![\"2013-3-02\"](\"http:\/\/www.kennyreff.com\/burningman\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013-3-02.jpg\")
<\/a>Saturday is spent biking around town, taking in the camps, workshops, people and art.\u00a0 At one point, a few of us end up going to the edge of the city at 2:00 (that’s the location, not the time) because, well, Khady wants to go to this place.<\/p>\nGood drinks and music, but its most interesting feature is a large poster plastered with pictures of ladies proudly displaying their breasts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The camp is on the very edge of the city.\u00a0 It’s very cool to peer out into the deep playa, and of course, take pictures of us against the infinity backdrop.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Khady looks particularly chill today, so I ask her to strike a pose.\u00a0 She throws up her arms and proclaims the joy of being here in the desert, a huge smile on her face, knee-hi boots covered in playa dust.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Then, right around this time, SpinMeister happens along.\u00a0 I met Spin at a regional burn last spring, but rarely see him around DC.\u00a0 Bumping into him like this is truly amazing because he’s not camping with us, and there are 68,000 people here this week.\u00a0 At Burning Man, they call things like this synchronicity.<\/p>\n Eventually, we head back to camp for dinner and to change into warmer clothes for the burning of The Man.<\/p>\n By now, our little group has found its groove.\u00a0 We start out together, but as the night progresses, the group slowly dissolves as some want to go one kind of music event or scene, and others prefer another.<\/p>\n But just beginning the evening together is a challenge.\u00a0 It’s not like you can announce a particular time to leave.\u00a0 Most of us aren’t wearing watches and we certainly don’t have our smartphones on us.\u00a0 So it becomes a game of watch, wait and chill.\u00a0 Are we all here?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Wait and chill.\u00a0 Go to the porta potty down the street.\u00a0 Some others arrive at the front of camp.\u00a0 Are we all here?\u00a0\u00a0 No, some are at the potty.\u00a0 How ’bout now.\u00a0 No, she decided to change her dress.\u00a0 He forgot something in his tent.\u00a0 This goes on for at least 30 minutes.<\/p>\n And then, we’re off.\u00a0 We don’t bike to the Man.\u00a0 The experienced among us know that it’s really easy to lose your bike, out there among the many thousands.\u00a0 For one thing, there is no permanent frame of reference.\u00a0 If you park it near this art car or that, you’ll find the vehicle is no longer there when you go to look for your bike.\u00a0 And of course, the Man burns, so he doesn’t help much either.<\/p>\n We stride through the city streets,which get increasingly more crowded as we near the Esplanade.\u00a0 And then, we break through onto the open playa.\u00a0 Now, we have to contend with the thousands who decided to ride their bikes.\u00a0 Of course, there are no lanes.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s an absolute web of moving human interaction.<\/p>\n Caveat, a frequent poster to the official Burning Man blog, describes it this way.\u00a0 “Burning Man is about a kind of epic confusion that is good for the soul.”<\/p>\n As we near the Man, we encounter a ring of mutant vehicles that surround it.\u00a0 They form a solid barrier, which must be at least a full mile in circumference.\u00a0 In fact, there are more registered art cars and mutant vehicles this year than ever before.\u00a0 It’s an amazing sight.\u00a0 So much ingenuity.\u00a0 So much creativity.\u00a0 World-class art.<\/p>\n The burning of the Man is an amazing spectacle.\u00a0 Not just for the burn itself, but also for the enormous crowd, fire spinners, drummers and art cars.\u00a0 The Fire Conclave has created another ring that surrounds the man, inside the ring of mutant vehicles.\u00a0 These are experienced performers who have been selected for this event.\u00a0 There must be 300-500 of them.\u00a0 And next to each set of fire spinners are groups of drummers, each pounding out their own rhythm.<\/p>\n Soon the entire space ship and Man are on fire.\u00a0 We are hundreds of feet away, but the heat is incredible.\u00a0 A few minutes ago, it was probably 50 degrees.\u00a0 Now, it feels like 110.<\/p>\n When the Man falls into the roaring flames, hundreds of people start a spirited run around the burning monument.<\/p>\n After a time, the winds become manageable again and we continue our journey.\u00a0 But the dust storm is still preventing us from seeing any of the lights of the city, so there is really is no way to know for sure if we’re heading toward town, or away from it and deeper into the desert.<\/p>\n But there is a clue.\u00a0 Sound.