Burning Man 2008: WHAT THE BURNING MAN MEANS TO ME
“I FEEL LIKE A TRADER GOING TO A NEW WORLD”
T-Town, CA – As I get my supplies together for the Burning Man Project coming up early next week, I am electrified to be attending the indescribable event this first time. As such, I have been telling people of my excitement, to which people who are below the age of 40 all say, “Wow, I’m so jealous” as a gleam comes into their eye. For folks who are a bit closer to my actual age (not the age I act), their reaction and questions are a bit different. They look at me with a glazed eye and ask, “Is this a cult?” as they try and figure out why I would even be interested in attending something so outrageous, so completely off their radar.
Well, Sports Fans, it’s like this. When I first heard or read anything about the BMP, I’ll admit, it scared the bee-Jesus out of me. I mean, a week long event, out in the middle of the desert, with no official city structure, sharing your survival with 45,000 strangers, in a rave-like atmosphere. It sounded like something happening on Mars, a scene out of the movie ‘Total Recall’. But then I researched it more and every article told of something different. It was like each writer was a blind man, describing just the patch of elephant he felt.
I started seeing that scene from ‘Jerry Maguire’ where ‘Jesus’ tells him that sometimes you just have to ‘lay your balls out there’ on the line. I started to think about Woodstock, the original one, and how that worked, that first societal experiment done open air and unattended, unlike a cult where strict control and conformity are adhered to. Then the ‘scene’ happened and naturally one of the first elements I uncovered were ‘burners’, then the poi (fire) spinners who were trying to get good enough for BMP. Looking at pictures of Bridget (Food Not Bombs, Earth Day Fest), Jimmy (Madlins, Java Joz), and others grinning, covered with dust, looking like Mad Max leftovers was the final vote for trying something completely different.
So as I pack my ‘barter bag’ with trinkets (money is not allowed in this city) for the natives that gather once a year to make this experimental city, filled with experimental art, under survival conditions attended by people from around the world - yes Sports Fans, this is a global event like the Olympics, I would like to dedicate this series of my journalistic reporting to my favorite two writers. To Ian Fleming, who through James Bond, taught me that having gadgets is always something cool and necessary; and to Hunter S. Thompson, who taught me that the real story is in the trenches, gotten by ‘gonzo’ journalism, down and dirty. I hope they are both looking down at me from their heavenly writing desks, and cheering me on. WooHoo!