Palm Springs + Desert X

Team meetups have been at the core of my company’s culture since the beginning.

I used to go on these trips more frequently in the Before Times, meeting my teammates all over the world: Granada, Hanoi (more), Playa Del Carmen (not sure why I don’t have photos), Valletta, Palm Springs/Joshua Tree, Nashville, Chicago, Edinburgh, La Jolla, and again to Palm Springs this week.

Some of the photos in our Airbnb listing make this place look ridiculous and over the top, but in person it’s actually quite functional and comfortable, and is less like a villa and more like a small motel with a facelift, with coats of paint, fun wallpaper, neon signs, and Instagrammable decor. I deleted my Instagram account in 2020 and I don’t miss it, but sometimes I’ll visit and stay in places like this that remind me of how enthusiastic I used to be about taking photos. I’ll actually be returning to the desert in a few weeks with Nick and Emilia, and was thinking of pulling my cameras out from the closet for the trip.

Anyway, if you ever need lodging for a group of 10+ in Palm Springs that’s something in between a hotel and a house — and has separate private sleeping/kitchen spaces — I’d recommend this listing.

We stopped at a few Desert X art installations.

In town, Gerald Clarke’s “Immersion” incorporates Cahuilla basket weaving and a maze-like path on a gameboard that immerses visitors in the region’s Indigenous history. I only have the two photos below (though the bird’s-eye view of the entire piece is worth a look).

A short drive outside of town, Matt Johnson’s “Sleeping Figure” is a sculpture made of international shipping containers near exit 110 on the 10 freeway, and “speaks to the crumples and breaks of a supply chain economy in distress.”

Published by Cheri Lucas Rowlands

Senior editor at Longreads / Automattic

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