storms much, but when you get both every afternoon, day after day, things begin to get tiresome. Nights were much better. I discovered to my great delight that I could walk for MILES at Burning Man and my legs wouldn't hurt a bit, thanks to the new hip joint. My feet still hurt, but both hips, both knees and both ankles were like teenagers (or at least as well as I can remember what my legs felt like as a teenager). Friday was the exception for night weather. I was on the other side of the city when a blinding dust storm came up. I tried waiting it out in the shelter of some camps, but this was not a short duration wind. I actually got lost. Too many street signs had been stolen and I could barely see half a block in any direction, so it was difficult to find any landmarks, and it was impossible to see which way the roads curved. Finally, I found the D road and followed it the long way around to 4:30 and back to Burner Buddies Camp. Trying to cross the inner playa in such a dust storm at night would have been pointless and probably dangerous. I thought being on D road would shelter me from some of the wind, and maybe it did, but cutting across the inner playa would have reduced the distance by about a third.
Here's my complete collection of photos from Burning Man 2022. Included in that collection are 116 photos taken by my friend Duee. He doesn't use any photo sharing site, so he gave me these copies to post on Flickr. This was Duee's first time at Burning Man, so you can see what caught the eye of this birgin.
Here are some of the photos:
This year's ticket, shot by Duee.
Waiting on Gate road, Sunday morning, also by Duee.
Just a couple of blocks away on 4:30 was Rootpile which had Bluegrass music every night, and one night gave away pork roast, according to Duee, who took this photo.
Dawn.
Box Office being set up. This was five days before Bo Office would open and twelve days before Gate would open for general admission.
Digging post holes for a shade structure in Box Camp, where a lot of Box Office volunteers live.
The view of Ol' Razorback Mountain from Box Camp. My camp is barely visible in the distance, if you know where to look.
AirBox! This is the Box Office at the airport and this was the first time I'd actually seen it.
Burner Buddies setting up our rainbow arch.
Showclicks, the company Burning Man hired to handle the software part of ticket sales, was all new this year and included many birgins, and they all got brand new, shiny, clean bikes for the job.
Box Office, a little more complete, two days before it was set to open.
Gate, nine days before it opened for general admission.
The central spire of the Empyrean Temple.
The Naked Pub Crawl. The roads were in really bad shape this year, due to ill-timed rains. It was easier to walk.
My truck had to be towed off playa. Burning Man pays tow companies to tow Burners this far - just to pavement on highway 34. Here we all are waiting for further tow service or repairs. I got towed to Sparks. During the first big night time wind storm we had, enough playa dust caked on my timing belt so that when I went to try to start it days later, the belt slipped. I got towed on Labor Day (Monday) and the shop in Sparks was able to fix it on Tuesday. Enjoyed a night in the Sparks Best Western and drove home the next day.
Got a couple photos of Pyramid Lake from the tow truck.
permalink | October 3, 2022 at 08:57 PM | Comments (1)
June 28, 2022
Million Dollar Theatre
A good shot of the Million Dollar Theatre while the Los Angeles World Naked Bike Ride was passing by. Photo by westwood1727.
permalink | June 28, 2022 at 08:05 AM | Comments (0)
September 30, 2021
Three From The 1996 GNI Gathering
It seems that my photos from the 1996 gathering of Gay Naturists International fell through the cracks and I never scanned any of them. Here are three; all Kodachrome.
permalink | September 30, 2021 at 07:43 PM | Comments (0)
Los Angeles World Naked Bike Ride 2012
I wasn't able to participate in this year's LAWNBR, but just yesterday I did happen to come across this video shot at the beginning of the 2012 naked bike ride, which was the first LAWNBR I rode. The video has been lounging over at Ipernity all these years, where it appears only 11 people have seen it. So I copied it over to Vimeo.
permalink | September 30, 2021 at 02:44 PM | Comments (0)
August 14, 2021
Four With Skin
Not sure which beach this is. The Kodachrome slide is date-stamped November 1991, but I suspect I took this months before then and let the film sit in my camera before finishing and developing it. Probably Cape Cod.
On Kauai, 1986, Kodachrome.
