![\"2013-2-01\"](\"http:\/\/www.kennyreff.com\/burningman\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013-2-01.jpg\")
<\/a>Camp RhythmWave comes to the desert with a large, genuine bamboo dance floor.\u00a0 Guests are protected from the harsh sun by a huge shade canopy.\u00a0 High-quality speakers are arranged in all four corners pointed inward and their DJs make terrific house music.<\/p>\nAfter a couple of hours, I return to camp for lunch and then decide to drop in on a workshop Khady is running.\u00a0 The name: “Amazing Sex Every Time”.\u00a0\u00a0 Sounds intriguing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And it is.\u00a0\u00a0 A co-ed group of more than a dozen discuss what works for us and what doesn’t, fun love, complicated love, the meaning of love, why we love.<\/p>\n Whew.<\/p>\n After that, I bike out to the Temple of Whollyness.<\/p>\n Each year since 2000, there has been a temple at Burning Man.\u00a0 My understanding is that the first one was built by architect David Best as a tribute to a loved one.\u00a0 Over the years, it became a gathering place for anyone who wanted to contemplate a loss.\u00a0 Now, each year’s temple is as significant as the Man.<\/p>\n The temple always burns on Sunday, the last night of Burning Man.\u00a0 While the burning of the Man is a joyous and festive occasion, the Temple burn is a somber, reflective event.\u00a0 Inside, it is quiet the entire week.\u00a0 People write on its walls, leave photos and mementos, and sit in contemplative silence.<\/p>\n This year, I bring something to the Temple… the bonnet my ex-wife wore on our wedding day.<\/p>\n I don’t know how I ended up with Linda’s bonnet, actually.\u00a0 But one day, just weeks before I went to Burning Man for the first time in 2012, I found it amongst my things.\u00a0 The divorce had become final just a few months earlier.<\/p>\n This year, I find a more suitable destiny for it.\u00a0 And so, as I bike out to the Temple, Linda’s bonnet is in my backpack.\u00a0 I walk around the temple for a long time, reading the inscriptions, appreciating the numerous photos that were on display.\u00a0 Then, I find myself in one back corridor and see a slanted panel with one of those interlocking buttons protruding from it.<\/p>\n I carefully hang the hat, stand back and think about what to write.\u00a0 It doesn’t take long.<\/p>\n Love lost.\u00a0 I wish we were wiser.<\/i><\/p>\n I sit down in the larger, central chamber and think about things.\u00a0 I’ve been pretty darn fortunate.\u00a0 My\u00a0 world is pretty comfortable.\u00a0 Depending on my mood and desire, my life can be calm or exciting.\u00a0 And I usually get what I want.\u00a0 There have been only two exceptions to this lucky streak… the emotional challenges faced by my daughter, and my marriage.<\/p>\n But now, sitting in the Temple of Whollyness, the enormity of the loss hits me.\u00a0 Almost 20 years, gone.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Was I a victim?\u00a0 How did I contribute?<\/p>\n After a long while, I leave the temple.\u00a0 I feel calm and at peace.\u00a0 What’s done is done.\u00a0 And in a few days, the bonnet would be no more.<\/p>\n Another wonderful meal is whipped up by Jim, Christian and the team.\u00a0 Conversation at our table centers on what we’ve each experienced during the day.\u00a0 Discoveries are shared and promises made for our outings the next day.<\/p>\n That night, I join a few campmates to go on a little trip.\u00a0 Orhan is our guide.\u00a0 He’s a friend of Khady’s and knows the location of very special dance place.\u00a0 Special, because it’s on wheels; a bus to be exact.\u00a0 It starts off near the edge of Black Rock City, but by midnight it’s on the move, heading out away from the lights into the absolute darkness of the deep playa.<\/p>\n This is not something you just happen on to.\u00a0 You have to be in the know, and be committed to its journey.\u00a0 The music starts around 10 or 11pm and it doesn’t stop until well past dawn.\u00a0 By that time, the party bus is miles from the city.<\/p>\n Robot Heart photos courtesy Robot Heart<\/p><\/div>\n The sound system is about the most advanced I have ever encountered.\u00a0 The entire length of the bus is lined with two rows of large sub-woofers.\u00a0 Four towers of speakers are mounted on each side of the bus.<\/p>\n Total wattage: 85,000<\/p>\n But it’s not just the sound level that’s impressive.\u00a0 It’s the quality of the sound.\u00a0 Theirs is the cleanest I have heard since the original Pink Floyd concerts.\u00a0 You can feel the bass in your chest from hundreds of feet away.\u00a0 The dispersion of high frequencies across the spectrum is perfect.<\/p>\n And then there is the quality of the sets.