Burning Man 2008.
Monday Night.
At sunset Monday burners waited into the night to be let through the gates. A dust storm swirled on the playa ahead. Cars stopped. The waning moon had not yet risen. People cut their headlights, even their parking lights. The Milky Way glistened above. "Bon soir," Calico said to the French guys standing on their rented van. They had heard about Burning Man from a reporte on the television. The crawl toward the entry gate and the dust storm inched onward.
Ganesha manned the driver's seat and Domino walked alongside the car. It helped to get out of the car. We shared beverages with a girl from Dresden and a person who was going to build a Monkey Cage shelter, a cylinder formed from PVC pipe covered with a tarp. Soon we were in -- past the gate, the ticket takers and the greeters -- greeted and welcomed.
Tuesday Morning.
Sati found space for us. We built the yurt in two hours, finishing before dawn and went on a walk. Burning Man TV played on a large outdoor screen, an episode about the Sapphire Portal and another about European tourists drinking in Black Rock City bars. A musician played a 10' long didgeridoo on the Center Camp stage. It is not true that it is darkest just before the dawn. Already there was more light, enough to see the gigantic mechanical dinosaur spider at the Apocalypse Lounge. Construction of a third story was underway at Mal-Mart. Susan and Domino saw the bright orb of the sun finally rise from the wrought iron chairs in the dust at the 7:30 Portal (the Portal).
In just seconds it lit up creations previously overlooked -- a big yurt, a Statue of Liberty, hammocks, a camper made out of logs, a tower. One could shoot pieces of metal on a cord up to the top of the tower with a slingshot. Maria's leftovers awaited in the kitchen, an extraordinarily delicious blend of beans, rice, nutritional yeast and other ingredients.
Tuesday Afternoon.
Ganesha and Domino donned new iridium Golden Cafe membership medallions and rode up 7:30 to F and counterclockwise to 2:00. They drank at the Orgasmic Carrot Camp, climbed a tower and met people in wild elf costumes. They rode onward into the playa to Babylon, a 10-story steel frame tower rising 100 feet into the sky, with a stairwell to the top.
Built by union workers out of recycled materials to specifications that allowed for tear down, the structure cost a fortune to build and transport. A family financed it to honor its Greek immigrant father, who was one of the early builders of Las Vegas. They climbed to the top of Babylon and surveyed Black Rock City, the Man, the Temple, the Sapphire Portal, the Root Society Domes, Center Camp and the Opulent Temple now easily recognized from above.
Ganesha rode on to the Sapphire Portal and entered. Inside the walls and platforms vibrated. A guy with lots of tattoos and rings was doing handstands putting his feet against the wall. A girl cleansed our auras by burning and waving incense over our heads. A group joined hands sitting and leaned back stretching. People practiced advanced yoga. There were some huge pillows.
Tuesday Night.
Maria prepared a vegan white sauce. We ate it on pizza with cheese. Josh walked to the bomb shelter camp, "descending" 200 feet below the playa in a fake elevator to drink; then to the . . . And Then There's Only Love camp. He named the actress who gave him a glow stick, Glow Stick Girl. At the Home camp people were making themselves at home. The Root Society was completing its 90' diameter dome. The 45' one was done.
Mischief camp shocked people who were tricked into touching their computer mouses. Then they tricked them again by saying there was a picture of them being shocked on the screen on the other side of camp.
Ganesha rode and Domino walked the length of the Esplanade stopping at sound camps and fire shows. Most spectacular was Shiva Vista. It is a circular fire installation with an elevated performance platform in the center. Sixteen large propane guns fire in rhythmic sequences while fire performers, dancers and musicians play along with them. Twelve of the guns are arranged in a 100 foot circle and four more are located at the corners of the platform, controlled from an elevated platform just outside of the circle. It is a place where humans and machines enter into a fusion of fire, movement and sound. DJ Wolfie spun at the Opulent Temple. A lot of people were there.
Wednesday Morning.
New light again brought new sights: a large dome made of Bamboo; a memorial to a young artist; a camp playing socially conscious programming though a dozen old TVs stacked on top of each other; a white picket fence enclosing a Zen garden at the side of the yurt. Susan made Negronis, a bitter drink of gin, vermouth and Campari, named for Count Camillo Negroni of Italy. Heather and Ratchet completed the Golden Cafe Sign and hung it facing Pink Spot. It was metal, 8' long, and 3' high, with lettering cutout and illuminated in EL wire and Xmas lights.
