I felt an overwhelming sadness on that last day. It may have had something to do with the hangover we all experienced from the night before, but I don't think I was alone in my feelings. The burning of the temple, a somber experience and symbol of mourning that will be covered in another post, was scheduled for that night, further validating the feelings I think many shared on that day. When we first arrived at Burning Man, a large "Welcome Home" flag greeted us, and after learning all the streets and the locations of the camps, and getting to know our neighbors, I began to feel very comfortable in my place at Burning Man. In many ways, it did feel like I was leaving home.
Back in San Francisco, I went to a raw vegan restaurant filled with burners called Café Gratitude. There was a couple by the names of Damien and Io sitting across from me cuddled in each other's arms, talking, kissing, smiling widely, and completely enveloped in each other's presence. It turns out that they had met only 4 days ago at Burning Man, and they were passionately in love with each other and ready to move in together. Io, a beautiful woman with dreadlocks who burned for the first time this year, said that she was waiting for Burning Man to change her life as many said it would. The days went by with nothing profound happening until she met the love of her life, and now she can't stop smiling. Coincidentally, the guy, a 12th-year burner, camped just 2 blocks away from our camp in a dome I passed by every day. Their combined energy was truly uplifting. By the end of my three course meal, not only was I abundant, sensational, and lovely, and I was now nearly ecstatic.
As if that wasn't enough, just as I left the bathroom, I witnessed the most random act. The entire restaurant grew silent as everyone's attention focused on a gray-haired man who started yodeling at the back of the restaurant. When he finished - the audience still completely silent and highly focused - he shouted, "Burning Man!" and everyone cheered.
The best thing I can compare Burning Man to at this point is the virtual reality world Second Life, except for the fact that one is real and the other is not - which is also debatable. In both settings, just about all of the content is created by the members of the community rather than a centralized provider. In Second Life, only your imagination is the limit of what you can build using the 3D graphic tools provided by the program whereas Burning Man participants are similarly encouraged to express themselves through costumes, camps, mutant vehicles, and other works of art.
Getting Around
At Burning Man, one cannot drive vehicles unless they are approved as mutant vehicles. That is, they must add to the artistic environment and must not exceed 5 mph (to minimize dust). Other modes of transportation aside from walking that are allowed include bikes, scooters, and other things that you may not think of, like surf boards (I did sight one). Mutant vehicles and other modes of transportation will be covered in more detail in another post.
Land Distribution
In Second Life, densely populated areas are separated by vast expanses of unsettled land. A similar situation exists in Burning Man when you compare the camp area to the deep playa. When walking amongst the camps, you can discover one after another after another in quick succession. Anything from dance clubs to lounge areas to showers to drinks to chips and salsa to sunscreen massages to advice stands and many many many more . . . whatever the imagination can conjure you will likely find at a camp. In the deep playa, anything that the imagination can produce is probably there. The deep playa will be covered in more detail in another post.
Things to Do
One gets the feeling of wandering through Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory as one journeys through the various establishments set up throughout the playa. Whatever you want is available. Whatever you need will likely be supplied. Everyone brings what they need to survive, so the kind of environment that is produced is not one of codependency but of "gifting" . . . giving simply from the overflow of creative expression and the enthusiastic desire to share what one has produced. One woman I spoke to at the sunscreen camp described it well. Having not much more to gift other than an application of sunscreen, she was very willing and eager to do it. "It all comes back to you," she said as she told me about how she lost a shoe on her way to Burning Man and managed to acquire another pair from someone at Burning Man.
There is always something to do and somewhere to go. Black Rock City is the city that never sleeps with so much bustle of activity that it puts New York City to shame. So many people are out and about at all times and open to being with other people. You can literally walk up to anything or anybody, and you will be welcomed to a friendly, unique experience; there are so many diverse types of personalities that you can find exactly the group you want to be with. There's always something happening on the schedule of activities at all hours of the day and night, and many many more not on the schedule. The nightlife will be covered in more detail in another post.