\u00a0 Selected DJs from around the world are invited to perform over the course of the week.\u00a0 Their music is Progressive House.\u00a0 It’s the kind of stuff you can dance to all night long.\u00a0 And we do.<\/p>\n Welcome to Robot Heart.<\/p>\n But first we have to get there.\u00a0 Easier said than done, because about this time we’re all, shall we say, feeling pretty good.\u00a0 Thankfully, Orhan is wearing a set of glowing angel wings on his head.\u00a0 And those wings are probably the only reason we all survive the trek to Robot Heart as a group.<\/p>\n We bike down through the city streets easily.\u00a0 But about the time we pass across the Esplanade and into the playa, the wind picks up.\u00a0 Playa dust obscures our vision.\u00a0 Thousands are crisscrossing this way and that in front of us, visible only by their LEDs and EL wire just moments before colliding.\u00a0 And Orhan is speeding!<\/p>\n Breathe hard.\u00a0 Peddle fast.\u00a0 And keep those wings in sight!<\/p>\n Finally, we arrive at the edge of the city.\u00a0 Orhan picks a spot a few hundred feet from the bus, we group our cycles together, and we each lock our bike.\u00a0 We’re experienced enough to know not to lock them together other because if someone goes missing, you’re stuck.<\/p>\n I take a huge gulp of water from my bottle and join the others as we dance our way toward the front of the crowd.\u00a0 This is easy to do because unlike a club, there are no walls around us.\u00a0 There are maybe a couple hundred people here at this point, and the crowd contracts and expands as it needs to, as it wants to.<\/p>\n I regress ten thousand years.\u00a0 I am an Indian dancing to the drums of my tribe.\u00a0 I look up and see all the stars of the heavens, clearer than I have ever seen them before.<\/p>\n We are now at a new location, one impossible to define.\u00a0 There are no landmarks, no lights, except those from the Robot Heart bus and the EL wire outlining its pilgrims.\u00a0 We are deep into the playa.\u00a0 If time is passing, I am not aware of it.<\/p>\n Weeks later, while researching this feeling at home, I find that this experience of “oneness” has been described in many cultures and spiritual disciplines over the years.\u00a0 But I was surprised to learn that it’s even been documented by modern scientists.\u00a0 One example is something dubbed\u00a0 “The Overview Effect.”<\/p>\n It happens routinely to astronauts while in space.\u00a0 And it changes them.<\/p>\n “Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell (joint record holder with Alan Shepard for longest-ever Moon walk of 9 hours and 17 minutes) reported experiencing an \u201cOverview Effect\u201d. He described the sensation gave him a profound sense of connectedness, with a feeling of bliss and timelessness. He was overwhelmed by the experience. He became profoundly aware that each and every atom in the Universe was connected in some way, and on seeing Earth from space he had an understanding that all the humans, animals and systems were a part of the same thing, a synergistic whole. It was an interconnected euphoria.”<\/em><\/p>\n Yet here I was down on Earth experiencing the same thing.\u00a0 Perhaps there were some similarities to space.\u00a0 When I look away from the Robot Heart bus, I see nothing but a black void.\u00a0 When I look up, the clear, cold atmosphere of the high desert presents the Milky Way to me like never before.\u00a0 I feel insignificant and connected to everything all at the same time.<\/p>\n After a while – I’m not sure how long – it seems to me that the sky is beginning to lighten.\u00a0 It happens so slowly, I’m not sure it’s real.\u00a0 And then it hits me… dawn.\u00a0 I have literally danced through the entire night.<\/p>\n I wonder through the pantry to see what I might whip up.\u00a0 There’s some tortillas and cheese sitting out, so I light the propane stove and start making quesadillas.\u00a0 Kara walks in, grinning broadly and amazingly awake.\u00a0 Last I saw her she was spinning ’round and ’round in front of the Robot Heart bus somewhere miles away.\u00a0 I double the quesadillas and we walk up to the second level to eat and watch the sun as it turns from the deep orange of sunrise to a brighter shade of yellow.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For me and many of my friends, Thursday begins in the late afternoon.\u00a0 You can only party so much before your body just takes control and gets the sleep it needs.\u00a0 But after only five hours, I wake and feel great.\u00a0 Due to some technical issues, the camp still doesn’t have any kind of running water, but no matter.\u00a0 I fill my little tupperware tub with fresh water from the 50-gallon drums, take a sponge bath, and have a shave.