Running Into Burners

TheMuse · Post by **TheMuse** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 10:07 am

Last night I had the pleasure of running into other Burners while shopping for last minute stuff at REI in Berkeley. We had a lovely discussion on the merits of nightime lighting in the porta-potties. Has anyone else had chance meeting with Playa bound folk recently?

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 10:27 am

No, but whenever I see a car or rv or truck carrying bicycles I point them out to my fiance and say "They're heading to BRC" even if it's completely apparent that these are people who wouldn't be caught dead within 100 miles of the event. It was just too much fun finding burnermobiles on the way up last year not to.

Zona · Post by **Zona** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 10:40 am

Went into a bar with two over friends and the bar tender asks "where are you guys from?"

Kelly says San Jose, Pete says Hayward. I said, "Black Rock City".

He brings us our beer and charges the other two. Kelly asks him why he did not charge me, and the bar tender says " Oh, because he is from my home town."

Love that.

waltsnipe · Post by **waltsnipe** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 11:04 am

Oh.....never mind. When I saw the title to this thread, I thought it was a Death Race 2000 kind of thing.....

waltsnipe

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 11:25 am

waltsnipe wrote:When I saw the title to this thread, I thought it was a Death Race 2000 kind of thing.....

Who's worth more points--DPW volenteer or BRCAC camper?

_tears_ · Post by **_tears_** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 11:31 am

I have ran into Burners in a few other random places. I love the drive up because you can tell who is heading up there as well, cant wait to leave!

waltsnipe · Post by **waltsnipe** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 11:43 am

I'd say Bob and Trey are worth more points than can be counted, but I'd hate to clean 'em off the headlights....

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 11:46 am

Hm, you have a point. Crust is hard to remove.

Sensei · Post by **Sensei** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 12:18 pm

The crust is bad alright, but their salt is the killer.

waltsnipe · Post by **waltsnipe** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 12:36 pm

Maybe we can sell it....we can all split the quart of Bull.

Rian Jackson · Post by **Rian Jackson** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 2:43 pm

i see em everywhere.... on the road, in my old neighborhood, sometimes at the thrift-store of the moment or the hardware store.

i'm pretty sure there were burners living across the street from me in my old old neighborhood. their cars and lawns sure looked it. but i never got to meet them.

atossab · Post by **atossab** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 3:24 pm

At the swap meet in San Diego last weekend, ran into two guys buying chinese pants. On the way out, ran into the guy who set up the main stage at Burn on the 4th of July, driving his giant red stage into the swap meet parking lot. That was cool. Then, off to the costume store for a wig and another couple had just been there buying wigs for burning man.

atossab · Post by **atossab** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 3:25 pm

At the swap meet in San Diego last weekend, ran into two guys buying chinese pants for the Burn. On the way out, ran into the guy who set up the main stage at Burn on the 4th of July, driving his giant red stage into the swap meet parking lot. That was cool. Then, off to the costume store for a wig and another couple had just been there buying wigs for burning man.

Lostfolio · Post by **Lostfolio** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 3:29 pm

I'm driving down a couple of weerchins this year. i can't wait until we a repassed by the first van or truck with a Man taped on the back. So. Frelling. Excited.

ultraswank · Post by **ultraswank** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 3:36 pm

I love this time of year! Trips to the hardware store get all kinds of interesting as you try and pick the burners out of the crowd. My wife works at Britex in SF and she's coming home with nightly reports of people picking up BM supplies.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 3:38 pm

ultraswank wrote:<snip? Britex in SF and she's coming home with nightly reports of people picking up BM supplies.

Oh I'm sure!!!

Fat SAM · Post by **Fat SAM** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 7:37 pm

We'll have a man on the back of our car! You'll see us on the highway if you're out there around...let's say....4 in the morning on Monday. SEE YOU THERE, PLAYANS!!!!

JezebelinHell · Post by **JezebelinHell** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 5:47 am

Reno's pretty much crawling with Burners at this point. I see them everywhere. My favorite thing is going to Winco the weekend before the burn, and striking up conversations with all the kids who have shopping carts full of water jugs. See you guys in a week!

Fat SAM · Post by **Fat SAM** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 6:36 am

I was at Trader Joe's yesterday and there was a minivan in the parking lot with a trailer behind it and a crazy looking art bike on the trailer. I left a note...What I like about seeing all the burners is that I'm finally one of them!

souldancer · Post by **souldancer** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:26 am

I was at work (Trader Joe's) on Saturday and I saw a group of three buying a TON of booze, and other non persihable items. I looked at their shoes, and noticed they were covered with playa dust already! I pointed to one guys shoes, smiled, and said, "I know where you've been" They said they had been there for 4 days already helping out, and making an inflatable sculpture. Man, that just made me soooooo excited! It's one thing when you say, it's only so many days left, it's another when you see people that have already been out there. That makes it THAT much closer. Man, I'm bouncing off the walls already!

