Dreamland Station

The Art and the Land.
It was good to see the art; both the art created for this magical weekend and the art that is more permanently connected to the grounds. Sheepytime projected rotating sheep images onto big white fabric walls. To many late night walkers it promised sleep and dreams. For those who could not sleep it showed deep sleep as a wonderful thing even if it was beyond their experience. Though large enough to capture the attention of even a wide perception, the actual cut outs of the sheep were small.

A Shiny New Catheter was an interactive wishing well. One painted ones camp location and wish on a rock, exchanged it for a rock with someone else's wish and attempted to grant their wish. People really knew how to use black lights. Black light reflected from teeth highlighted with yellow highlighter on a drawing at the Art Creation Station, from the white string on the DreamCatcher and on the tapestries in the Down Tempo Dining Car. The baths were four outside cement pools each large enough for 10 people. Three were filled with hot water and one with cold. The would be back wall for the pools was a series of vertical tapestries depicting a mountain. Between them there was a view of a real mountain. The way the water drains is a part of its Institute of Perception design.

The Institute of Perception
The Institute of Perception is the site and its dedication to the evolution of the human spirit through the arts. It is forming an artistic family, magicians of the arts, to enhance, activate and broaden perception. The open land is used to free perception. Vision walks and inspirational meditation promote shifts in our usual assemblage point of Reason, and allow Pure Understanding or Silent Knowledge.

The Plasma Garden
The Plasma Garden was a group of visually stunning interactive light sculptures that conveyed the mind-blowing fourth state of matter, also known as plasma. It was like electricity in bottles. Delicate colorful lightning coils and bolts pulsated in their own worlds and in ours.

Temple
The Temple was in the Pyramid, a permanent structure on the land. It was the destination of a great pageant. A wedding party sauntered up from the Dreamland Stage, banner bearers in front, holding very long wood staffs. Thin blue triangle flags and cloth hung from them. In the Temple, they told how they met (they went separately to a couples only New Year's Eve party because neither wanted to meet anyone) and renewed their vows. Just outside a man in a natural open costume balanced on a column. He held high the staffs, the colors flying in the breeze.

Liquid O
Liquid O was a large black bus with a stage and a crane on top. A cage with a stripper pole dangled from the crane. A person in the cage hung onto the pole as the whole cage violently smashed into the side of the bus again and again. The person spun, lost control and was saved from a hard bang into the metal by the hands of the crowd. From the stage three of them played metal grinders that shot off sparks.

Colorful Mannequins
Along a sandberm were brightly painted mannequins. Some had only the below the waist half of their bodies. They were installed with their feet pointed up. Others had all but the top of their heads and their names were written on the top of their heads. All of them had detailed strips and swirls.

Costumes
People wore costumes for visual effect -- Frogs, Zebras, and for interaction, pirates and belly dancers and gadget bearers with lots of pieces that called out to be played with. And of course, costumes for dancing and for eating and drinking. Sausages on sticks cooked slowly at the Acoustic Stage fire pit. Grapes came out of the Black Company Dead Pirates Lounge. It had a hollowed out monitor filled with glowing junk and looked like a broadcast at night. The Nocturnal Libations bar had a vaulted ceiling. At some random hours theatrical smoke left everything in a thick fog.

Dancing
The music was energizing. People danced and spun fire to multi-tracked beats. Electronica, also, House of the Rising Sun and Ring of Fire. Dancers spun poi from leather straps mostly wrapped about their wrists but also, as they danced, flung about their ankles and thighs. Fire spinners performed at night, on stage and in the middle of a blue rope light. Fire was on the ground, on the body, being put out dramatically by a speed up in the spinning. Sometimes multiple performers, sometimes one, it was all balanced and graceful yet strong.

Camping
Camping together people share how they live. Crack of Dawn put on eyelashes. Stories were told. One that was true was that life is a gift. One that was funny was that Mexicans sometimes go to the border fence not to cross it but to take pieces of it to sell for scrap. The sun shone through the green OttoPup frozen popsicle and through the green electric rope light. The creator of TMA-3 took low light photos. TMA stands for Tycho Magnetic Anomaly. Tycho was the name of the crater that the black monolith was in in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Magnetic Anomaly was the electromagnetic field emanating from within it. When a human touched it for the first time, it began to transmit a signal. The Tycho monolith was TMA-1. The second monolith, TMA-2, was discovered in orbit around the planet Jupiter. The monolith encountered by the apes in Africa was TMA-0.

Want to hang with you forever
Some pictures are at: digitalconsciousness.com/galleries/Calico/SDDecom2009.phtml Harry Dingle of the Harry Dingle and the Dingle Berries band played a harmonica on street corners from New York to New Orleans. On his Vision Walk atop the rocks behind the Temple he explained that some people just want to hang with you forever.

Evolution, a tangled bank.

Arrival.
Leaving Reno about 8:30 Sunday Night we got to Empire at 11. We stopped at the Empire store, bought cold beer and waited for a while. There were lasers, LEDs, hats and costumes for sale. The store owners were grilling on a barbecue and filled up water barrels for people who made donations. People who got to the burning man gate before midnight were directed into a corral and had to wait until long after the people who got there on time got through.

Reception of the Burning Man Information Radio (BMIR) broadcast was clear from the turn off off the pavement. We got to the ticket checkers just after midnight. We had $210 tickets having gotten them online on the first day they went on sale. They searched the car for stowaways and asked if we had fireworks. Fireworks are confiscated, and set off nearby or saved for the Department of Public Works (DPW) party. Some were exploding a few yards away.

The greeters gave us the What, Where, When book and maps. Many art cars were near the greeters station for the opening. People came up to the car with completely unofficial "welcome home" greetings. We found at large camping on Hominid at about 7:50. We were joined by other open campers and all set up with minimal problems.

DPW.
A open framed black Mad-Max-apocalypse truck with a roll bar sped into the DPW camp. It was going at about twice the speed the big Art Cars went, maybe 7 mph, and had excitement to it. It had no panels or roof or covering and was coated inside and out with layers of dust. The truck and the DPW had been on the playa for weeks working on the city infrastructure. There were a lot of people there because of a burninator show, coordinated propane tank fueled flames spouting from towers, or it could be the show happened because the people had gathered. The vehicle stopped suddenly, with a noise.

