One Way: BRC-New Orleans-Afghanistan-Iraq-BRC

Somewhere around three weeks in the Black Rock desert and I am anxious to get back to the war. My bad dreams have ceased. I still don't feel very social, and have problems with being touched. But whatever.

So I am getting this book shit together before I leave Gerlach. Also articles. I still have two from Mosul to write.

I feel sort of like I am dead and floating around to the life I left behind, except I appear to be alive and people see and hear me.

Ismist, Molly, Gringo and Headhunter rode with me in the DPW parade and we threw Fuckoffski's ashes out around the city. We also had his ashes thrown out over BRC from an air plane. Gringo even ate some of his crunchy stuff.

The DPW crew had the last two days off. I visited a bit, also hit some other bars. The people of Gerlach are being very nice to me after my tour of the war. Sometimes, it seems to go either way. Some people really like me because I do what I say I am going to do. Others, particularly certain people that do stuff like I do are not always so happy when I actually get stuff done, like I said I would.

Last year I begged and borrowed to get to Afghanistan. I landed in Kabul with $40. I feel a lot better about heading back to the war now that I know some people there. I am also thinking about the people I know there. Here is a good site for a break down of the deaths. http://icasualties.org/oif/USMap.aspx?hndState=Nevada

I dusted off my juicer and made a lot of juice yesterday. Too bad I don't have any beets or blood oranges. I have a lot of peaches. I juiced a melon this morning. And a lot of carrots I got from Exodus. I made some mint Julep mix for tonight. I've been enjoying the high speed internet. I watched this William S. Burroughs Documentary
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9198809969200913970&q=William+Burroughs&hl=en

This one is Hunter S. Thompson shooting stuffed animals with a machine gun.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1047553100152156134&q=hunter+S+Thompson

And Burning Man rants are great too.

http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/007415.html

I saw Marian at the Black Rock and managed to smooth a few things out. No sense in fighting a war on every front. And Tom Price can go to hell. That poser was in the RGJ this week. And I wont be posting that link. It's amazing that relief work only gets some credibility if someone from Burning Man does it—and like Tom, makes sure that no one but him gets credit. He wasn't even in New Orleans, where the DPW were 2 days after the last hurricane. But that was last year. He even said that the 100,000 that died in Pakistan/Afghanistan in the earthquake were irrelevant. That is where he really pissed me off. That is a hell of a lot more people that died than in all Katrina shit. But he wasn't there to take credit and get his picture in the paper, so it was, according to him, irrelevant and not worth mentioning, ever.

On a less morbid note, I am listening to internet music. Post some links if you know of anything cool.

Currently I am listening to rock.com particularly Dave Navarro's station. That is pretty cool, at least he hasn't bored me in the last two hours. Except when he interviewed Storm Large. I actually watched that Supernova rockstar audition show in Mosul.

I was given a very cool cab over camper by a fellow from the Philadelphia Experiment. It's too heavy for most of the trucks I have access to, but I managed to get if off the playa with some help from Amanda and Metric. That was trip. I should have taken a picture of the Samurai when I rolled off the playa a week after the event. I got a loveseat (that had minimal fire damage) a couple bikes and other goodies. I sat in my cabover on the playa watching the dust, reading, thinking about things more esoteric than the dust clouds that made me feel as if I were in a city in the sky. The best time on the playa is the week after the event. That is where I get to see my friends and really party.

I got this link yesterday. The CIA torture/secret prison shit is hooked to Reno. Excellent. http://www.sfbg.com/40/11/cover_plane.html

I feel the season's change as the planet rotates. I went all the way around the world in a West ward fashion, from SF to China, UAE, Afghanistan, Iraq, Germany, Baltimore, SF then a quick flight to Reno. On the plane, people were talking about Burning Man, Burners without Borders and the War. Since I was in New Orleans, left there for Afghanistan and Iraq, I found it interesting that I really didn't want to talk to the people that we speaking 3rd hand about this stuff. It was kind of weird. People are not always interested in the real thing. What adventures lay ahead this year? I plan on going to Columbia to see some friends, then China. From China, take a train to Moscow and fly down to the war from there. I plan on taking the summer off from war. I'll be in Africa. I am actually a trained, certified archaeologist, but never used that card. Been keeping it up my sleeve. I think I'll be playing it. I have the poker game going.

But October is still my favorite month. Halloween, and colored trees. I should be in Seattle by October.

I've really been sort of a hermit. I can only take people in small doses. I don't want to be attached to anyone or anything. I just want to get things settled and get back into the war with a better camera and laptop. Lean and mean, ready to rubble with the Taliban and al Qaeda for another tour. My third trip to Iraq.

I've been very inspired to do some art on my return. I doubt I will have time. But I want to get back into music and visual art. Beyond my little youtube crap. Hopefully I will be back from the war by October 2007 and can get things going for my band, and other sordid indulgences. I want a grease bus, and just want to wander the land playing music like so many of my friends do already.

I have a vision for my cabover. I want to turn it into a giant black window that sprays fire. I think it may be derivative of that WILD WILD WEST movie with Will Smith, but I haven't seen to many flame throwing, giant black widow spiders with a deck on the roof of the cab over. I just need to make the legs so they can fit in the smaller streets of BRC.

I moved to Gerlach in 2003, and started working for the Black Rock City LLC, who runs Bartertown, I mean, burning man. I lasted as a full time worker 9 months, then, I was sick of it. I loaded up my Samurai and rolled South to Bisbee then over to Florida. After a few months in the mid-West I got a job in Iraq as contractor. And I haven't stopped since. It's not so bad. Even couch surfing the war has its pluses. I am used to bombs and gun fire. And Black helicopters in the night with no lights.