Decompression season continues: Just a quick note to remind you that New York City Decompression is this weekend. If you leave right now, no matter where you are you could still arrive in time for the 4pm start time this Saturday, but especially if you are in the area you should check it out.
For more information click here
I especially love the photo gallery on flickr
It is Decompression season and my favorite time of year. This was our 10th year at San Francisco’s Decompression. It feels like home, we have a spot where we hang out with friends and we can take a cab there and back, talk about easy…but we were going to be in LA last week and went to check out LA Decompression and it was fabulous.
We stayed at my friend’s house in the Valley, we have known each other since the early 80s and are very close so I wanted them to know more about this big thing in our lives known as Burning Man. We had dinner outside at their house, it was balmy, and then got in the hot tub, where it was like we were at a spa with a waterfall pouring over us. What a luxurious way to start LA Decompression weekend.
On Saturday off we went to “the cornfield” in downtown LA. We had a blast, we walked around, Aiden’s favorite moment was dancing among the bubbles at Disorient, sat in the rickshaw, had some great food, watched the hoopers, and then it was time for them to go.
It’s easy to have mixed feelings about Decompression gatherings.
On the one hand, it always feels great to be digging out the playa wear and smelling the dust again.
Ah, the smell of the dust. Even if you’re on the anal retentive side and meticulously wash all your clothes and oil down the chains on the bike and run the car through the car wash three or four times, the smell of the dust rises up and bites you when you least expect it.
You turn on the defroster in the car and plumes of the playa coming rushing out of the vents. Or you come across a scarf in a backpack, and it is still covered in a lovely dusting of white. Or maybe you missed one pair of shoes in the back of the closet, and when you go for Decompression footwear, there they are, just back from Center Camp.
Anyway. Sunday was a day to dig out all that stuff, but like we were saying, it’s easy to have mixed emotions. Because after all the fun, and all the laughing and eating and drinking and dancing, at the end of it all you are not sleeping under the stars, and there is no Man to guide your way home. No. You are going to wherever it is you call home. You are most decidedly not on the playa any longer. And that always stings.
No matter. Decompression is a lovely reminder of the event, and for that we were all pretty happy on Sunday.
There were lots of clowns and stilts and fur, but maybe not as many blinkies and el wire as might have been expected. And you could buy food and drink. What a thing. And there plenty of shrieks and shouts from the reunions taking place all over the Dogpatch streets. It was a lot like Homecoming weekend, only without the football. A lot of your favorite people in the world were gathered in one spot again. Nothing wrong with that at all. Not a thing.
And the San Francisco venue has changed for the better over the years. Decompression used to be held in a parking lot near the baseball stadium, and while the square footage might have been bigger, it had no atmosphere at all. Unless you call macadam and hurricane fences atmosphere. Now it’s in a funky neighborhood, lined with trees and low-slung buildings. It definitely feels more home-y.
But one little question: Can’t we burn some stuff next year? I’m sure the fire department would hate it. And there’d be expensive permits and emergency crews and all the rest of the city rigamarole to contend with. But still. It’d seem only right.
Lots and lots more photos after the jump.
