VOTE BANANA Part I
BURNING MAN!!!! NSFW
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!NOTE: This post contains a nonzero quantity of nudity. If you think boobs and wangs are gross, that is what it is, but if you are set against seeing any of them, you probably shouldn't join us on this magical journey.
It would be nice if Burning Man didn't necessitate 35 hours in the car both to and from, but if you have to be in a car for that long, it's nice to have Ian there with you. He is pleasant company.
The sky was beautiful much of the way. I love clouds and for some reason, I don't generally look up and see them when I'm closer to home. I wonder why that is? Probably because it's harder to be in the moment on the way to or from work and things of that nature.
About a half hour into the entrance line, it started raining! Enough so that they stopped everyone and we sat for about two hours while the playa dried enough for people to move their cars without tearing up the road. There was a double rainbow! Wheee! WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!!?!?
The line from where we were.
During the rain/double rainbow delay, an RV full of Germans turned their high powered music playing device up and there was a dance party.
These kids were directly in front of us, which was fortuitous, because when Ian left me to walk to will-call, he left the car keys in the ignition and I locked them in accidentally. The boy jimmied the car back open for me. CRISIS AVERTED!
It was their first time at Burning Man, and when the line finally started moving again, I asked the girl her name. I internet stalked her when we got home and she's a model! So pretty!
We rolled into camp and found Camo and Jazz and co. with relative ease. We threw up our tent and I was fast asleep in no time, but terribly glad that we had purchased two sleeping bags on the way, because I'm pretty sure it got below freezing that first night. Ian said he could see his own breath. In the morning, I awoke at the ass crack of dawn, as always, and wandered out onto the playa to see the man and the temple.
You could climb him this year, which was really cool. He had speakers that played city sounds and the voices of city people that you could listen to as you went up and down the stairs.
A view of the man from the Mant Farm
The Mant Farm itself!
From the man I biked out to the temple. It was so beautiful that I was pretty much crying before I got to it.
It looked like a building made of wild grass in the wind. Last year's temple was beautiful and intricate and climbable, but this year's was just breathtaking. I like it when I can't see the math in things. People write notes or write directly on the temple about things and people they're letting go of or to which they are saying goodbye.
This guy was making beautiful bubbles, but was kind of cranky and weird for a gorgeous morning in front of one of the most beautiful structures I've ever seen. Oh well.
Then it was on to center camp. I spent most of my waking hours at center camp this year, so I became pretty familiar with its charms. They have a stage that was constantly in use. From this man and his talented flute playing to an ancient lady in a bikini with a ukulele, or a cowboy singing love songs, 24 hours a day.
Our camp! Camo Mike built a beautiful, shady monkey hut, set up next to their RV. It was the coolest place to be, temperature wise, for blocks around. I wore a purple tutu!
Ian was happy to be at the burn, and is learning that the sillier he is, the happier I am.
This was our introduction to the group, the lovely Shoshana having some "whip cream" and hula hooping, boob gone wild like an amazon warrior. This is a "double double," two hula hoops and two shots of "whip cream." She totally managed it, but at the end did a less than graceful face plant into the playa. I was glad she was ok.
Sho in better spirits:
Jazz in dreads! It was tutu Tuesday, so there was a lot of tulle around. Loverly.
The young lady in our hammock and flame print panties is Pope Katherine. She's gorgeous and a costume designer and had the most amazing outfits all week, and I managed to get practically no pictures of her. Bummer!
Pope spinning LED poi
Camo spinning LED poi
And because life is no fun unless you constantly escalate, out comes fire!
Our camp at night. I swear to you, this was a one-of firework explosion that I managed to catch. Pretty!
Husband and wife and their glow related gear. I had no idea I could take pictures of stars. Yay new lens!
The playa is caustic and drying and requires frequent skin maintenance to avoid "playa foot," essentially a chemical burn caused by the alkali dust eating your feet. This is Ian washing his tootsies with a head lamp on. Camo continued to spin poi.
oooh! Two headed Ian!
Joe Finn gets ready for his big debut.
I can tell you from personal experience, you are a hard habit to break, Joe Finn.
Our first night out was really nice.
Next year it would be nice to get some of this wire and make interesting night outfits. I'm sure I could do it! I like making things.
Here's an extremely thorough description for EL wire and how it works!
This honeycomb structure was quite the draw. As I always say, hippies like to climb shit.
Example A
In a city of tens of thousands, we managed to run into our co-worker Mike and mutual friends at the honeycomb 10 minutes after being out for the night. Rock on!
Cole and Charlie as bee larva.
This was a structure that had stations with touch screen computers, on which you could play music that piped from the center cubes.
Because it was Burning Man, it had to be flammable.
