Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Burning Man - Part 2

shopping


I flew to Portland to continue turning what could be a simple flight in and out of Reno into an epic road trip around the western US. I rented a car and began visiting stores, doing more shopping than I have probably done ever in my life. I went to REI and several Walmarts. I was in Target and a giant store called Fred Meyers. I was in an army and navy store called Andy and Bax. The week I was in Portland just before I headed to Burning Man, there was apparently some kind of epic rain storm in the desert where the event would be so I added rain gear to my list. I bought big rubber boots at Andy and Bax. I looked at the crazy mattress-like pads REI sells for camping and ultimately decided a cheap air mattress from Target was a better bet, plus might keep me out of the pool of water sure to form in my tent if it did indeed rain. Thankfullly than ended up not happening but I was ready if it did. I got a plastic bin for my food supplies and a water cooler. I bought a food cooler which I ended up returning as I reassessed the best way to manage my food. I went to Whole Foods and Food Fight (a vegan grocery store in Portland) and stocked up on everything non-perishable I could find. I got lots of trail mix, nuts and dried fruit. I got lots of different kinds of bars like Clif Bars and other kinds of seed and nut and fruit bars. I bought some vegan seitan jerky. I grabbed up some crackers and peanut butter and various bags of chips like Tings and Zaatar Chips, having heard that salty snacks are a common craving in Black Rock City. Ultimately this would all work out better than I could've thought, especially given my uncertainty about dishwashing and cooking and how much of a pain it might be to deal with. Remember, you can't easily dispose of dirty water, you have to take it with you, so my goal was to create none. The one cookable item I bought on a whim was spotted at Food Fight. I bought several of those boil-in-the-bag Indian meals, figuring that boiling water couldn't possibly be that hard to come across and perhaps after a week in the desert, a respite from Clif Bars and saltines might be welcome. That ended up being a good idea like many of these things. 

driving in and arriving


I left Portland and drove to Klamath Falls, the last big city on my route to Burning Man which is held in the Black Rock Desert a few hours northeast of Reno, NV. In Klamath Falls I made really just one more stop to sort out my water situation. Burning Man attendees are advised to bring 1.5-2 gallons of water per person per day. I had volunteered to show up early and leave late to help in the building up and tearing down of the Couchburners camp of which I'd decided to be a part, meaning I'd be there for about 12 days if I survived, which translated to 24 gallons of water. This would end up to be way too much, but I figured better safe than sorry. Knowing what I know now, there are things I'd do differently and this is one of them, but that's a subject for later on. For now, I bought three five-gallon water jugs like the kind you see on top of water coolers, and using a machine in the foyer of Fred Meyers in Klamath Falls, filled them up with drinking water for a few bucks each. Then I bought a block of ice and a bag of ice cubes, and dumped them into my five-gallon cooler. Then I topped that off with a few gallons of water and with a few extra 1.5 gallon containers in my back seat, that problem was solved and I was on my way. 

Incidentally when I walked into Fred Meyers the woman behind the counter had read it all over me. "Burning Man?" she asked. We chatted for a while and she said many people roll through and they even had a special section set up with coolers and flashlights and other commonly needed items ready to go. She was in her 50s and hadn't been yet but was interested and had a friend her age who went with her daughter the previous year. It was a nice conversation to have just before heading south.

Maybe 4-5 hours later I rolled into Gerlach, NV. This was it, the final town before entering Burning Man for the next almost two weeks. I arrived on Friday the 23rd of August, two days before the gate opened to the public which allowed me to bypass the huge lines in which many others would have to queue for hours and hours before finding their way to their campsites. That said, from my arrival in Gerlach til I made it to the CS camp took about three hours total, much shorter than the 6 or 8 or 12 hour waits I'd come to hear about later. 

As I came into Gerlach, things took a turn for the Burning Man. There were signs saying "Burners Welcome" in front of local businesses, something I'd seen in the few small towns I passed on the way as well. I began to see supplies being offered, a local shop selling bikes suitable for Burning Man as well as chai and other snacks and drinks. I got out briefly to look around and decided there was nothing for me but to head to the real thing. I was anxious to get in and see the lay of the land. I followed the signs to the entrance a few miles out of town and entered an elaborate series of lanes through which me and the other early arrivals proceeded at the posted limit of 5mph, having been warned that the police were ticketing aggressively as well as looking for excuses to search vehicles. I wasn't concerned as I was carrying no contraband, but I did not want to be delayed and so I slowly drove into the desert between ropes and cones alongside RVs and trailers and vehicles often decorated with some kind of "hey we're going to Burning Man" message or logo. I turned on the Burning Man gate radio station containing an audio loop of things I already knew, like to not speed and to stay in the lanes and to not get out of your car and go wandering aimlessly through the desert. Traffic trickled forward until eventually I reached "will call" where I pulled off the road into a parking lot to park and go pick up my ticket. 

