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:
Professor Blammo!
Some fanciful pictures of the animals they might see:
M&S stare directly into the tiger with butterfly wings. Notice the cutouts where people have put pictures of faces.
A strange sound/visual installation, with a projector, semi-floating heads, and some sort of almost musical instrument:
“So, what do you guys think?” “I vote we keep making strange noises until they leave, befuddled.” “Befuddled? Why not A-fuddled?”The players of the strange instrument looked upon the strange faces with concern.I think this was casting pictures, but that might just be projection.
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.”
“An eloquent statement from a differently civilized time.”
This also seems to be a common (and wrong) suggestion:
I’m not sure what ‘worky advice’ is, but I’m guessing it’s non-optimal.
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.
*smiles* “Let’s go for a spin!”“Wait, are you taking pictures of this?”“Why are you doing this?”“This makes even less sense than you usually do!”“Really?”“Well, let’s make the best of it. Pretend I just biked out of the TARDIS.”“Okay, I have an even better idea!”“Playa dust makes poles *really* slippery!”“I seem to be experiencing a case of sideways. Please send counterclockwise rotations!”“How do I look?” “You look like a cat. Same as last time you asked.”
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!
Sesame Street: The gift that keeps on giving[1]!This was so tasty I had to to take a picture. Seriously. Stop reading this and go out and try it.Comrade Cookie is good enough for me.All aboard the only spaceship built using only sign language!“I’m not sure if this is how you’re supposed to use that hoop…”“I can use it however I want! Wheeeee!”“See! I got the badge and everything!”“Wait, let me get my phone out, too.”“Ha ha ha!”
Today, we follow them as they begin to explore day 6!
Overnight, the anagrammists were at it again!Is it still trolling if no-one can figure out if you’re being ironic?S shaves some ice for the Contraptionists’ sno-cones!“Stride of the Valkyrie”This is perhaps my favourite of these, with the newly invented emoji.
Are you my Gummy Bear?:
Ashlands dweller, or Vault Dweller? Only Bethesda knows for sure.We are spookyhappy!“Yeah!”This terrific(read: terrifying) slide ended in the nice domed structure full of lounging pillows to the right.
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!:
A Discofish sighting! This must portend colourful things!
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]:
An important take on consent and barriers to entry.
In the meantime, Fire Tetris was aflame and tetrising:
Fire Tetris flares up!
The Faerie Dragon was eating fire, or whatever it did:
“I am the Faerie Dragon! I will set this structure on fire and then eat it!”
and FaIRE Hockey continued to be fun:
FaIRE Hockey never gets old.
On the way back to camp, after a successful night, our heroes saw that the anagrammists had struck again:
The anagrammists strike again!
Stay tuned next time, for exciting adventures of the Third last day of Burning Man (Friday)!
Little did they know that a (non-)Fiery disaster was about to strike!
It was a normal evening in the Charnival, passers-by were being drawn into the Mirror Blaze:
Mirror Blaze, with Charnival and the rest of the Burn in the background. Jack (O’Lantern) presiding.
And being correctly awed and surprised by the *FOOM*:
*FOOM*
A nice quiet night of *FOOM* ski ball:
A nice quiet night of *FOOM* ski ball.
Then, an innocuous moving of the battery box[1] caused a disaster!:
The culprit: Me trying to move the box from one side of the chair to the other so I could sit more comfortably.
Mirror Blaze was no longer blazing! Even worse, it was, but only very intermittently! With the line mounting, our intrepid hero delved into the box of wire to debug the problem:
Somewhere in here is (probably) an intermittent connection. Your job: Debug and fix it in the middle of the desert in the middle of the night atop a lifeguard stand in the middle of a fire carnival.
Luckily, he had a (very easy to see) multimeter to debug with:
Your tools at hand: A multimeter, which you can see about this well.
After much gnashing of teeth[2] and many false starts, all connections were tested, the wires were reattached, and *FOOM* order was restored!:
Fixed! *FOOM* Re-established!
[1]This is a classic example of making an early temporary design decision, then forgetting about it all the way through the rest of the build process. The solenoids that we procured were 12V solenoids, so we obtained a large red light-up button to act as the dead man switch, and two 6V batteries (hooked up in series with 120V-rated wire). This was then all wired together with spit and baling wire[3]. No wonder when moved it became intermittent!
[2]I think this was probably my most stressful (and fun in retrospect!) debugging. On the top of a lifeguard stand, about 10 feet in the air, low light, with fire erupting around you, with a crowd getting more antsy by the minute. And intermittent connections are the worst!
Our journey today starts with an interview, specifically the view from inside the interview[1]:
The Interview.
This seemed like a good moment to peruse the map that they had been given during the drive in. Note that the city is organized in concentric circles. The circles are the ‘cross streets’, labeled alphabetically from ‘Arcade’ to ‘Laffing Sal’ (with the innermost being ‘Esplanade’). The ‘spokes’ are numbered as if on a clock, from ‘2:00′ to ’10:00’, with the Man at the center of the clock, and the Temple at 12:00:
Black Rock City 2015, the ring map.
A recent addition is plazas interspersed amongst the rings, to make it easier to have groups of destination camps away from the Esplanade:
Black Rock City 2015: Note the plazas.
Some important things to know on playa:
Some important things to know on playa.
The Hive! That’s us!:
The Hive! That’s us!
Totenkitten. Right between 'ToneAge' and 'Toxic Disco Clam':
Totenkitten. Right between ‘ToneAge’ and ‘Toxic Disco Clam’.
A mobile tiki bar by the portapotties, of course!
A mobile tiki bar by the portapotties, of course!
K-9!:
K-9!
An expression of Coyote:
An expression of Coyote.
I’m not sure if S was commenting on clowns, clown moop, or the fact that the clown nose was blue. Irregardless[1], she was unamused:
“Clown nose? I am not amused.”
Daily mirror cleanings make Mirror Blaze a bright(er) installation!:
Daily mirror cleanings make Mirror Blaze a bright(er) installation!
Your challenge of the day! Scrute some of the inscrutable things people draw on fiery, dusty mirrors:
Some of the inscrutable things people draw on fiery, dusty mirrors.
![Sesame Street: The gift that keeps on giving[1]!](http://nayrb.org/~blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IMG_2118.jpg)
