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Looking at the pictures I took this year, and amongst them are the best pictures
I've ever taken, I shake my head in sadness at how little of the Bman experience
they truely convey.
I've been told I should write about my Burningman adventure.
But like love, family, friends, the warm breeze of evening desert air on
your face, there is no picture, movie or story that will make you
understand... You have to experience it yourself.
Still, here are a few pictures of friends and tidbits of random commentary.
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I was
only able to get away from school for four days, and deciding to go at the
last moment I had no carefully prepared plans. The
main worry being getting to and from the man.
I found Jess through the B-man ride share board. At first she was
hesitant to go with a strange man, but after persuasive e-mails I managed to get
her to agree to split a car rental. The alternative being trying to
hitch-hike out of Reno at 21:00 I was overjoyed.
Jess's flight came in 2 hours after mine so I got to
stand at the airport holding a name cards, one more new
life experience! ;-) (a friend commented ``So you were one of those people!'')
Mine said:
Jess
take me to the man
Since the rental place was out of mid-size cars we got upgraded to a large
size, which turned out to be the latest chrystler pimp-mobile. Stylin!
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Got along well with Jess from the start, had a bonding moment
in the Walgreen supermarket toilet as I helped her clean-up, item
by item, the sun-screen that exploded in her toiletries bag. Knowing
the complete contents of a girls toiletries bag is definitely one
way to get to know her much better!
Arrived at black rock city around 4:20am, just before day break.
In some ways a perfect time to arrive, the air is cool, the city peaceful.
Makes it easy to get aclimitised. Snapped a few pictures and then went
to sleep.
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This year, as in 1999, I was at Bman basically thanks to Stephany.
She organized my ticked and allowed me to camp with her and Andrew at the Artery
right at center camp. Thank you Steph!!!
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Was exteremely happy to meet Michael and Sonoko. They
showed up at our appointed time, noon Friday at the man. It would not have
been the same had I not seen them. As always they amaze me how well
dressed, co-ordinated, (and happy!!) a couple they are. My role models!
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Bicycles are the primary form of transportation, it amazes
me that even though the environment is harsh enough to
murder normal bicycles people put the effort into constructing mutant
ones.
Including a bicycle for two, sitting side by side! Wanted to
give this a try but didn't get a chance, should have really put in the
courage and asked for a test ride.
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With only three days on the playa and everyone always being busy only managed to
spend a few hours with Steph and Andrew, but I think we more then made
up in quality what we missed in quantity. Love you both! Massive congrats on
your third wedding aniversary! Married on the Playa. Wow.
The first morning I got a tour of the playa art with steph on one of the little electric
golf carts. She meticulously checked every piece of art with GPS to see if it was
catalogued properly and marked for visibility at night.
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Passing through center camp I ran into Sasha. We had
some wonderful times
at the 1999 burningman. 1999 was her first Bman, this year her sixth,
she has come to every single one in between!
We spent a wonderful morning watching
the sunrise, wandering around looking at art, and enjoying the temple.
We shared stories. I received a lot of wisdom, a big part in helping
me achieve the mental cleansing that this Bman experience brought me.
May we meet again somewhere, sometime.
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Was absolutely wonderful to run into Eddie, happy to see her doing well. I absolutely must
make it to visit her in Vancouver sometime soon. 2005 perhaps...
This year she constructed a wild bronco horse. Due to high popularity the
horse got ridden into the ground!
Eddie has a new boy and they look very happy together.
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Ended up friends with Jess and shared a few
adventures together. Here she is as we wait for the burn.
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After the burn spent a few hours hanging out with Jess taking care of Jesyca's stomach ache.
Well, actually I mostly slept while the girls chatted and chatted.
Comfortable resting place provided thanks to Blyss Abyss. As were some absolutely
wonderful brownies. I wonder if I will ever be able to find the Blyss Abyss girl who
donated them to me in return for a promise to be `very, very, careful'.
