MAGICAL MYSTERY LAND

Once the sun starts to set Burning Man becomes a different (and more awesome in my opinion) animal.

The sunsets are beautiful.  Epic even?  And a big relief to not have the sun beating down.  One day, Friday, the dust storm day, I was up on top of the 77 foot tall structure at Mall Mart camp.  You had to get spanked by a paddle to climb it (no exceptions!) and it looked (sort of) like a giant penis.  Yep, a 77 foot tall penis...only at Burning Man. 

What does this look like to you?

The thing was rickety, shaky and in the wind felt fantastically unsafe...(though a guy from that camp said it was inspected 3 times by officials, so I guess it was "safe").  The view of the city at sunset was awesome.  I stayed up there for an hour plus to watch the sun vanish, the city lights come out.  It was really amazing to see the scale of Burning Man from the top of the tower.  Met a number of interesting folks too.

View from the top!

Another fabulous sunset was on the last day.  I was riding a Yellow Bike (these are community bikes that are painted green and have a sticker on them that say "yellow bike".  If you find one, pick it up and ride away).  I was riding out onto the Playa as the sun was gone and there was some dust in the air and it felt like I was underwater.  I rode past the temple and deep into the playa.  Saw all sorts of random art structures (easy chairs with umbrellas, mazes etc), and was even offered Margarita by a random dude riding past.  I never did make it all the way to the end of Burning Man.  Someplace out in the distance was a movie theater and the trash fence that surrounds the city limits.  Maybe next time I'll make it all the way out.  On my way back to the temple the chain broke...oops!  I wrapped it around and brought the bike back.

Night.
Blessed night.
Cooler.
Filled with lights.
Music bouncing from everywhere.
People wearing glowsticks/flashlights/blinkys.  (You want to light yourself up because the playa and city are dark at night (especially if there was no moon).  And you might get run over by an art car or bycyclist.


I'm not doing a good job of capturing what this is.  It's 360 degrees of moving lights, art cars, music, and more.  Things that in the day looked plain, at night look magical.  Camps will be lit up.  One geodesic dome in the middle of no where would dance to pitch.  So if you sang or hummed, the lights would change colors.  One art car is a 30 foot tall mechanical octopus that shoots fire out of it's tenticals.  Lot's of fire.

There's a lot of fire at night too.  Walking metal robots the shoot fire.  Art cars that shoot fire.  On the last night I saw the pirate ship shooting fire for the first time.  (Apparently it did it all week, I just missed it).  There was "Super Street Fire", where you strap on gloves with motion sensors, and stand on platforms with flame throwers in between and around.  You then "fought" by punching and swiping your hands in the techniques from the video game Street Fighter.  (Harukin!  Sonic BOOM!) and the fire shooters would respond accordingly.  It was all pretty chaotic, but looked awesome when 26 fire jets blasted flame into the air.  I really wanted to do it, but the line was a little long, so I figured I'd come back with Brian later... I never did. 

Sonic BOOOOOM!

There's also the THUNDERDOME.
This is a long running staple of burning man.  I'd heard about it before, it sounded like fun.  It was a giant dome where 2 men (or women) enter and strap into these bungee harnesses, grab a staff with padding on the ends, and proceed to battle it out.  The music blasts (one fight was to an industrial version of "Tubthumping", you know "I get knocked down, but I get up again, and you never gonna keep me down"!).  The crowd climbs up on the dome and cheers.  It's pretty wild.  Once I saw how much impact the guys were dealing out, I thought "with my neck, this is probably not the best choice out here in the desert", so I didn't do it.  Maybe I should have anyway.

"Two Men enter, one man leaves!  THUNDERDOME!"

I like to think I participated a lot, but as I'm writing this I realize how much in observation mode I was for a lot of this.  I guess you can't do everything. 

There was karaoke at one point, but I got there too late.  Would have been fun to blow it.  But, as I was riding down a street at night a camp was doing "Dinner and a show".  The camp was sitting in chairs, watching the street, and they had guys on mics grabbing passers by to be "the show".  So I freestyled some Ice Ice Baby to a clapping crowd.  One guy did a love poem and proposed to his playa love.  Another girl was a contortionist.  Just right there in the middle of the dirt street.

