~*...burning man...tuesday...*~

tuesday, august 30
3rd annual oral sex tuesday

today's the day to show you're appreciation for those who live to go down. offer your oral talents, or better yet, offer yourself as a recipient and give the gift that gives back to you. remember: it is better to give than receive. hosted by: everyone in brc

photo by maria tyomkina

random repeating tuesday event in black rock city

sorry, we're closed
tuesday - sunday, 6:00am-11:00am
in celebration of the state of unconsciousness, we respectfully request that you avoid our camp 6-11:00am daily. there will be nothing going on...nothing to see..keep moving. hosted by velvet soulmine @ bi-polar and 4:30

photo by scott london

random one time tuesday event in black rock city

canada night
8:00pm-2:00am
what does it really mean to be canadian? find out in our igloo! we'll reveal the secret canadian handshake, teach the inscrutable language of the quebecois. learn the correct usage of the words "eh?" and "about". hear tales of early prime ministers who stood over 40ft, and how most american celebrities are actually canadian. hosted by: the lost penguin cafe @ esplanade and 5:00

photo by ra hirschi

we left the fernley truck stop just after sunrise tuesday morning and began our final two hour stretch towards black rock city, the seventh largest city in nevada. our last stop was gerlach, the last populated town about 15 miles away from black rock city. the sun was shining, and none of us could contain our excitement as we made our last pit stop in gerlach.

the gerlach gas station was already radiating the energy of the burn. from burners making their last gas stop to sculptures, art, and the last cash vending booths i would see for the duration of the festival, gerlach was truly an oasis in the middle of nowhere. little did i know what i was about to experience on the playa.

15minutes later, the playa was in clear view, well , sort of. a cloud of dust in the distance let us know that we were almost there. black rock city is surrounded by mountains and is built in the middle of a dry lake bed (formerly lake lahontan), also known as the playa. it is a city of 35,000 people in the middle of the black rock desert. it is an experiment in temporary community. it is a radically different universe.

top ten burning man principles:

1. radical inclusion
2. gifting
3. decommodification
4. radical self-reliance
5. radical self expression
6. communal effort
7. civic responsibility
8. leaving no trace
9. participation
10. immediacy
note: sometimes a banana is just a banana

driving through the entranceway to burning man, we were treated to a series of signs carefully placed to accent the long desert road leading to black rock city. the signs began stimulating the atmosphere of the festival in the arriving burners and included words, poetry, stories, art. and so my devirgination began...

when we reached the gate, we were greeted by some of the most kind and friendly strangers i had ever come across. after a quick search of our rv, us new burners were encouraged to ring the official bell and declare that we are no longer burning man virgins!

we were then each branded with a playa dust hand on our backs. we were told that it is very easy to get laid on the playa, but that does not mean we can freely overstep our boundaries. each of us was given a brightly coloured flourescent button that said either "no means no" or "ask before you touch". with a final reminder to keep our rv speed to 5mph, we entered a different universe and became citizens of black rock city.
black rock city is really a city. it has a cafe, a recycling center, a municipal airport, a post office, a daily newspaper, a radio station, and a population of over 35,000 people. there is no money on the playa. it is a cashless society. everything you need to survive in the desert for a week you bring with you, and take it out with you when you leave.

black rock city is laid out in a large arc with the man in the center. streets that spread out from the man are named as if they were times on a clock, starting at 2:00 to the right of the man and ending at 10:00 to the left of the man. the streets that follow the arcs and intersect with the times are named according to the theme of year. this year's art theme was psyche, the conscious, the subconscious and unconscious. the streets were in alphabetical order from the esplanade out and were named amnesia, bi-polar, catharsis, ego, fetish, gestalt, and hysteria. click here for a full map of black rock city 2005.

we parked the rvs at 6:10 and fetish and began setting up our shelters. we were all anxious to get on our bikes and begin exploring the playa, but our shelters were priority. we had to make sure that they were properly secured because as we'd soon learn, the desert can be harsh and relentless. with temperatures reaching 40 degrees in the day time, 10degrees at night, (who uses fahrenheit or imperial anyways?;), and dust storms beyond anything you can imagine, protecting yourself from the elements is always of the highest priority. goggles and masks are a necessity to protect you from the beatdown of playa dust storms that pass through black rock city. and of course lots of water to keep yourself hydrated.


