BM 2004 - A post mortem

[Interested bystander]

Well, Sheri and I are back from Burningman and while we had fun this was not our best experience. We arrived Wednesday morning and set up our camp only to have the high winds damage all four of our shelters, completely destroying two of them. We spent the better part of the day fighting the wind and meeting our neighbors. Thursday started out nice but we had to do a lot of repair work on our camp. The Wednesday winds had quickly turned the planned Celestial Reading Room into the Ruins on Neptune. When we finally had our repairs made and taken down the unrepairable so it wouldn't become MOOP, we headed out onto the Playa to visit the man. We made it out just in time for the return of the winds from the other direction and the inevitable white-out. Again after fighting the wind and dust for an hour or so we decided to return to camp and get ready for the meet and greet.

The meet and greet on Thursday was great. We got reaquainted with some wonderful folks from last year and met some new ones also. I won't begin to list the folks we met because I would surely leave someone out. However, I would like to express my thanks to Captain Goddamnit for the margaritas aboard the Playa Cruiser and send out my best thoughts to Lydia Love. Thursday night turned off windy and cold so after a walk down the esplanade we called it a night.

Friday dawned clear and cold. We chatted with our neighbors and I went to the cafe to try to get some coffee for Sheri since our camp stoves had quit on us. After waiting in line for a half hour I found out that the one thing they didn't have was black coffee. Oh well, back to camp. We volunteered for an afternoon shift at Camp Arctica on Friday so we got ourselves reasonably clean and dressed and headed for center camp. I have to say that working at Camp Arctica was one of my best BM experiences ever. I liked slinging ice so much I volunteered to work a second shift after the first ended. I look forward to doing this again in the future. After our shifts for the Ice Queen we went to the Cafe and enjoyed some of the evening entertainment. By this time we were really tired and cold so we again headed to our camp for rest and warmth.

By Saturday Sheri had been through enough wind and dirt so we decided to head home before the man bu. My computer is really messing up so I wil hav to fix that ant then continuerned. Another factor was that we are volunteering at the Rib Cookoff in Reno today and after fighting the wind for several days we needed some rest before tackling that task. Unfortunately for us it looks like Saturday was the best day of the week weatherwise. We packed up our camp and spent some time with our neighbors again before heading out in the afternoon.

I would like to address the vehicle situation. There was much ado about the art care situation htis year

[Interested bystander]

Well, I kinda screwed up that post. Sorry about that but my computer monitor just decided to blitz out. Anyway, concerning motorized transport at BM. It might be that with this many people coming to an event that it is impossible to control motorized transport and get people to comply with the rules unless they are willing. Maybe the event has just become too large. Anyway, the following is my grades for the org concerning motorized personal transport this year.

Intentions - A - I thought that the stated intent of the org was right on. Preventing people from using personal motorized transport merely for personal convenience and licensing only those are cars that had a high "WOW" factor was a great idea.

My experience - C- I saw just as many people using personal motorized transport, whether that was gas powered skateboards, Vespa type scooters, ATVs, golf carts, etc. , merely for their own convenience as I have in past years.

Follow through - D - I was going to give them an F but when we passed the impound lot we did see many motorcycles, scooters, ATVs there. Unfortunately after seeing three separate motorized couches, a motorized Lazyboy recliner, innumerable powered skateboards, ATVs, golf carts (most with little or no decoration) plus many art cars which invoked a "how the hell did that get in" factor rather than a "wow" factor, I have to say the follow through leaves much to be desired. Like I said earlier, it may be an impossible task, we may have to count on the participants to read and follow the rules, if so I hold out little hope for improvment.

[gladeye]

Thanks for the report and sorry you didn't have a better time.
I know you alluded to the weather a bit, but how constant were the winds and do you know what the temperature was, roughly, during the day and at night time? The center camp weather information gave me the impression it was colder than the last few years at night, which must have been a major drag when you want to run around in skimpy, sexy costumes draped in psychedelic lights and body paint. Also, for the art cars that WERE valid art cars, how inspired were they this year? Last year was kinda weak vehicle-wise because there wasn't much to do with the beyond belief theme. I thought the year before was terrific (The Floating World) with all the galleons, ships, and sea animals driving around...

