Burning Man - Days 10 thru 19

Our first view of the dust
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Sorry for the long delay in updates, but it's been a wild ride since our last update! So here ya go!

Burning Man…I have no idea what to say. Okay that’s a lie, I have a ton to say but no matter how much I type or how many pictures I post nothing can really describe the experience. When asked in the past how to describe Burning Man, I’ve always said it’s an intentional artistic community based on principals of radical self reliance, community and leave no trace. Oh and it’s a big party in the desert. So now having gone…I was totally right, that’s a pretty solid summary. Except it’s so much more.

We're here!
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The drive to Burning Man was pretty uneventful, until you get near the actual festival and you catch site of the clouds of dust. Oy. The last stretch you have to shut your vents and turn off the A/C, making it a bit uncomfortable, but we were prepared, and pulled out our dust masks and goggles, which were needed immediately. We were greeted at the gate by a PDF friend Michelle which was so cool – one of our east coast friends giving us hugs and welcoming us home all the way in Nevada.

Set up, before the festival begins (look! pink hair!)
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Speaking of this whole “Welcome Home” business…it may sound silly but it really does feel like home. It’s a group of people who share a few things in common – the building of intentional community and a gift economy (as in items are given freely, not exchanged for money or other goods), the desire to leave as small of a footprint on their environment as possible, the understanding of radical participation and immediacy (you are here, so participate NOW, don’t worry about what else is happening, be in the moment and experience it fully)…and the crazy willingness to spend XX days in a really harsh environment full of dust, 100+ degree day temperatures, 40 night temperatures, no natural shade and nothing to purchase except for ice and coffee. But for us at least, the weather wasn’t an issue, we embraced the dust early, the dust storms themselves were actually fun since we had solid structures (tent/shade), we had plenty of food, water, booze, and we kept the ice full. Being really prepared made the experience really enjoyable and we didn’t have to worry about the elements.

Dove's impression of a seahorse
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Okay I will end up spend hours on this if I don’t cut to the chase. Highlights:

The lunar eclipse on Monday/Tuesday, on the night of the full moon; biking out to see it at the trash fence, which I can’t really explain how far it is but it’s really, really far, and really pretty – when the eclipse happened, we turned around and looked out into the desert and the beautiful nothingness. What an amazing sky.

The burning of the Man on Monday. About halfway back from the trash fence, between the monkey’s (I know it doesn’t make sense, don’t worry about it) and the Temple, I noticed the Man (that big Man sculpture that they burn on SATURDAY night, hence Burning Man) had changed colors. He’s lit through the week a neon green, so we can all see him and use him as a reference point. But now he was orange. I thought, maybe it’s for the eclipse. Then we noticed the smoke coming out of his head. Someone had set him on fire on the first night of the festival (we had arrived early for set up, but the fest actually starts Monday at 12:01 am – the man burned for the first time around 3 am). We hauled ass to the base. Okay, so maybe it’s a crappy highlight, but the man has never burned on Monday, and for our first burn, it was pretty wild. They had to take him down for almost the whole week which messed with our ability to navigate the city.

Josh in his uniform for the week
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/29/national/main3216200.shtml

The meteor shower. Yep, another spectacular gift from the sky.

Rain. It rained, like three times. It doesn’t really rain in the desert, but it did. Another weird/cool thing about this burn.

The double rainbow. Yes, right after the third rain, a gorgeous double rainbow appeared. Another Burning Man first.

The man, part 1
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The Crude Awakening burn. So part of this whole festival is fire. Burners like to, well, burn stuff. So a lot of the art is burned throughout the week, mainly later on, or somehow incorporates fire. There was one amazing installation, which was a 99ft tall wooden oil well; around it were 20 – 30ft metal sculptures, all done using different materials, worshiping the oil well. Some of the sculptures had flames coming out of them in a variety of ways. So after the Man burned (they rebuilt him and yes he did burn again on Saturday) was the oil well burn. The plan was to create an explosion to cause a 1000 ft flame into the air. The flame only ended up being about 500 ft, from what we could judge, but it was frighteningly beautiful – a giant mushroom cloud burst into the air, the heat was intense and the sight was something I never hope to see outside of this context. We were right up front, as close as the general public could get. It was spectacular.

Costumes!
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http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2007/08/crude-awakening.html

DUST! Apparently the surface this year was much softer than usual, causing more dust. There were also a god number of dust storms; the winds were reported in Reno to be around 70 mph. We spent one of them out at the Deep End, a day time dance theme camp, having a blast with the bartender, mixing up frosty fruity concoctions.

Art. Okay, so although I have described the event as an art fest, its hard to really get your head around that until you are there. There were around 200 – 250 exhibits on display, mostly on the playa away from the city. I wish we’d spent more time exploring it, but what we did see was spectacular. In addition to Crude Awakening, there was Big Rig Jig, which was two actual Mack trucks sort of cupped together so they formed an S. You could even climb inside of them. There was also a cool tree house you could climb into, the Guardian of Eden, a flower-esque metal sculpture you could climb in also…so much art, so little time. Here are just a few: http://www.burningman.com/installations/07_art_fund.html

Thunderdome: Where people watch other people beat the crap out of each other with foam weapons. No, really.
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Theme camps! Including a noodle bar down the street from a sake bar, a diner that served grilled cheese at 2am, Putt Putt Playa (a mini golf course set up by friends of ours in Philly), Astral Head Wash (yes they wash your hair for you), the tea house in deep playa that served iced tea to beat the mid day heat…I could go on and on, you just can’t comprehend how much there is to do there.

Play-dipidy. On Friday night Josh and I took off on our bikes to explore while the rest of the camp took the art car. After a couple of hours, we went out to the Big Rig Jig. We’re standing there and all of a sudden I look over, and there are the people from our camp! So maybe this seems like not such a big deal, but by Friday night there are over 40,000 people at the festival, and running into someone like that is not very likely. Anyway, we parted ways again, we spent the night running around, having fun, seeing everything, and around sunset we decided we wanted to watch it at the Crude Awakening installation. So we rode our bikes out there, found a spot to see the sun rise, and cuddled under our coats. About 45 min later, I see out of the corner of my eye this familiar pink and silver image about 7 ft to my right, turn my head, and there is Kim, on her bike, standing right next to me. She had no idea we were there, she just happened to come out to the structure too, and to the exact same place we were. We all (including some other camp mates) got to see the sun rise together. The playa is weird like that – super strange things happen.

Enjoying some petite beagle at Putt-Putt Playa with Erik, Hedy and Kim.
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Okay so I really could write for hours on this, but if I want to get it posted I’d better stop. Besides I’m sure we’ll be talking non stop about it for months to come!!!