A Trip to Burning Man, Part 2
Sep. 30th, 2002 04:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
c9For the first few days at Burning Man, I'd heard from several people that I
should visit the temple, as it was just incredible to see. I knew very
little at this point, but I've learned more since. In 2001, a close friend
of artist David Best's died in a car accident, shortly before Burning Man.
He considered not going at all, but in the end decided to go and build
something to help work out the grief. The built the Temple of Tears. This
year he came back and built the Temple of Joy.
Picture those little dinosaur skeletons you buy at museums, the ones made
out of balsa wood. now imagine that they were built out of pieces of thick
plywood, still in those funny randomish shapes. Now imagine that instead of
a small dinosaur, it was a seventy-foot-high building, with 2nd-story
walkways, a towering steeple, and completely symmetrical construction. That
is what the Temple looks like. It's very hard to describe how incredible it
was to see, I stood for several minutes just staring, and even now I still
can't fully grasp it, the enormity is too much. I get bogged down in ten
different ways trying to understand how it was planned, how the pieces got
to the desert, how it was put together so quickly...
Almost everyone who sees it is struck by its beauty and emotion. The artist
leaves pens and pencils inside (you can walk right through it) and people
write messages to loved ones. There's a central altar dedicated to those
lost to suicide, and there are messages all over it and elsewhere
apologizing, professing, asking, telling. It will rank forever as one of
the most beautiful and moving things I have ever seen in my life.
After such a sight, we needed a bit of a breather. The Temple is located
diametrically opposite Centre Camp, in theory where the art and action stops
and just empty playa continues, but this is not in fact the case. There are
works of art scattered all over the area, some designed for day and some for
night, we saw so many things I can only remember a few:
- a few sequences of fluorescent lights (like in office ceilings) standing
on their ends in a line, lit up in patterns all night long
- a Buddhist-style shelter/temple on the very edge of the playa we inhabit
for Burning Man, with reflective symbols at the top and some figurines
facing out into nothingness
- one hundred photographs of nuclear explosions, annotated with details of
date and place, and the code name given to it, entitled "one hundred suns"
- a spinning wheel about 30 feet across, with plaster casts of the upper
torso of a man swimming on it, evenly spaced, with each cast representing a
different frame of the movement. The only light source on this was a strobe
light hooked up to the wheel, so that no matter what speed the wheel turned,
it appeared as if the man was swimming towards you
- a box roughly the size of a spare bathroom, with no walls, and with
curtains of laser light shining down on each side instead. When you broke
the laser beams with your hand, the computer hidden away would play a
specific sound sample, leaving you to create your own music
- a full size jazz lounge, complete with bar, sultry-voiced singer, coat
check booth and casino tables. All contained within a giant rubber duck.
Seriously.
Not all of Burning Man is random art though, the pleasures of the flesh
appear as well. Many opinions of Burning Man include things like "orgy" and
"drug paradise". There is sex, there are drugs, but by no means are these
the driving force behind the event. I think they just appear because some
people feel free to be themselves in whatever way they want, leading to free
love (insert 60's-70's hippie reference here) and chemical enhancement. For
most of us, just being there and seeing all this amazing creation was more
than enough sensory overload.
I visited a tent known as "Jiffy Lube." For years, Burning Man has had a
tent called Bianca's Smut Shack, which basically existed as a pick-up joint
for straight men and women to find love and/or just some "action". A few
years back, Jiffy Lube was created as the gay equivalent. It has two tents,
the dance bar and the actual "action" tent. I only visited the first one,
but I was there on "New Meat Night" during an Amateur Strip Contest. It was
highly amusing, if only for the fact that everyone felt less pressure to be
as beautiful as an Abercrombie & Fitch model, so people who wanted to dance
around (some remained somewhat clothed) could. Despite it being an almost
99% gay male crowd, the best cheers of the night went to a young woman who
danced very well -- and poured red wine on herself! I won't spoil my story
by telling you who won, except to say that they were forced to have the last
few people have a bit of a dance-off to decide, and the cheers just got
louder and louder... :-)
One night I was wandering and I came across two different rollercoaster type
rides that had been assembled in the desert. It still amazes me what some
people (usually those living closer than I) will do to create an interesting
experience for others. Another popular spot was the Thunderdome, a huge
geodesic dome which hosted nightly battles (such as in giant sumo suits, or
hanging from wires and using Nerf foam bats), while the crowd climbed the
outside to cheer and jeer the combatants.
