BURNING MAN

The following is something written after I went to the Burning Man event in August of 2002. It's an attempt to explain what Burning man is. If you would like to learn more please feel free to visit BURNING MAN

Many of the pictures here were gathered from other sources on the web. I wanted the best pictures to match the descriptions. Unfortunately I did not keep close track of where they all came from, so many are uncredited. All the aerial shots came from www.aerialsoul.com. My photo's are all marked with my e-mail address. I hope you enjoy this...

What is Burning Man?

Now, THAT is hard to describe. There is a webpage www.burningman.com that will tell you some things, but it too starts off with an paragraph stating that it's hard to describe what it is. It's not so much a THING as an experience. A THING can have a definition; an experience can't. (Define "seeing red", or "tasting a lemon for the very first time" - that's what I mean by an experience can't be defined.)

Basically, what happens is this. A whole lot of people gather in one place to do things that they enjoy, to share things that they enjoy, and to enjoy the things that other people have brought to share. Along with all this is the burning of the MAN, after which the event is named. Why burn the man? Cause that's what you do with the Man... you burn him!!!

There. Hope that helps.

Okay, my "inner engineer" lives demands a more traditional description of the whole event. Okay... Let's appease him:

Between 29,000 and 30,000 people gather together over the course of a week on a dry lake bed (read desert for those of you back Easters who don't know that there are lots of different kinds of desert) north of Reno, Nevada near the town of Gerlach (now those of you with Microsoft(evil)Map can locate this geographically). They bring with them everything they think they will need as there is NO WATER, NO FOOD, NO SHELTER, NO ELECTRICITY, NO PHONE SERVICE, NO CELLULAR SERVICE. In addition they bring things to share as there is NO MONEY !!!!! This is a big part of the experience.. the fact that money is no longer of any use on the Playa (Playa is the name for this type of desert... get used to it. The PLAYA literally becomes a part of you before you leave). The things people bring to share can be literal things, services, or "experiences" (more on this later). During the week, people wander around, enjoying the things that others have brought to share, and sharing the things they have brought. At the end of the week (Saturday) a large effigy of a man is burned. On Sunday another burning takes place, this of large artistic installation. Both of these burnings enjoy large enthusiastic attendance, probably due to the atavistic curiosity that man has with fire in general. After the scheduled events have been completed, everyone cleans up the desert, with a special crew of volunteers who remain behind to be sure that absolutely no trace is left of the third largest city in Nevada. The desert is then a desert again.

Does that make it make any more sense? I didn't think so. Let me talk about some of the things in the last paragraph and add a little detail....

1) "...people gather together.." This is not a disorganized bunch of yahoos camping willy nilly all over the place. No, this is a very organized bunch of yahoos that lay out a city before anyone arrives. BLACK ROCK CITY - what this "town" is called while it exists - is laid out in the shape of a "C". You can see this in the aerial photos taken by skydivers as they flung themselves out of perfectly good airplanes. The "C" forms a not closed circle. At the center of the circle if it was closed is "THE MAN" (more on him later). The "C" is quit thick and has "streets" laid out within that follow the shape of the "C". These are numbered by their distance from "THE MAN". Hence the street I camped on was 2700 (being 2,700 feet from the street to the center). These circular streets would be useless without cross streets. These are laid out according to the points of the compass. My cross street was 210 degrees. Hence, my address was 210 and 2700. (Note: The circular streets also had names based on the THEME of this years Burning Man - which was "The Floating World". My street name was Forecastle. All the streets were named after parts of a ship. - And right about now, your head is probably spinning at the idea of holding a camp with the theme "The Floating World" in a total desert.. I was sure wondering how that was pulled off.. till I got there. Patience.) Now, if you are picturing this you have this "C"... the open end of it is pointing due NORTH or 0 degrees on the compass. The closed end is pointing due SOUTH or 180 degrees on the compass. The surveyors lay all this out before the main crowd gets there. They also lay out the boulevards and camps. There are 3 camps.. around the inner edge of the "C" - the Esplanade as this is called. One at 90 degrees, one at 270 degrees, and a big camp at 180 degrees (i.e. Due South of the MAN). This is called CENTER CAMP - more on it later. You get a map of Burning Man when you arrive, but once you figure out the scheme, finding your way around becomes no problem at all.

The surveyors also lay out a boulevard that runs from center camp straight North to The Man, and continuing straight north from there to the Temple of Joy. Along these roads, and along the Esplanade, they install "street lights" that mark these. You can see the street patterns, Center Camp, and the boulevards on the aerial photos. Finally, encircling the entire "city" is something called "THE TRASH FENCE" - anything blown will end up trapped here. Believe me, it's WAY OUT THERE... practically mythical (though I did see it once across a mirage of water.) The people that set all this up arrive LONG before everyone else, as you can imagine this is a hell of a lot of surveying in a place that looks a hell of a lot like hell. Along with the surveyors come the people that start building The Man, and the Temple of Joy.

2) "...absolutely no trace is left..." - The people that organize Burning Man can't hold this event without a permit from the Bureau of Land Management - the organization responsible for how that desert is used. The BLM requires that, like any bunch of good campers, Burning Man LEAVES NO TRACE. (You can read the entire set of BLM stipulations here. I particularly like the phrase "fugitive dust"!!! ) If you've ever camped, you know what this means. You pack it in.. you pack it out. You leave no garbage, and the area looks like you were never there once you've gone. Hence you become familiar with 2 things.. POOP and MOOP.

POOP is exactly what you (and your 2 year old) think it is. Burning Man does provide Porto-Potties for 30,000. That's a shit load of shit holders. And the rule for using these is... If it didn't go into your mouth, it doesn't go into the Porto's. Think about it for a second and the rule will become clear. The only exception is single ply toilet paper. ANYTHING ELSE will clog the equipment used to remove the POOP from the porto's. If this gets clogged someone has to do the unclogging. Now think... This place is in the middle of nowhere. There are very few... approaching 0... Porto-Pottie providers that will attempt to handle a contract of this size. If Burning Man cannot contract a Porto-Pottie provider due to idiots throwing non-POOP into the porto's, what then becomes of Burning Man - That's right, it disappears. So this rule is very important.

Oh, and the guys who service the Porto's are HERO'S !!!!! And everyone lets them know it. It may be a shitty job, but even FIREMEN don't get hugs from naked young women on the street !!! These guys DO !!!

MOOP is Matter Out Of Place. Basically, if it didn't originate in the desert, it shouldn't be left there when the whole thing is over. And trust me, the ONLY thing that originates in this desert is DUST, and lots of it. Anything other than dust came from someplace else and needs to be removed. Everyone entering Burning Man is asked to patrol their area when they leave and a special crew stays behind (living off donated water and food) to recheck the entire desert. (One of the things you do on your way out is to drop off any food that won't spoil and any left over water to these people... they are hero's too.)