\u00a0 Refreshed, I head over to the cube to see what’s going on at camp.<\/p>\n I enter the space to see perhaps 30 guests taking part in a class on improv comedy.\u00a0 One of our members, Shawn, is a professional instructor of this sort of thing, and is offering a series of these classes throughout the week.\u00a0 I join the group and give it a shot.\u00a0 Being funny on demand is a lot harder than it looks!\u00a0\u00a0 But Shawn is gracious and always supportive.\u00a0 Still, I know standup is not in my future.<\/p>\n But, of course, Kara has her own amazing story.<\/p>\n Then, her husband ran off with another woman.\u00a0 And Kara ran off with her life.<\/p>\n She is testament to the fact that when it hits the fan, it’s important to stay true to yourself and look to the future, because it just may be brighter than anything that came before.\u00a0 It was clear to me that today’s Kara is a new person, a happier person, a more connected and grounded person.\u00a0 She is living Life 2.0.<\/p>\n Oh joy.\u00a0 It’s time to walk a couple of miles back to camp, turn around and walk back out to get the bike.\u00a0 But Orhan says “No. Hop on up.”\u00a0 And that’s how I find myself dangling from the handlebars like a schoolgirl whilst being biked across the playa.\u00a0 What hard work it must be for Orhan with this added weight, but he never once hesitates or complains.\u00a0 I love my Burner friends!<\/p>\n Nighttime comes quickly and then it’s time to head out to the CORE burn.\u00a0 Remember all those art pieces that surround the Man?\u00a0 Tonight, they all burn.\u00a0 I head out to the DC CORE pyramid and watch it go up in flames.\u00a0 I know Andre and a few others who spent months constructing that thing and I can only imagine what it feels like to watch all that work go up.<\/p>\n After breakfast, I look for the key to the bike lock.\u00a0 Sure enough, it’s attached to a bag I had worn two days ago, laying under some clothes in my tent.\u00a0 Time to make the trek back to the temple to rescue my bike.<\/p>\n I take my camera, load up on water, snacks and sunscreen, and head out for the two-hour hike.\u00a0 Like everything here, lemons do indeed turn to lemonade.\u00a0 It doesn’t take long to realize that this walk is going to be really fun.\u00a0 I am having a thoroughly enjoyable time photographing art, people and mutant vehicles along the way.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I continue my walk, and as I pass Truth is Beauty, a dust storm picks up and she is momentarily obscured.<\/p>\n But then the storm starts to pass, she peeks through, and looks as beautiful in the monochrome landscape as she did a few nights earlier bathed in crystal clear blue light.<\/p>\n I also pass by the Like4Real monument, which recreates the Like thumb of Facebook.\u00a0 For many, it was a huge platform on which to let your freak flag fly, and be photographed while doing it.\u00a0 Others saw it from a distance and stayed away, thinking it was some kind of endorsement and went against the Burning Man principle of decommodification.\u00a0 Like4Real created quite a bit of controversy.<\/p>\n I lay down to rest, have a drink of water, and absorb the tranquil energy of the room.\u00a0 I close my eyes and can hear the gentle sound of a harpsichord and the sniffles of someone near by.\u00a0 I am thankful that my life has been blessed with no tragedies.<\/p>\n I sit up and take a deep breath.\u00a0 It was only 30 minutes, but it feels like I’ve just had a three-hour nap.\u00a0 Beautiful.\u00a0 I consider whether to leave, but it’s still really hot outside and the wind has picked up.\u00a0 No, I decide this is much nicer.\u00a0\u00a0 And that’s before they announce that the next workshop is on aphrodisiacs.\u00a0\u00a0 Gotta love Burning Man.<\/p>\n By the time the aphrodisiac workshop has ended, the day has cooled somewhat.\u00a0 The sun is starting to morph into twilight and it’s time to go to one of the very few events that I actually planned for.<\/p>\n Thievery Corporation is one of my favorite bands.\u00a0 They’re an international act, but based in DC, so we usually have the opportunity to see them once a year.\u00a0 Rob Garza and Eric Hilton are the creative force behind Thievery.\u00a0 They collaborate with a host of other musicians to create a unique sound that can very from year to year.\u00a0 But before they created Thievery in 1995, they each had thriving DJ careers creating house and electronic music.<\/p>\n And so I was elated when I found out Rob Garza was doing four DJ sets at various camps around Burning Man over the course of the week.\u00a0 I was even more thrilled when I saw that Thursday’s set was at Pink Mammoth, one of the most fun dance camps I discovered during my first Burning Man last year.