I've mentioned that Burning Man was non-commercial -- you're not supposed to
sell or buy anything there. It's not entirely true, as you can buy ice and
cappuccino (what can I say, this thing was started by people from
California!), and additionally a barter economy has sprung up, with people
often trading liquor for food, toys for liquor, or whathaveyou. Often when
we offered gifts to people, they would quickly say "wait, I'm sure I can
trade something," which always struck us as odd. I guess we had just
adopted the non-commercial idea fully, and were totally comfortable with
just giving things away, while others had learned about the way things
worked a little differently.
What did we give away? We had candy of many stripes, pre-stamped postcards
(that could be mailed at the Burning Man post office!), and glow sticks, and
towards the end we had tons of water and food as well. Tim Horton's coffee
also made a good impression on our neighbours! Two mornings we hosted
pancake parties, serving them up until everyone was full. We'll definitely
repeat that next year, though Chris will be bringing his own syrup
apparently.
At this year's Burning Man there was a built-in scavenger hunt to keep
everyone more involved. We were supposed to visit several different theme
camps (larger camps pre-registered and given prime real estate to use for
their art/activities) and collect different coloured beads. Once we had all
five, we would be given a secret time and location, when we could find a
mysterious supplier of golden doubloons. These specially minted coins (with
the Burning Man on them) would then allow us entry into the lighthouse that
the Man stood on, and to its observation deck 30 feet above the ground.
There were rules around this though, since BM is a gift economy -- adding
value to an item might commoditize it, and people might start collecting
them or selling them. So the rules were that you couldn't buy or sell the
doubloons, and you could only have one. Pete and I didn't get a chance to
collect beads for ourselves, but we did receive doubloons as gifts, which
was excellent. Pete and I stood in line for nearly an hour for this, and it
was worth it -- we were high enough to see an excellent view of the entire
city, and we could look up (there was no ceiling at all) right into the Man!
Travel at Black Rock City was fantastically diverse. Many (MANY) people
create "art cars", vehicles decorated (or perhaps taken over by) whatever
theme or idea they wish. The lack of public safety rules also made for
interesting cars: you would never see pickup truck with large propane tanks
in the back, all of which were spewing 30 feet of fire into the air at
random intervals. You just don't see that these days. We saw ride-on
lawnmowers mated with couches (now that's a comfortable ride), bicycles with
large (10 feet) bunny slippers encasing them, a beautiful decorated carriage
pulled by seahorses, several huge pirate ships (easily 100 feet), and more.
Many people create art cars and even buses for the express purpose of
transporting others, providing taxi services of an irregular and
unpredictable kind -- just like real taxis! Bikes were a real necessity.
We figured that out too late, and had only brought two for the six of us.
In future, we will bring one bike per person. Remember, this city is
several miles worth of things to see and do, and we always wanted to be in
different places at the same time.
Many people decorate their smaller transportation devices as well -- I saw a
bike with an electric-light-tubing animated bird "flying" above it, which
looked amazing at night. Another person had a 4 foot butterfly on his
backpack, also animated and flying. One of the most intricate designs I saw
involved a body suit that had blue and red blood vessels glowing all over
it. Seeing all these things made it quite the visual playground!
Food was always an adventure at Burning Man: we had purchased way too much,
and ended up eating much different meals than we thought we would. Chris
had planned carefully and decided that one large can of chili would make
more sense than several smaller ones, and he found one which he thought
would be perfect. One afternoon he started cooking it... and cooking it...
and cooking it... it never seemed to be ready. Finally, he decided it was
hot enough, though he said it tasted a little odd. Well, first reason: it
was 2 kilograms or so of beef chili, but it included no beans! It was 2
kilograms of chili powder and low-quality beef! Or possibly "beef" !
Second reason: the can had decided it didn't like this game, and was
actually releasing something into the chili... everyone trying it mentioned
an aluminum taste! Better safe than sorry (and man was Chris sorry once his
system was done with it) we all took a pass. In future, no more cooking
huge tins of anything... I'll be lucky if I ever eat chili again!