Of course, no matter how much you tell people to clean up after themselves, some just don't get the message. For example, read the cleanup report from the 2000 festival. Pretty bad.

3) "NO WATER" - There is not a drop of water out there. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Any water you are going to use, you need to bring. To drink. To wash. To Cook. The funny part of THAT is you also need to figure out what to do with the waste water left over. You can't leave it there!!! It would be MOOP, or more precisely, it would CONTAIN MOOP - particles of stuff that would show up on the desert once the water you threw out dried.

4) "NO FOOD" - If you want to eat.. you better bring it with you. And if you need it fresh.. well, you better forget it. I was arriving later in the week than the rest of the people I was camping with. I was told that the most valuable thing I could bring would be fresh produce as anything brought along would have been consumed or spoiled by the time I got there. Best to think, dry and canned. And best to "de-garbage" it before you come - That box of cereal - take out the bag and chuck the box. That box of granola bars - again, chuck the box they come in. Keep in mind.. you bring it in.. you take it out (unless, of course, you turn it from MOOP to POOP via the miracle of digestion).

5) "NO SHELTER" - Best bring something to sleep in. This is a TENT city. Some of these tents are HUGE - Center Camp tent can hold hundreds. RV's are acceptable - but you won't be driving them around. Once you reach Black Rock City, and park your car.. it doesn't move until you leave. If for some crazy reason you need to go to the town of Gerlach - there is a shuttle that will take you there. Walk to the shuttle station and ride it.

6) "NO ELECTRICITY" - At least, there are no utilities providing electricity. But there is more power out there running more things that you can shake a walking stick at. Everything is portable power generators. And bargaining for power. Our camp exchanged gray water processing for power (more on that later).

7) "NO PHONE SERVICE, NO CELLULAR SERVICE" - You won't be talking to anyone in the outside world while you are at Burning Man. I didn't try it, but I don't even think there is NORMAL RADIO there. This does not mean we are completely incommunicado... Far from it.. Someone set up a small spot where you could beam a message to the universe, perhaps to be picked up by aliens in 40 or 50 thousand years. Oh, and there were 2, count em, 2 radio stations that broadcast to Black Rock City only. And let's not forget the daily paper.. Black Rock City has it's own paper, and our own Steve Iddings was written up in it. There is even a POSTAL SERVICE - It's call PED-EX since all the mail goes by foot or bike. So relax, civilization still exists.. inside the "C". The entire state of California could drop into the Ocean, and you won't find out about it until you leave. Now THAT's a vacation.

8) "NO MONEY" - This is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the whole thing, and the one that most people I've talked to had the hardest time grasping. There are only 2 places where money will do you some good. CENTER CAMP has a stand where you can buy a HOT or COLD drink. This service is provided by Burning Man. I must tell you, the idea of a cold drink with real ice.. a fountain drink.. a diet coke.. in a cup... was one of my fantasies by the time I left, and the first thing I got when I got to civilization (i.e. Civilization being Wendy's - ain't that a sad juxtaposition). Near Center Camp there is CAMP ARCTIC - here you can buy ICE. That's it. Those are the only places money will do you any good.

But they are not the only places where you can "get something".

For example, there were many camps that set up bars. If you wanted a drink at some of them you went up to the bar, and asked for your poison just like a normal bar. But the bit about exchanging bits of paper on receipt of your libation.. that part didn't happen. You drank your drink and enjoyed the company of the people around you.

Maybe you needed a haircut. Again.. no problem. You walked over to Barber Shop Roulette.. spun the wheel, and one of a group of professional hair stylists would give you the haircut that came up on the wheel.. which could be a crew cut or a Mohawk.. it was a gamble, but once you spun the wheel you took the cut that came. But heck.. it was free !!!!

Suppose you needed a hammer to bang down your rebar tent stakes. No problem. Walk over to CAMP HARDWARE and get them to loan you whatever it is you need. If it was not a loan you needed (like you needed rope) you could trade for it.

Or say you needed a slave. Simple. You walk over to the Temple of Atonement during their daily slave auction and bid whatever you had on the slave of your choice. (Now, I can imagine some of you want more information on THAT little tid bit... keep reading!)

It was all as simple as that. Course.. the whole thing only works if people give BACK something in return. Maybe you don't exactly give back to the person who gave you something, but you really did feel the urge to make sure the karmic balance sheets didn't tip off one end of the scale or the other. I'll give some examples of this later...

9) The things people bring to share can be literal things, services, or "experiences" - Okay.. so what could you bring to share.

Things - food, trinkets, light sticks, candy, alcohol, toys... etc.

Services - Massage, Haircuts, Music, Entertainment

Experiences - This is the category that really makes Burning Man different. People come out to "experience" things.. and others come out to "create experiences". Some of the examples are:

ART INSTALLATIONS - Obviously you will find plenty of "ART" in the various camps. There is even a CAMP PICASSO where you can make your own art.. or even a body painting camp where you can BECOME a work of art. But there are also, scattered throughout the desert various art installations, and part of the fun is to try and visit or even FIND all of them. It could be a simple (or stupid) as someone setting up a blue door in the middle of nowhere (yes, I saw people come up to the door and knock before going through) or as utterly amazing as the giant mobile (over 2 stories high) that had these strange turning shapes in the air, and played whale songs all night

ART VEHICLES - Art that moves. The only vehicles that are allowed to drive around Burning Man are the Art Cars. Everyone who wants to drive their art car must first register it with the DMV - Department of Mutant Vehicles. These are a category unto themselves and there is a list later that describes only a FEW of them.

PYROTECHNICS - An Art Car that has FLAME needs a special license and must be inspected by a PYRO specialist to be sure it won't simply BLOW UP! There were several of these and most were MASSIVELY IMPRESSIVE!!!

ENTERTAINERS - There are people at Burning Man who will entertain you. Big among these are the Fire Dancers - people who enjoy dancing with flaming objects on strings or chains or staffs or simply juggling burning objects. Just to give a little perspective... there were 400 fire dancers/jugglers around The Man just before he went up in flames. Fire is a BIG deal out there. Course, lets not forget the Dr. Megavolt - The biggest tesla generator I have ever seen, and a nut case with a metal wand trying to fry his brain.. yeah.. pretty amazing.

ENTERTAINMENTS - Various camps would put on various entertainments. There was plenty of music to dance too. There were films to go see. There was the daily brass pole contest (read strip show) at E-Ville. There were "light shows", Center Camp had a stage and there were frequently singers, drummers or a game of "FLAMING SIMON" being played there. There was Camp New Day where Every day is NEW YEARS DAY - including free champagne, a ball that drops at midnight, small fireworks, a count down clock, noise makers, and Auld Ang Syn every night a midnight. Woo Hoo.. This is just a little of what went on...