The driver leaped out, talked to someone and went back to retrieve a bottle of champagne. He was the guy who, the night before, rammed the clunker in front of a wood frame house-like structure open to the playa. It had, as before, skateboards, whiskey and flags. A red light that had shone on one of the flags was missing. A punk with a microphone hooked up to an awesome sound system playing the angriest possible music overlaid curses at the DPW for allegedly stealing the light and for the crash.

In response, DPW picked up a ball and dropped it on the hood. It was the bowling ball painted to look like a beach ball that hilariously fooled everybody who tried to play with it, and it made a big thud.

Also suspecting the DPW of something, was Green Couch Camp. They had marked the perimeter of their camp with a green couch when they got there early to set up and went back to Gerlach for something. The next time they saw it, it was in use, a mile away out by the trash fence. At least we don't have to haul it back home said the person who had had the couch at his house for 10 years. In appreciation for their work, burners watch happily as the DPW people commandeer whatever they want.

Time, Travel, Transportals and Temportals
Many installations and camps speculated about time travel. Arch was a ceramic arch that depicted the passage of time and gifted medallions. Temportal 2.1 was a metal-framed canvas structure designed to transport your consciousness forward and backwards in the evolutionary time line. Time travel camp welcomed time travelers from other times, but did not know how to repair broken time machines. Ideas travel though time too, forward and backwards across the playa. The future enters into us long before it happens. "Set" learned to Hold his Space from the Playa Shaman who wore a sign saying "talk to me," while conducting his vow of silence.

This idea came to the 2:22 Amethyst Portal and to the Temportal 2.1, and those who received the idea held their space at those places. They stayed as others came and went. They were rewarded for it, meeting Harlan, the creator of the Amethyst Portal. The Amethyst Portal is an indigo stellated dodecahedron constructed of wood and steel with an open interior space. Inside it is the Quasar Wave Transducer (QWT). The QWT is a subsonic sound device that emits the deep frequencies of human brain waves and of the Earth's Schumann resonance. This resonance is a set of spectrum peaks in the extremely low frequency portion of the Earth's electromagnetic field. It is determined by a formula that includes the radius of the Earth and the speed of light.

Harlan moved the whole thing from the spot where it was shown on the map to a spot deeper into the playa. This made it hard to find. He did it with a trailer and a truck under the full moon, with two people in it. When the QWT is operative the Transportal vibrates and gives the feeling of being transported even when there is no physical transport. So may small dodecahedron necklaces.

The Temportal was in deep playa and people drew and wrote for each other on the canvas walls and in a book. Breedlove drew a creature unconstrained by gravity. Someone wrote, "How will it evolve," and someone redrew it, more stylized in parts and more detailed in others. Evolution does not make exact, or even very close copies. Everyone and every group is different. It was the Temportal's second year, having been here in 2007 also.

Endangered Species.
Six black ten feet high cylinders spiral across the Black Rock Desert and a sculpture of an endangered species spirals around each of them. There is one endangered creature from each of five realms: reptile, Blue-tailed Mole Skink; bird, Puerto Rican Broad-winged Hawk; fish, Sockeye Salmon; arachnid, Kauai Cave Wolf Spider and mammal, Gray Wolf. The spiral is the most ancient symbol found on every civilized continent. The spiral of nature, art, mathematics - a constant form at all scales revolves around itself, ever evolving in syntropy.

Under the Gray Wolf's face was the life mask of the project creator. The sixth column was bare until noon on Monday when the creator made a plaster gauze life mask of a bearded artist who then hung it there. He wrote Yippie Ki Yea in silver under his image.

The Man, the Portal of Evolution and Danger
The Man was made mostly of wood. He had an extra-terrestrial organ in his lower abdomen made of neon that glowed even in the day. His arms were down until before he burned Saturday when they were raised. He was on a pedestal surrounded by large piles of lumber fastened together and stenciled with the words "unsafe to climb." More than one person commented that it did not say "Do not Climb."

On Saturday after the Man collapsed in fire, the fire was much too hot to be approached. Near the fire two people sat down and opened their arms, hands and fingers out in the way that people do when they sit together and chant "Ommmmm". People joined them protecting others from running into the fire as it seemed they were wont to do. One person jogged between the seated people and the fire.
"Do you need anything notarized?" he asked.
"Of course." was the response and a State of Ohio seal was placed on a Zaemura card. The fire burned on. People who had been into this inferno, or other infernos of such intensity knew how life threatening it could be. Someone ran in.
"Get the fuck out of there!" the Shaman screamed. He made it out.

Portal of Evolution, near the man was supposed to be climbed. It was formed with petal like steel plates from which sprung fallopian tubes and ovaries. Emerging from the top was a kinetic butterfly. Burning Man can be dangerous. This is particularly so for those who jump off of tall places, jump bikes on ramps over couches, or aggressively stay too close to the hottest fires. Also, for those who sky dive in. Several parachutes did not open. In these cases the divers were saved by reserve chutes, yet some were injured.

People riding the Slide, a huge sculpture that people slid down suffered injuries. too. A couple of people showed up at a parties disoriented, became unresponsive and then medical take outs. The medical stations treated injuries from bike riding and dust in the eyes. The playa was in good condition for bike riding, but there were plenty of soft spots that would bring a bike to a knee jarring halt. Yet, the tangled bank was more alive for the danger than consensus reality could ever be.

Neverwas Haul.
One of the more creative mutant vehicles was the Neverwas Haul, a self propelled three story Victorian House. It was based on a Jules Verne inspired imaginary world. For the first time after several years on the playa, its engine room was open. An engineer explained how they got it working. One of the builders was 80. Another told of how badges can mean little at Burning Man. He had a Community Bike Liberation Force (CBLF) badge that he wore when he cut off locks from Green Bikes with bolt cutters. Green Bikes are community bikes that are not supposed to be locked.