<\/p>\n So, off I bike to Pink Mammoth.<\/p>\n One of my camp mates, Tim, has joined me.\u00a0 It’s his first Burning Man and I’m pretty sure he’s here in the desert only because his girlfriend probably said she was going with or without him.\u00a0 So, Tim is acclimating slowly, shall we say.\u00a0 But it’s a delight to see him start to loosen up here at Pink Mammoth.\u00a0 In fact, he ends up dancing on an elevated platform with a few other guys for the entire time we’re there.<\/p>\n And I just know<\/i> he’s never danced with guys before!<\/p>\n I step outside the dance area to catch a breath and see the sun just minutes from going down behind Granite Peak.\u00a0 When the early sunset does occur, everyone howls good and loud, and as the line of the sunset moves across the city, I hear air horns and screams from afar.\u00a0 Howling at the sunset is a Burning Man tradition that’s hard to beat.<\/p>\n I’d like to tell you what I did the rest of evening, but I can’t.\u00a0 Only because I honestly can’t remember.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n (Continue to Part 3)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WEDNESDAY Now fully in the groove, my day starts off in a delightful way.\u00a0 Dancing. Camp RhythmWave comes to the desert with a large, genuine bamboo dance floor.\u00a0 Guests are protected from the harsh sun by a huge shade canopy.\u00a0 … Continue reading <\/a>But it’s the bamboo dance floor that sets this camp apart.\u00a0 All shoes and boots come off.\u00a0\u00a0 And for some, this freedom goes beyond the footwear.\u00a0 What a marvelous feeling, to finally free those feet and feel the cool, playable wood beneath.\u00a0 I see Ako from our camp here and we dance for a while.\u00a0 What a lovely way to begin the day.<\/p>\n<\/a>The temple is always made of timber.\u00a0 This year, as is often the case, it was crafted completely out of interlocking geometric wood pieces that fit together without the use of nails, glue or metal fasteners.\u00a0 In fact, this year’s temple, designed by Gregg Fleishman, is the largest interlocking wood structure ever constructed anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n<\/a>I took the bonnet to my first Burning Man that year.\u00a0 I thought perhaps I would gift it to some young lady, who might look as cute in it as my wife did 21 years ago.\u00a0 But instead, it sat in my tent.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/a>But I’m the kind of person that compartmentalizes the unpleasant things and focuses on the future as an optimist.\u00a0 So, when the divorce finally came through, five years after our separation, it was a great relief and a time to look toward the future.\u00a0 It helped that by that time I was in a solid relationship with April, who I dearly loved.<\/p>\n<\/a>I slowly bike back to camp, the sun now getting low and orange in the sky, the temperature dipping into that perfect zone; eighty degrees, no humidity.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Soon, the rhythm takes over.\u00a0 It seems like the bass line controls your heartbeat.\u00a0 Perhaps it does.<\/p>\n<\/a>And then I have this intense sense that we are all one.\u00a0 It may sound like some kind of new-age speak, but the feeling is quite real.\u00a0 I clearly sense the interconnectedness of all of us, and of all of us to the earth and even to the universe.\u00a0 It is profound.<\/p>\n<\/a>Here’s an excerpt from an article in Universe Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/a>By the time I make it back to camp, the sun is perhaps 20 degrees above the horizon.\u00a0 That’s my only time reference.\u00a0 And the fact that I’m really hungry.\u00a0 I walk into the cube and find Cobalt and a few others sitting around talking.\u00a0 Everyone else is either still out, or still sleeping.<\/p>\n<\/a>Others, like Michael, who have not seen their beds last evening start to join us.\u00a0 We bath in the warming rays of the sun and shares our stories from the night before.\u00a0 Finally, I make my way to my tent, put in wax earplugs as deep as they will go, cover my eyes with a nightshade, and fall asleep.\u00a0 In an instant.<\/p>\nTHURSDAY<\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Afterwards, some of us from the group the night before decide to bike out to the temple.\u00a0 When we get there, I show them Linda’s bonnet and tell them my story.\u00a0 I find out days later that some of them left their own mementos beneath the bonnet.\u00a0 I didn’t know it then, but my story also touched some of them, especially Kara.<\/p>\n<\/a>I met Kara (on the left, with her bud, Agnes) when I arrived at DCnW, but didn’t really get to know her until earlier this morning while eating sunrise quesadillas.