This year, I was determined to be more physically comfortable than last year, so I bought a double hammock off of craigslist. While super comfy, it was also icky hot. Perhaps black fabric wasn't the greatest choice. Next year, Mylar?
Ian and Joe in the Absinthe camp.
This was just the front page of a two page menu. The back had at least the same amount of options.
Ian and absinthe dude are friends from way back.
Mmmm. Tasty. I was quite pleased to find out that not all absinthe tastes like gross licorice.
This was a party camp that was woefully underpopulated. When I stopped by, dude took a picture of me to prove there was a girl there. Surprising, since it was a pretty cool setup they had. I guess location really is everything. This robot guy enjoyed spinning slowly on the stripper pole in the shimmering disco ball lights.
Mammoth car!
gllllowy
I didn't get to see as much of the night stuff as I would have hoped, because this year I spent a lot of time doing day related activities, but the things I saw were fun. This oasis was beautiful, and there were other tiki/Caribbean themed camps as well.
Scary skull wall
Those are evil breasts if I ever did see evil breasts. Makes me think of Mallrats.
I passed this camp every morning on my way to center camp and one day there was a naked girl sleeping peacefully in this thing's mouth.
MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Heeeey Charlie! Candy Mountain, Charlie!
Onto what was the largest portion of my burn this year, Acro Yoga! I didn't find these kids until Wednesday morning, but for the next 5 days I spent 3-4 hours a day in center camp doing Acro. It was amazing. At home I get to do Acro for about an hour a week on Sundays. This trip was the equivalent of 20 weeks at home! wheee!
I based almost all of the hours, which was tiring but wonderful and a great way to connect with people.
This is Paul, of the Paul/Diane combo. He flew me a couple of times, as did some other wonderful dudes. I don't know why I don't ask people to fly me more, but I feel weird about it. It's easier to fly tiny people than 175 pound me. Regardless, Paul and Diane were wonderful to me in general, taught me more than anyone else at the burn. I made them necklaces as thank you gifts.
Paul also flew Ian later on in the week and gave him some basing tips to help us figure out the best way to play at home. I want Ian to be able to fly me since he has giant donkey legs and should be able to hold me up with relative ease once he gets the hang of it.
Prasarita twist! I had to try really hard to remember the name of this flow because "I'm going to do a turn-y thing to you now" doesn't inspire the greatest confidence in flyers.
Acro yoga is like taking a vacation from gravity while getting hugged by puppies.
Floating paschi
Relaxing in throne.
Star is my favorite! Paul was my favorite too. I wish I could have packed him and Diane in the trunk and taken them home with me! When I go out to visit Stephanie in Boulder next, I will most definitely have to catch up with them.
Pink party in center camp! I heard pink is supposed to confuse your enemies and lull them into a false sense of security. PINK ARMY WILL DESTROY YOUR FAMILY!
This lovely man on stilts was walking by our camp and we stopped him to take pictures. He was offering ice cold lemonade, and was pretty insistent that we try some. Ian loves free stuff so he ran over to claim his refreshments.
Dude had a fake penis hooked up to some sort of delivery system. Genius. no homo, right? hyuck hyuck hyuck
Gratuitously offensive fake penis lemonade drinking!
This former Minneapolitan stopped by to say hello when she saw our sign. She now lives in San Francisco and is starting up her own company and dates primarily millionaire Indian men. Super nice lady!
This is Bethany, of Bethany and Kevin. Sweet kids who were honeymooning for their first trip to the burn this year. They are long and lanky like baby giraffes.
At the climbable sculpture in front of center camp, an aerialist performs!
Tiffffffaaany! Desert motorized wheelchair! I harassed this man with questions for 15 minutes because I was super excited at the whole prospect of you going out there some day.
This art car was really an art barn hooked up to a tractor. So super cool. On this side they made food at the attached stove. You can see the top of the barn where folks slept.
This side people picked up food at the window and sat and ate. The people who think of these things are absolute geniuses.
HEY THERE, YOUR HORSE IS ON FIRE.
Hyaaaw!
Ian and I waiting for Megavolt to perform.
In case you miss grocery shopping while at the burn.
Babelfish?
Scary face couch car?
Set-that-shit-on fire truck.
At the Megavolt show his lovely lady walked around with a small Tesla coil called The Arm Blaster, a 225 watt battery powered doo-dad. Here she's showing how a Tesla coil will light a near-by lightbulb in her mouth. She convinced like 3 hippies to touch this thing which resulted in much swearing and spitting.
Dr. Megavolt! 15 foot bolts of lightning shot at his head. How fun is that?
Here he set a giant wooden 2 by 4 on fire.
