Burning Man

Burning Man 2005

[ I'm back from the playa and onto my next adventure -- the Future of Music Policy Summit in Washington DC. I wasn't quite ready for the real world when I returned from the Playa and I certainly wasn't ready to go to DC. But here I am and after some much needed sleep, I'm feeling a lot more up for attending (and participating in) a conference. ]

Anyway -- Burning Man was awesome. Of course the usual words can't describe it -- Burning Man can never be described in words. To take it all in, to understand, you need to go. After all these years its still true.

This year was markedly different from the previous few years. After last year I was contemplating taking a year off to not burn out (pun intended), but then the Borg 2 came along and promised to shake things up and get more art into the playa. Then more of my friends said they wouldn't be going, which was alarming at first, but then I realized that these friends had gone multiple years, but most of them had never created any art. So no great loss. But this mounted some amount of uncertainty over the event, which became a draw for me. The last time I felt this uncertainty was in 1997, which turned out to be the best Burning Man for me yet.

The Fandango camp was allotted much more space this year and we were not packed in like sardines they way we had been the last two years. We grew more organic and took on more people that had never camped with us before. And even some people like Simone, who we didn't know at all, fit in perfectly with us. The Fandango/Orbitals camp was stocked with good communal areas like the Monkey Lounge and Chad's geodesic dome and the ever important showers. With fewer people in camp, there were shorter lines for the shower too.

In the Orbitals camp people were constantly making food for the rest of the group. Bacon was the camp food of choice. I was fed quesadillas, grilled cheez sandwiches and several types of burritos -- to the point where I never ate my own lunch food. So in the end I started feeding people bagels with lox and cream cheez because I never ate my lunch. I also made a tons of espresso for people (175 shots all told), which was a big hit with my regular customers. Being in camp was fun -- very much fun indeed!

And then there was the art -- the gobs and gobs of art everywhere. Some important projects from last year came back, and a number of new multi year art projects made it to the playa this year. (These multi year projects are probably one of the reasons why last year there was so little art). Please keep an eye on my photo blog over the next few weeks as I post pictures of my favorite art pieces from the playa -- there were so many of them, that I am planning on posting nearly a 100 pictures this year.

Back to Borg 2 for a second -- Borg 2 started out with some lofty goals for this year (raise $250,000 for art) and then quickly changed that to 250,000 pennies, but in the end they raised only $5000. Weak. Raising money is hard. They funded Dance Dance Immolation, which was really cool (and run my good friends of mine), but aside from that the Borg 2 art I encountered in the playa left me wondering: What is this and what is it good for? To say the least, I was not impressed.

I think the only good thing that Borg 2 did was to actually shake up BMorg a bit and cause more funds for art to be kicked loose and for more focus and organization on that art. Which in the end worked out real nice. But does Borg 2 need to come back next year? Not sure -- if they do, I hope they start with more realistic expectations this time.

As for me: I'll be back. I'm taking a break until January and then I'll continue working on my art scooter. My energy in Burning Man has been renewed!

Posted by Mayhem at September 11, 2005 08:21 AM