AND THE SIMPLY WEIRD - Other things don't fit into the previous categories, and so they end up here - please note - weird is NOT a derogatory term. It simply means that these things were NOT meant to be entertainments.. just things that you could participate in if you wished. Among these I count Barber Shop Roulette, The Temple of Atonement Slave Auction, The COSTCO WHOLESALE SOULMATE OUTLET, and the HUMAN CARCASS WASH.

10) "The PLAYA literally becomes a part of you before you leave" - The Playa is a dry lake bed. Left alone, it sits there unchanging until rained on. At which point it turns into a sticky mud hole, until is dries up again. Left alone, it leaves you alone. But walk on it.. or worse, drive on it, and the fine grained dirt that makes up this ground becomes dust. Playa dust ("fugitive dust" according to the Bureau of Land Management).

I cannot, cannot, cannot describe how all pervasive this dust is. People tried to tell me before I got there. I didn't get it. It is in every bit of food you eat. It is in every drop of water you drink (once you open the bottle). It is in every inhalation of air you take. It's in your clothes, right down to your underwear (if you are wearing any). It's in your hair - even after you've been home several days and taken a shower every day (2 the day you get home). It will be in your camping gear until the end of time. I believe that even now, several weeks later, there is still Playa dust in my hair. I can smell it.

And should the wind come up strong, there happens a condition known as "white out" where everything around fairly quickly disappears. One series of pictures shows this... A storm came up and I stood in one spot shooting picture after picture until it became insane to leave the camera out in the open (It went into a plastic bag). I then paced the visibility distance. 20 paces. You could not see further than 20 paces. And this was a mild storm. I've heard stories of ones that lasted days.

You will notice in many pictures that people are wearing bandannas or dust masks and in some cases goggles. THESE ARE NECESSARY ARTICLES - do not come to Burning Man without SOME means of breathing during a dust storm.

If you look at some of the pictures taken at night you will see "snow". That is dust caught by the flash in front of the camera. YOU ARE BREATHING THAT.

There is a 5 MPH speed limit for any driving on the Playa. This is not for safety. It's to prevent DUST from being kicked up. Anyone driving more than that speed is loudly called every name in the book by every one in every camp they pass until either their brain kicks in, or they leave/park. (NOTE: The only camp where you won't be cursed at is KIDS CAMP - that area is G-Rated, as much as anything at Burning Man can be G-Rated. At KIDS CAMP they just throw things at you.)

If you go to Burning Man expect to get dirty. Clean won't happen till you get home.

11) "...a large effigy of a man is burned..." - Burning Man started on Baker Beach, San Francisco, just two miles from where I'm sitting now. Two guys got together, built a wooden man, and set him on fire. People gathered around and a spontaneous party happened. People like to see things burn. Every year these guys, and a growing group of regulars, would build the effigy of a man, and burn him. Every year the party got bigger and bigger. Now it's what I'm describing here.

Why did they burn that first man? I don't know. There are stories. But I can relate one small story from college. A friend of mine and I got it in our heads one day to have a small sacrifice. He made a wax effigy of a person, we set up a little alter, put some things on it, including the effigy and burned it. Perhaps we are all too civilized to think that this kind of "burnt sacrifice" really means anything. But deep down in the human psyche... it does. Deny it all you will.. it means something to a part of us that we don't much acknowledge anymore. It's why, when you go into any good Chinese or Thai or Indian restaurant you will see an alter with offerings. It's why a majority of people on this earth still practice religions that involve offerings (and I'm including the Catholic sacrament in there).

Why did they burn the man? I don't know. What does it mean today to the people who attend? Probably 30,000 different things.. all pretty much equally legitimate.

There. I think the "little empiricist/engineer" has been satisfied. Now on to the much more disjointed ramblings about Burning Man, and what I did there.....

Pre Burning Man...

My friend Darlene has reminded me about Burning Man every year for several years. This year she had a ticket with my name on it if I wanted it. I hemmed and hawed.. and finally Denise said "oh GO!" And so I did. I was always curious and now I was going to find out what this was all about.

Arriving.....

It took FOREVER to pack everything I wanted to take... but eventually I got on the road in plenty of time to arrive while it was still light. Or so I thought....

When I reached The Playa there was a line of traffic to get into Black Rock City and it was still light out. There is only one entrance where they... a) Make sure you have a ticket b) make sure your car does not contain free-loaders and c) welcome you and make sure you know about POOP and MOOP and how to handle each of them.

If your a newbie you get to ring the giant bell, which of course I did since, right from the get go, Burning Man is about participation. The greeters made sure I knew where I was headed and had the map I needed to get there.

The sun was up when I got into line, but it was dark by the time I drove onto the backside of the "C" and started heading for the camp where Darlene and Steve were. All in all it took about 1.5 hours just to get IN to Burning Man. I knew the address, 210 and 2700, and I had a map. The streets were marked, but the dust and the dark and the lack of any really consistent light made it hard to tell anything at all. Plus all the people and bikes in the road made driving a little strange. I finally just pulled the car over at the approximate location of the camp and started walking around. As chance would have it I didn't have to walk for long.. I was right there. (Let's hear it for my male genetically evolved navigation capabilities and more for my dumb luck!!!) Darlene and I traded hellos, and she helped me get the car to where it was going to sit until I left. Basically, you drive your car to your camp, park it, and leave it there. I put up my tent and socialized for a bit, getting to meet others at the camp.

The camp was right next to the D.M.V. (Dept. of Mutant Vehicles) and the first thing I did was to wander over there to check out some of the, er, things that were driving up for a license. The absolute most impressive thing I saw there, and the only time I saw it the entire time I was there, was the Rickshaw. You know what a rickshaw is.. two people sit in the back and a person pulls it along, only pulling this one there was no person. Just a pair of robot legs. That's right, a lawn mower engine on top of these two legs, bent at the knees, with sneakers on each "foot" that would pull the thing along at a stately 3 miles per hour. Needless to say everyone was really impressed. And you could steer it.

As it walked off, the Octopus drove up. You can see the Octopus in several pictures and one or two of the .MOV files on the CD. It consists of an octopus on top of a car, all 8 legs pointed up in the air. At the end of each leg is a flame thrower. Behind the car is towed a cart with the propane tanks and keyboard that controls the flame throwers. You could play this like an instrument. It wasn't lit yet because it needed a pyro inspection, but let me say I spent plenty of time just watching this thing in the days to come.. it was VERY impressive when lit up.

