5 Interesting Things seen at Burning Man, with Stories

Woke up this morning to a lovely pink dawn outside the window. Sure is nice not to have to walk a block to the bathroom. The feeling of MOOP (Matter Out Of Place) here is strengthened; that will be priority 1 for today, as well as lotioning my feet, doing the dishes (MOOP! MOOP!) and eating some nice fresh veggies from the farmers market.

At Burning Man, one of the most important things (of many important things) is Shade. In the middle of the day, it's very much a Sacramento feeling, and being able to crash out is very nice. I borrowed a pavilion from Charles and Petra which was very comfortable to hang out in, but one of the more fascinating things there--these were in many, many camps--was Geodesic Shade structures. The reason that these were all over is that they were inexpensive shade structures that resisted wind well:

http://www.squarewave.com/geometry/g2.html

The camp next door (which I don't remember the name of, but their Icon was a pair of Barbie shoes about 3' long, and they tended to parade around in tans and tighty whities) had a number of banners that were wonderful in the wind. They were about 15 feet high, and shaped like feathers. The ones lining the road had symbols on them, but there was a ring of them in the middle of camp that was a good landmark from Friday on (note that one of the problems of navigation is that the landmarks changed so much, so this was initially a little confusing. More on landmark confusion later.) The banners were shaped like feathers, and in patterns of black and white on what looked like silk.

It was silk. The man who brought the banners had 300 made for the Black and White Ball in San Francisco by buying silk for dresses (wholesale in the Orient, probably) and having the banners sewn in Chile, his native land. One pattern was white california poppy shapes on black, one pattern was a sort of moire pattern, one pattern was a grayscale effect. He had 300 made, and had brought 10 to burning man; I don't know what happened to the rest. The banner poles were very much like these:

http://www.gombergkites.com/banner/bann.html


On Wednesday night as I was walking back to camp I came upon, in the Love Camp, the Glam Clam Karioke being run by Deep. It was a little stage facing the road in the shape of a clam with a clam backdrop, and had two speakers and a laptop pumping out music. I stopped, and got involved, both by singing (Deep liked my voice, so he kept motioning me over to sing backup) and by facilitating or telling everyone else how it worked. (Line is on the left, book is here, memorize the number, here's a light) Oh, and lighting the stage with my flashlight.

Here's a picture:

http://images.burningman.com/index.cgi?image=9554&q_photog=jordan

Deep is on the right in purple.

We had a wonderful time, and gathered a large amount of people from the street, and sang fairly well some difficult pieces--Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, Dust In the Wind, Purple Rain (very good rendition by a guy from LA who had been in bands, was trying to get to Pinky's Self Strip Camp (never made it there myself, but any camp that offers pole dancing classes, basic strip catwalks, and special tips to all comers gets my vote for cool) (especially amusing considering the high amount of nudity overall...) (anyway...) One woman who was also in demand as a backup singer captured my attention. She wasn't very tall, with a round figure, and a group of friends who wouldn't let her go, and a lovely strong voice with a wide range and a color I couldn't place. She didn't want to sing any of the big songs because she was a professional singer...she wanted to do silly songs, by her lights. She gifted Deep with a CD before she left and I got him to show it to me: her name is Danielle French, and I need to find her music.

http://www.sunshinegirl.canoe.ca/IndieBands/band1054.html

I think this is her, but it's dreadfully out of date.

Ah, this is her, and explains the crowd of friends a little better:
http://www.desiremag.com/reviews/

Ok, found the CD, buying it now. Wow, internet can be very cool!
...and not cool. It won't process the order. Oh well, later for that.

But I shouldn't buy it anyway. Friday Evening I wandered off to catch Reverend Billy and his Stop Shopping Gospel Revival, which was much, much better than I had anticipated. Much, much better. I saw two of the best sets of costumes there: the Snow White crowd (4 Disney Snow Whites) and two dragonghost, which were puppets about 10' tall with the heads mounted on backpoles, the arms controlled by the users feet, and the other functions in hand sticks. Very creepy. ANYWAY, the Revival was great, with a wonderful choir...which does the show all over:

http://revbilly.com/index.php
Lot of good thought here. It is our Beliefs that have lead to our Convictions that lead us to War...we need to move Beyond Beliefs.
Can I get a BURNAllujah? Blessed BEYOND!

