Hey Goofs… I’m back!

First a big apology for being so far behind on updating the blog, it’s been almost a month, and that’s a long time, in my defense, I’ve been super busy.   First, there was Burning Man (more on that below),   then when I returned a few weeks ago, it still took a few days to recover, trips to storage units, city dumps, and to Sacramento to return trailers and so on, follow this with working at the Northern California Renaissance faire the past two weeks, and then throw endless job interviews on top (I may be close to landing a position), it’s just been busy busy busy.

But enough of that.

Burning Man!

Burning Man was amazing, one of the best years ever, lots to tell, but in a nutshell it was a great 11 days on the playa.

Our camp was great,  we had a great location on street corner (7:30 & Coral Reef) and this brought in a lot of traffic,  the 2nd floor of the tower got built,  the new shade structure was awesome,  the Piano on the street brought in all sorts of talent, the 80’s nights that I DJ’d were huge hits…

 

Over all our camp of 45 worked out really well!

The entire event was pretty amazing,  in the 8 years I’ve been doing  Burning Man, I would have to say it was probably the hottest year ever,  there were many times I could walk around wearing shorts and no shirt at midnight, and be totally comfortable,  this is almost unheard of in the high desert, typically people bring furry coats and other cold-weather wear for the nights,  in fact a few years ago it got down into the 50’s almost as soon as the sun set, but not this year.    It was also a dusty year, not as bad as 2001, but close,  we had 4 major dust storms while I was there,  the typical pattern was 3 days of no wind,  2 days of storms, 3 days of no wind, 2 days of storms, etc.     We even had a spattering of rain on one day, that didn’t create any issues and patted down the dust, and left a beautiful double rainbow …

 

I’m sure most of you heard about the man Burning on monday night, from what I understand it made national news.

In a nutshell, this idiot named Paul Addis climbed the guy wires holding the man in place during the lunar eclipse on Monday night,  set a fire under the mans foot, and then took off running,  thankfully he was caught, in fact we saw him get arrested right in front of us.  He said the fire wasn’t arson but “artistic expression” by Burning the Man early,  my hope is some hardened Cons express their art on his tookus when he ends up in a State or Federal Pound me in the ass prison.  As far as I’m concerned Paul Addis is a selfish moron who not only ruined peoples art (there were art exhibits in the Pavilion under the man that got ruined by the water from the fire trucks), but put peoples lives in danger.

After that event, we had what I call “Crispy Man” for a few days…

But DPW Kicked Ass, and had a new man up by thursday evening…

The new man was burned on Saturday night as scheduled, and it was a great show.

However,  a few hours after the man was burned, one of the major pieces of art this year called the Oil Derrick was burned,  and that, was incredible.

The burn started off normal enough, with a firework show, and then the bottom of the derrick being set on fire,  but what the people watching the burn didn’t know, and what those of us a mile away didn’t know,  was that 10,000 gallons of fuel was stored beneath the derrick, ready to blow,  and blow it did!   

From my vantage point of about a mile away it looked like a Nuclear Bomb went off…

 

From those up close, I understand there were singed eyebrows,  it was easily the most impressibe burn (explosion) I’ve ever seen at Burning Man.   Here’s a You-Tube video someone captured of the explosion up close…

Over all it was a great year, lots of memories,  and some amazing art.

Here are a few photos of some of the art that was on the playa this year…

Big Rig Jig, by Mike Ross

Temple of Atonement, by David Best

Koilos, by Michael Christian

Steampunk Treehouse, by Sean Orlando

Oil Rig, by Dan Das Mann

Well there it is,  another Burning Man come and gone,  but I have a lot to keep with me for the next 337 or so days until I leave for Burning Man 2008.

Doctor Letawdries, Camp Photo, 2007