Big thanks to i-am-bored.com for posting our trailer on their site.  So far 15,000 people aren’t bored with it.

In other news, Ben had fun at a party last week.

-TBL

Jonnie posted a blog yesterday reminiscing about the magic and mayhem that is Burning Man.  He did a heck of a job describing this unimaginable place but because the experience of Burning Man is nearly impossible to sum up in words, I was compelled to add more pictures.  I give you #77: Burning Man..

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biking through the desert at Burning Man

It is winter now, and cold, but the four of us are still reminiscing about our summertime adventure to Burning Man last year - one we made to accomplish #77 on the list. Burning Man, a music festival in Nevada, is a mysterious and fantastical place, where anything goes and it is not odd to see a two story tall (art) dragon drive past you at midnight. Sound crazy? It is. Really crazy. There are few words one can use to describe its bounty, but any modern adventurer looking for a new frontier ought to put it on his or her list. You will not be disappointed..

Happy New Year everyone! We thought we’d start off the new year with a bang and some technical difficulties (sorry, our server was down - but we’re back!!) Still feeling nostalgic about 2007, we sifted through a few photos from the ‘07 Tour and picked out some of the best, most of which you haven’t seen… enjoy! (Photo credit: Kyle Jewell)

#44: Catch Something and Eat It (Sun Valley, ID)

#86: Teach an Elementary School Class (Los Angeles, CA)

Post #92: Learn to Surf (Ventura, CA)

Post #92: Learn to Surf (Ventura, CA)

Ali Mongo and his art bound for Berlin

Los Angeles, CA

Fixing Penelope

Out the back of Penelope at Dusk (Nevada)

#35: Sing the National Anthem to a Packed Stadium

Venice Beach, CA

Now that the new year is upon us, its a perfect time to start your list. Share it with the world and check out what others want to do before they die on The Buried Life social network.

We would like to wish everyone wonderful things to come in 2008 and thank you for your undying support and love in 2007… stay tuned, we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeve for this round. -TBL

bums everywhere

Duncan (left) and Dave (right) chase after one of the few water tankers at Burning Man.. the only place in a hundred miles where they could have a shower. Burning Man was #77 on our list until it was knocked off this summer during our 8-week tour of the USA.

If you’re naked, or know someone naked, and are looking for some stylish t-shirts to cover up this winter, check out the BRAND NEW t-shirts from The Buried Life.

This was a big day for Dave, a very big day. In fact, it was Dave’s idea to put #44 on the list and he had been looking forward to crossing it off since last year’s tour when he spent a whole day casting into a river and caught nothing but a tire. You see, Dave has never caught a fish before in his life, so when we lined up a professional fly fishing guide and a trip to a trout-packed pond in Idaho, he couldn’t stop talking about it. When Debby, our guide, told us that the pond was so riddled with trout that there was “No way you won’t catch a fish”, you can imagine how Dave’s eye’s lit up.

Debby, our very fly guide

So, Jonnie, Duncan and I did what any good friends would do in this situation, we stepped back to let Dave take the lead and gave him all the encouragement we could for his big moment…of course, this was after we cut the hook off of his lure…

Sure enough, with Dave’s first cast into the trout infested pond he felt a bite and yelled out with glee, “Oh! I think I got one!!” This of course was followed by the inevitable, “Oh crap! He got away!” This pattern continued for the next hour or two, Dave would get a bite and everyone would pipe up with encouragements, the fish would get away and the three of us would voice our concerns. “Are you setting the hook Dave?” “Do you think it’s a technical problem?” “Keep it up Davo, you’re close!” In the mean time, Jonnie, Duncan and I were having a grand old time as we had caught fish at our whim and took in the calming Idaho landscape.

Rainbow Trout #3 (Not Dave’s)

Finally, after a 4th or 5th “Do you think it’s a technical problem?” from Jonnie, Dave checked his lure and realized he was without a hook. Needless to say, Dave wasn’t too thrilled with our little joke. However, the joke ended up being on us because in the last hour Dave caught more fish than any of the 3 of us had caught the whole day.