with our bellies full of peanut butter sandwiches sprinkled with nature's fungal psychedelic, and backpacks full of water and beers, our caravan of ten toronto burners began our first ride together across the playa of black rock city. every experience, every rendezvous, every moment, every breath from that moment on would be life changing for each one us.

think of the last time you were in such awe that your jaw hit the floor. within minutes of being on the playa you get that feeling, and it continues to happen over and over and over again with every breath you take. everything i had ever imagined burning man to be, everything that i thought it was, was squashed within the first few minutes of riding through the playa towards the man. it goes beyond words. i immediately understood why the burning man site says that trying to explain what burning man is to someone who has never been to the event is a bit like trying to explaining what a particular colour looks like to someone who is blind. you just have to be there. nothing can prepare you for it.

radical self expression, creativity, and imagination constantly served up at random in the middle of the desert.

we rode through center camp and i was simply blown away. the creativity and imagination of everything around me floored me with every breath. art was everywhere, radically experiencing itself in all its forms. imagine a place where 30,000 people from all across the world came together and created a piece of art. imagine a place where artists are at home, a place where we can be who we are and radically embrace who we want to be. there are people dressed up in the most elaborate costumes, people walking around naked, people driving art cars, people spinning poi, people riding bikes. thousands of artists expressing their passion for altering themselves and their environments as they create the world around them, around us.


photo by mikki willis

photos by ra hirschi

i felt i was in a world that spawned from a head on collision between mad max and alice in wonderland. it was if my head was exploding with every breath, and so was everyone else's.



there are no spectators, only participants...and it was all blowing my mind at random. you just never know when 250 people dressed as bunny rabbits would walk by protesting humans and supporting the bunnification of the universe, or a dozen cupcakes may ride by you in the middle of the freakin dessert!


center camp is the largest temporary freestanding tensile shade structure in the world. it covers almost an acre of the desert in shade, has two full service coffee shops, two stages, and many interactive art installations. it is also the single largest volunteer community on the playa. from its construction to serving coffee, hundreds of volunteers make center camp a favourite stop for burners.

just past center camp was an interactive art installation appropriately named colossus. designed by an artist named zachary coffin, colossus was over 60feet high and weighed more than 45,000 pounds. it had three large metal arms with a massive boulder hanging from each. dangling from each boulder was a thick rope that allowed burners to swing and hang from them. getting enough momentum to move the arms was a huge undertaking. holy shit those boulders were heavy. it was a workout just to get them moving, yet alone hang from them.

photo by ales prikryl


there is so much going on that taking your camera out of your hipsack, then out of the ziploc bag you've placed it in to protect it from playa dust, just to take a picture, takes too long. you'll miss something, or what you are trying to take a pikcha of is gone and has been replaced by something else just as mind blowing! on our ride towards the man i saw explosions of fire, art in the sky made by airplanes, mutant vehicles, sculpture and art in so many forms, and the most incredible and creative people of every age from all walks of life. the force is beyond powerful on the playa, and it flows freely through everyone.


we stopped at an art installation called the dreamer. it was a large purple head coming out of the desert floor. what was even more amazing about the dreamer was that there were dreamshare workshops held inside of it every day.
dreamshare group
bring a night dream to share under the guidance of a experienced dream-group leader. groups limited in number. be prepared to stay for the entire meeting. late arrivals not admitted. location: inside the dreamer.
i'm going to apologize now for the blurry pix i'm posting. it seems like very little survives the extremely harsh conditions of the desert, including teknology. my camera got hosed in the first day of being on the playa. my pix were blurry and continued to get worse. the motor on my camera lens got so much dust in there that it would often stick and prevent me from taking any pix at all. i need to open up my camera and blast it with compressed air to get all of the dust out of it. even after adding the loss of my camera to the cost of the trip, every penny i spent was made worth it within minutes of being on the playa.
as i saw the man in the distance, i stopped to take a deep breath. for that moment, i felt nothing. i was not happy, i was not sad, i was not overwhelmed. i was me, without fear. if there was a moment of clarity where nothingness overwhelmed me and i was at peace, it was then. i was finally in my element.

