burning man
ck
To be sitting at a ferry dock alone ( Dana is staying in Seattle because
tomorrow is the first teaching day of the year.), tired, filthy, and grumpy
is a bit surreal. To watch people sprint for a ferry that will leave again
in an hour, to see everyone in clothes, shoes, underwear, all clean, is so
different from the desert, from Burning Man. How do you describe it? Where
do you begin? I think it will take a bit of time.
There is a guy waiting here, heąs wearing a Rollins shirt printed on the
back is łSearch And Destroy˛. I feel like I have been away searching and
trying not to be destroyed. My arrival at home in another hour should
indicate that I have survived this trip; now itąs time to see what Iąve
found in my search.
Itąs 80 here -- I was hoping for rain, but the temperature and sun
still seem tame compared to the desert. So already Iąve drifted back to
society, but instead of dealing with that Iąll deal with Burning Man. The
simplest thing to start with is that Burning Man was an amazing experience.
I do not yet know how I am changed, but I know that some seeds have been
planted.
To have 10 or 16 thousand people, (who knows how many were there),
together, partaking in free entertainment, and living off of whatever they
brought was fabulous. The people varied from fifty year olds to children.
Most were somewhere in their 20ąs to 30ąs. Most were there to do something
or be part of something different. One of the big parts of Burning Man is
the saying łNo Spectators˛ because itąs an event where you are the event.
The only thing that the planners seemed to coordinate is some bands and the
burning of the man, where almost everything else at least appears to be set
up by the people in attendance.
Our theme camp was łThe Sticky fingers Shoppe˛ a store with ridiculously
overpriced collection of junk. People were encouraged to steal, but if
caught were marked with a scarlet łS˛ somewhere on their body. Some people
had to be encouraged to steal, others stole without getting caught and then
came back to confess and be marked. It was funny to watch people in the
booth while none of us who ran it were in it ( the shoppe was only a 10 x
10 foot tent with a table and all sorts of stuff hung and put all over.)
They would look at things, look around, talk to people about taking stuff,
and then some would run off with something, but most would just put things
down and walk away. They wouldnąt steal anything even if they were
encouraged to. I think they just werenąt sure if they could steal something
or if someone was just insane and really wanted $125 for a pair of $.25
plastic swimming goggles.
Easily the funniest thing to happen was the thievery of an old style
stove top popcorn popper, labeled as łWolfgang Puckąs egg scrambler.˛ It
was stolen by some guy weąd never met, like most of what was stolen. He
later told us he was in the booth while we were all in our camp area (about
twenty feet behind the shoppe in another bigger tent, with a table and a
bunch of chairs, out tents.) Two fire fighters were in there as well. One
of the firefighters saw this guy looking at the scrambler and told him that
he bet that he couldnąt steal it; the guy then said łWant to bet,˛ and took
off running with it. We saw him run and Carol took off chasing him. She
chased him half way through the camp. She had even asked two sheriffs for
directions; they pointed down the road and off she went, eventually giving
up and returning to camp. The next day this guy wanders up to our camp and
poses these questions to us about taking things and stealing. He went on
and asked if it would be stealing if Wolfgang Puck had taken the łegg
scrambler.˛ We said that it would be questionable, and at that point he
showed us that he had bartered for Wolfgang Puckąs soul which was something
that another camp was doing, and apparently this guy had to trade his łMr.
T˛ id card that he had got by getting a Mr. T., hair cut, ( or something
like this) not to mention spend an hour doing all this just to get his
Wolfgang soul in order to be guilt free in stealing the łegg scrambler˛. We
saw Wolfgang many more times throughout our time there and it was great to
have a funny little thread running through life on the desert.
Dana is going to take over on the keyboard; weąre writing the rest of this
together now just to get it finished. Itąs almost been a week since Iąve
started this, and I want it done tomorrow. Iąm usually not such a slacker,
but a while in the desert leaves you with a lot of things to do. So here
she is...
Iąm sitting at the laptop now, having joined this adventure in writing,
so if the tone has changed a bit, you now know why.
We figure a good way to continue talking about this experience is by
making a pro-con list.
Pro
€A well developed sense of community -- for the first time in my life, I
felt like I could talk to almost anybody, jump into almost any
conversation, joke with people, be a part of a community instead of being
on the outside edges of one.
€ Little to no consumerism
€ Art -- lots of great art (silver fish, spin art, the bone tower, the
man), lots of mediocre art (the play performed next door (łHelp me with my
malaria!˛), lots of silly art (huge rocking horse, body painting).
€ Hot springs -- four miles away, you could find hot and medium temperature
water, muddy bottom, and relief from the heat.
€ Freedom of radical expression, or the having the choice not to express
yourself -- walk around naked, paint yourself, walk around in clothes, talk
to everyone, talk to no one -- everything was accepted.
€ The idea of no spectators (as stated by the sign above the camp cafe) --
most forms of entertainment are spectator driven, but in the case of
Burning Man, all entertainment is provided by the people who participate.
Con
€ Bad techno music heard all hours of the day and night from near and far
(one camp down being the closest) -- itąs hard to believe that the majority
of participants seem to like disco and club music most.
€ Dogs -- although the ticket said that animals were not allowed in the
community, many people still brought their dogs, cats, snakes, etc. The
desert really isnąt a good place for an animal with a lot of fur, and
although we saw most dogs on leashes, there were quite a few roaming around
with that horrible łI donąt know where my companion is˛ look on their face.
If youąre going to create rules, the organizers should enforce them.
€ Media presence -- most seemed to send home the story that they want to
see -- nudity, drunkenness, lawlessness. If the media is allowed in, they
should have to participate (credit given to MSNBC for participating).
€ Football (sporting event) mentality at the burn -- it was disconcerting
to hear the roar of the crowd when the man first began to burn. The roar
grew as each limb became engulfed in flame, and the noise reached an apex
when the structure fell. It might as well have been a touchdown at a
football game. Maybe this is a normal crowd reaction with the rush of
adrenaline the vision of the burning man created, but at the same time, it
seemed out of place in this setting. Maybe I was expecting something more
solemn, more ceremonial, as many ancient rituals were.
€ Redneck Sunday -- on the day of the burn, people not involved already
could purchase a $30, one day pass to come into the community for the day
for viewing of the camps and the burn. We saw more teenage boys cruising
around on three wheel desert vehicles carrying 12 packs of Bud Light
staring at nude women then I ever needed to see -- this hardly helps the
sense of community that people sought to create.
It was an amazing thing to experience - itąs been so hard to explain to
people who know nothing about it. łUh, it was a bunch of art and music in
the desert, and all this crazy stuff happened.˛ How do you attempt to
explain that a sense of community sprouts up in the middle of nowhere? How
do you explain the lack of rules and the enjoyment that it gives you?
Mostly I just stick with this line ł I went camping in the desert; there
was a big festival of art and music.˛ Itąs right out of a second grade book
report but it seems to get the least amount of follow up questions. And
since most of the people Iąve had to explain would never be willing to give
it a try, maybe itąs best not to get too into it.
So we made it one year; who knows if weąll be going back. At first I
thought it was a one year only deal, and in the last week Iąve thought more
about going back -- Partly to see what it changes into, to see what
happens, to make a better theme camp, to be somewhere with a real sense of
community, to borrow something from a neighbor without the worry of paying
them back exactly equal so I donąt have someone living next to me feeling
ripped off. Iąll give it time to see if weąre going back...
whatever
ck