defining point at burning man:

poeticphoto · Post by **poeticphoto** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 6:47 am

My defining point at the event; the point where i slumped my shoulders, breathed in deeply, sighed, and felt completely, utterly, happily at home.... it was about the 2nd day, i was waiting outside of the port-a-poties for my boyfriend and some guy in little shorts on a bike with one of those crazy handle bar moustaches rides up and says hello. I say hello and we talk small talk... 'where are you from...' then a girl comes up and mentions that she thinks the moons about to come up. The handle bar moustached man says "No, i don't think quite yet" and the girl says "yeah, i bet you 5 bucks" and so this the guys says "5 bucks? hah, this is burning man, you're money's no good here... I bet you a hiku." It was so funny, yet so powerful and true. God... thank you handle bar moustached guy! You made my first Burning Man experience that much better! ...anyone else have powerful, defining moments like this? Please share, I'd love to hear.

Donita · Post by **Donita** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 1:34 pm

The sun burned my boobies on my first day of my first year at BM. That was only one of a handful of defining moments for me. I got some nice freckles from the sun that year.

Bambi of Finland · Post by **Bambi of Finland** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 4:16 pm

I met a man with twelve toes and I stared at his feet for the longest time thinking I was hallucinating. I could'nt quite place what it was I was looking at , Twelve toes just was'nt registering in my mind. I kept staring until he finally broke the ice by singing "This little piggy went to market " childrens rhyme. I never laughed so hard. I'll have to post the pic somewhere. I was taking myself way too seriously up to that point. Six toes perfectly proportioned on each foot, Beautiful.

Post by **AntiM** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 6:33 pm

Stone Soup Breakfast in a duststorm.

unjonharley · Post by **unjonharley** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 7:50 pm

Altho I could only see in shadows my first years and winds were from hell also that year. I had to live in a 24in. wide hammock. I fashioned a slideing pup-tent over it and started planing for the next year.
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Extreme climbing\hikeing\camping was my bag..Now I have to ride a scooter. Put the lines away a few year ago. But can still camp to the extreme. Might ask one of you to help if the wind is kicking my ass. Not to worry if you need a hand,!'ll be there to help

Zulegoona · Post by **Zulegoona** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 8:15 pm

unjonharley seems like I remember your scooter system not working out right or having some kind of problems. Did you work those out?

sputnik · Post by **sputnik** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 8:22 pm

My defining moment this year was the night before the burn. I was out at the man and came across a woman who called herself Star. She was doing 'psychic readings' or something like that. Tell her your birthdate and then she would say something about what was to come. I stood by the side for a while and watch. Finally she looked at me and said "This man is here for a reading. What is your birthday?" I told her and what she said to me hit me hard, but I'm not sure why. She said that between now and christmas I am in my lover phase and that based on my birthyear I have a hermitage in my soul. I have no idea exactly what this means, but how she said it and how she touched me just made me breakdown. I wandered the playa for a while after this and then went back to camp where I wrote down what happened so I wouldn't forget.

The past 6 months have been a hermitage of sorts. I don't know if it was caused by this encounter, or if it was going to happen anyway. I certainly have had some major changes occur, and expect more in the next year.

unjonharley · Post by **unjonharley** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 8:24 pm

Zulegoona wrote:unjonharley seems like I remember your scooter system not working out right or having some kind of problems. Did you work those out?

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A trip to the drawing board and she is runing fine. I use it dayly.

cowboyangel · Post by **cowboyangel** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 9:59 pm

sputnik wrote:My defining moment this year was the night before the burn. I was out at the man and came across a woman who called herself Star. She was doing 'psychic readings' or something like that. Tell her your birthdate and then she would say something about what was to come. I stood by the side for a while and watch. Finally she looked at me and said "This man is here for a reading. What is your birthday?" I told her and what she said to me hit me hard, but I'm not sure why. She said that between now and christmas I am in my lover phase and that based on my birthyear I have a hermitage in my soul. I have no idea exactly what this means, but how she said it and how she touched me just made me breakdown. I wandered the playa for a while after this and then went back to camp where I wrote down what happened so I wouldn't forget.

The past 6 months have been a hermitage of sorts. I don't know if it was caused by this encounter, or if it was going to happen anyway. I certainly have had some major changes occur, and expect more in the next year.

thanks for this. The Solaris of the soul this Burning Man

Han O1 · Post by **Han O1** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 5:39 am

one defining moment --

midweek late afternoon, near the man a portable hotdog/ pbj stand set up next to a margarita cart. I rambled over, the only person around them, and gratefully accepted one of each.

Soon a Japanese couple came over and I started talking to them. I had just spent a year in Kagoshima Japan, on Kyushu. Turns out they are from Kyushu also, but the northern part. Cool. Then a bearded man in a dress rides up, hears us speaking Japanese, and joins right in. He was an English teacher on vacation from Japan, from the island of Kyushu also.

So, out of the 20,000+ people on the playa, here are 4 people eating hotdogs, drinking margaritas, who have been living on the same island, halfway around the world, 4 people speaking Japanese to each other, 2 of whom are not Japanese. Where else but Burningman is this just another midweek late afternoon--a time after what just happened and before what will happen next...

dr.placebo · Post by **dr.placebo** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 2:23 pm

One of the defining moments for me was one night when a friend and I were sitting in center camp, and a guy walks up and says "do you want to see a dance performance?" We already knew that the only right answer was "yes" so we walked over to see about 6 dancers from Mills College doing about an hour of professional grade (as far as we could tell) modern dance on a stage they had set up for an audience of about 20. What struck me then (and still moves me) is the notion of the gift coupled with radical amateurism: the creation of wonder for the sheer joy of creating it.