One day Justin volunteered for the Earth Guardians, a group at Burning Man
that specifically focuses on protecting the environment in and near the
Black Rock Desert, which is one of the most fragile ecosystems around. He
and a couple other people were driven several miles to Double Hot Springs
(and later Black Rock Springs, home of THE Black Rock!), where they educated
anyone who came to visit, and requested that they not actually swim in the
springs, to avoid damaging them. He was most impressed with his day at the
springs.
Black Rock City for the first time had an actual post office, where mail
could be posted for the rest of the world. It had its own postmark and
everything -- I remembered to send postcards to Vinny from inside Black Rock
City to make sure we got to see the postmark. The gimmick for this post
office was that the workers were rude, prone to random acts of violence, and
worked much better when bribed. Hmmm.
Finally, it was Saturday -- the day they burn the Man. Everyone was very
excited, even the people who were on their fourth or twelfth burn. We
quickly realized that there was no way to predict what it would be like: for
five days 29,083 people had been communing in many different ways, in
different areas of the city, but tonight we would all be doing the SAME
THING! That just got us more excited. We left for the Man about an hour
early, as dusk was falling. The crowds were huge -- thousands of people had
been there most of the day, I think. We paid close attention to the wind,
and chose a spot where we could see even if there was a lot of smoke. This
turned out to be a good choice. We managed to sit just a few feet from the
front, and were amazed at how many people were actually sitting so the
people behind could see. Apparently, it wasn't that amazing, because a
Black Rock Ranger (the BRC volunteer policing group, just there for safety
and information more than anything else) came over and told us that we would
show up the group to our left if we all sat down -- and several people
behind and beside us did! Neat dynamic, all these people willingly sitting
and just relaxing.
We had read in the events guide (received at the gate) that the Burn
happened at 9 pm. Shortly before 9, the parade of fire began. I'm not sure
if that's what it was called, but since it consisted of hundreds of people
doing fire dances and swinging "poi" (little balls on the end of chains or
ropes) set on fire, tossing large sticks set on fire, wearing gloves set on
fire, or breathing fire, along with several DPW vehicles spouting flame
(including an upside down octopus that spat fire out its tentacles), I
figured it was a good name. They all spread out to match the huge circle we
all sat in, and began dancing for us. Near us. The best description of
things at Burning Man actually came from my cousin Alex who's (I think)
never been: "people creating, desperately creating art, defining what is is
to be human." The fire dancers all were giving everything they had not for
us, but for themselves and for their art. I've read great descriptions of
art at Burning Man, of how people do things not to entertain, but rather to
be entertained by those who gather to watch them.
The firedancers gradually burned out, and they drew away, and a tension
gathered in the crowd: we all knew what was next. The Man is always burned
in some spectacular way, and this year (being my first time here) seemed
incredible. First, the Man raised his arms -- until now, he had been
passively standing, waiting and watching over us. Now his arms were raised
high, drawing us towards him to share in this experience. Fireworks began
setting off from within the lighthouse itself, shooting high into the sky or
sparking intensely beside the Man, and then after many minutes of that the
flames themselves appeared. The lighthouse was the source, and it quickly
began to smoke heavily and burn, until flames began to lick the legs of the
Man. The whole structure was wood (with a little neon), so it all happened
very quickly, but I still remember many tiny details as if they took hours
to occur. The flames were unbelievable, and quick. The Man fell after the
structure that held his support wires was compromised, and the cheers were
huge. It's hard to describe now, but it was very freeing to just emote with
the many thousands, free of all cares of the outside world for just this
short time. At this point the Rangers, who up until now had been
maintaining a safety distance for everyone, basically gave in and let
everyone through. The burning coals and last few pieces of wood were all on
the ground now, meaning that unless someone ran in, it was safe to approach.
Many people began to dance and run around the coals, playing drums and
singing and watching and praying and talking and just trying to drink it all
in for one more minute one more second.
As you can imagine it was a challenge to control one's own destination in a
crowd of 29000 in such a small area, so Pete, Elyse and I were quickly split
up. I tried to find them but our plan of meeting afterwards had not been
exact enough, so I ended up just wandering by myself for a while, then
heading back to camp. Most people were partying and dancing and enjoying
themselves quite intensely, but as I was by myself I felt much more the
observer, and soon I actually felt like I needed to be away from the
excitement for a while. At camp I found no one, but very soon Elyse, then
everyone else, returned. We all talked about going out again, but most of
us decided that we were actually too drained to really enjoy anything else
that night, and so we relaxed, and then headed for bed.
