diary : august 2003 : burning mancheck
out the photo album of our trip
Thursday, August 28
19:30 Head out a little earlier this evening, planning to sweep the area on foot, then catch the "Dave Train" again. Mostly we talk about what we've experienced; what it seems to mean; who these people are. It's only a little busier than last night; sadly, the huge gyroscopes that had been under construction all week near center camp are not yet operational. We wander quite a bit, and get back to camp well after the Train has left. Feel pretty complete, like we've "seen it". We're going to head out tomorrow morning and have big plans to stop at Donner Lake and take a long, cleansing swim!
14:40 Bike around the camps a little, looking for some of the people & camps I've been told to check out. I can't find a thing, nothing's where it's supposed to be, and I'm a little irked. This has been great fun, but it is very hot, very dusty, and I feel like if one more person blocks my way as I'm biking by, yelling, "Have you been through our tickle machine yet? Come to our tickle machine!", I may have to run them down. Except for the unicyclist who tracked me for a block to pop a Skittle (I hope it was just a Skittle) in my mouth. He was nice.
A note or two about the population. First, white. European. Under 35. I'm guessing more men than women. Second, even in the heat, most are in some sort of costume. As simple as a funny hat, but often in wigs, decorated coats, stockings. Even those going casual are in a sarong rather than shorts & a t-shirt. If they're wearing anything at all, which brings me to note three. Three - of the fully naked people, only a handful are women. Actually, I've counted two. And most naked folks are not, shall we say, candidates for the Olympics. Maria says that in a past year, the DPW actually built and used a "pants cannon", shooting plastic bags of clothing at those who really were better off concealed.
09:00 Another dusty, windy day. They try to keep the dust down by spraying the roads with water, but I've still developed a persistently runny nose. The water trucks provide their own entertainment; campers desperate for showers chase after them naked, often slipping and sliding long distances in the temporary mud.
I've been tearing through the just-released Al Franken book, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair & Balanced Look at the Right". Buy this book. Now. Required reading for everyone in the nation. Anyway, so I'm pretty engrossed in it, and spend the morning reading, alternately howling with laughter and hooting derisively, while Howard watches past episodes of "24" on DVD.
Wednesday, August 27
20:00 After sundown, we learn from Maria that our camp's theme, the "Dave Train", has in fact arrived & will be taking its first run round the tracks tonight. It's a relatively tame (by the standards I've seen, but not lame, as suggested by Maria) production, with 4 trailers attached to a big pickup. Of course, there's a super structure over the truck, with a couch on top of the cab, and one over the middle trailer with a pole for dancing.
When we hear the whistle toot, we scamper over & jump on board and start a long lazy loop around the event. People love to run alongside, yell encouragement, moon us, and jump on board. Our first stop is out at the Man, where "Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping" is holding a gospel revival. Next, back in the camps to the "Pink Lounge", which reportedly serves up a wicked cocktail (I do not partake). Continuing on, we pass some cool lights on the Esplanade & jump off to investigate.
Some of the theme camps are quite simple, maybe just decorated, as with the "Bunny Camp" where the main tent is topped with big ears & there's stuffed animals (bunnies) everywhere. Others have huge interactive installations, like the ones I described last night. My favorites are low-tech but immensely satisfying. One is simply a series of arches strung with Christmas lights to form a tunnel, which looks like nothing during the day. At night, they hand out 3-D glasses and walking through is a fantasyland of light. Another is a graveyard of black crosses, upon which one is encouraged to write one's epitaph. The collected scribblings are erased daily and provide endless amusement.
15:10 Tex found Howard a beater bike that needs tubes, so he's been off trying to repair it. Partial success - one tube found & installed. After hunting unsuccessfully for a second, we take a break & shower - an RV luxury.
12:00 I wander out to the Man, having heard rumors that Tex would need some help finishing the labyrinth at its base this morning. A low fence is being constructed, and needs painting, so I chip in, working with Jim, also from Reno. We're painting it white, but the wind gets increasingly gusty, until we have to cease completely for 10-minute stretches while it howls. I get out my dust mask for the first time.
