Icy Road Conditions in Moab

I left Aspen yesterday with another load of detritus...actually good detritus...my camelback leather sofa takes up almost the entire fucking trailer...and other shit...pots & pans...dishes...shot glasses...other stuff to create a workspace...

I decided to head back to Texas by going west into Utah...and south through Arizona...hoping to dance in Phoenix tonight...then visit my uncle in El Paso...then back to Austin...

I didn't have access to the weather channel for the last week...I was planning to miss the big snow in the mountains...but instead now driving into some heinous weather in the Four Corners area....

I'm here at the internet cafe in Moab...roads are icy...waiting for new tires to be put on...figgered it was time to replace the (almost) bald ones and not risk death or injury....you may have heard about the bus crash (8 people died) in Mexican Hat, Utah...a few hours south from here...just before you go through Monument Valley...

Anyway, heading out now...would post some pics but my card reader is packed away...perhaps later...

My parting thought...sitting here in this little cafe....on Main Street in Moab...god the women are beautiful here...beautiful...

On Life :: Tabula Rasa Part II

Sorry to disappear there for a few days folks. I lost my internet connection/account on Wednesday, and this is the first chance I've had to make it to the Aspen Public Library to check my email and such. I've been working long hours the past several days, and will be working feverishly for the next 7 days or so to get my office packed up (and into storage), and the last of my affairs concluded here in Aspen.

I'm still debating as to whether or not I will continue with my Tabula Rasa series - which may completely replace/supercede my "Year End" post that I mentioned a while back.

For now - my Tabula Rasa Part II will just be this old adage....

"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

I will post as I can in the next couple of weeks - but it will not be until after Jan 8th or 9th until I can get back on a regular schedule.

Take care, and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas from Aspen

Merry Christmas to all of you, especially my new blog/tanguera friends...Happy Holidays to you and yours...here is a link to my Christmas message I sent out to my family and friends....http://www.alexlongphotography.com/index.pub_files/MerryChristmasfromAlex2007.htm

Life :: Merry Christmas from the family by Robert Earl Keen

Forgive the very politically incorrect part about the Mexican boyfriend - that part makes me uncomfortable - but rest is pretty hilarious.

Life :: The Aspen Ski Bum Myth

I've noticed a couple of ski bums living in the old victorian house next door. I've also noticed that they are driving an Audi A8L. This is the Audi luxury flagship and starts at $120,000 U.S. You see, in Aspen, the six figure automobile is pretty much at the bottom of the economic ladder - so it makes sense that ski bums would be driving them. There are much more expensive cars here (mostly seen in the summer) - Bentleys, Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini. Cars in the $250,000 to $1,000,000 range.

So, the old myth of the ski bums living in a VW bus - bartending, carpentering - doing whatever it took too ski - is a just that - an old myth, at least in Aspen. And old myths never die...

The Aspen ski bum is likely the Ivy league educated daughter or son of Mommy and Daddy dearest. Nine and ten figure net worths (for the parents) are not uncommon here. Yes, that's right folks, that's $100,000,000 and up. They have graduated from college and don't yet know what to do with themselves. They are in Aspen to live the dream, the myth of the ski bum - for a season or perhaps a few.

I'm exaggerating of course, a bit. There are still the real ski bums - who have carpentering or bartending or property managing for years - some for forty years or more. These are the ones like "the rest of us" - struggling to make ends meet - living in market capped - equity controlled "employee" housing. That's the only really affordable housing here. Studios here start at $600k - as do single wide, tiny mobile homes. To rent a room - do the "roommate" gig - is $1,500 a month now. Two years ago it was $500. That's a 150% increase per year.

A friend of mine, another builder, bought a non-conforming lot on the edge of Aspen's only mobile home park. The city has made it so you can now build a permanent residence where a mobile home once was. He used to joke that he had the only $1.5 million dollar mobile home in the world. It's not a mobile home by any means - it's about 3,000 square feet - a very nice contemporary home with unobstructed views of Aspen Mountain.

Now, he jokes that he owns the only $3.8 million dollar mobile home in the world - okay - "$3.8 million dollar home in a mobile home park" - there is a difference. At least that was two years ago. Homes are now reaching $2,000 per square foot sales price-wise. So, 3,000sf x $2,000/sf equals about $6,000,0000.

I would estimate the mobile home park downgrade would be at least a million...so, call it $5 mil...$5,000,000 "affordable housing"...

Only in Aspen...

Life :: Quotes from my journal

It's a huge snow storm - a blizzard this morning. As such, I am working on a long post - "My Year in Review". The coming of Christmas and the New Year always puts me in a reflective mood. So, I will be recapping my year for the world to read about.

In the meantime, here are a few things that I wrote in my journal a few years ago - not my words - but quotes that I like...

"Any life, no matter how long and complex it may be, is made up of a single moment - the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is."
Jorge Luis Borges

I saw all the things I feared, and which feared me, had nothing good nor bad in them save insofar as the mind was affected by them.
Spinoza, Dutch Philosopher

There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as husband and wife - confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.
Homer

"Be good and you will be lonesome...be lonesome and you will be free...live a lie and you will live to regret it."
Mark Twain

Life :: My favorite Christmas Movie

Tina @ siguiendo mi corazón just made a post that reminded me of my favorite Christmas movie - "Love Actually". It came out in 2003 and I saw it in Aspen just before Christmas. I was only a few months out of my divorce - and was feeling very alone in the world. I saw it by myself - and as I recall, I had to sit there at the end - through the ending credits - and compose myself before I walked out. It definitely made me cry. But, it's a "feel good" movie - and probably qualifies as a "chick flick" - a "must see" if you ask me.

