reflecting man

I have been putting off writing this post for some reason. I had started another post about the event, but found that I was just trying to remember the timeline of events. Instead, I thought I should post about my feelings on the event.

I had no idea what to expect from this year’s event, of course. However, this time, it was different. Suddenly I had responsibilities to think of. This year’s trip was the most complicated of all the years I have been. Between the seperate groups going up on different days to the sharing of the space in the truck I rented. These two variable situations made for an incredibly tiring and stressful departure for the event. The shared space was also a point of stress on the return trip, but that’s another story.

The actual drive there was remarkably easy this year, though. With just Amanda and I in the truck, we were able to drive stress-free for the whole time. We broke every couple of hours and it was rather calming and relaxing for the most part. We had the opportunity to stop in Davis, which was only a few minutes out of the way, and see Michael at his new place. This stop was a great idea. Even though we only got to see Michael very briefly, we also got to nap for an hour or so. This allowed us to mentally divide the trip in half. I really liked this aspect of the trip and I would like to try it again next year.

Getting to Burning Man, after a great and easy drive and a few days early, meant a whole new experience for me. This was my 7th year there and everything was brand new — in a whole new way. I was seeing the city earlier than I ever had. It was a really great experience. Also, working for Gate & Perimiter Staff has its benefits. I was lucky enough to get an Eat It All pass to the Staff Commissary. This was also a brand-new experience for me. I got to eat there for any meal on any day and fill up on Ceralite, which was like watered-down gatorade that went down like cold milk.

Building our camp was a completely different process, as well. With only Amanda and I there in the beginning, we wanted to have shade and the only was to do that was to build most of the camp by ourselves. So, we did just that and it was tiring as hell. That mixed with working our shifts at the gate were very taxing on us the first few days. When the others arrived, building and maintaining the camp became a lot easier and a lot more difficult. More difficult because more people meant more to do. In almost no time at all, we had the dome built, a kitchen setup and a shower. The campsite, I must say, was pretty fantastic. I think more decorations are always needed and hopefully next year, with this almost perfected camp setup, we can have exactly the camp that everyone wants.

Working the gate was an awesome experience that I know I will want to repeat next year. Being the first person that someone talks to on their way into the event is great fun. Our responsibilities as gate staff were to check tickets and look for counterfeits and to search the vehicles that enter. The search is mostly to find stow-aways in the cars, vans, RVs, trucks, SUVs and buses.

I had the privledge of finding one such stow-away, which we liked to call Hippies. She was int he back of a station wagon-like car. She was hiding under a bunch of crap, inside a nylon drawstring bag. I reached into the car, because feeling with your arm finds people a lot better than looking with your eyes, and grabbed the blue bag wich felt oddly warm, but also hard and squishy at the same time. It was a little scary, actually, to grab onto something and know it’s a body immediately. Anyway, I grabbed a supervisor and they hauled her off and made her buy a ticket, as they do when they find Hippies.

Findng stow-aways isn’t the most fun part of the job, though. Being kinda weird and talking to all these different people who are so excited to be there that some of them get out of their RVs, fall to the ground, kiss the playa and then hug you. Meeting all the other volunteers, sharing good times and bad beers with one another and generally being as weird as you wanna be. Those are the best parts about working the gate.

So, with everyone there and all of us falling into place with our volunteer jobs, the week flew right by! Of course, time was made for venturing out and seeing all the fantastic art and other weird crap. The art was pretty impressive in some cases and somewhat disappointing in others. I was very impressed with The Man and his funhouse. While, I never went inside the base, I was told by many in camp that it was pretty cool. I liked the idea of him turning as well, but didn’t see that happen too often. I was somewhat disappointed in the Temple, however. It may have been the size or the color, but what convinced me that I wasn’t as taken with this one was that I wasn’t emotionally affected when I went inside it. Last year’s Temple actually overwhelmed me with emotion when I went inside and I had to leave because it was creepy. It was a beautiful Temple, don’t get me wrong. It just didn’t have the same kind of impact as all the others have on me.

A few of my favorite art pieces were there, like the Light Cube. I found my way to it a number of times this year. I was hoping he had been able to build a much larger one, like he wanted to, but was happy enough to see the smaller one with some new patterns. A lot of the really interesting art was placed extremely far from camp, so it was a whole ordeal to get out to most of the good stuff. I wish I had gone out at least one more time to see some of it all, but I say that every year.

The Burn was great. I had a video camera and a comfortable chair and we got some pretty close seats, so all was well. The Fire Conclave put on their usual shenanigans, but could have spread themselves out more to allow more of the circle to see them. Then, the Burn began and was over as quickly as it had started. My theory is that something went wrong with the fireworks, because they seemed to all go off at once. The display lasted only a few minutes, when previous displays have lasted for 10 or 15 minutes. I haven’t looked into this, but it just seemed to be a little quick and other people were saying similar things right afterwards. So, the Burn was quick and the Man fell in a way he never has and I really enjoyed it.

Because of the length of time we had been there, especially Amanda and myself, we decided we weren’t going to stay Sunday night on the playa. We thought we deserved a good night’s rest in a motel room before driving all the way home. So, we got 2 rooms at Motel 6 and crashed out. This was another brilliant plan that I would like to copy next year, but this time plan for it.

This group of people was a great mix for the event. Plus, we had a number of other people who were essentially in our camp that added a lot of variety and character to the event and kept us all entertained. Were it not for those others, we might have all ended up killing each other… or worse. No, really I just think we might have all burned out on the playa a few days sooner.

We escaped the playa with no broken-down vehicles, only one minor injury and some extra booze. It seemed that everyone had a great time and that first stop in town for food was gluttonous and disgusting, but we all loved it. I hope to return to the event next year with all the people from this year and more.

there. i did it. burning man post, done.