At the fountain in the Christian Science Center in Boston, 1983, Agfachrome.
At the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu, 1986, Polaroid Polapan instant slide film.
permalink | August 14, 2021 at 09:15 PM | Comments (0)
February 28, 2021
Four More Kodachromes
Skinnydipping at a New England waterfall with the guys from the bike club, but I don't recall this place at all. Kodachrome, 1989.
Mattapan Station at the terminus of Red Line light-rail, Boston, Kodachrome, 1988.
Arizona, Kodachrome, 1988.
permalink | February 28, 2021 at 04:57 PM | Comments (0)
September 29, 2019
Burning Man 2019 Photos
My complete set of photos from Burning Man 2019 can be seen here. Below are a few samples.
First morning on the playa, just before sunrise. You can see the moon about to set to the right. Klank is camped in the larger trailer and I'm in the Scamp.
Looking the other way, toward what will be Black Rock City.
How I stabilized my shade structure. It worked perfectly. The shade structure stood there for three weeks and wasn't damaged in any way. That sphere is a light, not any part of the stabilization.
Box Office still under construction.
DPW (Department of Public Works) putting up the shade structure in front of Box Office.
Early in the construction of the Temple of Direction.
The Man viewed along the 3 O'Clock road.
A week after I got there, some neighbors had begun to move in.
Fomogenesis Camp's shade structure.
Fomogenesis Camp during setup.
Segways with shiny decorations.
The 747 was there for its, presumably, last time. It's been sold to someone in Las Vegas.
Burner Buddies on the corner of 4:30 and J.
An official map showing the locations of all theme camps. (Full size image here.)
David and his sister Nancy. David sold his Scamp to me after last year's Burn.
A history of the temples displayed at the Temple of Direction.
Burner Buddies trying to get photos of the wedding party.
Pan and Flavio renewed their wedding vows in the Chapel of Chimes. (Here is the album of their wedding photos.)
Poppy and friend waiting for the start of the Naked Pub Crawl.
Some of the art behind Center Camp.
During the burning of the Temple of Direction.
The Temple of Direction starting to collapse.
permalink | September 29, 2019 at 05:43 PM | Comments (0)
August 3, 2019
Los Angeles World Naked Bike Ride Photos for 2019
I rode only the afternoon loop on this year's World Naked Bike Ride in Los Angeles. I had three GoPros, each shooting one photo every five seconds during the ride. Two of the cameras faced rearward and on forward. The complete collection of photos is here. There's an icon for a slideshow near the upper right corner of that page. I tried to sync the clocks on the three cameras, but they don't allow you to set the seconds, so they're out of sync with each other over a spread of a minute or so. The route changed some this year, partly due to construction on the LA River bike path, so if you enjoy looking at these photos for what's in the background, you'll see some different scenery in this year's photos.
What follows are a few of the photos:
There were a lot of motorcycle cops along on the ride. They were tremendously helpful and had to stop at least a couple of drivers who thought they could just drive right into us, as if we would magically disappear out of their way.
A naked bystander. Not part of the ride at all, but an observer from the side of the road. I guess we inspired him. Too bad he didn't have a bike!
We entered the LA River bike path at the point where we exited in previous years.
A stop along the LA River bike path.
And we exited the bike path via a little dirt path.
The first time I rode the LAWNBR we went past this church and they called the cops. This is the first time we've ridden by it again. No problems this time.
And then we re-entered the LA River bike path.
We went through this rotary twice, for a total of 360°.
This guy was back with his sign - this year, no typos!
permalink | August 3, 2019 at 10:25 PM | Comments (1)
September 14, 2018
Videos from Burning Man 2018
permalink | September 14, 2018 at 08:04 PM | Comments (0)
August 12, 2018
LAWNBR 2018 Video Slideshow - ThiEYE Camera
Here's the third of the slideshows of my photos from the Los Angeles World Naked Bike Ride back in June.
permalink | August 12, 2018 at 08:02 AM | Comments (0)
August 6, 2018
Los Angeles World Naked Bike Ride 2018
The Los Angeles World Naked Bike Ride for 2018 took place on June 23. They do it in two loops, the first loop being shorter than the second loop. The day started out completely overcast with a bit of drizzle, temps in the 70s, despite trans-100 temperatures back home in the desert.
