The obligatory “RV on the road to Burning Man with foot in frame” opening shot
The sign. This year's theme was “Evolution.”
Art car on the road toward the entrance gate. Good omen, yah?
The Man on Monday night. The base was broad and low, and composed of arranged 2 x 4 lengths. It looked great.
An art car doing its art thing at night
This year's Temple under construction.
My wife Maureen and her Playa bike. This was her first burn and she was as at home as a fish in water. Note parrot familiar on bike.
Maureen struts her stuff on the runway at Kostume Kult. No, the mask is not part of the costume, and no, the pic isn't out of focus. It' s really that dusty out there.
I dunno what this was but it certainly merited a picture. Froggy art car in b.g.
Part of the unbelievable “Crude Awakening” sculpture from 2007. See my 2007 Burning Man album for pix & vids.
My Playa bike. I loved this thing. I've had a crow familiar on my Playa bike every year.
The Goth Ray Gun Rocketship. [http://www.raygungothicrocket.com] It had controls inside. They blew the hell out of it on Friday night.
Omnibus art car that toured the Playa. Mo went on this and had a blast.
Sha-zam! Lightning strikes and the Man turns into -- no, wait, wrong medium. That's just the Man from a low angle at night.
Fire rolled across the ceiling of this art installation but never burned. It made gorgeous shadows on the cutous metal walls. It was also nice & warm.
The same installatIon from outside.
My friend Scott's Playa bike.
This giant Rubik's Cube had several control stations. While we were there one person was calling out instructions to three people entering info into the controls. They solved the cube and it went super-lightup crazy.
Obey the cube.
Cube control station. Don't ask me how it worked. My way of solving a Rubik's Cube would be to buy colored decals for it.
Someone dosed my camera with windowpane and this was all it would do for hours.
I think my camera peaked right about here.
City at night..... City at night. Wooo! Yeah! [insert guitar solo]
The Temple by night. We got there just as it opened on Wednesday night.
The Man seen through the leaves of the Lotus Temple.
A sculpted wall panel in the Lotus Temple.
View of a small “shrine“ room in the Lotus Temple from the entranceway of another shrine room.
More panel detail
View of the Man & our nearby campmates from the roof of our RV.
Fire engine art car
Mo. If I'd been faster on the draw with my camera, this would have been a very different picture indeed.
The lighted duckie is the sign for the Duck Pond camp.
These changed color when they were stepped on, then started changing color *before* they were stepped on. We couldn't figure out how it worked.
Then stuff like this would happen. I liked that it got a bunch of people jumping around like kids at a cool science museum.
This yurt was out on the playa. It looked comfy and inviting.
There's a guy sitting just inside the entrance here. He looks up as I enter and says, “Steve Boyett? I just met you at WorldCon in Montreal last month!” Not two minutes before this my friend Scott was wishing for a city map to find some. Inside the yurt Ryan gave Scott a postcard he'd printed. It was a map of the city. This kind of thing happens routinely at Burning Man.
And this is the near-mythical Ryan Alexander, whom I'd met about 3 weeks earlier when I DJ'd a dance at WorldCon in Montreal.
This large banner adorned one of the walls of the Lotus Temple....
...and it was gone the next day. I couldn't read this without crying. I can't read much on the Temple, to be honest. It flays me to the marrow.
Art car in foreground eating temple in background. Life provides these juxtapositions; the joy lies in discovering them.
This box is a matrix of ping pong balls suspended on taut wires. Each ball has an LED inside. A computer program provides patterns. Possibly the world's biggest trip toy.
Remote-controlled trilobite. Really cute & scary at the same time.
Scott saw this in the distance and said, “Hey -- is that *John's* snail car?” I laughed for ten minutes. Two days later I saw another snail car. Presumably not John's. I laughed another ten minutes.
This Space Shuttle thingy glides toward us and then this UFO thingy intercepts it. They stop, doors open, drivers get out and talk. I'm not sure I can explain why it was so damn funny.
A flaming dragon on the Shiva Vista stage.
I just love this art car. Who doesn't like rubber duckies? Especially huge, driveable ones?
The Lotus Temple before the full moon.
Vince & Mags built driveable beer coolers. They ride around the playa on them offering people cold beer.
