August 25 - September 2, 2002

The log for burning man is going to be a bit different than what you have been reading up to this point.  This page is going to hold the Burning Man log and pictures only.  At the top and bottom of the page there are links to a couple of pages of burning man pictures.  Warning - there is nudity and a wide variety of people and experiences in the pictures, but they are not taken in a way that should be offensive to anyone.

Burning Man The City, Community, and People.

Burning Man Art and Art Cars.

Sunday, August 25, 2002                                                    Black Rock City, NV

We woke early and performed one last stop in Reno to pick up a 20lb block of dry ice and some crushed ice.  Christine bought a large quantity of bagged frozen strawberries and peaches to use in daiquiris and margaritas.  We slowly progressed north of Reno to the small town of Gerlach at the south end of the Black Rock Desert.  We were in a bit of a convoy of overloaded cars, rental trucks and RVs heading north. We stopped in Gerlach for lunch, just ten miles short of Black Rock City.  We were both anxious with anticipation.

The festival doesn’t officially open until tomorrow, so we thought we might have to provide an explanation for being early.  We were prepared to claim that we were part of the ‘advance team’ for our theme camp: Garage Mahal.  Boy were we surprised as we approached the playa.  There are already 10,000 people here doing ‘advance set-up.’  We were amazed out how established the city already was.  We had no trouble getting in and easily found our way to our theme camp at 240°, between Midships and Mizzen.

Burning Man literally rises out of the bare desert each year.  Since there aren’t any physical landmarks, all geographic references have to be invented.  The Man (a seventy foot structure that gets burned on Saturday night) is located at the center point of a massive circle.  From The Man, concentric circles spread out beginning at 2100’ and continue for eight blocks out to 3900’.  This makes the diameter of the circle almost 1.5 miles across. 

This year’s festival theme is “The Floating World,” and any loose interpretation that artistically evolves from those three words.  In line with the theme, the streets that make up the concentric circles have been named with the features of a sailboat from stem to stern.  After The Esplanade at 2100’ the streets are named Bowsprit, Forecastle, Mainmast, Midships, Mizzen, Wheelhouse, Fantail, and finally the Abyss at 3900’.

The city does not form a complete circle.  The streets radiating out from the center begin at 60° on the compass and continue around to 300° in 15° increments.  It is all well surveyed and marked with street signs at the intersections. ( To see a map of the city, click here).

So, now that we’re here—just what is Burning Man?  In brief, you have to come and see it to fully understand it, and I don’t even think I have a full understanding yet.  The official website is www.burningman.com and it can answer many questions you might have.  I will endeavor to summarize, but must be excused for any errors in my effort.

Burning Man originates from a weekend event on Baker Beach in northern California in 1988, attended mostly by the club culture in San Francisco.  The event symbolically burned a large stick figure of a man in a liberating gesture about loosening the restrictive shackles of the staid workaday life.  The activity was steeped in cathartic expressions that intended to awaken the artist in everyone.  The event quickly evolved into an event that needed a location without boundaries—enter the playa.  Today the event is still dominated by the energies originating in the San Francisco clubbing scene.

Black Rock Desert is a mostly dry silt alkaline Salt Pan referred to as the playa, sitting at 3,848’ in elevation.  It is the second largest flat region in North America.  The festival received permission from the BLM (U.S. Bureau of Land Management) to use the playa for the festival each year during the week preceding Labor Day, though preparations of the site begin two weeks earlier, and clean up lasts into October.  The festival pays a hefty fee for its permit from the BLM.

The local law enforcement units have given Burning Man ‘city’ status as Black Rock City.  The festival’s DPW (Department of Public Works) installs the entire infrastructure for the city.  And the Black Rock Rangers, the festival’s own policing force, patrol the city along with BLM agents and officers from the two counties in which the city lies.

