![\"2013-1-01\"](\"http:\/\/www.kennyreff.com\/burningman\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013-1-01.jpg\")
<\/a>I’ve not even arrived at Burning Man, but I am already in the groove.\u00a0 How do I know this?\u00a0\u00a0 I’m sitting in a 20-mile long bumper-to-bumper traffic jam and having a lovely time.<\/p>\nIt helps that I’m on a bus with about 30 other Burners.\u00a0 We left Reno 90 minutes earlier on the Burning Man Express and cruised up the highway toward the town of Gerlach.\u00a0 The open highway was before us and we sped though the desolation of rural Nevada.\u00a0 Then, truly without warning, we came upon the traffic jam.\u00a0 We are now about 20 miles out, and for as far as we can see, our single lane forward is draped with vehicles at a complete standstill.<\/p>\n
In true Burner fashion, everyone turns off their engines.\u00a0 We get off the bus and converse, stretch, jog and take pictures.\u00a0 No one minds the standstill.<\/p>\n After about an hour, the traffic starts moving. I’m pretty sure traffic coordinators are pulsing the flow as they do at the close of the event.\u00a0 Instead of crawling forward, burning petrol and mucking up the environment, we turn off the engines and wait until there are a few clear miles.\u00a0 Then we drive to the next position and rest again.\u00a0 Pulsing takes no longer than crawling, but it’s far smarter.\u00a0 And more enjoyable as well.<\/p>\n Burning Man has begun.<\/p>\n Some of us on the bus take advantage of one of the breaks to grab a group selfie.\u00a0 The sun is setting, the mountains are behind us, and there is some low vegetation close to the road, the last we would see for quite some time.<\/p>\n We climb back in the bus, and I hook up my iPhone to the radio system.\u00a0 I select Thievery Corporation, and within minutes a few of us are dancing in the aisles.\u00a0 Roman, Gabe and I are especially connecting, something we’d continue during the week to come.\u00a0 It’s something that’s really easy to do because this year I’m burning with a large theme camp called DC not Washington<\/i>.<\/p>\n That’s the name of the camp, which is informed by the fact that those of us in the nation’s capital want the rest of the country to know that there’s more to Washington than monuments and the federal government.\u00a0 “It’s DC, not Washington”.\u00a0 It’s DC that has some of the best nightclubs in the country, some of the most vibrant neighborhoods and some of the coolest people. DC’s got that; not Washington.<\/p>\n Anyway, just like the people of DC, this camp has a reputation for being fun, yet seriously accomplished.\u00a0 The camp will have close to 50 people, a 3-story steel infrastructure with a 5-story viewing tower, a massive shade structure, two showers, a fully stocked kitchen with running water, and a roof-top bar with plenty of libations.\u00a0 It will host close to 30 events and workshops over the week.\u00a0 It will be glorious.\u00a0 It will be vibrant.\u00a0 And because it would be located in the heart of Black Rock City, it will be loud.<\/p>\n Last year, my first at Burning Man, I camped on my own in the quiet and beautiful Walk-in Camping Area.\u00a0 No cars or motorized vehicles of any kind allowed, the vast and commanding desert sprawling before me.\u00a0 I came not knowing a single person.\u00a0 I left having befriended many.<\/p>\n But after returning from Burning Man last year, it was a joy to discover that there are a whole lot of burners in DC.\u00a0 So last fall, I dove in.\u00a0 I went to meetings in restaurants and bars, joined dance parties, soaked in hot tubs in burner homes, attended meditation and yoga groups, rode in bike parties with portable 400 watt sound systems blasting EDM, and went to a 4-day regional burn within easy driving distance.\u00a0 By the time Burning Man came around again this year, I was talking almost daily with more than a dozen new friends over Facebook, messaging, phone and e-mail.<\/p>\n But, despite all that, when I was invited to join the DC not Washington<\/i> camp, I hesitated.<\/p>\n I fondly remembered my solo adventure on the edge of the city.\u00a0 I enjoyed the beauty and the quiet.\u00a0 I savored sleeping in till 11am after partying till 4, rising on my own schedule and looking out at the desert mountains as I washed up and drank a prefect cup of coffee.\u00a0 And when I was ready to immerse myself in the city, I’d peddle into the beast on my bike once again.<\/p>\n Or, I could join DC not Washington <\/i>and be part of a vibrant community.\u00a0 I’d be risking sleep.\u00a0 It wouldn’t be nearly as pretty.\u00a0 And though I certainly could, I wouldn’t choose to walk around naked.