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[personal profile] magid
It's intense, as with any con. Multiply that by many more people than my usual con (47 thousand or so), and multiply again for camping in an extreme place, and it's even more so. Linearity isn't going to work, nor does it feel particularly necessary for such a wildly chaotic experience. So, a sampler, and perhaps over however many posts it takes, it will become more comprehensible (to me, anyway).

The biggest factor in my week was camping with the Low Key Peeps. They were, in fact, low key, people hanging out or going out as they wished. Three of us set up tents under Electrictruffle's new geodesic dome (Electrictruffle, Peanut, me), while the others were mostly in tents, two in an RV. The group shared a large shade structure with seating and tables and rugs (that not only provided excellent shade, but stayed up through the vagaries of the weather), a cooking area, and a shower. I knew one of the original Peep-ers beforehand (Powerfrau) but by the end of the week, I felt a part of the group (we three domists were a later addition). (*waves* to everyone, including Marnie, Lee, Barry, Coral, John, and Clay).

When the afternoon heat made me unable to face going out (I didn't realize until later that I really should've been more careful about electrolytes, which might've made the afternoons more available as active time), I hung out around the camp, pimping Peeps to passers-by. We had a front walkway flanked on either side by giant inflatable Peeps, which lit up at night. This meant we were very identifiable, and findable at night, which was useful. It didn't hurt that our address (3:45 and Estuary) meant we were right by one of the large 'mini-Men' around the city, so there was a landmark visible from afar. I was amused to find how many people were using our camp as a landmark.

The dome was really impressive. Electrictruffle cut all the bars and made sure he had all the widgets and so forth necessary for a geodesic dome 16 feet in diameter (the only tool needed was an allen wrench). There was a blue tarp underneath, and five rebar stakes pounded in along the bottom circumference and attached with releasable cable ties. A white tarp went over the top, leaving space at the bottom even when folded over to fit the plane on the hemisphere, and on the inside there was a many-gored 'skirt' of radiant barrier foil to cut down on the oven potential of it all. I take my hat off to the creator: it worked very well and was very solid. I didn't stake my tent into the playa, but attached it to the dome with a couple of the cable ties, and that was enough. (I'd been worried about camping and the weather, and this alleviated lots of my concerns.)

I'd seen maps of the city in advance, and it looks quite orderly on paper: concentric roads around a middle circle, running from 2 o'clock to 10 o'clock (the other part of the circle left as open playa for art), with this year's rings being in alphabetical order (Arctic, Boreal, Coral Reef, and so on, down to Jungle and Landfill). On the ground, however, it was more chaotic, with tents and domes and RVs and all sorts of other structures everywhere. The streets were open, but it wasn't always clear where one camp ended and the next began. At least there were street signs for most of the week. And people tended to be helpful with directions. I hadn't gotten a real sense of scale, either: it's large!

Of course, having time as place meant that it could be challenging when discussing events at particular times: was that a location in time or space? I kept thinking of the islands of the Abarat...

I hadn't brought a bike, not wanting to figure out transcontinental shipping, nor deal with dust and such in my bike (which wouldn't've survived, anyway; skinny tires are not appropriate). I hadn't thought that there'd be people in Gerlach (last town south of the playa) offering bikes, and didn't take advantage of that, either. Of course, a bike turned out to be pretty necessary if I wanted to explore the city on the other side of the playa. Luckily, I was able to borrow bikes a couple of times (I didn't find one of the free bikes around, but I never looked very hard, either (someone had loosed some large number of green bikes labeled 'yellow bikes', which were free to whoever found them, and had to be left available for someone else to find next. Very cool.)), so I did make it over to the other side, 6 to 10 o'clock. Not nearly as much as the home side, but there's no way to see everything anyway.

I was on wheeled vehicles four times, and managed to fall off twice. The first time, I was going in circles around the others, unable to keep myself going as slowly, so happy to be out on a bike, and amazed to realize that on this one I could pedal standing up (non trivial for me). I was turning a bit too tightly and hit a patch of dust, and went over. Result: impressive black and blue marks, some sore muscles, and a long cut. It gave me an excuse to stop by the medic tent in center camp, and they were quite efficient in wrapping it up. The other time was less damaging: I was on the back of a tandem which had bamboo pieces sticking up in back, so I needed to swing my leg in front of me instead of behind me. I forgot, got my leg tangled in the wood, and went over. Being stationary, not much damage, other than to my ego...