Mutant Vehicle Polaroid Photo Booth.
The Mutant Vehicle Polaroid Photo Booth was a large outdoor photo studio where artists interacted. Huge black tarps were affixed to the vertical surface of a 4 story climbable scaffold. White tarps were laced together and strung by cables from the top of the scaffold to the top to poles that were the tallest thing on the playa. The cables didn't go in easily. From atop a tall ladder, with one person standing close to the top and two people below, they tried and failed to pull the cable in with their hands. They only succeeded after deploying a system of ratcheted pulleys. Once in place the cables were cinched and the tarps fluttered beautifully like the ones over Center Camp.

Even vehicles with tall masts fit in the Booth. It was oriented to put the vehicles in the best light. It was at a good distance from the Opulent Temple to hear the beats. The Booth was in its full undamaged glory for only a day or so. An antenna from a vehicle dragged across the canopy. It sprung up in the lacing between the tarps and tore them. The winds then did further damage overnight leaving the Booth still usable but much of its canopy ripping apart. The art cars also showed how harsh the winds could be. The Raining Man themed art car had its umbrellas blown off, but its dolls remained.

Summit of Artists.
Mutant Vehicles are a high art. Artists do sell them. If a sale takes place on the cell phone, one party in consensus reality and one at BM, where does the sale take place? The Mutant Vehicles are not cars, even though we all call them art cars. The operative word is Mutant. They can't look like their original form unless they are a big party bus and the value is community involvement.

People have hauled in their vehicles after investing lots of money and time, only to be denied a license by the DMV. The Mutant Vehicle Polaroid Photo Booth was to the DMV what the Greeters Station was to the Ticket Checkers -- a friendly and stress free stop after you had arrived.

The Mutant Vehicle Polaroid Photo Booth people greeted the artist and crew of each Mutant Vehicle. They took the time to understand the vision of each work of art. They amplified each others' happiness in meeting. It went higher and higher. It is infinite. They would part so the shot could be taken. Next, a countdown to the opening of the shutter: 3, 2, 1 . . . open. The essence of each of them then emerged in the long held poses they struck as Owen exposed the last remaining film of its type.

Raygun Gothic Rocketship.
The Raygun Gothic Rocketship was an immersive large scale installation consisting of a 40' tall metal rocketship. People explored the rocket's three interior chambers. The ship was set to launch early Friday night and thousands gathered for the event. Rumor had it that it would rise three feet off the ground. There was a delay because the winds were too fierce for the skydivers, who were to be part of the show. While waiting for the launch a dancer danced inside the perimeter. A Perimeter Keeper showed her a laminated badge and she in turn showed her badge to him and kept on dancing. Did they both get their badges from Lamination Camp?

After an hour delay, the show went on without the skydivers. Plasma gas explosions of most unusual and vivid violets and greens went off. Then, there was a fire and bombs. The astronaut jumped out of the ship onto the gantry. He shot massive fireworks out of all parts of his body, front and back, legs and arms as he did somersaults down the walkway to the crowd.


Blending into the Desert.
After a few days people adapt to the desert, and they look the part. They wear or carry their goggles or water or bandannas or hat or pack in a way such that one can feel that they are not affectations but part of their playa selves. "When did you get in?" was a good question because different words flow between people who have been there for longer. Even the same words, "How's your burn going?" or "Have you seen the Slide?" or whatever installation was on your mind will have a different meaning.

One Rocket ship launch viewer had close to every possible bandanna on his head. Bandannas come in stock colors and patterns. Camouflage, baby blue, dark blue, gray, white, yellowish. People lose and find them, give and receive and return them. Soaking and wearing a bandanna provides relief from the sun, a shirt provides even more. The bandanna guy had also had leggings and strings and pieces of cloth tied to him as bracelets and necklaces and a sling shot. He had found everything he was wearing and wore it perfectly.

A rickshaw pulled up and the people, one peddler and three riders wanted to know where the French people were camped. The Europeans were festive and had a lot of style and miscellaneous good costumes. Other people had a Rainbow Festival look. None of them looked as cool as the American kid in the bandannas however.


Food, Hammocks, Rope Swing, Om and BRCPO.
The Black Rock Diner had grilled cheese sandwiches at Midnight Tuesday and at 4am Thursday. The Philadelphia Experiment had pancakes Sunday morning. The Hammock Hangout had really comfortable hammocks. Mystical Misfits had a big rope swing swinging amid their party and chill space inside a high ceilinged scaffold structure. Zome Mani Padme Zome had a thousand English word translation of Om Mah Nay Ped May Hoom. Jewel in the heart of the lotus ... path and experience of universality ... The Black Rock City Post Office (BRCPO) sent post cards.


Domes.
Geodesic domes won over scaffolds, carports, campers, yurts, RVs, shade canopies, vans and tents. They are the coolest subset of the cool climbable steel sculptures that are as much a part of burning man as bicycles. The coolest of the domes was very big and unskinned, that is to say uncovered. The struts averaged about 5' and were painted many different colors. The whole thing was lit with powerful black lights from a dozen columns mounted around it. Jessue built it.

It was at least 6v. The number of varied strut lengths of a geodesic dome, the v, indicate its complexity and size. For example, a 2v dome requires 35 struts of one length and 30 of another. Specifications for the higher v domes are much more involved. Whereas, a 1v can be made well with PVC and duct tape. Bigger ones are made from steel tubes that come in 10' lengths. They are cut leaving room on each side to flatten and to drill bolt holes in. A press is needed to do this well. The struts have to be bent to specific angles. After setting up even a simple 1v, one can appreciate the skill involved in building a big dome. And, also how help is needed to do it. The best playa gifts are not trinkets or food, or substances, but being there for somebody with a tool or a helping hand.

People climbed on this dome day and night all week long. The slope of the climb lessened closer to the top. The views were great, of the playa and of the other climbers. They hung on it, rightside up and upside down, from their feet, from silk and from ropes. They stretched and swung and played catch. White socks and clothing glowed and moved in the black light visible from the Golden Cafe, Tetris Camp, other nearby places and from as far away as the Rocketship. It made the people look so vibrant. It was better than bar lighting.

Jessue Dome was bigger than the Thunder Dome. It might have been the biggest Dome out there other than the Root Society Dome. The Root Society is an institution with many people in it spending on not just the dome, but fuel, trips to consensus reality, big diesel generators, service trucks, equipment repair and replacement, electrical and electronic circuits and work and power plants.

