Burning Man 2007

Man, what a week. it's going to take me a lot longer to process this one than most, I think. I've got a lot of emotions, thoughts, decisions, hopes, fears, etc. flying around in my brain, and it's all causing gunky buildup. I'm sure you'll hear more about it and the time I had to reflect out there in the coming weeks. As for now, I'll tell the tales that happened and you can decide what impact, if any, they should have.

We, that is me and Eli, drove up to Reno, caravaning with Jeff, on Sunday. We got there around 7 or so, had a small dinner, and passed out in our hotel room. Woke up the next morning, hit a small health food store in Reno, got ice for the cooler and hit the road out to the Playa.

The trip was quite a bit longer than I remembered, but that could just be that I've never been a driver before. The time might pass faster as a passenger, especially since I do tend to sleep on these trips (last year I was doing polyphasic, so I only slept about 40 mins the entire trip, so I don't know).

We got to the playa, Eli, because she was a virgin to BM, got to ring the bell and we proceeded in to look for our campmates, who were supposed to show up earlier that day. We headed to 8 and H, which was our scheduled meeting point, but instead of finding the people we camped with, we bumped in to Mandy, who was camped all the way across the playa. she invited us to Lunarville, a camp Jessica had stayed with in the previous year, and had a popsicle. After an hour of looking, or so, we found our campmated at 8 and B, a ways away from where we had planned.

The concept of camping so close to the playa irked some of our campmates, as we were used to camping out toward the fringe--the closer you are, the more action, and the more noise. Constant noise. Eventually, as Jeff put it, if I don't do anything new, I can't expect to experience anything new. We set up camp and tried to track down the rest of our group.

My first year, I had invested a bunch of money in a tent I thought would be awesome. As I was not a fan of air mattresses, I thought a hammock would be a good idea, so I bought a tent I could fit a hammock inside. After about 2 hours of trying, the help of 6 people, and eventually giving up and sleeping in someone else's tent the first night, the first year was far from successful.

This year, I did some research, found some videos of people setting up similar tents, and I decided to try again. With a change in process, I ended up setting the whole thing up in 15 minutes, and it was one of the nicest tents in our group. We got the shade structure up, and by the time we were done, ate a little dinner and such, it was almost night time and we struck out to find some adventure on the playa.

The whole night was started off with an amazing fireworks display right near our camp. It was about 10 minutes long and pretty good considering I don't think it was as professional as the later ones. We were tired the first night, so we didn't stay out too late, but we did catch center camp in full swing, head by the temple, check out the new cubotron, watch many a fire exhibit, and enjoyed the lunar eclipse.

The next morning was nice, not too hot, so we headed out to see some of the playa in the daytime. There were some interesting pieces of art-- a giant dragonfly, the steampunk treehouse, and eventually we found a big dome with people doing aerial silks. After the morning, things were so frigging hot that we decided to just sit for most of the day. once evening fell, I whipped up a batch of rocket fuel and we headed out with the rest of the kids from the camp. A little drinking, a little wandering, and we ended up just seeing the sights, dancing to Bass Nectar and Glitch Mob, and relaxing on a reddish art car in the evening playa. We headed home a little early as I had to be up early the next morning.

I woke up at 5 AM to go and catch the sunrise with a friend of mine from last year, but the whole of the sunrise, she didn't show. I watched the whole rise and then was assaulted by a mimosa bearing art car with a megaphone. I enjoyed my mimosa, and as I was about to ride off, my friend MaryBee showed up. We played on swings, talked about the last year, and bumped into people she knew (she's quite the burner butterfly). After a couple hours, I went home. We hit a little bit of sunshine in the morning, but it got overcast toward the evening. We got a light sprinkle of rain, but nothing oppressive. Rain on the playa is fearful because the ground is nothing but dust and dust and water makes something like clay. it sticks to everything and isn't fun to walk in. During a short afternoon dust storm, I took a nap and slept through most of it, waking up to find myself quite dusty. That night, we took off to see the "Hot Sex Fire Jam," which was being held a few blocks from our camp. I dressed as a pirate and had a bottle of rum. It seemed appropriate, and a night with a bottle of malibu seems to be a tradition.

The fire jam was pretty awesome. They had some pretty decent fire dancers and I saw something I'm not sure I'll ever forget. I'm not gonna post it here cause it's pretty explicit, but I guess you could ask me and find out. I spent the rest of the evening like a prodigy video, dancing, drinking, and eventually passing out in a tea room.

