MY DREAMS HAVE COME TRUE!!! I sat in a tent full of hippies smoking pot and doing mushrooms...
I have been through the desert on a horse with no name, and I have returned to this "real" world of ours. All I can say is that Burning Man was an amazing experience. It has changed my mentality on how to view many of the things that occur in my daily life. So now on to what happened out there... Well my friend Jeremy and I showed up around 9:30 pm and found a nice spot close to the porta-potties.
We were there setting up shop for about a half hour before one of our neighbors came up to introduce himself. He was over weight, around 60 y/o, and had scraggly white hair and facial hair. "Howdy" he says, "the name's Chip". I automatically think to myself, "shit". But I went through with it, "Hey Chip, I'm Dale." Then suddenly out of the darkness we just hear uproarious laughter, "HAHAHA OH MY GOD! Chip and Dale...HAHAHAHA...PRICLESS!!!" so needless to say, there were some people who would wonder by every so often and chuckle to themselves at the sight of me. Along with Chip was a 72 year old man named Hyram...72!!! and it was his first burn, this guy was awesome.
During the days we normally just relaxed or helped people set up there camps, or tried not to die of heat exhaustion. It was great though, everyone loved us, and it was actually fun to help out and give someone a hand. We even became honorary members of a theme camp called the Smoochdome, because we helped them move couches and set up the flooring. They even gave us nicknames. Jeremy was "Superman" and I was (brace yourself) "The Hulk". A couple of nights out there we hung out at Center Camp (huge complex in the middle of the action) and we did drawings and stuff. I did a bunch of pencil drawings representing the seven deadly sins.
The day of the burn (that would be the day that they burn the giant wooden man, hence the name Burningman) was a whole mix of emotions. I visited the giant temple that had been erected (the temple of honor is featured every year, it honors lost loved ones and so forth) It really made me start thinking about my dad, aswell as the mind set I went out there with, by the time I got back to camp I wasn't even in the mood to go to the burn, but I did anyway because I promised Matt I'd get a pic for him. So me and Jeremy and one of our neighbors Ernest (a 29 y/o physics professor who was on that old MTV show 'Singled Out' twice. Jenny McCarthy hit on him, and he got second place one of the times but lost cause of some bull shit tie breaker question in the end). After the burn I was in a better mood though. Jeremy and I hung out at our camp with some of our neighbors who were from Calgary Alberta Canada (Canada kicks ass by the way). Two of the Canadians were tripping on X at the time. The other was sober. Jeremy went off to bed, and the two drugged out Canucks went off. Which left me and one of the girls from a neighbooring camp alone. I'm not exactly sure how it all happened but a night of intimacy did ensue. It's not what you think, and if you ask me what all happened I'll probably tell you (in person though), I don't really feel like I need to broadcast the play-by-play over the internet.
Jeremy and I actually left on Monday, but due to the three hour delay because of the other 15,000 people trying to leave at the same time, we had to get a motel room in beautiful downtown Winnemucca, then head home Tuesday.
The first year I was out in the desert I really learned a lot about art, how it affects people and why it should be made, "art means never having to say you are sorry" is the phrase I coined. This year was something more personal, I realize that a lot of events are correlated in one way or another. I've become a believer in fate, at least to a certain degree, because in the end some events are just meant to be.
We were there setting up shop for about a half hour before one of our neighbors came up to introduce himself. He was over weight, around 60 y/o, and had scraggly white hair and facial hair. "Howdy" he says, "the name's Chip". I automatically think to myself, "shit". But I went through with it, "Hey Chip, I'm Dale." Then suddenly out of the darkness we just hear uproarious laughter, "HAHAHA OH MY GOD! Chip and Dale...HAHAHAHA...PRICLESS!!!" so needless to say, there were some people who would wonder by every so often and chuckle to themselves at the sight of me. Along with Chip was a 72 year old man named Hyram...72!!! and it was his first burn, this guy was awesome.
During the days we normally just relaxed or helped people set up there camps, or tried not to die of heat exhaustion. It was great though, everyone loved us, and it was actually fun to help out and give someone a hand. We even became honorary members of a theme camp called the Smoochdome, because we helped them move couches and set up the flooring. They even gave us nicknames. Jeremy was "Superman" and I was (brace yourself) "The Hulk". A couple of nights out there we hung out at Center Camp (huge complex in the middle of the action) and we did drawings and stuff. I did a bunch of pencil drawings representing the seven deadly sins.
The day of the burn (that would be the day that they burn the giant wooden man, hence the name Burningman) was a whole mix of emotions. I visited the giant temple that had been erected (the temple of honor is featured every year, it honors lost loved ones and so forth) It really made me start thinking about my dad, aswell as the mind set I went out there with, by the time I got back to camp I wasn't even in the mood to go to the burn, but I did anyway because I promised Matt I'd get a pic for him. So me and Jeremy and one of our neighbors Ernest (a 29 y/o physics professor who was on that old MTV show 'Singled Out' twice. Jenny McCarthy hit on him, and he got second place one of the times but lost cause of some bull shit tie breaker question in the end). After the burn I was in a better mood though. Jeremy and I hung out at our camp with some of our neighbors who were from Calgary Alberta Canada (Canada kicks ass by the way). Two of the Canadians were tripping on X at the time. The other was sober. Jeremy went off to bed, and the two drugged out Canucks went off. Which left me and one of the girls from a neighbooring camp alone. I'm not exactly sure how it all happened but a night of intimacy did ensue. It's not what you think, and if you ask me what all happened I'll probably tell you (in person though), I don't really feel like I need to broadcast the play-by-play over the internet.
Jeremy and I actually left on Monday, but due to the three hour delay because of the other 15,000 people trying to leave at the same time, we had to get a motel room in beautiful downtown Winnemucca, then head home Tuesday.
The first year I was out in the desert I really learned a lot about art, how it affects people and why it should be made, "art means never having to say you are sorry" is the phrase I coined. This year was something more personal, I realize that a lot of events are correlated in one way or another. I've become a believer in fate, at least to a certain degree, because in the end some events are just meant to be.