That night I took my first wander out into Burning Man. Wow. I happened to be passing Camp New Day at about 11:40 when they were really revving up for the coming NEW DAY CELEBRATION. I checked out their "resolution wall".. a giant bulletin board with paper, pencils and pins so that you could write your new day resolution and post it. The guy with the bull horn was hollering about how there was only 15 minutes left, and that every day should be celebrated like New Years Day, and that a NEW DAY resolution was easier to keep since you only had to keep it for ONE DAY !!! Other people were going around in the crowd with trays of plastic champagne glasses filled with (what I thought was) pretty tasty champagne. Needles to say this gathered a crowd pretty quickly, and as midnight got closer the guy with the bull horn got more and more frantic. Others were getting ready to drop the ball which was on a pole about 40 feet up above an outline of the New York City skyline set up in front of their trailer. At one minute to midnight the count down clock started.. and you can guess the rest.

That was an amusing 20 minutes... and to think, someone thought of it.. built it, paid for it, passes out the champagne, lights the fireworks, and tears it all down at the end just so that every midnight they can have a mini party. If that don't make you smile.. maybe Burning Man is not for you.

A tad further on there was a rather large camp with some REALLY LOUD music going. Techno mostly, which I happen to like. I wandered in and found that they had set up and open area with some HUGE speakers next to a stage. Behind the stage was a large geodesic dome that was being psychedelically projected upon by 3 (count em) 3 projectors that all seemed to be in-synch with each other. The music was good, and I imagined the view inside that dome would be quite cool.. so I walked around it until I found an entrance, and sure enough the inside of the dome was pretty wild. People dancing in the center.. the outside ringed with .. call them lounge benches that let you just stare at the walls of the dome and enjoy the show.

I continued on and came across a camp where they were projecting old black and white movies (I didn't recognize the one being played); a rather interesting strobe light wall; a Japanese Themed camp that was really very pretty and provided a nice place to sit and relax for a while, and more people and art cars than you can count.

I finally went back to that loud Techno camp, danced, relaxed, and danced for about an hour and then went back to my little home in the desert to re-learn why it is I hate sleeping on the ground. Fortunately it was not that bad as I had my pad, and a 2nd sleeping bag as a mattress.

Daily Routine

Somewhere between 9 and 10 in the morning it's starting to get too hot to lay in a tent in a sleeping bag. I open my eye's up just barely enough to unzip all the various tent flaps and let in a breeze and continue to snooze until the sounds of people having sex in the next tent (it was specifically set up for that purpose), and the sounds of lively conversation around the corner just become too much to put up with and I crawl out of my tent.

One thing nice about Burning Man is that nudity is pretty common; read frequent. It's nice not having to worry about pulling on clothes while encased in a tiny 1 person tent (It could be a two person tent if every bit of your stuff was left outside). So it was nice to stretch nude and pull on clothes (what clothes you would wear) while vertical. Being diabetic, and already having some nerve damage in my feet, I didn't spend any time barefoot, so I always kept shoes or slippers just outside the tent to step into first thing. I did very little barefoot walking around and didn't even bring sandals as I had heard horror stories about what playa dust could do to your feet.

After a stroll to the porto it was time to scrounge up something to eat. I'm not very hungry in the morning anyway, so some cereal or granola or some such would usually do the trick. I was camping with a group of people who shared food and a communal kitchen. There was always something to eat, and every night there was a dinner hosted by one or the other members of the camp. For being in the desert, everyone in our camp ate really well because everyone contributed more than enough food.

After a little lounging around it was time to take the day hike. Each day hike had a different goal. One day it was the left wing of the "C" and the man. One day it was the right wing of the "C" and the man. One day it was a photo trip to the man and then out further to the Temple of Joy (with a stop to be part of a large aerial photograph). Each days walk would last about 4 hours, getting me back to camp to participate in the Human Carcass Wash.

Our camp ran the Human Carcass Wash. It was one of the few places at Burning man, other than personal showers, where a person could get clean. Here's how it worked.

On the ground there is an artificial grass carpet. On this carpet, lined up, are 3 black tubs. These are the 3 washing stations. The first is the soaping station, where a person stands and is sprayed down with soap. The second is the scrubbing station, where a person stands and is scrubbed down. The third is the rinse cycle where a person stands and is sprayed with clean water and squeegee. People show up and form two lines with 4 people at each station. The people at the soaping station are given bottles of water with soap. The people at the rinse station are given spray bottles with plain water. Then someone steps into the first station, and the fun begins. First that person gets soaped. 4 people with spray bottles; the water is cool and the peppermint soap smells great - the whole thing is doubly good when you consider that the rest of the day you have been wandering around in a totally dusty desert. After the soap is on, that person steps to the next station. After being asked what their boundaries are, the scrubbing begins - 4 pairs of hands on one body. Finally on to the next station where one hand sprays and the other squeegees.

The only way to get clean is to work your way through the line – spending time at each station. It's fun, especially when there are so many people who show up that we need to run two lines, and the waiting line runs down the street. Things get pretty busy, what with filling soap and water bottles, emptying catch trays, supervising and explaining to new comers how it all works. Lots of people show up for the carcass watch!!

There is the occasional "SPECIAL CASE" wash, where someone has painted their entire body in green (or orange, or blue) paint, and has come to the wash to try and get clean. One thing about the body painting at B.M.; if you paint yourself green from head to toe, count on going back to civilization with a green tint. When a special case comes up they get to go through twice, but most times they end up leaving with still a lot of color.

We also ran a special hair wash section for people with long hair.. Basically they would sit in a chair in a kiddy pool while someone else use soap and a spray bottle on them. It looked like a nice experience.

In any case, the Carcass wash would run from 3:00 to 4:30 after which the camp hosted a "Tea Time" with actual Tea. This was usually my time to sit in a chair and snooze in preparation for the night hike, which was always the longer and more interesting of the two daily hikes.

When the sun goes down Burning Man goes wild. Contrary to what you might think out in the desert with no power utility, the place LIGHTS UP and SOUNDS COME from everywhere. At night every camp lights up with whatever they have available. Some of the art installation on the playa also light up, some with lights, some with fire, and some with both. And the art cars... the art cars drive around and REALLY show off what they can do. My night hikes consisted of a wander from interesting place to interesting place looking for amusement and dancing. I love to dance, and at B.M. I got to dance my fill.

Like the day hike, the night hike usually starts with a goal, but meanders wildly, usually ending up in one of two very loud and very crowded dance spots. Unlike the day hike the night hike included chemical enhancements (read Alcohol) that added just that extra bit of "wheeeeeee" to the whole thing. Before starting out I would fill a flask with Jack Daniels, and usually it was pretty much empty by the time I stumbled/danced back to camp. One evening I took a series of time lapse photo's, but have yet to see how they turned out. I also took my camera out and tried to capture some of what was going on. Mostly I danced.. like a maniac for hours on end. I never got back to my camp before 2 am.

Some vignettes from walking at night......

- When you're walking in the desert, between one place and the other, and you're pretty much in the middle of no where, it's very easy to get hit by a bike that is speeding through the darkness. A wise person will keep an ear and an eye out for vehicles of all shapes and sizes. It also pays to wear a little light. When coming to burning man, bring light sticks to hang on your person, your tent, your bike, and any other appendages you want to decorate.