Sunday was a quiet day. Many people due to other commitments actually leave
on Sunday, which we had considered before getting there. But we learned
after arriving that the Temple is actually burned on Sunday night, and we
resolved to stay for that. Chris, Evan and Justin all decided to go, as
they already had other plans on the rest of their mini-vacation they wanted
to enjoy. Hopefully they can take my notes and the pictures and get some
semblance of what happened -- the burning of the Temple was even more
intensely moving than the burning of the Man.
It felt like a sad day too. People were leaving, roadsigns were
disappearing (people like taking souvenirs -- sadly, theft turned into a
serious problem this year), and we started to find a different atmosphere.
A relaxed one, but also... different. People were starting to think about
home, school, work, bills, and other such horrible (!) things. We tried our
hardest to just relax, though with half our team missing we felt it too. As
we were leaving the next morning, we naturally started to clean up and
organize, and we tried to give away as much food and candy as we could. We
also had uncovered by this point that we had plenty of water left to share
and waste, s several water fights ensued. Tres fun.
As the evening approached we ate a bit of supper and then headed to the
temple. Our bikes had left with the guys, so we grabbed all our wonderful
fun neighbours and practically demanded that they hang out with us for the
evening -- no one seemed too put out by this. We walked to the temple, all
the while feeling the changes in the air. More dust from people leaving,
actual garbage on the playa from careless burners. We got close to the
temple and again a huge circle was marked out by Rangers, keeping everyone
safe. The Temple of Joy was actually much larger than the Man, at least
60-70 feet in height and much wider and more solid, so safety precautions
were definitely warranted. We again found great seats near the front, and
settled ourselves. At this point we noticed something different: everyone
was completely quiet. Where 29,000 people last night were cheering,
talking, sharing, and celebrating, tonight the remaining 20,000 (guessing)
were silent. Not quiet, but almost completely silent.
Close to the time, we started hearing singing filtering across the emptiness
towards us. We were on the opposite side from the "front" of the temple,
where any ceremonies might be happening, but we could see right through the
centre of the temple and could tell something was happening. We saw what
looked like a small burn, possibly of the large temple accessory-piece on
the ground, and we heard an operatic voice singing Amazing Grace. Remember,
the Temple is often called the Mausoleum, and was primarily for remembrance.
During the entire song, the only thing we could hear was several thousand
people breathing, and the occasional voice singing softly along.
It's very hard to describe this scene, because I've never before been in one
place with 20,000 people and had it be so quiet. The flames started to
spread in the structure -- again, it was all plywood, and it caught quickly.
The flames at their peak reached over 150 feet into the sky, and though we
were at least 500 metres from the temple we felt much too close and could
barely keep our eyes towards it. The heat was both unbearable and
absolutely bearable, almost needed. Still, silence.
We watched the structure burn for what seemed like hours, days -- strong
wood takes a while to burn, and we had nowhere else to be. Finally the
structure started to falter, and the upper floors of the building fell in,
and shortly after the last piece upright toppled. It was only at this point
that noise began, a gentle cheer that grew in volume, accompanied by
whistles and clapping. It was very much a release.
The crowd moved in towards the fire, with some dancing, singing, praying,
watching. Several people just kneeled in front of the fire and watched.
No, witnessed is a better word.
The next morning we departed very early, beating the traffic handily. We
stayed at a cushy KOA campground on the way home, indulging ourselves with
multiple hot showers and a dip in the pool. We also visited an amazing
steak restaurant where we stuffed ourselves silly -- and where we plan to do
so again next time! We made excellent time, and Pete got home a day early.
Elyse and I tried to do the same trick, but our attempt was blown out of the
water by that damned Sanford Fleming and his standard time -- we were right
on schedule, but then suddenly an hour behind schedule!! So we drove to
Banff and enjoyed the park (with bear tracks!) before getting back to
Edmonton.
Having been, I have a completely different way of thinking about Burning
Man, and I regret not one second of my time getting there or experiencing
it. Would I go back? In a second. Will I go back? Regularly. Will you
come with me? I hope you will.
