Phoebe takes a bath after doing finger paints in Kofa.

Rain Rain Rain

This area of Arizona has had an unusual amount of rain this year. The desert is beautiful--flushed with green and sparkling with wildlflowers. Everywhere we go, people say, "I've lived here for [fill in the blank] years and I've never seen a winter this wet." Greg and I had convinced ourselves that we were ready to return to Joshua Tree only to listen to a weather report and hear an entire week of possible showers and night lows in the 30's--not my idea of warm fun. We are likely heading up to KOFA wildlife refuge--it will be warmer and the wildflowers are getting spectacular.

Shortcut to Nirvana

Greg and I went on a spontaneous trip to Tucson. Greg read on the Arizona Burners (Burning Man) list that the director of the documentary Shortcut to Nirvana was going to be at the opening of the film in Tucson. Tucson is about a 3.5 hour drive from Yuma, but we thought it would be fun to have a Valentine's date and do something fun. We drove over on Friday and stayed in a motel, had dinner at a great little Greek restaurant and watched the movie. Maurizzio went out for drinks with the local burners (ie two people and Greg and I) afterwards.

The documentary was wonderful. I wouldn't nominate it for an academy awards, but it was a really interesting, feel good movie. The documentary is about a huge pilgamage in India. The festival, the Kumba Mela, celebrates a myth in Hinduism--the pilramage takes place every 12 years and rotates between 4 cities. Up to 70 million people were in attendance--can you imagine Burning Man with 70 million--or any celebration were 70 million people congregate in a 9 week period? Gurus from all sorts of sects are present and most of the documentary was interviews with various "babas" or gurus. The Babas ranged from seeming scam artists to what appeared to be "true" holy men--by the time I was halfway through the film, I had a constant smile on my face just because some of the people seemed so incredibly free and happy. One scene has a man walk up and say, "I want to dance!" and just start dancing in the street, joined by others around him.

The film is well worth seeing. I'll try and find a list of where its playing. Coming soon to the Crest theatre in Sacramento!