Fence. Say it to a normal person, and they might look at you like: “Yeah, so what?” Say it to DPW and they’ll get a semi-crazed look in their eyes. A little drool maybe. You might sense a strange longing. Don’t worry, they’ll be fine. Eventually.

This is the day that Burning Man officially descends on the playa. Transpo starts; the DPW Depot gets built; Center Camp gets laid out; the man base takes shape, major art installations arrive. But the biggest thing by far is the fence. The fence that keeps loose moop inside the city limits when the wind blows. The 8-mile perimeter fence that gets pounded in and tied by hand.

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My apologies friends. This entry is a bit late due to technical difficulties with getting the images to load. Special thanks to Loopy, one of our awesome Blog Volunteers and also to Rob Carlson and Rae Klein who permitted use of some of their images since my camera took a swim in my cooler and was OUT of commission for most of this visit.

See y’all in the dust – here is the final entry from a month long adventure through Regional Land.

Bex

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It was a long month on the road and the very last stop on the journey was to the East Coast to Assateague Island to meet up with True from Albany-Troy (NY), Ben Sarsgard from Baltimore – Washington area, Andy Wing from Philadelphia, PA, and OMan from NYC.

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Last night there was a bit of a party at the Social Club. It was fun enough that a few of us made the rounds this morning apologizing hopefully for whatever we might have said or done that was inappropriate/embarrassing/stupid. I have a headache. Let’s just leave it at that.
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“Four inches left. Mark it, 5:00 and Arctic.” That’s the word from the Octagon to one of the teams on the Survey crew. Coyote’s got one eye on the transit and a radio in hand, as he directs the placement of survey flags along the first street beyond the Esplanade. This year the city is three blocks extended past 2006, so the Survey crew has got 221 intersections to mark. Along with the Man base, 624 street pegs, and flags for Center Camp, Promenades, and four plazas. And you can’t believe how precise they are.

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A Day at the Office

I spent most of the day in the Burning Man Office. You may have guessed, this isn’t a typical office. It’s way better. First of all, it’s on Main Street in Gerlach, Nevada, USA. Second of all, it’s got character: two-way radios, Burning Man art, random furniture, boxes of corn and melons, unplugged electronics, and playa pictures everywhere. Most importantly of course, this office is populated by burners. Burners who get shit done.

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I left Reno at 3:30 this afternoon, two hours later than planned. There was a lot to do before I came out to Gerlach since I’ll be gone for a month. Take care of my dog, get the house dialed in, re-route the mail. Get a new battery for my unit (deep cycle, 12 volt), solar charger for my camera, sensible shoes for my feet. It’s taken me weeks to get ready just to go out to Burning Man, which makes me wonder what it actually takes to put on Burning Man. Think about preparing for guests at your house when you’re throwing a party- I know a guy who won’t even have a BBQ because it’s too much trouble- and then imagine that 45,000 people are coming and you don’t have a house. Or a town. That’s where the DPW comes in.

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Greetings from the road once again friends!

I’ve been laying low in the Big Apple, trying to catch my breath and prepare for the last leg of this journey through Regional Land. While here I did managed to stop in to the weekly Burner Happy Hour that happens in NYC.

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Not a moment to loose, I returned to the states from London and took off running the next morning to find Transformus and my Dirty Southern Burner friends. The drive to Deerfields was familiar. The air was steamy and humid, very different from my last visit to the region. Everything was huge and green, the fields of tobacco and corn were significantly taller and bursting with activity.

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