Burning Man: The Early Years

[theCryptofishist]

...where all the men are good-looking, all the women are strong and all the vehicles are above mutant?

[VultureChow]

...where all the men are good-looking, all the women are strong and all the vehicles are above mutant?

A Playa Home Companion?

[andromeda23]

...where all the men are good-looking, all the women are strong and all the vehicles are above mutant?

A Playa Home Companion?

I would totally listen to a Playa Home Companion! I think you all just came up with a new radio show for the station!!

[jella]

+1 .....Imagines a circle of silence... chins in hand listening to tales of YeOlde days on the Playa

[Elliot]

...where all the men are good-looking, all the women are strong and all the vehicles are above mutant?

A Playa Home Companion?

Youse guys catch on pretty well!

[Elliot]

I would totally listen to a Playa Home Companion! I think you all just came up with a new radio show for the station!!

Some of us wrote a series of " Silent Radio Theater" posts on the Kamp Apokiliptika thread back in 2006. A couple of the episodes were even produced and broadcast on the camp radio station. (KWTF?)

[Elorrum]

I think we've already had Bertha's pony boutique. A dried up desert lake could certainly be called woebegone.

[Patsh]

And, where would we be without duct tape and ketchup!??

[MyDearFriend]

I love you guys.

[Monkeypoo]

Awoke this morning to the thunderous sound of horses hauling logs, trees and sticks atop every wagon in our camp to a very curious, bare, desolate piece of land in the middle of nowhere. As Lawrence passed by our tent (leading the way, of course! haha!) he tipped his hat, smilingly cheered me a fine "Howdy doo, Poo?", and rode to the destination of 'the man'...whatever that means (???) Just like Sister Savannah, I am inclined to be concerned about his behavior as of lately too. I must make a point to bring up the matter at supper with Colburn, friends and family. I love this land. I feel at home here. I am happy.

[ygmir]

riveting, enticing, enthralling......please, carry on, my bardic friends!!

[motskyroonmatick]

[bigdane]

Most of the inhabitants of this place are curiously dressed. At first we thought they were a sort of tribal group with their bright fabrics and exposed flesh. Perhaps brought here by a flesh broker…but as of late we are more inclined to think we may have consumed a tonic that has caused in us some affectation of the frontal lobe. Displacing what we think common for a fantastical illusion. It is as if we have traveled to some pleasant foreign land. There is no formal currency and oddly no need for one. The brazen behavior of both the native male and females is liberating to watch and some in our party have taken to joining their ritualistic dance and merriment. I am drawn to one particular fellow who laughs in a pleasant common way that is warm and innocent.

[trilobyte]

Yeah, but the event has just as many similarities with much older stuff like Fais Tailten (ancient irish festival) and other bits of cultural goodness.

Except that they don't burn a man, and Zozobra does.

hold on, what the hell is a "Fais Tailten"?(it made my computer hiccup).

Yeah they did (they burned many effigies, including men). Going a bit from memory (my research books are in storage)… Fais (the word for festival) Tailten was an ancient irish festival which got its start more than 2000 years ago. People would squirrel things away and save bits up and make art and things to share, and then come from all over the country to the hill of Tara where they'd have a rager of a festival for a couple weeks. Not much is known about the earliest years, but eventually it fell into a rhythm of being held every three years (life was hard, it was hard to get away and travel through the wilderness across country every year). There was likely some bartering going on, but there wasn't any commerce (Ireland didn't have it back then) and people just shared with each other. Music, food, drink, art, sex, and fire. I doubt it was considered a LNT event, but there weren't any permanent buildings (wood and thatch, and likely burned at the end of the event). When the 'land leapers' (vikings) arrived, things got complicated. In a nutshell, there wasn't enough abundance to go around, and the festival just didn't happen for a long, long time. They were eventually driven away and things resumed for a while, but then the English arrived and it was gone for good.

[Elliot]

Meanwhile (again!), Yours Truly has been joined by three young scholars who, by their uniformly urban style of dress, can safely be assumed to belong to some academic fraternity. These young chaps were attracted to my veloci-carriage, the likes of which they had apparently never seen, and since I was at the moment lacking companions to help propel the veloci-car, I invited the lost-looking young blokes for an expedition.

They seemed at first disappointed that my carriage was not of the newfangled self-locomotioned type, but soon learned to apply their feet and muscles to the task.

Our travels took us past several comfort-deprived encampments similar to my own, until we arrived at an outdoor pub known as the Duck And Pond. Here, the jolly proprietor had arranged a long length of heavily waxed canvas along the floor of the wasteland. Upon this canvas he poured prodigious amounts of water – which at first struck me as a horrible waste in these parched environs, but which next proved to represent a streak of genius. For when the patrons of the Duck And Pond emerged in a refreshed and restored state, many of them apparently tripped over the end of the waxed and wetted ribbon and slid a considerable distance on their bellies or buttocks, to the great amusement of bystanders. Surprisingly, this misfortune did not seem to phase the luckless patrons, who often as not re-enacted the mishap on purpose – even though routinely becoming shed of their clothing in the process, the nudidity seeming to bother no-one, regardless of gender.