As Jim & I get ready to repaint (all our white having gone to "playa brown"), 2 BRC "Rangers" come over to chat. These guys are volunteers who act as mediators, resolving "issues" that break out. One takes my photo since my hair has turned white in the dust storm.
10:15 Sleep enormously and am awakened by the smell of coffee, bacon, & French toast prepared by Howard. What a treat! As we eat, we tune into 91.9 FM, one of the many radio stations that set up for the week and broadcast the playa. After a particularly good set, the DJs announce where they're broadcasting from, and it's just a couple blocks away, so I bike over. Two guys from Reno in an RV stuffed with fine-looking equipment and great tunes.
Tuesday, August 26
23:40 Howard's bike is stolen! We'd gone to the Cafe at Center Camp for a late night latte. The only things sold on the playa are coffee drinks, at the Cafe, and ice. Everything else is bartered, as I explained. The Cafe is located in a huge circus tent, maybe 200 feet in diameter. The decorating theme, apparently, is underwear, since there are hundreds of pairs, strung up like Nepalese prayer flags. We sit & chat, watching the scene, then stroll back out to where we'd dumped our bikes, but Howard's can't be found amongst the hundreds. We'd been warned about bike theft, but we'd never seen anyone else lock up. Oh, well.
21:00 Bike back out onto the playa to see more of the art installations. Since so many incorporate fire, you really have to check them out at night as well as during the day. One is just a 25 foot high tower that you can climb up the core of. We do, of course, and marvel that in this day & age, this thing could be built with no permits, no engineering specs, no railings, and have 20,000 people climb in it over a period of 5 days. Isn't that illegal most places? We enjoy the view immensely.
Cruising the Esplanade again tonight, Howard decides that a defining term for this event is "whimsy". He's right. During the day, you get more of a sense of the gritty, mechanized, desert-living, Mad Max spirit. Folks staggering out of their tents, dust-covered, brushing their teeth out of a cup; hammering on a piece of metal that's an artwork-to-be-determined-later...or maybe an art car. At night, however, when all the lights come on, the music starts, and the camps start competing to bring in visitors, it's like a carnival. Tonight there is much more happening than last. More neon-type lights. More music (that isn't techno, praise the lord). More camps open with bars & lounges, where you barter for booze (there's no commerce allowed).
One camp plays a hilarious homemade movie where Arnold Schwarzenegger, as the Terminator, is sent to protect Jesus. Another has 2 dozen large zoetropes lined up, and spinning each one reveals a different scene, from Ann-Margaret boogalooing to a mushroom that grows & shrinks. There's also a full-on carnival ride of the go-at-high-speeds-and-spin-til-you-barf variety, which CAN'T be legal, so of course there's a huge line. There's even a barker out in the crowd, encouraging folks to "step right up". There's even whimsy in the S&M exhibit; you can get paddled by a dominatrix OR take your turn with the "Spank-o-matic"!
19:35 Catch the Lamplighter's Parade. The axis streets and the Esplanade all have street lights; kerosene lamps that hang from 15 foot high posts. Hundreds of volunteers are needed each night to light and hang them, and when you have that many people together here, you have the fixin's for a party. So, everyone's in a white turban and robe; some carry a pole across their shoulders with 5 lamps on either end while others carry the long hooked poles needed to place the lamps. After a call to work, they file out of the Center Camp Plaza, accompanied by the beating of about 20 drummers.
14:00 The day has stayed cloudy, and many are taking advantage of the relative cool to work on their camps. We pass by one which consists of 10 small (12 foot diameter) pod-like structures, and 3 large (20-foot diameter) ones. More are being built. We wander in and end up helping for a couple hours. The designer is testing them as potential refugee camp structures - all you need for a small pod ships on a single 600-pound pallet. No tools are needed; the main features are triangular boxes folded out of cardboard (wall) or plastic (window) that assemble together like a geodesic dome.
