| 2004: Click for 2004 Images What I did on my summer vacation or Burning Man 2004 Water Boy. Hello, I am back form the desert and Burning Man. I survived, but my trailer took some damage. On the way to the event while going through the mountains near Lake Tahoe CA. part of my trailers suspension broke. (The mount to the frame for the leaf springs) This caused the tire to blow, and I had to just pull over on the side of the mountain highway. It was about 3am on Saturday morning, but fortunately one of my passengers had some buddies who were very close behind us. One of them called in a favor from his brother (who lives two hours away) to bring his portable welder and repair it. We were able to prep the parts before his arrival and all he had to do was weld it up. He did a superb job thanks Michael G! After putting on the spare and jumping the truck, we continued on our journey. Hours later just before dawn, the other tire on the same side came off. I do not know where the tire and rim went but when I saw the sparks flying I pulled over. At least this time we were right outside of Truckee CA. and had a much better place to stop. We unhooked the trailer then went to Reno and bought parts and new tires. (I did not have a spare, and had to replace the; brakes, hub and bearings.) I was fortunate that I have the tools and such needed for the repairs, the Boy Scout in me keeps me prepared for this kind of stuff. After an uneventful, but beautiful drive we arrived in Black Rock City sometime in the early afternoon, tired and happy to be there. The next lovely days were spent setting up camp, putting up fences and shade, watching the city grow around us. We were able to put up the main fence with out issue and it looked really good. (Air tools are a good thing!!) Next we put up the Porch, this was made from the old redwood fence around Catwalk Studios, and with the addition of a trashy window and door it looked quite authentic. Our own little peace of the back woods, we spend many hours Obnioxicating from it to our and others amusement. Except for the bottle incident, (More on that later.) it was a positive experience. Great job everyone who was in on the porch action, from sweet lighting to the great acoustical performances, and all the silliness in between. (How many condoms and glow sticks were given out? As many as insults and jibs I hope) Our hard work and early arrival paid off as we had wonderful weather for setting up in, because dust storms raged during the middle of the week. And some of the nights were cold, but my trailer was an excellent place for day or night, it was a good temp all the time in there with out running the A/C or heat. (Although I was on the ‘Grid’ and getting free power. Thanks BM!) The trailer also helped provide shade and wind block for the porch and a hide out during dust storms. It was good am shade until the awing died during a windstorm, but by that time others had arrived and we had lots of shade. (Including Jenny’s lovely thunderstorm misting dome.) The duck was sick for some of the week; it would run for a few hours a day and then just sit looking cute in our frontage. The dust storms were so bad that it was not fun to be driving around anyway, you would have to stop and sit them out, waiting to be able to see enough to drive again at 5mph speed limit. I was able to take the Stairway to heaven out for an splendid afternoon drive (thanks Kevin B) and saw the art out on the open playa around the man and participated in the DPW parade until getting shooed off by some one. It was also fun just driving around the streets touring the city, playing different versions to Stairway to heaven. (Those songs are still in my head.) Being in center camp was a different experience for me, as I have been camping on the Esplanade for years but never so close to down-town. The constant action and noise (mostly drum circles) (I have grown to dislike drum circles, mostly due to some guy who would play as hard as he could for many hours. After 2 or 3 hours you could hear how tired he was and that he could no longer keep a good beat or rhythm, but he would keep going. And going, playing poorly and loud. Did I mention that he was not good to start with?) was relentless, but not to loud compared to the big rave sound systems. At times the bass from the different sound systems was just audio mud, an unrecognizable rumbling. We of course contributed to some of it, but our sound level was under 100w. At least downtown living made it easy to find when out and about, also coffee and Ice were very convent for those who needed it, and the Black Rock Information Radio station was just on the other side of the café. I had worked with them before the event making PSA’s and stopped by on occasion to do some live stuff. It was fun to be out and about and hear my voice on the radio. The tourist factor was huge in our location, it seemed a constant parade of lame non-participatory sightseers, and they got there early in the week, there has always been a tourist factor at BM, but this year it seemed much worse. It is likely to be our location, but overall I saw less Fire and Performance then in years past. Each year I say the same thing, soon this will not be a fire art fest but just a big party in the desert. On that note, its time to talk about the bottle incident. One night early in the week, we were sitting on the porch heckling persons who did not have lights on there bikes. I was using a MASH style speaker system set up on the roof, and had a 25,000 candle power handheld spotlight to illuminate the lightless bikers as they rode by. At one point I was harassing some dark riders by when another pair of lightless attendees stopped and started asking us for lights since we were bitching about it. I told them I was giving out advice not glow sticks (although if persons were truly needing a light we would often give them one or a passer by would.) But one of this pair would not give it a rest, saying he had the right to do what ever he wanted and BM now had to many rules, and was uncool. He started talking about the good old day’s when tickets were $65 and you could drive around at 60mph on the playa… One of my campmates mentioned that’s how people got run over and killed, he did not pay attention. He just kept on ranting, as people came up and put glow-sticks on his bike with out him noticing. I alternatively ignored and insulted him as he made more senseless rhetoric about freedom and individuality, related to biking at night with out a light. I polled the group in-front of me (more then 10 random participants) with the question of lights on bike and found the majority (all but asshole and his buddy) were for lights on bikes at night, only assholes friend voted against bike lights, asshole did not even vote… Eventually he became more irate from my ignoring him and he started swearing at me, using every derogatory thing he could think of, at the end of his hate speech, he called me an, “atheist wannabe”. This perked up Ben’s ears and the asshole was questioned on this meaning. His answer was one and a half sentence before he lost his train of thought and just started swearing again. Right before this, a group of people walked up not knowing what was going on and were yelling at me to “shut up!”