a new day is dawning

I am grateful that I get to spend this Christmas with both my chosen family - headlouse , nifercritter  and sfslim - and also with my birth family (well, kinda, if you count marriages..). I'll be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning at Riverton, and Christmas Day with my sister-in-law and her parents. My brother will be with us via Skype at some point, hopefully, assuming the weather off the coast of Tasmania isn't too wretched. He's on an oceanographic research cruise until mid-January.

I realized last week that I've been battling seasonal depression. It's not as bad as when I was in dreary Pittsburgh, but certainly leaves me feeling frustrated and listless a lot. It's not the cold that gets to me, it's the dark.  I crave sunlight. My sis-in-law reminded me today that I should get out and walk in the sun on my lunch break. She's totally right, and I think tomorrow I'll give that a try.

Work is challenging and stressful but mostly in good career-building learning-experience type ways. Right before jetting off to Colombia for the holidays, my boss called me in to speak with the office manager and I was given a generous raise. This after only 8 months on the job, and with the forewarning that our company may forego *all* raises at annual review time in April. I feel quite confident that they're pleased with my performance - one of my coworkers, a girl who is wicked smart in her own right and has been with the company for 5 years, said that a 6-month-review raise was a hugely rare thing, and means "they're identifying you as a rising star within the company, they really want to keep you." Wow! Who knows if that's really true, but it sure is a nice boost to my ego, and makes me feel that much more secure in these uncertain economic times.

February 1st is the grant application deadline for burning man org art grants. The timescale project application is coming along - next meeting tomorrow night - and we hope to have the application submitted by mid-January. Who among you is interested in learning how to cast concrete?

I'm frustrated at my sugar & sweets intake, and hoping to kick (most of) the habit for the new year. Plan: buy lots of raspberries and blackberries from the market around the corner! Yum, fruit.

I am very, very happy that the solstice has passed - long, sunny days, I miss you so!

I am also very, very happy that I have a new cozy down comforter. Off to snuggleland..

I'm sure you've all been inundated with NIMBY donation requests already, but I figured I'd make one last personal appeal. It's really, really important!

Interpretive Arson is moving to NIMBY 2! Hooray! We're moving this coming Monday, by way of a forklift picking up our four shipping containers, tossing them on a flatbed, and dragging them halfway across Oakland. We're moving up in the world, with a 75% larger shop, including 480 square feet of *permanent* floor space, which we've never been so privileged to have before. Hooray shop space! For those of you who don't know what IA is, we're the folks who brought you Dance Dance Immolation and 2PIR. (www.interpretivearson.com).  This spring, the shop will be the building ground for the Timescale project, as well as the resurrection of DDI & 2PIR which are coming back to Burning Man in 2009. NIMBY is, then was, now is again, our shop.

I say "was" because as many of you know, back in September there was a fire at the West Oakland NIMBY space. That fire, though small and quickly brought under control, attracted the eagle eye of the Oakland Fire Department. Due to numerous fire code violations, the space was shut down. In the interim, Snook (the manager of NIMBY) has been working night and day with the City of Oakland, Fire Marshalls, and many other folks to find a new, permanent, safe, permitted location for NIMBY to literally rise from the ashes.  He's found that space, and it's only a five minute walk from the Coliseum BART stop, woohoo! It has sprinklers, a 30,000 square foot outdoor yard, a floor so level it only changes about an inch over the entire block, and enough indoor space to house all of the prior tenants and then some.

Spaces like this cost money. A lot of money. First there's paying off the lease at the old NIMBY, then there's two months' rent and a security deposit at the new space, not to mention the costs associated with getting the new building ready to support industrial art. In the beginning, when NIMBY was asking for $50,000 in donations, I scoffed and didn't think it could happen. But it's happening.

By the latest blog posting on NIMBY's website, they've got $12,900 to go.  That's probably down a bit now, as Burning Man and O'Reilly have committed to contributing towards the cause, but that's still a chunk of change. They have received a handful of large donations, but a good chunk of that money has been raised by small, personal donations.