Wednesday Afternoon.
Chefdaddy arrived with gifts including a key costume from Kostume Kult in the NYrvana village. It is gold fabric sewn over padding and worn like underwear. One steps into it and then from the side it looks like a key, or a large cock. There is a matching costume -- the lock. Chefdaddy is loved for his generosity. His gifts of food are legendary, beakfasts of fried potatoes and peppers, and fruits and cheeses and the Orgasma Omelet. Sometimes he carries a megaphone and when he calls 'Chefdaddy needs a ride' art cars within range race to pick him up.
The bar, closed on account of the bartenders' participation in a parade, opened on an emergency basis -- a Negroni shortage. As the Negronis were being mixed a Frenchman approached and asked what we were pouring. He was told, in a strong fake French accent, that the bar was closed. As he began to leave in disappointment Calico asked if he was too particular about what he drank. He said he was not. An extra glass was produced and he too savored the bitter goodness of a Negroni.
Wednesday Night.
Dancers rehearsed on the newly constructed Urban Ant Farm Stage. Campers from Mal-Mart and Pink Spot and the other camps near the Portal, burners from Abstininthe, Burntown, Amerikesh and the rest of the city gathered. They watched the opening performance of the Blackrock City Ballet. It was the most beautiful dance ever, anywhere. In the first act, the entire troupe danced furiously, interactively, with their whole bodies across the entire stage; in business attire and then in underwear.
Then there were three opera-like duets, in the first the ballerina played a rag doll, in the next a feisty broad, and in the third there was give and take between the couple. All perhaps in the style of Pilobolus. The final acts were also stunning. Particularly affecting were the seemingly endless pirouettes. The ballerinas spun around and around somehow pausing slightly when looking at us highlighting their faces, their attention seeming never to leave us.
Meandering about the Portal and enjoying a heightened state of well being we saw it -- the glowing on and off of the 90' Root Society dome. They were open. It was glorious. Even the non-dancers danced. Even the crowd avoiders drew energy from the crowd. A ring with strong dangling fabric was suspended from the roof and trapeze artists flew about. This circus act in the middle of the rave erased the lines between performers and dancers.
We walked about, to the back of the Root Society and to Gravitypoint a neighboring sound camp. People were dancing and chilling in the warm night. Further on, on the outskirts of the city we encountered a large rabble of RVs parked in a circle. In the middle, the Duck, an art car so enormous it could not be driven in. It had to be built on the playa and it seemed almost finished. Above all this floated Skyline by Robert Bose. Skyline is a kinetic balloon sculpture composed of multiple lines of helium filled balloons that reach out hundreds of feet into the sky.
Back at the yurt, we set off insanity balls in the Zen garden. They are about 4" in diameter and bounce fast emitting light and making noise.
Thursday Morning.
A ballet dancer rode a bicycle into the Portal with as much grace and beauty as he danced. He was happy and light and as willing to befriend the people he came across as any other burner.
Eris made gingeroos. Kimicat made jewelry. Tez produced three glasses of clear liquid. The bass picked up the beat. Dave hit the cymbals and called the drinking game.
"Hey, you out there in the Portal in the white.
Want to play a game?
Three glasses of liquid, Two with water, one with vodka.
Which one is which nobody knows."
A crowd gathered. Tez took the glasses away.
"I guess there isn't going to be a drinking game.
We just wanted some beautiful people in the audience."
A patron of the bar lent his Swiss Army knife to open some bottles. There was an extra bottle of pear cider which was given to him. After drinking it he exclaimed it was the best thing he had ever consumed. It should be mentioned, however, that in the interim a beautiful goddess appeared with candies on her clothing and he ate one of them. Chakra drank Grappa in the Dome.
Thursday Afternoon.
Vamp Camp decorated us with world happiness buttons. A camp near Comfort and Joy gave us rainbow colored Homo Cone snow cones. Pink Mammoth gave us high alcoholic punch.
It was not in glassware; we brought our own cups.
The Vietnamese Iced Coffee Camp had a line for what we knew by reputation was some very tasty Vietnamese Iced Coffee. One person attempted to order regular coffee. A woman in a large Vietnamese hat shuffled out and scolded him in Vietnamese for his lack of taste. It was somewhat confusing because of the language barrier, but eventually it became very clear that Vietnamese Iced Coffee is a superior beverage. She then turned to Calico, who was laughing, and, in perfect English told him something serious. They were running low on coffee; he would be last in line and it was important that he not let more people join the line. Calico passed on the bad news as pleasantly as he could to a lot of people.