Burning Man has been called an exercise in instant community with the common denominator of trying to survive the inhospitable conditions of life on the playa.  At the same time, all participants undertake to express the departure from their workaday lives.  The city functions on a ‘gift economy.’  This is somewhat related to a barter system where your money is no good, but the exchange of goods isn’t necessarily one-to-one.  In a gift economy, everyone gives and receives in general.  In this way, the festival discourages observers from attending.  The festival exists on the philosophy that everyone must participate.  This puts everyone on an even level so that people don’t get objectified.  Participation however, is a nebulous thing to define, and we grappled with the subject for months before finally settling on some ideas of our own.

Cash is useless, except at the Center Camp coffee bar and the Camp Arctica ice vendor.  Vending of any other kind is forbidden and in bad form.  You have what you bring, and you leave nothing behind.  Any deviation from this depends on the exchange of gifts and services in which you participate.

We became associated with the Garage Mahal theme camp when we met Tom while skiing in Colorado this year.  Tom is a veteran of four burns already, and invited us to join his growing camp, which may exceed 80 people this year.  Vince was also attending for the first time.  Vince was part of the annual ski trip this year, and it was through him that we met Tom.  Garage Mahal is a mature group of people, mostly from the Bay Area that aren’t too ambitious about making a big statement, yet put a lot of quality into everything they do.  The camp has invested in some high quality shade structures, and the lights and music that make it all come alive.  This year a subgroup of camp members also poured their heart into building an ‘art car.’ 

“The Floating Temple of Pleasure” is a double-decker party mobile built from an old bread truck.  It has been masterfully engineered with a sturdy infrastructure, and decorated with taste.  Art cars are a feature of the festival, because driving is otherwise forbidden.  Walking and bicycling are the primary modes of transportation, but vehicles clearly altered with artistic vision are permitted to be registered as art cars, and may cruise the city at 5 mph.  Our art car is amazing.  It has ladders front and rear to reach the upper deck, and a ladder up to the crows nest for a bird’s eye view.  A 3000 watt generator powers the impressive sound system and all the lighting, as well as a blender in the bar on the bottom level.  A massive papier-mâché Shiva sits on the prow of the upper deck.

Christine and I busied ourselves upon our arrival with setup of the Garage Mahal community spaces.  Later we positioned the RV with Tom (Tomas) and Vince (Playa Vinnie), and Bill (Lawrence) and Daryl (Playa Shark) to setup our own sub-camp within the theme camp space.  We were told that the wind prevails from the southwest, and thus we faced our awning northeast to avoid having the wind work over the awning.  I purchased extra hardware to secure the awning in this windy environment, and it all seems to work as it should.  Next, we tackled the RV costume that Christine had sewn.  It took some fine-tuning, but we finally got it looking good and holding up to the wind.  Christine served up some gazpacho for me and Vince that she had whipped up in Reno before we left this morning.  Some fresh quesadillas made for a complete dinner.

After dinner we all climbed aboard the Floating Temple of Pleasure for our first tour of the city.  The car was such a hit that people would chase it down to climb on board and join the mobile party.  We had over 50 people on it at one time with 3 people dancing in the crow’s nest.  I am so impressed that it was built to take such abuse.  Christine and I turned in around midnight on this first day with the idea that we are pacing ourselves.

1) This is the Black Rock City sign that welcomed us to the playa.  2)  When we got to the greeter station and they found out we were burning man virgins, they asked us to sit on the thrown and ring the bell.  Yes, we have pictures of both of us doing it.  3) This was a picture taken during our first day at camp.  This shows our dome structure and the art car being put together. 4) The Floating Temple of Pleasure, as you can see it was very popular and luckily extremely sturdy.  5) As Joe mentioned we dressed up the RV, note the hanging lanterns, pillows, grass mats, flags on the awning tie downs, and the cover I sewed for it.

Monday, August 26, 2002                                                    Black Rock City, NV

I didn’t sleep so well last night with the sound of fabric thwacking against the RV.  The first thing I did this morning was to further secure the RV costume to eliminate the thwacking.  We put some finishing touches on the whole presentation, and considered our campsite complete.

Christine and I piddled around on some projects before finally hopping on our bicycles and exploring the city.  It gets pretty hot out in the sun by mid-day, but we covered pretty much ground before coming back to camp to help finish the community projects.  The camp was a mess, and we were having an Open House party tonight.  I couldn’t believe that everything was going to get done, but we had so much help that it all came together with ease.

