Afterbuuuuurn
I really wanted to post a picture of those goggles post-Burning Man, now that the fur is all grey and matted and the LEDs are completely burnt out and the plastic lenses are opaque with dust. But I left them in the car of the swingers I hitchiked home with, so y'all will have to be satisfied with this shot of me doing fire in front of Revofuckinglution at 9.30 and Esplanade. I made it though almost the entire week without lighting up (primarily because I never felt like getting grounded long enough to play with fire safely), but Claire broke out her poi on the last night when we were all drinking at Revo post-temple burn, and I spun a quick set. By then I was so completely disgusting (I had proto-dreds!) that a few singe marks on top of the layers of dust, sweat, grime, dried alcohol, and assorted bodily fluids were barely noticeable.
Burning Man is obliquely responsible for my aerial hoop love- the first live aerial performance I ever witnessed was at Antioch, in the form of a senior thesis by a theatre major who learned lyra on the playa. Some of the best moments of my week were spent on a trapeze, including accidentally meeting one of my favorite artists whose work I've studied on youtube ("You do hoop in Boston? Do you know Eliza Blaze? I stole two of the moves from her Hallelujah piece for my last act!" "That's...my old stage name.") Nothing feels so good as perching above the whole mad desert city on a swinging bar, unless it's showering naked in a tower above center camp. Or riding giant metallic fish while kissing pretty boys with mouthfuls of mint leaves. Or being hand-fed bacon inside a huge fuzzy hammock. Or stumbling on a fully functioning, 70s-era movie theatre playing The Last Picture show, miles away from anything and perched on the Nevada horizon.
Fun fact! I've been home from the playa for nearly a week, and I still wake up every night disoriented and wondering why the tent I'm in is so nice.
Big Life Stuff is in the works, and it all seems a little easier to deal with after surviving a week in the desert.