Burning Man 2008
Sep. 12th, 2008 11:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morleyroarlyBetter late than never, here's my annual "burning man in a series of vignettes" post. Hooray!
Arriving at the gate Wednesday to zero fanfare and one lone greeter station.
Benzero beating me to camp! After much discussion and back-and-forth, we finally picked out the camp layout. "Well, we want to be neighbours, but not close enough to hear each other having sex.." We settled on parking Ben's work van between our two domes, which worked out nicely.
Working hard on Elevation all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Long hours in the hot sun (and a sunburn on Friday, woohoo!) punctuated by delicious food courtesy our superb camp chef, Ms. Eva Destruction. Choppy the bunny t-shirt was a big hit with the rest of the work crew.
Wrenching the ground anchors up to be level - Vance on the surveyor's transit, me on the large crowbar, manually unscrewing the ground anchors quarter inch by quarter inch. The joy of manual labor and finally feeling like I was contributing something to the project.
Raising the legs of elevation, one at a time, as a crew. It felt like a good old fashioned barn raising.
Scottie in her polka dot frilly bikini, welding. Could there be anything more sexy?
Saturday afternoon, the full crew climbs up the three lower levels of the sculpture to secure the tower spire. The crane (operated by Zack Coffin, whoa deja vu!) lifts up the spire and slowly lowers it into place. After a round with the rubber mallet and a little adjusting, the tower finally settles into place with a resounding, satisfying clang. To think that a 50+ ft tall sculpture could be designed and constructed precisely enough to allow for the top tower to fit on a series of twelve bolts perfectly on the first try - now THAT is some engineering. Dave Andres and Auriah Milanes, my hat goes off to you!
On my way back to camp, swinging by the man and, after minimal introduction, proceeding to have one of the most honest, direct and positive conversations with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sfslim that we've ever had. It focused primarily on our relationships with nifercritter and headlouse , and it was one of those really affirming playa experiences that reminds me why I go out to the desert year after year. My chosen family is a big part of that, and sfslim is like a brother or a cousin or a *something*. Yay family :)
Saturday night, Feed The Artists at Entheon Village, and eating whale meat for the first time. NOM!
Sunday, some minimal amount of camp setup and maximal amount of sweating in my own dome, getting organized. Wondering when Mikolaj (syncretin ) will show up. Craving a yogurt smoothie pretty much all day.
Sunday night, after the weather finally cooled off, heading over to SpaceCarpCowboyOrphans (Elevation crew camp headquarters) just in time to snag a bit of dinner and get a ride out to Elevation. I arrived just as the throne was being hoisted up on the crane and bolted into place by Michael and Auriah.
One of my most crystal, wonderful memories from this year's burn was from Sunday night. After arriving for the throne placement, equipped with a flask of bourbon to share with the crew, I had a choice to make. The event would soon start and the tower would be crawling with strangers and dirty hippies. If i wanted to climb and sit in the throne, Sunday seemed the logical time. I was wearing giant platform shoes and a long complicated jumpsuit jacket dress (thanks Callibug!), hardly well equipped. But if Laura, one of the other crew members, could climb in her 6" furry platform boots, then surely my well-worn Swears would be adequate. I have a SERIOUS fear of heights, and during assembly I was already fairly freaked out when standing on the top of the third tier of trusses. Would I really have the courage to climb all the way up the skinny tower to the throne? I decided to try. I got up to that third tier only to realize Laura *wasn't* wearing her platforms - she had taken them off and was wearing knee-high black socks. But, no going back now! Luckily, Laura's boyfriend Mark is a union rigger by profession, a very level-headed person, and a very reassuring friend to have around during scary situations. I asked Mark to help guide me up the tower and he agreed. Slowly, step by step, I adjusted to the levels of the tower. I was scared absolutely shitless, but I was determined to climb to the top of this giant thing I had helped to build. No going back! Mark kept talking me through it, and when the throne was clear, I climbed the last few steps, turned around, and sat in the chair. I promptly burst into tears - relieved, stress-release, proud tears. I made it! I looked out over the city, finally starting to swell with the last of the early arrivals, and I felt so proud and content. After a little time looking around, I turned around and climbed back down. When I got down to the ground (thankfully no longer dripping tears, and thus saving a little bit of my dignity) Michael asked me how it was. "Amazing, totally worth it, you should climb it," I said. Michael is also extremely afraid of heights and hadn't planned to climb up to the throne, but I told him "Mark's a really good guide, he does this for a living, you really should try." He agreed and climbed on up - rather quickly, I might add! I was happy to both conquer my own fear and enjoy the piece I worked on, and to also help Michael conquer his.