Jonnie ‘Gumbo’ Penn

Back in good spirits, we took our catches, gutted them with the help of Debby and cooked our fresh fish over an open fire. It was a wonderful day, one that Dave will never forget. -ben

While the four of us were gallivanting in Sun Valley a few weeks ago, we were lucky enough to hook up with some gents who could help us cross off #60 on our list, Go Paragliding.

We met them at the bottom of a mountain and found out quickly that the real test was getting to the TOP alive, rather than making it to the bottom safe and sound. The road we drove up was sketchiest dust-buster I have ever seen - at one point we had to traverse over a 2×4 plank with our right wheels perched over a gap in the road…

Needless to say, we made it to the top and, as soon as Duncan stopped crying, we suited up to jump right off the mountain we had just recklessly climbed.

This is how it works: You strap into a large harness with your parachute behind you and run as fast as you can down the side of the mountain. Then, before you can say, “Duncan, we’re going to be okay, please stop crying”, your feet are no longer hitting the ground and you realize your flying.

The feeling you get while paragliding is like nothing else I have ever experienced - it is definitely the closest I have ever come to flying. It is so quiet, calm and liberating that all you want to do once you crash into the dirt at the bottom is drive straight back up that rickshaw death path and jump off the mountain again.

Jonnie says that he has been looking for his “thing” for some time now and believes he has finally found it. Dave paraglided with no pants on (apparently flying wasn’t liberating enough), Ben lost his shoe but said it was worth it and Duncan finally stopped crying. Yes, this is definitely something we all recommend - close your computer and go jump off a mountain!

But often, in the world’s most crowded streets,
But often, in the din of strife,
There rises an unspeakable desire
After the knowledge of our buried life;
-Matthew Arnold (1852)

It’s been 2 months, 5000 miles, 1 robbery, 1 totaled dune buggy, 12 hours of silence, 1 high-profile gate crashing (MTV VMA’s), 2 1300 lbs bulls, 1 broken thumb, 6 caught & eaten fish, 3 dry tanks of gas, 3 gallons of oil in the water radiator, 2 leaking air brakes, 1 national anthem singing, 6 hours of sailing, 1 day in prison (Folsom), 4 days at Burning Man, 1 loss of a friend, 10 ft of BMX vert, 1 stomach ulcer, 1 meeting with the President of Rolling Stone, 2 days of surfing, 3 hours of piloting, 20 hours of street performing, 200 peanut butter and jam sandwiches, 11 major cities, 80+hours of incredible footage and 1 night in a haunted house since we left Victoria, and life has never tasted so sweet.

Of all of our adventures, it is the people we were able to help that will stick with us most. Taking the group of deserving kids on a shopping spree at Toys R Us, brightening Mark’s home with paintings, lamps, a bed and some glow-in-the-dark stars, teaching break-dancing lessons to Shannon in Sun Valley, going ice skating with the Adaptive Sports tikes, running with the Special Olympic athletes in San Fran, tracking down Mongo and helping him get his art to Berlin, giving a stranger $100 bill for typing lessons to finish a book in Vegas, getting 2 new computers for the kids in Compton, hooking Jonathan up with Jamie Bestwick for the BMX ride of a lifetime - all of it.

But this adventure is far from over. On top of the many stories we have yet to share, the Social Network is beginning to boom and our list of friends still needing help remains to addressed. While we do our part to help Trudy with her air miles, View Park with their computer lab, and Mark with his illness we will be introducing you to others we met on the road (like Scott, Adrien, & more) and those we continue to meet everyday. And throughout it all we will fight to complete this list of 100 and encourage others to do the same.

We want to take this opportunity to send our sincere thanks to Levi’s for believing in us and helping us spread our message far and wide.We also want to thank Palm for the Centros - they’re super neat and helpful for calling home. And lastly, to all of you, thank you for following our every move with such support and energy; it was the comments on the website and the kind emails that kept us driving throughout the night and running during the day.

All that in 2 months – Ha! Imagine what can be done in a life time!

- Duncan, Dave, Ben and Jonnie

The Buried Life

(photos: kyle jewell)