\u00a0 Beauty, privacy and quiet, verses the camaraderie of dozens of friends.\u00a0 In the end, the friends won out.\u00a0 Now, as we drive the last couple of miles through the dusty roads of Black Rock city, my thoughts turn to arriving at this large, thriving, impressive camp.<\/p>\n Only Mother Nature had other plans.<\/p>\n She decided that the challenge of the barren desert wasn’t nearly enough this year.\u00a0 She decided to throw in a bona fide hurricane.<\/p>\n To make the ambitious design a reality, an advance team of people worked to construct the camp prior to the start of Burning Man.\u00a0 Charles, Matt, Khady, Cobalt, Montana, Kara and others arrived on Monday, a full week before the official start of the festival.\u00a0 But the day after they arrived, the hurricane roared in.<\/p>\n Winds topped 70mph.\u00a0 Torrents of rain poured down.\u00a0 Thunder bellowed and lightening struck the playa.\u00a0 Canvas, Mylar and cotton structures collapsed.\u00a0 The storm was so violent that a massive steel pole supporting Center Camp bent.\u00a0 The hurricane set back construction of the entire city for days.<\/p>\n I say to our cook, Jim, “This is fantastic. I never expected to eat tonight.”<\/p>\n “Doesn’t matter the time,” he says matter-of-factly as he sets out the last of the large bowls filled with freshly prepared food. “We need dinner.”<\/p>\n This is the first of probably 20 massive meals that he and his wife, Christian, would prepare for the camp over the course of the week; a true gift to our community.<\/p>\n I awake Monday morning to the sound of heavy metal.\u00a0 But it isn’t music; it’s the sound of steel flooring being locked in place as construction of DCnW’s cube<\/i> continues.\u00a0 Only now, the advance team has the entire camp at their disposal.\u00a0 So the first day at Burning Man this year consists of helping to erect our camp. \u00a0Heather and Roman worked it all day long! The playa provides.<\/p>\n And a funny thing happens while spending this day at work.\u00a0 We bond even further.\u00a0 This is so often the case here; something that would normally be looked upon as a bummer is turned on its head.\u00a0 Negative becomes positive.\u00a0 Is this the karma of the playa, or is it that we shift our attitudes and perspective, because, well, we’re at Burning Man!<\/i><\/p>\n During the weeks leading up to the festival, I realized that DC not Washington would not be possible without the tireless efforts of its three leaders, Charles, Matt and Khady.\u00a0 Like everyone here, they are impressive and accomplished people.\u00a0 And like many here, I think their lives in the default world have been greatly influenced by their experiences on the playa.\u00a0 They’re all business when need be, but fun and irreverent when things are purring along.\u00a0 And always motivated by love and a true spirit of community.<\/p>\n After dinner that night, Ako, Neil and me bike into the playa to tour some of the art.\u00a0 Like a whole lot of folks in our camp, they are birgins, Burning Man virgins.\u00a0 It’s so much fun leading them through the city streets and watching their reaction as we enter the massive, open playa, huge art installations compelling our attention every way we turned.<\/p>\n Neil, a professional urban planner, is so taken with the experience over the week that he would later get permission from Burning Man to bring its principles to crowdsourced real estate planning.\u00a0 That happens a lot here.\u00a0 People see a better way for society to behave and want to bring it back to the default world<\/i>.<\/p>\n What a joy it is to see her transform over the week!\u00a0 Each day, her style of dress is a little sexier, her smile a little wider.\u00a0 Weeks later I meet her husband who says the plan is to join her in two years, when their daughter is done with high school.<\/p>\n Over the course of the evening, the three of us spend a few hours biking around to various art installation on the playa, including our own DCnW CORE project, part of the Circle of Regional Effigies, which create a ring of art that surrounds the man a few hundred yards out.\u00a0 This year, there are 24 wooden art installations chosen to represent regions around the world.\u00a0 It’s an honor to be selected, and the DCnW camp is host to the DC CORE team who constructed it over many months.<\/p>\n Cargo Cult?\u00a0 Turns out (and this is a true story) that during World War II, the U.S. decided to have a large military presence on a small island in the South Pacific called Melanesia.\u00a0 It was used as a staging area for the Pacific campaign against the Japanese.