TOO MUCH BURNING MAN FOR ONE POST! To Be continued...here:
http://inclementine.livejournal.com/316847.html
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!NOTE: This post contains a nonzero quantity of nudity. If you think boobs and wangs are gross, that is what it is, but if you are set against seeing any of them, you probably shouldn't join us on this magical journey.
It would be nice if Burning Man didn't necessitate 35 hours in the car both to and from, but if you have to be in a car for that long, it's nice to have Ian there with you. He is pleasant company.
The sky was beautiful much of the way. I love clouds and for some reason, I don't generally look up and see them when I'm closer to home. I wonder why that is? Probably because it's harder to be in the moment on the way to or from work and things of that nature.
About a half hour into the entrance line, it started raining! Enough so that they stopped everyone and we sat for about two hours while the playa dried enough for people to move their cars without tearing up the road. There was a double rainbow! Wheee! WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!!?!?
The line from where we were.
During the rain/double rainbow delay, an RV full of Germans turned their high powered music playing device up and there was a dance party.
These kids were directly in front of us, which was fortuitous, because when Ian left me to walk to will-call, he left the car keys in the ignition and I locked them in accidentally. The boy jimmied the car back open for me. CRISIS AVERTED!
It was their first time at Burning Man, and when the line finally started moving again, I asked the girl her name. I internet stalked her when we got home and she's a model! So pretty!
We rolled into camp and found Camo and Jazz and co. with relative ease. We threw up our tent and I was fast asleep in no time, but terribly glad that we had purchased two sleeping bags on the way, because I'm pretty sure it got below freezing that first night. Ian said he could see his own breath. In the morning, I awoke at the ass crack of dawn, as always, and wandered out onto the playa to see the man and the temple.
You could climb him this year, which was really cool. He had speakers that played city sounds and the voices of city people that you could listen to as you went up and down the stairs.
A view of the man from the Mant Farm
The Mant Farm itself!
From the man I biked out to the temple. It was so beautiful that I was pretty much crying before I got to it.
It looked like a building made of wild grass in the wind. Last year's temple was beautiful and intricate and climbable, but this year's was just breathtaking. I like it when I can't see the math in things. People write notes or write directly on the temple about things and people they're letting go of or to which they are saying goodbye.
This guy was making beautiful bubbles, but was kind of cranky and weird for a gorgeous morning in front of one of the most beautiful structures I've ever seen. Oh well.
Then it was on to center camp. I spent most of my waking hours at center camp this year, so I became pretty familiar with its charms. They have a stage that was constantly in use. From this man and his talented flute playing to an ancient lady in a bikini with a ukulele, or a cowboy singing love songs, 24 hours a day.
Our camp! Camo Mike built a beautiful, shady monkey hut, set up next to their RV. It was the coolest place to be, temperature wise, for blocks around. I wore a purple tutu!
Ian was happy to be at the burn, and is learning that the sillier he is, the happier I am.
This was our introduction to the group, the lovely Shoshana having some "whip cream" and hula hooping, boob gone wild like an amazon warrior. This is a "double double," two hula hoops and two shots of "whip cream." She totally managed it, but at the end did a less than graceful face plant into the playa. I was glad she was ok.
Sho in better spirits:
Jazz in dreads! It was tutu Tuesday, so there was a lot of tulle around. Loverly.
The young lady in our hammock and flame print panties is Pope Katherine. She's gorgeous and a costume designer and had the most amazing outfits all week, and I managed to get practically no pictures of her. Bummer!
Pope spinning LED poi
Camo spinning LED poi
And because life is no fun unless you constantly escalate, out comes fire!
Our camp at night. I swear to you, this was a one-of firework explosion that I managed to catch. Pretty!
Husband and wife and their glow related gear. I had no idea I could take pictures of stars. Yay new lens!
The playa is caustic and drying and requires frequent skin maintenance to avoid "playa foot," essentially a chemical burn caused by the alkali dust eating your feet. This is Ian washing his tootsies with a head lamp on. Camo continued to spin poi.
oooh! Two headed Ian!
Joe Finn gets ready for his big debut.
I can tell you from personal experience, you are a hard habit to break, Joe Finn.
Our first night out was really nice.
Next year it would be nice to get some of this wire and make interesting night outfits. I'm sure I could do it! I like making things.
Here's an extremely thorough description for EL wire and how it works!
This honeycomb structure was quite the draw. As I always say, hippies like to climb shit.
Example A
In a city of tens of thousands, we managed to run into our co-worker Mike and mutual friends at the honeycomb 10 minutes after being out for the night. Rock on!
Cole and Charlie as bee larva.
This was a structure that had stations with touch screen computers, on which you could play music that piped from the center cubes.
Because it was Burning Man, it had to be flammable.