After departing the completed Elevation site, Sunday night, heading out to the greeter gate. Yep, that's right, I was a greeter. A cheery, smiley, full-on-hippified greeter. For one night only! It was actually a lot of fun - with the 12:01 gates opening up, greeters turned into a giant party. DSC brought out their lovely pedal-poweredflame effect vehicles, a DJ rocked mostly 80's music, and a horde of folks descended to help guide all the newly arrived folks into the city. Fun as it was, I only lasted about an hour and a half before the creepy old naked dudes got on my nerves and I decided I wanted to, you know, sleep. So, back home for a glorious 10 hours of rest.
Monday brought dust storms, dust storms, and more dust storms. I hunkered down in our camp shade structure and relaxed after four days of hard work. 10 foot visibility meant I didn't really feel like biking anywhere, so I spent a bit more time organizing my dome and a lot of time making www.snarkymcf.com buttons to hand out. Yay buttons!
Monday night, an art tour out to Elevation with members of my camp. I so wanted to share my art with someone, anyone - I appreciate my campmates indulging me! It was fun to watch everyone climb, to watch how people interacted in different ways with the sculpture.
After a long wander back along the Esplanade (including a diversion to play mini golf), the dust storm hit, and hit hard - raging winds and big, chunky particles flying around.
A programmer, sitting in a chair with a laptop, Esplanade and 5:30, with a single orbswarm orb in front of him, programming with his head down facing into the wind. That image of dedication and determination sticks in my mind. A beautiful thing to see.
French fries! At 1am, from the giant ketchup bottle at 4:30 & Dart. Oh, such yummy french fries. Worth the wait and the detour, for sure.
Learning how to tie knots at Black Rock City Community College on Tuesday afternoon with Felicia and Nate. Our scout uniforms did NOT earn us the promised free bourbon, but we did get to watch a lovely stripper pole performance by a hottie in superman underoos.
Heading over to Bat Country for Hunter S. Tuesday and walking right up toavocado_tom , handing him a mug of absinthe, and saying hello. Once the absinthe was effectively drained, heading back home to camp across the sunny, clear playa.
Tuesday afternoon misdirecting traffic with Hot Cousin Morley, Sydney, Rabbi Twee, and TomCat. Neon orange stop sign duct tape pasties, a reflective safety vest, neon orange hard hat with ear muffs, and orange boots - the boots I had purchased for my wedding, dyed bright orange. "Keep it slow for the cone zone!" and "We're hard at work to improve your city - yes, we're paving the 3 o'clock plaza.. the equipment is currently en route from Reno.." Numerous pedestrians who would slow down.. then suddenly start running when they thought they were beyond our perimeter, and HCM would inevitably run after them tweeting her whistle and waving her flags aggressively. So much fun :)
Returning from traffic misdirection to find a certain charming boy in a hot miniskirt, mreow! He also brought a wonderful cooler full of perishables, yum. All of my stress and frustration seemed to melt away upon the arrival ofsyncretin and yogurt smoothies.
Tuesday night, takingsyncretin to see Elevation. Watching him climb, unafraid, all the way up to the throne. He sat up there for quite some time playing shadow puppets and looking out over the city. And then, on the way back, my loaner bicycle ate itself and sheared the freewheel back connection bolt. Yay! An early night to bed, cuddled up warm with a charming boy, sleeping soundly.
Wednesday brought more relaxing in the shade structure, followed by an evening with the lovely Miss Claire. After getting all geisha-girl'd up, we stopped by the Pittsburgh Burners meetup at Bat Country and said our hellos, and Claire gave me the best compliment she could have mustered given the circumstances (which I'll spare our tender audience). Briefly ran into Kaitlin and Sean who were bootyriffically dancing to Girltalk.