<\/p>\n As the winds die down, the sound of hundreds of mutant vehicles and dance tents can be heard.\u00a0 It is aural soup.\u00a0 The high frequencies don’t penetrate this far out, but the low end does.\u00a0 The result is a complex bass rhythm that has no rhythm.\u00a0 It never repeats, because its components constantly shift as art cars move about and the wind morphs the frequencies that make it to our ears.<\/p>\n Somehow, it is the perfect compliment to the dark weirdness of the deep playa.<\/p>\n But Aaron seems to know which way to go.\u00a0 And who’s to doubt someone with a glowing jellyfish stuck on a pole high overhead.\u00a0 We follow Aaron for a good while, and then someone – I think it’s me – asks if we’re close.<\/p>\n “Close to what,” he asks.<\/p>\n “Close to Pink Heart, the camp we’re heading to.”<\/p>\n “I have no idea.”<\/p>\n It turns out Aaron is heading off to meet up with other Jellyfish friends!\u00a0 No, that is not what we signed up for.<\/p>\n We all laugh hysterically, realizing the absurdity of following this jellyfish through the dark playa.\u00a0 We say goodbye to Aaron and reset our bearings.<\/p>\n Perhaps an hour later we’ve found our way to Pink Heart.\u00a0 It’s a camp on the Esplanade and it’s filled with really comfortable couches that face the playa.\u00a0 You can sit there and watch the parade of humanity go by on the Esplanade.\u00a0 And even though there is no glass in front of you, you feel no wind.\u00a0 Of course, its walls and all the furniture are pink.\u00a0 We all dive into a couch or sprawl out on the floor surrounding it, and appreciate the break.\u00a0 It’s been quite a trek.<\/p>\n I think it was during this time into the early morning on the night after the Man burned, that I got know Kara’s incredible story.\u00a0 That inscription on the wall really resonated with her.\u00a0 And me too, having gotten divorced just last year, and now living my own Life 2.0.<\/p>\n After an hour or two (hard to say, really), we’re feeling like a change of scene.\u00a0 I tell the group about the Playa Jazz Cafe, a place I discovered at last year’s Burning Man, but hadn’t yet been to this year.\u00a0 Most don’t feel like taking the walk to find it, so Kara and I set out to find it on our own.<\/p>\n Still feeling disoriented, for a while I think we might not succeed.\u00a0 And I think Kara must be thinking that too.\u00a0 It’s probably 3am and the streets are getting a bit deserted.\u00a0 We turn this way and that.\u00a0 “It’s got to be close,” I say.\u00a0\u00a0 Kara laughs.\u00a0 We probably walk about 30 minutes before we turn off the Esplanade onto Rod’s Road, the only curved street in town (named for Black Rock City designer, Rod Garrett).\u00a0 And then, like a mirage turned real, it appears as we round a corner, the neon sign clearly proclaiming this oasis in the desert.<\/p>\n We walk inside, and the scene is just as I left it a full year ago.\u00a0 A couple is slow dancing, and even though it’s 3am, the dome is filled wall-to-wall with people lounging around on bean bag chairs, low couches and rugs.\u00a0 Some speak in hushed tones, but most listen intently to a quintet grooving as though they were in Greenwich Village.<\/p>\n Just as we settle in, the last notes of that beautiful tune are sung and the song is over.\u00a0 A moment later, the band starts playing the loudest, most discordant jazz I have ever heard!\u00a0 I look over to Kara, who is not really a jazz aficionado, and see her quizzical look.<\/p>\n All I can say to her is, “Jazz can be many things.”<\/p>\n Kara breaks bad with her one of her defining exuberant laughs.\u00a0 I laugh too at the absurdity of the statement.\u00a0 It takes another couple of tunes before they play the kind of jazz I usually listen to.\u00a0 In the meantime, in true Burner style, I learn to appreciate discordant jazz.<\/p>\n The sun is rising by the time we decide to leave the jazz behind and begin the walk to our camp.\u00a0 We arrive to find others sitting around, talking about the night.\u00a0 I do my breakfast thing once more, finding kitchen leftovers and throwing them into a frying pan.\u00a0 Again, we head up to the second level with others to watch another beautiful sunrise over the eastern mountains.<\/p>\n A couple of hours later, it is mid-morning and I plan to lay down in the shade to get some sleep. But just then, Matt, one of the camp organizers walks over and says there is a urgent all-camp meeting in a few minutes.<\/p>\n News has come that a big rain storm is headed our way that might hit Monday afternoon, just as many of us would be trying to leave.<\/p>\n The problem with rain in this kind of desert is that it turns the fine silt that coats the playa into mud that is so thick it is impossible to drive.\u00a0 There are predictions for up to four hours of heavy rain.