we finally reached the center of the playa, the man himself. final touches in the man's construction were being completed. he stood a top a large eye on a large structure which housed an expansive labyrinth of rooms, doors, revolving doors, and creativity. the maze itself was a challenge to walk through. so many turns, swivels, rotations, it was easy to get lost. if you found your way to the stairs, you were able to walk up to the observation deck just beneath the man on top of the maze. it provided the most beautiful views of the playa. there were two ways of getting down from the observation deck beneath the man, you either slid down a fire pole which placed you one room away from the entrance of the maze, or you walked down the stairs in an attempt to navigate your way back through the labyrinth looking for the exit. turtle was a bit too inebriated to take the fire pole and opted for the maze. after 15minutes of trying to find his way out of the labyrinth, frustration set in and he yelled out "how the fuck do i get out of here!" only to have a beautiful older woman answer "there is no getting out dear, there's only going deeper."

click here to see a panoramic view of the playa (from 2004). it gives you an excellent window into the magnitude of how huge the playa is.


at night the man was illuminated in neon lights and rotated.
our next stop was the temple of dreams that was in the process of being built just a bit further on the promenade past the man. the temple is an ever changing art installation where people go to mourn loss. this year, the temple was a large red wood structure. people came there to reflect, to pray, to write letters, to remember those who are no longer here. i have never been to a place where the force was so powerful it moved people to break out in song, to fall to their knees and weep, to rejoice with music, to dance without abandon. i have yet to tell the story of the temple without breaking down in tears. i have yet to type about the temple without weeping. it is the most powerful and inspiring place i have ever experienced. i spent a few moments taking deep breaths, tuning into the overwhelming power of the force as it flowed through me, through the temple, through those present.
i was reminded of the people in my life who are no longer here. i was reminded how blessed i am to have shared my life with them, and that they will continue to exist as long as i remember them. i've lost so many people in my life that i no longer have enough fingers to count...i'm on to my second set of toes now. from losing my father when i was 10yrs old to my friend tanya who took her own life less than two years ago, my life has been filled with so many painful reminders of the only real truth that everyone has to face...our bodies are only temporary, and at some point we will die.

i took a spare piece of wood from the large wood pile at the temple, grabbed one of the sharpie markers that were making their way around the temple, and wrote down a message to my loved ones who are no longer here. i then placed it into a large pile of other messages, notes, memories laid down at the temple. if there was a place besides in our dreams where the spirits of those who have passed on can connect with those of us still here in this world, you could not find a better and more powerful channel for them to connect with us than the temple of dreams at burning man.

click here to see a beautiful panorama of the temple of dreams in 2004.

a toronto star reporter attended his first burning man this year, and wrote a very powerful article describing his first experience. it includes an extremely moving description of his experience at the temple of dreams. each time i read this article i break down in tears. i've placed the article here. please take the time to read it. it will move you in ways that i can only describe as serendipitous.

photo by anrew wyatt

despite our overwhelming feelings of emotion at the temple, we all agreed that we needed to hear some beatz. it was early afternoon and we could hear bangin beatz coming from 10:00 and the esplanade. we began our trek towards the music. on our way there, i was distracted by a theme camp that had an entire living room of sofas and chairs covered in red fun fur. its beyond easy to get distracted on the playa, but this chill out area of fun fur called my name. i met the man responsible for creating the camp and shared a beer with him. i had lost my krew, but i knew i'd find them later.

i finally reached the camp pumping out the banging afternoon beatz. my krew was not there, but that didn't matter to me. i got off my bike and began to radically create and express myself through movement and dance. the camp was run by a group of canadians. there were only about three of us dancing in the blazing afternoon sun, and the beatz were house music served up propah. as i danced under the desert sky to some of the sexxxiest beatz i have ever heard, the most beautiful blonde angel dressed in a large fun fur hat danced up beside me, looked into my eyes, and said "mmmm...house music."

i was in another universe on the playa. it is a place of extremes, and the people are the most creative and fascinating beings i have ever met. beautiful does not even come close to describing how breathtaking citizens of black rock city are. they are everywhere, constantly recreating themselves in front of you, serving up mind blowing energy at random.

after dancing with beautiful canadians on the playa, i jumped on my bike and headed across catharsis back towards our camp. of course my journey back to the camp would include many many stops on the way, beginning with a theme camp called the deep end. located at 9:00 and catharsis, the deep end felt like a tropical paradise in ibiza. it opened at 10am and closed at 10pm, and it was the place to be in the daytime if you wanted to dance your ass off to proper house beatz with the sexxxiest people on the playa. once again, my jaw hit the floor.