I've accumulated a number of action cameras and knew this would be a good opportunity to do some comparisons while getting a ton of photos of the other riders. The complete set of photos is here.
I used four action cameras:
- ThiEYE (link to photos) on my helmet, facing rearwards for both loops.
- Lightdow (link to photos) on the handlebars facing forward during the first loop.
- GitUp (link to photos) on the handlebars facing forward during the second loop.
- And GoPro Hero4 Silver (link to photos) mounted above the rear wheel facing rearwards for both loops.
As you will see, quality was all over the place, but the GoPro tended to do the best under the varying lighting conditions. The full sun came out on the second loop.
I have prepared video slideshows of the photos from each camera, but I've only uploaded two three. Due to upload limitations at Vimeo, I won't upload the others until sometime in September. Here are links to the two three that are up:
Los Angeles World Naked Bike Ride 2018 - Lightdow Camera.
Los Angeles World Naked Bike Ride 2018 - GitUp Camera.
Los Angeles World Naked Bike Ride 2018 - ThiEYE Camera.
They both all end when their batteries died. The GoPro had the longest battery life. It was the only camera still running at the end of the first loop. It ran far longer on the second loop than the other cameras, but died just as we came to the intersection of Silver Lake and Sunset Boulevards. Next year I think I may try hooking it up to a USB battery so I can actually photograph the entire ride (for the first time ever).
Below are some of the more interesting shots, IMO.
That's Rocky and his husband.
This guy happened to park next to me. It was his first WNBR.
This guy stayed dressed like this for the whole ride. The ride is clothing optional and a lot of riders wear some clothing, but to be 100% dressed in serious bike rider drag on a fun ride like this seemed weird. Creepy almost. He certainly looks uncomfortable to me.
There were a number of Metro Bikes in use. Some riders covered the seat as they are supposed to; some didn't.
This little guy rode the first loop only and was our only child rider. Usually, we have a few kids, but only one this year. He was accompanied by at least four adults and it looked like they must go on rides together quite a bit. He was a good rider and communicated well with those around him.
The LAWNBR is conducted with the close cooperation and supervision of the LAPD. In prior years they would run us "like a funeral" (in their terminology), meaning they stopped traffic for us at most intersections and gave us right of way. The downside of that is the line of naked riders would stretch out further and further as the faster riders at the front left the slower riders behind, so occasionally the cops would stop all the riders until everybody had caught up. That could mean standing in the street for 10 or 15 minutes sometimes. This year, we were supposed to handle intersections as just ordinary vehicles, with a few exceptions. So a lot of the photos here are shot while we are waiting for a light to turn green. Once we got to Sunset Boulevard on the second loop, and we began the long straight run back to the end of the ride, the cops stopped traffic for us at almost every intersection. Maybe we were behind schedule.
Spiderman's costume lasted the length of the ride pretty well. Sometimes full body paint shows some wear and bare spots before we get to the end.
You get to see more than just naked bike riders while doing the LAWNBR.
Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions building.
This guy. I had a brief discussion with another rider about whether the guy knew he had a glaring typo in his sign.
The Victor Clothing mural with Anthony Quinn.
Passing the Bradbury Building.
Coming up on the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
Waiting at a light near the LADWP.
Between the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and Disney Hall.
Electric skateboard. He wasn't with us at the end of the ride, so maybe his battery ran out.
The double-wheeled bike on the right is supposed to float better on sand, the rider said. He brought it from Florida. I have to admit, he never got stuck in any sand during the naked bike ride.
Couldn't find matching shoes or saddle, I guess.
The guy on the phone would later be seen drinking a foamy beverage from a brown bottle. He must've had a supply in his backpack.
We didn't get to go right up the middle of Chinatown this year.
The Los Angeles State Historic Park has re-opened.
This bright red seat might work for that other guy with the bright red trim.
Jim practicing to be a North Korean dictator.
Just so you know I'm not the only nerd on the ride.
The passengers on the Amtrak bus from Oxnard get a special greeting.
