Burning Man 2007: Impressions, experiences, and reflections.

Just got home now. It's 2:38 AM right now and I'm not right in the head. This post will be incoherent, poorly formatted, with worse grammar, and it will probley contaoun some speeling erors.

But I'll share some of my experiences. Others should share and I'll share more of mine.

1) 2:40AM-ish Tuesday morning. I am sitting outside our main camp structure enjoying the lunar eclipse when... "What are they burning out there?" "[censored] if I know...it's Burning Man. They burn stuff." "Yeah, but on MONDAY?" "Wait...isn't that where the man was?" "No, he was off to the left..." "HOLY CRAP!!! IT'S THE MAN!!!!"

The amazing bit is that they got enough water out into the middle of the playa to extinguish him (and it was a LONG effort, 23 minutes).

And it didn't make much difference. So we didn't have a Man. Big whoop. We partied on.


2) Two fighter jets buzzed the playa and then did some aerobatics. I love it when non-participants (i.e. the USAF) participate.


3) The monkey strobe art was pretty cool. Look it up if you don't get it.


4) A rather gorgeous aerialist (who performed at the burn of the Crude Awakening piece) hopped into the shower with me. And not just to conserve water.


5) So then there's this story that I have to tell.

My good friend Mike and I went to Stanford together. He's one of my good guy friends. Since Stanord, both of us have come out. When I went to San Francisco for my interview at Stanford Medical Center, I stayed with Mike and my friends Sameer and Joey (all roommates). So that night we had a party.

And Mike and I hooked up.

Which was rather confusing to me, as you might imagine.

I left my class ring on his nightstand by mistake. I sent him a text message telling him to hang on to it and I'd get it on my next trip to San Francisco.

So Mike went to Burning Man and I went to visit him. And we... "had ice cream." And then we sat around and talked about his life and the direction it's been taking him. He graduated from Stanford with an Engineer's Degree, which is midway between a Masters and a Ph.D. He's an engineering consultant now...except he only works to support his main passion, which is creating art. He's made amazing art (www.orbswarm.com) and he continues to do so.

And then he jumped up, ran to his car...and got my ring that he had brought to the Burn on the off chance that we ran into each-other. This made me go

Mike has said that he's willing to take on the life of a monk if it means that he gets to create things. But I don't think he should be a monk. See, I'm not so confused about my feelings about Mike after this Burn. In fact, I'm pretty damned sure that I know how I feel about him:

I want to be there with him to see the path he carves for himself. Maybe it will be as his friend and I'm fine with that. But I think I'd rather be there as his partner, to help him when the going gets rough and to celebrate his triumphs with him. He's a truly amazing man and I hope I get to watch his career unfold. I've never quite felt this way about anyone...

So I'm visiting SF in October and I'm staying with Mike, Sameer, and Joey. So I guess I should take Mike on a date, huh? After all, we're both going to be living in San Francisco.


6) As the plane descended into the New York Metropolitan Area I looked over this city that I have called my home for the last two years and three months. It has gone through quite a transformation in the one week that I was gone.

New York City revealed itself from the air to be a strange, forbidding, and alien place. It is where I live, but I am a stranger here. I am merely an impostor. It is my residence, but it is not now, nor was it ever my home.

I don't want to be here anymore. I have lived too long separated from my tribe. This week I was reunited with my tribe for my victory celebration. It hurt me almost physically to leave them. But this time, the separation is not "until next Burn."

TEN MONTHS. And then I get to go...

...home.

Something about that...

"Live in New York but leave before you get too hard, Live in San Fransisco but leave before you get too soft..." poem?



Nice to have you while we had you. You'll miss New York, but it takes a special kind of soul to call it home. Besides, you're too 'pretty' for the east coast.

this thread is gonnammake it suck even mroe that i didnt go....next year....by the eye of Ra i shall be there.


good to hear you had a good time Doc. It's good to know that the premature burning didnt ruin it for everyone. how was the second man that was supposed to be built?

Oh... My friend Santi did his thing again and brought this lovely aged romano cheese and some amazing champaigne and we all sat on the playa and sipped and feasted...

It was awesome.

So, you got laid, watched things burn and looked at glowy things.

Sounds like your average HoP meet to me

NOT!

Unless the HoP meets have greatly changed since I started going.

In fact, I think even at the HoP meet at BURNINGMAN everybody STOPPED having sex, watching things burn, and playing with glowythings to go to the meet!

Doc, that's such a sweet story about your friend Mike. I wish you all the best with that.

There was some drama this year, as everyone has heard by now. And yet, the burn was still the burn. To follow Doc's example, my little list in no particular order:

1) My burn started with a weird coincidence: through luck-of-the-draw, I ended up driving up in the artcar with a fellow named Leif, whom I had never met before. I've driven up with the artcar every burn now, and this year it was with a different camp and car. Anyway, it turns out that Leif is good friends with friends of mine from when I lived in Chicago a decade ago. And one of those friends was on the playa this year, so we got a chance to reconnect.

2) This was my 4th burn, but the first time I "had ice cream" out there. I got a little carried away though...7 scoops!

3) The monkeys were amazing, one of my favorite pieces of playa art ever.

4) The second dust storm on Friday (or was it Thursday?) when the world turned orange and you couldn't see your own hands and then it rained and then there was a double rainbow over the city. Breathtaking!!!

5) My camp rocked. The people were beautiful and our meals were amazing. I ate better this Burning Man than I do in my normal life.

6) I'm bummed I missed the HoP meet, but I did get to go to a hoopers meet-up which blew my mind. Seriously, into wee little pieces. Meeting all the far-flung hoopers that were there and whom I only know as little icons on my computer was really really great.

7) Hanging out with my friend Joy who lives in Sydney, and my friend Jules, who had been trying to get me to go since 1995. This year we finally were out there together, and spent a wonderful evening going from dance party to dance party, stumbling upon a beautiful band playing in the middle of the open playa (yay live music in BRC!!!) and conversing.

This year was definitely all about community & connection, above all else. I think that's why it was so satisfying.

Its funny you say all that, because I miss new york all the time, and I have no idea why. I love the country, I love animals, and I love green rolling hills, rivers, and being able to ride horses along the roads (ok, I did that in manhattan too, but since then they've closed down the last stable).

But Brooklyn haunts my dreams.

I'm happy for you, Mike, although I never want to live in california again, even though I sometimes miss it in a more subtle way. And good luck with Mike.

I'm not really surprised you changed more outside of new york than in. Its the way of the place. And that's an amazing story