We had a little outing to Los Angeles just after New Year’s, and we were down there in time for the Christmas tree burn on the beach last Sunday.
Zach Fromson organized the outing, and there were maybe a hundred or so people at the height of things. Zach and his crew had spent the weekend gathering trees; they had gone all over the Southland in a rented truck picking them up, and then they hauled them all to the beach.
When we showed up, we saw a big truck loaded with trees, so of course we walked over to help unload them. But the guy in the back of the truck looked at me kind of funny and asked, “Are you part of the family?” and I said, “uhhhh … Burning Man?” Then the guy said no, this was a private thing, a family thing, and “the other people are over there.”
The “other people” would be the Burners, of course. But it was a smaller group than you’d think for all of L.A., but although it’s a big, big place, the Burner community seems to be spread hither thither and yon.
Anyway, we found the right bonfire and then we were talking about Michael Michael and the Cacophony Society’s original Christmas tree burns on Ocean Beach in San Francisco, the Post Yule Pyres as they’re known up north. It was a little like passing on some oral history from a faraway land. “Really,” Zach was saying, “that really happens up there?”
Yes it does, and it’s always a cat-and-mouse game with the police to pull it off. The authorities don’t look kindly on hundreds of folks getting all their dried-out trees together for a bonfire. (Really, though, can you think of a safer place for a burn?? The ocean is about 40 yards away, ferchrissakes.)
Anyway, it was a very different vibe down there at Dockweiller State Beach in the Southland, where there’s plenty of parking and fires, even big Christmas tree bonfires, aren’t seen as a problem. There are fires almost every night at this beach.
Dockweiller Beach is different than what you might think of as a Southern California beach. There are some lifeguard stands, and some palm trees, but generally the area has an industrial feel, with a water treatment plant and a big refinery just across Vista Del Mar, the road that runs along the bluff. It’s kind of like the West Oakland of beaches, all industrial and rough around the edges. No million-dollar homes lining the road, because the beach is also in the flight path out of LAX. You put all that together — the treatment plant, the refinery, the flight path — and you get a beach no one wants to live near.
But it’s a great place for a burn.
There were all the trees that Zach and his crew had gathered, and there were fire spinners and fire whippers, and there was wine being passed around, and there was music … and it was all pretty fine.
You kind of wanted to see some zany breaking out, some over-the-top antics, some activities that pushed the boundaries, but there was no one like Otto around, so it all stayed pretty mild. Which was just fine.
We saw some folks we knew from the DPW, and made some new friends, and we realized again that we’d rather be outside at a thing like this than be stuck inside at any kind of club you could name. The night was mild, the air smelled good, and the fire burned bright.
We’re betting this thing is going to get bigger next year.
Fires are good.
Yet in Southern Louisiana we take leftover christmas trees, tie them together and place them in the water to help rebuild the coast line. That’s good too.
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Hi John, great story telling, as always…
I love the nighttime shots, what camera are you using???
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Hi, Roissy, and thanks for the nice words!
I use the Mark I version of the Canon 5D, and for these shots I had a 35mm 1.4 lens on the camera.
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