The late [and generally gentle, except for that last night Bryan was here] rainy season kept on
greening things up up the creek while Friday we went down across the valley to where our friend Nina has decided to contain her scene in three shipping containers,
two for the studio and one for home…an anchor for her peripatetic artistic practice with electricity
to allow the first refrigerator she’s had in years…beautifully sited, mountains all around, off grid
with water in Gardner just a few miles distant compared to having to drive it down from Albuquerque to her previous location in Datil, NM. Meanwhile out west in Black Rock City these weeks it’s strictly BYO everything and seemingly flourishing…
The next day we were back in Gardner for the Farmer’s Market, arriving early to partake of
summer’s bounty before heading down the street to La Clinica for healing work with Desireé before
she took off to meet her partner in Reno for a driving trip to the coast and points north once he was done with his BM…in that present moment the Afterburn remained a futurity although in spite of
my continuing and somewhat demented obsession with the event I checked out way before the
predictably anticlimactic Man Burn, checking in again Sunday morning to determine, yes, The Playa Abides…as will, for the next day or so, Black Rock City
while we here began a New Month
on Labor Day with a walk well beyond the rest rocks
to see the unseasonably fast-flowing [un]Dry Creek as
the BM Exodus* through Gerlach commenced…
continuing into and throughout Temple Burn Night, initially never more than four hours
“from gate to gravel”, their quaint [or alliterative?] way of designating CR 34’s two lane blacktop, paved well before any burnies “discovered” the desert back in 1994 or so. Whatever…and where is and how long does it take to get to “gate” from BRC? We’ll never know. I do know that the rest of the year a half hour will get a person from Gerlach to at least the Dip whether by desert at Threemile or High Road’s washboards…
*Leaving behind an as yet unidentified** male in a pool of blood…no evidence, no suspects and with thousands departing the playa, a seemingly perfect crime.
**Until a few days out…finding the perpetrator, however, may prove a bit more difficult.
In my years working in film and television we had a saying: “more fun to watch than they are to make!” I think that applies to BM. Some of the pictures are spectacular, but the madness of the mud festival is beyond me. Thanks for the armchair traveling without the pain of being there. xo Stephen
Of course it’s all armchair for me, too; 1300 miles away, monitoring and grabbing the occasional screenshot from the BM livestream…which gives a sublimely distanced view of the event. On the ground it’s way more chaotic, intense [muddy, dusty, stoned, hot etc.] and crowded. Not my deal at all, though this year’s mediated experience has led me to suggest we livestream from Wall Spring and people are exploring the possibility. We’ll see…
And don’t forget the woman, who didn’t even know she was pregnant, had a baby on the playa.
The amazing thing about Burning Man, seriously, is what a safe environment it is compared to almost any other “city” of its size in America…probably why people are willing to pay so much money to get crazy or “creative” or whatever year in, year out…on the other hand there were four births to the one death at Altamount in just one day in 1969. Proving, if nothing else, that hippies are way more fecund than techies, E. Musk excepted.
Just loved the first three images. #1 was brilliant. #2 You have really done some interesting things with your mirror shots and ‘incorporating’ them into your larger image. #3 one of a number of very compelling tree compositions shared this summer. BM is a chosen ‘community’ shared by relatively like-minded people and this probably has something to do with how safe it is. No one is stuck there….