I'm going to gather that most of the people on this list have been significantly affected by the existence of NIMBY in their lives. If you've played with DDI or 2pir, you bet it's cause of NIMBY. If you enjoyed the performer-mounted flame effects in the last fire ballet, well, those were made at NIMBY. Seen Rosanna's 50 foot chandelier? NIMBY. Steampunk Treehouse? NIMBY. Spike's Vampire Bar? Built and stored at NIMBY. Zach Coffin's Colossus in 2005? NIMBY. You Are That Pig's bacon-frying Pigmobile? NIMBY. Therm? NIMBY. Ever go to a Fight Night? Christmas Tree Burn? Thunderdome party? Where else but NIMBY? What about the fire jams IA used to run? I could go on. Watch me.

NIMBY's got this awesome thing going for it. It's cheap workshop space for artists. It's not 1500 dollar studios open till 10pm on weekdays, it's not dealing with four landlords and two insurance guys, it's not whiny neighbors, it's not 'no fire art' lease clauses, it's not 2am police visits from the noise you're making to finish the grinding on your sculpture two days before burning man. It's not beautiful, but we're all allowed in. You wouldn't believe what *not* being a manufacturing company does to your real estate options in this city.

NIMBY 2 is going to be a lot of space, for a lot of artists, for very little money per month. And a lot more. It's huge! The lot outside is three times the size of the old NIMBY building! Snook's going to be setting up a seriously impressive sculpture garden, filled with everything that doesn't fit anywhere else. The city of Oakland is behind it. You'll be able to see Colossus, Big Rig Jig, Flock, and perhaps if you go and make some enormous thing, you can put it there too.

There aren't a lot of art spaces like this in the bay area. There's certainly no others that we could fit into. If you have 30-40 bucks that you can put towards the cause, please do.

THIS IS HOW YOU DONATE: You go to http://www.nimbyspace.org/ and click the DONATE button in the upper right hand corner.

Then, you respond to this post, telling everyone how much NIMBY means to you, and how they should all donate as well. Then, you post this on every mailing list you're a part of, imploring them to do the same.

Seriously guys, this money is needed for December 15th. The day we move in. We're so close. Please help us make this happen. Think about how much your last trip to Burning Man or the Fourth of Juplaya cost. Really. You can't afford not to.

Please.

-Morley

Say something nice about the last five people you've broken up with.

Ian Kelso - Had strong, capable hands, making him a great rock climber and also a wonderful cuddler. One heck of a goofy smile!
Ian Baker (raindrift ) - Taught me how to tie my shoes properly. Never stops learning. Has the best laugh of anyone I know.
Tom Tarka (avocado_tom ) - Has un-ending energy. Is passionate about his work, and inspiringly so. Very dedicated to his family.
Levin - Fabulous cook, with a nice cock.
Mikolaj Habryn (syncretin ) - Is loyal and kind beyond compare, tremendously generous, and has a lovely singing voice.

***

So, as the list above indicates, sadly syncretin  and I have decided to part ways as lovers. Though really, I don't feel too sad - I feel like it's for the best for both of us. Basically we have divergent goals and needs/wants right now, and we realized it was going to be difficult to negotiate a relationship that worked for both of us. We talked about this on Sunday when he returned from NYC, and chose to be friends rather than risking a losing bet on an outside chance.  I'm proud of the level to which I openly communicated my wants/needs, and proud of Mikolaj for being honest and direct with me, even though it was hard and meant ultimately breaking up. I'm looking forward to getting to know him better as a friend, without the stress of dischordant relationship goals.

Work is continuing to kick ass, though I'm getting a bit tired out by all the field work. Thankfully I think I'll get a bit of a reprieve in about two weeks. My six month review was stellar - my boss is very pleased with my work, and also gave me some very useful information and advice about my career path ahead. It remains to be seen whether I'll get a 6 month raise, because the company-wide slowdown may prevent such things. But my boss is sure trying, which makes me feel great.

