[toeslist] Fw: Jake's Burning Experience
Brian Hill
Subject: Jake's Burning Experience
Hi folks,
Here's just a quick and dirty expose on my last week at Burning Man.
It was a mind blowing experience, certainly "Beyond Belief" (this years
theme). For those further out than I, I apologize for my tameness, for
those for whom I am their "freaked out" friend, well, more of the
same...
Burning Man started, for me, about two hours before Reno on the 80,
when car after car of "hipped" out SFer's passed my overloaded, trailer
pulling toyota pickup. Each of them with a bike on the back and a
plethora of left wing bumper stickers waved and smiled as they passed.
My perma-grin started and did not abate for seven days. It's easy to
spot a "burner," just a matter of recognizing the signs.
I arrived well after dark, and rather than searching for my camp, (my
friend Mo's SF friends in charge of "critical tits"), I parked, grabbed
my water bottle and went for a walk. That late at night, early in the
week, things were dark and dusty, one couldn't tell the streets from
the camps. I wondered through the city and out into the playa where
the man stood atop a half build temple, not really all that impressive,
(I kept looking for the real man). As my water ran low I started to
look for my car. A few hours later, dry and far from the spirit of the
man, I found it. Lesson one learned, learn the layout, and never
forget where you parked.
The next day I found Mo's camp and met his friends, a bunch of slightly
bi-sexual SF gourmets, mostly interested in the dance/rave scene. Very
nice, though maybe not necessarily my crowd. Burning Man seems to be
composed of a large quantity of clicks who are more than happy to cross
pollinate in the anarchistic playa dust. Probably the largest is the
SF scene, very creative, outrageous, ambisexual, and mostly into
ecstasy and alcohol. (sadly most of these groups can be delineated by
the drugs they take.) Other major groups are the NorthernWestCoast
Pagan Hippies, the grudge, mad max thunderdomers, the old school
psychedelic warriors, the local nevada rednecks, and the rest of the
turned on from all around the world. Certainly the spirit of the
Burning pervades all.
The most overwhelming feeling for me was a sense of continual deja-vu.
I spent alot of time trying to figure out if I'd been to burning man
already and forgotten. Every dream you've had of being lost a giant
party is leading you to the man. I felt I had arrived in a Fellini
film that just wouldn't stop. This is really reinforced when a dust
storm comes up and suddenly you can only see a few feet in front of you
and one after another bizarre and surreal costumed fellows and art cars
emerge from the "fog." I honestly feel this deja-vu is a psychic
resonance from some massive dosage of drugs I'm going to take at
burning man some time in the future. (this time I limited myself to
one small dose per night of mushrooms, acid, alcohol, or peyote).
Well alot of people just go for the raves. certainly more raves than
I've ever been to. Each night a half dozen "clubs" blast their music
from the playa, each with at least a thousand people getting down.
This scene and music tends to dominate the esplanade (the first street
around the open playa). Mostly people on Ecstasy or E and Acid (trip
flipping) or and E and Mushrooms (hippie flipping). Lots of chances to
see people having sex in public. But there is alot else going on.
Certainly the art alone is worth going for. On one level most of the
art falls into four categories, costumes, sculptures, art cars, and
theme camps. There is definitely a burning man aesthetic, a
do-it-yourself, lights up at night, rejects all forms of authority
(especially Catholicism), thing. You don't see alot of paintings, or
video, or live music, or theater, though all those things are present
to a smaller degree. however, within that context it's like camping in
a museum for a week. I would think anyone calling themselves an artist
would owe it to themselves to go at least once to "the greatest art
happening in the world."
As far as "String Theory" went, well, it was kind of a fiasco. On
wednesday night I set up the screen far out into the playa. I managed
to show my trailer a few dozen times and get a few wanderers excited,
and then get half way though "the saragossa manuscript" before the
winds really picked up and blew the whole thing over. anyone behind it
would certainly have been dead or injured (a half dozen people die at
burning man each year). After that I showed the film a few times on
the side of a truck at our camp and had it shown at another video camp
on the playa midnight on friday night. A dozen people watched the
whole thing and seemed suitable impressed, but the truth is most people
are just to high to sit and watch a whole film. I still think it could
be done and this is the right audience, but, well, I've got all the
equipment for next year. i did give out around forty copies though,
mostly to the critical tits camp.
critical tits, by the way, 3000+ topless women bike riding around the
scene, was quite simply the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my
life. Perhaps that sounds strange or perverted, but in fact it was
quite the opposite. I'm sure if I could witness that everyday for five
years I'd be able to stop seeing woman as sex objects (and how happy
i'd be)! At the party I was roped into the body painting booth and
spent three hours painting women's chests, often being paid with
kisses. That's the spirit. maybe I'll give up filmmaking and dedicate
myself to body-painting.
I only managed to take 17 pictures while I was there. It was all so
overwhelming I didn't want to waste my time trying to capture what can
never be tamed. If you're interested check out the web site at:
http://www.burningman.com/
the bottom line is not whether everyone should go at least once, but
whether after once you will become on of those whose life is devoted to
the burn. The biggest downside for me was that so much energy (and
money) is spent on this and the theme is "leave no trace." I guess I
ultimately have a dedication to social change that makes me wonder
whether that energy wouldn't be better spend trying to create a
permanent, self-sustaining culture rather than just a temporary
anarchists disneyland. Obviously that is the point, impermanence, but
i honestly found it frustrating. nevertheless, I will be going back
next year, hopefully taking alot of you along. More than anything the
week felt like a return to the summer of love, it somehow reinvigorated
my faith in our American culture, which honestly had gone down the
tubes. It's nice to fantasize that this is how we will live after the
revolution, though I think that's far from the truth. nevertheless,
it's probably the closest we'll come in our lifetimes, and I hope each
of you will make the pilgrimage.
Peace and love my friends!!!!
__________________________________
Jacob Freydont-Attie
www.StringTheoryMovie.com
www.thePFC.com
String...@mac.com
530-292-4251
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