In 1996 the graphic artist working for my friend's fledgling garage-based Internets company came in to work looking like he had been beat up. We instantly put down the guitars (the garage was also our jam space) and asked him what happened. He went on to explain that he had driven his jeep alone to Burning Man--quickly explained as some sort of epic festival/rave/gathering out in the Nevada desert of Bumfuckistan somehwere--where he proceeded to take way too much acid. (Note: to this day I don't know what day/s he was there, and/or whether this happened on his first night or not). In retrospect he knew he had taken too much acid because he started to get this really freaked out/paranoid vibe after seeing a guy wearing Spock ears...which led him to believe that there was some kind of Spock/Vulcan conspiracy going on. Pretty soon he was seeing/hallucinating that everyone had spock ears, and had visions of some kind of Invasion of the Body Snatchers scenario where he was about to be discovered by the Vulcans as an actual human and... who knows what. Of course, fearing imminent doom/conversion, Spock Pinch(or whatever Vulcans do to you lol) he didn't stick around to find out. There were apparently the days when you could drive vehicles freely, so he got in his jeep and tore ass out of there, speeding away from the encampment (I would assume towards Gerlach) at a very high rate of speed...at least 50mph he said, perhaps faster. He then remembers waking up with his bloody face planted in the dust (wasn't sure how much time had passed but it was still dark) and realizing that he rolled his jeep... which was flipped and undrivable if not totaled. Apparently at that point he either had come down a little or just decided to seek Vulcan assistance, as he walked several miles back to the festival to get medical aid and help with his jeep. As it turns out, it was very thrashed but not totaled, so after righting the craft the next day he was eventually able to limp it home to the East Bay...alive, unVulcanized, and very sheepish.
For the next ten years every time I heard about Burning Man I would chuckle and think "Ah yes, D___'s zany Vulcan gathering!" each time learning a bit more about this Spock-infested desert happening. Finally in 2007 we decided to chance it and visit ourselves. Look Ma, no Vulcans!
