our second burn

[silas thatcher]

this year seemed a bit different than last year ( our first time there) ... dunno quite what it was, maybe just us....

BUT ..... we did bring our 20 year old son, and he had a blast... since we were camped at pandora's lounge and fix it shop, we were at 530 and esplenade.... while we toured alot of the city last time, this time we spent alot of time exploring the playa and deeper...both day and night.... it was well worth being worn out by the time we headed back to camp....

i tried to be a little more moop conscious , and even picked up a moop bag at earth guardians.... talked with an elderly gentleman that goes by "Z".... it was well worth the trek ( they were next door ) .... i picked up all sorts of moop, butts, wrappers, broken blinky things, full 12 packs of beer scattered all over inside someone's tent, just amazed at the trash....

by far, probably one of the coolest things was on exodus... since we didn't get up early enough to cruise out the gates on monday morning, it took 6 hours for us to get out.... BUT.... during that time, the wife laid out topless while i sat in a beach chair, and attracted the attention of 2 other girls that decided to strip down and join my wife at the "beach" ....

but the coolest part was that every time we stopped for half hour or so, people would set up a folding table in the shade of a large truck, set out food and drink and invite everyone to attend the party...we brought stuff over, ate others' stuff, and when the line started to move, people grabbed what they could, jumped in the cars, moved, stopped and set it up all over again.... people brought out guitars, danced and sang and we did this about 5 or 6 times before we watched the playa disappear for good this year....

decompression was good for us since we arrived home thursday morning and had time off until this monday when i had to return to work ( construction- and boy do i miss the low humidity !! we live in st. louis )

all in all, while there were great parts, this year seemed a bit different for us....we are going to give next year a break, and return in two years...

any body else have the second time seem just a little so-so ?? or do we just have too much crap going on in our heads this time ??

[Jackass]

Perhaps you knew what to expect, but it turns out that you didn't...?

[silas thatcher]

and the other thing we noticed --- we were a few hundred feet away from the med station on espelande so that might be a big reason, but we saw an awful lot of ambulances transporting people.... some one heard that the boar sculpture had been the culprit for a lot of injuries...

any official word to dispel the rumors i heard ??

[silas thatcher]

Perhaps you knew what to expect, but it turns out that you didn't...?

i dunno, the whole thing felt a little off, great trip up, set up went well, the wife treated me to alot of visual treats (risque clothing, no clothing, etc ) , so dunno why we felt a bit off.... familiarity ?? a two year break will hopefully make everything magical again....

[Captain Goddammit]

Yeah, there were a lot of pretty bad injuries associated with the boar. Broken bones, a severed finger, etc. Thats why it got welded in place after a few days.
The actual cause of the injuries was primarily people's own stupidity, this ain't the OSHA-approved, UL listed, safety tested default world.
Shit like that is dangerous. I'm not suggesting it shouldn't be there, people just need to use their brain for something other than absorbing drugs!
Hey, lest get wasted then climb up on a spinning sculpture full of sharp hard metal edges and whirl around!!

[Drawingablank]

I get this 100% although I doubt taking a year off will change anything.

Every year is different and for lack of a better term has a different "vibe" to me. Some years I enjoy more, some less. It is hard to pin down exactly why but here are some of my thoughts on the subject.

Camp - I have been camping with mostly the same group for 5 burns but some years for whatever reason we seem to mesh better than other years. I am still baffled by this one.

Location - A slightly different camp location can make a radical difference in your burn. Even a 1 block shift can change the vibe of the neighborhood.

Neighbors - Great neighbors can improve your burn drastically and vice versa.

This year was one of my best burns ever, yet every time I looked out at the street or walked around I got an overwhelming feeling of being surrounded by non participating bucket listers. While I found that feeling disturbing, I didn't let it cast a pall on my burn.

All you can do is accept each burn for what it is, and understand that not every burn will be the best burn ever for you.