I had bought my ticket somewhat last minute. I decided I was interested in Burning Man before the ticket sales began, but I had not yet committed to the idea yet when the sale began and as it turns out, Burning Man tickets sell out really quickly. So they sold out in the first day but seeing as how there were 60,000+ tickets, I figured getting a hold of one wouldn't be that difficult. There were future ticket releases and people reselling tickets as the event got closer. I knew I'd get one somehow. What I ended up doing was signing up for an official ticket resale program called STEP which stands for Secure Ticket Exchange Program. I put my name on the list and as people decided they didn't want their tickets after all or that they had extras, they returned them to Burning Man who just emailed the next person in the queue and offered them the tickets at face value. Sure enough as the event approaches, I got my email, bought my ticket, and I was good to go. I just needed to stop and pick up the ticket on the way in.

I don't think I have mentioned it elsewhere but tickets are $380 for those who are curious. There are a lot of people who are unhappy about this price and feel that it is inflated or excessive. Considering the scale of the event and what it takes to maintain sanitation and safety for 60k+ people for several weeks, plus the months of planning beforehand and cleaning afterwards, and considering that once you're in there is nothing else to buy, it seemed reasonable to me. Defending Burning Man against those who claim it has become gentrified or solely for rich people is not within the scope of what I am trying to write here, nor do I even consider myself qualified to make such a defense. I only intend to describe my personal experiences and point of view. There are plenty of people arguing on the internet about how it used to be better, how it's only for the rich now, how it's gone mainstream, or whatever other criticisms you can think of, and all of those are easily Googled if you are interested. 

I was handed the ticket and a little book of goings-on for the week which I stuck to the side as I anxiously drove towards the gate. Traffic was staggered by people working the gate so we sat still, moved a bit, then sat still for a while longer. I played the guitar in the driver's seat for 10-15 minutes with the engine off, then turned it on, moved 20 feet forwards, and shut it off again. As I approached the gate I saw the greeters. The first greeter I saw was a 50-year-old man completely naked except for shoes and a cowboy hat, plus sunglasses and a bandanna for the sun I suppose, though if you're completely naked I'm not sure the bandanna is going to protect much. He came to the car and welcomed me. I wished I was standing instead of sitting in my car. He asked how I was and if I'd been before. I have not been before. Ah, a virgin. Yes, a virgin. Well, the two girls up there will de-virginize you. Ah, so they will. As I rolled up to the female greeters in question, they conferred enthusiastically as to what to do with me. Get out of the car they said and so I did and they directed me to a large bell which I was made to ring as loud as possible after which I was told to shout "I am no longer a virgin!" as loud as possible. In other lanes, others shouted or were on their way to shouting. I later found out that many virgins are meant to roll in the dust and make dust angels, an indignity I was spared at the gate but by the end of the 12 days I'd ultimately spend there, I was more than acquainted with the dust even without participating in that particular ritual. I got in my car and drove past the greeters into the city.

building the camp


As mentioned earlier, after deciding to join the CS camp I had been following and participating in the Facebook page for that group, asking a question here or there and getting a sense of the people who planned to attend. At one point there was a problem with the Couchburners website so I volunteered my nerdness to fix it and did. Subsequently the call was put out for volunteers to arrive early and help build the camp. I figured what the hell. Getting in early sounded good as I would get to skip the lines. Staying late sounded good cause I already knew I wasn't going right back to New York. I figured I was already committed to a significant experience, why not commit to even more of it? Why not start participating from the beginning instead of simply observing. This decision was probably made in the span of a few minutes a month or so before Burning Man, just because I happened to spot that post and respond immediately on more or less a whim. It turned out to be possibly the most important and probably the most rewarding decision I made about Burning Man and the reason I was driving into the city the Friday before the gate opened on my way to help build the Couchburners camp, whatever that meant.

Upon arrival I met Klaire and Robert who ran the camp and the dozen or so people who had elected to participate early. Maybe fewer than a dozen there were, now it all seems a bit hazy, but the core group of people who had arrived who I met that day plus a few others who arrived over the next few days would be the group with which I would share the labor of bringing the camp up from the ground as well as the people with whom I would spend the largest share of the subsequent few weeks together. We raised steel structures to serve as communal areas into which we placed simple flooring and hammocks and chairs and lights. We secured our supplies and some of the more artistically inclined created beautiful signs directing people around the camp. I helped dig trenches into which wires were placed running lights in and around our trampoline which someone (thanks Liz) had graciously donated to the camp. We placed couches and large inflatable globes out in front alongside our lighted "CouchBurners" sign. A short distance away we set up the "Darth Shader," a previously constructed art project which was a huge shade structure underneath which lay maybe 6-8 couches on which people would lounge and seek refuge from the sun over the ensuing days. Some of us built bike racks on which wayward travelers and those of our member with bikes could stash their transportation while visiting or lounging in our camp. The camp began to take shape as the hour of the gate opening approached.

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