SFGate: Culture Blog! : Long Live the Burn

gah!

The Belgian waffle looked awesome.

The description of the Temple burn is perfect.

I'm thinking that if I go next year and am feeling better about the whole adoption thing, that I might try to do some kind of art project focused on that.

Maybe DMC and Sarah McLachlan can help.



SFGate: Culture Blog! : Long Live the Burn: "Long Live the Burn
The so-called Belgian Waffle slowly caught fire after performances that made Sunday night feel like the Closing Ceremonies of Burning Man 2006

john curley

The so-called Belgian Waffle slowly caught fire after performances that made Sunday night feel like the Closing Ceremonies of Burning Man 2006
The Man is gone, and soon there will be no trace of Black Rock City, either. Thousands of volunteers are combing every inch of the desert floor for signs of MOOP (matter out of place). Burning Man 2006 is history, and the business at hand is to make it seem like it never took place at all. The key is to leave no trace -- no one must ever be able to tell that there were almost 40,000 people celebrating life, art and sex, among other things, in the Nevada desert over the Labor Day weekend.

The Man burned on Saturday night in an explosion of fireworks and a sea of fire dancers. There was chanting and drumming and seemingly hundreds of art cars joining tens of thousands of Burners saying goodbye to the Man. Long live the Man.

The next day, Sunday, saw thousands of Burners beginning to make their exodus from the playa. Cars streamed out by the thousands all day long, kicking up massive amounts of dust that pummeled the playa and the people staying behind.

By evening time, it seemed that around two-thirds of the people at the Burn had decided to stick around for the burning of the Temple, one of the most emotional times of the week. That is the tradition at Burning Man; you stay around for the extra day and bring the week of bacchanalia to a somber close by remembering the ones you loved who have passed on.

The Temple was covered with pictures and writings that remembered the dead

john curley

The Temple was covered with pictures and writings that remembered the dead
And so at sunset you wandered out to the Temple to take a last look at the inscriptions and letters and pictures and drawings left there to honor the dead. It was an overwhelming experience. Of the hundreds of people who were hunched over, writing on pieces of wood to add to the pile, or quietly reading what had already been written, there wasn't anyone who wasn't crying, or looking like they were about to. A couple of hours later, flames would engulf the somewhat modest Temple, but there was nothing modest about the rawness of the emotions on this cloudy evening. "