We all broke up for dinner and cocktails before the party kicked into gear after dark.  The dome was fully carpeted and cleaned up to look like a big basement.  Fluffy pillows and black-lighting helped round out the party atmosphere.  To preserve the clean conditions of the space, there were instructions to take your shoes off at the door.  Christine did enough dancing to make her knees sore.  We stayed up a bit later tonight as opposed to last night, but clearly the action here is 24 hours a day.  It’s no wonder that so many people return from the festival deprived of sleep.

1 and 2) Joe took some pictures from the top of the art car this afternoon.  The first shows our dome structure, part of our shade structures, and behind you can see the corner with our little subcamp, the RV and trucks.  The second picture shows more of the city from that height.  There are still lots of open spaces that will disappear as the week continues.  3) This is a good picture of Vinnie up on the scaffolding.  Our camp was surrounded by these great flags, it really looked sharp.  4) This was the sign that our camp had in front of the shade structures.  An old member did an excellent job on it.

Tuesday, August 27, 2002                                                    Black Rock City, NV

We both slept very well last night and rose to another beautiful day on the playa.  The wind and weather here is described in extremes, but we’ve had fairly moderate conditions these first three days.  The afternoon high has been in the 90’s, and the overnight low drops to the low 60’s.  The constant wind along with some shade makes the afternoon heat easy to bear, and even comfortable most of the time, however it can get downright cool in the evening.  And the wind always brings with it an ample sample of the playa in the form of a fine dust coating everything.  The alkalinity of the dust makes it especially unfriendly to skin.  The dust dries out everything.  Walking in bare feet on the playa is an invitation for playa foot—a condition of dry cracked skin on the bottoms of the feet.  This is best avoided by slathering your feet with lotion in the morning before putting shoes and socks on.  These are the only items of clothing that are strongly encouraged in the Burning Man Survival Guide.

Christine and I went for a two-hour walk through the city.  Most of the theme camps are still being assembled, but we were able to get an idea of what’s underway.  Most of the camps should be close to finished by tomorrow night.  It’s hard to comprehend how much effort goes into these camps only to have it all torn down at the end of the week.  I’m glad we came early enough to see the city evolve and the camps form.

Most of the afternoon was spent just hanging out in the shade and getting to know each other.  Christine began serving her afternoon frozen cocktails yesterday to all the camp workers, and she made the rounds again today.  We need to run our generator for an hour each day to keep the battery charged, so this makes a good excuse for running a blender at the same time.  Yesterday, Christine made peach daiquiris and strawberry margaritas.  Today, she made watermelon margaritas and virgin peach daiquiris.

We headed out on bikes to explore our city at night.  Many of the artistic installations on the playa are meant to be observed in the dark.  The use of light and fire brings life to the darkness of the night.  Christine and I faired pretty well as we visited some of the theme camps and did a little dancing, but we still found ourselves back in bed by 1:00 AM.  We just don’t seem to have the stamina for this kind of partying.  It is referred to by many as the marathon of parties.  Playa Vinnie, our campmate, commented on it being a modern day Sodom.  I don’t think that’s a very fitting comparison, though it inspires some interesting conversation.

By Christine: Garage Mahal members have great ways of contributing to the camp.  Tonight two members put on a wonderful oyster and martini bar for the camp.  During that one of our members, Ruby,  was looking for someone to wear a wig, as I was feeling that my clothes were definitely not interesting enough I was happy to wear it.  It was a fun night.

1) Ruby and Christine; 2) Tom; 3) Vinnie and Lawrence.

Wednesday, August 28, 2002                                        Black Rock City, NV

Morning remains a calm and quiet time in the city.  All revelers get at least some sleep, usually in the late morning hours.  Christine and I walked around today and noted the steady growth in the city’s population as open patches of playa in the city grid are filled with tents, shade structures and vehicles.

