Early Burn!

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early burn

Burning Man has many traditions that have grown from a single event. Early Burn began in 1999, when Peter Mars constructed a 15′ tall stick figure that was used as a central survey marker to layout Black Rock City. The last ring road was 2400′ from the center, so they needed something more visible than a single spike in the ground.

1999 EarlyMan built by Peter Mars

After the city layout was complete, the stick figure needed to be removed and the Man built in its place, so it was decided to burn the figure. For the next couple of years, the process was repeated and the early burn became a celebratory event for the crew to mark the construction progress of city infrastructure.

“Burleyman” 2001 built by Rave Boy Walter

Over time, the size and scale of the Man and the City has increased, but the tradition of building a figure from leftover scrap wood and burning it one week before the Gate opens has become an established tradition. The number of impromptu figures has also increased over the years as various departments added their own contributions. Recent events that occur while the crew is working, have also become the subject matter of artistic expression, some of them quite elaborate. In previous years, the fire crew burned a giant fire extinguisher, the communications crew; a giant radio, the office staff; a larger-than-life desk, complete with actual paperwork and office supplies.

Early Burn 2015 was the largest ever, with more that two dozen burning figures, including a giant bug with flaming flyswatter, a 1/4th size wooden shipping container, a wooden golf cart, and three versions of ChocoTaco, one of them built by the BLM in a fit of participatory humor.

Monkeys & Skulls in a boat -by Mike Garlington.

Green couch, yellow bikes.

Someone brought 100 ChocoTacos in a cooler to hand out, and 300 people lit sparklers in a moment of silence for Spoono, a beloved crew member who passed away in his sleep the week before.

Spoono’s art car was given a place of honor at the burn.

Early Burn is reminiscent of Burning Mans early years. There are no Rangers ringed around this burn. The crew is quite aware that the intensity of the fire will create its own perimeter and the fireworks will explode directly overhead. You assume the risk…

That first Gold Spike in the ground has also become a ceremonial tradition of its own.

Ephemerisle

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Ephemerisle, TAZ

Ephemerisle is an experimental floating community that comes together in the Sacramento River Delta once a year. It is a temporary autonomous zone consisting of a variety of boats, houseboats and constructed floating platforms lashed together to form a floating island, which is secured in place with anchors. This event has been held annually in July since 2009. Ephemerisle is more like 4th of Juplaya than Burning Man. There are no tickets, no central organizers, and no Rangers to keep you safe.

This years 7-day event consisted of approximately 32 boats, 1 floating dance floor (with 4 walkways), 1 floating trampoline, 1 floating ‘hot’ tub and several ‘art boats’. It was attended by more than 400 people, 5 dogs and 6 kittens. The physical infrastructure for Ephemerisle 2015 took two semi-trucks to transport to the nearest dock.

This event has evolved a lot since I showed up at the first one with a sleeping bag, a tent and enough food & drinking water for 3 days.

The 2015 Survival Guide is filled with lots of useful information; how to get there, how to add your boat to an existing Island, how to build your own island, safety & survival tips and leave no trace practices. You must practice radical self-reliance.

Art Boats are becoming an increasing part of Ephemerisle. Here’s a DeLorean hovercraft:

“You know how some people have had the ‘Avatar blues’ after the movie ended, because they couldn’t live in that universe? ….. After you return to reality from Ephemerisle, you’ll get that. The difference is Ephemerisle is real, and you can make it and be part of it. And it can change you, help you discover yourself, discover others, and chisel who you are and what you want out of life.” ———Dan Dascalescu

Photos & Stories:

Ephemerisle 2015

Ephemerisle 2014

Ephemerisle 2013

Ephemerisle 2012

Ephemerisle 2011

Ephemerisle 2010

Ephemerisle 2009

Video documentary about the first Ephemerisle: <2009 video>

Planned dates for the next 5 years:
July 11 – 17, 2016
July 17 – 23, 2017
July 16 – 22, 2018
July 15 – 21, 2019
July 13 – 19, 2020

See you in the water.

The Black Rock Saloon

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BlackRockSaloon, Gerlach

The Black Rock Saloon is Burning Man’s private social club in Gerlach.

There’s lots of interesting decor inside the Saloon. Photographs of DPW staff members hang on the walls. Several of the original signs that once stood at the highway-to-playa entrance, are reminders of Burning Man themes from years past.

There is a reverence to some of the altar-like pieces scattered about.

“Fifteen years and six continents
Five lives and countless memories
The trail of duty and the path of peace
These boots have traveled them all
They began their journey in a distant desert
They now end their journey in this one-
The place so many of us call home”

And there is a certain style of humor that burners appreciate.

The original building was constructed in the 1940s and has served as a bar/restaurant for most of its life. When Burning Man first arrived in 1990, it was called Norm’s Cabaret.

Sometime around 2001, a porch was added to the front and the name was changed to Black Rock Saloon when it was acquired by Joan Grant, who also owned a ranch in the nearby Hualapai Valley.

In 2004, Burning Man acquired the Black Rock Saloon for use by it’s staff and volunteers.

There is a lot of history in this bar. During the 1940s & 50s, rodeos were held in a large corral south of Gerlach, and it was one of the 6 or 7 bars in town that was popular with the cowboys. There is a story, that on more than one occasion, a drunken cowboy would ride his horse thru the front doors and up to the bar and demand another round. In the 1990s, the local justice-of-the-peace, known as “Judge Phil” would stumble into the bar carrying his loaded AR-15. During the early 2000s, the Black Rock Saloon became a favorite hangout for burners passing thru town. After Burning Man acquired the bar, the post-event donations from participants insured a good supply of free drinks and food for the clean-up crew after working on-playa all day. It became a custom for DPW members to carve their playa radio names into the long bar during an evening of drinking. Over the last decade, this bar top has acquired a luxurious patina with hundreds of names carved into it.