- There are some are installation that only work really well at night. One of these was the shadow wall... where you step in front of the wall, and it lights up where your shadow would be. This was an interesting bit of technology, but if there was no one in front of it, it was dark and hard to find. In trying to figure this out I took a close look at the lights and realized that every single one was a pair of LED's, one of which would light up when the other was blocked from a the view of a receiver several feet away on a pole in the dirt. I don't know exactly what kind of signal was being sent that would be blocked, and cause the other LED to light, but it was just an amazing effect.

Near the Earth Guardian's camp there was a wall set up with several hundred strobe lights on it. I was hopelessly drunk and this was a great display. As I stood there looking at it, this guy walks up to me and offers me a pair of diffraction grating glasses - these have clear lenses that are etched so that light is broken up into prisms. I put these on and the colors blew a hole in the back of my head. It was so incredibly trippy to watch that all I could do was laugh. This guy was handing these out to people who passed by. After a short time he handed me the remaining glasses and told me that now it was my job to pass em out. I had a ball for about 20 minutes handing these to people and watching them react to the lights. Eventually I handed the remaining 5 or 6 to someone else and I wandered on. There is a .MOV file with this on it labeled P8300012.MOV

- At one point, while walking along, I saw this cube, glowing kind of red, with people gathered around it, and the most amazing sounds coming from it. I wandered over to check this out and found that the cube was about 8 feet on a side made from 2 x 4's. In the center was a box that was emitting these great noises.. just magical sounding. From the top of each side of the cube there were lasers that shown down to the bottom of that side of the cube, and each time you broke the beam a sound would come from the center cube. The lasers were not arranged in scales, so it was kind of hard to determine exactly which sound you were controlling, and everyone was doing this at the same time. Geek that I am, I was standing there concentrating on one beam until I could figure out what sound it was controlling. While I'm fixated on this, this other hand reaches in and starts playing with the beams near me. It gets closer and closer and finally starts pushing my hand aside. I'm thinking, "What Gives?", and when I turn around it's Darlene who has recognized me by the glow sticks hanging from the back of my CamelBack. This was worth a laugh, especially being caught in a moment of complete geek/engineer thrall.

You have to wonder at the coincidence though.. 30,000 people... several square miles of desert... pitch dark... and we run into each other at the same place. It would be a lot less strange if that kind of thing didn't keep happening to me. More on that later..

- The moon tended to come up late around midnight, and the view of it next to the man (who was lit in blue neon) was awesome. I tried to get it in a picture, but it just would not come out.

- The man was at the center of the "C" and around the man was a circle of light. These were lamps, like something you might use on a street to light if the lines of the road, put in the dirt about 40 yards out from the man. These would light up in a pattern like a movie marquee that would cause light worms to chase each other around and around the circle. Sometimes they were long, and sometimes they were short, and sometimes they moved slow, and sometimes they moved fast. It was all pretty random (and I stood there for a while looking for a pattern). You might be able to detect this in some of the pictures of the man. I later got to see the controller for this, when I went into the man, but that story is later.

- One of the places I enjoyed while wandering around was a camp called Playa-Go-Round. This group of people had set up a really large tent and furnished it with carpets and couches. (Carpets and Couches in the middle of the desert – did I mention that Burning Man is surreal?) In the center was a fur and pillow covered platform that spun like one of those kiddy go-rounds you see in parks everywhere. It was a nice place to take a break, day or night, and people would always come and go, and sometimes ride the spinner.

- Another place that was really nice to relax was this very beautiful camp done up like a Buddhist temple. At night it was light in reds and white, and consisted of gentle music, incense, and mats that you could sit or lay on for those needing a break from things.

Exactly how much can a person drink?

Okay, I may as well tell this tale because I still can't quite believe it myself. Those of you who know me will understand why I thought it interesting to write, since you will know that I hardly ever drink. Period. I don't mean that I hardly ever get drunk. I just hardly ever drink. I will get drink to the point where I can feel it maybe 5 times in a year, and of those I ONLY get blitzed maybe once a year. That's pretty much my limit. I like life sober, but I liked burning man with the edges fuzzy. On this particular night I went WAY beyond fuzzy edges... and way beyond anywhere I've gone before.. So, here it is.

One night I had gone on my evening walk, and at the end of it I had completely consumed my evening allotment of whiskey, and was pretty freaking toasted. I stumbled my way back to camp, where I met Steve, who seemed to get endless amusement at my mostly successful attempts to stay vertical. But on this particular night, I was not in the mood to go climbing into my tent just as yet. So having wandered in around 1:30 am, and providing Steve, and apparently others who saw me, though I never saw them, with a chuckle I stumbled back out into the night looking for amusement.

Most of my walks were around the inside circle of the "C", so this time I wandered inward, toward E-ville (the camp next door). And after some time came to a circle of light in the ground similar to the one around the man, only much smaller and in color. This provided some nice entertainment as, by now, it felt like the lights were sitting still, and I was spinning. Turning left, I noticed a sign with a rabbit on it. I can't even begin to remember what the sign said - I believe it was a quote from Alice in Wonderland - but it twisted my mind enough to wander to the next sign.. and the next.. and the next, until I wandered into a large tent with, lo and behold, and saints be praised, a BAR set up in the middle.

Being mindful of my diabetes (yeah RIGHT), I asked the guy for something with no sugar in it. He and the other guy looked at each other and said, almost in unison, "Vodka Tonic", and proceeded to mix me one. Mix being perhaps the wrong word as, upon tasting it, I could detect NO significant levels of tonic for there to be any mixing with. C'est la vie and wheeeeeee!!!!

So I stood there for a minute, and watched these two guys. One was trying to teach the other how to do fire dancing. Obviously when learning how to fire dance you don't START with juggling FIRE. This guy was trying to use two light sticks on strings, and was not having a good go of it. After watching for a while I suggested that maybe he needed something with more "heft" to it; more mass would make it easier to control. At that point the "master" took the light sticks and started to dance with them... and he was incredible. His point made, I offered no more advice as to how to teach fire dancing, and, being about as dizzy as one can get and still remember there is a vertical axis I sat down.

Which is when I saw the drum sitting there. "A DRUM!!", I exclaimed. Now, let me say, that at this point, the people here (numbering about 6 with various drifters in and out) were, I believe, as much amused by me as I was by myself. I laugh a lot when I get really really drunk, and I was endlessly chuckling to myself now. Someone sat next to me (the owner of the drum, I later found out) and told me to go ahead. And so I did. He too picked up a drum, and a minute later, another guy joined us on a set of conga's, and for the next hour we just did went at it while the "master" juggled various things that could substitute for fire. (Probably a good thing as I was getting more and more flammable every time there was a pause in the drumming... I lost count of Vodka's - screw the tonic.) Thing is, while I was drumming, I was sober... I had something simple to concentrate on, and keeping up with a rhythm and variations on theme required concentration. And the second I would stop everything else began to spin again. This was all good fun for all concerned.