Dancing, dancing dancing. 
You could dance 24/7 at Burning Man if you wanted.  I did a fair amount of it on various nights.  The two biggest camps, Opulent Temple and Root Society are at the ends of the city.  They are some of the biggest dance places I've ever seen.  50 foot LED walls that danced.  Towers and cages you could dance in.  Or just on the ground.  One night, late, as I was coming back from the deep playa, it started to rain.  So I dropped my bike and ran into the crowd to dance a bit.  Awesome.  I wish someone had played "Sandstorm" by Darude.  That would have made my night! 

Dancing under this thing was nuts!

Much of the music is EDM.  Electronic.  Rave type stuff.  Some of the worlds biggest DJ's come through burning man.  I didn't recognize any of the names, but I don't generally follow that scene.  Still, it was fun to be with so many people who were REALLY into it.  (And maybe a bit high).  But it's not all that kind.  I heard blues.  I heard country.  Hip Hop.  Brian says 5 years ago it was ALL Dubstep.  But now that Dubstep is popular and mainstream, there is less of it.  Some might argue that Dubstep started at burning man.  They would likely be right.  I heard Journey, Boston, and drifting over the city one night "Total Eclipse of the Heart".

My favorite dance night was at Crossroads Camp.  I stumbled upon a live band, had to have been 15 pieces, playing Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Cee Lo, Prince and more.  The place was energized and awesome.  Such a blast.  The band was amazing.  A nice surprise.  I enjoy EDM, but it's awesome to hear the classics!

All of this bouncing around from place to place to place highlights something that is definitely a factor at Burning Man.  (Brian says it is more so your first few times there) which is the classic "Fear of missing out syndrome".  Only here it's highlighted twenty fold.  I know a lot of people who have this in normal life (I do, though it's less pronounced now than when I was in High School).  But man, at Burning man, you really COULD be missing out on the coolest thing EVER just around the next corner or across the playa.  The trick is to just trust where you are and enjoy that moment.  "But wait, is that a firebreathing dragon?" "Oh man, can I dance on the robot art car?"  "Or should I dance on the hillbilly art car?" "Is that a neon shark drifting across the desert?" "Can I do the thunderdome?" etc etc etc.

The list is endless, and I know I would rarely stay in one place very long.  The tower or waiting for the burns or the temple probably kept me the longest.  But so often I'd be enjoying myself watching the grinders shoot sparks out, then think "I should move on, what's over here!".  Because of course, every day I see a half dozen people blasting sparks in wild patters 25 feet in the air.  It's just so common, there MUST be something more exciting just over here. :)

Let the sparks fly!

I imagine if I went back I might stay for the whole class rather than leave after 20 minutes.  I might dance to more than 2 songs before I moved on.  I might watch the entire performance... or I might not.  It's Burning Man.  As long as you trust your instincts, I think you'll be rewarded with fascinating and interesting things.  If you're worried about missing out, you won't engage with what's there.  But if you go with the flow and if the flow says "let's move on", then I think that's okay.  It really is a lesson in living in the moment (Which I'm pretty sure is one of the Burning Man principals if I remember correctly.  If it's not, it should be. :). 

Live in the moment.
Enjoy where you're at.
And I almost always enjoyed where I was at during the night.  (Except when it got really cold on Saturday night.  That wasn't as fun.  But that's what warm geodesic domes with flashing lights are for!).

Mystical Magical Mystery Land. 
Nightime at Burning Man.
Awesome.

BURNING MAN BY DAY

So there is a distinct difference between Burning Man at day or night.
The day's are hot (though nice in the morning).  The sun is blazing (except the one day it was cloudy and sprinkled...yep!), and everything is dusty (okay, that's the same both day or night.  But during the day you have dust storms more often).

If you're afraid to get dirty and be uncomfortable, this isn't the place for you.  I'm a pretty flexible, enduring guy, and there were numerous times I sat in the shade, sipping a water, sweaty and miserable, thinking "What the hell am I doing here?".  A lot of people would just lay under their shade structures (possibly on a couch or camp chair) and sleep during the day.  Sometimes all day (there was a gal in our camp that crashed out all day long and partied all night...every night).  On the Sunday, I'd had enough of the heat and sat in my car with the AC on for 2 hours, napping.  It was heavenly.

