A bunch of longtime DPW folks have gotten a new opportunity to kick ass at Burning Man, and without even trying, they’re at the center of where  the organization wants to go.

A group of North Coast burners have been getting together in the woods for years to do their thing and keep the playa spirit alive. Officially, they’re part of the Northern California regional, but that region stretches from the Bay Area to the Oregon border, and that’s an awful lot of territory.

Up until now, these North Coast burners haven’t played much of a role in the official regional group. Instead of driving to Santa Rosa to attend meetings and plan their participation, for the past six years they’ve been going to the beaches and  beautiful North Coast forests around Eureka to burn stuff in creatively significant ways. They’ve held 21 burns so far, but this is the biggest one yet.

Goatt and Jeremy are DPW members who have worked on the Center Cafe for years; they’ve dug the holes and strung the wires and been at the center of the building of Black Rock City. They’re valued crew members because they’re skilled and  they work insanely  hard. When one task is finished, they start looking for the next one. You don’t have to tell them, that’s just the way they’re wired. Goatt will keep up a stream-of-consciousness conversation that is often as hilarious as it is thoughtful and insightful. Maybe being a philosophy major in college will do that to you. More often than not, he’s wearing a red clown nose, making him that much more difficult to categorize. Jeremy makes and sells finely crafted furniture in and around Eureka, and there seems to be a quiet confidence underneath his enthusiasm for the lighthouse project.

Putting driftwood around the base, the better to make a big burn.

On this last weekday morning before the gates are opened and the Burning Man party gets started for real,  both of them were decorating the base of the lighthouse with artfully placed driftwood that they hauled out to the desert from  Crab Beach, another place where they like to burn stuff. Crab Beach is also the place where a Northern California regional contact “discovered” them. Read more »

Face to face with the Man (with special thanks to Altheus, Aristotle and Chaos for letting this happen).

There was a major clash of cultures when the DPW met the Otic Oasis artists crew out at the Man base on Thursday, and a little bit of history was made, too.

It was the first time an art group had been  invited to collaborate on building the Man base, and with much of the work on this year’s base finished, it was time for the Otic folks to begin installing the Pistil, which will sit in the middle of the cathedral-like base and provide another place for people to gather and find refuge at the Man.

The clash of styles couldn’t have been more dramatic. The rough and tumble DPW, shouting and hammering, and the gentle, serene (most of the time!) personalities found at Otic.

While the Man base crew was putting up the 20 flower-like LED lighting pods that Mr. Blue had designed  in each of the arches, The Otic crew gathered near the perimeter of the work zone and had a little group meeting. Gregg Fleishman, the designer and soft-spoken heart of the art project, had said earlier out at Beeometry, their art support camp, that he wanted the Pistil build to be quiet and contemplative – a slow, peaceful, build. He wanted the people to take their time,  to soak in the moments. As Syn said later, “Why would we want to rush it?”

Then the group walked in a procession into the Man base, carrying a 1/6 scale model of the Pistil.  Some of the DPW workers put down their tools and watched curiously, and others just kept on pounding. “What language are they speaking?” one observer  muttered as some the rallying speech was overheard.

Eva, Hannes, Brian and Lou affixing the light structures before the Pistil team arrived.

Once inside, the Pistil crew formed a circle in the center of the Man and joined hands in unity and intention. Syn said again how honored they were to be in what may be the last Man base to be designed by Rod Garrett, and that the work of both the Man base crew and the Otic crew would honor his memory. Read more »

Flux Foundation’s Zoa, photo by portaplaya

The ARTery is in full swing, with projects beginning to pour in by the truckload. Where once was open playa and the original four projects with their encampments, now a cornucopia of projects grows every day. Bands of dusty artists arrive in caravans following long trucks packed with wood and steel and those artists are beginning to match the population of those building Black Rock City. Flux is here setting up Zoa, the EGO project, Reno Star Cosmic Thistle and Anubis among other pieces are all placed and building, rising up like tiny desert tribes, settled in and circling whatever tall idol they’re erecting.

Zoa, photo by portaplaya

Out at Zoa Flux heavy equipment (HEAT) was helping to put together the three steel structures that are the underlying “sculptural array” for the project. They’re named Billy, Etta and Nina and large star shaped wooden pieces that will form part of their wooden Seapod exoskeletons lay off to the side awaiting numerous adjustments, placements, riggings and gas lines installations before being fitted to the outsides. Flux is a whirr of energy with crews working all over and last night and tonight they’re testing flame effects. Jess Hobbs was out there and she had a button her hat that read “Chaos is my Bitch” and Masha showed us the orb on Etta that she’d cut from a huge pipe then shaped and sculpted. Zoa is located past the Man, before the Temple out toward 2:00 and will be burning Wednesday night at 9:00.

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Exodus photo by Danger Ranger

You know how every year when you leave Burning Man after partying your butt off, interacting with amazing art, seeing your friends and making new ones, and wandering around an amazing city unlike any you’ve ever encountered that magically rises up out of a prehistoric lakebed; you go home and take a shower and maybe have a beer and think about how great that was? Well, there are people still out in those dust storms and that searing heat making sure everything is torn down, stowed and shipped and any little bits of trash you possibly, accidentally were inconsiderate about not taking home with you are being all picked up so we can throw this little event again next year.

DA and crew, photo by fling93

I was talking with DA who runs the Playa Restoration (or Resto) Crew and he told me how when the event is over they spend weeks tearing down Black Rock City’s structures and then walking miles each day in the sun over grids, making sure to pick up every last bit of trash that may have made it to the playa floor. The goal is to leave the playa as clean as it was before the event and it is hard, grueling work. They start early in the morning and DA tells me that around 3:15 in the afternoon someone will invariably yell “Morale!” and the crew will stop, go to the shade and drink a couple cold beers and eat some snacks. This makes the remaining two hours go by faster.