They held us all at the rotary where we enter the Los Angeles River Greenway Trail.
In the several years I've done the LAWNBR we've approached this intersection from just about every angle, both on sidewalk and on pavement, due to construction. But, finally, all construction is complete. We approached it from North San Fernando Road this year.
Out of the rotary and onto the bike trail.
Dodger Stadium is up on the other side of that hill.
We often see kayakers on the Los Angeles River and water birds, but I don't recall seeing geese before.
A major stopping point on the L.A. River bikepath.
This is where they hold us after we exit the bikepath.
These guys with matching skin tones and bikes.
I think L.A. Tourism should adopt this rider as their new "Welcome To Los Angeles" maiden. Postcards, posters, billboards. They'd love her in Iowa.
permalink | August 6, 2018 at 07:46 PM | Comments (0)
October 4, 2017
Whispering Oaks
Over the last 10 days or so, I traveled to and camped at Whispering Oaks, a clothing optional campground in Tennessee. Some photos:
My tent. As you can see, nothing like Burning Man.
At a far corner of the property.
The central area of Whispering Oaks.
Babbling Brook at Whispering Oaks, Tennessee.
permalink | October 4, 2017 at 08:57 PM | Comments (0)
August 4, 2017
Dore Alley 2017 Photos
A few photos from this year's Dore Alley ("Up Your Alley") in San Francisco.
Many more NSFW images available here.
permalink | August 4, 2017 at 11:26 AM | Comments (2)
June 18, 2017
L.A. World Naked Bike Ride Photos
Here's a link to the full size photo if you want to read that tattoo.
permalink | June 18, 2017 at 04:38 PM | Comments (0)
June 13, 2017
LA World Naked Bike Ride
Actual video of part of the Los Angeles World Naked Bike Ride, 2017.
permalink | June 13, 2017 at 08:29 AM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2017
"BLK NUDIST SEEKS COLLEGE AGE BLK NUDIST"
The headline says "spring break." The body of the ad says it will be for the summer. But the real question is why a house sitter needs to have a "great body" and why do they have to be college age? Something's a bit fishy, even though they require their house sitter to be honest.
permalink | April 14, 2017 at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)
January 2, 2017
Tecopa Update
I'm just home from three nights of camping at Tecopa Hot Springs. The water there is as odorless as the hot water in Desert Hot Springs. Below is a comparison of the minerals between DHS and Tecopa.
Information on the Desert Hot Springs Aquifer came from Two Bunch Palms Resort. The numbers for Tecopa's hot mineral water came from Delight's. Units are PPM. ND = "Not Detected." I would appreciate it if anyone who can fill in a blank spot would leave a comment with the data.
| DHS Aquifer (hot) | Tecopa | |
| Aluminum Oxide | ND | 0.2 |
| Bicarbonate | 39 | 668 |
| Calcium | 31 | 7.2 |
| Chloride | 120 | 371 |
| Fluoride | 6.2 | 2.4 |
| Hydrogen-ion Activity (ph) | 8.4 | 7.5 |
| Iron Oxide | ND | 0.094 |
| Magnesium | ND | 9.7 |
| Silica | 0.53 | |
| Sodium | 300 | 725 |
| Sulphate | 470 | 497.5 |
| Lithium | 0.24 | |
| Lead | 4 | |
| Boron | 9.2 | |
| Selenium | 8 | |
| Potassium | 22.3 | |
| Arsenic | 0.24 | |
| Carbonates | ND | 45.2 |
Another difference that I only noticed this time (although it's never changed) is that in Tecopa, they are pumping a LOT of water into the hot tubs, 24 hours a day. I couldn't give you an objective estimate of gallons per minute, but I'll say that in DHS the flow of the water into and out of any particular hot tub is pretty subtle. The owner of the place could tell you if the water is flowing, otherwise you'd probably never notice. At the county baths in Tecopa the water is gushing into the first tub and roaring as it pours out of the second tub on its journey back into the ground. You have to really speak up to be heard over the water.
