Post
by kman » Mon Sep 13, 2010 2:49 pm
I got what they were doing, and appreciate it. I have no problem with it.
It didn't meet my expectations, based on the temples that came before it, and I didn't much care for the aesthetics, again, compared to the earlier incarnations. I didn't HATE it, but but I understand the "let-down" that some have expressed.
I LOVED the look at night, however, the burning embers seen from a distance. That rocked.
And the FEEL was there. It gave people the place that the prior temples provided, to use in similar ways, in spite of it's radically different appearance.
I like the Temple burn. I like burning the Man. The two events are radically different, and have different purposes, and each has a radically different feel. Burning the Man is a cathartic party and celebration of wanton destruction (and so much more). Burning the Temple is a more somber affair.
Someone in our camp remarked that the weekender clowns leave after the Man burns... while the truer burners stay and only leave after the temple burns. You see burners at their best when you attend the Temple burn. You see Frat Boys at their worst when you see the Man burn. (don't be stupid, obviously these are generalizations to make a point and not meant to completely pigeon-hole everyone into each category without exception)
So did I like this year's Temple? Overall, I'd agree with the detractors that my overall reaction was highly mixed, and that's unusual. I did, however, love it the same as I have loved it's predecessors.