The Duck Pond camp sign. I was supposed to DJ here. My laptop had other plans. (photo by Mo)
Yes, my laptop is sitting on top of two other laptops on a very shaky stand. No, I did not trust this setup as far as I could throw a fit. (photo by mo)
At night flames would burn from this giraffe's neck. I loved it. I'm a big Dali fan. (see http://www.artinthepicture.com/artists/Salvador_Dali/burning.jpeg)
The Lotus Temple by day. Like some alien encampment.
The Man by day. Like some alien -- oh, no, wait. It turns out everything looks like some alien encampment. Okay.
The simple things are usually the coolest. I'm pretty sure these friendly little guys were formed from playa mud on the spot.
The citizens of Saguarria greet you.
Something about the playa landscape really wants these 16:9-type compositions.
Juxtapositions, I tell ya.
If this art car were any cuter, we'd have to shoot it.
Scott tells me the inside of the rocket was really cool & very dangerous. Which of course makes me wish I'd gone inside it.
This guy was having a tough old time against the wind and dust.
I cropped this shot and it accidentally became the coolest picture ever.
Scott and traveling companion. Photo by Mo.
Mo does some kind of Uber Playa karaoke.
The Karma Box was Scott's Burning Man art project. He stocked it with necessary and silly items and put it out on the deep playa. It had solar-powered lights on the outside and motion-activated lights on the inside.
He asked me to mak ea sign for it that read “Take what you need. Leave what you can.” Like a penny tray!
I painted the box itself. Ken Mitchroney did the lettering and pinstriping. Scott's son Drew glued on the shiny disks.
A camera on a post invited users to take a picture of the contents. This was a great model of the Evolution theme, and of Burning Man itself. Check out Scott's Karma Box blog: http://playakarmabox.blogspot.com
One of the necessities discovered in the Karma Box. These stayed in there about 30 seconds after I closed the lid.
Inside the Karma Box. You think it's junk till you're out in the desert and need some of this stuff.
High plains drifter.
I paints what I sees.
Self portrrait with military crow bike, cowboy hat, dust.
I loved my crows.
Purty purty skydivers. Apparently a lot of them get hurt out there every year.
Lighted skydivers landing near the Lotus Temple
Either I'm at Burning Man or someone is about to lose god's own game of Hangman.
Top of the Temple with Mo.
Maureen on the top floor of the Temple. She brought some mementos of her father, including the hat she's wearing.
View of the Astroturf slide from the Temple. People slid down it. A lot of them got friction burns. Did I mention this year's theme was Evolution?
View looking down the central shaft of the Lotus Temple. Kinda warp-core-ish, innit?
View of the Man from the 2nd floor of the Lotus Temple.
A very BLADERUNNER shot of the Man on his base, taken from the Temple.
Mo at the P.O.
Mos Eisley Spaceport. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and--oh, wait. This is Center Camp.
I just blend, I tell ya.
Mo @ Center Camp. You are SO not gonna see the rest of this shot.
Alien flowers invade the Man! Naw, these were some sculptures on the playa.
This sculpture was wonderful. It had everything you want: mystery, commentary, absurdity, poetry, hot naked chicks. Ars longa, chica brevis.
How could I not take a picture of this?
People hanging out on the Nautilus X art car.
Mo took this shot me me setting up on the Nautilus X.
Blinky lights add a necessary degree of professionalism.
Occasionally I have to twiddle a knob or somesuch. Yes, my T shirt is a Death Star Disco Ball. (photo by Mo)
Rena from the Nautilus X crew. An outrageously nice person. (photo by mo)
The Ray Gun Goth Rocket not long before they blew the living crap out of it.
Burn night
The Nautilus X art car.
Elephant art car
I don't know what this was but I felt really bad for it.
These looked even cooler when they were being driven around.
Fishbug thingy
Art on art
If this thing really walked, I never saw it. Thank god.
Can't get too many pictures of the Raygun Goth Rocketship in this landscape, nossir.
Art on art in dust storm
Flintstones art car. Big moby propz.
Scott got a driving pass to pick up his Karma Box art piece, so we drove the RV out onto the Playa on the last day so we could beat a hasty retreat after the Temple Burn.
Shana and I guide the RV through dust storms to reach the deep Playa.
The Lotus Temple off in the distance.
...and at sunset
Playa Bike Uber Alles
Mo takes up a life of high-plains banditry.
Yo yO WaSSuP. hERe'S tHe wW2 fLYiNG aCe kICkiN iT In dA DeSeRt.
Beginnings of the Temple Burn
Tornado generated by vortex winds from the heat
Kite at the Temple Burn