Here are a few:

AfterFive
Alabama
Alipato
AuntieSocial
Austintatious
BallyHooBetty
Barbarella
Beany
Bewitched
BlackThorne
BloodyKnuckles
BobTuse
BolognaHole
Boo
Booyah
BuzzKill
CobraComandante
CowboyCarl
Coyote
CrazyTalk
CustomerService
DagoBay
DarkAngel DA
DeadPan
Detour
DirtyBacon
DrunkenNurse
DumpsterCoon
EasyGoin
FeralKidd
FlufferNips
Flynn
FreeBeer
Fuckin’Andy
Gameshow
Goatt
Hazmatt
HighCenter
Hormel
InSane
JeneRator
JetFuel
JustGeorge
Kamikaze
LoDog
LowRent
MakeOutQueen
MissHandler
MissMilitia
MissRoach
MrBlue
MrMetric
MrNightshade
NicoPeachez
OhMyGawd
PheonixFirestarter
Phixx
PillowTalk
Playground
PornStar
QuietEarp
Reposado
RestStopBuddy
RhodaHell
RideThatPony
RugBurn
Sailor
SansaAsylum
SF-Slim
SgtSlaughter
Shooter
ShotGunn
Skitch
SleepDep
Smokes
Spoono
Stabby
TheHun
Thirteen
TrailerParkRomeo
TrainWreck
Truffels
VaVoom
WeldBoy
WheelGunner
WildeChilde
WingMan
WitchDoctor
WonderDog
Zombie

Along with these names are a few quotes that hint at historical events or express ideas that reflect the character of DPW.

Frankly, we don’t give a damn about your camp.

Then there is the legendary “Who Shot Flash?”

It was one dark night in 1998, that Flash Hopkins, an abrasive character and self-proclaimed mayor of Gerlach, walked out of the nearby Miners Club and into a hail of .38 slugs. Bleeding from two bullet wounds (one in the leg and the other to his posterior), he stumbled back into the bar and exclaimed; “Give me some whiskey, boys. I wanna die like a cowboy. I wanna die like Eli Wallach.” He survived, resigned his claim of mayor, left town and stayed away for several years. Annette Silas, a bartender at the Black Rock Saloon, was later arrested for the shooting. (Whatever you do, Don’t mess with the bartender.) This tale has been retold around burn barrels along with this admonishment: “Don’t go fishing in Lake Lahontan without a Annette.”

State Of The Arts

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art, Reno

On July 29, I represented Burning Man at the annual State Of The Arts symposium, which was held at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno. The symposium covered three main topics: the missions of arts organizations, creative education in schools, and the economic impact of the arts in the northern Nevada region. I was one of 18 panelists, which included these organizations:

• Artown
• Arts For All Nevada
• Bruka Theater
• Burning Man
• Capital City Arts Initiative
• The Discovery Museum
• Holland Project
• KNPB Public Broadcasting
• Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival
• Nevada Museum of Art
• Reno Chamber Orchestra
• Reno Little Theater
• Reno Philharmonic
• Sierra Arts Foundation
• Sierra Nevada Ballet
• St Mary’s Art Center
• University of Nevada

Our discussion centered on where the arts are now and the possibilities for arts culture in the future. Much of the conversation focused on the local lack of jobs in the arts industry, the difficulty in obtaining funding for nonprofit groups, and the need for arts within the educational system. Reno is in the midst of a changing economy, casinos are in decline and tech companies like Tesla & Switch are moving into the area.

“We have to develop our audiences,” – Beth Macmillan, executive director of Artown, the annual, month-long art festival in July. Many of the leaders emphasized the importance of attracting outside audiences, not just local ones. “Tourists want an authentic experience so they want to go where the locals go,” – Christine Fey, resource development and cultural affairs manager for the city of Reno.

Attracting people is a mysterious process. I observed that “Burning Man has the ability to attract 70,000 people to one of the harshest desert environments in America. Theoretically, Reno has the advantage— it has many vacant hotel rooms with flush toilets, and ChocoTacos right at the corner store.” News of Burning Man’s negotiations with the BLM is closely followed by Reno-ites; the ensuing laughter showed that the audience caught the reference.

During the Q& A session, I was asked “What is Burning Man doing to support education in the local area?” I responded that there have been several initiatives which have gone beyond the orange fence, including Burners Without Borders and Black Rock Solar, which was the first non-profit solar company in the US. While we do not yet have an educational outreach program, we do have Kidsville at the event, a place where kids can play, learn and create art.

There was some discussion about marketing on social media, using crowdfunding to gather contributions and looking at ways to partner with other groups. Consultant Karen Craig, of Creative Cities, reminded the 18 panelists and the audience, that — between all of the represented organizations — they had a total budget of about $50 million annually.

David Walker, executive director of the Nevada Museum of Art, stated that “People invest in really good ideas,”

But what exactly is the idea that makes Burning Man attractive? I pointed out: “Few people realize this, but Burning Man is really in the ranching business. Once a year, we roundup a bunch of creatives, corral them out in the desert and have an art rodeo. Now we’re trying to figure out how to support these artists beyond the desert.”

It is clear that Reno is currently at the Event Horizon of Burning Man.

Our Master of Ceremonies for this State of the Arts symposium was Amanda Horn, Director of Communications at Nevada Museum of Art. Her face was strangely familiar to me, but it wasn’t until our conversation after the symposium that I found out I had seen her at Burning Man many years ago— when she was on a playa stage, performing with The Circus at The End of the World.

.                                             Indeed, We Are Everywhere.