Financial Considerations
The financial aspects of both Second Life and Burning Man can challenge the boundaries of reality. In Second Life, money is used within the virtual world for anything one may pay for in their normal day to day lives. One can get a virtual job and buy virtual clothes or virtual furniture. The interesting part is that you can exchange your Second Life dollars for real money via an online currency exchange. One can actually make a living through the virtual world. Despite all the money exchange, there are still a ton of things available to do that cost absolutely nothing. In Black Rock City, all community-created activities or goods are available for free because there is no exchange of money. There's no need to pay people to do what you need them to do because people are happy to do it, and there's no need to buy things that you need because people are happy to give it. For a week, one can glimpse a utopian society without having to think about all the funding that goes on behind the scenes. It may not be the way our monetary society functions, but there are existing communities all over the United States and the world that are modeled after a similar structure. Though it's not a reality for everyone, it is not impossible.
After the premature torching of the Burning Man icon, there were a few days of just an empty spot where the man should have been located atop the green tent. The tent was still open, and people were able to explore the various exhibits on earth-friendliness, but finally the Man went back up on Thursday. For a time, the head still hadn't been attached, and before they were able to complete the Man, our festival was greeted by the first strong wind storm. Our camp nearly came completely apart, and we were forced to re-secure the rebar in the middle of the white out. Everything was completely covered in dusty sand. There was no place the sand could not get; it was inside our tents, on the furniture, the food, everywhere. We camped out in the truck for a little, and I decided to leave when a group of people started smoking.
Amazingly, the playa was still teaming with life. People rode their bikes and walked around as if there was no storm at all. There were times when I couldn't see more than a few feet or so in front of me, and some people decided
to walk their bikes instead of ride them. Much of the time, I didn't have to pedal at all because the strong winds pushed me along my path. I finally arrived to The Deep End club, which plays house music, and it was more crowded than ever. Everyone was wearing goggles and dust masks, and the party continued! I joined them and danced the storm away.
Anyway, back to the Man. Some pieces were reused from the old Man, but much of it was completely new. The unusual cloud cover today shaded the way for the rebuilders, and there were rumors of impending rain. Like the phoenix rising from the ashes, its return is a symbol of the self-renewal that many people experience when they come to Burning Man. Today, Friday, the head has finally been afixed to the Man, and it's construction is complete for the scheduled burning tomorrow night.
Last night, or this morning depending on how you look at it, the big wooden man that is the centerpiece of Burning Man mysteriously caught fire. Burning Man gets its namesake from the burning of this large man, but that's not supposed to happen until the end of the festival, as a climactic ending/closer of the week-long event. This year, no one seems sure how it prematurely caught fire.
Some friends and I were hopping along from camp to camp exploring what was available, and forcing ourselves to stay awake to see the lunar eclipse, which was scheduled to occur around 2-4 AM. It was almost fully eclipsed by the time we left the skating ring when we sighted a large flame at the location of the Man. Seeing that the man was likely burning, we charged forth with our lights, running to the Man, surrounded by others racing for the same destination on foot, bike, mutant vehicle, dinosaur, cat, or whatever they had available as transportation.
We arrived and watched as the Man enveloped in flames at the exact moment of the lunar eclipse. The sky was dark, the stars emerged, and the big flame before us was the brightest thing around. Large flame balls tumbled from the rapidly crumbling structure down the tent's side and were quickly extinguished by the men below who somehow were able to spray water. The relatively small crowd that witnessed this unexplainable mistake roared in enthusiasm. Eventually a big fire truck pulled up with enough power to launch a massive stream of water, and after some misfire, the fire was finally eliminated.
Today, mumblings of the premature burn abound. There's not too much to say, really, because the party will go on despite the near-total destruction of the symbol of the community Burners will continue on!
As we drove through the beautiful rocky desert of the southwest, my sinus congestion began to clear up, and dry throat and eyes replaced it. Even so, it's hard not to appreciate the magnificent landscape. It was my first time driving through this part of the country, and I felt like I was in a cowboy movie set in the Wild West. Indeed many cowboy movies are set in this area. Despite being in the desert, there was a fair amount of vegetation and many farms. However, when we get to Black Rock desert, the home of Burning Man, there will be absolutely no indigenous life. Just us and the playa.