\u00a0 Burning Man would close down the road leading off the playa, and we could be delayed a full day or two.\u00a0 For those of us with flights leaving Reno on Monday or Tuesday, this could be especially tough.\u00a0 It could mean additional days in Reno waiting on standby for an open seat.<\/p>\n Funny how the default world can so quickly rear its head.<\/p>\n My bus back to Reno is scheduled for Monday at 4pm.\u00a0 I decide to try to catch the noon bus instead and beat the rain. That means doing a lot of prep during the day today.\u00a0 The entire camp, and the city in general, has shifted into deconstruction mode.\u00a0 We start to dismantle as much as possible, keeping intact those things necessary to survive here another night or two.\u00a0 Everyone knows the work will mostly cease when the sun sets, because tonight the Temple burns.<\/p>\n We work through the day, have a modest dinner made mostly of left-overs from the previous week, and gather to walk to the Temple of Whollyness.<\/p>\n Tonight, the group departing camp for the burn is even larger than the night before.\u00a0 It’s a long walk, almost double the distance as last night’s walk to the Man, but it’s enjoyable and the time passes quickly.<\/p>\n We walk up to the edge of the crowd and sit down.\u00a0 The tone is noticeably quieter than the Man burn the night before.\u00a0 People are speaking in low voices and although art cars are nearby, for the first time all week, their music is silent.\u00a0 Even the engines are off.<\/p>\n After a time, I notice a small flame emanating from the structure.\u00a0 Conversations cease.\u00a0 Within fifteen minutes the entire Temple is engulfed in flames.\u00a0 No fireworks or explosions precipitated the burn.\u00a0 And now, with such a massive structure aflame and the quiet crowd, you can clearly hear the crackling sound of a wood fire.\u00a0 But it’s not the sound of campfire.\u00a0 This sound is so loud it feels like you’re yards from a huge forest fire.<\/p>\n Kara cries.\u00a0 Her loss is far more recent than mine.\u00a0 And she tells me later that the Temple burn was gratifying and cleansing.\u00a0 She had not expected this at Burning Man, and she is grateful for it.<\/p>\n Finally, all that remains of the Temple is its black stone alter.\u00a0 We get up off the desert floor and begin a slow walk back to the city.\u00a0 Talk turns to what kind of scene we’re each in the mood for.\u00a0 I mention the Playa Jazz Cafe, and tonight, Mark, Gabe and Abby join Kara and me.<\/p>\n We walk towards Center Camp, which is a good frame of reference for the jazz club, and begin searching for it.\u00a0 We’re all pretty tired about now and looking forward to chilling in this space.\u00a0 But try as I might, I can’t find it.\u00a0 For some reason, the streets are darker than the night before and this doesn’t help things.\u00a0 We walk around in circles for a while and I finally come to the conclusion that the Playa Jazz Cafe is simply gone.<\/p>\n I don’t know if it was the impending storm that caused them to pack up early, or whether they normally close up on Sunday, but it sure is a disappointment.\u00a0 The four of us walk over to Center Camp and sit down on the carpeted floor.\u00a0 We see Kathy and Shawn on line for coffee and ask them to grab some for us too.\u00a0 We chat quietly and hang out there for a while.\u00a0 I’m really tired.\u00a0 It’s the end of an amazing week an I hardly got any sleep the night before.\u00a0 But it’s the last night and I don’t want it end.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Monday morning comes very quickly, especially since my goal is to be at the Burning Man Express bus stop at noon.\u00a0 I pack up the last of my things and say goodbye to my friends.\u00a0 Most of them signed up for the camp before buying air tickets and knew the breakdown schedule.\u00a0 But I had bought my air long before being invited to join the camp, so my flight was a day earlier than theirs.\u00a0 I feel bad about leaving early, especially with the impending storm, but I promise them I’ll be with the plan next year.<\/p>\n The bus stop is about a quarter mile away and I’ve got a bit of stuff.\u00a0 It’s a fraction of the load I had to cart last year, because most of it is being trucked back in the shipping container DCnW provides.\u00a0 However, it would still be nice to have some way to cart my stuff to the bus stop.\u00a0 Without even asking, Kathy volunteers to walk Lesley (who also has an early flight) and me out to the bus stop along with a little wagon for our stuff.\u00a0 Thank you, Kathy!<\/p>\n Lesley and I are able to get the noon bus on standby without a problem, and before we know it, we’re off the playa and driving down a paved road.\u00a0 Two hours later I’m checking into a Reno airport hotel.\u00a0 Minutes later I’m in my room where I fall asleep and don’t wake up for 12 hours.