The Temple of Transition’s burn was quick and hot: by my clock it was only about 20 minutes between the structure getting lit and the rangers dropping the perimeter. It’s brevity did not detract from it’s beauty by any means as I’m sure you will agree. Much respect to the Temple crew.
“Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and adventures are the shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgotten.”
– Neil Gaiman
We love to hate the dust. It gets into everything, it sticks to anything. What it touches is marked for the remainder of it’s significantly shortened lifespan. I believe we ingest a lot more of it than we imagine. Fighting it — believe me, I’ve tried — is useless.
But I find that when I quit fighting and embrace the dust, and I mean truly become one with it and of it and in it, it becomes almost impossible to become actually dirty. And my camera gets a magical Shield of Immunity against playa, and so I go out and shoot what the dust reveals.
Hawaii CORE project
Dusty Couple
Here’s a little fable about a favorite playa photo and thoughts about Kickstarter, a fundraising tool that is gaining popularity among Burners.
Love,
Halcyon )’(
**NOTE: I AM NOT AN OFFICIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF BURNING MAN. I am merely a 13-year Participant with a passion for the event, people, and principles of Burning Man. Half-baked ideas & views expressed aren’t necessarily those of the Burning Man organization.” **
So I always thought that Mardi Gras equaled Girls Gone Wild. Period.
I was so, so wrong.
I would get mad, working at the Burning Man festival, when others more wet behind the ears than I and my dusty cranky faction would say, “Yeah, Burning Man’s great! It reminds me of Mardi Gras!”
You don’t know what you’re talking about, my subconscious would scream. Have you any idea what it takes to live in a van for 2 months out of the year, in one of the harshest environments on Earth, laboring like a hard-time prisoner and eating nothing but Pabst Blue Ribbon and bacon? … Do you have any inkling as to the effort involved in building a fantastical city out of THIN AIR for FIFTY THOUSAND PEOPLE, and that we have to TEAR IT ALL BACK DOWN TO NOTHING?
(The subconscious, you see, can become quite the Bill Hicks-level righteous aggravationist when faced with 10-hour days under the hot sun in hangovery dust storms.)
But you know what? On Friday and Saturday nights? When we’ve built the city infrastructure and every-thousand ticketholders have come and added the bells and whistles and finally put down the tools to suit up in their finery and go out on the town and look at what other people have been working on all year in their spare time? It DOES remind me of Mardi Gras. Now that I’ve been to Mardi Gras as a New Orleans resident, I get it.
dear Pan, please bless the proceedings and continue scaring the little children. Amen
Greetings friends!
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything about my adventures through the vast and every growing Regional Network. I’m here today with an update and also to wish a great big Happy Birthday to this little Regional Blog!
It’s been almost a year to the date since my first post and I write you once again from Atlanta, GA where I first started posting in April 2007.