In our last post, we found some strange metal skeletons, and visited our most favourite oasis. Today, we follow our adventurers as they continue their journey back from beyond the edge of the world, relaxed and refreshed.

Bicycling along, our adventures came across a curious installation, like part of a room had been transplanted onto playa. S stops to take a look:

It seemed to be suggesting they take a time out…:

…but as they had just come from a nap and ponder at their favourite oasis, they decided to take a more active look:

Our heroes had found a book! A ‘Colouring Book of Unfortunate Situations’!:

What was inside?:

S pondered the pictures with the utmost of seriousness:

Stegosaurs? They don’t seem unfortunate! They’re my favourite dinosaur! (Possibly my favourite animal.) But the destruction in the background perhaps explains what the authors are attempting to convey:

Finishing their perusal of the book (and eschewing the use of the hourglass), they decided to peruse some of the comments left by other visitors:

(I had meant to translate the Chinese characters there. I recognize ‘Tien’ (and I think ‘food’), but I’m unable to read the rest of it, although I did find what looks like a cool on-line dictionary.)

Moving on, our adventurers came upon this…object… Having no idea what it was, they used it for its sundial properties, figured out that it was time to drink some water[1], and moved on:

And then this happened. As the sun was baking, our adventurers did not visit this installation more closely. Perhaps there were more surprises within. But there was no soup for them.

Stay tuned! In our next episode, our plucky adventurers make their inner 8-year-olds the happiest people ever!

[1]”If you’re cranky, drink some water. If you’re thirsty, drink some water. If you think about water, drink some water. If you think about anything, drink some water. Drink some water. Drink some water.” -Paraphrase of Burning Man mantra

In our last post, we talked a little about the intensity and vast beauty of deep playa. We had encountered many things on our trek, but we were about to encounter an amazing (and our favourite) oasis. But first, we encountered some new, different skeletal structures, unlike any we’d seen before:

We first found this clue, but we were unsure what it meant[1]:

There was also this odd insignia we found attached to many of the skeletons:

S also found that there was an interesting music playing in the wind:

A strange and peaceful place, but a place of transition, not yet a place to rest, so we continued. Next, we happened upon this strange structure, the number of bicycles gave the lie to the population inside, yet we saw few people outside:

Going towards the entrance, we saw one of the inhabitants peeking out, as if to beckon us closer:

Inside, we saw a riot of colour, at the same time as an incredible calmness:

They also had this little windmill and (I think) solar panels, I’m guessing to power whatever equipment they had there. The sound in the video might help you understand the incredible peacefulness of the space, peaceful enough that I didn’t want to disturb it with photos:

They had someone using one of those amazing singing bowls, a number of people lying down and resting or napping around the edge, another person describing some sort of tea or coffee ceremony. The best oasis we’ve ever found.

We took one look back, later, and received a feeling of relaxation of peace:

(Incidentally, in 2013, in a similar deep playa location, we had encountered this person’s art before, and quite enjoyed it.

Stay tuned for next time, when we take a short time out, and go observe an observatory!

[1]I actually had to look this one up. The installation as presented on playa looked (to me) nothing like the online blurb.

In our last post, our plucky crew had just happened on a strange and impenetrable art installation in deep playa. Continuing on from there, they happened on a strange sight, four skeletons in front of a mirror. And then we noticed that they might be poseable:

And they were!:

Here was the very serious output of our work, or our marriage, in a nutshell:

Next on our trek, by the trash fence, we saw a very important warning sign:

For those who are not aware, the ‘trash fence’ is basically what its name suggests. Onsite, what you or I would label as ‘trash’ is generally called ‘moop’, or ‘Matter Out Of Place’. This is taken very seriously indeed, because if the Bureau of Land Management finds that the Burn has been leaving too much behind, they will not allow them to return. (And the amount of moop they’re allowed to leave behind is tiny, about 4″ square per 1/10th acre.) The ‘trash fence’ delineates the outer edge of the permitted area, along with catching whatever moop may be blowing in the wind. (It’s also the site of many actual late night dance parties, and the perennial fictitious ‘Daft Punk Trash Fence’ party.)

It’s also in the middle of the desert, in the middle of nowhere, and far away from everything. Here’s kind of a panorama to give you an idea:

This may give a small inkling of the dry heat, the oppressive sun broken only by a refreshing wind every so often, a stark wasteland punctuated by oases of subtlety, art, and friendship.

And through all of this, carried by my trusty steed:

Note the parched playa underneath. Ideal conditions for biking, unlike patches like this one:

We continued on our merry way, on to more adventures in deep playa:

Stay tuned for more adventures in deep playa!

In our previous post, we had just started our well-deserved afternoon off of exploration, after four grueling days of building. When we last left our intrepid heroes, they had just reached the edge of the world:

Our first stop was a skeletal sculpture. It combined parts of animal skeletons with the skeletons of metal objects into an impressive whole that somehow expressed the dryness and bleakness of the desert with its subtle beauty:

How tall was this thing anyway?:

Look at the bones!:

We then happened on another installation[1]:

And went to investigate:

This installation seemed to be entitled ‘Happenstance’, or perhaps something else entirely. It was a delightful mixture of little ambiguous mini-installations and trompe l’oeil pieces like this one:

Our intrepid heroine encountered a flying fish there:

And decided to experience the wind in the only way that made sense:

The colour of the installation was this nice light blue, including these boxes or something that we couldn’t figure out:

(I couldn’t find this installation on the list of Burning Man 2015 projects. Any ideas?)

Next time, we’ll venture even further into deep playa! Hopefully we’ll survive!

[1]I wanted to comment on the indescribable feel of being on Playa, the dryness and starkness and smell of the alkali desert, the feeling of finding little oases such as these as you travel around, but I think it deserves its own separate post.

In our last post, the first night of the actual Burning Man festival had just ended, with Mirror Blaze bringing pleasure to hundreds, if not thousands[1].

So, what better way to celebrate a successful build, than to go out exploring, to experience some of the other art that other people had wrought!

But first, as always, a morning trip to the portapotties, with some eloquent commentary…:

…and some perhaps eloquent but also confusing commentary:

We then passed Circus Boot Camp, where we always saw various people practicing their various flying arts:

Then, we passed the Contraptionists, who were very popular between 2:00 and 3:30 every day, when they would make[2] and give out snow cones:

Turning onto a side street, we saw this little one[3] reminding us about the 5mi/hr speed limit[4]:

Turning again, we saw this couch/bed observation deck. Unfortunately, the flag bear only had one head:

Just before we made it out of the city, we saw something in the distance…Could it be…?

…It was! Mooncheese!

Leaving the city behind, we set out across the dusty plains. Here, our intrepid heroine encountered a sign. Of something:

Gazing along, you could perhaps start to see something a little larger than yourself, that looking at things in larger scale might bring you a slightly different perspective[5]…:

Next time, we go out even further, into deep playa! Stay tuned!

[1]My closest hand-waving estimate was about a thousand. If you see me repeating this number again and again, it’s because I’m surprised (and proud) every time.

[2]Using very cool all mechanical machines for shaving ice, so they wouldn’t need a power source. I think I have pics of this, but that’s later in the week!

[3]True story, we would later see them again in Amsterdam!

[4]Or perhaps they just liked waving flags. SLOW SEMAPHORE.

[5]Straight Edge by Ardent Heavy Industries. One of the coolest (and def. the largest scale) installations I’ve ever seen.