Cam
should visit the temple, as it was just incredible to see. I knew very
little at this point, but I've learned more since. In 2001, a close friend
of artist David Best's died in a car accident, shortly before Burning Man.
He considered not going at all, but in the end decided to go and build
something to help work out the grief. The built the Temple of Tears. This
year he came back and built the Temple of Joy.
Picture those little dinosaur skeletons you buy at museums, the ones made
out of balsa wood. now imagine that they were built out of pieces of thick
plywood, still in those funny randomish shapes. Now imagine that instead of
a small dinosaur, it was a seventy-foot-high building, with 2nd-story
walkways, a towering steeple, and completely symmetrical construction. That
is what the Temple looks like. It's very hard to describe how incredible it
was to see, I stood for several minutes just staring, and even now I still
can't fully grasp it, the enormity is too much. I get bogged down in ten
different ways trying to understand how it was planned, how the pieces got
to the desert, how it was put together so quickly...
Almost everyone who sees it is struck by its beauty and emotion. The artist
leaves pens and pencils inside (you can walk right through it) and people
write messages to loved ones. There's a central altar dedicated to those
lost to suicide, and there are messages all over it and elsewhere
apologizing, professing, asking, telling. It will rank forever as one of
the most beautiful and moving things I have ever seen in my life.
After such a sight, we needed a bit of a breather. The Temple is located
diametrically opposite Centre Camp, in theory where the art and action stops
and just empty playa continues, but this is not in fact the case. There are
works of art scattered all over the area, some designed for day and some for
night, we saw so many things I can only remember a few:
- a few sequences of fluorescent lights (like in office ceilings) standing
on their ends in a line, lit up in patterns all night long
- a Buddhist-style shelter/temple on the very edge of the playa we inhabit
for Burning Man, with reflective symbols at the top and some figurines
facing out into nothingness
- one hundred photographs of nuclear explosions, annotated with details of
date and place, and the code name given to it, entitled "one hundred suns"
- a spinning wheel about 30 feet across, with plaster casts of the upper
torso of a man swimming on it, evenly spaced, with each cast representing a
different frame of the movement. The only light source on this was a strobe
light hooked up to the wheel, so that no matter what speed the wheel turned,
it appeared as if the man was swimming towards you
- a box roughly the size of a spare bathroom, with no walls, and with
curtains of laser light shining down on each side instead. When you broke
the laser beams with your hand, the computer hidden away would play a
specific sound sample, leaving you to create your own music
- a full size jazz lounge, complete with bar, sultry-voiced singer, coat
check booth and casino tables. All contained within a giant rubber duck.
Seriously.
Not all of Burning Man is random art though, the pleasures of the flesh
appear as well. Many opinions of Burning Man include things like "orgy" and
"drug paradise". There is sex, there are drugs, but by no means are these
the driving force behind the event. I think they just appear because some
people feel free to be themselves in whatever way they want, leading to free
love (insert 60's-70's hippie reference here) and chemical enhancement. For
most of us, just being there and seeing all this amazing creation was more
than enough sensory overload.
I visited a tent known as "Jiffy Lube." For years, Burning Man has had a
tent called Bianca's Smut Shack, which basically existed as a pick-up joint
for straight men and women to find love and/or just some "action". A few
years back, Jiffy Lube was created as the gay equivalent. It has two tents,
the dance bar and the actual "action" tent. I only visited the first one,
but I was there on "New Meat Night" during an Amateur Strip Contest. It was
highly amusing, if only for the fact that everyone felt less pressure to be
as beautiful as an Abercrombie & Fitch model, so people who wanted to dance
around (some remained somewhat clothed) could. Despite it being an almost
99% gay male crowd, the best cheers of the night went to a young woman who
danced very well -- and poured red wine on herself! I won't spoil my story
by telling you who won, except to say that they were forced to have the last
few people have a bit of a dance-off to decide, and the cheers just got
louder and louder... :-)
One night I was wandering and I came across two different rollercoaster type
rides that had been assembled in the desert. It still amazes me what some
people (usually those living closer than I) will do to create an interesting
experience for others. Another popular spot was the Thunderdome, a huge
geodesic dome which hosted nightly battles (such as in giant sumo suits, or
hanging from wires and using Nerf foam bats), while the crowd climbed the
outside to cheer and jeer the combatants.