Finally a person accepted that there was no more coffee but stayed at the end of the line to talk. He was so cool and demonstrated such kindness to the people around him during the wait that he was rewarded not only with coffee, as more was found, but also with a Golden Cafe medallion. The coffee itself was wonderful: iced, sweetened with condensed milk and served with love. Coffee drinkers participated by stirring their coffee with the chop stick provided.
We were in Avalon Village. We knew that because we saw the Camp Montage people erect the huge Welcome to Avalon Village gateway sign. The posts were designed to have thick rebar pounded through chambers in the base into the playa. Half a dozen people held the sign up while this was being done. On display were large prints and numerous montages, featuring art photographed on the playa from 2005-2007.
Thursday Night.
The closest playa art installation to the Portal was one of the most ingenious, Brainfire, by WesternDevil. A few hours after dark WesternDevil himself fired up the structure releasing fuel into the ceiling of a small open building. In calm conditions there is mesmerizing, creeping. undulating fire suspended all overhead. In the windy conditions there is still a partial coating of the fire just beneath the ceiling.
Also near by was the Flamethrower Shooting Gallery by Matisse Enzer. Modeled after a county fair-style shooting gallery, this provides a new twist on a long-standing American tradition and pokes gentle fun at the American fascination with firearms and personal power, as well as the Burning Man fascination with fire and radical self expression. It does this by allowing and encouraging participants to literally play with fire and shoot things.
Then, not too far out was the Temple of Community by Lancelot Smith and Rue Morgue. It was a thirty-foot-high rendition of an origami crane. On the playa, the crane symbolizes the act of letting go – of people, places, feelings, ideas – making wishes, discovering hope, finding peace, and building the wisdom, happiness and longevity of a community that is united in this experience.
Onward into the playa was Altered State by Kate Raudenbush. A symbol of the United States Capitol becomes a mirage of mythical creatures fabricated of elaborately carved white steel. Each cut is rendered in the archetypal graphic style of Pacific Northwest Coast Indian imagery. Ganesha and Domino climbed into the rotunda. Gymnasts climbed the interior swing and as intended, a government building was transformed into an Altered State.
Noticing that it was time for the second performance of the ballet we walked back toward the Urban Ant Farm stage. The Burntown American Express art car was parked in the playa and photographing the performance. Serendipitously they had room for us on their second story. We again watched in amazement, from there and from stage right. As they took their bows we went to the Golden Cafe kitchen. There we feasted on leftovers -- spicy tofu reheated with a little water.
The art car was leaving Burntown for the Temple at midnight and we went out to catch it. As we approached, we saw it start to roll. It was impossible to miss, having a bigger than human sized illuminati eye pyramid glowing atop its roof. We ran after it, but never caught it until it reached the Temple.
Burning Man is about having fun and meeting people, but it has its spiritual moments, too. Exhausted, we entered the Basura Sagrada Temple. By Shrine, Tuktuk, and the Basura Sagrada Collaboratory, Basura Sagrada was a temple constructed mainly from burnable trash and recycled materials. Meticulously detailed, the temple was a precious space created from non-precious materials, a receptacle for the hopes, dreams, memories, and elegies. The Temple was comprised of five main structures, with a group of outlying buildings growing towards a central nave clad in a series of spires that reached towards the sky. It was intended as a refuge for intrepid souls, a place where spontaneous, unmediated conversation occurs between the individual and the divine. Ghosts burned with the Temple in the white-out on Sunday.
The art car took us back to the Esplanade. Ganesha sat in front next to the driver who described the members of the ballet troupe by size, physique and hair color. We relaxed in the Home camp, and then went to Abstininthe, which also had great chill space. There Calico encountered a giant of a man who took pictures of the patrons with him by holding his camera out at the length of his long arm. He didn't want them taken any other way and doing it became something of a performance. The absinthe drinks were prepared the right way with sugar cubes on slotted spoons. The intense wormwood flavor and the legends surrounding absinthe made it something more than just alcohol. It may have been a homemade absinthe from the lesser wormwoods. It took over an hour to finish the drink, sipping it mostly at the Amerikesh Embassy party.
Somewhere along the way we golfed at Putt-Putt Playa on the Esplanade within The Fifth Dimension.
Friday Morning.
Athena treated the dishwasher to increasingly rare and delicious Scotch.