The next morning I woke up with no hangover, which was excellent. I spent the morning eating a little breakfast, and eventually headed out to get some ice from Camp Arctica. Tim, Laura, and I headed out and while we were waiting in line, there was a large pig car behind us shouting that there was a large storm coming and we should go home. Not being the kind to just listen to random pigs when anyone can have a megaphone, we stayed in line and got our ice.

The Ice camp was only a block and a half from our camp, so we figured we'd be fine getting home. I could see the makings of a storm in the distance, but didn't think it'd be as severe as the 60-mph monster they said it was. when I was half-way back, I got trapped in the worst dust storm I've ever experienced. I got off my bike and was walking with a hand outstretched as I couldn't see farther than about a foot or two in front of my eyes. My feet weren't visible. The wind was whipping dust at me hard enough to sting and I was having trouble breathing. Finally, after stumbling into cars and over a bunch of stuffed animals, I found our camp and headed into my tent to regain my composure.

I found a bunch of people already in my tent and enjoying the relative shelter it provided. The wind stayed high and scary for about an hour and we got a little downpour in the middle of it. My tent passed with flying colors and I'm most excited about not needing another tent for a long time.

Sitting in the tent wasn't too bad with everyone else in there, and the time passed relatively quickly, especially as I started to nap on a convenient beanbag chair someone had brought into my tent. When afternoon came and the sun started to set we were treated to a really awesome double rainbow. It was the third one I've seen ever, so I felt pretty jazzed at how amazingly bright it was.

That night, the whole group went out to Cirque Berserk, a real vaudevillian-style circus. The performers were all on stilts so people could sit down and still see the action. they were very well coordinated and rehearsed and I was most impressed. After that, we came back to camp, laid on our trampoline, and watched "Flesh Gordon" a movie being shown at a camp across the way.

The last day, Eli and I set out to work on an art project I dreamed up. We spent a good hour or two, with a small segue after I found a mobile silkscreen shop on the side of the road. I had the man silkscreen my shirt, which was awesome. It looks nice. We eventually made our way to the Hug Deli, which was a stand in the middle of nowhere, staffed by a very nice man who explained the different kinds of hugs. We dreamed up some new ones and had some good laughs. Eli tried a German man's unicycle and we started walking until we spotted an art car Eli had been desperate to ride on.

We followed the car all the way across the playa and when they finally stopped, we hopped on. The feature most interesting about the car was the mobile trapeze hanging off the back. She got to play for a while and I chatted with a stuntman named Bonzai who had worked on some shows and movies I'd seen. He was nice, as were the rest of the people in his camp.

When Eli had her fill of Spanish web and trapeze, we headed back to prepare for the burn. I stocked up on glowsticks, made sure the couch had enough gas, and we set out to get a good spot to watch the man go down. We got out there a little later than I have in previous years, so the perimeter was pretty tight. We had a decent view of the fireworks and we waited for the man's arms to fall before we set out to get a better seat for the burning of the Oil Derrick.

Last year, the people who put on the derrick's burn produced the biggest fireball I'd ever seen. Naturally, I was hoping for something equally as spectacular. The whole deal was scheduled for 11 pm and by the time 12:30 rolled around, I was pretty tired and wondering if they were going to postpone it again.

Finally, the spotlights shut off and an eerie air raid siren started to sound. it lasted a good 10 minutes as the entire area filled with smoke machine smoke. When things were good and thick, they started the fireworks. It was one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen. Once the fireworks stopped, the derrick was slightly on fire and we wondered aloud whether it would fall over before it would finish catching all the way. The wondering didn't last long as the explosion began. Even as far back as we were, we felt the heat like the sun on our faces. It was truly an excellent way to end the week.

The next morning, we packed up, including a little extra Mandy in our car, dropped her off in SC and I got to meet Eli's mom and her stepfather. We jawed for a little while, then we drove back to Atascadero. I got home around 3:00 am, thoroughly tired and amazingly dusty. I took a shower, went to bed, and here I am, trying my best to process. More to come, I think, especially in the way of interpretation and such, but that's the gist of it. I'm glad it was so relaxing, and I'm glad Eli had a good first time. One of the guys in my camp, Pete, proposed to his girlfriend Eyrene as the man burned. Congrats to them (she said yes).