Getting into the private party in the man base, courtesy Slim, only to turn around and leave right before the sound system showed up. Nonetheless, it was nice to relax with friends and look out over the city. It's strange to think I'm peripherally part of "the cool kids" group out at Burning Man - so many of my friends work DPW, build the man, construct huge art, make things happen. I still feel like an outsider a lot of the time, but sometimes I feel very much a part of the family. Big extra props to Steve23 and Juicy for dragging me along to the man base party and really helping to make me feel welcome.
Contemplating going dancing with Miss Claire, but settling on a long wander down the Esplanade. We recruited Kip at Bat Country and headed to Spike's to pay a visit to Mikolaj while he played DJ and tended bar. After saying my goodnights to everyone, I went home to get another gloriously long night of sleep. Noticing a theme here?
Thursday brought an all-day playa date with Mikolaj - so wonderful! He dressed in his brownie uniform and I in my cub scout uniform and we set out across the playa to adventurate. We visited Aunty M's home for wayward art (no Claire to be found, alas, but plenty of schwag), made a birthday phone call to Colin, made a trophy for Colin to commemorate his Balsa Man exploits, patronized and hung out at the Snack Food Glory Hole, and finally wandered back home in time for dinner.
Thursday night's circus performance - 6 inch platforms wedged in amongst the crowd, a beautiful boy on my arm wearing his stunning floor-length kimono, gorgeous eye makeup and a french braid. I in my butler jacket and garter belt, beautifully genderqueer and happy to be together. And the circus, oh, the circus! Such amazing acrobatics, displays of human ingenuity and flexibility and creativity. It was captivating and wonderful, and I'm so glad I was able to share it with Mikolaj.
After the circus, wandering out into the chaos of the double-wide esplanade, and finally making our way back to my camp where I changed into steel toed flat-footed boots for bike-free wandering amidst the dust dunes.
So much wandering, so much conversation, so much sharing of thoughts and dreams and experiences. I can't even come close to doing it justice. But sufficed to say, Thursday night withsyncretin helped remove a layer of jadedness from my views of Burning Man, it helped me to understand him (and, I hope, helped him to understand me) and it brought me a great deal of joy.
The giant Derivative Duck art car coming around the corner behind us, blaring "..and I come from a land down under..."
Saying goodbye at the temple. Turning around and finding Mikolaj, crying into his shoulder.
That moment, shared with another couple - as I stood there wrapped tight in Mikolaj's arms, watching them pack up to walk off, I smiled at their obvious love for one another, their quirks. The care she put into her EL wire beating heart in her see-thru backpack. The way he carried her coat. As he left, he turned to me and gave me a silent smile and a wink.
"And look, someone went to all this effort to create an entire structure to hang these bells." "There aren't any bolts." "What?" "I think this is tensegrity. Look, there aren't any bolts." "Oh my god, you're right...." ... a dawning realization of the immense amount of effort someone put into that low-hung, unassuming structure project, yet another instance of "Oh, right, THIS is why I come to Burning Man, to see things like THIS."
Friday, no sleep, wandering camp, slap happy, avoiding like the plague the poly cuddle pile out back, and instead reveling in the simplicity of connection with one very wonderful boy.
Bourbon. A megaphone. A tricycle. Grilled cheese sandwiches, pop tarts and coffee at the diner down the road, followed by a slow slog out to see the Flaming Lotus Girls pyrotechnics show. More bourbon. Followed by quiet, contemplative, exhausted tea at the tea house. Showing Rubin and Qarly the birds sculpture that I so adored. Home to drink a little more bourbon, and then to bed.
Saturday, paying for the consumption of bourbon and the lack of sleep by feeling horrifically uncomfortably ill. In the middle of a huge dust storm. Oh, noes! Having a porta potty in camp was indispensable.
A post card, arriving all the way from Germany (thank youtokyo_andrew !), cheered me up considerably. Hooray for mail!
After a shower, hearing my name and turning around crankily saying "What?" only to see Mikolaj and his friend Cass, both with huge smiles on their faces, ready to go out and watch the burn. Slowly churning into gear amidst the dust, getting ready, watching the inevitable Saturday night social dynamics as people splinter into small subgroups and wander off for their own version of burn night. Everyone does it differently. I was so grateful to have two wonderful folks to share the evening with who seemed to value quiet, comfortable friendship above all else. That was just what I needed.