Iceman entered the bar and found it to need ice. He set out on a quest. He heard music in his head, Primus, New Orleansean Dirges, Ride of the Valkyries, Doors: "Show me the way to the next whiskey bar..." He channeled a satanic dream of a Golden Calf, Goldie covered in offerings. The idol carried aloft on a platform with interior trim and poles followed by a column of bartenders, liquor bearers, and shield bearers and a troupe of troubadours. Lucifer, Aphrodite, Thor, Ares, Marcus, Jay, Matt, Katz, Lee, Sadhu, Loki, Corinne, WiFi, Gwen, Hazbro, Petr, Elena and the rest of the Drunken People of the Golden Cafe were among them.
It was a mobile Golden Cafe in all its glory. A bull bell sounded and the shieldbearers leapt to the front of the gigantic mechanical spider. They formed their chrome and gold shields into the shape of a bar. Out came barstools and masks. A mobile kitchen of shoulder-slung camping stoves and coolers opened and fixed stir fry snacks. A mobile band with battery powered yet powerful amplification played:
"Golden Cafe has great drinks;
from a glass that really clinks.
Our mascot is a gold cow;
Drink with us and you'll say WOW!
Golden Cafe, Golden Cafe,
Nothing more to say.
7:30 Portal.
If you're lost, you'll find your way."
The dream, quest for ice and parade continued. Now with the poem written on the white board at the Apocalypse Lounge in mind:
"it's coming to america first,
cradle of the best & of the worst --
it's here they got the range,
the machinery to change
it's here they got a spiritual thirst,
here the family's broken
here the lonely say that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way
democracy is coming to the USA"
After more adventures at Arachnophobia, Death Guild / Thunderdome and HeeBeeGeeBee Healers (this is not a direct route) the ice was obtained and on the way back he heard:
"The Golden Cafe is a bad-ass playa bar.
Oh, please ask why.
Oh, please ask why.
If you provide ice for the bar.
You'll get this copper tithe.
You'll get this copper tithe.
The Golden Cafe is a bad-ass playa bar.
We will honor you.
We will honor you."
Triumphantly he delivered the ice to the bar. He was cheered. He was not allowed to leave without drinks being made in his honor. Tez awarded him a copper medallion sliding it across the bar with a satisfying plunk.
Not only the human members of the Apocalypse Lounge but their creation, the gigantic mechanical spider dinasour tromped into the Portal. It was three years in the making and weighed 7 tons. It was two stories high. It could not turn so it continued into the Playa where it rested for some time, next to a parking meter.
Friday Afternoon.
We toured a group of 8' hexayurts at Point Being. They have ample room for 4 people and ventilation devices and solar panels can be added. Calico is building one of these next year. The Department of Public Works Parade entered the Portal. It was impressive just how many DWP people there were -- hundreds and hundreds of them. Ratchet, Heather and Evus drank Amaretto in the Dome. Rongo played the drums. Maseo danced. Thunder danced.
Drinkers passed a frozen shot of ginger liqueur. The whole thing had been frozen, the glass was thickly coated in ice.
A guest band played Grateful Dead covers. The crowd liked it, but to Domino's musical ear they were musically mediocre. Rhythm may have had a similar feeling, but he MC'd the show so graciously nobody could tell.
Tez was shaking high-end signature drinks when a small group of people nudged their way to the front of the bar with tin cups. The dishwasher set up a line of old fashioned glasses. The dishwashing tubs had been refreshed and the glasses carefully wiped, rinsed and re-rinsed. They dried in the heat without a spot on them. They sparkled. As time passed the leader of the tin cup people began to wave his cup over the bar.
Tez who had been calmly conversing with the people next to him changed into maniac personality. He turned his attention to the guy in front of him and began frenetically pouring whiskey and miscellaneous mixers into the cup. He poured from quite a height spilling a lot and yelling, "how about some of this." The group looked like veteran burners who just somehow had not been to the Golden Cafe before; otherwise, Tez wouldn't have filled a tin cup, even in this way.
"Why don't we get some of those?" the guy asked gesturing to what the other people were drinking in the bar out of glassware.
"Because," said Tez, "those go in these."
"Well then what do I got?", the guy asked.
"Its a boilermaker of some sort," said Tez returning to normal and so letting the guy know he had been as much to a show as to a bar. They shared the boilermaker in their cups, thoroughly and participatorily entertained.
Friday Night.
