The days are so hot, and the nights are so cold. There are no clouds in the evening to reflect the dying sunlight, and when the sun sets, darkness comes quickly.
My week was sort of like that -- happy or sad, light or dark, with little room between. Burning Man tends to be an emotional experience -- Joshua said people let down their guard. Mike said it brings your issues to the surface.
We postulated that it's the temporary nature of the event. The desert is empty beforehand, then it's made up of the art and the clothes and the emotions that people bring with them. And after that, it goes up in flames.
I spent much of my time alone, riding across the playa or riding to different camps and art installations. By the end of the week I spent most of my day in the shade, waiting for the sun to drop.
Dan and Z take a nap
One day I saw someone in a great costume -- I told him that my friend Lindsay LOVES Wonder Woman. He said, "But I am not Wonder Woman. I am Wunder Man."
I told him that Lynda Carter once kissed me on the cheek. He put his golden lariat around me, slowly approached my cheek with his lips and asked, "Riiiight here? She kissed you here?"
His friend said, "He has a girllllfrieeend!"
Wunder Man replied, "But this is where they come out!"
Wunder Man
I spent a few days at HeeBeeGeeBee's, a camp for meditation, yoga, massage and other types of healing. Healers from around the country would stop by and volunteer their services. Predictably, it was hard to get an appointment - free massages tend to sell out quickly.
The "Monkey Chant" was pretty funny, and extremely well-attended. I participated for a bit, but definitely felt a little self-conscious. I could tell that everyone was really enjoying themselves, though -- the chant leader was so animated and fun.
The Monkey Chant at HeeBeeGeeBee's
One day, Ben from Ben & Jerry's had a load of ice cream delivered and gave it away. It's funny how food can be such a treat -- some of my fondest memories from Burning Man involve food, usually when I'd happen to find some while riding around. There was the time I got a free soft taco with fresh cilantro. Oh boy. And my second corn dog ever. The free ice cream from Ben & Jerry, of course. My favorite food must have been from Andrew and Bill, the physicists next door. They deserve their own chapter in this story.
Eating Ben & Jerry's
Andrew and Bill work in the physics department of the University of Nevada, Reno. They camped next door in a beautiful old bus they refurbished. There were solar panels on the back. There was a rotating purple light on a pole (so you could find your way home). There was a radiator -- a hot-water radiator -- up by the driver's seat, and an old electric fan by the visor. Out front, they had a silver bomb with a saddle on it like in Dr. Strangelove. You could drive that around.
They had a dewar filled with liquid nitrogen and a cookbook from the 1950's. The cookbook had a custard recipe, and each day around 4 o'clock they would take some custard from the fridge and pour it into a mixer on the stovetop.
Some days they added fresh strawberries and some days they added liqeur. While the custard churned, they would pour liquid nitrogen into the mixing bowl, and fog would spill onto the hardwood floor. Within a few minutes they produced some of the best ice cream I've ever had. I swear, they were the best kept secret on the playa (due to the fact that they didn't have a line around the block each day). I know this because I was a return customer ;)
I loved how each trip to the bus was a learning experience. Andrew and Bill are extremely knowledgeable, and loved to share their knowledge about physics or local geography. Andrew told me about hot springs in the area; two kinds of them. Some are green and slimy and the others are clear and blue. The clear and blue ones are the ones to avoid, since they'll probably kill you. They're either super-hot or filled with cyanide. He told me about a dog that jumped in a hot spring and its owners who tried to save him -- all died from the heat. Yow.
Andrew on top of the bus, pointing out the terraces on the mountains.
The water level kept dropping until only the desert was left;
the dust is a mile thick in some parts of the playa.
One day I tried to turn off my camera, but the lens wouldn't retract. I asked Andrew if I could recharge it in the bus, and he graciously obliged. The next day he told me, "You know, the problem wasn't that the camera was out of batteries. It was a lot more severe - there's a rack-and-pinion gear system inside and somehow the lens slipped out of the track. It must have been dropped really hard. But I was able to take the camera apart and put it back in its place."
I told Andrew he saved me $400. I told my friends -- they all shook their heads in disbelief. Andrew and Bill have no idea how unusual and great their generosity is.