Burning Man

     Of course what would be a blog in "memoirs of a club kid" without posting about "Burning Man"! For those of you who don't know what Burning man is, well, it is a week long party, the week before and the weekend of labor day. There is a gathering of of over fifty thousand people the the Blackrock desert in Nevada. I attended Burning Man in the year 2004 but this is already after it has gotten very popular, each year the numbers grow larger and larger I imagine. The Burning Man rave started out in the early to mid nineties on the beaches of California with a handful of dedicated ravers, nature lovers, and humanitarians. The beach raves (kinda like ours here in Hawaii) ended up becoming too large, so the rave called Burning Man was moved from the beaches of California to the desert of Nevada. Oh, the gathering is called burning man because there is a wooden hand built fifty foot man. At the end of the week long partying and raving, the man is set on fire and everyone watches the flames huge and wide engulf the wooden image of themselves. Also at Burning Man there is a temple, also hand built out of wood, where one can go and write a prayer onto the wood; prayers to loved one's passed, or present, or any prayer that is special, a day before the man is burned, the temple is burned first. (I believe. . . my memory may be a little fuzzy :))
     I flew into Las Vegas from Honolulu. I had never been to Vegas or to Burning Man. From what I had heard there were camps set up all through the gathering and that is how one decided where to stay for the week. Also, the motto behind Burning Man was "leave no trace", meaning whatever you bring in you take with you, no littering, no trashing, no dumping. Also, people have to bring in all of their own food supplies for the week, and especially water (being in the desert, water is very important), because there are no monetary transactions at Burning man meaning no way to buy food. Since there are no monetary transactions at burning man, everyone deals in barters. Like trading a massage for a drink, etc...  I flew into Vegas, met up with my friends from Hawaii, because we were all going to stay together at the Hawaii camp! Also, from past "Burners" (we like to call people that go to burning man every year burners) we learned that the desert weather can be especially brutal. I mean over one hundred degrees in the day time with gnarly dust storms, and as low as forty degrees at night time! So with the guidance of our burner friends, we all agreed on renting a trailer for the trip. Our trailer was awesome! It had air-conditioning, a shower, toilet, beds, couches, a kitchen, and was very comfortable. I highly recommend renting a trailer if you decide to go to burning man, it really helps!
     Once at burning man, you have to find your camp site. Also, at the entrance you are greeted by people in the silliest costumes, but that is just a teaser until the real party gets started. Ex. Teddy Bears, but we got there early in the morning, so everyone was dressed super warm. The way that the festival is designed is in maybe, five or six concentric half circles are named five different avenues. Within the semi circles, they are dissected into pie slices, these become other named streets. The streets are wittily named too, like "charmed", or "species", or "enlighten". (Btw, if an avid Burner is reading this, I may get some of the details wrong, but after almost ten years come one! no one's memory is perfect) In the center of the semi circle, where the radius would begin if it were drawn on a piece of paper, is the camp center. Here there is a huge tent for people to hang out, also they sell the two things only sold on the entire place, ice cubes and coffee. :)
     As one walks around the "playa" (that is what they call the area of Burning man, in spanish I believe i t means beach) there are huge sculptures of wired people, abstractions, a forty foot see saw. Also, sometimes traveling across the playa can be cumbersome if having to walk, so it is allowed for people to build their own mode of transportation. The transportation cannot be like a regular car or bus, or moped. Rules say that is one brings transportation is that it must be decorated or done in a way as to not look like a car. I have seen, rolling by me, double decker pirate ships serving sushi, I have sat on a train on top of a swing anchored ten feet above the second story of the train, I have seen a huge cheshire cat purple and stripped glowing past me, and many more. And if one didn't want to walk there were always ample bicycles around. The bicycles were free for anyone to use, just leave um and find um and ride um.
     Maybe with more time I can go into detail about some of my most fond experiences there at Burning man. But the best one and the most moving, was visiting my favorite artist camp. Alex Grey, this is before I met him in Italy, and it was phenomenal to meet him and chill with him in his camp. Also, for me, seeing the burning man burn down to the ground was a very spiritual and moving experience for me, I saw myself in the wooden creation, burning away, and becoming a new being, like shedding a layer of old skin making room for new growth. Tears even came to my eyes. One of the most beautiful images I remember from Burning Man, is watching the sun rise in the desert. While people were dancing to the music I was sitting on this sculpture made of metal and rubber and paint which had a balancing swing on it, and I just watched. As the warm sun rose over the cold desert, it looked like to me we were on the moon. I thought to myself we could be dancing on the moon. A gorgeous moment I will never forget. It's moments like these that make life worth living. Special moments that arise an emotion of mystery, awe, and gratitude, for we are so small, yet we are the entire Universe!