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We ran into Jesyca absolutely randomly on the playa after the burn. She looked to
me to a bit lost so I started talking to her, Jess took a liking to her, and it turned
out that she is a friend of a friend of Steph's (but then who at Bman isn't?!), and
ended up joining us for many hours of playa wondering and adventure. I love
Bman randomness!
Not bad picture for using a random piece of paper for bounce flash, eh?
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There was a number of Japanese at the burn, got to talk to a few but didn't really
make a very close connection. I do vaguly remember making a yakusoku with some people
to meet at the 2006 eclipse and the 2009 Okinawa eclipse. The 2009 in Okinawa I am so looking
forward to!
Found it very moving to run across a Toori. Didn't figure out who constructed it though.
I wonder, Japanese or not Japanese...
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Every day there were people parachuting in. Must be an incredible experience.
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These two were absolutely wonderful, two beautiful people dressed to kill,
walking around giving out hugs to everyone.
How amazing is that?!
I love burningman.
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This was pretty cool, one of those drop on a line things, the catch
being you have to do it naked. Some extra motivation
for those who have a hard time getting naked even at
burningman.
Diagonally across from it was a camp that had a taiko drum and they let me
play with it. Wow. Must add `learn to drum taiko' to the life todo list!
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Saw these two young
lovely ones
lying in the dust touching each others faces
in the most tender way, love in their eyes. Just couldn't resist, approached them and said
``Could I take a picture of you kissing?'' They looked at each other and
said ``Well, that depends on whether it happens or not...'' and then they kissed.
Got a gorgeous picture
out of it. After that he said, ``I want a copy of that!'' But we didn't have anything
to write on, so he took out his digital camera and said, ``why don't you write your
name in the dust?'' so I did, then he said ``why don't you lie down next
to it?'' and thus had the
best
picture of me at bman taken.
Bman - randomness at it's best!
Bman adventures, how I utterly love them!
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On Sunday, running around Center camp taking pictures of people's
blissfully happy faces (most of the portraits you see in my pictures are
from that time) I ran into this girl. She said `My name is Yuko, give me
your hand', said she had studied shamanism in Peru. When she took my hand
I felt all the negative feelings flow out from me through her and into the
earth. The feeling was so strong, the rush of emotions so sudden and
overwhelming I pulled back my hand in surprise. She looked up at me, said:
``You have a good heart, everything will be ok now.''
and walked away... I was so moved I almost cried.
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How utterly lovely and random to hear someone
playing the shamisen!
This guy, said he is a half, born in Northern Japan where he learned to play.
What do I know, but I think he is quite good.
He is supposed to have a website soon
www.godofshamisen.com
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Since I didn't have any time to prepare costumes
just took all the clothes I bought in Pakistan, I think they worked well enough.
The Pashtun hat in particular was wonderful kept my head cool in the sun and warm at
night, but then the environment is similar to Afghanistan... What surprised me
was the number of people who came up to me and said `nice Pashtun/Afghani hat',
talk about a well travelled bunch!
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My flight was out of Reno at the ungodly hour of 6:40 am, I had no ride back but was
sure that hitch-hiking back would be no problem. Surely enough I stood with my thumb out
for precisely one minute fourty five seconds before a RV stopped. I got to sit comfortably
in the back and was asleep in moments. Woke up once at a gas station and then again to
the question `which airline are you on?' they took me straight to Reno airport.
Wonderful people, I gave them my URL hope they see this site.
In the RV I saw hanging this note, snapped a picture lighting
it using my flashlight. Bman people really do have their heads right!
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At the airport people who went to the burn were easilly identifyable by the amount
of dust on their possesions, the bags under their eyes and the big happy smiles on
their faces.
Sitting next to me on the plane to Chicago were people coming back from the man, but
I passed out and fell asleep so didn't get a chance to talk much. Leaving the
plane I turned to give them goodbye hugs, the girl looked at me and went
``I know you, I gave you a Bindi!'' Sure enough one day on the playa walking
around with Andrew we had seen a girl drop without noticing it a whole sheet of
bindis, we pointed it out to her and she gave me a bindi.
Playadipity to the end!
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