\u00a0 Routinely, massive loads of cargo would be dropped from planes to stock the island.\u00a0 But we weren’t the only people on this island.\u00a0 There were indigenous tribes-people who had never seen a plane, much less canned food, radios, flashlights and more.\u00a0 To them, all this cargo was a gift from the gods.<\/p>\n Then, in a flash, it all disappeared.\u00a0 The war had ended.<\/p>\n But the indigenous people liked the stuff that fell from the sky, so they prayed for more cargo to fall from the sky.\u00a0 They even found a deity to worship – John Frum.\u00a0 One explanation of the name says that due to the language barrier, the one word that was a constant was “from”.\u00a0 The GI’s would introduce themselves.\u00a0 “I’m John, from Oklahoma. I’m Kevin, from New York.”<\/p>\n John Frum became the god of the Cargo Cult.\u00a0 The anthropological literature says that to this day, some still worship him.\u00a0 Any why not?\u00a0 Consumerism has run amok over most of the world.\u00a0 Why not on a small South Pacific island as well?<\/p>\n With that in mind, Ako, Neil and I bike over to The Man.\u00a0 This year, reflecting the Cargo Cult theme, he stands upon a HUGE spaceship.\u00a0 Times had changed.\u00a0 We no longer expected John Frum to drop cargo from aero planes.\u00a0 Now, he would return to us in a star ship.<\/p>\n I head out the next morning to explore the city.\u00a0 My first stop is Camp Contact, managed by my friend Darrell.<\/p>\n Camp Contact is so named because it’s dedicated to being the home of contact improvisation dance on the Playa. \u00a0They gift to the community an amazing number of workshops that involve this kind of wonderful dance, as well as other forms of human contact, both physical and spiritual – yoga, acro-yoga, contact dance, relationship exploration and enlightenment and more.<\/p>\n I end up spending all afternoon there.\u00a0 I participate in an acro-yoga class, followed by a class that involves slow movements and touch.\u00a0 It’s now mid afternoon, and probably a hundred degrees.\u00a0 After the workshop is done, I stride over to the outdoor showers, strip down and have a wonderfully refreshing shower.\u00a0 I then steal into the members-only chill dome.\u00a0 Dozens of camp members are lounging around on a floor covered edge-to-edge with carpeting, rugs, mats and pillows.\u00a0\u00a0 Huge colorful parachutes drape the ceiling.\u00a0 People speak in hushed tones.\u00a0 Even moisturized air is being pumped in.\u00a0 It is the absolute definition of serenity.<\/p>\n I hang there for two hours!\u00a0 Am I an honorary camp member for the day?\u00a0 I hope so.<\/p>\n With the sun now lower in the sky and the temperature dipping into a more comfortable range, I start my bike ride home.\u00a0 I take it nice and slow, appreciating the wonderfully creative and inspiring Burning Man sights.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I also pass by Black Rock City’s very own radio station.\u00a0 You can sort of see it there, with the 94.5 sign, behind the cyclists. They play music 24\/7, but also provide important information on traffic conditions, weather alerts and public service announcements that advertise some of the thousands of events and workshops ’round town.\u00a0 Little did I know that in a few days time, we’d rely on them for some important decisions regarding more unusual weather.<\/p>\n It was also time to visit Center Camp, which has often been likened to the Mos Eisley Cantina featured in the first Star Wars movie.\u00a0 It’s that weird and diverse.\u00a0 But it’s also wonderful.\u00a0 Lots of acro-yoga, aerial silk performances, visual arts and music.\u00a0 You can also fill out the Burning Man Census here, and see the results of past tallies.<\/p>\n Center Camp can be a respite from a dust storm.\u00a0 You can sleep here.\u00a0 Or you can buy a cup of coffee.\u00a0 The coffee bar and a couple of ice dispensaries are the only things allowed to be sold at Burning Man.<\/p>\n You will spend a week here and dole out perhaps $6 on coffee.\u00a0 That’s it.\u00a0 One of the Ten Principles of Burning Man is decommodification.\u00a0 Here, there are no souvenirs hawked, no T-shirts peddled, no junk food sold.\u00a0 Yet you will go home with more tokens of love and memories than you ever thought possible.\u00a0 And you will gift what you have to gift.\u00a0 It may be a service like photography or massage.\u00a0 It might be mojitos or shots.\u00a0 It might be a dance floor and music.\u00a0 You will spend no money, yet have all your needs taken care of.\u00a0 It’s that good.<\/p>\n The first time you read the Ten Principles, they’re just words on a screen.