[Interested bystander]

We were only there Wednesday through Saturday and we hit the worst of the weather. My understanding was that Monday and Tuesday were great and Saturday was wonderful up until the time we left the playa in the early afternoon. Wednesday the winds came up around noon and blew hard and steady until after dark. I'm not sure what speed the gusts were but it must have been high. We were out on the playa when our camp was damaged but the winds were strong enough to bend the quarter-inch thick, 8 inch long steel spikes we had our shelters anchored with. Thursday the wind started before noon and continued hard with high gusts until well after dark. Friday wasn't bad wind wise but there were some pretty good dust clouds about mid-afternoon. Daytime temperature on Wednesday was probably in the 90s, Thursday and Friday probably in the 80s. It was damn cold Friday night with Thursday running a close second. I had to put on my coat before sundown on Friday.

I didn't see any art cars that made me go "WOW". there were some nice ones and some imaginative ones but they were overpowered by the motorized couches and ATVs with decorations. I agree that some of the most impressive stuff I've seen was from the Floating World year.

[Otisserie]

I was there Saturday - Sunday AM (8 days) and the wind was fairly gusty from the Southwest on Tuesday. Wednesday it really picked up and caused trouble, although I was amazed that my little $37 tent dome stood up to it all. Thursday afternoon the wind backed around to the Northeast and proceeded to blow all the dust back through the camp.

As far as the golf carts: I started checking the back of the undecorated carts and found that a lot of them had handicapped stickers. For better or worse, BM cannot require that someone who needs a golf cart for mobility decorate it. I was bothered about the number of two-wheeled scooters that made it in. I don't know how someone can search a vehicle for people and not find a scooter, but this was the first year of scooter impounding so it takes a while to get everyone at Gate to remember to check for them.

Personally, I had good and bad days this year. But most of the bad were caused by my own issues and expectations, not anything I can pin on BM or others.

I do agree with others that there seemed to be less "wow" art this year, with the exception of the Temple, and I think the weather made it hard to get things set up. I was suprised to see many pieces still under contruction on Thursday and Friday. But the sheer wonder of Friday and Saturday night made up for it.

One last reponse: I agree that volunteering was one of the best things I did this year. I worked Gate and had a great time doing it. It would have been a much less fun year without it.

[TheJudge]

Ended up returning earlier than planned, but had a great time out there. I was on playa for 16 days and experienced every kind of element out there short of snow. (although I hit that going over the Sierra Nevadas on my way in).

Loved the dust storms. I loved looking at the playa serpents and thinking fond thoughts for Allanon2. Enjoyed the wind, thanks to the fact that I could park my truck to block the wind from hitting my tent. It shook like hell, but no damage.

Great to meet and greet some familiar names from the Eplaya. I just love doing a cocktail party in the middle of a storm. Exactly as it should be.

Sad not to be out there anymore, but happy for modern plumbing.

[hunter42]

This was our first burn and for the most part we had a great time. The weather got us down also so we left Sat. at noon. In a way we didn't want to see the man burn. The one thing we will do next year is make sure we know eveyone who will be in our camp as we had some problems with someone wanting to be in control of everything. My hig point was sitting with my wife in center camp late one night watching some band that at home I would of never listened to but turned out to be pretty good.

[DangerMouse]

A breakdown of days from 8:30 and Uranus...

Monday: Hot
Camp set-up let me fairly dehydrated. Much time was spent nursing water back into my body.

Monday Night: Fair - Not too hot, not too cold. Mostly clear of dust.

Tuesday: Damn Hot - I learned to sleep through the heat this day while drinking lots of fluids.

Tuesday Night: Clear to Dusty - As the evening progressed there was an extended dust storm due to winds. This died down about midnight I believe.

Wednesday: Fair - Dust/mild white outs all day. Some damage to spoorly secured/built out of parachute structures around us. Our make-shift shade structure survived.

Wednesday Night: Fair - Dust died down later in the evening and much drinking ensued with some neighboring camp mates. Drank glass of Tequila at the Area 47 bar.

Thursday: Cool - Much water was drunk. Little food consumed due to tequila stomach. (No purging thank bob.)