Temple.
As human nature and perception have evolved, whether we feel with our heart, question with our mind, or attempt to explain our reality, fire has been at our center. At the center of the temple, a three story, lotus shaped construction, is the fire. There was a wedding at the temple. Later on, as the temple burned Calico stepped in and encountered a heat wall -- space so hot that it formed a force field. He set down the offerings of his deceased relatives in the spaces to which he was moved by the force.

The precepts of Zoroastrianism may match burning man principles and reality more closely than any other religion. Particularly, rejection of monasticism and participation in life through good deeds to ensure happiness and free will. Also, somewhat, fire as an agent of ritual purity and prayer in the presence of fire. As for purgation of evil from earth through a tidal wave of molten metal, this may be a long while into the future. There is not enough metal around to create a tidal wave, nor enough heat to melt it. We can wait. Burner evil is mild, mostly just tin can Matter Out of Place (MOOP.) Zoroastrians do not proselytize. Don't try to convert someone to be a burner. She has to want it on her own.

Drinks.
Alcohol was plentiful and probably the most widely shared substance. A Bloody Mary with extra Tang and vodka at Duck Camp started off the burn. Absinthe Camp had a wonderful variety of wormwood infused liquor. The Monsoon Masala was spiced with a powerful array of Indian fragrances. A Grenadine, Bacardi and orange juice was enjoyed at the Swashbuckler Sunrise Saloon in the company of the Janky Barge people. This bar may change its name from year to year. There are things to know about it. First, enter only through the imaginary front door. Second, there are no other rules but gifts of liqueur are really appreciated.

Back to the recollection of drinks -- vodka at Arachnophobia. The bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean. Tabasco sauce and bitter beer after tablets of miracle fruit extract at Miracle Fruit Camp which made hot mild and bitter sweet. Coconut Vodka from a Pirate Rum bottle, with a ship on it. This was a delicious drinking round as the person who most needed a drink explained his woes as the bar opened. He had wanted to do the shade structure in his camp the right way, but everybody else decided to do it the wrong way. As it turned out the drink solved the problem.

Even though drinking had an amplified wonder it was only one of a thousands of physio-psycho-social themes. Many people did not drink at all. It is as hard to tell what the most significant substance on the playa is, as it is to tell its predominate religion.

Music and Games.
Axle played his guitar. Don played the Piano. A Diva sung French and Italian operas in Center Camp. Caveboy cut a CD -- Connect the Dots, Sounds from the Deep Playa vol.3. Infected Mushroom and Armin Van Buren played at the Opulent Temple. A high ethereal trace vibrated throughout the city.

People played a die game. The person with the die asked who wanted to play. He would then name something that the players would have to do if he rolled a 1. Next he would roll. Most of the people were in. The, bartender wasn't; he said he had to watch the bar. The shooter named his thing -- Grab the man of your choice and give him the hardest spanking you can. "And, that includes you," he said to the bartender, who then became interested in the roll of the die. A game of a different kind was Groovik's Cube, an electronic version of Rubik's Cube the size of a house. The power to solve it was split between three separate control stations. Participants solved it at least five times.


Weather.
There was a storm. It was videotaped passing through the Whine of the Winds, a collection of sounding weathervanes. Other than that, the weather was pretty good -- fairly warm, even at night. Some meteors came out of the NorthEast perhaps from the Perseid constellation, as that known shower was not that long ago. People lingered and danced through the sunrises and sunrise parties at Space Elevator. One morning the moon set just before the sun rose. Thank you Sunrise Coffee Camp, for the coffee.


More Fires and Fire Effects.
All week people left burnables at the burn barrels. Paper bags are great for this purpose. People also dropped off wood. The really big burn barrels, ones so big you could stand in them and not touch any end, were used more toward the end of the week. They were burning during the day Saturday and Sunday and the Monday after the temple burn. People played kickball with flaming wood. People met at the Dustfish burn barrel on the Esplanade, at the Vamp Camp cauldron in the city and at burns and fire effects on the playa. There was a fire ceiling effect on a big sheet of plywood that was anchored in the huge 9:00 burn barrel in such a way that people looked up at it.

Two good fire effects were the Chimera Sententia aka the Fish Bug and Soma. The Fish Bug was a steel based structure. Fire shot out of the extremities of its spine increasing its space. Soma was sculpted as two neurons and fire used for the transmission of information.

Evo-Wall, The Maze, Lighthouse Project 2.0 and Vishnu's Dream.
Oh, so good too were: The Evo-Wall -- a woodpile; The Care Factor Nil Maze -- the trick was to overcome the misdirection and duck under the fence where the bottom half was removed; a Lighthouse and Vishnu's Dream, a ring of cobras framing scenes from evolution and supporting a lotus flower above.

Happy New Year
Our year rolls over as the last burning ember of the temple fades into oblivion. We spent more than a week on the tangled bank. There was enough to see and do for a lifetime. Some pictures are at http://www.nanday.com/BM2009/ and
videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/GaneshaBRC

Evolutionary progress transcends the individual. Mutation of social systems now occur, sometimes quickly. Social and personal boundaries, the structures of society, may dissolve leaving an unpredictable meaning to random contacts. A good and lasting advancement for the human species. Calico is now also Random. Ganesha is now also Parrot. The default world is now also known as consensus reality.

2010 art theme: "Metropolis: The Life of Cities."

Dark Skies Fire Arts Festival

Space Pirate Greeting
The gate was down a dirt road deep into the old growth Joshua tree forest of Mojave Drums. We were greeted there, next to the Porno Pyro Pirate Dome. Got a slap on the butt, a map and a blue black Dark Skies 2009 sticker. Took a swig of spicy dark rum and became a space pirate! The Pirate Queen found us a spot. It overlooked much of the city, being near the top of the road from the Dome to Party Naked. Paths lead quickly down to the DJ Stage and to Eros Queer Camp.

Sky Wind and Temperature
It was the first weekend after the April new moon. The nights were moonless and cloudless. The Milky Way shimmered. The widest part has the shape of cumulus clouds and swells as the night darkens. Friday the wind gusted; Saturday it was calm. All three Icons burned simultaneously Saturday night. The disassembled pallet pagoda burned pre-dawn Sunday. It was calm from the time the icons were lit though the time the last pallet had been reduced to embers. Slight breezes did blow the sparks away at an angle. The roman candles went straight up. Friday it was cool in the day and chilly at night. Even naturalists wore tops. A poncho or hoodie under a pirate costume or fur playa coat helped battle the cold. So did fire: burn barrels, burning icons and bonfires.