In fact, many patrons, and bystanders alike, deliberately removed their garments and approached the artificial hazard with great haste, leaping onto it with reckless disregard for safety and modesty, in a sporting pursuit of the longest possible fall, which they called a “slide”. Naturally, I joined them, leaving all items of my attire on the bench of the veloci-car. And as naturally, I invited the three fraternal brothers to join in the joyful ruckus.

The boys, however, did not seem amused. Only one of them began unbuckling his breeches, but then gazed downward upon himself, appeared even more confused than previously, and re-buckled. The three then drifted away from the scene, not to be encountered again by me. This concerned me none, for I was soon joined by three of the Duck And Pond patrons, and with this group we resumed the pursuit of happiness across the dust-sprinkled landscape.

[trilobyte]

Getting back onto the old-timey track, here's the art from a couple posters that my girlfriend and I made for our camp in 2011. We'd built an airship observation outpost, and were riffing on the backstory of a bunch of steampunks who had gone on expedition into the desert to build an outpost in anticipation of many passing airships (it was just a fun excuse to do an elevated observation deck). Because we're dorks, we decided to work our cats (who stayed back home in SF) into the mythos. The gray one is bigger and older and held the more stately position of air traffic controlleur, while the little calico (who's younger, twitchier, and jumpier) was the pilot of the airship that never arrived.



(some of you may have seen that phrase on the back of one of our dog tags)



While the kitten's airship never arrived (must have made a wrong turn at Albuquerque), we did encounter numerous airships, flying machines, and infernal contraptions. It was a most intriguing adventure. I'll have to see if I can find the log book we kept on the playa, there were a number of wonderful (and in character) entries.

[Ugly Dougly]

The Original Center Camp.

[ygmir]

and look "The Bar"............

[trilobyte]

Early BMHQ office?



$teven Ra$pa's had that look for quite some time

[Monkeypoo]

I awoke to another most beautiful sunrise this morn only to find that Colburn, Jasper & Samantha were not in their beds or within sight anywhere. A note on the dusty breakfast table only said, "We've gone to The Man. We'll be back at sunset." Mention of The Man again. What is that Lawrence up to? With the family away, perhaps I shall make a few new bonnets for my neighbors. The sun is so hot here. Last night after supper, I gathered with many of the womanfolk around the bonfire. One by one, we took off our petticoats and corsets and threw them into the fire. It was a most freeing experience. I shall not wear one ever again.

I smell bacon and pancakes. There is an encampment up the way they call the Intergalactic House of Pancakes. I've heard it's scrumptious! Every kind of pancake you could imagine! I shall bring some blueberry jam & maple syrup to share with my new friends.

[Ugly Dougly]

The Original Black Rock Ranger.

Sorry, that's all I got today.

[theCryptofishist]

I thought only GP&E got bayonets.

[Ugly Dougly]

It was wilder back then.

[theCryptofishist]

Nobody, but nobody, was getting into the perimeter of the man burn...

[TomServo]

[youtube][/youtube]

[Simon of the Playa]

it was better when Larry went by his Given Name, "Zardoz."


[youtube][/youtube]

[ygmir]

Nobody, but nobody, was getting into the perimeter of the man burn...

"as it remains, to this day, some things never change"

[Ugly Dougly]

[youtube][/youtube]

They burned different back then.

[Nipple]

Good Sir,

I hope this letter finds you in good health. I am writing to inform you that I have recently found myself run afoul of the youth of the academic fraternity of whom you've recently written. These young gentlemen made camp directly across the road from mine, late in my stay. Once their encampment was situated, they stationed themselves on the edge of the road. They then proceeded to fashion butcher paper into cones and speak through them in an effort to magnify their voices. They made sport and found folly at any soul who was unfortunate enough to pass their direction. To my dismay their jibes lacked any manner of wit! They continued late into the evening bereft of any clever banter or repartee.

[Elliot]

Most honorable Mr. Nipple:

It pains me that You should have encountered the aforementioned misguided young men and found them so disagreeable.

As the boys behaved enthusiastically with regards to my leg-muscle-powered carriage, I held out hope in the longest that they would prove civilized in spite of their youth.

But I feared as well that their alleged education of higher learning alone might have left them ill-prepared to appreciate the values of our company.

It seems enlightenment does not derive directly from education, but requires that education be seasoned with one or more decades of experience before the educated fellow is fit to rejoin society.

Perhaps it would be advisable to institute a system of discipline to speed along the rehabilitation of these fraternal misfits. Vigorous public floggings, and a few days in the stocks, might do wonders to improve their wit and cleverness.

Most Cordially Yours,