Dust storm, white out

Brian, (my friend, roommate, and the man who's been to Burning man 10 times now), says you have to listen to your body at Burning Man.  You may want to go out and see the sights, but your body may say "no way, sit your ass down, drink and chill out.".  To not listen to your body is a bad choice when the consequences are heat exhaustion, dehydration or worse.

Now, this isn't to say that the daytimes sucked.  They didn't.  The mornings were nice (sleeping in a tent, the sun and heat and neighbors force me awake by 10am at the latest every day).  Chilling, eating, chatting.

Then hopping on a bike or walking to some sort of event.  There's a book of activities based on time and camp, where you can go do anything you want: 
Learn to cook?  Check.
Yoga skills?  Check.
Kissing Puja?  Check.
Topless bike ride for breast cancer?  (5000 checks!)
BDSM workshops?  Check.
Photography classes?  Check.
Slave auction?  You guessed it...check.

Yep...you're seeing this correctly.

So on Thursday I thought "I'm going to the slave auction. "  Some campmates had done it, and they had had fun.  They'd sold themselves as slaves, which basically means you can choose whatever you want to sell:  2 hours of camp cleanup, or a 30 minute massage, or learn dirty Russian phrases for 10 minutes, a full Indian meal.  Basically anything you want to offer, and then the "masters" bid on you, by trading similar items:  A bottle of booze, a shower in an RV, a naked lap dance.  Anything goes.  It's up to you.  And the slave gets to decide which offer is best.

It was at Uli Babba and the Horny Thieves camp.  They had a whole tent set up.  If you wanted to be a slave, they put these plastic shackles on you with a chain.  I figured I'd slave myself up and offer DJ services, old school hip hop style for someone.  I wanted to DJ while at Burning Man and figured this would be a good way to make friends.

At the Slave Auction

We all pile into the camp.  There's a full on mermaid sitting on the center platform.  The slaves on one side.  The masters on the other.  It was all tongue-and-cheek and silliness.  They'd call up slaves and explain the services you'd give, and people would bid.  Private showers, hair washing and meals seemed to go a long way.  One set of slaves offered to compliment you for an hour.  Another offered to cook you Indian meals.  When I finally got up there, people enjoyed my "old school hip hop dances", but when I said I had the music and mixers, but no speakers, my bidding price went WAYYYYYY down.  (Guess everyone's a DJ at Burning Man).  The only person to bid on me offered me a topless hair washing from 4 women...um, I have no hair.  Not the best deal, but the only one I got.  So rather than be killed, I took it. 

I wish the rest of that story was exciting, but when I went to DJ the party (for the woman's wife), they just wanted to go get drugs and asked if I could come back the next day.  I'd missed a big set of burns on the Playa to show up on time for them, but figured it would be fun to DJ the next day.  So I show up at 5pm on Friday in a big dust storm...and the wife hadn't come home last night and was still partying someplace.  So the DJing never happened.  Nor did the hairwashing.

Which brings up a good point about Burning Man:  plans are flexible.  Rarely locked down.  In fact, it's almost impossible to make arrangements to meet people.  We might say "Let's meet at 7oclock and B, at the Mardi Gras camp at noon."  (All the streets in Burning Man are labeled from 2 oclock to 10 oclock around the center playa area.  And then go from Esplanade, A, B, C etc back to L).  Well, one or both of us might find something more interesting or more fun, or just plain forget to meet up.  Or we might just be running late, and you'll be there and think "I guess they aren't coming" and head off".  There's no cellphones, so we can't be lazy and call and say we're late.  It really is a "go with your instinct" kind of place and you're more likely to have fun. 

That being said, there were a couple of times I wish I'd actually tried to make plans to meet up and didn't because I was in such a "go with the flow" mode.  What can you do?

One day I was out by the Temple in the late afternoon and there was a big trailer set up that was actually a wet-plate camera (the kind used in the Civil War).  The folks had built it and were taking pictures.  I got one of me in front of the temple.  It's so cool. 

But they couldn't finish it up at that time, so I'd have to go pick it up at their camp at some point.
Oh boy.
On Saturday, Brian and I actually hung out during the day.  We hopped on bikes and rode around.  Taking pictures.  Saying hi to people.  We got to the camp and picked up the photo.  It is AWESOME.  It's printed on metal.  Really special.  A great playa gift.  Thank you.

This is no Instagram

 I'd forgotten to bring water (yep, good call!), but they were cool and we filled up with them, took camp photos for them, and head out. 
A quick stop at the porta potti, then down the street to a camp called "Mis information Camp" or something like that. 