I’ve been here long enough now to reflect on whether or not I am actually appreciating this event completely.  Much of the novelty is wearing off, so what is the real appeal here.  I just don’t think I’ve gotten it yet.  I got to thinking that I might not be trying hard enough.  I am often an introvert when in large groups, and am generally conservative.  So I decided to put more effort into my experiences today.  The first decision was to postpone cocktail hour as long as possible so that I could experience our city in the later hours.

We headed out on bikes tonight, much more sober than last night, and generally enjoyed the sights.  We returned here by 1:00 AM when Christine’s bike tire went flat, and Christine went to bed for a couple hours.  I got her back up after 3:00 AM so that we could load the art car up with cocktails and sofas for a sunrise trip on the playa.  We drove out on the playa beyond the man, picking up some partiers on the way, and then parked the rig to watch the sunrise.  The sofas were placed on the playa and a few sections of carpet were unrolled, and we all huddled under blankets in the chill of the night.  Timmy (Tempura) was spinning some great music through our sound system as the eastern mountains began to show definition.  Christine made a mean batch of Bloody Marys for the crowd.

We spent about 4 hours out there in communal bliss as a perfect sunrise washed the playa with light.  There was a time when I realized that I now understand the magic of Burning Man.  The magic is unique to each individual, but we all share the common influence of this event.  It wasn’t the sunrise alone that did it for me.  I have been overwhelmed by God’s paintbrush many times in my varied travels, but this magic depended on the freaky sense of community that is achieved at Burning Man.  I don’t really know any of these people out here, but I now understand what keeps them coming.

Most of us live in a world defined by religious values that carefully balance competing interpretations of what is meant by community standards.  Happiness and contentment are very attainable in our modern world, but many consider these conditions as a compromise that inhibits any experience of true joy.  Those people come out here believing that eliminating the social expectations of the broader world may make it easier for them to be true to themselves, and perhaps be rewarded by a greater joy.

I believe that I achieved that greater joy some time during the hours around sunrise.  I wasn’t under the influence of any excessive external agents, though I was certainly deprived of sleep.  I just think it all came together for me at that time.  The sunrise, music, and community made it a completely joyous experience.  Christine and I returned to camp around 8:30 and climbed into bed. 

By Christine: A member of our camp is a yoga instructor and this morning I participated in a full yoga class under the shade structures.  It was wonderful.  Yogi Dave was an excellent instructor and it felt so good after all these days of partying.

These are all pictures of the sunrise. 1) Sunrise with the Floating Temple of Pleasure; 2)Christine and Joe dressed warmly; 3) Lawrence and Pleasure Sean; 4) Twister Lee and Christine; 5) Squeeze and Lawrence; and 6) Tom, Lawrence, Daryl, and Christine.  The people in these pictures were all members of our camp and really neat people.  Squeeze has unlimited energy, she was amazing.  Daryl and Lawrence warmly welcomed us into their group and were great friends all week.  Pleasure Sean kind of headed up the Garage Mahal effort for many months before Burning Man; and Twister Lee headed up the amazing piece of art called the Swamp Gas.

Thursday, August 29, 2002                                                    Black Rock City, NV

We slept until about 11:00 AM when the sounds of an awakening city could not be ignored.  Our afternoon was spent piddling around.  I ran around trying to get Christine’s flat bicycle tire repaired.  I also managed to flag down an RV service truck to empty our black and gray water tanks.  We had done well minimizing our water use in the RV and utilizing nearby port-o-jons to keep from filling our tanks too quickly.  We are at the halfway point in our stay, so paying $45 to have our tanks pumped should hold us until we’re back in Reno on Monday.

One of our organized events for the camp is to take the art car out for the “Floating World Tour.”  Huge banners were taped to the side of the vehicle and the entire camp dressed up as tacky American tourists.  Our tour guides, Squeeze and The Big Cheese used a bullhorn to call out all the attractions of our ‘tongue in cheek’ tour.  Christine got chained to the bar blending up pina coladas, daiquiris and margaritas to the throng of partiers that joined our tour.

Black Rock City is really reaching its full stride as the density of partiers clogs the avenues.  More and more dust gets kicked up by all these citizens. There was so little wind this evening that the dust just hung in the air like a layer of smog.  We returned to camp for a while before planning to head back out in smaller numbers.  I took advantage of this time to put on my ‘pain-relief’ vest and ride into center camp to distribute some over the counter remedies.  I was quite popular as soon as people realized what I was doing.