At one point I stood up and declared I wanted to perform an experiment in walking. The experiment was a failure. I literally could no longer walk. BUT, if I kept a rhythm going in my head, I could DANCE. So I proceeded to dance back to my camp. Once again, Steve was up doing his thing (see later section on Water Reclamation), or at least I think he was there... details were getting pretty foggy now. I believe he, or someone helped me get into my car, where I had this bottle of Midori that I was not going to be using. I grabbed that, and proceeded to dance back to the drum place. Donated my bottle, got another drink, and drummed some more.

I am clueless as to when I actually left. I have never been so drunk in all my life. And it was GREAT!!! I do remember crawling into my tent and not having enough energy to remove anything in the way of clothing, but waking up now and then to remove this or that bothersome article until, as usual I ended up naked.

The next day, last day, I went back in the evening to thank those guys, but the camp had already been broken and was gone. If I ever go back I'll be looking for Alice In Wonder Lounge camp again.

Water Reclamation

Water at Burning Man. You need to bring it with you, and if it's dirty, you can't leave it there, so you have to take it with you too. Unless you can clean it somehow. This is where Steve Iddings RULES Burning Man.

I don't know how long he has been at this, but he has water reclamation down to a science, literally. His system consisted of everything the big boys had, only made with materials you would find around you. Settling ponds, he has em. Filter systems, he has em. Chemical treatment, he ... er.. has it. Last year the Earth Guardians (these are people who make sure things are done in an ecologically sound way) came by and saw Steve's set up. They awarded him tickets to Burning Man this year for his efforts.

Now, I'm not going to pretend I completely understand all the steps in the process. However I can say that... In the settling pond, gray water (this is any water that was used for any purpose, like the Human Carcass Wash, or camp water for cleaning dishes) is allowed to sit and have the playa dust settle to the bottom of the pond. Next, I think the water is pumped through the filter system; which consists of soda bottles, glued together, so they form a long pipe with chambers filled with filter material. The filter material consists of various kinds of cloth and nylons, each catching different size particles. Then there is the chemical treatment pond, where oils and such are broken down by the action of chlorine. Course, the chlorine needs some kind of acid to activate it. Acid is freely available.... just piss in the pool and chemistry goes to work.

All of this took A LOT of work, and Steve, like me, tended to be nocturnal, so frequently when I came stumbling back blitzed, there was Steve, setting up filters, or organizing plumbing, and making sure I didn't take a tumble into any of the ponds he had set up (even if they were kiddy pools with pictures of Ariel the Mermaid on them.. or whatever).

Steve's work was written up in the Black Rock Gazette, and was again visited by the Earth Guardians. He had it working so well that he could take donations of gray water from other camps. (Course, this required electricity to run the pumps, so he got to use power from Women’s Camp next door, in exchange for taking all their gray water… see how that works.) There was also some gloating over the fact that the guys from Stanford could not get their system to work due to playa dust in the works. You don't come to B.M. and not take playa dust into account... Steve chuckled about that for quite some time!!!

There are plenty of pictures of Steve's water reclamation area on the CD, including the last day when the filtered water was dumped on the playa creating Lake Iddings - the shortest lasting lake in natural history. I would imagine, given how hot it was that day, Lake Iddings was mostly gone in about 4 hours.

If you want to read all about how this process works in Steve's own words.. then go HERE.

Going into the Man

Before going to B.M. I had read that there was gold in them thar hills. That is, that there were gold doubloons that one might find that could be used to gain entry inside The Man. What does that mean? The MAN stands on top of a 2.5 story round tower, the inside of which is NOT open to the public. The only way to gain entry is to find or be given either a gold Dublin OR to earn 5 colored beads by doing various (not easy) tasks at certain designated camps.

I had made up my mind that I was not going to spend time looking for one of these items, and I figured the inside of the Man would have to remain a mystery. So you can imagine my surprise when Greg called me aside one day and gave me a doubloon for my work on the Human Carcass Wash. I was stunned.

This was going to be the last night that anyone would be admitted. So I walked out to the Man and got into the line of people waiting to get in. They were admitting people in groups of 5. Since I was a single, I got to move up and join a group entering.

Now, there's really not much to tell about the inside of the Man. It's a round wooden building; lots of 2x4 lumber, and very steep stairs that you can climb up until you get to the observation level, right under the Man himself. From there you get a great view of the Playa and all of Black Rock City, and the decorations that grace the top of the dome under the man. If you are paying attention you can see the panel that is controlling the lights in the circle around the man.

But the thing that made it worthwhile going in for me was 2 plaques on the walls. The first was a list of names of people who had been an important part of Burning Man in the past, and who had passed on. Gone, but not forgotten. The second was a folded American Flag covered with a triangle shaped plaque and dedicated to the memory of the Police and Firefighters who lost their lives on September 11th, 2001. From inside the man you got to see the view looking straight up under them man. While in there one of the escorts took a group photo of us with my camera. Looking at this again you can tell how casual dress was, how the dust got everywhere, and how friendly people could get there in almost no time.

After visiting the Man I spent nearly an hour talking to this couple I met while inside. They came from Marin, and understood how hard house hunting was in that area. I agreed to send them photo's after we all got back to civilization.

It still amazes me that I got to actually go inside The Man, when only a small percentage of people there got to do it, and that I was not looking for the experience. Part of the magic I guess. Thanks, Greg!!!!

Coincidences

Black Rock City is bigger than some towns I’ve been to in the United States. To give an example, it’s bigger than the adult population of Beverly Hills, CA; bigger than total population of Newark, Delaware (by over a 1,000); bigger than Key West, Florida.

And yet, I kept running into people unexpectedly. Thrice while wandering around I ran into one of the other people I was camping with.. The 3rd time I accused her of stalking.

But the most amazing coincidence was when I met Darlene for a photo session on the Playa in front of The Man. We did our thing, and then lined up, along with 3,000 other people, to create the shape of The Man using our bodies so that an aerial photo could be taken (You can see the outline of the man in this picture taken by a sky diver - that outline is made up of about 2,000 people who all lined up to make it. I'm standing in the left arm pit!!!") . Now, Darlene had mentioned that this other woman, Rachel, who I had met at a dinner the previous year, was supposed to come to Burning Man, but that so far she had not heard from her. She also mentioned in passing that Rachel had cut off all her hair so that I probably would not recognize her even if I saw her. Anyway, we stood around for about half an hour to participate in the aerial photo of the man, which ended up with everyone running off into the desert to simulate burning the man. I assume someone was filming this from the air but have not been able to find this on the net.