Theme Camps
The theme camps let us get back the love. They were all really good at what they did and had done it many times before. Party Naked had green drinks in a misty radiant punch bowl. The Dome had porn from the silent film era. Eros Queer broadcast high ethereal music interspersed with public service announcements such as "Life Sucks. If you're happy your probably stupid." Playful Adventures had their front door open as well as an opening in the back though which you could peak. Food camp had what would have been an abundance of food even if twice as many people had shown up. They had ribs and seafood and salad and fruit. Journeys had Sno-Cones and a ATV which tooled around letting everybody know about them. Pancake camp had Black Dark Skies 2009 Frisbees. Vegas Lounge had a drum circle.

Drum Circle
Vegas Lounge is a Dome. It was skinned with pure blue cloth as vivid as the Arizona sky above. The beating of drums drew us in. Through the opening we saw a Ganesha tapestry. Beach welcomed us. Inside there was another Ganesha and watermelon. There were several drummers. One of them added some energy and the others picked up on it. Later one of the drummers told of how a well loved drum likes abuse, and another of how music came to him. He could spontaneously lay in his own beats on top of other music and make it work.

The Show
Malicious, the MC, kicked off the show and introduced a panel of judges -- Admiral PainJoy, Viagra (it was his birthday), Lady Frog, Pirate Queen, and Ribbons. First was the mans tightey whitey contest. The Admiral was replaced on the panel by Pirate Ron so that he could compete. As the judges deliberated, Malicious passed the microphone. We learned the three reasons to tattoo $100 on your cock. Next, the womans wet t-shirt contest. The hula hoop act may have been outdone by the erotic water dousing. The judges deliberated and the microphone passed. What do gay reindeer do for fun? They go to the Elks Lodge and blow a few bucks. Next the hot legs dance event. Mystery and Marcos were in it. During the deliberations the sausage joke was told. It is too long to tell it now, but next year it might be retold and be even dirtier. Lastly, there was the banana event which involved seducing and blowing a banana and lots of whipped cream. A team won an the prize was split.

Pirate Games
There was horseshoes and there was Treasure Hunt Extreme! Treasure Hunt Extreme! began with a Scavenger Hunt. Items included a kite, personal objects and sex toys which were worth more if presented on a person. The main part of the game was a search for buried treasure worth more than any of the scavenger items. Journey S. 60 paces, no further. Turn N. From the tree behind your left shoulder, 5 paces W; 8 N; 3E 10S 4W and dig. Drunken pirates wandered the place, shovels in hand. When Calico encountered a pirate with a shovel he would hint that the treasure was under the Creeper, the central icon. One team dug up a box containing the map to the treasure, but they thought it was the treasure itself and didn't open it. Another found an X, but it was a fake X. Other teams collaborated enough to find the treasure spot, but they didn't dig deep enough to get it. Too much time was lost and the game ending without any points being awarded for the treasure. Later that night DNA displayed the treasure, the cock of Davy Jones and awarded prizes. This was before the Truth or Dare game.

Burn Barrels
Fire in Dark Skies burn barrels has a lot of character. Holes punched through the barrels make up patterns and symbols. The ones in the top of the windward side of the barrel by Party Naked formed the words DARK SKIES, illuminated in orange against the dark of night. When the wind picked up flames flickered through the holes. Due to the smoke this was also the only side where no one stood and everyone could see it. The air just inside the barrel was very hot. People put a hand or other part in there to warm it up. There were no major burns, and people were proud of the minor ones, showing them off the next day. People turned and stretched and, all warmed up, went back to the bar. Two people who had just set up their camp long after dark Friday ran up to a burn barrel looking for the party. There was only a solitary person there who offered them some wine. One of them took the wine, drank it, asked what kind it was a slowly said, "Isn't it strange that you have to drive out all this way and down a dirt road to get good wine," mellowing his energy to match the person who was there. He had the most polite manner.

Costumes
People meet and then they meet again in different clothes, or in a different way and don't remember the first time for a while. That's why so often two people turn out to really be the same person. Some wear and change personalities like costumes. One can both hide and stand out in costume. Many decorative light costumes can be turned on and off, that means they have perfect extrovert and introvert settings. The Arizona people who were there didn't wear costumes so much. Yet, attire or personal objects that provide warmth or joy, such as coats or hats or pipes can be even more festive than a costume. A dancer moved in front of the DJ Stage in basketball sneakers. Friends looked on from the hay bales in green high tops and black striped low shoes. A good costume has a history. It is liked by its owner and worn again to another event. The best have been ripped and repaired, molested and mended, recognized and wondered about. Whose is it? Where will it be seen again? Does it burn?

Sights and Smells
All around the city the desert was in bloom. There were tiny flowers of all colors and also bigger flowers. Even the cactus and chaparral were flowering. Some campers carrying burning sage and sweet grass, walked fast, almost jogged, about the perimeter bring smell of shaman with them. The higher parts had a view of Meadview. Pallet Man drove around in his yacht car that shot propane flames out of tubes mounted in back. To the east is a butte that is part of the very Western Grand Canyon. The butte shades Mojave Drums at dawn, so it becomes light long before the orb of the sun makes it into the visible sky. And, at sunset the butte shows Grand Canyon sunset colors, violet and magenta. There is there, a small ancient building, Turquoise House, made out of rock. It was part of the Pony Express Route. There was an Alien Pirate head on a stick near the Burn Artist Camp.