\u00a0 But as you start to live them, they become real.\u00a0 They make sense.\u00a0 If the world followed them, it would be a far happier and safer place.\u00a0 You can check them out here.<\/a><\/p>\n But now it’s time to help prepare dinner for 50.\u00a0 The camp used Google Drive in the weeks prior to organize a whole lot things, including meal duty and other volunteer opportunities.\u00a0 We’re all asked to help with three meals over the week.\u00a0 Not being a morning person, I signed up for lunches and dinners.\u00a0 Little did I know that I would witness the sunrise three times this week, not going to sleep until well past past breakfast time.\u00a0 Who knew?<\/p>\n Shena is my guest at dinner.\u00a0 I had met her at Camp Contact earlier in the day and invited her to join us.\u00a0 She pitches in for dinner duty and enjoys the camaraderie.\u00a0 It’s her first time at Burning Man and she’s come with a few friends who are camping in a tent down the road.\u00a0 But for tonight, she joins DCnW.<\/p>\n After dinner, I change for another night cruise around the playa.\u00a0 The temperatures this year are much more temperate than usual.\u00a0 It doesn’t drop below 50 at night and during the day it’s barely hitting 100.\u00a0 That’s moderate for the high desert.\u00a0 A few of us head out to cruise the artwork for a second night.<\/p>\n There is no question that the highlight of tonight’s ride is Truth is Beauty.<\/p>\n Marco’s inspiration for the series came from tragedy. When he was 7, his best friend, a 9-year old girl, was raped.\u00a0 Now, he works to show how well the beauty of women shine when they feel safe.<\/p>\n Tonight is my first visit, but I will visit her many more times during the week.\u00a0 Each time, she will look different, yet always beautiful, whether lit up in her LED shroud during the clear, cold night, or standing firm against the daytime dust storms of the playa.\u00a0 Such a beautiful gift.\u00a0 Thank you, Marco.<\/p>\n A short time later, we encounter the famed El Pulpo Mecanico, or as many refer to it, the Steampunk Octopus.<\/p>\n We continue to bike the playa into the night. The evening is cool.\u00a0 The wind, calm.\u00a0 At one point I stop and gaze at the panorama of lights, art cars and sculptures before me.\u00a0 I feel a sense of warmth in my heart.\u00a0 The sky is clear, the stars are actually twinkling and the Milky Way is clearly visible.\u00a0 I take it all in, so appreciating this time that comes around only once a year.<\/p>\n And then I realize one of the wonderful things about coming back to Burning Man for a second time.\u00a0 I find that I am calmer, and can appreciate everything more fully than I did a year earlier, when I was blown away by the enormity, beauty, strangeness and excitement of it all.<\/p>\n (Continue to Part 2)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SUNDAY I’ve not even arrived at Burning Man, but I am already in the groove.\u00a0 How do I know this?\u00a0\u00a0 I’m sitting in a 20-mile long bumper-to-bumper traffic jam and having a lovely time. It helps that I’m on a … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>So when the rest of us arrive at midnight Sunday night, we find ourselves gazing upon a camp that was only partially complete.\u00a0 But its massive shade canopy and the kitchen were up, and that was enough. We quickly set up our tents in the shaded area and are then surprised to see dinner being served at 2am.<\/p>\nMONDAY<\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>So, as soon as everyone can be assembled, Charles explains the trash cycle.\u00a0 Burning Man is a Leave No Trace event. I think they coined the term, and it means what is says. You leave nothing<\/i> behind.\u00a0 Even shower water must be evaporated on tarps.<\/p>\n<\/a>And Ako changes as well. She’s probably in her early 40’s and is married with a teenage daughter.\u00a0 She wanted to come to Burning Man, but since it’s always on Labor Day weekend and right before the start of school, it’s not that easy if you’ve got kids at home.\u00a0 This is not the kind of “vacation” where you can just pack up to hone on Monday and be at school on Tuesday.\u00a0 Their solution was that Mom would go and Dad would stay home with their daughter.\u00a0 So Ako went off to Burning Man and stayed with DC not Washington, whose members she had only briefly met prior to this week.<\/p>\n<\/a>Standing before us is a 20-foot pyramid with the Eye of Providence (as illustrated on the the back side of a dollar bill) atop it.\u00a0 The pyramid shape was chosen to be an anti-monument to Washington, again, in an attempt to distance ourselves from the typical monuments found here.