A lone bird floated in the desolate Nevada desert sky. I wondered, "What's it doing out here?" Then, I turned the question on myself. It's a harsh place this Burning Man.
The Grove Guy in need of a serious makeover. The Man looms large in the background. Two days later he was set on fire.
Like many, we had traveled thousands of miles to camp on hot cracked mud.
At a rest stop we met veteran burner, "Voodoo Chile". He took off his clothes to show his tattoos, a two-foot "Voodoo Chile" and an even larger burning man.
My buddy, Ward, with our new friend, Voodoo.
At the entrance we had to wait in dust storms for ten hours (and just four to leave). Was it worth it?
Heck yes!
Dylan and Natalia
We got to spend seven days in an artist's Paradise, a place where strangers greet you with smiles and hugs. In this remote desolation anything can happen and almost everything does.
On our first morning a hot air balloon floated overhead. A woman strapped into a strait jacket dangled below. She wiggled until she escaped and climbed back up into the gondola. Our neighbor, Mike, showed his phone photo to those who missed it.
THE TEN RULES
We lived in a temporary city (we call it "Black Rock City" or "the playa") with ten rules we wish the world could live by.
(Radical self-expression self-reliance, and self-inclusion. Leaving no trace, no commercials, civic responsibility, participation, immediacy, communal effort and gifting.)
Put together they say, "Be nice".
There was nothing for sale except coffee and ice. You're expected to bring everything you need, share extras with others, and to haul out your trash.
It's called "radical self-reliance". If you're short on something we say, "the playa will provide".
And it does.
Attendees are not allowed to sell or barter... you give things away. Gifts could be trinkets, stickers (very popular), pickles, or pancakes. Translated: "Burn Baby Burn
Hugs are great gifts too.
It's not a music festival yet there is music (and visual, dance, dramatic and every other kind of art) everywhere.
Gypsy music greeting the morning sun. This was a cabin porch without the cabin.
The 80's super group, Alan Parsons Project, played twice. The audience wasn't large as 90% of the burners (average age, 34) had never heard of them.
Try as you may you will only see about 30% of what is offered. That's okay as that much will keep you busy all week.
The lights are incredible. Those in the foreground are illuminated bicycles.
FRY TRUMP
On the last day I encountered one burner exhibiting his
EVERYONE IS AN ARTIST
There are no spectators. Everyone is expected to perform, to express themselves in various creative ways. You might decorate yourself, help build the city or one of the art pieces, or volunteer to assist the many groups that make it all happen. Our little group volunteered and we had our own
performance project, "The Bad Portraits Studio". We presented daily on the playa.
In our desert home residents were encouraged to greet each other with hugs, love, and respect. There is little need for police. Hippies cops ("Black Rock Rangers") roam the place on bicycles assisting anyone needing help.
Cars? The only ones allowed here are the 300 tricked out "mutant vehicles". They roam the playa
An LA camp brought their 747 art car.
at 5 m.p.h. or less. Everyone walks, rides bikes, or hitches art car rides to get around. I wish I could do that in Coconut Grove.
The sailing ship "Monaco" took us on a tour of the art placed far out in the desert ("The Playa"). Under sail, it has gone over 25 m.p.h. across the hard-packed sand.
You could hook your bike to the back and sleep in a hammock on this one from Jah Camp.
One burner drove his Banana Car from Wisconsin to attend.
These huge VWs were trucked in from Arizona, too big to travel on public roads. Any of the art cars will allow you to climb on board for a ride. They become rolling parties.
And the parties never end. If there isn't a DJ's Boom-Boom blasting from the dome near your tent there will be one a bike ride away. Strangely, thousands of burners love the deep-bass boom-boom.
CAMPS
Residents live in one of 600 camps. You try to choose one near, or far, from the action.
Our group, "Camp Journeylizm", was in a near-perfect spot. 
The kids enjoying Camp J
(Natalia, Dylan, & Ian)
at the End of the World Cafe
or tea at the Skinny Kitty.
"TURNING TEA INTO PEE SINCE 2003"
A full orchestra played under the Kitty's soaring tent one evening. The live music at Reverbia was 300 yards east and the Jazz Club was ten-minute bike jaunt south.
Burning Man tickets cost $500 but all of the entertainment is free. So is the beer, booze,
Free beer at the Home Brew Camp massages, camp sites, bike repair, pizza slices, medical treatment, and train wrecks.
In the early 1900's, out-dated locomotives were smashed into each other for entertainment. This weird event was re-
created on Friday night using two wooden train engines built just for this."The Great Train Wreck" was bright and festive and when they did gently collide at ten p.m., fireworks and fiery devices planted inside, created quite a spectacle.
The big event is Saturday's Burn when The Man, and the structure surrounding him, is engulfed in the biggest fire you've probably ever seen.
All this occurs, as founder Larry Harvey once said, in a place where, "out of nothing we create everything."It's why we went to Burning Man.There's nothing like it on the planet.
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