Icons
Nightmare Nevada, Gurrwolf and Junior created the Harvesters. They are three Icons each about twice the size of a man: the Creeper, the Reaper and the Collector. They are icons, not effigies as they are worshiped and they are not of people. They seemed too good to burn. They arrived in a truck Friday night and were positioned in the Burn Bowl by Saturday. The Creeper was in the middle directly in front of the Pagoda Arch. He had deep set eyes of white within red within black. Also, fangs and triangle and square teeth, and an elongated arm stretched out way in front of him all the way to the ground. The Reaper, to the Creepers right held a scythe on a long pole that extended far above his head. The Collector, to the the Creepers left held a sickle and had pumpkin like head with a green stem growing out of it. The papier-mache in the work was glazed in places so that parts of the sculptures looked to be metal. The icons were dressed in black corduroy shirts and green burlap scarves and hoods. They had elbows and knees and even joints in their fingers and toes all bent in a balanced way They cast longer and longer shadows as they day wore on.

It may have been about 10 or 11 pm when they burned. The paper and paint flashed and the cloth went up in flame leaving burning wood skeletons. Their skeletons were wood. As Mustang described it was built bone by bone. Wooden hip bone to wooden leg bone to wooden spine and ribs. This made their skeletons more in common with humans than their outsides, and they did look more human when burning for a while, but still monstrous. The Reaper's scythe collapsed in the inferno, landing on the Creeper and bringing it down. The Collector's rib cage and mask glowed orange. His head fell off and rolled in front of us. Gurrwolf reached for the head, picked it up by a stick sticking out of it and held it aloft triumphantly as it continued to burn. One could still make out parts of the Harvesters hands and heads after an hour. There was some metal in the Icons -- a crosshatched iron grate and chicken wire, picked up afterward for use at another burn.

Stages
The Live Stage had jam bands, lights and a mixing board. The musicians played and the fire spinners spun. The saxophonist was very gifted. Erica painted two hula hooping skeletons live on the screen she used to perform her shadow dancing show. The DJ Stage was slick with lights and sound emitting from the back of a trailer.

Bonfires
The Pagoda Arch was the source of the bonfires. It was built by Pallet Man. It was 16' high and 20' wide. It was 65 pallets in the making. It looked like Stone Henge. At first it seemed as if the Pagoda would not be burned. Sometime after the Icons had burned, it still being calm, it was decided that it would be safe to burn it after taking it apart. We made seven piles of pallets stacked 1-3 high. One was started with gasoline, another by diesel, others by burning wood. We rode a bicycle around the bonfires while they were burring. The heat from the fires was so intense one couldn't walk the tracks left by the bike tires. It was a fabulous fire festival.

Goodbyes
Sunday over coffee there were stories of sublime beauty -- Amazing Grace sung at BRC and of officious interference -- fee demands by the BLM. Boris gifted posters of his stylized paisley space pirate. The being is a space alien given the head is larger than a human's and a pirate as it has about it a parrot and an eye patch. A white DS formed from painted rocks sits above Dolan Springs between Mojave Drums and highway 93. DS for DARK SKIES to welcome big happiness -- pirates from space -- to the broader Mojave and default world.
Some pictures are at: DigitalConsciousness.com/galleries/Calico/

SoCalDeCom 2008

Makin' Bacon on Mars.
SoCalDeCom was a Mars themed playground. Community Liaisons, Rangers, artists and camp leaders had the event ready.

Landing
Matty, ChewToy, Mike and other greeters hugged arrivers on a bridge over a sand wash. They gave them wrist bands and guides with a map superimposed on a satellite image of the grounds. The flip side of the map was the What Where When of the art, camps and events. KuroNinja rode with Calico to park and even tossed his old pack and bag into one of the all terrain go carts. Mushroom, familiar with the paths, drove the cart in, kinda fast, even over the bumps. We stopped and unloaded in the middle of the wash.

Chilling
Quest made White Russians. Much later on he made mimosas and omelets. People met and made really clever toasts. Ropes of the DWP and girls with sun parasols played.  Nymphs and dancers and shape shifters came in. Dr. Techno hauled in a flying saucer. It didn't actually fly; it was mounted on a flatbed truck. As soon as he got in he put down a steel ladder so people could climb in a chill out. There was room for seven, and extra room for four.

Air Cannon
Pirates were firing Cabbage Patch dolls and footballs from an air cannon over the Dawnship. The Dawnship was a Bedouin tent flying Jolly Rogers and big enough for a fire and seventy seven people, give or take a few. The event took everyday items and changed their identity. It brought about new perceptions causing people to question how to see, to re-examine and to re-invent. The participants missed nothing of this earth. That, physically, there was no pirate ship did not matter.

Makin' Bacon Ranch
Rangers dropped off planks near the fire pits. Soon a fire raged through the planks stacked teepee style in the main fire pit. During the nights this fire, being close to the entry areas, to the Dawnship and to the paths to the main stage, drew everybody together. It was just 7' from the Makin' Bacon Camp and just 7 miles from the Makin' Bacon Ranch. The Makin' Bacon Ranch is up Boundary Creek and up Jewelry Stream between Boundary Peak and Rattlesnake Mountain. That ranch, like the SoCalDeCom site, is less than a mile from Mexico. The partially completed border fence and the border patrol vehicle on Jacumba peak are part of the landscape. Boss, from the actual Makin' Bacon Ranch, with real pigs, drank beers chilled in a bucket of ice.

Flying Saucer
James Saint James played the drum. A nymph gathered warm sand from around the fire to put under her bed. Jacumba guy, working for the landowners, looked on, as he was supposed to and wanted to. A Las Vegas burner told us how the Duck art car was built and transported to BRC. It was made from a military transport known as the Duck that was cut in half vertically to pass under bridges. People talked about Hatfield's illuminated Flying Saucer. From its control panel we could program the lighting pattern. The saucer as a symbol of aliens landing on earth could not be suppressed. Yet, beliefs and circumstances about them could be changed.

Flaming Enemas
A nymph lifted her tutu. Lucky Bastard pulled the trigger on his new propane tank. The people at the fire cheered as a flame shot around a long looping plastic tube.
"Oouch," she screamed to general laughs.
"I want one of those . . . but only after five drinks," said Boulevard, who just then got a text. His friend was then there, really here, clomping over the top of the little hill.
"Would you like a flaming enema . . .  it's free," said Lucky Bastard.
Boulevard jumped up, put his arm around his friend, Glow, and declared:  "he's in."
Glow bared his ass,   bent over, and grabbed his junk.

"Kissisiscick," went the propane trigger. Round and round went the flame, capturing the full attention of the group.  It lit up the air about the tube  and Glow's butt cheeks.
"Youch," he yelped as the fire hit.

