Kenny Z wrote:Lord Of Ruin wrote:soupman wrote:Fucking Freebird. Just... horrible.
Everything else was just lovely though
I keep waiting for someone to explain this, but it doesn't seem to be forthcoming. DPW lost a core member of their group this year. The playing of freebird was a tribute to him and was in no way meant to be any form of a joke.
No one guarantees you any sort of quiet burn of the Temple.
Just because it wasn't quiet doesn't mean it wasn't done out of love and respect...both for the lost one and the Temple itself.
LoR
LoR, I was with you on the greeter thing. At least to the point that year after year we are told not to come early and we do. Regardless of excuses, it jeopardizes the event. As for the temple, the playing of Freebird was done out of respect with no concern about the respect of others. I'm sure this guy was cool as shit but was he cooler than a little girl who lost her life in grade school? Thousands of people are their to pay their respects to loved ones and nobody should be more important than another (even if they are the Grand Pooh-Bah of Burning Man).
So yeah, there is no guarantee of a quiet burn, only unrealistic hope. And we'd be high as fuck to think inconsiderate douchebags won't show up to Burning Man. But luckily a core DPW got his tribute at the expense of lowly burners trying to reflect quietly on their loved ones. If I die in the near future, my wish is to have Robot Heart blast "I'm Too Sexy" at max volume during the Temple burn. Fuck all ya' all! ;-p
I read something somewhere before my first burn that makes sense to me and makes me less annoyed at people being people at the temple burn.
Not everyone sees the temple as a place of mourning. To some it is a celebration (a wedding, anniversary, letting something go that was bad for you, saying goodbye to a friend that was suffering and whos death is a blessing), to some its a pretty bonfire. People express things differently, who am I to judge if their expression is appropriate or not.
Freebird made me smile, I loved the singing before the burn, but i don't think everyone knew it was a live performance and didn't give it the same attention they might have otherwise. The one thing that annoyed me at the temple burn was the person screaming for her friend to come sit by her after people asked her nicely and not so nicely to shut up, but it made me smile when I heard the "shut the fuck up" reply in chorus from a group of people.
The best
In the stop and go traffic on the road to the playa where each stop was a few minutes seeing each stop tons of people running to the bushes or fence to pee and rushing back before the line moves again gave us some laughs.
The guy from Gate that checked our RV was quick and friendly.
The man who yelled in a very concerned and shocked voice at the guy riding a bicycle dragging an inflated dolphin behind him in the dust "WHY ARE YOU DRAGGING THAT DOLPHIN!!??......WHY!?
The very drunk and happy guy in a furry jacket "helping" the art car that wouldn't start while waiting to see if the BWS burn was really cancelled for the night. He grooved up to our side by side 2 person bike with a big grin dancing, gave us each a hug, and grooved away only to come grooving back a minute or so later with a gas can in hand. when we asked what was wrong with the car he shrugged with the same big grin and just grooved away again.
The guy around 3 & D that said he liked the bike and asked if there was ice in the cooler, when we said there was he said quietly " Oooh Dont say that too loud around here" then shouted "HEY THEY HAVE ICE IN THERE!" and pointed. We then had 3 people stop us and ask where we found the ice. It was like we were on the wrong side of the tracks to have a cooler with ice... Very funny!
Pickle martinis & Homebrew with pickles and honey Quickly became two of our favorite camps and daily stops.
Ice samples in line at arctica and the random cart that served bacon while we were in line for ice. The phony cameras in line were great too!
The expectation of a ton of dust, worse than our first year (2008) one of the worst ever conditions and finding just the right amount of dust.
Our new freezer that allowed us to keep ice cream sandwiches and popcicles the whole week to give randomly to people, the look of skepticism you get when you hold out your hand and offer someone ice cream and the astonishment when they realize it is actual frozen solid ice cream was a gift to us, and judging by some reactions we found some people that REALLY needed an ice cream. Our neighbors that greeted us every time they saw us by yelling out "Ice cream!" and when they reopened the bar for us and made us bloodymarys for breakfast.
Realizing after we had went separate ways and making up stories about how he got the bottle open when a random guy asked for a drink from the cooler and we handed a beer that we didn't know was a pop top.
The high number of really awesome people and the very low number of asshats.
The rangers, BLM, and Police we ran into on playa were all very helpful and friendly.
Making it out to the trash fence and seeing some of the smaller but interesting pieces, we never did this our first year.
Experiencing our 2nd burn and being able to get in playa mode earlier, we knew how to really participate, actually checked out some theme camps, and made it to some of the events in the book this time.
The worst
Overheating on the way there slowed the drive and made us miss a lunch date we had planned with family that drives truck and happened to be on the same rout we were.
The greeters we got. We didn't realize they were greeters until the greeters didn't come. They were too busy talking to each other to do anything but hand us the map. I'm glad we had great greeters our virgin year.
The amount of moop. We saw so much more than we could pick up this year.
Lots of "not from your body" stuff in the potties. The potty cleaning truck crews were so friendly and cheerful considering the shitty job they had to do.
Lots of people peeing on the playa even when in sight of the blue lights of the potties.
We asked a lady with a watch for the time and hurried to listen to a neighbor DJ but when we got to the camp it was empty and they were unsure about what we were asking, only to find out 2 hours later that we had asked someone who didn't change their clock to local time and we were an hour early to the camp, and it was over when we found out. Missing the Anubis burn for the same reason.
Sitting front row for the BWS burn because after waiting in the cold and dust for a few hours the night before we didn't want to miss it, only to have what I think was the build crew standing up in a solid line blocking the view of everyone in that area, and getting the finger when the crowd asked nicely, then chanted down in front. There was something that lit up on the fronts of the buildings but we couldn't see what it was, and couldn't figure out the bat winged thing on the roof.
They couldn't sit down? I guess they didn't build that for the city to enjoy.
Finding art works during the day that we never found at night to see them in their glory. The Lotus Girls piece is one we never got to see do anything.
The art works we found after they were broken. The puppet in center camp, the mayan wheel, a building that appeared to have drums in the roof... I wonder what they were like.
The pay to play campers that didn't clean up after themselves and whoever decided to leave a 2 liter pee bottle with no lid on our street in a spot we had just double checked for moop after the neighbors left. Having to use a baggie on my hand and carry that bottle to the potty to empty was gross.
Being pulled over on the road across the street from brunos i think, for swerving out of the lane and having brights on. Both signs of being under the influence of something or fatigue we were told. (we moved over to give people unloading bikes at a bike drop some room and had brights on to not run anyone over because our normal lights are maladjusted and the brights are about equal to normal lights. He wanted ID from both the driver and passenger which was odd to me, and after a while said to get the lights fixed and let us go. They were really fishing that night.
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