Darlene and I parted company, her to ride back to camp, and me to walk to the Temple of Joy. Not 1 minute later, I hear this woman in a wheel chair ask, "What is that out there?"; pointing at the Temple of Joy. She is with another man, and a woman with no hair. I tell them that it’s the Temple of Joy, and that I’m about to walk out there, so we all start to walk together. We are talking about the Temple, and the story behind it, when the woman with no hair says it looks like I’m starting to get burned and would I like some sun screen. (Oh, by this time I’m down to my day uniform which ended up being a wide brimmed hat, Hiking boots, a sarong, and my CamelBack.. just so ya know) I say thanks, and sure. I slip off the CamelBack, and she sees the Poly Symbol that I have henna’d on my back. I had this done the week before in Rehoboth, Delaware, so my family will know what I’m talking about. It is the symbol for my camp, and this woman recognized it. It went something like this…

"Oh, are you a poly person."

"Yeah."

"Do you know where Poly Paradise Camp is?"

"That’s where I’m camped!"

"Do you know Darlene and Steve?"

This is where the facts started to come together for me. I squinted at her and said, "Rachel?"

She got that look that someone naturally gets when some stranger suddenly calls you by name, and I knew I was right.

"It’s me. Bill. We met in L.A. last year. I wrote that e-mail to you last week about coming here. I just left Darlene not 1 minute before running into you!!!!"

And that was the strangest coincidence of burning man. It probably would not have dawned on either of us; the subject probably would not have come up; without that "tattoo" on my back. Ya gotta love that kind of serendipity.

Burning The Man

I realize I haven't actually described the man himself as yet. Okay.. let me fix that. Basically the "MAN" consists of a large wooden pedestal approximately 3 stories high. This pedestal has 2 outer levels that you can climb on to get a slightly higher than ground level view of the surroundings. Above the second level is a 3rd level that can only be reached from the inside - and you only get inside if you fulfill the criteria (see above). The whole pedestal is painted white. The man himself is about 60 feet tall, and is mounted on top of the pedestal facing south (or north since he's symmetrical). He's made up of a wood lattice structure and is covered in blue neon. He stands with his arms to his side, until the night of the burn at which point he raises his arms. His head is sort of triangularly shaped.. it's an effigy, not a sculpture - but it's a pretty impressive bit of art all the same. The best sunset picture of the man I've seen is here.

Saturday night was the night of the burn. It takes place at 9:00, but that's playa time, which means it happens when it happens. Everyone goes to the burn. Everyone gets "dressed" for the burn (meaning more light sticks, more fancy/kinky/outlandish clothes, more or everything). Most of the art cars are parked around the circle where the people will gather. During the day, platforms were built on the points (and midpoints) of the compass around the man. People gather early to try and get a "good" spot. I did pretty well, considering I was almost at the front of the crowd, and up-wind of the man (important when you think about the smoke that is going to happen).

The first thing to happen was the parade of fire breathing art cars. The octopus was there, along with nearly 20 other vehicles that slowly drove around the man belching fire and explosions. I still can't see how some of these are even drivable considering the temperatures the drivers have to put up with. These are really amazing.

Following the cars where 400 fire dancers. These people spread out around the man and put on a show like none you will ever see anywhere else. Some juggled fire on chains, dancing and twirling these at speeds that make you wonder how they keep track. Some worked with "batons", sticks of various lengths that had flaming ends. Some juggled fire. And the most amazing dancers were on the platforms mentioned earlier; these people had to be professionals, working in pairs and doing very well choreographed routines. And one guy who deserves special mention was the man who built a hat that looked like a charcoal barbecue on his head. This thing would emit flames 3 feet in the air, not 6 inches from the top of his head, and he would dance around like a maniac. Crazy. This lasted about 20 minutes or so.. I honestly lost track of time.

As the dancing wore down, you could hear the mob start calling for the burn.

People started yelling, "BURN HIM.... BURN THE MAN!!!" It was fun to be part of the mob psychology and just yell for the man to go down. And then the fireworks started going off. They had been mounted all around the man, and on the platforms that made up the pedestal the man stood on. The fireworks show was great. At some point the man had raised his arms.. I cannot recall when, and he stood there with fireworks going on all around him, the blue neon looking amazing even if one arm had gone out.

As the fireworks reached a conclusion you saw a fire in the basement of the pedestal structure. The crowd is yelling like crazy and the fire is growing in the building. I've never stood near a large object burning before and I was surprised at how far out the heat could reach. It was just spectacular to watch this thing burn. The pictures pretty much tell the story or how big and beautiful the whole thing was. In this picture you can see the man just before he topples. In the next picture I captured the man just before he hit the ground; as you can see, once the man topples the crowd surges forward; everyone wanting to get as close as possible to this huge bonfire (what I love about this picture is the guy in the foreground captured running toward the flame in the EXACT pose the MAN himself was in just a few seconds earlier... serendipity). It's like nothing I've every experienced before.

I wandered the desert after that, danced, and eventually came back to the place where the man stood. There was nothing but a large circle of glowing embers now. People were laying naked around it. I think some people were trying some fire walking. It was a really strange scene.

The next day, there was just ash. People were picking through it looking for .. well, I don't know what they were looking for. Something to take home from the Man I guess.

Burning the Temple of Joy

The next day we burned the Temple of Joy. I haven't tried to describe the Temple of Joy yet because it's a little hard to describe. Picture a pagoda, approximately 3 stories high at it's peak. The walls of this pagoda look like lace because they are made out of wood that has had shapes cut out of it, and is really no longer solid. The pagoda is actually an archway, and you can walk into it (the arch hallway being aligned perfectly NORTH/SOUTH - you know that because at night the north pointing laser beam from the Man shines right through the Temple of Joy and onward into the desert). In the very middle is a giant, intricately made hanging chandelier of wood. Under this is sort of an alter with wooden blocks, each of which has a message on it. At either end of the arch/hallway there is a pile of wooden blocks. People take these and write messages on them and then either leave them at the alter, or push them through the holes in the walls. You can see that the walls are filling up with thousands of wood blocks, all with personal messages on them. People are also writing on the walls, both inside and out. The whole thing is slowly becoming a massive memorial that means something to every single person who visits and leaves their own personal message behind.

The outside of the temple is the same as the inside, with lace walls, and wood "lanterns" hanging under the eaves. The lace effect is because the wood used to sheath the walls of the building came from a company that makes wooden puzzles of dinosaurs and such. They cut out the shapes, and then the wood it useless to them. Burning Man took that waste and made something truly beautiful from it. The walls are covered with "sheaves of wheat" made from curved strips of plywood. You have to look at the photo's to understand that. The level of detail and intricacy in this building was utterly amazing. No one to whom I've shown the pictures can believe that someone would make this... only to burn it after a week.

