More Burning Man
Burning Man pics are up finally:
http://kyle.rewq.org/gallery/burningman2k4
And yes, I do plan to go again next year =P
No tag for this post.{ Monthly Archives }
September 2004
Back in Austin from Burning Man
So I went off to San Francisco on Aug 27th to meet up with some friends from school. Haruna, Gaku, Matt, and I hung out in San Fran for two days, eating some of the fucking awesome food available there and preparing for a week in the desert.
Spent the nights stumbling around the local bars. There are definitely some interesting bars in San Fran. One was a totally psychedelic decor which was amazingly awesome at night. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me, so no pictures.
We drove off towards Reno on Sunday after we had scored the RV (yes, we were going in style) and packed all our crap into it. Stopped by what had to have been one of the crappier Costco stores in California to stock up on food and other supplies. About 6 hours after we left San Fran, we arrived at Black Rock City. Thats the name of the city thats formed when Burning Man gets together. Since most of us were virgins (first-timers) we had to do the whole greeting ritual of jumping up and hitting a bell before we entered the area. Gave the greeters some booze and we were on our way. We fortunately had a hookup so we were able to secure an excellent spot at 8:00 and Earth, on the corner. It was next to the porto-potties, which would become a mixed blessing.
That night, we just unpacked some until some other folks rolled by on a mobile bar. Then the drinking commenced and the partying began.
By the time we woke up the next morning, the rest of our campmates (all veteran burners) had arrived. We at this point were the camp Mellow Mountain. A few hours later, we had our shade structure put up and ready to protect us from the blazing sun. That night, we went out partying. The Man (the big blue/wood effigy in the middle of the city) would become a useful landmark as the week went on. On Monday, most of the major theme camps had yet to set up, but there were enough people with sound systems that it would be a fun night. It was also a full moon, so there definitely was a full moon party or two that night. It was great fun =)
Tuesday, we spent more of the day fixing up the camp. Went around during the day and checked out the other camps in the city. A fair number of them were art camps, displaying incredibly unique pieces either in their camp or out on the Playa (basically the desert). A fair number weren’t all that nice, but some, such as Cubism, aka the Cube, were just fucking awesome. Spent the night once again partying, but this time, a majority of the theme camps were fully set up. The result was a night of great fun moving between what essentially were clubs. A good number of the camps on the Esplanade had light and sound systems that would put most clubs to shame. They also featured relatively decent DJs as well. Most were not big names, but damn could some of them spin.
By this time, the Man and the dome underneath him were complete. Inside the dome there were several pieces of art, along with a central piece that was good fun. It basically involved 4 panels with cameras, and a pointless voting game. The game involved the people on the sides jumping up and down on the panels. If you \"won\", you would get to view a prerecorded message. Winning was stupidly easy. The funny part was watching the winners try and figure out how the recorded messages seemed to be from the just recent past, sometimes even appearing to be the people who had just won. It turns out that the winning side would see the message from people who had recently figured out that if you won, you would be recorded. So if side A won in the previous turn, and side B won in the current turn, side B would see side A. It was a bit strange, but good stuff.
There were serious dust storms all Tuesday too. It made stumbling around a pain in the ass sometimes, since visibility could disappear to nearly zero. It cooled things down a bit, but it also threw dust on absolutely everything.
On Wednesday, spent some of the afternoon wandering around to some of the events in the city during the day. It varied from absinthe making to guided meditation to moisture girl. Crazy and random good fun. Also spent some time out at the Temple out in the Deep Playa. At this point it was still not complete, but it was already incredibly impressive.
More partying on Wednesday night. By this time, the Stonehenge camp was complete, Bop camp had their panel set up, and Lush was just badass. More camp jumping all night until the morning.
Thursday was a pretty big day for our camp. The other guys at the camp had decided to set up a wine tasting party. Heavy drinking ensued when the event started. After the wine wore off some, more partying at night at the club camps. See the pattern? 
By this time I had worn my animal costume a few nights, and it was great fun. I mostly got "dude, what the hell are you" or "cool cat" comments =)
Friday was party cleanup day. Damn, the place was a mess. Most of the day was spent relaxing and just recovering from the night before. A pretty boring day in all honesty, but the night was great as always. In all honesty, Friday was the absolute best night. Lots of great music, lots of people having fun, and perfect weather.
Saturday was the day the Man would burn. Spent some of the day running around checking out the other camps. Later, during the day, the "Save the Man" protest began. I was gonna go by and see it happen, but unfortunately, since I didn’t take a watch, and since most folks there didn’t have a watch either, I missed the get together. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch it some other time =)
That night the Man burned. Lots of fire dancers, lots of fireworks, and lots of Man burning down. The night was kind of bad though. It seemed most of the people were just chilling out that night, and the DJs just weren’t very good. Actually went home and got to bed fairly early that day.
Sunday was mostly cleaning and packing for our departure. Snuck off for an hour or so to see the Temple before it was burned that night. Packing up the camp was a bitch in the sun, but it had to be done. Later that night, they burned the Temple. The fire here was a lot more impressive since it was a significantly larger structure. Right after this, we said our goodbyes and left the city for San Fran. Monday was mostly cleaning the RV and me packing up to come back to Austin.
All in all it was a fucking awesome experience. Lots of fun, and lots of good people. If the means are available, I’m planning on going again next year =) The Playa dust is all over my shit, my suitcase barely survived, but it was all worth it. Hopefully my perspective isn’t too skewed though, since I heard this was an exceptionally nice year weather wise.
I’ll put up pictures in a day or two. There’s a shitload of them I have to go through. Its been fun, but its back to work tomorrow =(
No tag for this post.