That beer and snacks are donated by you, kind citizen of Black Rock City.

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When you think about Burning Man, you think about a lot of things – the desert, the dust, the art, the people, the party –  the whole conglomeration of things that make up this extraordinary experience in the middle of nowhere. But at the heart of it all is the Man himself, the big wooden thing that gets burned on the Saturday night of the event.

The Man’s origins are a mystery wrapped in an enigma. We know that in 1986, Larry Harvey and Jerry James and a small group of pals built an eight-foot wooden man and thought it would be a kick to drag it out to Baker Beach and set it on fire. Stories have been told and legends have been propagated as to exactly WHY this happened. Most often, you hear that Larry had had a bad breakup, an this was his attempt at catharsis. But as is so often the case, the simplest explanation seems best: Burning a wooden man just sounded like a fun thing to do.

It was the reaction of the people on the beach that made the event noteworthy. A crowd gathered, there was singing and reveling, and Larry and the others suspected that they might have touched a collective nerve. So they decided to do it again. And then again. And eventually here we are in Black Rock Desert expecting 60,000 to watch the Man burn this year.

(And forgive the capitalization issues in this post: It seems like a deification to refer to the effigy as “the Man” instead of simply “the man,” and we don’t want to layer any errant spirituality on the proceedings. But we’ll give the big guy his due and go with the capital letters.)

Wednesday morning was the culmination of months and months of work for this year’s Man crew. On a beautifully still and calm desert morning, the Man was placed ever so gently atop the base.  There was a relatively small number of people on hand to witness the lift and place. The other night, there might have been a couple hundred people around to wax the Man to make sure he burns brightly and quickly. But on this morning the Man base felt like a work site, which in fact it was. Read more »

Smoke from wildfires in California has turned the desert skies pink

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but holy crap it’s going off all over the place out here in the Black Rock Desert.

It’s Monday. Less than a week till the gates open. As Cobra Commander said at the DPW morning meeting, “Holy s— it’s Burning Man.”

And it’s true. It is upon us. It is upon you.

The desert already feels like it’s getting crowded, although that’s ridiculous. There are maybe a couple or several thousand people out here now, and many more on the way. Today is the first official day that artist theme camps are allowed to start setting up on the playa. Roads are in place, spires are up in many parts of the city, and the big art pieces are well underway – Otic Oasis, Burn Wall Street, Thistle,  Ego, Zoa. … the ones you should be marking down on your “who what where” list, because it’s going to be worth a trip from anywhere to visit them.

The more fundamental aspects of the city are either set to go or coming together fast. Trenches are being dug and power lines are being strung all around. The Center Cafe is all up and rigged (that giant sail of shade and rest in the center of the city), and the pretty-izing crew of Cafe Decor are setting up shop now, getting things all ready for you.

Ranger stations, emergency medical crews,  Gate and Perimeter, the various ice-dispensing Articas – all the backbone pieces of Black Rock City are ready or damn close to being ready for you. It’s almost become a contest among the various tribes and constituencies of the building crews out here; who can get it done right, and get it done first? Who’s going to win  Burning Man?

The crew from Otic Oasis has to haul gear out into the walk-in camping section of the city

Some of you may be familiar with all the preparation that this event requires, but some of you may be surprised by the logistical requirements. After all, the event only lasts a week, and then  because it’s a “leave no trace” event, when everybody goes home, it’s as if no one had ever been here, right?

Let’s just say, not really.

There is an insane amount of work done by a large number of people in insanely harsh conditions. All to get the place ready for you, because it’s you who are going to be bringing the awesomeness.

But by all accounts, this has been one of the hottest years ever. Don’t take my word for it; listen to Logan again, who said this morning that he’d never experienced the heat that has hit the city this year. And of course you’ve heard that this is going to be the dustiest  year in the history of Burning Man. You’ve seen the “Dustpocolypse” picture on the internets. But I’d caution you to avoid jumping to conclusions. Yes, there have been whiteouts. And maybe they’ve happened a little early. But there have been whiteouts during the early time in other years, too, so it’s a little too soon to make grand pronouncements. Read more »

What follows is a short photo essay of last night’s Early Burn. These photos and captions are from Todd “portaplaya” Gardiner, who will be working with some of the bloggers here during the event this year.

portaplaya writes

The Early Burn is a celebration of the accomplishments of the staff and volunteers. Many of the people out this early have been building the event for more than two weeks without a day off. and this short event allows each team to make an expression of their specific contribution and provides an evening of R&R before going into the last week before the event opens.

Small core teams of artists were formed by various larger groups. The projects are rather competitive and the results range from crass to classy. The next few photos show what these builders created in two day’s time, often from scrap materials.

 

an Angel from EGO

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Bucky placing art

I’ve got my feet in several worlds this year on playa, working for the ARTery, documenting art projects to share with you all, and I’m doing some placement with the Artist Support Services (ASS) folks and I’m pretty much there to do whatever else they want me to. I’m also helping out with some Tech stuff since in my year round job I work on this here web site about the whole Burning Man thing. My ARTery mentor is Awesome Sauce, and yesterday, under her steady tutelage,  I had the pleasure of placing my first art project EVER, Otic Oasis.

My most awesome mentor, Awesome Sauce

Basically the ARTery places art once you hit the playa with your project. You roll into the ARTery and register, and then one of our team will set a time to take you out on the playa with what is called a “floofy” which sounds like “flew fee” with the plural being “floofies”. The ARTery has a rigid lexicon to describe what they do.

There are two main reasons for registering your ART. First and most obvious is to have a map of where the projects are, so people searching for them can find them, and secondly to be able to list projects on the MOOP map to make sure we all Leave No Trace.

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