I've mentioned that Burning Man was non-commercial -- you're not supposed to
sell or buy anything there. It's not entirely true, as you can buy ice and
cappuccino (what can I say, this thing was started by people from
California!), and additionally a barter economy has sprung up, with people
often trading liquor for food, toys for liquor, or whathaveyou. Often when
we offered gifts to people, they would quickly say "wait, I'm sure I can
trade something," which always struck us as odd. I guess we had just
adopted the non-commercial idea fully, and were totally comfortable with
just giving things away, while others had learned about the way things
worked a little differently.
What did we give away? We had candy of many stripes, pre-stamped postcards
(that could be mailed at the Burning Man post office!), and glow sticks, and
towards the end we had tons of water and food as well. Tim Horton's coffee
also made a good impression on our neighbours! Two mornings we hosted
pancake parties, serving them up until everyone was full. We'll definitely
repeat that next year, though Chris will be bringing his own syrup
apparently.
At this year's Burning Man there was a built-in scavenger hunt to keep
everyone more involved. We were supposed to visit several different theme
camps (larger camps pre-registered and given prime real estate to use for
their art/activities) and collect different coloured beads. Once we had all
five, we would be given a secret time and location, when we could find a
mysterious supplier of golden doubloons. These specially minted coins (with
the Burning Man on them) would then allow us entry into the lighthouse that
the Man stood on, and to its observation deck 30 feet above the ground.
There were rules around this though, since BM is a gift economy -- adding
value to an item might commoditize it, and people might start collecting
them or selling them. So the rules were that you couldn't buy or sell the
doubloons, and you could only have one. Pete and I didn't get a chance to
collect beads for ourselves, but we did receive doubloons as gifts, which
was excellent. Pete and I stood in line for nearly an hour for this, and it
was worth it -- we were high enough to see an excellent view of the entire
city, and we could look up (there was no ceiling at all) right into the Man!
Travel at Black Rock City was fantastically diverse. Many (MANY) people
create "art cars", vehicles decorated (or perhaps taken over by) whatever
theme or idea they wish. The lack of public safety rules also made for
interesting cars: you would never see pickup truck with large propane tanks
in the back, all of which were spewing 30 feet of fire into the air at
random intervals. You just don't see that these days. We saw ride-on
lawnmowers mated with couches (now that's a comfortable ride), bicycles with
large (10 feet) bunny slippers encasing them, a beautiful decorated carriage
pulled by seahorses, several huge pirate ships (easily 100 feet), and more.
Many people create art cars and even buses for the express purpose of
transporting others, providing taxi services of an irregular and
unpredictable kind -- just like real taxis! Bikes were a real necessity.
We figured that out too late, and had only brought two for the six of us.
In future, we will bring one bike per person. Remember, this city is
several miles worth of things to see and do, and we always wanted to be in
different places at the same time.
Many people decorate their smaller transportation devices as well -- I saw a
bike with an electric-light-tubing animated bird "flying" above it, which
looked amazing at night. Another person had a 4 foot butterfly on his
backpack, also animated and flying. One of the most intricate designs I saw
involved a body suit that had blue and red blood vessels glowing all over
it. Seeing all these things made it quite the visual playground!
Food was always an adventure at Burning Man: we had purchased way too much,
and ended up eating much different meals than we thought we would. Chris
had planned carefully and decided that one large can of chili would make
more sense than several smaller ones, and he found one which he thought
would be perfect. One afternoon he started cooking it... and cooking it...
and cooking it... it never seemed to be ready. Finally, he decided it was
hot enough, though he said it tasted a little odd. Well, first reason: it
was 2 kilograms or so of beef chili, but it included no beans! It was 2
kilograms of chili powder and low-quality beef! Or possibly "beef" !
Second reason: the can had decided it didn't like this game, and was
actually releasing something into the chili... everyone trying it mentioned
an aluminum taste! Better safe than sorry (and man was Chris sorry once his
system was done with it) we all took a pass. In future, no more cooking
huge tins of anything... I'll be lucky if I ever eat chili again!
