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Burning Man 2008 -- Snippets · Sep 7, 02:11 PM

MON — Arrived in a dust storm. Is my hand in front of my face? I can’t see it there. I’m arrive at 7:30 and G; my camp is ArtEast at 9:15 and B; my stuff is with Hot Wheelz Camp on the outside circle of center camp at 7:00. Big Dale let’s me borrow a tricycle with a two-person bench up front, and I struggle for four hours to relocate my gear across the city through the dust storm. After dusk with wind and the dust die down.


left — the entry road, before the dust storm.
right — center camp, after the dust storm.

TUE — I wake up at Burning Man; I’m here, I’m really here! During the day, I encounter a little bit of art, climb the man, participate in the Black Rock City Combat Club’s" striking session, dance at the Deep End. At night I become a zombie, and although I miss the zombie crawl proper, I connect with a very cute virgin zombie boy at center camp. I show him Thunderdome and the Opulent Temple (The temple is ace for dancing, or, colloquially, silly tits). He shows me the vending machine of beer. We dance, and otherwise have a blast. Is there a better way for my first full day to have gone? I could not have dreamed it.


left — I’m in the art!
right — You typical fabulous burner. He also had a J-Lo coat!

WED — The combat club is doing clinches today. I get drunk at the request of Happy Hour Camp, due to their bike jump. In the evening I go out with Kate and Keith from ArtEast. At night I hear Environmental Encroachment playing Center
Camp before I crash.


left — three burners, posing photogenically.
right — the fleeble flobbler, a cantankery contraption that rattles rolls, spouting fire and sparks.

THU — Random encounter with a man in Green at Center Camp, who asks deeper questions about color than I can answer, and who understands exactly precise linguistic communication. A guy wanders into our camp at lunch and distributes jello shots. I visit the astropups. I meet three virgin burners from Reno, and dub one of them Triple-F; it may even stick as a playa name. Trent, another one of them, makes absinthe cocktails. The night doesn’t end when I return to my home camp; a group goes out. We end up playing giant tetris, wandering the playa, and joining the art car trifecta for some good dancing. It’s 5AM before I sleep.


left — babylon, a ten-story steel tower
right — Darryl leads a late-night pop-quiz

FRI — Like clockwork, I’m up at 8:11. This is the time when the sun hits my tent low enough to heat my uncomfortably. I visit the temple, find Darryl in a drum/jam circle there, then make a trip into the deep playa to visit some art. I don’t remember many of the daytime events. I do remember seeing the marching band contest at center camp, which included Environmental Encroachment, March Fourth, and three other bands—fabulous, frenetic, crowd-pleasing music. At night a whole lot of us went out; Darryl, Andy, and I hoofed it while everyone else took bikes, so of course we eventually lost each other. At the Opulent Temple we heard and then walked away from Carl Cox. Blagh Blagh Boom Boom beats do not interest me so much nowadays. We found the March Fourth Marching Band playing on the Esplanade, and danced for them before moving on to center camp. Daryl and I took a long long walk to the porta-potties (no, that’s not a euphamism, nor is it an implicative statement). Around 5AM we find the energy to walk back to ArtEast, where I promptly sleep straight through to at least 8:11 again.


left — the temple
right — the post office has helped me address the nudity complaint

SAT/SUN — I’m riding the low-sleep buzz that would incapacitate me normally. Out here, it works, because, well, why not? I spent most of the day hunkered down at Jub Jub’s Plastic Circus (Jub Jub says, “Fuck Your Day!”). There was dust in the air. I wandered out onto the playa for a surreal moment, but stayed mostly in camp, chatting and watching lots of body-painting. It was a very long day, passed in pleasant company. At night I boarded the second level of Jub Jub’s art bus to watch the man burn—no further comments, other than “great burn!”. After the burn I dozed off in a frisky snuggle puddle. Later, I walked home the long way, stopping by center camp. I found Irish, Paul, Viv, and others back at ArtEast, sitting around a campfire. Paul or someone gave me props for being hard-core for drinking a Red Bull at 6AM, clearly not headed for bed. So there was no real transition to Sunday, except that the sun rose, and I was at the temple when it did. A beautiful space. I met up again with my camp-mates a random new friends about 30 feet above the ground, climbing Elevation. Another neat moment. I swung by Jub Jub again to say goodbye to Trent, Triple-F, and Linda. On the way back to ArtEast, I found an upturned couch, righted it, and then was drawn into Sunday Morning Sake Bombs. I remember three, but the second was a double, and the third was a triple, so I don’t remember much else, except stopping by Hot Wheelz Camp and then arriving at ArtEast to eat Pop Tarts, beef jerky, and chocolate covered cranberries before passing out for a while in a camp recliner. By now I’ve collected a number of email addresses and contact bits, and I’m getting more. After time passes, I find myself getting dressed for the temple burn tonight (starting Saturday night, it has been cold enough to pull out the Chinese rent-a-cop coat). Kiwi, Andy, Oleg, and I head out. I’m nodding off while we wait. The temple burns very beautifully. A dust storm comes up, through which I somehow miraculously navigate directly home to pass out.



various random shots

MON — Monday is simple; we pack up camp, people leave, DPW stops by to collect durable goods, alcohol, and drugs for Collexodus. At night Hagey rolls out to setup the mobile bar on the outskirts of a couple bonfires. We are circled by a pickup with a jet engine mounted in the bed. A girl tows a portable sound-system in her little red wagon, and is part of a trickster gang pulling pranks of the burned-out burners. Art burns.


left — the inside of my tent after a week at burning man
right — darryl at a post-burn bonfire

TUE — It’s over. We pack the last of the camp and roll out. There’s no exodus line at the gate, and a small group of us drive to Pyramid Lake, where I tweak my back, before returning to Hagey’s.


pyramid lake

ETC — I didn’t mention:

In any case, these are some of the things that happened, “this one time, at Burning Man…”

* * *

  1. Hi, I was just looking at your website. I’m from Ireland and I am writing
    a book based on my experience in burning man 2008. I’m just writing to
    a few people who were at burning man and who could possibly tell me
    any interesting experience they had at the event. I’m 21 years old and
    currently a student so i don’t have much time to write the book. The
    book is only for myself and three friends who lived the burning man
    experience with me. I t will be like a diary of the events with a
    couple of photos of the event scanned and put into the book. I would
    be very grateful if you could share a short story with us and have it
    posted in my book. Just a short paragraph would be brilliant. If you
    want to mention us in what you may have to say, my name is Michael,
    and my three friends are Nigel, Podge and Declan.

    I will be attending burning man 2009 also.

    Thank you for your time,

    — Michael    Dec 27, 11:39 AM    #

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