I counted the cinder blocks so I can tell you that the second tub at Tecopa is 16 feet long...and after that I forgot to do any more counting. I'd estimate the width at 10 feet. I didn't count any cinder blocks in the first tub, but it's roughly the same volume. One night when I was there, someone slapped what looked like a plastic bucket lid over the drain (which is just a 6-inch hole) in the second pool. This completely stopped the outflow and made it possible to talk at a normal volume. Over a period of about half an hour I watched the water level rise about six inches. With another couple of inches it would have started to run out into the dressing area. They pulled that plug off when they left.
Tecopa is showing astounding (for Tecopa) signs of prosperity for such a tiny, remote, and harsh town. There's a brewery. My big question was: What is the source of their water? There is no drinking water aquifer there. All the springs are hot mineral springs. Here's what I found on their website: "Now, we hearken back to the days when miners lived there and brewed their own beer with the same artesian water which flows daily from the natural springs." Maybe they run it through reverse osmosis to bring it closer to potability...or maybe not! For those Tecopans who drink more beer than water, this could be a risk.
The Bistro restaurant is still there, but I hear it's gone through a number of personnel changes. The food is still good (AMAZINGLY good for this outpost of civilization). I had the pork chops. All the guys said that the night before the pork chops were wonderful. Mine were dry and overcooked. They do pizza and there is no additional charge for additional toppings! Pig out! The best thing about the place, though, is the people. They are seriously understaffed (especially on New Year's Eve), but all the staff are really great. Service is slow, but very willing to customize to your pleasure. Prices are not bad at all ($21 for those pork chops). When I was there it was almost like being at a party. On their menu you will find a few dishes with scorpions in them. I asked, so I can tell you the scorpions are canned in alcohol in Thailand, so they come into the U.S. as food and it's about as safe as eating a dead Thai scorpion can be. When someone orders a scorpion dish, it's a big show...and not like those restaurants where the entire staff turns out to sing you a really bad birthday song. One of the staff comes out carrying a bullhorn and an instant camera (you know, nueva Polaroid style) along with the food. She'll ask you to hold the scorpion in front of your open mouth while she takes a picture. I was told they have no flavor, but are crunchy and fairly hard to chew, according to three local experts, ages 6, 7 and 8. They all ate scorpions that night. For some this was a repeat adventure. And then they came over and wanted to tell us their ages! There's a lot of screaming, cheering and applauding when a scorpion is successfully swallowed.
A scorpion eater is supposed to write his name on the instant photo and then it gets pinned up to their wall of fame.
There was a table of four young people, two men, two women, seated boy-girl-boy-girl, so if I were to stereotype I'd guess heterosexual dates. The men ordered a scorpion dish (ice cream and some cake in a big bowl), one took a selfie as he held it in front of his mouth—and then he put it back into the ice cream! He didn't swallow! The other guy didn't eat one either, so we got to find out what happens with failures like this. The nice lady with the bullhorn announces to the room "We've got a couple of chicken shits right here!" and the crowd goes wild.
BTW, this is a BYO alcohol place.
Further up the road, there is now a McNeal's BBQ at the entrance road to Delight's. Some of us went there this morning for breakfast. They have a very brief menu, but the waitress named off a list of other dishes they had that was longer than the menu. They should probably just print out new menus every day on plain 8½x11. The staff was great...as staff seems to be everywhere in Tecopa. Outside of Burning Man, I've never seen such a bunch of hardworking, nice, and apparently quite honest people.
But the food at McNeal's. Urgh. I had the brisket sandwich. In Kansas City a barbecue brisket sandwich is a couple of slices of white sandwich bread laid out side by side on a plate, topped with a big pile of sliced brisket with some dill chips and something like coleslaw on the side. At Gates BBQ in Kansas City that would cost you $5.75. It might be more than some people can eat. At McNeal's where all the meat is smoked for 15 hours, the brisket sandwich (their only other meat option is pulled pork - no chicken, no ribs) was a hamburger bun laid open face on top of which was shredded cabbage with no dressing at all (they called it "coleslaw") and a small amount of cubed brisket (I've never seen it cubed) that was dry and not very flavorful. Ten bucks. The pulled pork looked like a much better deal and the guys who ordered that said they thought it was very good. They got a much larger quantity of meat and sauce.