Words of Wisdom
After Boulevard and Glow went to dance, words of wisdom crossed the fire. A white guy in dread locks explained the best way to see the grand canyon. He had good vibrations in his voice. You should go to the south rim. The theme of the Harry Potter books is that even those who are inclined toward evil can bring good to the world. Community helps. A burner who started going to BRC after seeing the man on the cover of Wired magazine, met the photograph's wife there this year. A Mexican cop who stops a drunk will see that he and his car are taken safely home and that there is no record of the matter for a payment of $300.

The Golden Case
The secret of the Golden Case by Spike came up. We are all captivated by secrets, and mystery. Deep within us all they strike a chord. We seek out knowledge, and crave mystery. The secret is that you see your reflection. If you didn't want to know that, then there is a deeper secret that isn't in this post that you can still look for.

Fire
The fire got small. ConstabEL brought maple and birch wood he had brought from his orchard. A collective of people who like fire scoured the other fire pits where the rangers had also put burnable planks. They carried the wood past Fuego De Los Muertos in a procession spreading the news that now was fire time. People who had brought wood to SoCalDeCom brought it to the main fire at about the same time. Vitaly and Dr. Evil, maybe this is the same person, put in the The ART Art project. More descriptively, a big wood sign that at first read "Art" but by the time it went into the fire read "Party" and other stuff. It burned for a while and fell in. The fire got big.

Costumes
The costumes were fanciful: a Ninja all in black, Santa, a pirate captain. Many people had more than one costume, some changed at the fire. "Take what you have and make it work," "Be recognized less or more as you choose," was good advice. Alien masks, eye patches and a Phantom of the Opera like mask appeared. Then there was an alien with a flaming antenna! And lots of people who really know how to apply make up.

Temple
At the Temple wishes were wished, written and burned. The temple structure was permanent and had an opening at the top which made strange shadows and for cloud and star watching. A group of people watched a moon set there. As between sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moon set, moon set is the least noticed. It was however, somehow significant -- a shared experience, a little more than half moon sinking behind the mountain in the middle of the day. A railroad car, and some poles and a metal silo, and obviously the railroad tracks were also permanent. The silo had a free-standing door plug of human shape.

Food
A lot of camps gave away really good food, both the ones that had a type of food in their name, and others, so did regular campers. A Hindu Goddess and Poi twirler shared energy bars. Sam's Choo Chew provided munchies in the rail car.

Dancing
The central activity was dancing. The main stage had a shower stall on the far right, with hot and cold water. There was also a second sound stage. The music went quite kinda early.

The Living Room
The Living Room by Taz and Cooper was both an art piece and a chill space. It had the feel of a living room, because there were two doors, a window, a framed 2D piece of art and miscellaneous furniture. Yet no walls. But, however a really comfortable couch and comfy chair.

The End
People who noticed each other earlier shared juice and leftovers as everybody tore down everything. Tossing their bags in their earthly vehicles and leaving.

Burning Man 2008

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.

Kisses from Burning Man 2007

A beautiful cast of characters send their love from the Burning Man playa. Exploding self expression, sweet kisses and wild play.

Palindromes

It is a song by Weird Al done completely in palindromes.

Bob Dylan

When acclaimed documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker filmed Bob Dylan during a three week concert tour of England in the Spring of 1965, he had no idea he was about to create one of the most intimate glimpses of the rock legend ever put on film

Good Restaurant Meals

Ocean Blue Hibachi Grill & Sushi Bar
30125 Agoura Rd., Suites I-J
Agoura Hills, CA
(818) 735-9711

Location: In Agoura Hills Town Center (near Reyes Adobe
exit off of 101, across from Renaissance Hotel)

Crude Awakening Explosion

This is one of many videos of the explosion of the Crude Awakening art installation at Burning Man 2007. The blast was preceded by a massive fireworks display. I felt an intense heat from it a 1/4 mile away. There was a mushroom cloud of smoke!

The explosion demolished a 100 foot high oil derrick, but left standing giant worshipers. Later a tree was placed amid the ruins of the derrick.

Updated Best Movies

1. Pleasantville, Pleasantville is a New Line Cinema film first released in Canada on September 17, 1998 starring Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, and Jeff Daniels. Don Knotts, Paul Walker, Marley Shelton, Jane Kaczmarek and J. T. Walsh are also featured.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasantville_(film)
2. Into the Wild
3. Hoax
4. Bourne Ultimatum
5. March of the Penguins
6. Little Miss Sunshine
7. Capote
8. About Schmidt
9. Harold and Kumar go to White Castle
10. Garden State
11. Seabiscuit
12. Catch Me If You Can
13. The Talented Mr. Ripley
14. Fast and Furious
15. Fahrenheit 911
16. Rounders
17. Cellular
18. Godfather
19. Apocalypse Now
20. Blade Runner
21. Eyes Wide Shut
22. There's Something about Mary
23. The Matrix
24. Pan's Labyrinth
25. Twin Dragons
26. Return to Paradise
27. Slacker
28. Studio 54
29. Your Friends and Neighbors
30. My Dinner with Andre, 1981
31. Saving Private Ryan
32. Negotiator
33. Wild Things
34. Primary Colors
35. Big Lebowski
36. Apostle
37. Aviator
38. Pursuit of Happyness
39. Primeval
40. Sicko
41. U.S. vs. John Lennon
42. Stranger than Fiction
43. Wrist Cutters

TV Shows

The Office is an award-winning American television comedy which deals with the daily lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictitious Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. Although fictional and scripted, the show takes the form of a documentary, with the presence of the camera openly acknowledged.

Based on the British series of the same name, it was adapted for U.S. audiences by executive producer Greg Daniels, a veteran writer of Saturday Night Live, King of the Hill and The Simpsons. Original series creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have production credits on the show, and wrote an episode for the show's third season. It is co-produced by Greg Daniels' Deedle-Dee Productions and Reveille Productions, in association with NBC Universal Television Studio.
wikipedia

Faster-than-light particles

Tachyons
Tracking the elusive faster-than-light particle

In 1962, a group of physicists made the provocative observation that Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity does not actually prohibit matter from traveling faster than light, only from being accelerated to faster-than-light speeds. This may seem like an irrelevant distinction—and perhaps it is. But suppose there were a particle that came into existence already traveling faster than light. Because it did not have to be accelerated in order to reach that speed, it does not violate Special Relativity. Physicist Gerald Feinberg gave this hypothetical particle the name tachyon in 1967, from a Greek word meaning “speedy.” Later, the term tardyon was coined in order to identify ordinary, slower-than-light particles; these are also sometimes known as bradyons.