Thursday Night: Cold - Minor physical exertion, early bedtime for me due to previous night's escapades.

Friday: Cool - Again cool, clear skies.

Friday Night: Cold - Not very comfy at all if you weren't prepared for it.

Saturday: Fair - Waiting for the burn, breaking camp/policing the area.

Saturday Night: Cool to Cold - Burn etc was decent temp. Grew colder in the wee hours.

[johnc]

I was there from Tuesday (around noon) until Sunday morning (8:30am). I had a min/max thermometer in my tent: Max was 109 (probably on Tuesday, maybe Wednesday). Min was 46 (probably Friday night). Outside the tent it was probably a bit cooler.

My photos are up online at http://www.pbase.com/jcornice/bman2004

JohnC

[Hotspur]

I actually thought the art car situation was a lot better than it was last year... I'll give them a B. Little scooters are allowed without mods if they obey the speed limit.

I also had the pleasure of camping with Ice Queen and she's as rad in person as she is running Arctica. She's a super sweetie who really contributed to my experience this year.

[geekster]

Sunday was hot, Monday and Tuesday as I remember were hotter. Wednesday was actually my first day outside camp due to the way too elaborate configuation of stuff like the nice pressurized water system, and art car from hell. Set up took way too long. I think I would rather be with a less elaborate camp next year. The dust really hit me someplace around center camp. I was near this Buck Rogers camp at 6:00 and Esplanade. Happened upon the Piss Clear party on the way back to camp and that 24oz Pabst was MOST welcome. The Pagoda burn night is mostly lost to me. I remember it falling and nothing after. I did wake up at my camp, though. Friday night I just stayed home recovering and freezing.

Man burn found me taking a shift on the art car from hell (not it's real name, just a description that suits me) and for safety reasons I remained 100% sober. It did get cold, though. FREEZING ASSED COLD. Temple burn was my night. Dosed with some gifted fungus, I headed out to the temple, found a seat on the perimiter and relented about the stupid wardrobe choice I had made. I needed another layer but I didnt want to risk leaving, I knew I would never find my way back to that spot. It seemed to take forever to start the burn and I really wanted the heat. I really liked the mammoth art car at the perimiter ... mammoth in that it looked like a wooly mammoth, I'm not talking about it's size. Someone was playing some Enigma and I found myself wishing they would turn it up just one click so it didn't drift in and out when the wind blew. It was a wonderful burn (thank you, David) with the stars flying from the temple and sheets of smoke from the poles that never fell and had to be pulled down by the DPW. The Rangers were really cool and a couple of them had some nice experiance enhancing gadgets ... spinny-blinky stuff mostly. After the fall, I hung out close to the fire and was content to talk to a new friend in a circle that formed with drumming and dancing.

On the way back I noticed what seemed like hundreds of bikes abandoned on the playa. I picked up several bottles lying in the dust and humped them back to camp and went to sleep. Monday was hell having heated back up again and we tore down the entire camp in one day that had taken us four to set up. By the time I got back home at about 6am Tuesday morning I was completely exhausted. Overall .... I would say that I had a great time but there are still too many "art" cars that are just party barges with only a minimum amount of art or cheesy art. But on the other hand, that is part of the experiance too, I suppose. I got what I came for this year, had some pain to unload at the temple.

Oh, hey, whoever that was riding the bike that tossed me the lip balm on a string someplace near center camp, thanks, you have no idea how much that helped.

[Otisserie]

Oh, hey, whoever that was riding the bike that tossed me the lip balm on a string someplace near center camp, thanks, you have no idea how much that helped.

Wow, I had the same experience: I was working Gate and couldn't find my lip stuff, and at exactly that moment a car pulled up and someone handed me lip balm.

[WELDY]

We arrived Wednesday morning and set up our camp only to have the high winds damage all four of our shelters,

Sounds like what happened to us. This was my first year, and I must say I was very unprepaired for the dust and wind. We took some shelter damage while setting up on Wednsday. But bungeed the tent to the car, and that held the rest of the week.

I think next year I'll be overprepared for anything that hits us. Hehe.

[Sobretta Franjipan]

If you can't stand extreme weather stay out of Burning Man.

There's always San Diego.