The camp next door had some interesting nice people (other side from the banner camp.) Half of them and parts of their structure pulled out on Wednesday, and we found out that they donated their shade structure to be used as a chill zone/counseling area near the head ranger station. So we offered them access to ours (thanks to Vytas) and got to know them a little. They offered us some very good information, and helped out on one person's visionquest quite a lot. I made sure their greywater made it into our evap pond (my big camp contribution).

Turns out that they were associated with MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) and all had multiple degrees and very interesting counseling histories. Talking with them was brief, but enlighting. After one of the tragedies (accident on Friday) they all disappeared; they spent all night counseling the people involved. Wow. That's dedication to healing.

http://www.maps.org/

The book they loaned us is Breaking Open the Head, which has had a very strange effect on me.

http://www.breakingopenthehead.com/


So, a final question:

Was Jesus Christ a Shamanic Protector for his tribe (the Christians?)

More later, off to lotion my feet...not playa foot, but still owie.

Checkpoint

Thanks, I'm in a much less pissy mood. No, no problem. Had to switch out a battery on the swapped out car last night. Feet kinda fucked up, but not enough not to walk...cracks in the calluses. At Burning Man, A (BirthMother, a Doola who is studying to become a midwife) told me that she had defeated my toe fungus with twice daily vinegar soaks--must try that, AFTER I get the foots healed up.

Couple points: Recently (in the last six months) I've had LJ postings used against me. If you want a full, real, story, catch me in person. Yes, it's hard. Yes, it might not happen. Yes, I'll still use this venue, but in a more controlled way.

Health: Did some Yoga, some contact improf, some better eating at Burning Man. Slept A LOT which was very very nice. Gave some good massage, including teaching some basics. Am much more in my body. One thing: my diet there had very little added sugar. Strange, my mood swings are gone...at least the frenetic ones.

In moments of exhaustion, I found a core well of sadness that I didn't care to share. When I admitted that, things became much freer. I'm still affected by Kristi's death, and I hope to improve myself and follow her and her husband's (George) example, and bring excellence and love more into my life.

On Thursday and Friday, I worked on being conscious in my actions. It certainly helps movement. Something to work on.

Bathroom almost done, probably today. Garden happy. Sleep caught up on; not dehydrated. Not sunburnt (much!). (Got sunburnt while packing up to leave for Burning Man.) Garden producing bucketloads of tomatoes. Work didn't completely explode. (at least no panic messages).

Short List of Things Done During Burning Man

1. Accidently joined the Lamplighters.
2. Rode on an Art Car.
3. Ceremoniously presented Rubber Duckies to people
4. Gave out Sake.
5. Walked the Labrynth, either in Center Camp or by the Man, every day.
6. Played minature golf. Score: 54? Worst hole: Trogdor the Burninator. Most humorous: 2 strokes for the Giant Vagina, and finding the condom wrapper in the womb.
7. Sang Karaoke at the Glam Clam.
8. Watch black and White OLD Joan of Arc
9 Drank coffee in the Center Camp. Watched lights, flags, people.
10. Did a vision quest.
11. Saw Deena.
12. Camped in the desert.
13. Swam.
14. Watched an Explosion of Poi dancers.
15. Met fellow campers, all really cool in my camp.
16. Thumb wrestled in the Thumberdome.
17. Looked at Art. The Temple of All Religion. The Burning Man. Cocoon Camp banners with the Larval Lounge. The tower of Camp Liquid Diet Lounge.
18. Had pancakes (3 times) at Intergalactic House of Pancakes.
19. Danced a Waltz, while in the swimming pool, with Vytas. Organized Syncronized Water Sillyness (Be a Petunia!)
20. Read a good book.
21. Built an evaporation pond, helped build a shade structure.
22. Slept in the van.

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