<\/p>\n It’s now Tuesday morning.\u00a0 I walk over to the airport terminal and see that there is a Burning Man photo and memorabilia exhibit at the airport.<\/p>\n I wander through the exhibit with other Burners, then finally board my flight to Washington.\u00a0 We take off and fly out over the desert.\u00a0 I look out the window and my thoughts are a cascade of memories.\u00a0 In my mind’s eye, I am once again on the playa, reliving an amazing week of art and dance and conversation and emotions and friends.\u00a0 I lean back, close my eyes, and a broad smile crosses my face.<\/p>\n The Man burns in 362 days.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n SATURDAY Saturday is spent biking around town, taking in the camps, workshops, people and art.\u00a0 At one point, a few of us end up going to the edge of the city at 2:00 (that’s the location, not the time) because, … Continue reading <\/a>I guess they must have had some event earlier in the week.\u00a0 Well, the poster captures it pretty well, I guess.\u00a0 Actually, no.\u00a0 I can’t deny it would have been awesome to see that party in progress.<\/p>\n<\/a>Another feature of the camp is a contraption that would have been used in the past as a guillotine.\u00a0 Only here at Burning Man, it’s meant to be a spanking station.\u00a0 Judging by Agnes’s enthusiasm, I assume Nish deserved it.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>As we approach the ring of vehicles, we hold hands and slow down.\u00a0 We want to find a spot inside the ring of vehicles, but finding a spot large enough for about 15 of us is challenging.\u00a0 We split into two smaller groups and sit down to claim our spots.<\/p>\n<\/a>It’s an awesome scene, watching fire being spun just a feet in front of me.\u00a0 I am engulfed in a cacophony of sound; the beating of the drums in front of me, the electronic tump, thump of unsynchronized music pounding from dozens of art cars behind me, the laughing of my friends that surround me.<\/p>\n<\/a>And then, without notice, a barrage of fireworks ignite around the spaceship.\u00a0 At first, they don’t shoot into the air.\u00a0 Instead, they engulf the huge ship in shower of sparks; the Man, outlined in green neon, towering above.\u00a0 The crowd cheers.<\/p>\n<\/a>Now, fireworks erupt high into the air.\u00a0 The crowd roars.\u00a0 Drummers in the crowd bang harder, louder, feeding the catharsis.<\/p>\n<\/a>And then, a massive explosion.\u00a0 For a moment, the fireball is as wide as the entire width of the spaceship.\u00a0 Then it quickly condenses as the ball of energy and light rises into the black night.<\/p>\n<\/a>It takes about 90 minutes for the massive structure to be reduced to a large mound of burning lumber.\u00a0 The next day, I would pass by it and a small pile of embers would still be burning, surrounded by a volunteer team which babysat it all night long, sweeping the debris into tighter and tighter circles.\u00a0 Eventually, there would be No Trace.<\/p>\n<\/a>The weather has been beautiful the entire evening.\u00a0 Temperate and calm.\u00a0 Now, just as we all gather our things and start to leave, things change.\u00a0 As if on cue, the wind picks up ferociously.\u00a0 In a few moments, we are in a blinding dust storm.\u00a0 We don goggles and dust masks, but even still, at one point we all hunker down on our knees in a small circle to wait it out.\u00a0 Somehow, it seems no coincidence that the wind storm waited until the largest burn of the week had died down to a pile of small flames.<\/p>\n<\/a>On one wall is inscribed in large type, “Live more, fear less. Float more, steer less.”\u00a0 It seems amazingly appropriate at the moment.\u00a0 In fact, amazingly appropriate for the entire week.\u00a0 No, for our entire life.<\/p>\n<\/a>Just as we see the sign, we also start to hear the faint sound of honest-to-goodness live jazz.\u00a0 It grows louder as we approach.\u00a0 I can’t remember the tune, but it was a romantic, traditional piece featuring saxophone.\u00a0 After a night of EDM, this was truly music to my ears.<\/p>\n<\/a>I search carefully for a spot we might settle into.\u00a0 It takes a little while, but then someone gets up to leave and a space is revealed.\u00a0 We take off our coats, goggles and dust masks, lay down on the carpet and\u00a0 lean up against a few oversized pillows.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nSUNDAY<\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>And then, I notice the sound of sniffles and some gentle crying.\u00a0 I am reminded of my loss going up in flames.\u00a0 I breathe in deeply, close my eyes and mediate in the moment.\u00a0 I am at peace with what has come before, what is now, and what is yet to come.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nMONDAY\/TUESDAY<\/b><\/h2>\n
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