(Click photos for larger versions. Copyright - Heather U-K).
We had another major storm roll in, mostly during the morning and early afternoon. I was reading until I pretty much couldn't stand it anymore and Gieve and I begged Pretty and his crew to crawl into their RV. There wasn't really a need to beg as they took us right in.
Damn... that thing is palatial. Huge. Beds, DVD players, kitchen, eating area, etc, etc. Good lords. Very nice, but all in all, way too expensive for my pockets. And really, I'm outside most of the day anyway. The tent is just for sleeping. Now that we have the new and improved Chez Bryan, I'm not as concerned about my bed area. But still... dang. Nice.
Those storms are so hard on the body and it was definitely very nice being in the RV. Gieve took a nap and I read more and briefly snoozed. Then they made dinner and we joined them. Tasty. I need a cook at home. This is so great. And I actually eat real, full meals out here. And drink water. In proper quantities.
While eating dinner, we had a hysterical play acting around being a horribly dysfunctional family. It sort of built out of Pretty wearing a "wife beater" (I hate that term) white tank top with boxer shorts and I have no idea if I'm remembering this right, but those weird sock garter thingies men wear to keep their socks from sliding down. So we thought he looked like the perfect abusive, drunk father. So that was his role. Chel played the long suffering housewife, Gieve the codependent, ingratiating son, Dan played the older, druggie complaining son, and I played the try to be perfect, emo daughter. We really tried not to laugh. Then Pretty's fashion designer came over with her friend (female and I was assuming at the time, girlfriend/partner type) and we had them play aunt (designer) and her gay lover, coming to visit the family. I think then we had to laugh ourselves silly. I laughed so hard, which was good as I cleared my lungs up a bit. This is one of the aspects that I just adore about Burning Man, the community. As temporary as it is, it fucking rocks.
Then the storm cleared in the late afternoon and we all crept out to start packing up the camp. Gieve and I started in on ours after helping out Pretty and his crew take down their shade structure outside their RV. We had decided to avoid the crowds (haha, this usually ends up like the Prayers to the Porta Potty Gods) and leave right after the Temple Burn. So we packed up everything beforehand in order to just be able to head out right afterwards. Tent down, bikes on top, figuring we'd just walk out to the Temple, double check the area... Set.
While we were taking down the camp, double checking for MOOP (Matter Out Of Place) in order to be in "compliance" with one of the major tenets of Burning Man: Leave No Trace, I wandered a bit with my camera.The environment is so amazing out on the Playa. The white, flat lakebed, the mountains in the distance, and of course, the clouds and sunsets!! The sun was setting and wow, it looks so empty as often people clear out after the Man Burn or in the morning of the Temple Burn.
So off to the Temple Burn which, as always, is just the complete opposite of the Man Burn. Although usually the Man Burn is much more energetic with lots of noise and very "up" energy. And you'd expect this of thousands of people gathering to watch a large structure explode and burn up. The Temple Burn is almost completely silent, which is pretty damn amazing for such a large crowd. Any heckling, if there is any at all, which is so rare, I've only heard it twice, is apparently dealt with immediately by the crowd (not physically or violently but quietly and firmly) as you don't hear that person again. It's funny because that sort of thing happens all the time at the Man and people let it fly, but not at the Temple. People take this Burn seriously. It is taken as a solemn, meaningful, somewhat spiritual event. Everyone's memories, yearnings for lost loved ones, things to let go of or bring into one's life, all those messages rising up in the smoke. Silence.
This year, for some reason, the Temple took a very long time to Burn to the point where it collapsed (which is the thing that everyone looks forwards to with the Man, as they let folks go forwards to the bonfire at that point). And even though it took forever, there was still silence. A few hoots here and there as the Burn time lengthened, quickly silenced (this was number two in the" twice" I mentioned before). I let my stuff burn up with the smoke and sat in my own silence.
Then we headed back to our sparse camp, gave everyone hugs and headed out into the night, me driving, getting a bit turned around before finding the gate road and then, of course, just sitting there forever.
Thus ended my 2008 Burning Man. Here's Javier to send it off until next year.
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