A huge thanks to Chris again for letting us pit stop in Eugene!!
Burning Man.......
How do I even begin to describe this?
My short answer is: It's a bunch of people acting weird in the desert, then they set everything on fire.
It was almost too much!
I didn't take that many pictures when I was there. None of it really made sense as a picture. I wish I had taken more now, but, it's hard to think of documenting something when you yourself are getting overwhelmed.
Emotionally. it a roller coaster. And, I was taking it very light!
I was happy, sad, energetic, lazy, confused, alert, grateful, disgusted, in awe, and, annoyed all at the same time.
I saw people at their most beautiful, and at their lowest.
I had art actually touch me, move me, alienate me.
I fell in love, while being angry.
I'll run down some of the pictures I have and try and explain them.
I can't run it down in consecutive days because your sense of time get lost. "Playa time" as they call it, the whole week become a blur. Plans are made and nothing happens, but somehow, you're never bored.
One thing is the sheer scope of some of these installations!
The city is a circle about 1.5 miles in diameter. I ventured out one day and got some good shots of the city.
That oil rig is about six stories!! You see it in the distance in the picture above.
The man. (taken later, before the burn.)
The Thunderdome:
In the outer circle, there were three tea cups. I liked this picture of the toes and umbrella poking out.
There's a picture of me in the big rig jig on my front page. Real semis!!
The Temple.
These two arrived later in the week.
There were about 12 of those maids invading camps and dusting thing off.
Not that it helped.....
There were dust storms two of the days with a little drizzle during one of them, so, what you get is dust drops.
But, as with everything bad, you get some thing wonderful..
That rainbow was pretty amazing
Midweek I finally found Medic (Shaun)!
I haven't seen him in about 12 years!! So awesome seeing him! A great friend from Sarasota, living in Seattle now!
His camp "Iron Monkeys" built four trees that were next to the man.
The Steam Punk Treehouse
This is a fair representation of our camp....
At night the place comes alive!! Lights and flame everywhere!
The man at night. Before he got burned the first time. Some one set him on fire early, then they had to spend the whole week building him again to burn him on Friday.
Keep in mind that that statue is about two stories high.
The fire stage.
They suggest that everyone and all vehicles are well lit.
Makes for quite the panorama, but, blinkys and tacky rope lighting as well. Though I thought the soccer players were novel.
One night a light saber battle broke out. About 1500 I think.
At the base of the tree house was a cute theatre about the end of the world.
Sonically, it was overwhelming!! Huge sound systems, The larger "Art" cars (read: party bus = annoying), and individual camps. there was never a moment without sound or music. NEVER! Not even in the deep Playa.
...wouldn't be so bad except the large portion of techno..... some good moments.
So, on Saturday night they burn the man. The whole city gathers. Before that all the fire performers get together circling doing a bunch of routines. That's a pretty cool sight.
Fireworks
Then they set him on fire...
30,000+ people partying around a bonfire....
Then they set the oil rig on fire.
The next night is a bit calmer.
The Temple burn.
There are so many things to explain, and, a whole lot of detail I left out..
But I'm just giving you a bit of what I've seen. Trying to keep things moving along.
Like I said, TOO MUCH. But in a great way.
Look into it. There are so many stories and pictures....
I didn't take many pictures because I just can't describe it.
.....But I'll keep trying.......
The ride home was cool. We stopped at a natural hot springs!! SOOOOO NICE!
And, made a small stop at a cool cave.
Back to Canada!! um.....