Burning Man, The Vault of Heaven
By Vessy
Mink
Burning Man, The Vault of Heaven
2004. 35,700 creative forces made it to Burning Man (BM) this year! It was my
second year attending this artistic explosion that sits on the edge of Mad Max
and dwells in the Lair of the Labyrinth ready for the Never Ending Story.
Making it to BM is a great sense of
accomplishment for me especially because I spent what little money I had on my
ticket ($250) and went to the middle of Nevada for a week without food or water.
Thanks to the LAFCO (www.lafco.tv) Bus and Disorient for getting me there! I
couldn’t have done it without you!
We rolled out of Venice on Sunday
morning, August 29. Although festivities technically began on Monday, August 30,
preparations for Burning Man 2004 started just as soon as the last one
ended…well, that is after the dust settled.
Dust storms like you wouldn’t
believe take you over on the playa! You are asking for a beating when you come
to Burning Man. Why else would you travel so far to get your ass kicked in the
middle of nowhere by high tailing winds that don’t give a shit if your in
the middle of drinking cold sake? Nowhere is so beautiful, though. Black Rock
City, Nevada to be exact. Then just three more small details: the playa the
esplanade and you.
Burning Man is a way
of life and I am so thankful that I burn. We all do. We burn for love and
change. We burn for growth and humble offerings, for pain to be released and
ourselves to be realized. Although I never managed to look in the What Where
When booklet that the Vault of Heaven offered, I made it to an art installation
in the middle of the esplanade, nonetheless. That is quite literally a little
white house with a little white picket fence and two pairs of little white
shoes.
When coming to BM, don’t
forget your bike. Hundreds of burners made their way to the white house on their
cruisers to see what was going on inside. And when getting there finally, I
stood in a line with the rest of them to take a peek inside. One by one burners
opened the little white door to look inside only to find a man there, jacking
off! He looked like he had been there for hours. I wonder if he built that
house?
Performance art at it’s
finest breeds the best multi-media art of the times and you are sure to find
anything and everything at BM. He looked so foolish there with his penis in his
hand not turned on at all but trying desperately to get off. Sound familiar? I
thought about warning the sweet little burning man family that was soon
approaching the door to take a look, but quickly decided to just observe and let
art be art. That is what it’s for, right? To shock you, knock you, rock
you and wake you the hell up, from the earth up. BM reminds you of the water
that you are, the oxygen that you breathe and the life that you
live.
BM leaves you vibrating with
reverence. Burning Man will teach you if you let it reach you. So getting there
is half the battle.
Some people
don’t react they act. Act like this act like that so this and this happens
is not the way I choose to live my life. I have dreams and aspirations as well
as most attendees for this yearly event. I hear drummers of all kinds joining in
next year from all over Africa where there are 680 languages! Jamming to the
beat of the trance or hip-hop soul and more World music in general. BM needs
more live music. I mean I did what I could. I sang every day to new groups of
people and on art cars just randomly on no schedule at all. Next year I want to
put together a great band to tour BM on a fabulous art car! Just by chance and
fearlessness will one attain the realization of the infinite well.
The early morning quiet time allows
for peace and tranquility. When all the music has stopped and there is a lull of
space where one can just drift off into sleep from being up all night and living
a totally different life than their normal one. One with no fear, one that
prepares them for whatever may happen and the honor and courage with which one
deals with challenges, like the heat. Air-conditioned RV’s are a wonderful
thing! I slept outside under the sky on a structure made of pallet racks and so
did a lot of others.
Pallet rack
artist Freeman Murray has been coming to Burning Man for seven years or so. Last
year was the first year he brought the structure to be built in Black Rock City.
Three stories of Lego like metal beams that lock into one another in seconds
flat in a cube formation. This became sleeping and hanging out quarters for many
people. I also sang quite a bit on the structure.
Just imagine thousands of RV’s
in camps of tents and tables set up with naked people all over making food and
sharing it with one another. Okay, okay there were not as many naked burners
this year. I didn’t walk around anything but half naked at times.
Oh and sun showers! Sun showers are
5gallon bags that you fill with water and let sit in the sun for 20 minutes and
take a shower with. I took 3 showers while I was there at 2.5 gallons each. The
rest of the time was more of a on the go cleaning. Bring baby wipes! I was part
of camp Disorient. They had gourmet vegetarian chefs that prepared the most
scrumptious dishes with so much love. And different camps would prepare meals at
other times and invite hungry people like me to join them.