. Thinking I was the aggressor and tormenting this innocent boy. But after a minute of listing to his latest BS laden response of why he should ride around without a light, and me responding with something about him bathing with a toaster in his own home was fine, but I have friends and loved ones out here and I would rather not have them hurt by an thoughtless biker. The audience was on the floor laughing. Angering him more, so he became much more aggressive, pushing his bike to the edge of the porch and leaning over the handlebars to get closer to me. (The porch’s deck was a 4’x 8’ sheet of plywood and I was sitting in a large rocking chair, so my feet were on the edge. He continued to swear at me, and just would not back down or go away. After shining my light on some passing unlighted bikers, I proceeded to shine it in his face from about two and one half feet back. He was leaning into it, he could have left or at least moved back and out of its beam at any time. I watched his pupils turn to little dots and continued for several minutes until, more unlighted bikers rode by and needed illumination. After relenting the light and ignoring him for a few moments, he changed his attitude and was all friendly and happy, “Dude, its been cool shit-talking with you.” And gave me one of those male bonding combo knuckle smashing ‘secret cool’ handshakes (I am surprised he did not try and sucker punch me with his left hand, as this has happened to me before.) and road off, after removing the glow-sticks people had put on his bike of course. Happy to see him leave we wished him well and good luck, seemingly on a good note. Not at all the case, five minuets later the bottle of beer he had been drinking came flying in and after bouncing off Ben’s (fortunately leather cowboy hat covered) head it hit my knee so hard I did not realize it had struck Ben first! We were immediately off the porch and running in that direction, yelling and looking for anyone moving away quickly with the spotlight. Unfortunately we could not see or catch him… This is the first time I have ever experienced such a thing at BM, if he would have pulled me off the porch or taken a swing at me that would have been one thing but such a cowardly act? I hope the rest of his time was horrible and non-productive. Over all it did not negatively impact my time at the event, but it was definitely a weird interaction. We had so many positive comments about the porch and heard only a few negative things, mostly from persons who did not get it. In between the daytime dust storms we would fire up the misting dome and cool of (what was it like 80 in there? 100+ outside?) and doing Water Boy performances. We did several daily, any combination of the camp might be out there barking or chanting and helping, several persons were lucky enough to play the H2O person in the suit. We even had a mask with a obnicixater hooked to it. That’s right you could obnoixicate from the Water Boy suit!!! My Mer-person tails were a big hit, and I think all got worn at least once. The burn was spent sitting in our ‘skybox’ (the top of the trailer) how it ended up being all guys I do not know; we did solicit many passing ladies without avail. Other camps around us were also on their R/Vs and some also had amplification, (of course we had several Obnixicaters and the sound system from the porch.) we commenced with color commentary on the burn and its delaying start. We talked to the neighbors using them and it was quite fun, and were thanked the next day. It was really neat seeing all the Glow/Blink/Flash moving towards the man. Like ants streaming to the nest, I have not seen it from so far back and up like that before. Then the man burned and it was good, I hope to take the duck out but missed my chance, it did not run well for most of the night and died on the way home. That mornings sunrise from the porch was very nice without the Man spoiling the view… as the sun rose we could see the duck, not to far out from camp. We walked out to it and found two people, under a blanket having sex I think. Getting a Fuck On the Duck? Cool, at least someone did!! As they hurried off and we obnoxicated for a tow, one was immediately forthcoming by the bookmobile, and we got the duck home. Sunday night we took the Quad (without the stairway attached) and put Marque’s Headboard on it, then road the gang to the temple Burn. And burned the board. That was more fun than the burn, but not so serious as years past, still a lot of Yahoos and tourists around to not quite get it. Once again had fire rain down from the sky, always an interesting time… Monday, and the grand exodus, people were waiting two and three hours to leave the playa much less get all the way to HWY80, I went out to the airport and got my truck & Street’s trailer (for duck transport) from the long term parking. So I could move the Porch to the Burn platform, and transport lumber to Carl C’s place in Gerlach. When ever I have the chance to drive around the city I do, its just fun, next year I am going to get a blinking light of the same style BM vehicles and drive my huge white truck around with some odd peace of junk in the back. No one will notice me, as long as I do not speed and act like I am on my way to doing something important. I like seeing the city grow and shrink, seeing old formalize groups, running into campmates from years gone by, seeing how other people live in BRC. Apparently the porch burned wonderfully, we left the two broken chairs sitting on it, and as it burned all the details were visible. The door and window frames, the chairs, all of its elements were engulfed in flame. Wish I had an image, damm. Well the reminder of my time on the playa was spent helping with the breakdown of the city pulling cables from the ‘grid’, taking down shade in first camp, dropping tents and packing my trailer, and removing H2o boy camp stuff. I did get fed for free and did make some good face with the BMOrg, and DPW. Not to much partying or playing. I was too tired to go play on the ATV, and the night everyone went out to the springs I was helping X-10 brake camp and pack. I will go up again to play soon, barrow the ATV, play in the mountains, enjoy it more rested and sober. Next year I hope everyone will take ½ as much stuff as they did this year. Too much waste!!!! What now? I am going to hang out here in Oakland and try to find a Job of some kind. My cost of living is low and work is around, I will find something soon enough. Looking to more street performances and I also have some opportunity for helping out with a rather industrial performance thingy sort of like SRL but not. It’s in LA next month, but being built here, in the Shipyard. (Its about 10 blocks from my place.) |