Then there are the redefining moments, when I feel that I've been broken apart and reassembled on the playa. These can be inspired by the defining moments, but sometimes they happen for no apparent reason. Maybe that's for another thread, though.

Chai Guy · Post by **Chai Guy** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:01 pm

For me it was 1998 and being told to check out the "piano bar" I went, thinking I was going to find a bar with a piano, it was, in fact, a bar made from old discarded piano parts. Of course! Now I get it! Seems simple to you now, but for me at the time, it was huge revelation.

MissNev · Post by **MissNev** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:12 pm

One of the defining moments for me last year was when a woman, who had earlier met my dad, came up to me in my bar and asked if I was, indeed, the daughter. When I said that I was, she started to cry and gave me a very generous hug. Turns out that she called her dad "Pa" just like I do. She had lost her dad a few months before BM and meeting my Pa brought back some wonderful, yet painful memories for her. It was very touching. She was wearing a great deal of very beautiful silver jewelry. She gifted me with a ring. It made me appreciate my Pa just that much more, and the fact that I get to spend a week in the Desert each year with him.

LostMachine · Post by **LostMachine** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 3:18 pm

Outside of the 8 of us camping together, I knew one other person that was going to Burning Man. I didn’t know where she would be, and I meant to look her up after we had gotten settled. We hadn't talked for a few months other than we were both going.

We got in late Monday morning.
When the sun rose, she was camped directly across the street from us. All those people and camp Love Potion was right across the street.

Too crazy.

que.f.o. · Post by **que.f.o.** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 6:17 pm

http://www.burningman.com/blackrockcity ... lozzi.html

Mister Jellyfish Mister · Post by **Mister Jellyfish Mister** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 9:11 pm

Sipping coffee on my street one morning, A smiling bearded man in a loin cloth strolled by and we exchanged goodmornings, smiles, and breakfast. We chatted and chewed in my beat up trailer.

I told him about a conversation I once had with my wife at which point he dropped his fork, pointed his finger at me and said "You are an abuser!". "What do you mean?" I replyed. He said "Do you think you can say something like that to a woman you love and then take it back, like removing a daggar? Those woulds stay, man, so watch your fucking mouth with those you love."

I cried with a mouthful of eggs and bacon, and more importantly, I learned.

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 4:47 am

John Law riding a cable straight down from hell.
Fire licking at his ass.
Adios Starbuck's.

HughMungus · Post by **HughMungus** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 2:22 pm

Defining moments...so, so many...

1998: The people I came with wanted to leave before the burn. Everyone I met told me to stay and that I could get a ride to the airport and and a flight home. I did.

Some year I can't remember: Meeting a woman dressed in a full-length fur coat over a bikini. She was married but we hung out, talked, goofed around and had a lot of platonic fun.

Another year I can't remember: Some camp re-enacting the album cover "Whipped Cream and Other Delights" live. Then some camp's mob hit and subsequent funeral for their "Don". Fish tacos and smelting at Camp Carp. Working the bar at TikiFest and getting people to sing, tell stories, dance or whatever for a drink.

burning tent · Post by **burning tent** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:43 pm

... wow. No idea.

HughMungus · Post by **HughMungus** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 6:10 pm

Mister Jellyfish Mister wrote:Sipping coffee on my street one morning, A smiling bearded man in a loin cloth strolled by and we exchanged goodmornings, smiles, and breakfast. We chatted and chewed in my beat up trailer.

I told him about a conversation I once had with my wife at which point he dropped his fork, pointed his finger at me and said "You are an abuser!". "What do you mean?" I replyed. He said "Do you think you can say something like that to a woman you love and then take it back, like removing a daggar? Those woulds stay, man, so watch your fucking mouth with those you love."

I cried with a mouthful of eggs and bacon, and more importantly, I learned.

Wow. Great to hear this story.

bullD · Post by **bullD** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 10:13 pm

yeah, every year, there is a point in time when the hardships of building in extreme conditions, no rest, dehydration, wind storms, cold air, loud thump thump thump among many other variables makes me question why the fuck I am there. it only lasts for a very short time, makes me stronger, and makes me laugh at myself...

last year it was being ripped out of bed by half of my camps large shade structure ripping loose on tuesday morning at around 6:AM because of the fukin large wind storm that did not relent all damn night, maybe it was wed mornin, can't remember. any way, as I was being tossed around by trying to hold on to the camp structure (camp mates had not arrived yet) in the fukin wind and had no way of re-attaching, just holding on, that's when I had my moment. it lasted for about five minutes. I then got this surge of very angry "fuck with me will ya" energy, re-lashed the shade structure in a very determined fashion, cracked open a cold beer, and laughed at myself for a good 15 or so minutes. I love shit like that!

Post by **AntiM** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 9:20 am

Snowball fight with a neighboring Canadian camp; they had a snowcone machine in camp, we were pulling our ice shaver ... made perfect, absurd sense.

InPursuitof808 · Post by **InPursuitof808** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 8:19 pm

Sometime late Thursday night last year out in front of the speaker stacks at Disorient. I found myself not doing so well emotionally after a rough year and some triggers out on the playa - I turned to my friend who I've stuck with through thick and thin - only to realize that this friendship was a one-way street that I had been driving down for far too long. Instead of love and support, I found more hurt and pain - needless to say it planted the seeds for the end of that "friendship" and I've never regretted it since. That realization has helped me change in some of the most postive ways I've ever experienced.