8:40 I'd woken up several times during the night and looked out the window to check the level of activity. It seemed to be relatively consistent until just before sunrise, when I no longer heard music. I'd hoped again to rouse myself at 6, but the sunrise was drawn out due to cloudy skies and I was lulled back to sleep.
Howard's still snoozing, so I quietly make coffee, wrap myself in a sarong Maria gave How yesterday, and venture out. Still cloudy, so it's lovely and warm without being hot. The cloudy skies also elevate the contrast between the flat white playa and the colorful tents, art cars, flags, and structures. Yesterday I noticed an increase in the number of BLM Rangers cruising around, so when one passes in his SUV I raise my coffee cup. He stops & we chat. It's his first year, too, and he's a young guy and very impressed by the level of organization. He tells me that Burning Man pays for all the patrolling by the Rangers, totaling about $600,000.
The wind is really picking up, testing many of the installations. A lot of folks are wearing dust masks and goggles, as the fine playa dust insinuates itself everywhere.
Monday, August 25
01:30 Finally to bed. Sleeping from 2 to 6 both day and night seems to be the best schedule here; that way you miss the heat of the day and don't miss much of the activity at night. We're on our way to acclimatizing!
22:30 We hop on our bikes and cruise the scene. And what a scene! The level of activity is markedly higher than last night; most installations and camps are still being assembled, but there's so much foot, bike, scooter, and art car traffic on the Esplanade that riding is downright hazardous. It's dark, remember. Most people are glammed in some way; boas, knee high boots, wacky hats, lots of glow sticks. It reminds me of the street cruising scenes from "American Graffiti".
The different modes of transportation are stunning. There are many single-rider bikes that have huge wheels or outlandish superstructures; more customization has gone into multi-rider vehicles, from little jitney-type bikes with passenger trailers to huge double-decker buses that look like dragons and spew fire. The most interesting are those in-between, where it's difficult to figure what the original motorized structure was. A snowmobile where the tracks have been replaced by wheels; a car with a 10 foot wide apron; a couch sitting atop 2 motorized wheelchairs; a flying carpet propelled by ???. People jump on and off; everything bigger than a bike seems to have its own sound system. And it's all techno.
21:00 Maria and her roomie Laura come by to use our mirror and lights and finish glamming for a night on the playa. Pink fur bikini top, glitter pants, and a leopard-print jumpsuit that is cut to shorts. How late a night for them? Laura will be out til sunup so we ask her to come by for coffee before she turns in.
17:45 Awake, and for the first time we walk, rather than bike, to Center Camp and pick up ice. The sun sets behind the hills as we return and with the dust in the atmosphere the sunset is intensely blue, orange, and purple. Walking allows us to more readily investigate some of the developing community. Most camps have some kind of inviting theme and clearly have involved a lot of effort. There's an impromptu gathering of fire dancers and stilt walkers that has a big crowd.
13:40 Head back to BRC. The wind has picked up and the traffic into the city has increased, and the dust is pretty intense, at times we can't see 20 feet in front of the truck. Tex drops us off at camp but we've missed our 2 pm Artery meeting. So, we just shower & nap.
09:10 Arrive back at Center Camp, located at the hub of the big wheel that forms the city's layout. Playa Info is here, the Cafe, and the Artery, which is where we're headed. We'd attended a few meetings for volunteers back at Burning Man's offices in SF and there's supposed to be an orientation meeting for folks interested in helping with the art installation process. There are a number of familiar faces from the meetings (Jack, David, Mango) but no meeting.
After a while it's agreed we should just return at 2 pm. Back to camp & Tex is heading off to The Ranch so we jump into his truck with Maria & head off. Burning Man owns 200 acres and leases 80 more in the 2 counties spanned by the event. The Ranch is where the DPW has its main facilities year-round for building infrastructure & storing materials & equipment.
This is where the Mad Max character really hits me. This event is not about nature, peace, or anything serene. It is about energy consumption, exhibitionism, and extravagance in a hostile environment. Even out at the Ranch, where the year-round installation would lend itself to alternative energy sources, there's no solar, no wind power generation. Just a big ass generator.