Kangaroo jerky! NOM NOM NOM!
The slow, windy burn of the man, blessedly free of fire conclave nonsense. I loves me a simple, straight forward immolation.
The last night of Spike's, complete with some bizarre pole dancing and lots of hot goth girl floggings. Not much in the way of wandering on Saturday. Yet again, a good night's sleep!
Sunday, packing up camp, loading up the box truck all day, intermittent dust.
Sunday night, the temple burn - Mikolaj and Cass as company again, blinding dust storms throughout the evening. We ride (on swapped, loaned bicycles) out to the temple and arrive just as the burn begins.
A flash of anger, a young girl crying, shared hugs.
Watching the temple burn, leaning into Mikolaj's warmth, letting go of various bits and pieces of anger and frustration. Feeling whole. Feeling content.
Cuddled up in the cold, cold night air on my lone twin air mattress, glow cubes lighting my dome. Smiles, kisses and comfort. Rain falling on the roof, and finally an alarm summoningsyncretin to head off to the Spike's bar burn. A quiet, cold, lonely, short night of restful sleep.
Twelve hours home in a giant box truck withluffing , which was remarkably painless. All manner of conversation to keep us awake. Yummy lunch at Mel's diner in Reno.
Another burn down the hatch, complete without much injury.
This was my best burn in years. It wasn't explosively creative, nor explosively self-awakening. It wasn't dramatic. It wasn't over the top. What it was, though, was comfortable, positive, reaffirming and joyful. I think I might finally be learning how to do this whole burning man thing without putting my body and soul through the wringer. For the first time in years, I came back from the event *not* saying "I'm taking next year off." I'm already planning my art project for 2009, and I think it has potential to be pretty amazing. Let me know if you want to help :)
Arriving at the gate Wednesday to zero fanfare and one lone greeter station.
Benzero beating me to camp! After much discussion and back-and-forth, we finally picked out the camp layout. "Well, we want to be neighbours, but not close enough to hear each other having sex.." We settled on parking Ben's work van between our two domes, which worked out nicely.
Working hard on Elevation all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Long hours in the hot sun (and a sunburn on Friday, woohoo!) punctuated by delicious food courtesy our superb camp chef, Ms. Eva Destruction. Choppy the bunny t-shirt was a big hit with the rest of the work crew.
Wrenching the ground anchors up to be level - Vance on the surveyor's transit, me on the large crowbar, manually unscrewing the ground anchors quarter inch by quarter inch. The joy of manual labor and finally feeling like I was contributing something to the project.
Raising the legs of elevation, one at a time, as a crew. It felt like a good old fashioned barn raising.
Scottie in her polka dot frilly bikini, welding. Could there be anything more sexy?
Saturday afternoon, the full crew climbs up the three lower levels of the sculpture to secure the tower spire. The crane (operated by Zack Coffin, whoa deja vu!) lifts up the spire and slowly lowers it into place. After a round with the rubber mallet and a little adjusting, the tower finally settles into place with a resounding, satisfying clang. To think that a 50+ ft tall sculpture could be designed and constructed precisely enough to allow for the top tower to fit on a series of twelve bolts perfectly on the first try - now THAT is some engineering. Dave Andres and Auriah Milanes, my hat goes off to you!
On my way back to camp, swinging by the man and, after minimal introduction, proceeding to have one of the most honest, direct and positive conversations with
sfslim that we've ever had. It focused primarily on our relationships with nifercritter and headlouse , and it was one of those really affirming playa experiences that reminds me why I go out to the desert year after year. My chosen family is a big part of that, and sfslim is like a brother or a cousin or a *something*. Yay family :)Saturday night, Feed The Artists at Entheon Village, and eating whale meat for the first time. NOM!
Sunday, some minimal amount of camp setup and maximal amount of sweating in my own dome, getting organized. Wondering when Mikolaj (
syncretin ) will show up. Craving a yogurt smoothie pretty much all day.Sunday night, after the weather finally cooled off, heading over to SpaceCarpCowboyOrphans (Elevation crew camp headquarters) just in time to snag a bit of dinner and get a ride out to Elevation. I arrived just as the throne was being hoisted up on the crane and bolted into place by Michael and Auriah.