I had a fabulous first date on Tuesday night, and I'm still basking in the afterglow of that. The fellow in question is someone I've known since my return to SF, though mainly just on a peripheral level. After some great random interactions at the burn, he tracked me down again and asked me out. It's nice to be pursued! It's also particularly nice to have the chance to spend time with someone so intelligent, thoughtful, kind and charming. We're both looking forward to getting to know each other better. And that's all I'm gonna say about that.

Spatula is curled up on the floor by my feet, the picture of cuteness. He's been very affectionate lately, and I'm super happy that he's taken to sleeping in my room, on my bed, curled up next to my head. The first three months in this house he slept in the living room on the floor or couch, but unexpectedly last week (just when I was getting sick and depressed) he changed his routine. It's so nice having him there to snuggle when I wake up in the morning!

Happy Halloween. I'm headed to work tomorrow in normal work clothes, with the addition of giant stompy bear paw feet. Hooray!

Family portrait at the Prim & Proper Queer Tea party, Folsom Street Faire, 2008.

Nifer, Aaron/Slim, Morley, Mikolaj, Colin.
(nifercritter ,
sfslim,  morleyroarly , syncretin , headlouse )

Yay! Thanks, Mr. Nightshade!

Courtesy syncretin :

Instructions:
Take a picture of yourself right now.
Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair - just take a picture.
Post that picture with NO editing.
Post these instructions with the picture.

Better late than never, here's my annual "burning man in a series of vignettes" post. Hooray!

( Into the fray... )

Another burn down the hatch, complete without much injury.

This was my best burn in years. It wasn't explosively creative, nor explosively self-awakening. It wasn't dramatic. It wasn't over the top. What it was, though, was comfortable, positive, reaffirming and joyful. I think I might finally be learning how to do this whole burning man thing without putting my body and soul through the wringer. For the first time in years, I came back from the event *not* saying "I'm taking next year off." I'm already planning my art project for 2009, and I think it has potential to be pretty amazing. Let me know if you want to help :)

Last year the darling luffing received so damn much mail at Burning Man that the postal workers were like a rotating cast of extras in her dome, drinking her drinks and showering her with homemade fudge and strange hanging mobiles from Japan. Oh, the envy.

So this year, I'm following her lead and posting my mailing address too! *grasps coattails*
Um yeah, if you wanna send me mail at Burning Man, send it here:

Morley Roarly
c/o ByB
Corvair and 3:00
c/o BRCPO
Black Rock City, NV 89412

It must be mailed by August 23 to show up. Mailing it on the 22nd or 23rd is the best bet.

I could never imagine of out-doing luffing's mail quota, but hey, a postcard or two would be awesome, neh? C'mon, make the roarly feel loved.

In the past six days, I have coordinated moving into my new house in Oakland, relaxed and taken two baths, done a bunch of laundry, spent two days working in the shop on Elevation (yay, welding!), had a first and second date with a wonderful charming boy, celebrated two friends' birthdays, and slept a bit.

I'm happy. I'm busy. I'm excited for the weeks and months ahead. And tomorrow, at long last, I'm getting a haircut.

Hello Bay Area folks!

Tonight I had a crappy end to my week - I discovered that my beloved 1986 Toyota pickup, BonBon, was stolen from her parking spot in the Mission. She disappeared some time between 10:30 pm Thursday night and 10pm Friday night (and no, she wasn't towed, I've triple-checked that). I've filed a police report, but I'm not holding my breath.

Still, please keep your eyes peeled! She's red with gold trim, with a white and faux-wood camper shell. Bunny on the front radiator (may or may not still be there).

CA License plate 8K44137.

If you see her, please call the police or call me directly at four one two, six one three, eight six four four.

Sniff sniff... wherever you are, BonBon, I hope you're okay. I miss you, ol' girl!