Burning Man

Burning man was gnarly, its hard to describe because its so many different things at once. Me and Jim both checked out different stuff, so he has another set of good stories. I’ll just try to summarize my experience there in a PG-13 way:
Tuesday:
-picked up tickets
-drove around deciding who we want to camp with
-settle next to a lady from Cali
-night is spent wandering around the playa, everyone is wearing crazy clothes or no clothes
-not quite sure what to think at this point

Early camp set up that blew down

Wednesday
-Duke Champaign La Money moves in next to us
-we combine our camps and raise a large shade structure
-hang out all day drinking beers
-night is spent wandering around the playa
-checked out a booth that promised a scoop of any flavor you could think of
-went to a bunch of bars, raves and art cars(pretty much big rolling parties)

Thursday
-Find a punk rock camp thats blaring good tunes
-some dude is on the PA insulting everyone who walks by and doesn’t enter the camp for a drink, its hilarious.
-they have a half pipe here!
-ride the half pipe all afternoon till I pop my tire
-night is spent at the punk bar and other bars

The punk bar, check the band set up on the roof

Friday
-wander around the playa during the day, dust storms are starting to roll in a bit
-hang around center camp, lots of weird hippy stuff like drum circles and body painting is going on
-chill at the jazz café for a bit
-night is crazy! The playa is absolutely bumping tonight
-go to center camp for this weird percussionist/marching band competition
-the bands are whipping the place into a frenzy, starting with just a simple beat and building till we are all dancing and going nuts. Such a good time.

Photo of the man that I obviously didn't take

Saturday
-crazy dust storms all day, at this point the inside of the van is covered in dust
-hang out all day with the neighbours(champagne and Sherry) and other randoms
-meet up with a cool British chick who’s looking for a ride to Las Vegas
-try to take a quick nap but end up sleeping till midnight
-rush out to the playa to realize I’ve missed the burning of the man(doh!)
-party all night
-dust storms are relentless all night and day, sometimes you can only see 10 or 15 feet in front of you

Sunday
-wake up with the worst hangover I have ever had.
-dust storms are still going like crazy
-lots of people are leaving
-contemplate staying for the temple burn
-decide to leave, because the dust storms just aren’t ending
-say goodbye sherry and our other neighboors
-pick up british girl(Fran) and begin leaving
-its takes 2 hours to get onto the highway, crazy traffic
-drive to Hawthorne(half way to Vegas) and crash in a motel (first shower in 7 days)

Burning man was totally rad, and I’m going back next year for sure! 40, 000 people showed up this year, I can only see it getting bigger. There’s so many strange and absurd things there, all set up in the middle of the desert. Everything that is brought in must be packed out, and the playa must be left totally clean after the event, which is why its so amazing that people put in so much effort to create enormous art pieces and giant bars/clubs for an event that only lasts a week. Inspiring.

This Neil Girling dude took a bunch of amazing photos of this event, check them out here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/carnivillain/sets/72157622204577232/