I love the parade of people, the fantastic costumes and odd bikes and innovative art cars (none of the huge party buses came down our street, happily). No one costume stands out in my head, just an astonishing array of things, from minimal clothing to EL wire-enhanced clothes at night to all sorts of interesting garb. Many more men wearing skirts than I'd've expected (utilikilts, yes, also long gauzy skirts, sarongs of varying lengths, jumpers, dresses, and so on). Also many people without much clothing at all, which kept making me wonder about sunburn in uncomfortable places.

The water truck comes by at least once a day, spraying non-potable water over the road to keep the dust down, heralded by cries of "water truck!" in advance. People run behind it to hose themselves down, as it were, some of them with soap for a quick wash.

We weren't too far from a bank of PortaPotties, which were cleaned at least daily, so there wasn't usually much smell (there was Purell at each end; I wonder what things were like before Purell). Once we were bringing Peeps to the people while our bank was being cleaned, so we left boxes of Peeps on the front seats of both trucks. After that, whenever the trucks came past our camp, they smiled and waved the boxes at us.

There was a schedule of events, but I only made it to one class. Some of that was my lameness, but some of it was frustration with how the schedule was put together: the front of the booklet listed events chronologically, just giving the title. Then you had to go to the back of the booklet where all the events (that made it in before the printing deadline, of course) were listed in alphabetical order (except the ones that weren't there at all), which gave a brief description and the name of the host camp. To find out where the camp was, you had to pull out a separate map with an alphabetical listing of camps. Too annoying. So for the most part, meander was the name of things.

I had been told that the post office people could be mean, but every time I went, they totally rocked. And I know it shows I'm a geek, but one of the best things was realizing that the post office was open 24/7. Such service! I never sent anything within the city (unfortunately), but it pleased me enormously to bring 20 postcards over at 2 A.M. and hand them to a postal clerk (who checked that every address was legible before sending each piece on its way). It didn't hurt that many of them were happy to flirt, too :-)

I got to play Pooh ball! There was a labyrinth on the ground in center camp, and a huge ball that was wholly covered in stuffed Poohs that we kicked around for a while, mostly avoiding the people walking the labyrinth. (It was hard work, too; Poohs are not aerodynamic.)

After a couple of failed attempts, I found Globedoc's camp, up by 2:30 and Arctic. I still can't believe that it took both of us going to Nevada to get together again. While I was there, I had my hand henna'd, very beautifully (alas, for it is mostly gone now). It felt strange mostly because I think of henna'ing hands as something some Sefaradi brides do to celebrate. Plus some neck/forehead massage from Globedoc, of course :-).

There was wireless access available, but that was easy only for thems with machines. I don't have appropriate devices, so the lure of teh Intarwebs was quite small. For which I am glad, actually.

One of the structures out in the playa: imagine the structure of a carnival ride, the one with all those swings that hang down, then swing out when the center rotates. Take off the swings, and add monkeys at the top, each one slightly different than the next. Along the arm going out to each monkey was a green snake with a red apple, each of these also slightly different than the next. At the foot of the structure were a number of hand drums. If you played enough, the structure would start to spin, and you could watch the animation of the snake giving the monkey an apple (easier to see when you put on the monkey mask with special plastic in it). It was easier to see as a repeating film when people used the exerbikes circling it, which started strobe lights on the whole. I wish I understood how drumming could cause rotation...

Another structure: a series of white arches, that didn't look like anything much, until I went through one. It lit up, and played a tone. There were six or eight arches, and it was fun playing to see how to manipulate the motion detectors (and hard to resist playing with it on Shabbat, but I did).

A musical moment: a guy unicycling down the street while playing an amplified classical guitar. He paused to perform for us, playing something incredibly pleasant while keeping his unicycle barely not stationary on our front walk.

I didn't sleep more than three hours consecutively. Some of that was the noise, but a lot of it was the water: I was pushing fluids aggressively, and there's nothing like needing the bathroom in the middle of the night to get you up. Plus, oh, all sorts of stuff going on all the time.

The first night was the lunar eclipse. I couldn't stay up that late given my sleep dep, so I'm very glad I woke up again not long before it started. I meandered around on the Esplanade, looking at all the neat stuff in between watching the moon slowly get swallowed. It felt a bit strange to be out alone (definite moments of the bad kind of alone in a crowd feeling), but not so much that I could muster the energy to change it. I was back in Peep camp before totality, watching the last bulging drop of radiant white light licked away, and the moon turned to redness, letting the starlight into prominence that the full moon would allow no other way. The Milky Way was beautiful, too. (Side note: there's lots of light and fire and such at night, but it's mostly not the kind that projects upward, so the sky feels much more accessible than in a regular city.) I was too tired to sit through totality without conversation or other distraction, though. I did wake up early enough to see moonset over the mountains, the most impressive moonset of the week because it was so close to sunrise, and the moon was still solid, rather than ethereal as it gets during the day.

