Judge me: I'm a burner

After 22 years of driving, I just unceremoniously put my first bumper sticker on my vehicle.


It says, "BRC."

I've always been somewhat judgmental of bumper stickers people. I suppose were supposed to be judgmental. The vehicle make, model and customization say much about the driver, but nothing like bumper sticker.

My status as a working journalist rules out political bumper stickers, but my disfavor of them runs deeper. That was until I found myself wanting to chat up everyone I see with any bumper sticker related to Burning Man.


So I guess I'm a burner.

This summer will be my seventh (in a row). The registration for the ticket general sale ends at noon (PST) Saturday, Feb. 14.

Burning Man is best described as week-long experimental city held annually in the Nevada "Black Rock" desert.  "Black Rock City" is a colloquium for this free-form blend of madness, excess, and brilliance.

It's grown from humble roots to a gathering of 70,000 people from around the world. Groups of people band together to provide the coffee shops, lecture halls, art galleries, recreation centers, bars and night clubs of this temporary city where (almost) everything is free.

Drunk and debauchery, sure. "Orgy dome," sure. (But there is probably one in your town too.)

But more than a description of this adult playland -- from jungle gyms to a roller rink -- to me Burning Man is about the ethos and the inspiration sparked by a week of being unplugged with collection of the world's best doers, dreamers, makers, and creatives.

The freedom from the digitally connected world provides a refreshing mindfulness. The absence of work talk allows the creative brain to flourish.

It's a place where hugs are plentiful and conversations are meaningful.

Each year, I come away with a new project to bring back the desert and the energy to recommit to personal projects.
It's an energy that I'd love to see more to in everyday life.

So yeah go ahead a judge me. I'm a Burner.

 

Burning Year Around

In a little over one week I’ll be heading to the desert for my sixth Burning Man.

The event, in it’s 28th year, is a week long arts, music and cultural festival in the Nevada Blackrock desert. It is characterized by three things: the harsh environment, participation and the feverishness of participants.
 I’m sure my list of three will be debated. Some would say drugs or the clothes or the music. Allow me to retort: The environment dictates the dress and is the main reason most people won’t come. Unlike concert festivals, Burning Man demands that

everyone participate and be part of the show. And that participation leads me to the next point: Burners are obsessed about talking about Burning Man.  
A non-burner co-worker recently compared burners to hovering parents.
Tuche.
But for good reason. There is a whole lot to prepared for: feeding yourself for a week, costumes, travel etc. However, the main reason many burners can’t stop talking about Burning Man is to a certain extent they never left. The random collection of peaceful, art, music and fun-loving tribes is easily more alluring than the work-a-day world with bits a fun sprinkled in between budget meetings.
But also many of us have been in project mode almost since we left. Here’s a sampling of some of the things my campmates have been working on:

- Tractor is the queen of playa clothes gifting. She spent 100s of hours making tutus, miniskirts and booty shorts for the people she’s never met. She enjoys nothing more than helping a new burner out of their khakis.

- Boosh in addition to other projects built the Pantzooka. We’ll playful save those afflicted with the urge to shirtcock. Yes, shirtcockers are men who rocks a t-shirt with their bit exposed. Here is the commercial I made with my non-burner engineer and artist for use on the on-site radio station. The station streams on the Internet at www.bmir.org.

-Princess Fussy Pants, with Scout and her craftsman, built the Burner Pen Pal Project. The attractive, functional setup allows burners to safely exchange off-playa addresses for letter exchanges and a website for people to share those experiences.  Here is the radio spot.

- Uncle Bob is the king of camp construction. He’s built lamps, expanded the bar, built high-bar tables, redesigned our shower and has generally been working like a mad man to ensure everyone is comfortable and the camp functions.

- Captain America is racing to complete a kegerator for camp.

When did we stop building things? Here is my Burning Man boombike.

Ed Fletcher boombike adds a car stereo and LED lights to his mountain bike

Here's a closer look at the speakers, deck and battery.

Burning man is for builders

The most many people know about Burning Man is that there’s lots of sex and drugs. While that’s true, it barely scratches the surface on what Burning Man is about.

I used an Altolids box as the control panel

One lesser known gems of Burning Man is that is a collection of doers, dreamers and problem solvers. Given the inhospitable nature of the Black Rock desert where it’s held, concurring your environment is the first obstacle. The second and just as important challenge is to do your part add something to the community artistically or recreationally.

This year, I decided that my bike needed more illumination and a sound system.

Illumination is important because there are no streetlights and hard to keep a crew of bikes together with so many blinky dots in the night.

I saw some people cruising around Sacramento with sound systems and wanted it build my own.

I’d assembled a 12-volt camp sound system before. Mainly by assembling a second-hand car stereo setup, adding extra speakers and hooking it to car battery.

This time around I started more or less from scratch and built my own speaker boxes, wired an on/off switch control panel, and put the setup together.

The pole is made from an LED strip light
wrapped around an inner core plastic pole
within an larger plastic pole. 

From doing the wiring to cutting the speaker boxes, there were many times where I wondered whether I'd bitten off more than I can chew. I took more time to home depot and my local hardware store than it should have, but I kept finding solutions and refining the project. At least once I turned to facebook to crowdsource an answer to a question that troubled me.

But I have to say it was pretty fun. When did we stop building things and just become consumers? Some where along the line someone suggested I just buy a boom box. No where is the fun in that.

I’m pretty proud of it already. On my first test ride I got my first offer to buy it. I think I’ll keep this one.