Christine and I prepared to join some of the others for a bike ride on the playa, only to discover that Christine’s tire was flat again.  The patch job had failed.  Fortunately, a spare bike was available in our camp, so we ventured out.  We stopped to admire a campmate’s artistic installation on the playa.  Lee (Twister) constructed a propane piece called Swamp Gas.  It is an 8x8 grid of 64 propane jets that burn very dirty (lots of yellow and orange).  The flow of propane to each jet can be controlled individually.  Twister has programmed a pressure sensitive computer pad to allow him to play his flaming device like a musical instrument.  We watched him perform with the accompaniment of several drummers.  It was a fantastic show.  He burns through a hundred gallons of propane each night.

Christine and I took in one more exhibit before coming back to The RV for some sleep.  It was before 1:00 AM and the city was rocking, but we were so tired that we passed out as soon as our heads hit the pillow.

By Christine: The second exhibit we took in was called the Lily Pond.  It was beautiful and I think one of the best art instillations.  It is a field of light-intelligent copper lily pads.  It responds to your presence by making ripples of light that spread across the ground as you walk through the pond, creating the illusion of walking on water.  Glass koi (fish) and wire dragonflies also respond to your presence.  The Lily Pond was created by Jeremy Lutes and the Sun Brothers.  So much of the art was meant to be seen at night and that limited the pictures we took of the art.  But you can find some pictures on the Burning Man Art and Art Car page below.

1 and 2) Joe was very popular with his relief vest, in the front pockets he had ear plugs, antacids, Excedrin, Aspirin, Tylenol, and Ibuprofen.  3) This picture was taken at sunset on our Floating tour cruise.

Friday, August 30, 2002                                                    Black Rock City, NV

We both slept very well last night.  Our day started quietly.  I made another effort to fix Christine’s bike.  I scored a brand new inner tube from a campmate.  Christine and I then rode around on the playa to take in the number of complete artistic installations.  We caught some good photos and headed back to camp after a couple hours of sun and dust.  The skies were showing their first signs of trouble as the afternoon winds kicked up a dust storm.

The dust storm approached from the north and steadily engulfed the city, but fortunately it passed through within an hour.  These storms have blown for up to eight hours in the past.  It is too uncomfortable to be out in it without goggles and a breathing mask, so most people take cover and wait it out.  The storm was followed by some dark clouds that sprinkled an insignificant amount of rain, and then it was all over.

Christine and I hung around camp getting to know the new arrivals that had come in for the Burn.  I was really lacking in energy tonight and lacked any motivation to go out and party.  Christine joined me in bed early and we got a full nights sleep.

By Christine: This morning Scott and Sunny Daze started us all out right with a wonderful breakfast of egg, ham, and cheese sandwiches on English Muffins.  It was great!

Sunset on Friday night.

Saturday, August 31, 2002                                                    Black Rock City, NV

The pre-Burn anticipation extends across the entire city.  Everyone seems to be preserving their energy for the week’s climax this evening.  Our camp kept pretty quiet as we discussed the plans for the evening.  We all dressed up and stocked the bar on the art car before driving out to the playa around 8:00.  We parked in a good spot off of the prevailing wind.  The show got started around 9:30 with fire-twirlers circling the man in a choreographed performance.  The crowd was held back from the man by a CAUTION tape that preserved a safety buffer from the Man during the Burn.  The fire act was followed by a laser lightshow and fireworks.  The Man’s arms were raised and he was set ablaze around 10:00.  It was an excellent evening for the Burn.

The Man became engulfed by the massive flames.  The fire spawned tightly formed mini tornadoes that crept away from the fire directed by the wind.  A new tornado was being formed every few seconds.  Eventually the Man collapsed into a burning heap.  At this point the crowd broke through the security tape and rushed the fire.  30,000 people were joined in revelry.  Most of the Garage Mahal camp stayed with the art car, back from the mayhem.  Those that rushed the fire could be seen dancing about and tossing mementos into the blaze.  This carried on for quite a while.