We had a couple of amazingly clear days to start, for which I am very grateful. There was a dust storm partway through the week, which let me discover just how not-good the goggles and dust-mask I'd brought were. Ah, well. Luckily, I was able to shelter through most of that one in a pyramid, sitting on green green grass. It smelled amazing, that little green oasis imported into the dusty desert. The second one, however, was much more difficult, since I was out with a bunch of people on bikes. We sheltered behind a van for a while as it browned out, but eventually decided to keep on going. We walked our bikes for a while, until the wind wasn't quite so strong, then went on biking. We found out later that the winds were at least 60 miles/hour (!). It wasn't a happiness, with the mask/goggle situation (especially since I also had a running nose; something about my undersleptness and the desert combined into an annoying nose-throat thing), but I survived it quite intact :-). After most of the storm had blown through, we had a little bit of rain, which was lovely (not enough to make mud, but enough to help the dust settle), and then a rainbow! Which we could see both ends of. And then it became a double rainbow (my first!), the inner one dazzling in its intensity. Totally gorgeous. (The only weather that felt missing was seeing a lightning storm....)

There are burn barrels everywhere, most of them made more interesting than just being a barrel. Some have cutouts, some are constructed to be things like a huge head, or an old van, and so on. Through the week, to minimize trash to pack out, we separated out paper, also vegetable matter that could be dried out enough to burn. It only occurred to me later that with a bunch of aluminum foil and some good tongs (plus foods I hadn't brought), I could've made some nice hot meals...

I did make a solar lunch one day, putting couscous, TVP, garlic flakes, spinach powder, dehydrated soup veggies, and sun-dried tomatoes with a bunch of water in a covered and foil-wrapped pot, set in the back of the truck. It was done when I checked 40 minutes later. Whee! OK, plus, I got to feed someone else, which always makes me happy. (Note to self: couscous works great; the lentils, not so much. Also, a cup of couscous with all this other stuff is enough for at least four people on the playa.)

There's a lot of flame. Not just the burn barrels, and the Man, of course, but people spinning poi (incredibly talented people, many of them; I saw some impressive choreography), and odd vehicles that shot fire, and a marching band with... a flaming tuba! Whenever the tuba player pushed air through it, flames leapt up from the top third of the outer perimeter of the horn. Totally astonishing.

OK, there is no obvious stopping point, but I think this is it for now. More later.

Date: 2007-09-05 09:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rethought.livejournal.com
I had other thoughts...but, flaming tuba! *boggles*

Date: 2007-09-06 12:05 am (UTC)
From: [personal profile] arfur
I saw a picture of it someplace recently, possibly even mainstream media...yes, it was the story of how arson caused an earlier burn of the Big Man.

can't find the original, but I believe this was the photo.

Date: 2007-09-06 01:35 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magid.livejournal.com
That looks about right, though it was much more impressive when the band marched by at dusk...

(And started playing a swingy version of a song my Dad used to sing to me when I was little; worlds collided.)

Date: 2007-09-07 02:39 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magid.livejournal.com
Other thoughts welcome once you're over the flaming tuba :-)

Date: 2007-09-05 10:16 pm (UTC)
gingicat: deep purple lilacs, some buds, some open (Default)
From: [personal profile] gingicat
It sounds like a lot of fun; other reports have made it sound both fun and a lot of work. You don't mention being horribly hot except during the afternoons, which makes me hopeful of sometime trying to go.

Date: 2007-09-06 01:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magid.livejournal.com
It's definitely a lot of work. I was extremely lucky to have other people who did far more than their fair share of it to make my time go smoothly.

The mornings were hot but not unbearably so, and I suspect I would've coped better with the later sun had I been drinking more than just water. One of the evenings stayed fairly warm (and humid; no fair!), but usually it cooled off quite a bit (a jacket being necessary by morning, if not sooner). I've heard that some years it gets down to the 40s overnight (F), which didn't happen this year.

Date: 2007-09-05 11:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hrafn.livejournal.com
giant inflatable Peeps, which lit up at night

There really are Peeps for every occasion! :) It sounds really amazing, all of it. And yay for postcard!

Date: 2007-09-06 01:39 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magid.livejournal.com
One of the inflatable Peeps was run over by a bicyclist late in the week... and one of my campmates had yellow duct tape to patch it with :-)

I can totally picture you going, you know.