This year, I was determined to be more physically comfortable than last year, so I bought a double hammock off of craigslist. While super comfy, it was also icky hot. Perhaps black fabric wasn't the greatest choice. Next year, Mylar?
Ian and Joe in the Absinthe camp.
This was just the front page of a two page menu. The back had at least the same amount of options.
Ian and absinthe dude are friends from way back.
Mmmm. Tasty. I was quite pleased to find out that not all absinthe tastes like gross licorice.
This was a party camp that was woefully underpopulated. When I stopped by, dude took a picture of me to prove there was a girl there. Surprising, since it was a pretty cool setup they had. I guess location really is everything. This robot guy enjoyed spinning slowly on the stripper pole in the shimmering disco ball lights.
Mammoth car!
gllllowy
I didn't get to see as much of the night stuff as I would have hoped, because this year I spent a lot of time doing day related activities, but the things I saw were fun. This oasis was beautiful, and there were other tiki/Caribbean themed camps as well.
Scary skull wall
Those are evil breasts if I ever did see evil breasts. Makes me think of Mallrats.
I passed this camp every morning on my way to center camp and one day there was a naked girl sleeping peacefully in this thing's mouth.
MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Heeeey Charlie! Candy Mountain, Charlie!
Onto what was the largest portion of my burn this year, Acro Yoga! I didn't find these kids until Wednesday morning, but for the next 5 days I spent 3-4 hours a day in center camp doing Acro. It was amazing. At home I get to do Acro for about an hour a week on Sundays. This trip was the equivalent of 20 weeks at home! wheee!
I based almost all of the hours, which was tiring but wonderful and a great way to connect with people.
This is Paul, of the Paul/Diane combo. He flew me a couple of times, as did some other wonderful dudes. I don't know why I don't ask people to fly me more, but I feel weird about it. It's easier to fly tiny people than 175 pound me. Regardless, Paul and Diane were wonderful to me in general, taught me more than anyone else at the burn. I made them necklaces as thank you gifts.
Paul also flew Ian later on in the week and gave him some basing tips to help us figure out the best way to play at home. I want Ian to be able to fly me since he has giant donkey legs and should be able to hold me up with relative ease once he gets the hang of it.
Prasarita twist! I had to try really hard to remember the name of this flow because "I'm going to do a turn-y thing to you now" doesn't inspire the greatest confidence in flyers.
Acro yoga is like taking a vacation from gravity while getting hugged by puppies.
Floating paschi
Relaxing in throne.
Star is my favorite! Paul was my favorite too. I wish I could have packed him and Diane in the trunk and taken them home with me! When I go out to visit Stephanie in Boulder next, I will most definitely have to catch up with them.
Pink party in center camp! I heard pink is supposed to confuse your enemies and lull them into a false sense of security. PINK ARMY WILL DESTROY YOUR FAMILY!
This lovely man on stilts was walking by our camp and we stopped him to take pictures. He was offering ice cold lemonade, and was pretty insistent that we try some. Ian loves free stuff so he ran over to claim his refreshments.
Dude had a fake penis hooked up to some sort of delivery system. Genius. no homo, right? hyuck hyuck hyuck
Gratuitously offensive fake penis lemonade drinking!
This former Minneapolitan stopped by to say hello when she saw our sign. She now lives in San Francisco and is starting up her own company and dates primarily millionaire Indian men. Super nice lady!
This is Bethany, of Bethany and Kevin. Sweet kids who were honeymooning for their first trip to the burn this year. They are long and lanky like baby giraffes.
At the climbable sculpture in front of center camp, an aerialist performs!
Tiffffffaaany! Desert motorized wheelchair! I harassed this man with questions for 15 minutes because I was super excited at the whole prospect of you going out there some day.
This art car was really an art barn hooked up to a tractor. So super cool. On this side they made food at the attached stove. You can see the top of the barn where folks slept.
This side people picked up food at the window and sat and ate. The people who think of these things are absolute geniuses.
HEY THERE, YOUR HORSE IS ON FIRE.
Hyaaaw!
Ian and I waiting for Megavolt to perform.
In case you miss grocery shopping while at the burn.
Babelfish?
Scary face couch car?
Set-that-shit-on fire truck.
At the Megavolt show his lovely lady walked around with a small Tesla coil called The Arm Blaster, a 225 watt battery powered doo-dad. Here she's showing how a Tesla coil will light a near-by lightbulb in her mouth. She convinced like 3 hippies to touch this thing which resulted in much swearing and spitting.
Dr. Megavolt! 15 foot bolts of lightning shot at his head. How fun is that?
Here he set a giant wooden 2 by 4 on fire.
TOO MUCH BURNING MAN FOR ONE POST! To Be continued...here:
http://inclementine.livejournal.com/316847.html