Tuesday, March 10, 2009

BURNING MAN


What's the deal with Burning Man? It's 120 degrees in the shade and you have to pack in water...it's like Road Warrior on the surface of Mercury. What's the deal? Why not have the annual freakout in some mountain meadow with a babbling brook? How about in the dunes on some beautiful coastline? Am I just hopelessly square? What brings out all the freaks, neo-hippies, ravers, artists and strippers to bake in this hellish landscape? Is it the dope? The art? The naked people? Is it the sense of belonging? Are people tripping their brains out? WTF?

The art looks pretty cool...and it looks like people put a lot of work into their projects, so we tip our hat. Maybe this is the last chance for full-out craziness, the last hurrah for non-conformists on our orderly, dying planet. Okay, I can see that. I shouldn't rush to judgment. Who knows? Maybe someday I'll glue some toy dinosaurs on the Mazda and drive down to Death Valley or whatever godforsaken landcape they've chosen for their revels, and have a truly transcendent experience. I could make a hat out of tinfoil. Paint my ass blue. Get some roller skates, you know, and some bottled water, and head out beyond the Thunderdome. And why not?


Burning Man? Check out the official website here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

burning man would not be the same if it were not in the middle of no where and hot as hell.

Bob Rini said...

Okay, it would not be the same without the inhospitable setting. Something about surviving--no, prevailing in adverse situations, a ray of booming sunshine, a desert flower. It keeps out the weekend riff raff, I suppose, the folks who aren't totally committed. Sure, you bet. Still, a mountain stream sounds nice and a rack of beers ice cold...