Tuesday, 8/28/06: Arrival; Hope and Fear
Very windy. Hard to write. Missed Day 3. Very Busy. Very dusty.
Vinay, Mary and myself stayed up until 2 am after our shopping extravaganza on Saturday. We awoke at 8:30 am on Sunday to unpack/repack. Mary and I fetched crumb cake for sustenance and we all took our final showers before entering the desert.
We stripped the excess packaging off of everything we bought, so as not to bring unnecessary trash to the desert that we would then have to pack out. The sheer quantity of packaging made me realize how much waste goes into retail. Vinay provided more insight and reminded me of the vast amount of electricity it takes to light up big stores like Home Depot and the fuel burned delivering shipments to them. While the amount of energy poured into big box stores is unsettling, I am glad that even before we have left San Francisco, Burning Man has caused me to examine the world around me from a different perspective.
We bagged, packed, strapped the mattresses to the car top and left at a cool 5pm. Adam nearly lost his mind waiting for us – as well he should have. Since none of us had ever been to Burning Man before, we did not have a system in place for shopping or packing. We learned as the day went on. Still, we are effective – not efficient.
A lunch/dinner of crappy but filling pizza in Vacaville and a few gas/Walmart/Home Depot stops later and we were finally on the road. Vinay’s friend Zach was already in Reno and there were many phone calls back and forth regarding water purchase. Zach certainly got us out of a bind by buying our water – we did not have room for a week’s worth of water for four people in our car and thankfully, he did.
The car was packed tight. I spent a pleasant portion of the ride up front with Mary, talking about and to Ben and both Mary and my state of affairs regarding jobs, graduate school, boys and housing. I did also an unpleasant amount of time in the middle of the back seat, pressed against Adam’s bike spoke. Oh, pain.
As the night wore on and Mary needed to be kept awake while driving, Vinay posed many simple questions that I might have considered dull at other times. What do you fear, what makes you happy, what do you want to be when you grow up – and don’t say princess. My standard response to princess-related desires is why would you want to be a princess when you could be QUEEN? The queen has the power. Understandably, the princess doesn’t have any responsibilities – which is appealing to some, I imagine. I also wondered allowed: Why are there king and queen sized beds, but no princess bed? Clearly, the role of princess is inferior.
We finally arrived in Black Rock City at 2:30 am, under a sea of stars and galaxies. The mountains opened up as we approached the gate to reveal the silty sun bleached tawny playa – our home for the next week and ostensibly, our home forever in our hearts.
We waited in a car line to have our tickets collected and our car searched (for ticketless stowaways). The brightly attired and friendly greeters playfully asked us if the compressed mattresses strapped to our roof constituted a pop-up camp. Vinay stopped at the ticket sales booth to claim his ticket – he had left it behind in NYC and Zach fetched it for him, but had arrived earlier and left it at the gat. After ticket collection, we drove further in to Black Rock City along a path featuring quotes on signs every few feet, designed to enforce the 5 mph speed limit. Finally, it was time to perform the Burning Man virgin ritual. A kind, young man in a jumpsuit asked us to get out of the car. He explained a few important logistical details about water, toilets, dust and general survival. Then he asked us to get down on our knees on the playa. Then our hands and knees. Then to lie down and roll around in the playa. The step by step process convinced us to embrace the playa and we bathed in the remnants of the prehistoric lake bed. To finish off, we walloped a bell with a mallet and each roared, “I’m not a virgin anymore!” The ritual was decently cathartic after a long, cramped car ride filled with anticipation.
Next, we had the difficult task of finding our camp site in the black of the night at a time when no one was likely to be at home. Vinay and Adam found a note on the post of the camp site that Max had specified before, instructing us that they were camped elsewhere. We drove to the new site and proceeded to sweep the playa by headlamp for nearly two hours. While driving around, our car was stopped by some friendly inebriated Burners and Mary and I had our first taste of Black Rock Culture via an impromptu bar. But we had to make camp. Mary became convinced that we had missed more details on the sign. Sure enough, when we returned to the original site to recheck the sign, a detail noting the new location near the porta potties had been overlooked. Our campsite was the very first one that Mary and I had admired, outlined by stripes of bamboo. We spied Max's bag and made camp just shy of 4 am.
Friends soon arrived - Max and company – his cult of UChicago young’uns. Our camp is overwhelmingly male, save for Mary, myself, Anat and soon, Erin. There are also a few girls camped with Brian’s friends. The UChicago boys’ reserved and tight knit group stood in stark contrast to the random burners Mary and I encountered while looking for our camp site. Older, a bit drunk and wonderfully friendly, they seem more representative of the general populace of BRC. By older, I mean late 20s, early 30s. It’s all relative.
And now on to today. By the time we go tot sleep last night, it was near 5 am. The sun rose and it was light shortly, and it got very hot in the tent. I also had to use the glorious Porta Potty. The bathrooms are decently clean and though we are camped next to them, we are upwind. The convenience factor is key.
We finally met Vinay’s friend Zach this morning. He, too, arrived under cover of darkness and instead of wandering the streets at night, decided to simply camp anywhere and search for us in the morning. Zach brought a tremendous amount of supplies and costumes used by his older siblings at Burning Mans past.
Today has been slow, which I have enjoyed as I want to acclimatize to the playa weather and culture slowly. I woke up and snacked on Power Bars, granola and chips. We seem to be grazing on meals in camp, which strikes me as an effective way to stay nourished. If you’re hungry, you eat. Eventually, the boys left camp and Mary and I had space to organize the camp, the car and ourselves. Clean socks and underwear and a nice refreshing wipe of witch hazel on my face did wonders.
We decided that the first order of exploratory business should obviously be to go visit the man. There, I took my first photos since our arrival. The theme this year is, “Hope and Fear: The Future.” The man, who burns on Saturday night, was placed a top a maze-like platform that reflected the theme. It was filled with paintings, walls on which to write hopes and fears, and other such interactive toys, some of which weren’t quite finished. Mary and I cased the center playa next – the Temple and the various art exhibits scattered far from the City. My favorites were a loom that encouraged each individual using it to teach the skill of weaving to the next and a giant pair of iron hands made by some Germans. Unlike other art exhibits of their stature that I’ve seen, Mary and I were encouraged to climb on the hands. The view of the playa and the mountains beyond from even a few feet in the air is awe-inspiring.
We met a few people today, all interesting, none extraordinarily memorable. A man in Roman garb at the loom invited us to a Bacchanalia tonight. General, friendly people.
Post wanderings, I cleaned my feet and brushed my teeth. Brushing my teeth on Tuesday evening for the first time since Sunday morning felt earth shatteringly good. Still, they felt nowhere near as grimy pre-brushing as they do after simply waking up after sleeping for 8 hours at home. I imagine that microorganisms do not survive long in the alkali playa. It is also so dry that sweat seems to evaporate instantly from my body. I understand now why bringing a camp shower is not more of a priority at Burning Man. Zach did bring one – Zach brought everything but the kitchen sink – I plan to use it once or twice during the week. It almost seems more trouble than it is worth to get undressed, delicately maneuver the shower bag, soap up and rinse off.
Since my tooth cleaning experience, I’ve been sitting/reading/writing in camp. Mary has been sleeping. Max filmed a 7 minute mockumentary about a dance instructor. Erin and Danny arrived and then left on a walk. I haven’t seen Vinay and Zach since this morning. And Mary just woke up. Time for some dinner and then camp exploration this evening. I seem to be running on adrenalin as I haven’t crashed yet – and probably won’t – despite my 2 hours of sleep.