After we took the I-40 into New Mexico and settled outside of Gallup for the night, we took the Devil's Highway up into Colorado, so named because its highway number is 666. It was renamed to Highway 491 four years ago less for superstitious reasons and more because people would steal the signs, but much of the area still retains an aura of death. Some craggy little roads that meandered off the highway gave the feeling of death from dehydration and isolation and vultures picking at the remains, and the very long stretches of highway with no gas station, exit, or civilization of any sort reinforced that feeling. The sign that pointed the way to "Deeth - Starr" topped it all off. We were going to stop in Mesa Verde as we drove through the smaller highways of the Painted Desert in the lower corner of Colorado, but the cities were so small that we literally passed right through them before we realized that we were in a city.
In Sparks, Nevada, right outside Reno, we checked into the Silver Club Hotel-Casino. This was the land of casinos. Even the gas stations had slot machines! Sam, the experienced poker player that he is (at least compared to me), joined the poker table, and I wondered around the casino a bit. The slot machines were mostly populated with middle-aged women smoking cigarettes while the poker table was a crowd of almost all men.
On to San Francisco…
The next day we set out on the I-80 toward San Francisco. The hot, dry desert behind us, we felt the invigorating burst of cool, moist air emanating from the bay area. This will be my first time in San Francisco, and I've been looking forward to it. They say San Francisco has a much more relaxed pace compared with our starting location of New York even though both are well-populated urban areas. Just feeling the wonderful weather was enough to relax me, and I began a feel an all-encompassing contentment. Here we will spend the last few days of our preparations before we set course for the little circle of isolated community deep in the desert.
Over the next few weeks, Special Correspondent Kirk Kahn will be bringing you updates from the annual party/social-experiment known as Burning Man.
Before I begin, let me make the disclaimer that these are my own personal theories, and they don’t necessarily reflect the views of official Burning Man philosophy or anyone else on the LimeWire Music Blog for that matter. I came up with the following ideas based on my own experience and what I’ve heard/read/sensed of Burning Man, and my imminent experience will either support them or not.
One of the primary experiences one is likely to have at Burning Man is a re-evaluation of one's values. This can be seen on both the personal and collective levels as well as on an inner level.
Beauty
One very big element of Burning Man that serves as the "glue" binding the experience together into a unified theme is the art. Many attendees of Burning Man spend much of the year putting elaborate artistic projects together to display out on the Playa. At the end of the week, they burn them. A huge investment in time and energy gone in an instant. Why would someone willingly destroy their own artwork? The "leave no trace" rule may be one answer, but on another level I believe the answer lies in the inherent value of art.
The saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is a reflection of personal, subjective values that can only be measured by the yardstick of one's unique tastes and preferences. The creation of art is not just an act of self-expression, it's a way to continually discover and renew the self. One of the primary philosophies of Burning Man is immediacy – having a direct experience of life without the normal filters we place between us and the experience, and eliminating all the other "mind clog" that prevents us from being in the present moment. Real art that is truly an act of self-renewal requires this. By trying to maintain an identity formed in the past or thinking about how others will judge it in the future, we remove ourselves from the present moment, prevent the possibility of having an original experience, and block the flow of inspiration that is the wellspring of creativity. Burning the art then is a symbol of not holding onto the past and allowing the present moment to be self-renewing and self-transforming.
Money
The other aspect of value is not on the personal level but rather on the collective level. While beauty doesn't require an objective standard of measurement, some things do in order to have usefulness in our culture. The common yardstick of objective value is money, and at Burning Man there is no money exchange (with the sole exception of official Burning Man sold ice and coffee). How then is one to measure the value of something in order to ensure a fair exchange? Since value is very personal, collective measurements of it can never truly reflect the actual value of something. Money helps to maintain a practical system of cooperation, but it also limits the potentially boundless value of human creation. It reduces creations to possessions, participation to labor, and love of life to a need to survive. Instead of being present and enjoying the moment, we end up seeing everything in terms of how much value we can extract from it, and eventually all of our actions become centered around acquiring more and more value. Let's take time as an example. Many people place great value on time, and the saying "time is money" is a perfect reflection of this attitude. Most of the working class world trades time for money either by salary or wage, and especially for these people time becomes an asset and is potentially locked into the same never-ending cycle as anything else that acquires value.