I didn't notice the most obvious lack at the table until someone asked the waitress for barbecue sauce!! She brought out one cold bottle of a thin red sauce. I put some on my brisket and it didn't seem to add flavor or moisture. At any other barbecue restaurant I would have tasted a couple of straight spoonfuls of the sauce, but I didn't even think of it, I was already so disappointed with what I had.
I'd say go there and try it. Mine was so bad it had to have been a fluke. They had been closed the day before, so my brisket may have been left from Saturday night. Order anything but the brisket (they have vegetarian choices) and just enjoy the Tecopa ambiance. They've got a big screen TV and play music (possibly satellite) and there's a large area of the floor that's clear, just about the right amount of space if some people wanted to dance.
I was there for three nights with Great Outdoors. I was the only one in a tent, my nice windtight tent, not the lightweight cool one I took to Burning Man, so I was always comfortable in there. But most of the time it was too cold (and sometimes windy) to sit outside. There was always, of course, the hot water tubs across the street. The cost of camping ($22/night for a spot with electricity) includes unlimited usage of the hot water tubs. One night we held a potluck dinner inside the RV that had the biggest popout. I brought my last package of Hydrox cookies. Most of the guys had never heard of them...and they were all of an age that the original Hydrox should have been available in their yoots. Maybe Sunshine Biscuit company was not entirely nationwide.
The county-owned campground and hot tubs use this website: tecopahotspringscampground.com which is not to be confused with the Tecopa Hot Springs Resort (tecopahotsprings.org) next door.
Neglected to mention for those new to the subject, the county hot tubs are sex-segregated with mandatory nudity. Very popular with immigrants from Korea, but it's not at all in the style of a Korean spa. Besides the group tubs, there is a third private hot tub room that is handicapped accessible and can be rented by anyone for their private enjoyment.
Here's your county campground on the west side of the roadway, and your county hot tubs on the east side and a bit to the northish. I never knew until I looked at this aerial view that the county tubs had one outdoor tub in back...or on the women's side.
permalink | January 2, 2017 at 09:54 PM | Comments (4)
August 18, 2016
L.A. World Naked Bike Ride
The Los Angeles World Naked Bike Ride took place on June 11. I had three cameras, each one shooting a still photo every five seconds. One camera was mounted on the handlebars, facing forward; another on my helmet facing backwards, and the last one also facing backwards, but mounted on the rear rack of my bike. That camera takes good video, but only 5 mp photos, so those turned out to be a lot lower quality than I had hoped for.
The complete set of photos is here. These photos are on Flickr, so in order to see them, you must...
- Have registered an account at Flickr (it's free and uses your Yahoo ID).
- Be logged into that Flickr account.
- Have your Flickr safe search settings turned OFF (here).
Andy.
Jeff.
The man with the beard. More photos of him here.
That tight black outfit is body paint.
That's Rocky with the GoPro on his handlebars.
Tim from Boston. Well, Dorchester, but Boston.
Yes, the ride is clothing optional, but this is really overdoing it.
Tim.
Jim.
permalink | August 18, 2016 at 10:36 PM | Comments (0)
July 19, 2016
Public Nudity
A man who is so offended by casual public nudity, he slows down and engages with some naked men on the street in Toronto. I must point out that his Youtube username is "christsforgiveness."
On the website of christsforgiveness.com it says
CFM has evangelists all around the world that have been trained in the CFM style of Evangelism and are impacting souls and planting churches.
The cameraman who made the video above must be showing us some of "CFM style of evangelism." And they wonder why so many gays don't like Christian churches.
The law on public nudity in Canada is a bit unclear, but similar to the laws in much of the United States. If the naked person is not engaging in lewd behavior, then there's no problem.
Here's another video that shows Christ's Forgiveness Ministry preaching at Toronto gay pride. Observe the reaction of the people passing by. There is no reaction. He draws not a single listener. He might as well have been invisible and silent.
permalink | July 19, 2016 at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)
July 8, 2016
Finally!
For those young men who are confused by demonstrations using bananas, zucchinis or sausages, Ellis Lacy uses the best sort of phallus: his own erect penis. No ambiguity there.
