Weekly Special*Burning Man Art Festival*

This week, we got something special for you… Two posts, again, since you seem to like the Mon and Thurs gig, and it’s ALL Burning Man! We are going to talk about the event itself, operationally, culturally, philosophically. Then, on Thursday, there will be a massive SPAZZ out, as Promise gets into the final stretch of packing, fixing, fussing, and getting ready. Seat belts!

Also, just so you don’t have total withdrawls, I will be offline from 8/31 through 9/5. Expect a post shortly after, recapping the Mad Adventure.

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Okay! I’ve outlined some of the details of my first year’s cataclysmic event in my post called “About a Fire-Three Letters”. If you didn’t read that novel, you should go do that now. Go on, shoo.

If you did read it already, (bless you!) then you won’t need so much history, as you’ll already have gotten a taste of the kind of road-tilting experience the desert can be.

I found out about Burning Man years and years ago, upon first moving to the Bay Area. I made fun of it, naturally, as I do nearly all things I end up liking later on. But then my best friend went, came back, and told me some fantastical, tremendous stories, and she made it  so…irrisistible.

So I went in 2005, and again in 2006. I met an explosion of people in between those events, and it has now become a dominating factor in my life. So, now the question is, Why? What is it? What’s all the Fuss?

Burning Man is technically an Art Festival, created in a city that gets erected  for one week. Yes, that’s right. Approx 50 K people in a city, for one WEEK. there’s preperation building it, and clean up afterwards for about 2 months, but the purpose is to show that we can have an experience without all the trappings of permanent architechture. Plus, the desert is so pretty.

It’s a complete barter, gifting and trade economy. The only thing you can buy, is coffee and ice. Take that in a second. Imagine if all of your commerce, among all the human beings you interact with, was without currency! I know, wow, right?

It is intense. Conditions are not like lounging on the beach in the South of France. It’s brutally hot. Then brutally cold. Then brutally windy. And often, crazy loud.

But the people are undeniably, ridiculously, solar-system blowing, GENEROUS.They give, and give and give! They spend months, making something you can play on, just for the joy it brings you. They spend thousands back home, making a display of light, and water, just so you can relax for 10 minutes.

They donate hours of their time, depths of their heart, and leave comfortable places, to make sure that you, as a fellow citizen of the Do-ocracy, has what you need, in that moment. A shoulder to cry on. A flag to note your place on this earth. Your friends. Some food, some shelter. a cool place to rest your head.

There are no police, but Rangers. There is nearly, no crime. There is no one “leader”. There is no formal government, though decisions are made through the BM’ org (the m is silent). The operations itself grows, swells, shrinks, and hibernates. But is always alive.

Its not perfect, by any means. And there are occasions of error. But it stands to show-can you name another city that has this much to offer, and so little to ask in return?

Photo credit-

http://lettersfromberlin.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/burning-man-aerial-photos.jpg

http://alexismartinneely.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/burning-man-trucks.jpg

http://ebeltz.net/fieldtrips/burningman05/2005-09-03-0039.jpg

http://www.loupiote.com/burningman/photos_m/52107956-motorized-cupcakes-burning-man.jpg

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• About a fire-three letters
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