Winter Solstice 2014: Get Your Fire Going!

With the longest night of 2014 coming up this Saturday December 20, many festive Winter Solstice events around the world mark the occasion.

Great God of the Sun,

I welcome Your return.

May You shine brightly upon the Goddess;

May You shine brightly upon the Earth,

scattering seeds and fertilizing the land.

All blessings upon You,

Reborn One of the Sun!

Know that you are Blessed.

In Ventura CA, all are welcome to Art City Garden from noon-midnight (Dubbers at Rex and Olive by the Ventura River Bike Path). Wear your dancing shoes and your gardening gloves and join us for Art City’s Second Annual Winter Solstice Celebration! Share space and time, rhythm and spirit, food and drink with family and friends.

During the day plant veggies in the gardens, with yoga and meditation spaces. Family gathering at sunset with rituals to welcome back the sun and enjoy the longest night of the year.  One of the rituals will be this one that I am leading.  You are invited to participate in the rituals. You can bring a small item for the altar/alter. You might also bring a note on paper to burn. Please bring food or drink to share.

Los Angeles members of the Burning Man community will meet at

for the third annual Blissmas, a fundraiser for participants who want to bring their creativity to BEquinox, our overnight regional event held in March in Joshua Tree.  The audience at Blissmas will vote on the projects (see below) and then LALA distributes $15,000 based on your percentage of votes.

This is about to sell out so get your tickets now!
$20 Online https://lala.webconnex.com/3rdblissmas
$25 At The Door (
21+ (ID Required)

BLISSMAS 2014 LINEUP:
7 – 9 pm: 6 [PLAYA 54]
www.facebook.com/playa54

9 – 10:30 pm: iPunx
http://soundcloud.com/ipunxxx

10:30 pm – 12 am: Liquid Giraffe [WMICC]
https://soundcloud.com/liquid-giraffe

12 – 1:30 am: HYJYNX [Ninja Skillz]
https://soundcloud.com/hyjynx

DESSERT POTLUCK

THE 20 GRANT SUBMISSIONS ARE:

Dragnet Lights The Desert -Chat with Dragnet… everybody who gets interrogated walks away with a unique memory.

Brotherluv’s ARt of Brningman – The visuals of the art of Burning Man influenced by past events and future ideas

Black Rock Observatory – Black Rock Observatory… the bridge to the future and outer space

Raven Wind Harps – The Raven Wind Harps are now twins! Louder (more sensitive) and more brightly lit. They look like a pair of wind-sock-fish-bird-zepplins. They’re made of canvas, copper and wood, strung with piano wire over Dobro guitar resonators, to channel the wind into harmonic sounds.

PLAYA 54 – Bring Up The Bass – We make people happy by playing music they forgot they love and have to dance to. Who doesn’t want to be Happy and DANCE?!

The Camp Of “Sex & Ego Death” – Promoting courage to be radically honest and gain liberation from fear in Life, in Love & Sex. We plan to have interactive participations, revelations and confessions all day long. We aim to free many souls :-)) Buddha fell of the roof while making love, before becoming enlightened – he must have been a Burner!

The Infinity Boxes – The Boxes are ready!

Altervision 3D Blacklight Experience – Rebuilt from the ground up (and continuing to do so), A3D is now a stellar experience of beautiful hand-painted murals all in the theme of outer space.

Shenanigan Wagon – A horseless covered wagon, no horses just horsepower! The wagon provides enough space for 25 people to be transported around while enjoying shade, music and a humorous driver.

Man Cave 2.0 – The Man Cave chill space is ready for an upgrade. New 2 way interactive viewing window looking out to beautiful downtown BEquinox complete with a view of people coming up to use it as a mirror. At night the tables are turned and you can peak into the mancave and anonymously see what’s going in inside

Mars Rover Art Car – The Mars Rover Art Car celebrates science and art in one mobile package. A tribute to NASA and the popular Mars Rover makes people smile and learn new things about our Solar System.

Merry Mad Tea Party – I host a sit-down tea party with real teacups and saucers and overflowing bowls of fresh fruit. Iced mint tea during the day, hot teas after sundown and through the night.

Cool Cat Cafe – I create a hangout space and community area with the Cool Cat Cafe. Whenever anybody walks in I perk up with as much enthusiasm as I can muster and say “HI WELCOME TO THE COOL CAT CAFE!!” or sometimes like the workers at Subway who are forced to say it I pretend like Im an underpaid worker and utter the most robotic unenthusiastic “hi welcome to the cool cat cafe…”

Tacos and Tutus – Prepare 500 tacos followed by a tutu parade. They will eat and socialize and everyone enjoys a good parade!

Family Love Village – Family Love Village not only has fun activities for the kids but it’s Eco-friendly activities for the kids!! Our EAKK! (EcoArt Kidz Kollectiv!) program is an eco-interactive environment for our children where they can discover and learn the value of creating fun and educational art projects from recycled materials. Our local FLVillagers collect household items to create eco-friendly art projects for the children that not only prevents junk from going into the landfills and oceans but it helps to broaden the families’ perspective of recycling junk into fun art! And we can bring other fun workshops like Family Love Yoga, perhaps a fun dj class for the kiddos, as well as a fun parade that leads into our Kindermix DJ party set!!!! Oh yeahhh!!! We are so gonna bring it next year for all the families at Bequinox!!!

Lamentation Transformation – I imagine that this project will first and foremost visually stimulating. Depending on the time of the day, it will always transform itself based on the environment and light. Second, I imagine that this will provide shade from the sun, allowing participants a cool place to reflect and meditate. At night, I hope for the projection to be a place for participants to meet, start conversations and interactions, or just enjoy the visual stimulation.

The Enchanted Kingdom – The idea behind “Conversation Camp” is to provide a wonderfully fun, open and exciting place in which to connect and converse with others. Whether it be having an intimate conversation on one of the many couches, or dancing under the stars, there will be a place for every taste and whim.

OKNOTOK Human Tower – The OKNOTOK Human Tower includes seating for eight, which is unique amongst Burning Man towers, as most towers offer no seating. We’ve found that seating makes possible a safer, more social environment without sacrificing the real pleasure amazing views of the event and surrounding landscape. The Tower features a closable trap door which prevents “accidental” exits, a sound system integrated into the central table which provides a day-long mix of a variety of low-key ambience, and a fabric roof shade enabling comfortable 24 hour use.

L’Atelier De Wagon Art Car – The ability for artists, non-artists, and children have enjoyed this art car since it’s soft unveil at Norther, Nights music festival in July, 2014. Since then we have made many productive upgrades suggested to us from the community. Our last venture was the Las Vegas Halloween Parade where 30,000 people were in attendance. We had many participants during the very long (12 hours) event and most took their work home. Talk about smiles on faces! Personally, working with the kids was a absolute joy.

Mini Wacky Putt-Putt – This is a three hole miniature golf course. It’s colorful, whimsical, sturdy, and with solar powered LEDs — runs all day & night. Each hole has a theme and a variety of novelty clubs and balls — even some that glow in the dark.