One day Justin volunteered for the Earth Guardians, a group at Burning Man
that specifically focuses on protecting the environment in and near the
Black Rock Desert, which is one of the most fragile ecosystems around. He
and a couple other people were driven several miles to Double Hot Springs
(and later Black Rock Springs, home of THE Black Rock!), where they educated
anyone who came to visit, and requested that they not actually swim in the
springs, to avoid damaging them. He was most impressed with his day at the
springs.
Black Rock City for the first time had an actual post office, where mail
could be posted for the rest of the world. It had its own postmark and
everything -- I remembered to send postcards to Vinny from inside Black Rock
City to make sure we got to see the postmark. The gimmick for this post
office was that the workers were rude, prone to random acts of violence, and
worked much better when bribed. Hmmm.
Finally, it was Saturday -- the day they burn the Man. Everyone was very
excited, even the people who were on their fourth or twelfth burn. We
quickly realized that there was no way to predict what it would be like: for
five days 29,083 people had been communing in many different ways, in
different areas of the city, but tonight we would all be doing the SAME
THING! That just got us more excited. We left for the Man about an hour
early, as dusk was falling. The crowds were huge -- thousands of people had
been there most of the day, I think. We paid close attention to the wind,
and chose a spot where we could see even if there was a lot of smoke. This
turned out to be a good choice. We managed to sit just a few feet from the
front, and were amazed at how many people were actually sitting so the
people behind could see. Apparently, it wasn't that amazing, because a
Black Rock Ranger (the BRC volunteer policing group, just there for safety
and information more than anything else) came over and told us that we would
show up the group to our left if we all sat down -- and several people
behind and beside us did! Neat dynamic, all these people willingly sitting
and just relaxing.
We had read in the events guide (received at the gate) that the Burn
happened at 9 pm. Shortly before 9, the parade of fire began. I'm not sure
if that's what it was called, but since it consisted of hundreds of people
doing fire dances and swinging "poi" (little balls on the end of chains or
ropes) set on fire, tossing large sticks set on fire, wearing gloves set on
fire, or breathing fire, along with several DPW vehicles spouting flame
(including an upside down octopus that spat fire out its tentacles), I
figured it was a good name. They all spread out to match the huge circle we
all sat in, and began dancing for us. Near us. The best description of
things at Burning Man actually came from my cousin Alex who's (I think)
never been: "people creating, desperately creating art, defining what is is
to be human." The fire dancers all were giving everything they had not for
us, but for themselves and for their art. I've read great descriptions of
art at Burning Man, of how people do things not to entertain, but rather to
be entertained by those who gather to watch them.
The firedancers gradually burned out, and they drew away, and a tension
gathered in the crowd: we all knew what was next. The Man is always burned
in some spectacular way, and this year (being my first time here) seemed
incredible. First, the Man raised his arms -- until now, he had been
passively standing, waiting and watching over us. Now his arms were raised
high, drawing us towards him to share in this experience. Fireworks began
setting off from within the lighthouse itself, shooting high into the sky or
sparking intensely beside the Man, and then after many minutes of that the
flames themselves appeared. The lighthouse was the source, and it quickly
began to smoke heavily and burn, until flames began to lick the legs of the
Man. The whole structure was wood (with a little neon), so it all happened
very quickly, but I still remember many tiny details as if they took hours
to occur. The flames were unbelievable, and quick. The Man fell after the
structure that held his support wires was compromised, and the cheers were
huge. It's hard to describe now, but it was very freeing to just emote with
the many thousands, free of all cares of the outside world for just this
short time. At this point the Rangers, who up until now had been
maintaining a safety distance for everyone, basically gave in and let
everyone through. The burning coals and last few pieces of wood were all on
the ground now, meaning that unless someone ran in, it was safe to approach.
Many people began to dance and run around the coals, playing drums and
singing and watching and praying and talking and just trying to drink it all
in for one more minute one more second.
As you can imagine it was a challenge to control one's own destination in a
crowd of 29000 in such a small area, so Pete, Elyse and I were quickly split
up. I tried to find them but our plan of meeting afterwards had not been
exact enough, so I ended up just wandering by myself for a while, then
heading back to camp. Most people were partying and dancing and enjoying
themselves quite intensely, but as I was by myself I felt much more the
observer, and soon I actually felt like I needed to be away from the
excitement for a while. At camp I found no one, but very soon Elyse, then
everyone else, returned. We all talked about going out again, but most of
us decided that we were actually too drained to really enjoy anything else
that night, and so we relaxed, and then headed for bed.