One of my most crystal, wonderful memories from this year's burn was from Sunday night. After arriving for the throne placement, equipped with a flask of bourbon to share with the crew, I had a choice to make. The event would soon start and the tower would be crawling with strangers and dirty hippies. If i wanted to climb and sit in the throne, Sunday seemed the logical time. I was wearing giant platform shoes and a long complicated jumpsuit jacket dress (thanks Callibug!), hardly well equipped. But if Laura, one of the other crew members, could climb in her 6" furry platform boots, then surely my well-worn Swears would be adequate. I have a SERIOUS fear of heights, and during assembly I was already fairly freaked out when standing on the top of the third tier of trusses. Would I really have the courage to climb all the way up the skinny tower to the throne? I decided to try. I got up to that third tier only to realize Laura *wasn't* wearing her platforms - she had taken them off and was wearing knee-high black socks. But, no going back now! Luckily, Laura's boyfriend Mark is a union rigger by profession, a very level-headed person, and a very reassuring friend to have around during scary situations. I asked Mark to help guide me up the tower and he agreed. Slowly, step by step, I adjusted to the levels of the tower. I was scared absolutely shitless, but I was determined to climb to the top of this giant thing I had helped to build. No going back! Mark kept talking me through it, and when the throne was clear, I climbed the last few steps, turned around, and sat in the chair. I promptly burst into tears - relieved, stress-release, proud tears. I made it! I looked out over the city, finally starting to swell with the last of the early arrivals, and I felt so proud and content. After a little time looking around, I turned around and climbed back down. When I got down to the ground (thankfully no longer dripping tears, and thus saving a little bit of my dignity) Michael asked me how it was. "Amazing, totally worth it, you should climb it," I said. Michael is also extremely afraid of heights and hadn't planned to climb up to the throne, but I told him "Mark's a really good guide, he does this for a living, you really should try." He agreed and climbed on up - rather quickly, I might add! I was happy to both conquer my own fear and enjoy the piece I worked on, and to also help Michael conquer his.
After departing the completed Elevation site, Sunday night, heading out to the greeter gate. Yep, that's right, I was a greeter. A cheery, smiley, full-on-hippified greeter. For one night only! It was actually a lot of fun - with the 12:01 gates opening up, greeters turned into a giant party. DSC brought out their lovely pedal-poweredflame effect vehicles, a DJ rocked mostly 80's music, and a horde of folks descended to help guide all the newly arrived folks into the city. Fun as it was, I only lasted about an hour and a half before the creepy old naked dudes got on my nerves and I decided I wanted to, you know, sleep. So, back home for a glorious 10 hours of rest.
Monday brought dust storms, dust storms, and more dust storms. I hunkered down in our camp shade structure and relaxed after four days of hard work. 10 foot visibility meant I didn't really feel like biking anywhere, so I spent a bit more time organizing my dome and a lot of time making www.snarkymcf.com buttons to hand out. Yay buttons!
Monday night, an art tour out to Elevation with members of my camp. I so wanted to share my art with someone, anyone - I appreciate my campmates indulging me! It was fun to watch everyone climb, to watch how people interacted in different ways with the sculpture.
After a long wander back along the Esplanade (including a diversion to play mini golf), the dust storm hit, and hit hard - raging winds and big, chunky particles flying around.
A programmer, sitting in a chair with a laptop, Esplanade and 5:30, with a single orbswarm orb in front of him, programming with his head down facing into the wind. That image of dedication and determination sticks in my mind. A beautiful thing to see.
French fries! At 1am, from the giant ketchup bottle at 4:30 & Dart. Oh, such yummy french fries. Worth the wait and the detour, for sure.
Learning how to tie knots at Black Rock City Community College on Tuesday afternoon with Felicia and Nate. Our scout uniforms did NOT earn us the promised free bourbon, but we did get to watch a lovely stripper pole performance by a hottie in superman underoos.