"Something great will happen because we go in here" Brian said.
So we take off our packs and...oh shit, my camera is gone.
Shit shit shit.
I leave my stuff with Brian and run back to the photo camp.  Not there.
Oh no, it has all my Burning Man pics, plus a trip I took immediately before this to Cabo for a friends Bachelor party. 
I goto the toilets.  Look inside.  No camera.
Ugh!
I run back to where Brian was.  "Can't find it."
But, at least my driver's licence was in the case (which is bad if I don't get it back, but is good if Burning Man is as cool as people say, since they can find me.  (This just gave me the idea that the first photo on any card should be a photo of a drivers licence, or at least email/phone number, so when people scan forward they see it and have the contact info).
At this point I'm pretty bummed.  I'd just bought the camera too.
Anyway, we go back to the toilets, Brian yells really loud "Did anyone find a camera?  Did anyone find a camera?".

A guy walks up.  "You looking for a camera?"
"Yep.  Did you find one?"
"No."
"It has a drivers licence in it."
"Okay, yeah, we have it."

SWEEET! 
I got it back...with crotch, butt and boob photos from the whole camp. 
Clearly they didn't expect us to actually see their faces in person!  They were going to turn it in and then I'd have some laughs at the photos.  Oooops!

Thanks for the camera!

The Playa Provides.

That's one of the big sayings at Burning Man.  That it'll provide what you need.  (Or is it what you're looking for?).  I think it's more likely the first.  You may be looking for one thing, but need another.  Who knows?  But this was awesome.  Thankful for those folks for being so cool and not just taking it.
That is after all the vibe of burning man.  Supposedly things can get stolen, but it doesn't happen very often. 

Why does the Playa provide? 
You could say it's because there are 50-60,000 like minded people in a small area, all circling about in a gifting mode, and thus it's likely you'll meet or find someone with what you're looking for.  Or you could say it's something more magical, that there's something about the energy of Burning Man.  Of that specific place.  That things all happen for reasons if you are living in the moment.

One story of this will come near the end of these emails, but for now I'll sign off.
CraigO

I'M AT FRICKING BURNING MAN!!!

Okay, so I'm actually back from Burning Man, but they don't have internet there (bliss!), so I'm writing it now.

This is my first time to the crazy art festival city in the desert, and if I only have a couple words to describe it: AMAZINGLY OVERWHELMING.
And that, my friends is a compliment.

The Man on Burn Night

Other words could be: Beautiful, bright lights, noisy, music, cacophony of sound, 360 degrees of crazy, up all night, up all day, hot, dusty, exhausting, cold, lonely, friendly, filled with adventure, shocking, naked, drunk, sober, mellow, high energy, educational, uplifting, energizing, filled with sorrow, filled with bliss, revealing, borderline unsafe, blissfully unregulated, still in America--barely, mars, the moon, another planet, filled with love, friendship, joy, stimulation, giving, gifting, stories, dancing, biking, dust storm, porta-potti, baby-wipe bath, Thunderdome, pirate ship, art cars, neon, burn, burn burn, firestorm, explosion, wall street, graffiti, sculpture, painting, body painting, body art, orgy dome, poly-camp, kidsville (yes, I just typed those words in a row), and more....

But we don't want just words, do we? We want some stories. So here goes.

This is my first time on the Playa. I've known about it for a number of years because my roommate Brian has gone 10 times. So I've seen pictures, heard stories, met other burners. But I can tell you NONE OF THAT WILL PREPARE YOU FOR THE EXPERIENCE OF BURNING MAN.

 I've been fortunate enough to travel a bit and have been to some totally amazing places, and I have to say that I've never experienced anything like Burning Man. It. Is. Insane.

And that, too, is a compliment. Experiencing new things, breaking out of the ever-limiting comfort zone, meeting new and interesting people...these are all reasons I travel. And I sure did all of these things at Burning Man.

And to answer the question that is on everyone's mind who has heard of Burning Man: No, I did not do any drugs. There were drugs available, had I wanted to experiment with a wide range of options, but I've never been inclined to do them in the past, and didn't feel the need to now. If that's what folks wanted to do out there, I wasn't about to judge them for it. Everyone seeks experience in their own way, and as long as you aren't endangering each other, then I'm in no place to tell you it's wrong. But for myself, I wanted to engage in what was going on in a way I felt comfortable. (Yes, I did drink! More than usual in fact). Technically drugs are not condoned at Burning Man, but the authorities seem to not come down to hard unless you're being a dick, or doing it in the open. Enough about that, it's not really what Burning Man is about.

