In the mood for other worldliness I was struck last week by this dreamy photograph by Jim Urquhart for Reuters showing a scene from this years “Burning Man Arts and Music Festival” in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.  The art installation shown is “Pulse and Bloom.” Once  a year tens of thousands of people descend upon the desert to create an arts city o:f art, community, self expression, and self reliance. A week later they depart leaving no trace of their having been there.

As for the picture, the dusty redness of the scene and of the clouds transports you visually to another, perhaps a Martian, world.  The indistinct but looming figure in the background evokes so many science fiction movies and thus creates a certain element of for foreboding.  Where do we go next? As our own world becomes so strange and mean, we all perhaps, begin to yearn for an element of utopian other worldliness.  This image, at least, gives us that escape.