The shop is impressive. It's a huge Quonset hut, about 50 feet wide & 150 feet long. Woodworking & auto repair inside, big metal shop outside (advantages to an arid climate). We assist in general cleanup.
07:20 Awoke briefly at around 6:00 - Tex had said last night that the sun rose at 6:15 and the huge cry that woke me must have been to celebrate the sunrise. Later, got up & made coffee. There's a wireless network on the playa, so we have great internet connectivity.
Brent Woods: How's the desert?
Howard Yellen: Dry! It's Allison - I'm starting a blog for the big event. Howard's in his dress
Brent Woods: Well hello Allison!
Brent Woods: I hope you're getting pictures.
Howard Yellen: Nothing yet. It's filling up but definitely before the flood of people, so it's relatively quiet
Brent Woods: Of Howard in his dress...
Howard Yellen: Oh, I thought you meant all the naked people
Howard Yellen: So far all the women have only been topless, wearing high boots & little short shorts - it's like a post-apocalyptic uniform.
Brent Woods: Mad Max, dune buggies.
Howard Yellen: Exactly
Howard Yellen: We're being buzzed by one of those experimental planes John Denver died in
Brent Woods: Cool.
Sunday, August 24
18:00 Sit and drink beer in the shade cast by the RV with Maria. Turns out her wedding to Tex, which was to happen here this week, is off. She's disappointed but they agreed it was better to wait. Their wedding was the motivation we needed to finally check out this unlikely event; now that we're here, it doesn't really matter, does it?
After it gets dark, we start peddling round the playa. I'm very grateful to Howard's genius in obtaining headlamps with LED lights - they are the clearly the way to go. First stop is the "Man" - the 40 foot high effigy that was hard to spot during the day but that glows with blue neon at night. It sits, this year, atop a Mayan-style pyramid; the Mayans built their temple steps so narrow & steep that they intimidated the sacrifices into compliance. Here the authenticity seems an unnecessary health hazard. But the view from the top is great.
At another stop, the Burning Man inspectors are conducting a trial run of a new art installation. This huge metal box, perforated with intricate designs, houses an inferno that will power a windmill like structure that has yet to be placed on top. There's some debate about the way the firebox below has warped with the heat, and whether it will successfully contain ashes. There's no burning allowed on the playa itself, as the scars violate the "leave no trace" rule strictly enforced throughout the city.
14:30 Use "Playa Info" to locate Tex, fiancé of Maria, Howard's old law school friend. Tex has been here a month, serving on the DPW that builds the city. The DPW does things like set up the huge generators and bury the extension cords that power the computers at Playa Info, the printer at the Gazette (daily newspaper), and the coffee makers at the Cafe. He helps us find Maria, and we park the RV in her camp, which she has nicknamed the "Lame Train" since the choo-choo (as yet to be assembled) that serves as the theme is not particularly engaging. We immediately turn on the RV's generator, start the AC, and nap.
13:00 Arrived as the heat of the day was starting to burn, about 1 pm. Our approach north and east of Reno first passed by the south end of Pyramid Lake, which is the end point of the Truckee River (that flows through Truckee, which is where we have our cabin) and from which there is no outflow - all water that comes in leaves by evaporation. We continued on a 2-lane road to nowhere, hugging the edge of the badlands-type erosional mountains a couple of hundred feet high, which form the dominant geographical feature.
Cresting a rise, we caught our first mirage-like glimpse of Black Rock City - just a shimmering metallic crust on the playa. The playa is a couple-mile wide dry lake bed - just a huge expanse of cracked white clay. Pull off onto a track across the playa. RV inspected to make sure we weren't smuggling in any stowaways. The infrastructure is already impressive - clearly delineated roadways, speed limit signs - kind of like the approach to Disneyland. Of course, the "greeter" who welcomed us was naked, so that was different. About 7 miles of red snow fencing (and 3000 temporary fence stakes) encircle the city.
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