Every Burning Man album has to start with a shot like this.
Scott in the RV. The RV was big. Really, really big.
Desert moon.
Same moon. Same desert. Different angle.
Desert sunset. Purty.
Molten
The RV. Human being added for scale.
Choo choo.
The IMAX view from the front passenger seat.
I don't think these guys were headed for a rodeo.
Burners on the road at Pyramid Lake.
Magic Carpet art car
Dunno. An Ent, maybe?
Art car.
The Anubis guards holding this palanquin were automated -- their legs walked as it moved forward. They were about 8 feet tall.
Wes and stilt guy at Center Camp
Stilt people
Center maze in center camp. Think techno-hippies at a Middle Eastern bazaar
People are rarely boring out here.
Me & Wes. Sleep deprivation, anyone?
I just love this shot. I dunno why.
I called this the Baba Yaga Hut. It made noise. One of its noises was an unbelievably loud train whistle you could hear for about 10 miles.
David Best's Temple of Forgiveness under construction. For me this is the heart & soul of Burning Man. Artist David Best constructs a different one every year. In it people put messages and mementos to people they've lost, or write them on the walls themselves. On the last night of Burning Man they burn the temple down. There's a terrific and very moving interview with David Best here: http://www.current.tv/pods/tvfreeburningman/PD07063
The Space Ape capsule. Inside was an audio-animatronic chimp in a spacesuit. A banner screen gave you instructions to help him get back into space (basically a game of Simon). It lit up and shook and there was music, all solar powered. It insulted you when you screwed up, and the ape got agitated.
A shot of Wes shooting
One of the streets crossing the Playa. The lamplighters' guild lights these structures at sundown. I never saw it happening. They provide virtually no illumination, but they look nice.
Lyrics to about 20 heavy metal songs come to mind for a caption here.
I never did get a close look at this
Well. This certainly seemed worth a picture.
View from the “porch” of our RV
RV roof view. We were at 4:30 & Arctic, in case you were wondering.
The shanty-town look of the camps gives no clue to the organization of the city, which is pretty damned good.
Sunset on the Playa. The esthetics of dust.
The Cube Condo was lit up different colors at night. People's silhouettes standing around it looked cool. Interesting interview about it here: http://www.current.tv/pods/tvfreeburningman/PD07073. I had no idea.
Our camp (Bouncy Bouncy) brought in a huge inflatable dome. Putting the top up (ahem) took some effort. I gigged in it one night. It was fun.
Scott hoped he would pick up a pretty girl at some point.
Battening the hatches for a dust storm
Running from a dust storm
This was an art car that looked like a radio. It glowed neon and played music and drove around. Spiffy.
These emerged from the darkness far out on the playa, unlit and isolated. I felt sad for them. One of my favorite pieces out there.
Bookended by penguins
Mini house on the deep Playa. Furnished, appointed, decorated. I think you were supposed to try to piece together an image of who lived there. Scott's face beside lantern in window.
Caught out in a serious dust storm. Scott & I met a cool woman named Lennae while we were all stuck out there and had a great conversation that wouldn't have taken place without the storm. Most of the Playa's difficulties were blessings in disguise. Honest.
After a dust storm it rained, and after the rain there was a triple rainbow over the city. I've never seen anything like it. For an absolutely amazing full shot, see http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1353136448&size=o
Mags met her boyfriend Vince this way. I forget what his sign said. Mags was da kewlest.
Someone burned down the Man the first night (we were literally walking away from it as it burned, totally oblivious because we were watching a full lunar eclipse). They repaired him and burned him again on Friday. Tell me symbols don't count. Astronomical/meteorological phenomena for the week, by the way, were full moonrise the first night, full lunar eclipse, meteor shower, rain, triple rainbow. Yowza.
“Dance Dance Immolation.” Just like DDR, except you put on a fire suit and dance to the music while watching the screen, and when you mess up, you get hit with big jets of fire. I nearly peed myself laughing at this.
A fire-suited dancer....
....misses a step. Goddamn this was funny. It had to be seen to be disbelieved. Videos at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9pToxEKTR0 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7z3LQJl4k0
Scott on one of 300 community bikes provided. People would spray-paint them, lock them up, tape their items to them. Scott & I would remove them and leave them for anyone to take -- as they were meant to be. I hope it really pissed off the people who tried to keep them.
The bone tree
The Man being repaired. Sort of like calling in a doctor to treat a condemned man.
Note the bird on his head. You'll see this again later.
Dust rises in camps, seen from the playa.
I wish Dali could have seen this. The whole place reminds me of the Port Lligat Dali made his own. I want to put up bare olive trees with melting watches there.
Art car (left)
I wanted a shot of this figure in a dust storm. I saw it without my camera, and it was amazing.
The road to the Temple.
Art car before the Temple. I dunno what that is on the right. Just tell me you see it, too.
Battling trucks. Smell the diesel.
Black Rock City is an official FAA airport during the event.
This almost looks as if it had been there the whole time, waiting for the city to be built around it.
The Indonesian temple that was a kind of gateway to David Best's Temple of Forgiveness
Okay, I admit it. I looked at pretty girls. I swear I'll never do it again.
Getting ready for the dust
If it was your birthday, they'd drive you around all over the place.
The Temple in the dust.