\u00a0 At first glance, she looks like a typical free spirit hippie chick.\u00a0 It turns out that up until just nine months ago, she was a stereotypical southern conservative socialite housewife.\u00a0 And that’s her description, by the way.<\/p>\n<\/a>She divorced him, sold the house, moved into her conversion van, and took off exploring the country.\u00a0 Along the way, she found Burning Man.\u00a0 When the literature speaks of transformations that occur here, this is what they’re talking about.\u00a0 It was a joy to see Kara living her life to the fullest, despite the shit that came before.\u00a0 Or maybe, because of it.<\/p>\n<\/a>We spend about two hours at the temple, sometimes as a group, sometimes on our own.\u00a0 Then, we find each other to leave and walk out to our bikes.\u00a0 But when I go to unlock mine, I realize I don’t have the key (my lock is the kind that can be engaged without the key).\u00a0 I must have left it back in my tent.<\/p>\n<\/a>Later,\u00a0 I walk the neighborhood.\u00a0 What a difference to be walking!\u00a0\u00a0 Even though I cover far less ground, I notice new details, and it feels good to be on my feet.\u00a0 It seems I take in a drink or a dance every few hundred feet.\u00a0 But after a while, the energy of last night catches up with me and I decide to head home.\u00a0 I retire that night modestly early.\u00a0 You have to pace yourself and exercise some degree of restraint here or you’ll burn out just as things start to climax at week’s end.<\/p>\nFRIDAY<\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>The Man is on the way to the temple, so I stop in and shoot photos that present themselves… little kids peering into a “spaceship control panel”, couples taking glamor shots of themselves, people inscribing words of wisdom on the walls.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>The artist Dadara (on the left), who is based in Amsterdam and has created a half dozen thought-provoking pieces for Burning Man over the years, explained that the point was to question the value and “realness” of the Facebook Like.\u00a0 And also to question whether some are disconnecting from real friendships as they engage in this virtual world.\u00a0 In fact, he gave a Ted Talk about this art installation.\u00a0 My favorite point was when he said, “Some people don’t realize that reality has more pixels than the screen of your iPhone.”<\/p>\n<\/a>Finally, I approach the temple, and see my bike just where I left it, though it is now a pale shade of gray, covered in dust.\u00a0 But instead of unlocking it and biking away, I decide to seek refuge from the hot sun and go inside.\u00a0 Again, I am taken with the intensity of the solemn scene.\u00a0 But this time I have my camera, so I ever so quietly snap a few shots to remember it by.<\/p>\n<\/a>After some time, I say goodbye to the temple for the last time, unlock my bike and peddle away.\u00a0 I decide to head to an area of town I’ve not yet visited.\u00a0 A few minutes later, three huge white geodesic domes are before me.\u00a0 Calm music is emanating from one of them, a camp called Fractal Planet.\u00a0 I lay my bike down and walk inside.<\/p>\n<\/a>But I don’t get far.\u00a0 The entire floor is covered with people laying on their back, eyes closed.\u00a0 Two sound towers are positioned on either side of a small stage.\u00a0 A woman is at a computer console and a man is on stage, speaking gently into a microphone.\u00a0 His words are mixing with the music coming out of the computer.\u00a0 I soon realize they are conducting a sonic meditation.\u00a0 I look around carefully and find a small spot on the floor I can squeeze into.\u00a0 I put my backpack on the ground, take off my boots and lay down.\u00a0 For the next 30 minutes, I drift into an extremely peaceful state, perhaps even being hypnotized.\u00a0 And then, it’s over.<\/p>\n<\/a>Sure enough, for the next hour about a hundred people under the dome learn about the aphrodisiacs that are all around us, and how to brew some of our own.\u00a0 Samples are passed around, though I think they’re pretty small.\u00a0 Either that, or we all just had very good self control.<\/p>\n<\/a>I pull up to the same scene I witnessed last year.\u00a0 Pink Mammoth gifts to the city a large dance floor, sound system, DJs and stocked bar.\u00a0 Their specialty sets are during the hours leading up to the sunset.\u00a0 The vibe is just so friendly, people dancing every which way and with anyone who happens to be in their path.\u00a0 Great music.\u00a0\u00a0 Generous drinks.\u00a0 Beautiful way to end the day and begin the night.<\/p>\n<\/a>And just as the schedule said, Rob Garza is spinning the set.\u00a0 He smiles and proclaims “peace” as I snap his pic.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n