The "gifting" economy of Burning Man is an opportunity to break free of this self-imposed prison. Imagine the limitless value of your creations if you were not forced to place a dollar amount on them or the potential joy of participation if you did not have to measure the value of your labor. Money may be a necessary evil, but how much do we really need it, and is it always necessary to limit something's value?
This is the first of a two part blog entry on Burning Man Values. The second post will address love and community values.
I went through quite a process to make the hooves for my costume at Burning Man. After I finally figured out how I'd do it, the first step was to make a mold from my shoe. After the mold hardened, I sprayed the inside of the mold with a releasing agent and poured the liquid rubber solution into it. It dried over night. Excited to see my new hoof, I discovered that I couldn't get it out of the mold. It seems that the rubber leaked into the little cracks in the clay and firmly wedged itself in there, so I was forced to break my only mold with precious little time to spare. So there you have it. The first picture is a block of rubber with a broken plastic spoon in the middle (don't ask).
The second picture is my second hastily assembled, partially dried mold filled with the rubber solution.
Now I have two rubber hooves, and I'm still not sure what to do with them. The goal is to attach them to my shoes and have my furry legs seamlessly transition to the hooves. When I have that figured out, I'll be one step closer to being a bad-ass Pan.
The first day we drove (Sam, mostly) from New York City through a bunch of little states and ended up near Knoxville, Tennessee. Most of it is a blur to me because I was half-conscious from staying awake all night getting ready for the trip. After a good night's rest, I opened my eyes to America's vast expanse of flat farmlands that stretches through Arkansas and Oklahoma. The major difference between those states and Texas is that everything in Texas is the same but bigger. Shortly after entering the state, we sighted a 30 foot wooden cross implanted in the ground and a huge cornfield as far as the eye could see.
I got lost in one of the Wal-Mart vortices and picked up some foam cones that I thought might be useful for making horns that will be a part of my Burning Man costume. I still didn't finish the costume, and even if I don't finish it before getting to the playa, I've heard that there's a costume camp I can go to.
While at Wal-Mart I picked up some kim chi, and ended up spilling some of the strong-scented juice in Sam's car (sorry Sam!). We have quite different eating habits, but we both managed to find satisfying meals. There was no shortage of fast food or pre-made sandwiches, so Sam always had something to munch on. Although in moments of hunger everything looks good, I managed to stick to my raw food diet without a problem so far. For weeks before the trip, I dehydrated food and vacuum-sealed it so that I would have plenty of goodies during the trip. That and the random watermelon sale on the side of the street have kept me happy. :-)
On to the desert mountains…
As we crossed the border into New Mexico while the sun was setting, I could feel the change of weather. The air became drier, the nights cooler, and my allergies continued to flare up. We sped through the desert at 85 mph with the cool dry wind slapping against our faces, and we landed at a quaint little hotel in the middle of the night. A little Asian man who was sleeping in the service counter room with the lights off awoke to check us in, and we settled in for the third night of our journey.
Yesterday, my friend Sam and I set out on a road trip that will ultimately take us to Black Rock City – a temporary city in the middle of Nevada’s desert. Diverse personalities gather every year for this week of free-flowing festivities and creative expression of art and individuality. More than that, it’s a place for people to come together in community and acceptance and to experience a plethora of lifestyles for one week out the year.
Since this is my first time going to Burning Man, I can’t yet give a first-hand account of what it’s like. I can talk about what I do know, and in just 10 days, I’ll finally be able to experience for myself what it’s all about. Over the next few days, I’m going to blog about what I think some of the central concepts surrounding Burning Man are, including love, art, money, and community values and our journey and preparations while driving across the country.