i continued by journey back to my camp, passing theme camps with names like casa de slut monkey and porn&eggs. i chose catharsis because my friends leanne and mike from toronto told me that they were camping near 7:30 and catharsis. i was hoping to run into them on the playa, and so i chose to ride catharsis often. just because your address is 7:30 and catharsis doesn't mean that you are camped right on the road, so finding them was a bit more difficult than i expected.

i stopped off at the fandango camp at 7:00 and catharsis to explore, take a quick break, and enjoy my first drink from a bar on the playa. my friend sandstorm, the girl from toronto who i enjoyed my flight to colorado with on my way to vegas, told me she was camped at fandango. i was hoping to run into her. underneath a large teepee style tent, the fandango bar had a few comfy sofas surrounding a standup piano. i approached the bar, not sure what to expect or ask for. i knew that there was no money on the playa, but i thought everything was barter. if i wanted a drink i'd have to barter something for it. i soon learned that the playa is all about gifting with no expectation of something in return. if you want to give something back you can, but when it came to booze just go up to the bar and ask for what you want. no cash, no tipping. i ordered a beer and was asked by the bartender if it was my first time at fandango. i answered yes. he immediately yelled out "we have a new one!", then stood up on the bar and proceeded to fill up a huge beer bong. with everyone at the bar cheering me on, i guzzled my first beer bong on the playa at fandango. as the effects of the delicious lychee flavoured beer kicked me in the teeth, the bartender rang a bell, and i no longer was a fandango or burning man virgin.
all of a sudden, a man in a cowboy hat began playing the piano. then a beautiful woman named honey grabbed a seat on the piano top and began singing. a young bearded man joined them at the piano and began belting out the blues. random creativity served itself up once again. coincidences don't happen on the playa, everything happens perfektly and for a reason. as i got up to dance to the intoxicating blues being performed by random burners, i hear my name yelled out from behind me. it was sandstorm. we hugged and kissed each other, and she looked in my eyes and said "now you know." it was true. no words or stories can possibly describe what its like to be on the playa, you have to be there to know.
sandy and i said our goodbyes and i continued my journey back to our camp. my focus was clear, get some food in me. itz difficult to not stop every few feet to explore a new theme camp or meet someone new and incredible, but my stomach was empty and i needed to eat something. as i rode up to our camp i was greeted with a loud roar from my krew who were all there letting the mind blowing experience of the day sink in. after they lost me, they decided to start a pool on when they think norm will return. they had it all written down on a whiteboard with time slots and names for each of them assigned to the time when they thought i would be coming back. a few of them thought i wouldn't return until we left for home on the sunday. will took home the prize though. i did come back that day, and between 5:30 and 6:00pm. hey, i was hungry. can't ignore the needs of my belly.
i must say, our camp was pretty organized. it was good to have experienced burners like will, shallen, sue, and karen with us. every day at our camp, two people were scheduled to make dinner for everyone. this would make sure that everyone would have at least one full hot meal every day. excellent idea.

after dinner we changed into our evening attire. the desert gets very cold at night in comparison to the daytime temperature, but hey, we're from canada. anything above zero degrees is shorts weather. i donned my kenobi hoody and "sleeps well with others" tshirt, which went over very well ;)

imagine you were in the middle of a city in the desert for a week and the only efficient way to get around was by bicycle. how would you decorate your bike so that others would not mistake it for theirs (especially seeing as many people brought with them the same el cheapo walmart roadmaster specials), and so that people could see you at night? take that creativitym radically express it, and you'll begin to tune into the energy that flows so freely across the playa. i decided to remove all of the stickers on my bike, then used an exacto knife to rework the letters from the remaining roadmaster sticker into dredimaster.


we began our evening festivities at the stage near 2:00 and the esplanade. i was surprised to hear so many breakbeatz. i can't count how many times turtle looked at me and yelled "breakz beeyatch!". we ended up at the house of lotus on the other end of the playa (10:00) for some propah house beatz. here's the thing about burning man stages, there is music everywhere, of all kinds, all the time. you have so much choice its crazy. and you never know who is playing because there is no advertising. you just have to be there.

there were at least three other sound stages next to the house of lotus, and we spent the night moving back and forth between them all. i love dancing outside, there is nothing like it. combine that with the people and the energy of being in black rock city, and it is heaven. we danced until the sun came up. i will never forget sharing the sun rise for the first time on the playa that morning. everyone we were dancing with at the house of lotus turned to face the rising sun. people began cheering and screaming as it rose. it was the end of an incredible night, and the beginning of a new and beautiful day.
- that first day on the playa guy