Why should I let the socialization of
my fear get in the way of the design of my dress? My BM family and me made
clothes from stretchy comfortable fabrics. I designed a dress that only covered
one breast. It was so comfortable!
No
rules about your body and how you want to live with it! Healing folks. This is
why you go to BM. The Burning Man that I see is a growing flower in the night,
with glowing lights everywhere, to mark all the artists living in harmony.
The playa is bordered by the
esplanade, which is free ground for art installations and art cars and people
who really want to have sex and cant wait for their tent or prefer to do it
right there and then. No really, last year I got kidnapped by a rowdy group of
people on the DWP (department of water and power) art truck and we rolled around
for hours as I witnessed their verbal bashing to old and new burners that either
didn’t give a shit about their shit-kicking ways or got really offended!
You may like the music and the folk on that there pink pussy- cat car and if you
do just communicate it and they may just invite you to join them. Or just jump
on! Although I have had a lot of friendly encounters at BM, there are always
those big weirdo’s who don’t really want you on their 1950’s
baby blue cashmere art car because they are just all show. They are there to
drive around in their pimped out cars and shove enough attitude in your face for
a lifetime.
Don’t come to BM if
you won’t allow yourself to be challenged. The whole point started many
years ago with one man. His name is Larry Harvey. About 17 years ago he burned a
piece of art on the beaches of San Francisco in memorial for his friend. From
the first day at BM it is all a lead up to the burning of the man, a huge metal
man and the gigantic base that he stands on. And that happens on Saturday night.
Everyone comes from every camp to
stand around the man. Then there is a huge fireworks show and the base of the
man is lit on fire! Slowly but surely the whole structure burns to the ground.
At it’s culmination the man falls over and the crowd’s cheer and
celebrate the lives of all the dearly departed and the dearly living.
There is a contingency that doesn’t
want the man to burn and they hold big signs up stating “save the
man!” Or “don’t burn the man!” I wonder if they know why
the man is even being burned. Then we all dance around the huge fire! 35,000
strong. It gets very hot in the inner circle. Last year there were folks dancing
around naked. There are fire people there to protect the public and make sure
everything burns, smoothly.
No really,
Burning Man is a colossal ritual that lasts for one week and it is all up to you
if you will enjoy the journey. The amount of faith that you have in strangers
is important too. I was very happy to see more kids there this year. At center
camp you have entertainment every day and all day. From fire dancers to acrobats
and singer/songwriters, poets and all sorts of other kinds of artists, there are
so many people to meet at BM. Brilliant forces of nature, that for some reason
or another came together.
A lot of
people get to BM way before it actually opens. Building a city in the middle of
the desert isn’t easy. Rachel Goodly from The Lamp Lighters Camp was there
2 weeks early setting up hundreds of torches that marked the streets of Burning
Man at night. DWP plays the biggest role in making Burning Man a reality! Thanks
guys!
Then there’s the Temple.
When the sun rose to find the temple there basking in night winds flowing
through the carvings of it's design, I sang to it... the space within so hungry
for soul food and longing for tears to unlock the remaining oppression that had
yet to be realized by the waking. I was almost asleep in a drug like trance of
morning burn-ness.
Undressing the
morning became inevitable as it sunk into the day like bare feet on rich earth.
The Esplanade, host to the temple that would in a few days be burned to the
ground on a quiet night where all the bumping music stops for a while and you
can hear the earth opening it's arms to all the pain and suffering. And in
return a prayer song spiraling warm love medicine on bicycles born new in love
and hope for days and nights spent gratefully in your honor. How wrong I am for
any time wasted with regrets. How ready I am for serving you. You, who give it
all ways, Up and down, Nature Style. Love, I am finally ready. I will keep the
fire burning for your return. You have been out in the cold in the depths of
despair facing all the issues of abandonment. My capacity to love is deeper
because of it, and has the strength to walk by your side thankfully and
equally.
Burning Man changed my life
forever and I am so thankful that I have had a chance to experience it. I
don’t know how long it will go on and every year there is talk about it
being the last year. I also hear that the size of the man is shrinking year by
year and that the base is getting bigger and bigger. Perhaps this is
foreshadowing for what is to come in this crazy experience called life. We
don’t know what will happen next, do we?
For great pictures go to
www.playa-dust.com
Posted: Fri - October 1, 2004 at 02:54 PM