Heading over to Bat Country for Hunter S. Tuesday and walking right up to
avocado_tom , handing him a mug of absinthe, and saying hello. Once the absinthe was effectively drained, heading back home to camp across the sunny, clear playa.Tuesday afternoon misdirecting traffic with Hot Cousin Morley, Sydney, Rabbi Twee, and TomCat. Neon orange stop sign duct tape pasties, a reflective safety vest, neon orange hard hat with ear muffs, and orange boots - the boots I had purchased for my wedding, dyed bright orange. "Keep it slow for the cone zone!" and "We're hard at work to improve your city - yes, we're paving the 3 o'clock plaza.. the equipment is currently en route from Reno.." Numerous pedestrians who would slow down.. then suddenly start running when they thought they were beyond our perimeter, and HCM would inevitably run after them tweeting her whistle and waving her flags aggressively. So much fun :)
Returning from traffic misdirection to find a certain charming boy in a hot miniskirt, mreow! He also brought a wonderful cooler full of perishables, yum. All of my stress and frustration seemed to melt away upon the arrival of
syncretin and yogurt smoothies.Tuesday night, taking
syncretin to see Elevation. Watching him climb, unafraid, all the way up to the throne. He sat up there for quite some time playing shadow puppets and looking out over the city. And then, on the way back, my loaner bicycle ate itself and sheared the freewheel back connection bolt. Yay! An early night to bed, cuddled up warm with a charming boy, sleeping soundly.Wednesday brought more relaxing in the shade structure, followed by an evening with the lovely Miss Claire. After getting all geisha-girl'd up, we stopped by the Pittsburgh Burners meetup at Bat Country and said our hellos, and Claire gave me the best compliment she could have mustered given the circumstances (which I'll spare our tender audience). Briefly ran into Kaitlin and Sean who were bootyriffically dancing to Girltalk.
Getting into the private party in the man base, courtesy Slim, only to turn around and leave right before the sound system showed up. Nonetheless, it was nice to relax with friends and look out over the city. It's strange to think I'm peripherally part of "the cool kids" group out at Burning Man - so many of my friends work DPW, build the man, construct huge art, make things happen. I still feel like an outsider a lot of the time, but sometimes I feel very much a part of the family. Big extra props to Steve23 and Juicy for dragging me along to the man base party and really helping to make me feel welcome.
Contemplating going dancing with Miss Claire, but settling on a long wander down the Esplanade. We recruited Kip at Bat Country and headed to Spike's to pay a visit to Mikolaj while he played DJ and tended bar. After saying my goodnights to everyone, I went home to get another gloriously long night of sleep. Noticing a theme here?
Thursday brought an all-day playa date with Mikolaj - so wonderful! He dressed in his brownie uniform and I in my cub scout uniform and we set out across the playa to adventurate. We visited Aunty M's home for wayward art (no Claire to be found, alas, but plenty of schwag), made a birthday phone call to Colin, made a trophy for Colin to commemorate his Balsa Man exploits, patronized and hung out at the Snack Food Glory Hole, and finally wandered back home in time for dinner.
Thursday night's circus performance - 6 inch platforms wedged in amongst the crowd, a beautiful boy on my arm wearing his stunning floor-length kimono, gorgeous eye makeup and a french braid. I in my butler jacket and garter belt, beautifully genderqueer and happy to be together. And the circus, oh, the circus! Such amazing acrobatics, displays of human ingenuity and flexibility and creativity. It was captivating and wonderful, and I'm so glad I was able to share it with Mikolaj.
After the circus, wandering out into the chaos of the double-wide esplanade, and finally making our way back to my camp where I changed into steel toed flat-footed boots for bike-free wandering amidst the dust dunes.
So much wandering, so much conversation, so much sharing of thoughts and dreams and experiences. I can't even come close to doing it justice. But sufficed to say, Thursday night with
syncretin helped remove a layer of jadedness from my views of Burning Man, it helped me to understand him (and, I hope, helped him to understand me) and it brought me a great deal of joy.The giant Derivative Duck art car coming around the corner behind us, blaring "..and I come from a land down under..."
Saying goodbye at the temple. Turning around and finding Mikolaj, crying into his shoulder.
That moment, shared with another couple - as I stood there wrapped tight in Mikolaj's arms, watching them pack up to walk off, I smiled at their obvious love for one another, their quirks. The care she put into her EL wire beating heart in her see-thru backpack. The way he carried her coat. As he left, he turned to me and gave me a silent smile and a wink.
