And reaches her goal, the pole lodged in the maw of the Discofish! She then braces herself to perform that most dangerous of tasks:
The climb is tricky:
And success! She now has enough leverage to remove the pole. The Discofish croaks “Thank you.” “You must search out the cat lady, the vehicle with the horsepower, and Prometheus, before you can reach your ultimate goal.”:
So, our intrepid heroes continue on, finding the cat lady around a corner, trapped in an unfinished game of golf:
After freeing her, she tells them to look for the ‘truck with more horsepower than you expect’:
The little horsies sing out the chorus “Seek the Eagle upon the mount, where he feasts day by day…”:
Searching among the liver, our heroes find the final clue! It is at Ballyhoo!:
There, our heroes find their destination, where they will lead unsuspecting participants to their Waterloo!:
When we last saw our intrepid crew, they had just rewarded themselves with Midnight Poutine, after a long night exploring graffiti and dancing on the Discofish!
We follow as S travels away from camp on a secret quest:
She finds a sandhorse friend!:
Swimming together through the sand, they pass by the Rangers, undetected:
Potholes are very important for the sandhorse ecology:
The sandhorses have a wary relationship with the sandwolves:
But because of the urgency of their quest, they are granted passage on the Wolfmobile:
They gather information at the sign depot:
Take some time to meditate and draw together the information they have discovered:
And finally end up at their destination, ‘Full Fractal’!:
The Fractal Beings tell them that they must first pass the Trial Of The Ramp. Only then can they divulge the location of the Discofish!:
Stay tuned for next time, when our intrepid heroes discover the home of the Discofish!
[1]The Discofish is not just another art car. Each of the scales are individually addressable, the ‘car’ is totally autonomous, and can navigate and avoid obstacles automatically. Check it out!
When we last saw our intrepid adventurers, they were investigating the ‘interesting’ keming present in the maze at the base of the Man. Today, we follow them as they enter a more disturbing part of the maze:
[1]Ontario Science Centre’s “A Question of Truth”, exploring subjectivity and other difficult topics far before it was customary to do so (IIRC, there was a large controversy over it, when it opened in the ’90s.)
[2]Saturday night was traditionally reserved for the Man burn, Sunday night for the Temple burn. Many people brought other installations to burn at the end of the festival, some of these were burned on Friday night. (In 2013, each or many of the regional Burns sent an installation to be burned on Friday night, hence it being known as the ‘regional burns’.)
Today, we we follow them as night falls and they go adventuring to the base of the Man.
Traditionally, there is some sort of plaza and art installation around the base of the Man, and over the years, it has become more and more elaborate, generally based on the theme of the event. This year was no exception, with the theme of ‘carnival or mirrors’, there had been setup carnival-like installations all around the base of the man, complete with banners for some typical and not-so-typical carnival characters:
Some fanciful pictures of the animals they might see:
A strange sound/visual installation, with a projector, semi-floating heads, and some sort of almost musical instrument:
Covering the maze-like structure around the Man was yard upon yard of graffiti[1]. This graffiti was sometimes sublime, sometimes random. Here, we see the semi-common statement “Fuck your Burn”. The post that I think most succinctly sums it up is thus:
I spent my first burn manning our small bar in the suburbs trying to make people comfortable and happy. I spent my first burn in wide eyed wonderment at all of the cool shit that people built. I spent my first burn eating grilled cheese and listening to cool bands. I spent my first burn getting my beard massaged by a very nice gentleman not wearing much. I spent my first burn at classes and seminars. I volunteered at the post office. I had a popsicle that someone made for me out of maple syrup. I helped a ridiculously trashed person get out of the heat and to the safety of rampart.
I met more awesome people and and had a better time than I have ever in my life. My stuff got destroyed by dust and rain, but we worked together to make it a great week.
Other people ruining Burning Man for you? That’s your problem. Hey but after all, it was always better next year.
”
The phrase ‘Fuck yer Burn’ is an expression of some of the self-reliant ethos common at the Burn. To my understanding, people will do things that you don’t like that don’t directly affect you, and you might be bothered, irritated, angered, etc. by these things. The self-reliant ethos as expressed here suggests that your time and effort might be best spent looking inside yourself, seeing why you’re reacting this way, and figuring out how you can change your immediate environment to better enjoy yourself. Perhaps best summed up as “radical inclusion is for YOU not them. You can’t make someone else be inclusive, you have to be.”
This also seems to be a common (and wrong) suggestion:
Next time, the graffiti gets even weirder!
[1]An artist friend of mine once mentioned that you can really tell the undercurrents and character of a place by looking at its graffiti. It is the things that people want to say, but feel they are prevented from saying aloud or in respectable circles. When graffiti is punished harshly, this is all amplified.
When we last saw our heroes, they were shaving ice and experiencing exhilarating slides. Today, we follow them as they take a short break for playa food, and then engage in rampant acts of hoopery!
Luckily, they made it through, and were able to enjoy the rest of the day. Here is that story:
First, they saw the DiscoFish in the distance! They decided the next night, they would seek it out, hook, or by crook!:
Part of running the Mirror Blaze was persuading people to enter via the exit gate. This was the sign next to that gate, giving an important take on consent and gates[1]:
In the meantime, Fire Tetris was aflame and tetrising:
The Faerie Dragon was eating fire, or whatever it did:
and FaIRE Hockey continued to be fun:
On the way back to camp, after a successful night, our heroes saw that the anagrammists had struck again:
Stay tuned next time, for exciting adventures of the Third last day of Burning Man (Friday)!