Burning Man 2002: Burned Another One Down
I had to turn 30 somewhere. I decided it had to be Burning Man. I would pretend the 30,000 artsy free spirits gathered in the middle of the Black Rock Desert in northwestern Nevada were there to help me celebrate the anniversary of my breach birth. (Again, I am so sorry about that, Mom.)
Burning Man is nearly impossible to explain so I'll chicken out and point you to the official website, www.burningman.com, for real answers. In short, the festival is an experimental, gift economy that springs up every year during the last week of August. The epicenter of the temporary community is an enormous wooden man stuffed with explosives; he is set ablaze toward the end of the week. Burning Man is the place to let one's freak flag fly. I was with my people!
Here are some of my favorite photos, but, as usual, you just had to be there.
The Temple of Joy, an art installation by Dave Best of California, was quite possibly my favorite part of Burning Man 2002. Do I dare admit that I liked this even better than the man himself? Yes. The temple was constructed of scrap wood and people were encouraged to write simple messages and prayers all over the structure. Like most everything else, it was burned at the end of the festival.
I couldn't spend much time inside this work without sobbing. A couple of the messages I came across: "ALL my BABIES FULL OF BULLETS. Smoke find Antoine, MARCUS, Hajji, Adrian, Jacquar, Kimmy, Shane, Ciara. Steer our violence off course."
"LET MAGIC & LOVE LOOSE UPON THE WORLD"
A fantastic fire breathing dragon—completely mobile and made of reused, steel drums.
My sweetie and I got stuck in a serious dust storm. Here he is covered with the playa...
This toothy fish was just one of hundreds of random art installations on the playa.
Another great art car. This narwhal often had a top deck full of people as it zoomed around the Black Rock Desert...
Looks like a duck, but it was actually Amazing Larry's Jazz Casino. A pretty happening night club—the duck's sides opened up after roughly 1 a.m. all week.
The night of the burn. (My sweetie took this photo. All of my night-of-the-burn photos looked icky.)
onward!