Alvord Desert: What are we doing anyway?
In 2019 we went on a long weekend trip to the Alvord Desert in southeast Oregon, and found wonder along the way. As we bathed in the Alvord Hot Springs, and chatted with the others there, we learned about a classical piano concert happening on the playa the next evening, and were invited to attend by the person who we met in the hot spring who was the traveling piano tuner. Hunter Noak, a renowned pianist, travels rural Oregon and Washington and performs concerts for locals and visitors alike. He hauls a grand piano on a flatbed truck, tunes it, and connects it to broadcast equipment so that attendees can put on wireless headsets and wander the landscape while listening. It’s a cool idea, and a key component is local community involvement. At the Alvord Desert concert we saw, ranchers and other local arts community members, attended and contributed. There were cowboy and cowgirl poetry readings, art displays, and of course the reason it all happens — fund raising. Rural communities are often ignored , so it’s nice to see an organization focused there.
When we saw this concert in 2019, the playa came alive in anticipation of the concert, as playas do. The most famous playa is the one in the California desert that hosts Burning Man each summer for a few weeks. The Alvord Desert playa hosts events and vehicular speed runs owing to its dried lake bed origins and the flatness that results. The event we saw had a festival vibe: unicycle riders, jugglers, kite fliers and a bunch of people settled on top of their vans. When we traveled to Alvord, we had no idea the concert was happening so did not have tickets. Instead, we pulled our camp chairs up close to the piano. For one set Hunter invited audience members to come lay on the flatbed truck under the piano and feel the resonance. The song was heavy with deep bass tones and nothing produces those tones like the O.G. subwoofer, a concert grand piano. I personally connected most when Hunter played a piece by the modern Turkish composer Fazil Say, whose symphony containing this piece I saw in Istanbul for its world premier. It was magical to see this performed a 2nd time, as it required the pianist reach inside the piano and pluck the right strings at the right time. I’m confident I was the only person to make that connection from across the world.
Ayla the trailer with the Alvord Desert as a backdrop.
Later that evening in the fading dusk, we set up our camp on the playa, with Layla our elderly lab settling into the tent, and Carrie-Ann and I enjoying the afterglow of a magnificent day. What was it about this day? It had adventure and serendipity and art and nature. It was unexpected, and impossible to plan for. In fact, efforts to plan would have likely destroyed the magic. The playa offered a blank canvas that inspires, and we were drawn there to see this ethereal place, expecting September solitude but finding community, art, and magic instead.
The next day in our cabin next to Summer Lake we tossed around the idea of Chasing Wonder, intentionally seeking moments where it could happen again. Wonder doesn’t appear on your couch watching Bonanza reruns, and it requires you to engage your world. Had we not talked with the piano tuner as we all sat naked in the hot springs, we would not have been invited to have this experience. Following Wonder (our revision to the original phrase that’s less aggressive and more consistent with our overall ethos) requires both making and breaking: making connections and breaking your conventional behavior. If you can find your way to the vulnerability of putting yourself out there where what will happen is unknown to you, you can follow wonder, too. This year-long exploration of the American & Canadian West is our effort to create space for following wonder and see what sort of magic we can bump up against.