"And look, someone went to all this effort to create an entire structure to hang these bells." "There aren't any bolts." "What?" "I think this is tensegrity. Look, there aren't any bolts." "Oh my god, you're right...." ... a dawning realization of the immense amount of effort someone put into that low-hung, unassuming structure project, yet another instance of "Oh, right, THIS is why I come to Burning Man, to see things like THIS."
Friday, no sleep, wandering camp, slap happy, avoiding like the plague the poly cuddle pile out back, and instead reveling in the simplicity of connection with one very wonderful boy.
Bourbon. A megaphone. A tricycle. Grilled cheese sandwiches, pop tarts and coffee at the diner down the road, followed by a slow slog out to see the Flaming Lotus Girls pyrotechnics show. More bourbon. Followed by quiet, contemplative, exhausted tea at the tea house. Showing Rubin and Qarly the birds sculpture that I so adored. Home to drink a little more bourbon, and then to bed.
Saturday, paying for the consumption of bourbon and the lack of sleep by feeling horrifically uncomfortably ill. In the middle of a huge dust storm. Oh, noes! Having a porta potty in camp was indispensable.
A post card, arriving all the way from Germany (thank you
tokyo_andrew !), cheered me up considerably. Hooray for mail!After a shower, hearing my name and turning around crankily saying "What?" only to see Mikolaj and his friend Cass, both with huge smiles on their faces, ready to go out and watch the burn. Slowly churning into gear amidst the dust, getting ready, watching the inevitable Saturday night social dynamics as people splinter into small subgroups and wander off for their own version of burn night. Everyone does it differently. I was so grateful to have two wonderful folks to share the evening with who seemed to value quiet, comfortable friendship above all else. That was just what I needed.
Kangaroo jerky! NOM NOM NOM!
The slow, windy burn of the man, blessedly free of fire conclave nonsense. I loves me a simple, straight forward immolation.
The last night of Spike's, complete with some bizarre pole dancing and lots of hot goth girl floggings. Not much in the way of wandering on Saturday. Yet again, a good night's sleep!
Sunday, packing up camp, loading up the box truck all day, intermittent dust.
Sunday night, the temple burn - Mikolaj and Cass as company again, blinding dust storms throughout the evening. We ride (on swapped, loaned bicycles) out to the temple and arrive just as the burn begins.
A flash of anger, a young girl crying, shared hugs.
Watching the temple burn, leaning into Mikolaj's warmth, letting go of various bits and pieces of anger and frustration. Feeling whole. Feeling content.
Cuddled up in the cold, cold night air on my lone twin air mattress, glow cubes lighting my dome. Smiles, kisses and comfort. Rain falling on the roof, and finally an alarm summoning
syncretin to head off to the Spike's bar burn. A quiet, cold, lonely, short night of restful sleep.Twelve hours home in a giant box truck with
luffing , which was remarkably painless. All manner of conversation to keep us awake. Yummy lunch at Mel's diner in Reno.Another burn down the hatch, complete without much injury.
This was my best burn in years. It wasn't explosively creative, nor explosively self-awakening. It wasn't dramatic. It wasn't over the top. What it was, though, was comfortable, positive, reaffirming and joyful. I think I might finally be learning how to do this whole burning man thing without putting my body and soul through the wringer. For the first time in years, I came back from the event *not* saying "I'm taking next year off." I'm already planning my art project for 2009, and I think it has potential to be pretty amazing. Let me know if you want to help :)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-09-12 09:45 pm (UTC)They also got engaged on that throne.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-13 03:29 am (UTC)However, I count chief among those regrets not making it out to Elevation for a climb. Freq and I actually had a date to do that, together. But neither of us managed to make it happen, between our respective (insane) work schedules and everything else...
I am really glad you had such a wonderful time. Thank you for sharing some of the details. :)
See you soon...
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 07:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 11:45 pm (UTC)Glad to hear you had a good one as well. Getting ripped and running around raging is so 2002. The new burn is all about getting plenty or sleep, eating well, building awesome cool crazy art, and being able to remember it all! We've got a fancy art project in the planning stages for next year too.
Anywho, hope to see you around soon!