And yay for postal service that works!
If only I'd remembered to send myself one. D'oh!

Date: 2007-09-06 03:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hrafn.livejournal.com
I'd really like to go, but in the years since I first really 1) learned about it and 2) knew people who go, I haven't really been able to :\
The SO has gone, and would like to go again, so maybe next year, or the year after, when I have money and vacation time again . . .

Date: 2007-09-06 01:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magid.livejournal.com
I think I'll be going again, but possibly not next year... it would be cool if it happened we all went the same year.

Date: 2007-09-06 06:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] xuth.livejournal.com
As for getting stuff to and from BRC, investing in a share in the boston burning truck ( http://burningtruck.chaoshacker.org/ ) is well worth it. I took two bicycles with me (one practical which pulled a trailer for hauling, say, 160 pounds of ice for my camp and the other borrowed from scul).

Date: 2007-09-06 01:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magid.livejournal.com
Thanks for the pointer; people had mentioned "send stuff in the truck," but without more detail, I hadn't bothered to try to track it down.

Currently I don't own a playa-appropriate bike (skinny tires would be incredibly stupid), but that can be fixed. Or I might just be lazy and get one in Gerlach, depending on how I get there next time.

I stopped by your camp once, btw, but my timing was off, and I didn't make it over that way nearly as much as I'd hoped. Did you have a good Burn?

Date: 2007-09-06 04:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] xuth.livejournal.com
Trashpick almost any bike and maybe fix it up a bit and you've got yourself a playa worthy bike. Build a 4'x5'x1' crate and you can get the bicycle plus quite a bit of stuff onto the playa for about $100. I bought a full 100' share but I made a bike crate that fit this description out of 1/4" plywood and 2x2's (well 2x4's ripped in half). Worked quite well for my needs.

Date: 2007-09-06 04:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magid.livejournal.com
I like the implication that I have far more tool skills than I see myself as having :-)

That would free up a lot more space in my luggage! This year I was fitting pretty much everything into two suitcases and a carryon, and that didn't feel like I brought enough clothing/artstuff.

Date: 2007-09-06 10:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scholargipsy.livejournal.com
I think it's awesome that you did this, and I really enjoyed reading your words about it. Would love to see more.

Date: 2007-09-06 01:54 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magid.livejournal.com
Will be posting more; it's just far too much to think about/type in at once. (And part of me is still surprised that I did this :-)

I thought about sending you a postcard, but wasn't sure whether I had your current address...

Date: 2007-09-06 11:21 am (UTC)
gilana: (Default)
From: [personal profile] gilana
Wow, that sounds amazing. Thanks for posting, and thanks for the postcard!

Date: 2007-09-06 01:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magid.livejournal.com
It was amazing. There were lows, too, of course. But on the whole, intensely wonderful.

I'm glad the postcard made it :-)

Date: 2007-09-06 01:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] library-sexy.livejournal.com
Sounds like you had a wonderful time.

Did you have a camera with you?

Date: 2007-09-06 02:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magid.livejournal.com
It was intense. Sometimes wonderful, sometimes not, but always more focused.

Rhya lent me his camera at gaming last session, so I did have a camera with, though I didn't fool around with it enough to figure much out, unfortunately. So I have some pictures (not as many as I should've) of unknown quality, still to get off the camera.

Date: 2007-09-07 12:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mabfan.livejournal.com
Lunar eclipse!

Date: 2007-09-07 02:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magid.livejournal.com
Did you end up seeing it here?

Date: 2007-09-07 11:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mabfan.livejournal.com
Sadly, we missed it. But I've seen eclipses before, and there will be others in the future.

Date: 2007-09-07 06:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curly-chick.livejournal.com
Thank you for the write-up. It sounds so amazing yet terrifying to me.

Date: 2007-09-07 07:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magid.livejournal.com
I could see you doing it more easily in an RV than camping, I have to admit. But I think you'd have a great time if you go.

Date: 2007-09-09 05:37 am (UTC)
cellio: (fire)
From: [personal profile] cellio
I've enjoyed reading about your trip to Burning Man. It sounds cool and wacky and exciting and long and tiring and nifty all rolled up into one. :-)

Date: 2007-09-09 09:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magid.livejournal.com
That pretty much covers it in a nutshell :-).

I'm still not finished (and really want to write stuff up before midweek, so it's done before yom tov, especially because I don't want to write it with more hindsight but less detail, which is what tends to happen to me with carefully aged data...).

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