I am man enough to admit that I like "chick flicks"...man enough to cry at a chick flick...and man enough to admit it...

It's a good one....rent it...or order it on NetFlix...



P.S. The very best scene is at the end of the trailer...when Hugh Grant (as the PM of England) and his security guard/driver start singing Christmas carols and the little girls start dancing (hip-hop-like) with joy...very funny...

The Universe :: Winter Solstice

The winter solstice is just a few days away...I took this photograph on a hike up the mountain last night, under the pale moonlight.

Graphic Tango (with some "Life" mixed in...)

[Not my photo and I don't know who to credit...sorry...]
Have you ever had a "holyshitwhatthefuckwasthat?" dance? I've had one or two in the three years or so I have been dancing. It wasn't anything sexual or sensual or sexy...but it was based more on the connection and the feeling and the music and the room and the moment - and the woman of course. Kinda like the stars were all aligned perfectly in those moments of the dance. I think most dancers, mostly followers, know this as a "tangasm".

I was just walking to the store to get some cereal for lunch and other singleguybachelorfood and this popped into my head for some reason. Then, right on the heels of that thought, a memory of an orgasm I once had "popped" into my head.

Bear with me, this was not an ordinary orgasm - but an orgasm in the most spiritual sense. Remember my post the other day about the Tango Dream Dance? Well, this orgasm was kinda like that. "A-once-in-a-life-time-I-would-consider-myself-blessed-even-if-it-never-happens-again-and-I-hope-I-will-remember-it-with-my-dying-breath-orgasm."

So, this was several years ago - "pre-tango". She was a California woman that I had been having a long distance relationship with for several months. This was our first time in bed together - naked. Well, she was naked and I was (at this point) shirtless with my jeans still on.

I was basically "partaking" of her...of her body...caressing her smooth skin with my hands...with my body....with my lips. I would travel up her body from the soles of her feet, kissing and caressing my way up her thighs, detouring to her belly, lingering around her navel, then along her rib cage, along the sides of her breasts, to her collar bones, her neck, her jaw, the flat spot on her cheek right in front of her ear and finally to her lips - kissing her deeply. She was a good kisser.

This went on for about twenty or thirty minutes or so - me shirtless with my jeans still on. Then, almost like an involuntary reflex, I straightened up - on my knees, straddling one of her legs - and was now upright. She was still prone on the bed, just laying there looking at me. She was probably wondering when I was going to take my jeans off.

At first it felt like I needed to do a big "kitty cat" stretch - you know - the big ones we all do in the morning. I started to arch backwards a bit, then forward, almost like I was about to have a stomach cramp - but with no pain - my core was contracting. Imagine this pulsing, rolling, contracting and arching feeling - pulsing and rolling upwards and downwards through my torso. I think I was even moaning. It pulsed through me for a good 20 seconds or so - perhaps longer.

There was no doubt in my mind, nor in hers, that I was having a tremendous orgasm. This was a "torso centered", non-genital orgasm - "tantric" if you will. And then I collapsed onto her - exhausted - and then I whispered in her ear... "holyshitwhatthefuckwasthat?" It scared me at first - it scared her. Neither of us had ever experienced or witnessed anything like this. We didn't know what it was, or what to think.

It was non-genital in that nothing happened down there - no "special" feelings - no evidence of a genital orgasm - nothing. It was all contained in my torso - from just below my navel to just above my solar plexus. Orgasmic bliss...without having sex...with one party's jeans still on. Amazing. Yes, it was amazing.

In the hours and days afterwards, we talked about it - and both of us were pretty sure it came from being pent-up, all verbal, and non-physical for so many months that we were at a distance. Pent up for months, and then being released all a once in some kind of tantric orgasmic sensory overload - triggered by skin to skin contact and some deep, passionate kisses.

This orgasm - and this woman - are only memories to me now. And that's okay - I consider myself blessed to have them.

The Houston Tango Festival - Jan 25-27, 2008

The Houston Tango Festival is right around the corner, as is the San Diego Tango Festival Jan 3-6.



"The Invitation" video by Mikas of the Houston Tango Community::


"The Dream" video by Mikas also...The song on this video is "Mi Otra Mitad de Naranja" ... composed by Glover Gill of Austin Texas ... and performed by the Tosca String Quartet of Austin Texas ... it's on their Tosca Tango Orchestra soundtrack CD from the motion picture "Waking Life" ...

Life :: 2007 World Snow Polo Championships [Aspen]

I just walked over and took a few shots of the first chukker. This is the shot I like the best. This is one of the nice things about Aspen. There are things to do here that you don't see anywhere else in the world. It was 14 degrees farenheit. This is Nacho Figueras - a Polo Ralph Lauren model & polo player for the RL sponsored Black Watch Polo Team. (FYI, I'm back here for a few weeks concluding some business, and packing up some of my final things.)

Life :: It's Friday night and I'm crying....

Here's why....

The Universe :: Baraka [Film]

I suppose you would have to call this a visual documentary. No dialog, no spoken words whatsoever. But its message is clear. Stunning images, great music. A "must see" film - and a great Christmas or Hanukkah gift. Filmed in 70mm by Ron Fricke and Mark Madgison - released in 1992. Best viewed on a home theater system...large screen...with a killer surround sound system...turn up the subwoofer.

Here is a link to more information about the film. http://www.spiritofbaraka.com/baraka.aspx







Embedding disabled...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO_hgN8robg&feature=related