Seven months with no address - Part 2 - The Desert Rat

[brice618]

Continuation of this thread...

TR - 7 months with no address - Teton Gravity Research Forums

Muzac:


So after the bike tour I headed home for a few days of R&R then up to my girlfriend's who was wildland firefighting in Bayfield Colorado. I got there, hung out for a few days, then she broke my heart. I then took my fly-rod and started fishing the backcountry of the San Jauns. No photos exist, so these are just fish stories, but I swear on everything I own that I caught 75, 8" to 14", cut-throat in one day. My dad and mom showed up and I took them with me for their first real backpacking experience. It was fun. Then we got a cabin near Lake City and fished more. Had another good day of 40 brookies. I'm sworn to secrecy on these locations, but I think anywhere in the Weminuche wilderness is good if you're willing to hike.

Then a buddy and I climbed Pagoda Mtn in RMNP. It's definitely not a classic, but damn its beautiful even if we turned it into an epic/ adventure climb. Poor route finding on our part.

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...ghlight=pagoda



Run-out slabs are fun. Run-out in this case means the entire pitch.


This fall I was invited to be the program assistant of Land Arts of The American West. Which basically means I was logistics and traveling critic. The program is billed as a semester abroad in your own back yard. This is actually pretty amazing. We traveled somewhere close to 5000 miles circling around the deserts of New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Southwest Texas. There were eight students, me, and my "boss", Chris Taylor.


WWW.LANDARTS.ORG -- Anyone can go. Seriously, the interest is that we combine fields, artists, biologists, land-use people, anyone. This trip was majority architects, and one artist. It'd be awesome to see that change.


Images mainly by me and Chris.

The crew:




It started with a dive into New Mexico, from Lubbock. Near Alamagordo is White Sands. Our campsite was next to the bombing range of the local AFB. 100 yards away. They flew over several times to check us out.

Setting up camp - a 40' x 10' cook tent we designed and built out of plumbing pipe and key fixtures. Handleded well, but schedule 40 pipe would be best




Yes, that is a drill duct taped to a pepper mill.


Its unpossible to be desert sunsets. Every night was incredible




Desert Treasures: Found next to a "Danger Radioactive Material" sign


Rocket Number Nine take of for the planet Venus


White Sands








Desert Alpen Glow?


How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb


Re-fill


Chaco Canyon






Then we detoured to the Grand Canyon. Point Sublime to be exact. The name doesn't lie.












Dance off on the edge




Ok so that's installment one. It's really not too far into the trip, but I am headed out of town and wanted to get part of it up. More to come. Like bowling in anti-terrorist training facilities.

[P_McPoser]

Can't wait to see the rest. This is my favorite part of the country BY FAR.

[Tippster]

So beautiful there.

[G]

Needs more snow.

[CaddyDaddy77]

The land arts font is really shitty to read, but a cool concept.

BTW, typically nothing good comes out of Bayfield, and I know quite a few people from Bayfield.

Nice TR, please continue.

[brice618]

Continued




We then went to the famous work by Walter De Maria - Double Negative. Unless you're really an art person you won't know about it. It's a giant incision in the earth stretching across a valley. Creating space where there is none. We took the time to map it with a laser scanner.

The set-up. It was 120f for 5 days straight.


In Action



A visit from David Gregor proved insightful. He brought a chair out for us to see. Great designer and full of stories.


In the void.


Relaxing in the sun. Or slowly melting. I had to run to a wedding for a few days during this time, so I shaved and got a hair cut.


The results


Then we headed for the salt lake. First a stop at the Sun Tunnels


Then to the Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson


The salt lake is such a surreal environment. The pink water, floating salt crystals, the horizon vanishes and islands seem to float. The experience of the water the change in buoyancy. It all adds to an experience that cannot be replicated anywhere. The jetty is not about the jetty, but the context in which it exists. I was floating around the lake and ran into a Pelican. A white speck at first that was as curious to see me as I it. We swam for each other and bobbed lazily when close enough to inspect. It's a veritable real life Mario World.



DC Power. You can hear it buzz and crack as it travels thousands of miles to feed the Las Angeles


Bingham pit mine




We then visited the CLUI base in Wendover Utah. The center for land use interpretation. LA mags should check them out, they do amazing bus tours.

http://www.clui.org/





Steve Badgett with SIMPARCH. http://www.simparch.org/
This is the sustainable living unit. Completely solar powered, water biked in on a 200 gallon tank.







There is a project called "Autotour" that CLUI started years back using simple GPS and computer in a 83 Crown Victoria. Well the car had been broken down so I did what I could to get it running again. It had this crazy carb/ injector. It was a transition model between when cars strictly had carbs and were starting with injection. I didn't really understand it, but I fixed it.

So I fix it and a few of the guys from the trip and I go drive it around. A real g-ride. I'm wearing a bandanna a-la Tupac and we grab a few beers. On the way back I get pulled over. The car hasn't been driven in years. Expired plates, no registration, no inspection, no insurance.