\u00a0 It’s “skin” is made of industrial cargo pallets, reflecting this year’s Burning Man theme:\u00a0 Cargo Cult.<\/p>\n<\/a>We arrive at the base of The Man only to be stopped by volunteers who are surrounding the perimeter.\u00a0 Something looks odd.\u00a0 Then I realize it’s lit by work lights and there’s Caution tape all over the place.\u00a0 The Man is closed!\u00a0\u00a0 Last week’s hurricane delayed construction, causing the opening to be delayed by two days.\u00a0 We bike on, knowing the week had just begun.<\/p>\nTUESDAY<\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a>I am struck by the design and vibe here.\u00a0 There are six or more very large domes which host public workshops.\u00a0 And for its camp members, there is a large community kitchen, shaded sitting area and private chill dome.\u00a0 They even have a sauna powered by a wood-burning stove, a pet project of Darrell’s this year.\u00a0 All the members’ tents are set up under a beautiful series of colorful parachutes.<\/p>\n<\/a>It is an incredibly impressive and beautiful physical setup, and the tranquility and community spirit are equally beautiful.\u00a0 I talk to Darrell about this and he informs me that the camp has ten years experience and has learned from every one of them.\u00a0 I marvel over the domes, lounges, showers, parachutes and camp members.\u00a0 After a decade on the playa, they certainly got it right.<\/p>\n<\/a>I cross paths with Walter the Bus… a frickin’ VW bus on steroids. \u00a0This thing is more than 30 feet long and 13 feet high! It weighs close to 20,000 pounds, uses 22 quarts of engine oil and sports more than 10,000 LED lights, \u00a0And if you look closely, as my friend Darrell pointed out to me, you’ll see\u00a0that’s not quite a VW logo on the front. \u00a0My oh my, I believe I see the Man in that logo!<\/p>\n<\/a>And then I come across the famed Barbie Death Camp. For ten years, these sickos have been publicly torturing our dear Barbie.\u00a0 Someone explains philosophy to me, but I’m distracted by all the things to ogle over.\u00a0 I think it’s about how her perfection and conformity does a disservice to our girls who live in a diverse and complicated world.\u00a0 Obviously, she must die.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>For instance, I discover that while the majority of burners are 20-35 years old, there are tens of thousands that are in their 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.\u00a0 <\/a>And there’s whole bunch of little ones who haven’t even completed their first decade.\u00a0 I also learn that the majority who come make less than $50K a year, but close to 20 percent earn more than $100K.\u00a0 More than 20 percent have Masters degrees.\u00a0 More than 80 percent vote.<\/p>\n<\/a>I finally make it back to camp, and see that our structure is starting to take shape.\u00a0 And the 5-story viewing tower is completed!\u00a0 I head up and take in the panorama of our city.\u00a0 It is truly breathtaking and can’t be conveyed in pictures.\u00a0 <\/a>Here, 68,000 have made this camp their home.\u00a0 Where once was a barren desert, grows now a tribal city born of common aspirations and vision.\u00a0 There is truly no other impermanent metropolis like this on Earth.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>I take pictures of my friends, Seth and Roman, and of the city.\u00a0 Dozens of visitors stream through the camp to climb to the upper platform and take in the panorama.\u00a0 The tower is open to all day and night.\u00a0 Through our efforts, this is one of our gifts to the community.<\/p>\n<\/a>She rises 55 feet, making those of us beneath her look like the little indigenous people from Gulliver’s Travels.\u00a0 She is crafted of steel and mesh, and her internal LED lights morph slowly from a cool shade of blue to warm pink.<\/p>\n<\/a>Truth is Beauty is the gift of sculptor Marco Cochrane.\u00a0 In 2011, he delivered a similar sculpture called Bliss Dance, which now stands on permanent exhibition at Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay.<\/p>\n<\/a>It’s a marvel of engineering and creativity, with tentacles spouting fire plumes so big you feel their heat fifty feet away.\u00a0 A while later, we find ourselves dancing around a pair of unicorn art cars with house music pounding from tweeters and woofers hidden beneath its skin.\u00a0 Then, on to another dance place whose name I never find out.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>I’m sure that each year will bring new enlightenment and appreciation.\u00a0 How can it be otherwise, at such a huge, diverse and inspiring place such as this?<\/p>\n