Burning man retrospective
2001:
The seven ages. I still remember driving into Burning Man my first year, looking for a spot to camp. We'd been playing either Techno or songs that we could sing along to. It had taken us a lot longer to make the drive from the east bay than it should of. We made stops for supplies that we'd forgotten to pack and we'd missed the turnoff from 447 so we drive for nearly an hour out of the way. So when we finally got past the greeters we put Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the moon on the radio. It turned out to be the perfect soundtrack to what we were about to experience. It took me the whole first night to get acclimated to the explosions. I would jump every time I'd hear one. I arrived towards the end of the event and resolved to arrive earlier the following year.
2002:
The floating world. When I arrived on the playa my second year I met up with the LiveJournal camp. As far as I know, this camp no longer exists, at least it didn't exist the following year and as for their website, they've sort of been pushed out of the limelight in favor of sites like Blogger, Yahoo 360, et al. The even I remember most about this year was the slave auction. Camp Arachnid had an open auction selling off volunteers. The volunteer would spend a day of servitude to the highest bigger. People usually bid assorted types of alcohol, packs of beer or tequila for example. One of the volunteer was this girl that was the spitting image of Drew Barrymore. I mean, she looked so much like her that the only thing that convinced me that she wasn't Drew was that I discovered she was staying with the Green Tortoise. For some reason, I imagine the real Drew would find a camp that was a little less public. Anyway, Drew gets on stage and just as the announcer starts asking for bids, she whispers into his ear. He does a double take and hesitantly announces that they will be auctioning off this girl's hymen. After some clarification from the audience, to which she responds with a shy nod the bidding starts going crazy. The rooms seems to spit into two camps. One supposedly bidding for selfish reasons, the other to try and protect this girl from the ladder. I suspect both camps were actually bidding for the same benevolent reasons but neither side believed the other's motives. When I spoke to her afterwards it was clear that the girl was a complete sociopath. That made the whole thing absolutely brilliant.
2003:
Beyond belief. I met a wonderful group of MIT students my third year and they were kind enough to let me camp with them. It was then their first year and they someone managed to build what is still a pretty nice sized installation. When I first arrived I immediately set out to learn more about my fascinating neighbors. Their team dynamic was possibly one of their most notable traits. I helped them put together a massive geodesic dome. They'd pulled the plans off the Internet and customized it to suit their needs. Only one of them had actually been on the playa before but that didn't stop them from setting out to be one of the more memorably camps there. They shouted instructions with little regard for social graces. Absent from their uttering were words like please and thanks. As they shouted commands at me they realized that I might not be accustomed to their style. They paused to apologize but I quickly made clear that I was more than OK. I had a wonderful stay with them and we spent quite a bit of time together as the week went on.
2004:
Vault of heaven.
I skipped 2004, opting instead to spend the summer in Portugal. My options were either to explore my parent's native land with them as a guide or miss out on the opportunity entirely. Forget trying to get them to work their schedule around burning man. They've only recently started to accept that this is an annual thing for me. Still, Portugal was a wonderful experience. I simply resolved to make up for 2004 with the years that followed.
2005:
Psyche. For my fourth year at burning man I met up with some friends from the Bay Area. This was the year I was actually introduced to Camp Arachnid. What a fun experience that was; perfectly in line with the theme of the year. It was certainly a year of introspection. I'm not sure what I learned exactly. I think, like most aspects of Burning Man, the experiences just seeped into the core of who I am.
2006:
Hope and fear the future. My fifth year was the first time without the pickup truck. The person who bought it took with them what was probably one of the easiest methods of camping at burning man. All it would take to setup camp was to drive up to a spot and reorganize the junk in the back. A friend of mine had introduced me to Yurt Domes. He bought one with him to Toast and it seemed to work really well. I was so impressed by it that I decided to fork out the hefty price tag and get the exact same model for myself. When I finally set it up on the playa I realized that, after fitting the whole dome in my compact car, there wasn't much room left to bring anything else, and my new home was filled mostly with empty space.
2007:
The green man. This year's burning man is approaching quickly. It's only 69 days away. In 74 days they'll burn the man and the whole cycle will start again. This year will be a little different. I hope to have a better idea of what I'll be doing before I get on the playa. I'll have the dome again but this time I'll be a little better prepared with how to affix it to the ground. Last year I tried candy cane rebar but when I tried hammering them into the ground, the rebar just curved in the direction of the bend. I can't help but get nervous as I approach the day. I get the feeling you get when you're worried about failing an exam. I worry that I'll get out there and realize that I've brought canned goods to eat but forgotten the can opener at home.
- 2000 The Body
- 1999 The Wheel Of Time
- 1998 The Nebulous Entity
- 1997 Mysteria: The Secret Rites of Burning Man