Autotour

Experimental


It happens that she pulled me over literally 100 yards from CLUI's base. So I try convincing her that I was just fixing the car and test driving. She doesn't buy it. I'm sure it looked bad. A white kid, with a funny bandanna, in a car with "Experimental" plastered on the side, with a gps screen running in it. I got off with lack of insurance ticket. Lucky enough I guess.

Exploring the Enola Gay hangar. Also the site of a Tesla research lab. Now it's a junk yard.









On the road


Then we camped on the northern edge of Monument Valley. Muley Point Utah








Celestial Vaulting






I started doing some work looking to "draw" landscapes by exploring them with headlamps on. It's still in development, but I'm working on making full scale drawings using these methods of potential buildings.


Dance parties frequently broke out


Foooooood! I love dutch ovens.


Then we went home for a weekend of recuperation and showering. Un-packing.


Still more left. Going to brew beer now though. Thanks for your comments! Feel free to ask questions, etc...

[Cyber Cop]

Sheet....

[brice618]

For your audible pleasure:


Second trip started with a trip to the Plains of San Augustine. Near by is is the VLA (Very Large Array)



It's really a place to visit. A strand of massive satellites on three rail road tracks spreading out and rotating in unison. At times they move so fluidly you can't tell if they are growing or you are shrinking. Never mind the amazing images that these satellites come up with.


(from the website)

I'm not supposed to show you these.





More food.



I wore Chacos or went barefoot the entire trip.


Dish Duty


Burning boxes in the Mimbres River


A map of the Mimbres.


It was dead. We were cold.


Gila Cliff Dwellings in the Gila Wilderness. That place is amazing.




Then we headed for the hills. Chiricahua, Az. A stones throw from Mexico.




Mapping a fence crossing


Then we headed back east, with a stop in Playas, NM. It wasn't planned, but we knew it was an old company town bought out by the military and turned into an anti-terrorist training city. Amazing, the people still lived there, but worked as terrorist trainers. Hostages, terrorists, etc... We asked to take a peek and they said no. Of course. Then the lady at the guard desk had a change of heart. She said we could visit the community store. With a police escort of course. There can't be more than a thousands people here. The police followed us and stopped us when we missed a turn.



The store was lame. A few shirts, hats, packed into a convenience store. Then we found it. What does every company, turned military training, town need? A bowling alley of course. 15$ for two games for all of us, including shoes that never get used. We were bowling in an anti-terrorist training town.







Of course we had to take advantage of the hilarious double entendre.
Playas Community Center. Playas only please.


Then we went to Cabinetlandia. A project by Cabinet Magazine.
http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/infor...inetlandia.php

It's a ghost plan. A suburbia that never happened. Lots sold by mail to east-coasters looking for that ranch-style life to escape to. Completely unsustainable from the beginning, it never got water. You can still purchase these plots on ebay for cheap, but you have to buy four conjoined lots. The roads are still graded once a year.

Google map - See the soft imprint of the grid.

Peeling shrimp for dinner


Notice: Suburbia -




More dishes


A trip to near by Demming to do laundry for the first time in a few weeks.


The gradient of last light is so intense in the desert.






At this point I'm starting to make a way to draw architecturally in full scale, with light. I am still working on that, if I ever make a full building I'll throw it up for you guys to see.


A quick and dirt project for installation in the Cabinet temporary exhibition gallery.




One more post.

[brice618]

Slowly becoming more dust than human.


From Cabinetlandia we traveled to Marfa, Tx. The location of Donald Judd collections and compounds. Minimalism in the desert is fitting.

On the left is Boyd Elder. He designed the eagles album covers. Now he manages Prada Marfa.


We stayed at El Cosmico. It's amazing there, a classy trailer park.

Urbanite outdoor showers in late October.






The guy on the right wrote the [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Donald-Judd-Architecture-German-English/dp/3764375264"]book[/ame] on Judd architecture.








Flava Flavin!










More Flava




Then we dance.


This guy was gone.


Spidey and Brazilian


Rat Poison!


Hope you enjoyed it! I did

[pointedem]

lol thx for sharing. did you get paid?

[khakis]

Did you see the lights?

[AKPogue]

Great tr!!

[Sparky]

A good read, thanks for posting

[72Twenty]

Sofa King Awesome.

[brice618]

lol thx for sharing. did you get paid?

Yeah, it's hard to believe, but I did make money doing that.

Didn't see the lights, but then again, has anyone ever really seen them?

[khakis]

Didn't see the lights, but then again, has anyone ever really seen them?

I thought they were commonly seen. My aunt said she saw them

[brice618]

Heh, it's a joke there. Everyone and no one sees the lights.

[brice618]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/ar...h-program.html

Bump for some legit NYT coverage of landarts. Pretty cool.

[WrongWay]

Most excellent, I like.

[WARY]

well done