Snapshots – achievements, laurels and honors of others

Morning greeted us with a visit from Barry (Beary?) who was celebrating his 60th birthday.

We sited the van early, then set out across the playa for a busy bike around. Biomass got to run the flaming eyes on the Golden Mean (thanks to the captain!), pill we played with the luscious Syzgryd‘s luscious flame/sound/color synthesizer and deeply admired the C.S. Tere, which came a long way since we last saw it on BoingBoing in June.

In the afternoon, the DPW threw a huge, raucous parade from their HQ just opposite us at Florence all the way down 5:30 and onto the playa.

Biggest compliment of the afternoon – a surly, crusty DPW worker with a bullhorn yelled across the intersection to Biomass, who was wearing his Flying Tiger fighter-bomber mask and goggles – “KID, THAT’S AN AWESOME MASK. THAT IS AWESOME, MAN.”

Beauty at Burning Man 2010

Soak humans in art and the playa’s environmental extremes (harsh wind, high heat, relentless dust) and you bring out something significant in them: happiness. They’re working their tails off to be here, to create something meaningful (if temporary), and to delight and shock each other.

Black Rock City is populated by some of the most beautiful souls you’ll ever meet. That said, sailor guy here drummed so fiercely on Keyboard 2 that he actually snapped a fiberglass mallet. Ah, well – there are 20 more. That ought to hold us until the next burn.

Rangers stopped by in camp (here) and out on the playa …

Children loved XyloVan – this dude (probably barely 20 months old) banged away on the tubular bells for quite a while … Continue reading Beauty at Burning Man 2010

Art cars, Tinytropolis and spinning till you get sick

Here’s a hodgepodge of images from Tuesday – art so thick you could barely see the playa – Black Rock City’s population was 51,000-plus this year, and it showed.

There were brilliant art cars, and an excellent installation called Tinytropolis, which consisted of internally-lit dioramas that 100 artists had stuffed into otherwise identical, solar-powered cardboard boxes.

This gorgeous globe of woven, welded steel spun just 50 yards away from our site, which made it a) easy to find at night and b) somewhat sickening. Biomass (my son’s playa name as of this year) got physically ill looking at it and had to be led away clutching my arm, while Hitgirl (yes, my daughter’s playa name, and more accurate than you would guess) spun herself happily around it like a glittery, giggling moon.

Extra bonus – here’s a video of my favorite art car at the entire event, the Maria Del Camino. Though I didn’t get to witness it, the car apparently lifts its body up to reveal the image of the False Maria robot from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, rendered in tens of thousands of holes drilled into her body:

Burning Man 2010 – XyloVan’s first drive on the playa

Tuesday began with the lowering of Keyboard 1, information pills which is truly a six-hand job – one roof-monkey to loose the straps and push it off, approved two adults on the ground to catch it and install the support stanchions (and one mischievous camera-girl to record it all. Never entrust videography to a 9-year-old if you want any kind of serious documentation.)

With the crew enjoying the view from the roof, I cruised down 5:30 to cross the Esplanade and head towards The ARTery to get our driving permit and site assignment.

Heady. That’s the only word I can muster for the sensation of ending eight months of building and preparing an elaborate art car by driving the goddamn thing out onto the open playa, where thousands can see and play it …
Continue reading Burning Man 2010 – XyloVan’s first drive on the playa

Arrival at Black Rock City for Burning Man 2010

After driving all night from Los Angeles with the kids sacked out in back, there we arrived at the gates to Black Rock City around 9:30 a.m. Monday – and immediately hit traffic.

It took a good three hours to wade through it. After a quick greeting at the gate (and the customary warnings about driving under 5mph and not at all during whiteouts) we plunked ourselves down in Kidsville at 5:30 and Florence and set to work pitching camp … Continue reading Arrival at Black Rock City for Burning Man 2010