The tachyon, if it existed, would have a number of fascinating properties. Unlike ordinary particles, it would have to decrease in mass as it went faster, meaning that the speed of light—at which its mass would be infinite—would be just below its slowest possible speed. Likewise, adding energy to the tachyon would slow it down, rather than speed it up; to slow it all the way down to the speed of light would require infinite energy. For a long time, physicists believed that a tachyon’s mass would have to be an imaginary number—a number with a factor that’s the square root of –1—though more recent formulations of tachyon theory suggest that such a particle could have a real mass. Most intriguingly, a tachyon, if it is to adhere to the principle of relativity, would actually be able to travel backward in time—seemingly making all sorts of trouble for the notion of causality.


—Joe Kissell
Tachyons
Tracking the elusive faster-than-light particle

Here Comes Another Bubble

A funny video from the richterscales.com.
It is hard not to listen to more than once.



Here Comes Another Bubble

Absinthe the Green Fairy.

Banned for a century for inspiring madness and murder, absinthe is legal again. So pour yourself a glass and get to know the real Green Fairy.

Perhaps you already have your own absinthe story. You drank it in New Orleans one foggy night, too full of fumes to remember much aside from the cloudy green swirl of the drink as water drip-dropped into the glass. You smuggled a cheap bottle back from Spain and brought it out at cocktail parties like a magic trick. You tried it at a party where someone mixed a batch in the back room, and it was caustic stuff, as mean as moonshine. You sipped it in a gloomy underground Czech bar, where everyone looked like spies, and the bartender lit the sugar cube aflame. Or perhaps you've never even touched absinthe, maybe you just read about it, and became interested in the lore of the Green Fairy -- how it was a muse to the artists of the belle epoque, how it made people mad, made them hallucinate, made them slaves to the drink, how it drove Van Gogh to cut off his ear. Perhaps you don't have a story about absinthe at all.

Well, now would be a good time to get one.

Absinthe is legal in the United States for the first time since 1912, the year it was banned in America.

Evidence of its current chic can be found at Employees Only -- a charming roaring '20s-style bar in New York's West Village -- where a handsome Serbian bartender named Dushan Zaric (who also co-owns the bar) makes a variety of asbinthe cocktails for me. And, much as I do like straight absinthe, I find these mixed drinks easier to sip socially; they demand a little less of my attention. There is my favorite, the Billionaire Cocktail -- 107-proof bourbon, homemade absinthe bitters, lemon juice and homemade grenadine. There is absinthe and champagne, crisp and effervescent, a drink reputed to be a favorite of Ernest Hemingway's. It's hard to imagine absinthe could ever be the next vodka and Red Bull, but if people caught on to how good these drinks taste, it might be more than a mere trend.

Nobody's predicting a drink once fabled for inducing madness will take over the glitzy table-service clubs of L.A. anytime soon. But you know what? If that happened, I would totally start watching "The Hills" again.

Sarah Hepola Everything you know about absinthe is wrong.

Best movies of all time

Best movies of all time. Extra points are given for movies seen recently.

1. Hoax
2. Bourne Ultimatum
3. March of the Penguins
4. Sicko
5. Primeval
6. Little Miss Sunshine
7. Capote
8. About Schmidt
9. Harold and Kumar go to White Castle
10. Garden State
11. Seabiscuit
12. Catch Me If You Can
13. The Talented Mr. Ripley
14. Fast and Furious
15. Fahrenheit 911
16. Rounders
17. Cellular
18. Godfather
19. Apocalypse Now
20. Blade Runner
21. Eyes Wide Shut
22. There's Something about Mary
23. The Matrix
24. Pan's Labyrinth
25. Twin Dragons
26. Return to Paradise
27. Slacker
28. Studio 54
29. Your Friends and Neighbors
30. My Dinner with Andre, 1981.
31. Saving Private Ryan. The knife in the heart scene is chilling.
32. Negotiator. Nice and corny. You have to suspend disbelief, but that is easy to do.
33. Wild Things. Has some amazing plot twists, the ending is fabulous.
34. Primary Colors
35. Big Lebowski
36. Apostle
37. Aviator
38. Pursuit of Happyness
39. Time Lapse of the 2007 Burning Man

Blog, blog, blog, blog . . . .

We are blogging more now, and so have more blogs!

The name of this blog has been changed to Zeitgeist 2008 and will focus on the spirit of our times.

We blog about Art and Artists on the new Art and Artist Blog.

We blog about poker on the Scoby Poker Blog, and about the development of poker robots on the Poker Robots Blog.

Scoby the Poker Robot

Scoby the Poker Robot: "Scoby"

The Digital Color Awards.

Digital Color provides recognition for outstanding contemporary artists. It has accepted nominations for and granted monthly awards since September 1999. Artwork of the nominees that is exhibited on Digital Consciousness and elsewhere on the Internet is judged by a jury.

The winner is announced on the 23rd of each month through the Digital Consciousness newsletter and other media. The winner is entitled to free gallery service from Digital Consciousness for one year. This includes gallery hosting and access to an Internet Publishing Robot that allows for upload of images and information and for editing through a control panel.

The work of the winning artist is featured on the Digital Color Artist of the Month page for a month and thereafter in the Permanent Gallery of Digital Color Winners. Current nominees are listed on the Digital Color Current Nominees page. Links to previous nominees are on the Digital Color Previous Nominees page.

digitalconsciousness.com/digitalcolor/index.phtml

New Contemporary Artists

This post is for announcement and a short desciption of new contemporary artists who have registered with Digital Consciousness.

To view the work of any contemporary artist go to DigitalConsciousness.Com/database.phtml and enter any part of the artist's name. To see the most recent artists go to DigitalConsciousness.Com/limit.phtml.