So Burning Man operates on 10 principals. These are important for understanding what it is you're getting into. You can read about them in more detail on the Burning Man site (http://www.burningman.com/)

The Human river around the fire...it was HOT!

. Principals that stuck out to me, are

LEAVE NO TRACE: It's hard to believe that a temporary city of 50,000-60,000 people can be built and removed completely every year, leaving no garbage, but it's one of the main principals, and it happens. People take every little scrap home with them. Sure, it uses a ton of gas to get there and lots of shit burns (though all the burn scars are maticulously cleaned), but it is still pretty amazing.

RADICAL INCLUSION: Anyone can participate. There's no VIP status here. (Though, human beings are human beings, and people still won't always let you enter their camp to play). Still, if you want to battle in the Thunderdome, you can. (yes, there's a Thunderdome, very similar to the Mad Max movie...and you may battle. Though it's not to the death. :) If you want to ride an art car, or dance at a club, or take a class, you can.

GIFTING: I thought it was a barter system before I read the survival guide. (Yes, when you get your ticket, you get a survival guide. You need to read it, because you are entering a very unforgiving environment. The back of the ticket says you could experience serious injury or death as a result of coming to this...and it's no bullshit. Take care of yourself out there.) But Back to Gifting. This isn't a "I'll give you this if you give me that" system. It's literally, "I have something to give you, enjoy." With no thought of getting anything in return. ie: "Here, have some booze" or "Would you like to join us for dinner, we just made steak". It's really amazing and one of the coolest things about it. The generosity of people: Have a meal, enjoy a shower, join our class, get a massage, listen to a chior sing, climb on our art car and dance, enjoy world famous DJ's spinning music all night long.

But Craig, didn't you have to buy a ticket? Yes.
Doesn't that money go to paying for all this? No.
As far as I can tell, that money goes to paying for the permit to hold this crazy event, and the additional police officers and rangers out there. Also the awesome porta potti cleaners (they do it VERY regularly, thank god), as well as some other infastructure things. But otherwise, everything else is done by volunteers or gifted by the community in whatever ways they want.

RADICAL SELF-RELIANCE: As much as people gift and will help you (like one day I forgot to fill my camel-back before going out for the day. Dumb mistake. But I wasn't worried. I simply asked some folks at a camp if I could have some water, and they gave it to me with a smile). But despite this...you are on your own. You bring EVERYTHING to the playa. Shelter, food, fire, water, goggles, what not. I like this principal a lot, as I feel in the real world a lot of people don't take responsibility for themselves and their actions: here, you have too.

PARTICIPATION: You can come to Burning Man to watch, lord knows its some of the best people watching ever, but that's not the point. Join in. Play. Dance. Cheer. Paint. Roller Skate (yep, there is a roller rink complete with skates and 80's tunes). Don't be a douche and watch the "crazy" folks and take pictures...join in. Truth is, we're all crazy and weird in our own ways, this is a place where you can be crazy and weird and (almost) no one will judge you.

One of the best things I learned was about Judgement. I try to keep an open mind to things in life, but I find that I can be critical of people at times (Some of my friends are probably saying "yeah, no shit Craig!"). I don't like that I do this, and I think it has to do with expecting the best (perfection perhaps?) from myself. On Sunday morning I was watching the Playa Choir tear the roof off the dome they were in, and the director said something like this about judgement: (I paraphrase and embellish here)

Judgement is a bastard. You can't fire it. It won't go away. If you try it will come back and go postal on you. Instead you have to transform it into something else. For me, that is curiosity. Instead of judging, I will be curious: why does it work like that? how do people create that? what the fuck is going on? :)

 I'm sort of doing these emails backwards, as I just gave a big lesson I learned at the end of the trip in the first email. Oh well, if I learned one thing from Burning Man it's that things don't always go according to plan.

Hopefully this overview gets you in the right headspace for some of the stories that will come in the next few emails.

Burn baby, Burn,
CraigO

Yes, that's a pirate ship sunk in the Playa