Tue, 05 Sep 2006
It's Hot In The Desert
It was impossible to sleep past 10AM. The sun is directly pointed at my tent
and there are no clouds to absorb the heat. There is zero moisture in the air.
Yea! Leaving the tent makes it feel cooler but there's no shade, so walking
around becomes extremely uncomfortable after a few minutes. Opening my eyes for
more than a few seconds at a time was very painful due to the intense sun
reflecting off the white playa. Take that eyelids! Goggles or polarized
sunglasses are the only way to see for a prolonged time.
If you've ever met someone who's really into burning man, they will constantly
rail on and on about
The Playa. WTF is the playa, I wondered. Well,
obviously it's a beach, but this version of "the playa" looks like white sand
without a drop of water in sight. Turns out it's a
real word for a type of alkali dust
on a dry lake bed. The Playa is relentless. It will dry you and cover you
in a white film at the slightest touch. I dropped my camera about 2 feet onto
it and it took compressed air and a thin metal pick to get the lens to work
again. If you touch water to playa, it becomes a dark yellow mud and drys
almost instantly in the daytime.
I immediately began to think about survival in conditions like this. I wasn't
officially camping with death guild, so I brought all my own supplies. Each
drop of water need be accounted for, each ration and calorie is critical if you
want to do more than sit in borrowed shade and piss off your neighbors. Pants,
boots and even long sleeves can be very good if they are breathable. You'll get
sweaty but whatever. The hippies with no clothes on must all go home hurting
with sun burns on their ass, ankles and eyelids. A hat and goggles are required
for any activity that involves looking around.
posted at: 17:36 | path:
/burningman |
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Burning Man. The Event, Logistics and Orientation.
There were many moments of specialness but whatever, this isn't trying to be
another stupid "oh, burning man was so great, you'll never understand" story.
I'll try and illustrate what made it special for me in a series of smaller
posts in place of one big one.
From San Francisco the drive took about 6 hours. It's a straight shot over the
Sierra Nevada mountains to Reno, then it's a spooky trek for another hour and a
half through dusty desert roads with cattle crossing signs.
Arriving at night is very disorienting. The entrance is just a dusty road with
some wooden lamp posts. The only sign telling you where to go is a spray
painted piece of plywood. Nothing professional looking. The camp ground is a
big circle with
roads along the vertexes. The radial lines follow clock positions (12:00,
3:00, 6:00, 9:00) and the diameter lines are words (fear, anxious, hope,
eager). The center of the circle is the man and his platform. The ring closest
to the center is called the esplanade and is where I camped.
Since it was 1AM when we parked, there wasn't much activity and it was very
dark. I walked out onto the esplanade and
shot a
360 degree video to get my bearings.
I was astounded at the amount of electricity people bring with them. This is
the middle of the desert with no public utilities or telephone service. There
is some solar but the bulk of the power is from diesel tanks and generators.
The smart people run their generators during the day to charge batteries to use
at night.
I drank a few beers at the camp bar and went to bed, not really knowing what
will happen in the morning.
posted at: 16:00 | path:
/burningman |
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