Hey, since I've never been to Burning Man, am I allowed to call myself a burner yet? Or do I have to wait until I'm out there and experience the burn to make it official? Last year, the weekend after Burning Man, we had a BBQ in our backyard and some friends and I made a "mini-man" (about 8-10 inches tall) out of toothpicks, and taped him to an empty cardboard beer box, stuffed it with toilet paper, doused it with lighter fluid and had ourselves a "mini-burn". It was so great, there was a lot of cheering and a lot of dancing. In fact, my husband had his set recorded, and you can hear the screaming in the background. I don't ever know what happened to that mix, come to think of it. Anyway, I'm getting off the point.

Point is, I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

waltsnipe · Post by **waltsnipe** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:34 am

I remember driving through Arizona a few years back on the way to the playa, and being passed by an 18-wheeler flatbed with a GIANT lion on it. My friend looked at me and said, "Gee, I wonder where THAT'S going.....?" Sure enough, it was that big lion on wheels (I think they got it from an old opera production) that was pulled around the playa by hundreds of people pulling on thich ropes, with a girl sitting on top of the thing with a bullwhip and megaphone. Awesome.

Another time, we followed a trailer all the way from Reno into the playa with a long green arm sticking out of it. Looked very much like a certain talent-show hosting camp icon, and sure enough it was.

Are we there yet?

waltsnipe

Rian Jackson · Post by **Rian Jackson** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 9:26 am

Fat SAM wrote:I was at Trader Joe's yesterday and there was a minivan in the parking lot with a trailer behind it and a crazy looking art bike on the trailer. I left a note...What I like about seeing all the burners is that I'm finally one of them!

in the months before our first year on playa, boyscout and i found a burner car in the Trader Joe's parking lot. I think it had a ranger sticker or something on it.... we flipped out, made some little impromptu gift (can't remember to save my life) and left it for the burner.

We exited the store an hour later at just the right time to see the ranger looking at the gift and the note, slightly dazed. we hid in the shadows til they'd left.

little moments of off playa glory....

Rob the Wop · Post by **Rob the Wop** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 9:53 am

souldancer wrote:Hey, since I've never been to Burning Man, am I allowed to call myself a burner yet? Or do I have to wait until I'm out there and experience the burn to make it official?

Thou must endure the trails of the Playa Gods and annoint thyself with the blood of ewe and tear of virgin goat. Ye must survive the trails of Fire and Art before you are allowed into the inner circle.

Wait a second...

I'll bet your buddies told you that this was some kind of party in the desert or something, didn't they?

Geez, we lose more recruits that way...

Fat SAM · Post by **Fat SAM** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 12:20 pm

Thou must endure the trails of the Playa Gods and annoint thyself with the blood of ewe and tear of virgin goat. Ye must survive the trails of Fire and Art before you are allowed into the inner circle.

Crap! I totally forgot to tell her about all that.

Dr. Pyro · Post by **Dr. Pyro** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 1:34 pm

My weirdest encounter was last March. Me and Sunsetred, a three-time burner in her own right, were in New Orleasns riding the St. Charles street car to Cooter Brown's for lunch and this woman looked at me (I had a Burning Man hat on) and said, "You're the dude from Barbie Death Camp!" I looked at her (did not recognize her, maybe it's because she had her clothes on or something) and said "Yeah, that's me!" and we spent the rest of the time waxing nostalgic. Sadly she won't be home this year, has med school to attend at Loyola. But be warned: We are everywhere!

shitmouse · Post by **shitmouse** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 7:56 pm

a few weeks ago, we went on a camp/swim trip and stayed at a place near yosemite called "the bug".

that evening getting dinner and sitting at the public porch, 2 burner families introduced themselves, -(forgot i was wearing a greeter shirt)
said hi, and chatted us up for a while. very cool folks.
-b

philosopher · Post by **philosopher** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 1:04 am

The other day I sequentially ran into three "long-lost" burner pals within minutes of each other.

Into the upswing!

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 6:43 am

The Burners are pretty thinly spread around these parts...As far as I've been able to determine, Kamp Kalamazoo may as well be the "West Michigan Regional". The "Official Regional" seems to be pretty much "Detroit". I didn't even see Burners on I-80 until Salt Lake City!

ravenluv · Post by **ravenluv** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:17 pm

On the way back from bm04 we stopped in Denver for a two-hour stroll. We talked to two people during that time. The first one said their best friend had been to bm. The second said her sister had been there. I thought it was amazing enough randomly meeting people who were merely close to people who had gone. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I met a burner in Tucson. I had come from the middle of the country, she was from Finland (via Costa Rica).

HEADBANDMAN · Post by **HEADBANDMAN** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 10:55 am

I ran into a couple right here in Guatemala. This guy had this Burningman Pendent around his neck. You know the rest.

Running Into Burners

Running Into Burners

I did

oops....

Re: oops....

Burners everywhere!

Re: Burners everywhere!

By chance two seperate concerts meet...

Burn Baby