August 30th: Towers

View of BRC from the oil derrick
View of BRC from the oil derrick

Sky High, Part I
A big wind storm blew in this afternoon and covered the city in a swirling fog of fine dust. Lots of people ducked for cover, but plenty of us pushed out into the abyss, looking for a good time. I gathered some of my crew at our camp and recommended a bike ride out to Crude Awakening to scale the oil derrick and look at the metal figures. We headed out toward 1:00 in hopes of seeing the city above the storm, and we got lucky. There was no line to climb the derrick, and the 99-foot structure afforded us a spectacular view.

The four of us hung out on top of the tower for a long time, watching the storm move around town, alternately covering one section and then another in swirls of playa dust. The sky above us was incredible, sunny and blue with miles of intermittent clouds stretching out to the horizon. The sunlight bounced around, rebounding off huge domes and then throwing shadows across the low dunes. The wind was blowing the whole time, but I never felt the derrick sway. This thing is solid. I wonder how long it would last on its own. We’ll never know though, because it’s going up in flames tomorrow night.

Gourmet spread
Gourmet spread

Camp
Tonight my campmates and I ate a delicious dinner and took showers to get ready for a big night ahead. Our camp seems pretty typical for a non-theme camp. We’ve got three trailers and two or three tents. A shade structure in the middle that consists of a custom-made awning and three parachutes held up with pvc posts and anchored by guy lines tied to rebar stakes topped with impaled stuffed animals. We’ve got tables and chairs and carpets and Astroturf. Ice chests and an inflatable swimming pool. We always have one or two new people, which makes it extra fun because we get to see things through their fresh eyes.

Camp
Camp

We have a solar shower at our camp, and we use a kiddy pool to collect the gray water. We manage to take very few showers, and we use about a gallon of water when we do. Maybe two if we wash our hair. That’s really different from the amount we tend to use at home where water is free flowing and limitless. Where we don’t have to think about what to do with it when we’re done, because it goes down the drain. Out of sight. Out of mind.

I like that Burning Man reminds us to consider the stuff we usually ignore. You have to think about trash here. You have to deal with it. Does it motivate you to consume less, or do you just take all that shit and stuff it in a dumpster after the event? Does your camp separate glass and cans and plastic from burnable paper? There are recycle centers at all the Albertson’s in Reno now, so hopefully you’ll go there on your way home.

The girls at Ambush
The girls at Ambush

Gate Rocks

My friends and I headed out as a group after dinner, aiming for the Ashram Galactica and points beyond. The Ashram was closed. Suck! We looked for a friend’s bachelor party but were given some bad beta and couldn’t find it. Suck! So, we hung out at Skinny Kitty Camp and drank some different teas and coffee and spirits, listened to a live band near the Smooch Dome, and went over to see a performance by Cirque Berserk at the Red Nose District.

At midnight I met a friend at the sculpture between the round bouncy trees at Center Camp, and we headed out to a raging party at the gate. Things were ramping up because of the imminent closing of the entrance to incoming participants. We climbed up on the tower for a while and celebrated with friends, looking out over the city on one side and out toward Gerlach and Empire on the other. Back on the ground, people were listening to music, tipping over burn barrels, setting off fireworks, dog piling each other, and jumping off structures. Driving around art cars and setting things on fire, eating things and drinking stuff. Yelling at people and taking their clothes off. It was excellent.

I was pick-pocketed by an expert. First he shook my hand and took C Load’s light saber off my utility belt, which I knew, but he made it disappear behind his back, which I couldn’t figure out. Then he hugged me and managed to steal the little ring off the end of my zipper. It’s a tiny metal ring that you use to pull the zipper up or down. It was awesome. I have no idea what else is missing, but I liked that guy right away.

I chatted with Combustible Russ and Steel Toe and DA. Railroad Mike and Sendo and a bunch of the bike club guys. Summer and Alexi. Luckily, there was a set of bleachers right there, so a few of us sat down for a while, laughing our asses off as people jumped around. Panties No Panties had a signpost with an arrow on it, and it made for some high quality exchanges with Bloody Knuckles. I can’t remember what else was flying around and/or breaking, but it was a ton of fun. I want to use the word debaucherous here, but in the self-indulgent lascivious lawless excess revelry sense, not in the vile perverse wanton depravity sense. You know?

View of the eight figures
View of the eight figures

Sky High Part II
We left the gate late and headed into town, stopping briefly at the commissary and one of the nearby camps. Then we met Entropy out at Homouroboros and piled into his art car for a trip to Crude Awakening. There was a long line at the oil derrick, but we took cuts and went straight up. (They told us to!) It was really nice up there. The air was warm and the sky was decorated with a zillion stars. We got a clear view of Black Rock City and the open playa. We bumped into people we knew from DPW and other crews, and hung out for a while with Steve 23 and Juicy at the bottom while they worked on waxing burlap. It was fun saying hi to people as they passed through the line.

After we left Crude Awakening, Entropy dropped us off at Doyle’s truck and we went in search of good music. We stopped at a bunch of different clubs and danced at most of them, but there was no hip-hop or rap to be found. It seems like that’s the case most of the time at Burning Man. I’m either missing the good stuff or it’s not here. Please let me know if you’re going to be playing real hip-hop next year so I can check it out.

We stopped at a friend’s camp and made breakfast just before dawn. People were wandering in from their night out, stopping to say hi and grab a bite to eat. We headed home as the sun came up, ending our night as others began their day. Time is flying.

– WSP

About the author: Marnee Benson

Marnee Benson

Marnee is Burning Man Project’s Associate Director of Government Affairs. Her work focuses on permitting and relationships with the Nevada Legislature, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Pershing County, and multiple other Nevada agencies. She helps Burning Man navigate Nevada politics and federal issues affecting the Burning Man event. Marnee’s first trip to Black Rock City was 2001, and in 2007 she worked with the Department of Public Works and the Communications team, writing and photographing content for the Burning Blog “Building Black Rock City”. From 2009 to 2013, she served as the Deputy Director at Black Rock Solar. She loves the way Burning Man expands her world and flips ideas upside down.