White Dragon Noodle Bar served stunningly delicious noodles with shiitake mushrooms. The camp took in a camper who didn't even know what the noodles were made of. He thought they were made of rice. They are, in fact, made from wheat. Maria made Matzo Ball soup and couscous for the Golden Cafe.
More art was enjoyed on a full stomach. Elevation by Michael Christian, Auriah Milanes, Scottie Chapman and David Andres. A fully climbable mountain constructed of winding tube steel ladders that elevate to a seated perch for one on its peak, at 54 feet.
Bummer, a super size Humvee measuring 38 feet long x 18 feet wide x 16 feet high. Half of the Hummer was painted in military khaki and the other half in a bright sporty color. The headlights were bright enough to bring day to night. The taillights were a shadow show.
Next, my favorite, Tantalus, this year's zoetrope project. The mechanism tells the tale of Tantalus. Tantalus stole ambrosia from the Gods. His punishment was to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches. Whenever he reached for the fruit, the branches raised his intended meal from his grasp. The zoetrope is presented as a revolving Uncle Sam hat keeping an apple, or golden watch just out of reach of a strobing man's arm. Peter Hudson and crew worked tirelessly on this and finally got it working late in the week.
A Rock Opera with fireworks took place on and around the Mayan Step Pyramid. The entire Pyramid was consumed in flame that could be seen across the playa.
Does happiness come from other people, or does it come from art, sharing it being just a way of amplifying it?
Saturday Morning.
The sun rose on a crew of pirates at the top of Babylon. Knives and swords, some rope, hats, black mostly but some color and arriving in a pirate ship made them pirates. They swung on the steel beams like they were masts on a ship. The thoughts and even nature of the people, as well as who was there changed as dark turned to light. Yet they were having the time of their lives in both worlds. It was enormously invigorating.
Tiki wrote songs. Rhythm and Buffalo played them. Aphrodite made mimosas. Jay got ready for empathetic administration of psychotherapy, generally known as bartending.
Osiris started up the band. Rongo played the drums.
Saturday Afternoon.
The wind began to pick up and dust swirled around. People who tried to leave were directed back to their camps until the white-out conditions subsided. The Darkside bike ride proceeded. All in their early 20's with a cool bikes they were absolutely unafraid of the storm. Fearless.
We huddled at Pink Spot during the worst of the storm. We learned people in the camp had won an award at Sundance 2008 for Adventures of Power. It is a comedy about a mine worker who journeys across America to save his hometown. Ganesha put on ski goggles, which enabled him to take an adventurous and memorable trek through the dust storm.
Saturday Night.
The burning of the Man was officially put on hold for a while but it did get burnt. Lucifer saw it from the Portal. After the burn there was something good in the kitchen, maybe Blackened Tofu and Grilled Polenta and a Spanish Bordeaux in the Dome.
Way way out on the playa four BLM vehicles turned on their headlights near an art car. The dancing stopped. The art car megaphone chanted "fucking cop, fucking cop." The BLM left. Another art car used a megaphone to invite a 'lone walker' to come aboard 'the lovely art car.' An emissary was dispatched from the art car to the lone walker, but the lone walker stayed alone gazing at the Milky Way.
The Native American Temple also known as the Teepees burned. The Teepees convoke the divergent aspirations of conflicting societies at a moment in our collective past, when New World Manifest Destiny confronted the ancient ways of life of Native Americans. The covering of one of the Teepees was an American flag which burned with it.
Sunday Morning.
Pre dawn was peaceful inside the Emerald Portal. By Harlan Emil Gruber (AKA Awonsaihu) the Emerald Portal was originally made for Burning Man 2006. It is based on 3-dimensional sacred geometry heart chakra colors and incorporates the Quasar Wave Transducer, a subsonic nonlinear dynamic analog feedback device. It is made of specially painted plywood and has seating both within the lower area and on a raised central platform. The outline is a steel tubing version that clearly shows the geometry of the structure and can be climbed on. It catalyzes a personal connection to the Emerald within the participant's heart chakra and facilitates a connection to the Earth and Galaxy's energy bodies.
The yurt was disassembled after sunrise and some sleep.
Sunday Afternoon.
On a last stroll we received a gift of beautiful sand dollars from the Oregon coast. We put our burnables in Burn Barrels, some in a big one and some in a small one.
Exodus was slow. We hit the road about six.
This all happened, yet it was a dream. American Dream, Burning Man 2008.