Burning the Temple is very different than burning the Man. Like the night before, nearly everyone came out to the temple, but the crowd is subdued. No one is really that anxious to see something that beautiful and that personally meaningful burn. There was no parade, no fire dancers, no entertainments. When the time came, someone sang AMAZING GRACE, and then set fire to the smaller building that stood in front of the temple. The crowd was pretty hushed as we watched these same people walk into the temple. The glow from the inside told us that the fire was started.

The building burned magnificently!! The heat was even more intense than at the man. The flames reached an incredible height (this picture shows the original building superimposed on the flames.. just to give some perspective on how high the flames got!!!) The crowd was quiet until "fire tornadoes" started to appear. These brought "ohs, ahhh's, and look-at-that's". The flames must have reach as high at 10 stories. The heat was even more intense that that from the Man, and the building burned much faster. It was spectacular. And again, when the building collapsed much of the crowd rushed in.. the Rangers couldn't hold them back any longer. I'd say the whole thing was pretty magical.

This was the last night on the playa.. the last night for this years Burning Man. The next day would be spent breaking down, packing up, and cleaning up.

Other Burning Man Stories/Anecdotes

"Repeat after me. Think. Don't do stupid shit. Don't do anything that will get us in trouble. Congratulations you are now a deputy postman. See that this letter gets delivered."

Toys for Tits - where they have everything to make your own pastes.

Thunder Dome - Yes... just like the Mel Gibson movie of the same name, someone(s) had set up a large dome where in people could battle for the approval of the ravenous crowd. Just like in the movie, the "viewers" could climb the dome and watch the proceedings from all angles. They had a set of rules posted outside... most of which I can't recall, but the one that sticks was "NO BITCHING!!!". When not in use for battles, Thunder Dome made a nice place to climb and sun.

The COSTCO SOULMATE TRADING OUTLET where you could fill out a form, submit to a short interview, and then come back the next day and receive the address of your soulmate. This was provided by their handy computer matching system from all the other applications received. Course, having the address of someone in Black Rock City doesn't really make it that much easier to find the person. It only tells you that they are likely to show up in that area sometime within any given 24 hour period. The search was half the fun.

E-Ville had a daily BRASS POLE contest and hosted Camp Lingerie where the women dressed appropriately (and the men too). The greatest thing about E-ville what this giant pyramid they set up. It consisted of a radio tower about 10 stories high and green Christmas lights that went from the top to the 4 points of the compass. You could see it from anywhere in Black Rock City, and it really helped guide me home as I was camped right near there. The COOLEST thing about the pyramid was that.. if a group of people gathered at the base of the radio tower and began to scream.. a microphone would pick up the sound and send a red Christmas light "beam" to the top of the pyramid. If the screaming was loud enough it would set off a flame thrower at the top. It was like one of those strength tests at a carnival with the hammer, weight and bell, only this one was sound a fire.

The Temple of Atonement Slave Auction

Okay, here’s the one some of you have been waiting for. The Temple of Atonement is run by a B/D S/M group. If you don’t know what that means, it’s not important. Every day around noon they ran the slave auction. People would come to the temple, and offer themselves as slaves. Each slave would provide a service of some sort. The Auctioneer, dressed as a pirate on the day I attended, which seemed appropriate would introduce the slave, ask what the slave was offering, and start the bidding. For example… The auctioneer calls out for Aaron. Aaron gets up on stage. "What are you offering?" "4 hours of labor and a 1 hour massage." "Okay.. what do I get for this fine specimen!"

Sometimes the auctioneer would ask the slave for clarification of services – "is that a professional massage?" "do you do housework nude?" "Really!!?? No Limits!!!???" It was all done in good fun, and was amazingly entertaining.

Now, since money is no good in Black Rock City the things that were bid were "trade goods". Liqueur, Light sticks, Other services, EL wire (one of the primary types of decorative lighting), etc. The auctioneer was the final arbiter of what constituted a winning bid. All the payments went to the Temple of Atonement, and, I assume, were consumed by them during their nightly parties.

The number of female vs. male slaves was about equal. Some of these people were obvious "subs" looking for a new master for the day. The most outrageous male slave was a guy who… well.. um… he’s hard to describe. First, he was wearing nothing but rope; that is to say he was tied up rather decoratively, including his.. well.. his.. um.. personal effects. He really sold himself to the crowd.. his service was to be an unlimited personal slave for one day; unlimited means sex is included, should it be desired. And he was obviously bi so the sex of the bidder didn’t matter to him. His auction was a hoot to watch.

But the one that blew everyone away was the petite young lady who got up on the platform and said that she would brush teeth while making a pantomime of brushing teeth. Everyone thought this was a riot. People called out "Just up and down or back and forth too!!!", and the auctioneer was laughing his head off because she seemed so serious. After he got control of himself he put the mike up to her and said asked her if there was anything else.

"Yes. My virginity."

OH MY GOD… the bidding went absolutely nuts. Someone offered 400 feet of EL wire – installed; Someone else offered several bottle of Makers Mark.

The auctioneer was having a real hard time deciding what the winning bid is (400 feet of EL wire ain’t cheap, and installed.. wow). He kept turning to other people in the temple group and getting opinions from them. The winning bid, however was really unusual. Another VIRGIN. Apparently, later that night, at the Temple of Atonement, two virgins – male and female – were introduced and de-virginized each other while temple members… er watched. I’m sure it was one of those once in a life time experiences for all concerned.

Yes, the slave auctions where something to really really enjoy.

Art On The Playa

I've mentioned some of the art I saw, but I thought I'd make a list here just to name a few of the things I saw and liked.

Vehicles

The number of art cars at Burning Man must have been in the 100’s. I’ll mention a few that I saw…..

The End of Burning Man

The Monday after the Temple Burn is the last day. Everyone is encouraged to leave this day. The DPW stays behind to dismantle the B.M. infrastructure and to police the desert for MOOP. This day is hard because as the day wears on, there are fewer and fewer shade structures to seek refuge under. Eventually you end up putting a chair on the shady side of a van and pouring the remaining water on yourself to stay cool. This particular day was pretty hot. For me, I could do about 10 minutes of work to 20 minutes of rest. And given that my feet were just about to give out, it was a tough tough day.

On this final day, everyone makes use of the community burn sites. These are set up around the inside perimeter of the "C" to provide a platform for burning anything anyone wants burned. You cannot set fires on the playa because that would leave a scar. The burn platforms consist of raised metal platforms that are not resting on the desert, but on cinder blocks. The heat from these is really intense, and it hard to get close enough to even throw anything in sometimes.

I stayed long enough to watch Steve release the treated gray water back onto the playa, and then, completely unable to walk I started the drive home.

I LOVED my experience at Burning Man. I hope to go back.