The next morning Ju-Hui and I discovered two unpleasant things. The first was that my tent heats up like a greenhouse by 7:30 in the morning. We tied bedsheets over the mesh parts of the tent to keep out the dust...at the cost of most of the ventilation. By 8:30 it was basically too hot to stay inside. The other thing we learned was that the Man was, in fact, burning the previous night. One guy didn't care to wait for the scheduled burning at the end of the week so he did some climbing and torched it early. The only problem was that it sits above a populated art exhibit up until the end of the week. The fire trucks got the fire out before there was widespread damage or injuries but the organizers decided to take down the Man and build a replacement for later in the week.
When we first arrived at Burning Man they gave us an eighty or so page booklet listing the subset of events which were scheduled. As the week progressed we learned that many of the most interesting things were spontaneous and many of the scheduled things just don't happen when they were supposed to. Still, the booklet was a place to start to figure out what we wanted to do that day. The simple act of reading and choosing a few interesting events in the 100+ degree heat required some serious willpower. Toss in the need for food, drink and daily hygiene and it was probably two in the afternoon before we were able to head out.
The first stop was a free sno-cone stand. What could be better on a hot day? Speaking of free, everything at BM is free except for specific ice and coffee concessions that raise money for local schools. Two of the main principles of BM are radical self-reliance and that it is a gift economy. You make sure you have what you need and you do what you can to improve the lives of your neighbors. Some people have an art installation or drive around an art car for people to look at or hitch a ride on. Others put on dance parties or yoga sessions or tutorials of various adult themes. One camp gave out pee funnels so the women of Black Rock City didn't have to stumble out to the port-a-potties in the middle of the night. Creativity reigns supreme and truly anything goes.
I was definitely on board for the self-reliance but the gifts are something I've never been completely comfortable with. I tend to want to earn what I consume and vice versa. Even knowing I would be participating in a gift economy I simply couldn't fit more stuff in the car to give away. I decided I would give buzz-cuts (I could run my clippers off a car power jack) and back rubs. In the end I didn't do either...I was always either exhausted or distracted.
After sno-cones we wandered by some people playing life-size Settlers of Catan. The game is a lot of fun but it was going to be a while before the next game started so we just watched for a bit. One of the players was already badly sunburned even though it was just mid-afternoon on the second day. He seemed largely indifferent; sunscreen could wait until the game was over.
We wandered around until a guy standing on a street corner brusquely yelled at us.
Get your ass in our bar and have a drink!!
Huh? Well I suppose if that's an order. I guess I'll just have to roll with the gift economy. Thus began Ju-Hui and my friendship with the Petting Zoo.
The Petting Zoo is a bar that just had its eight consecutive year at Burning Man. It was built in a square with 3-5 bartenders on the inside and bar stools all around. Over top was a huge shade canopy which was always a fantastic incentive to stay for one more. The population at BM seems to lean heavily in favor of club people but here was a good, old fashioned bar. People swapped stories with their neighbors and the bartenders went drink for drink with their patrons. Every twenty minutes or so, somebody would donate a bag of ice or bottle of liquor to the bar and the whole place would cheer. After the anonymity and immense scale of BM, it was a nice change of pace.
Ju-Hui and I had a bit of time to kill before the next event we wanted to go to, so one drink led to another...and another. Eventually someone busted out the moonshine and things started getting a bit fuzzy. I remember asking (and fielding in return) some seriously no-holds-barred questions to a couple, the man of which was married to another woman who would arrive at BM in the coming days. Eventually the alcohol got the better of me and my stomach decided to go on strike. A lot. The next thing I knew it was nighttime and Ju-Hui, with infinite patience, was trying to guide me the two miles or so back to the tent without benefit of a flashlight.
I've thanked her before and now I do so publicly. Thank you, Ju-Hui, for babysitting me for an entire evening.
A kind reader has sent a link showing an aerial shot of Black Rock City. There's no other way to really appreciate the scale of a tent city of over 40,000 people.