Sunday was a quiet day. Many people due to other commitments actually leave
on Sunday, which we had considered before getting there. But we learned
after arriving that the Temple is actually burned on Sunday night, and we
resolved to stay for that. Chris, Evan and Justin all decided to go, as
they already had other plans on the rest of their mini-vacation they wanted
to enjoy. Hopefully they can take my notes and the pictures and get some
semblance of what happened -- the burning of the Temple was even more
intensely moving than the burning of the Man.
It felt like a sad day too. People were leaving, roadsigns were
disappearing (people like taking souvenirs -- sadly, theft turned into a
serious problem this year), and we started to find a different atmosphere.
A relaxed one, but also... different. People were starting to think about
home, school, work, bills, and other such horrible (!) things. We tried our
hardest to just relax, though with half our team missing we felt it too. As
we were leaving the next morning, we naturally started to clean up and
organize, and we tried to give away as much food and candy as we could. We
also had uncovered by this point that we had plenty of water left to share
and waste, s several water fights ensued. Tres fun.
As the evening approached we ate a bit of supper and then headed to the
temple. Our bikes had left with the guys, so we grabbed all our wonderful
fun neighbours and practically demanded that they hang out with us for the
evening -- no one seemed too put out by this. We walked to the temple, all
the while feeling the changes in the air. More dust from people leaving,
actual garbage on the playa from careless burners. We got close to the
temple and again a huge circle was marked out by Rangers, keeping everyone
safe. The Temple of Joy was actually much larger than the Man, at least
60-70 feet in height and much wider and more solid, so safety precautions
were definitely warranted. We again found great seats near the front, and
settled ourselves. At this point we noticed something different: everyone
was completely quiet. Where 29,000 people last night were cheering,
talking, sharing, and celebrating, tonight the remaining 20,000 (guessing)
were silent. Not quiet, but almost completely silent.
Close to the time, we started hearing singing filtering across the emptiness
towards us. We were on the opposite side from the "front" of the temple,
where any ceremonies might be happening, but we could see right through the
centre of the temple and could tell something was happening. We saw what
looked like a small burn, possibly of the large temple accessory-piece on
the ground, and we heard an operatic voice singing Amazing Grace. Remember,
the Temple is often called the Mausoleum, and was primarily for remembrance.
During the entire song, the only thing we could hear was several thousand
people breathing, and the occasional voice singing softly along.
It's very hard to describe this scene, because I've never before been in one
place with 20,000 people and had it be so quiet. The flames started to
spread in the structure -- again, it was all plywood, and it caught quickly.
The flames at their peak reached over 150 feet into the sky, and though we
were at least 500 metres from the temple we felt much too close and could
barely keep our eyes towards it. The heat was both unbearable and
absolutely bearable, almost needed. Still, silence.
We watched the structure burn for what seemed like hours, days -- strong
wood takes a while to burn, and we had nowhere else to be. Finally the
structure started to falter, and the upper floors of the building fell in,
and shortly after the last piece upright toppled. It was only at this point
that noise began, a gentle cheer that grew in volume, accompanied by
whistles and clapping. It was very much a release.
The crowd moved in towards the fire, with some dancing, singing, praying,
watching. Several people just kneeled in front of the fire and watched.
No, witnessed is a better word.
The next morning we departed very early, beating the traffic handily. We
stayed at a cushy KOA campground on the way home, indulging ourselves with
multiple hot showers and a dip in the pool. We also visited an amazing
steak restaurant where we stuffed ourselves silly -- and where we plan to do
so again next time! We made excellent time, and Pete got home a day early.
Elyse and I tried to do the same trick, but our attempt was blown out of the
water by that damned Sanford Fleming and his standard time -- we were right
on schedule, but then suddenly an hour behind schedule!! So we drove to
Banff and enjoyed the park (with bear tracks!) before getting back to
Edmonton.
Having been, I have a completely different way of thinking about Burning
Man, and I regret not one second of my time getting there or experiencing
it. Would I go back? In a second. Will I go back? Regularly. Will you
come with me? I hope you will.
Cam