I'll try to describe this. Bicycles powered capacitors that were discharged at night. The structure spins. A strobe flashes. A ring of chimps is seen swinging endlessly from hook to hook. It looked absolutely real. Try to find a video of this on Youtube There's a decent one at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOeHUAlkCcM). You won't believe it. Burning Man had the best intersection of art & engineering I've ever seen.
Howdy.
I've been around this block a time or two.
“Crude Awakening” was my favorite piece of art on the Playa. To be honest, I liked it better when I thought it was a guard tower & not an oil derrick; it added texture to the figures' responses to absolute authority. As a response to the oil industry it's kinda on the nose.
Just for perspective: note the figures on the lower left. The sculpted figures are about 40 feet high; the derrick is about 100. Oh, yeah: the figures were made of metal, and periodically they would catch fire.
A ton of propane was buried beneath the installation. On Friday night at the Crude Awakening site, Mutaytor held a performance, the “Star Spangled Banner” played, the best fireworks show I've ever seen went off, the “Banner” played again in a Phantom of the Opera-style minor key, and then they blew up the tower by igniting all the propane at once.* It made a mushroom cloud 500 feet tall. More on this later.
Honestly, Dali would've loved this place.
You couldn't spell a lot with what was available.
Dust tornado. They're fun to watch. They sting when you get run over by 'em.
“Be the first kid on your block....” Or vice versa.
Things You Don't Bike Past Every Day
View from an art car of a dust tornado about to show the oil derrick who's boss.
Insert “Wizard of Oz” music here.
Texas Cowboy art car. Full bar, piano, Texans.
The Texans beside the Dawn Temple. People inside meditating; the structure does interesting things with sound. They must've loved the Texans.
The penguins by day. They're just heartbreaking, I tell ya.
Don't ask me why I like this picture.
Ashram Galactica, where I gigged on Friday night
DJ Roberto @ Ashram Galactica. He was spinning before me on Friday and was unbelievably helpful as I tried to find a place to plug in, then deal with a mixer that shorted every time it was moved. I had to do it by feel and ended up plugging into the Phono In. This is a Bad Thing.
DJ Roberto. He rocked, too.
“No, no,” said Scott. “You're wearing it like a bath towel. Here...”
“...let me show you how to wear a sarong.” He did, too. Then I taught him how to dance. He was a fast learner.
I was delighted to learn I could send mail from Black Rock City. I wrote my wife a letter every day. The people at the BRC PO acted in a parody of postal-worker arrogance & small-mindedness and went out of their way to humiliate customers. It was hilarious. They made me turn around and yell, “I miss my wife! I wish she was here! I'll bring her next year, I promise!”
This art car was one of those accordion-jointed buses with an upper deck and a conn tower. It must have held 100 people. It looked fun.
Some blurry shots are okay.
Scott in his Sunday-go-to-meeting sarong & shirt by the Man. He looked as if he was going to Aikido.
“Now if only someone would try to grab my wrist....”
“Goooooaaaaaaalllll!”
Fireworks before da big blowout
Streamers
I didn't get a pic of the (apparently unplanned) explosion that went off as they ignited the man. It was quite a fireball. This is immediately afterward.
The Man is, as they say, fully involved.
Antonio gives his benediction to the Man.
Heat from the burn created tornadoes that would travel and disperse. Beautiful, animate, capricious. Also a crowd pan.
“Crude Awakening” - Immediately following the propane ignition. The fireball was a mushroom cloud about 500 feet high. A good pic of the fireball is at http://forum.ashramgalactica.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=637&g2_serialNumber=2&g2_GALLERYSID=19d4486a4c9d305dc0af505d257d217b
This whole installation was powerful, and all about power.
The derrick burn. It made this unbelievable keening sound as resins burned out of the wood. When they ignited it, people sank to their knees in awe, and most of us had about three seconds to be certain we were going to die. It was terrifying and humbling, as I think it was meant to be.
Jeff is a Groovelectric & Podrunner listener who recognized my shirt at Center Camp late one night. Howdy, Jeff!
With Jeff and Bonnie. They were terrific & we had a great talk. Bonnie had a line about Burning Man that has stayed with me: “Burning Man can be described, but not explained.” Amen.
A Googie-styled sign for a putt-putt golf camp on the Esplanade. Nothing says surreal like miniature golf in the middle of absolute nothing.
I stayed up all night Saturday to see Scott off (unbelievably, there's a bus that runs from Burning Man to Reno airport), and caught this beautiful playa sunrise.
David Best's Temple of Forgiveness just before the burn.
The beginning of the Temple burn. People walked the perimeter ringing bells, and someone sang “Over the Rainbow” and Bob Marley's "Songs of Freedom."
The crowd was solemn and watchful, somberly quiet and introspective. Lots of sniffling.
About this time a group to my left yelled, and those to their left took it up. It became an audio wave that swept around the quarter-mile perimeter. It would grow louder and wash over you and continue, and it went around ten or twelve times. The assembled art cars picked it up and began honking along as it passed. People laughed and clapped, and a somber and reflective moment became joyous and childlike. I've never experienced anything like it, and it was the best imaginable closure to an eventful week. Excellent video here (and, to my amazement, I can see myself in it holding a camera): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRppUtcHKp4
This lone pole was what remained after the collapse.
The crowd headed toward the burning remains.
Missed by many during the Temple burn was this kite that flew overhead like a soul, reflecting the burn below and echoing the figure on the Burning Man's face. There was a lot of manifest poetry at Burning Man. It was thrilling to see art play an instrumental role in daily community life.