The crowd began to disperse as the intensity of the fire faded.  The art car was driven over to see the Dr. Megavolt show.  Accompanied by the music of Mutaytor, Dr. Megavolt  plays with a giant Tesla coil as he allows massive bolts of electricity to pass around his body.  It was a great show in the dark outdoors.

Christine and I lost momentum around 2:00 AM and made our way back to camp.  It was interesting to feel the post-Burn vacuum of energy as we turned in for the night.

By Christine: Joe mentioned my frozen drinks earlier.  I learned early in the week that people seemed to prefer virgin smoothies in the afternoon.  Today I used up the rest of my fruit and made about 8 batches of smoothies just walking around until they were all gone.  They turned out real well with my mixtures of frozen strawberries, peaches, mixed berries, and watermelon.  Mixed with fruit juices and sometimes fresh fruits that others had that were getting too ripe (like mangos and nectarines), I felt like these were enjoyed by all.  And it was good for everybody to get some vitamins into them every afternoon.

We took two disposable cameras worth of pictures on top of the digital and everything we took at the Burn was on disposable.  We will update those when we get them, but that won't be for at least a month until after we get back from our hike.

Sunday, September 1, 2002                                                    Black Rock City, NV

It was so peaceful around the city today.  At least a third of the people leave the festival today, so most of the activity was about the breakdown and clean up of camps.  Most of the Garage Mahal camp was sticking around until tomorrow, but we still tackled a lot of the community breakdown this afternoon.  It was great to have so many people present to chip in on the effort.  We disassembled all the structures and loaded them into the rental truck. 

Many people stick around through Sunday night to be present when all the artwork gets burned.  The biggest event is the burning of the Temple of Joy, but many artists set fire to their own installations across the playa Sunday night.  There was another great gathering for the Temple of Joy burn, and it was actually a more impressive fire because of its construction and building materials.  It was a warm evening and fun to be out for one last night.  Christine and I are both glad that we stayed through Sunday, but we are ready to get out of the desert tomorrow.

1) Daryl, Captain ken, ?, and Bruce.  Captain Ken was the force behind our art car and it had been in his driveway while being built.  2) Daryl, Kelly, and Manhattan; 3) Tom, Sharon, and Vinnie; we had a group from New York join us on Thursday and Friday they were great people, Kelly, Manhattan, Sharon, and Steve.  The art car was moving hence the shaky pictures.  4) The burning of the Temple of Joy.  In the first picture you can see the temple underneath the fire.  5) Joe talked about the tornadoes that formed at Saturday's burn, the same thing happened on Sunday and here you can see one of the smoke tornadoes.

Monday, September 2, 2002                                                                Sparks, NV

Our camp was up pretty early as many people made a point of getting out on the road.  We said our goodbyes and finished breaking down our own camp before leaving at 10:00 AM.  It took us an hour just to get back to Gerlach, ten miles down the road, but then the steady stream of exiting traffic picked up speed and made good progress.  We were back in the Reno area by lunchtime, and we were determined to become clean.

Everything in and about the RV was covered in playa dust.  I was fed up with feeling dirty.  Christine and I were both very motivated to get the dust out of our lives.  We returned our beater playa bikes to Da Rat in Sparks.  We checked into our campground and then took the RV to get it washed.  I got it pretty clean on the outside, and Christine worked pretty hard on the inside.  We returned to the campground and Christine did six loads of laundry while I removed everything from the RV’s garage and wiped down every surface.

We ended the evening with a healthy meal and long hot showers.  It felt spectacular to be clean and to climb into a clean bed with clean sheets.  We were in heaven.

By Christine: In trying to describe Burning Man to others, I put the following words together.  Burning Man is Community, self expression, respect, art, a big party, good people and friends, sexuality, FIRE, and weather (hot, cold, and Dust).  It was a wonderful event that is not duplicated anywhere else.  I thoroughly enjoyed it but I'm not sure if the effort was worth doing it again.  We'll see...

Burning Man The City, Community, and People.

Burning Man Art and Art Cars.