[Jackass]

Yeah, there were a lot of pretty bad injuries associated with the boar. Broken bones, a severed finger, etc. Thats why it got welded in place after a few days.
The actual cause of the injuries was primarily people's own stupidity, this ain't the OSHA-approved, UL listed, safety tested default world.
Shit like that is dangerous. I'm not suggesting it shouldn't be there, people just need to use their brain for something other than absorbing drugs!
Hey, lest get wasted then climb up on a spinning sculpture full of sharp hard metal edges and whirl around!!

We were checking out the boar on Tuesday, I believe. We were under it looking up and at it's workings as I seen the boar's heels coming around... They were heavy steel and just about temple-level to me, I had a feeling it would have to maim or injure someone before they welded it solid. Same thing happened with the spinning metal wolf's head two years back. It fucked up anyone who wanted to challenge it...

[Traveller in Time]

. . .

. . . i dunno, the whole thing felt a little off, great trip up, set up went well, the wife treated me to alot of visual treats (risque clothing, no clothing, etc ) , so dunno why we felt a bit off.... familiarity ?? a two year break will hopefully make everything magical again....

So you had expected BM to be magical . . .

Where I was learning not to expect anything about BM

[Jackass]

The only two things that you can reliably expect from BM year in and year out... Change and Crazy, that's it.

This year I slept out in one of the big burn fires, that was a first. I always wondered what led "those people" to pass out in the dirt so close to the heat and danger, now I know... It turns out that I may be half dirty hippie.

I was dressed a little too fancy for fire-sleeping that evening. If I was a full hippie, I would have been buck naked too.

[GreyCoyote]

This was 3 in a row and the best burn ever for me. Great camp, awesome friends, enough food to feed the entire block (and come to think of it we actually did), zero drama or personality "issues", and just the right mix of infrastructure. And to top it off I got to got to meet some fellow eplayans!

For me at least, they just keep getting better.

[AntiM]

Every burn is different, a mix of wonder, dust, and crap. To me, there is no magic to match the first year. That does not diminish any other year, but for me, there can never be another Mind Blown year of such unique and exquisite enchantment. Chase the unicorn if you must, but there are other beasts to discover. Crows, for example.

It is all there, but ever-changing, and individually experienced.

[Ratty]

My first year wasn't my best. neither was 2, 3, 4, or 5. This year was my best. I worked pre-event and had a wole week to be a burner. I'll go back to working during te event next year.

P.S. My keyboard is wanky.

[vargaso]

Every burn is different, a mix of wonder, dust, and crap. To me, there is no magic to match the first year. That does not diminish any other year, but for me, there can never be another Mind Blown year of such unique and exquisite enchantment. Chase the unicorn if you must, but there are other beasts to discover. Crows, for example.

It is all there, but ever-changing, and individually experienced.

Agreed. The first time my wife and I rode out on the playa after struggling to find a spot and set up is one of those moments that has been seared into my brain. I normally hate this word, but yeah, it was fucking magical. Ain't ever gonna happen again. That said, the rest of the week that first year was up and down. Second year was pretty great, third year was the most fun I've ever had in my life. As others have said, don't expect anything and you'll probably have a great fucking time, and certainly don't expect anything to match those first few hours on the playa.

[silas thatcher]

the main reason for skipping a year is that for some reason, this year's travel, prep, etc., seemed to take quite a bit out of us... last year, we pulled into town around 9 pm, we walked in, i ate dinner a friend prepared, and went straight to bed so that i could start working 58 hours/week, which turned into 84 hours/week, all of my wife's extra shifts she signed up for, which were previously cancelled, are now needed because her work got busy....
so we did all that, came back to hell on wheels, the van sat untouched for two weeks, yet we felt refreshed more than ever.... this year, however, is different.... we figure that if we go every other year, we will have more time to prep, etc., without feeling rushed... we still have work to do on the pop up camper, etc. ...

coming to the conclusion that it is just us, not anything else....

[AntiM]

If every other year is what works and feels best for you, then there ya go, make it so! There are plenty of small burns and events to feed your fire on off years if you need and want that.