BRC in pictures

[gfish]

On the way down, I was stopped by an actual cattle drive


Getting close!


This was the sight that greeted me outside Gerlach. At that point, having been in the truck for 18 hours, I was wondering what the hell I was getting myself into.


Waiting in line before the dust storm hit.


Waiting in line AFTER the dust storm hit. It took me 4 hours to get from the highway to my eventual campsite.


Sunrise the next morning.


Looking along Impala, where I was camped. Out in the 'burbs.


Looking down 7:30. Hello, Man!


Looking along the Esplanade towards Center Camp


The Man


Center Camp seen from the top of the Man's base


My camp. I had a tent, but I ended up sleeping inside the trailer. There are 2 100W solar panels on the roof, plus the 400W Air-X turbine. (Thanks again for helping me get that going, ionan!) This powered an adorable and sturdy 12/120/240 volt safari fridge/freezer, plus lights, fans and an inverter for charging my camera. Worked out quite well, and I was only getting about 80W max from the panels, since they weren't angled properly.


I didn't get as many pictures of the crazy art cars as I would have liked. Turtle!


Yes, that bus is furry. And it glowed at night, thanks to a layer of LEDs underneath the fur.










This was the best art car, hands down.


The Purple Palace, one of two articulated city buses on the playa. It has a roof deck and a cantilevered poopdeck on top of that.


Utter insanity.


Thunderdome!


Thunderdome being used at night. This was taken from halfway up the dome. They use boffer weapons, of course, but some of the fights still get pretty vicious. I saw biting.


Most overkilled hammock frame ever.


Fire spinners on a stage out on the playa with the giant propane jets blasting. Everything had propane jets, even bicycles and helmets.


The Temple, which burned Sunday night after I had left. It was a surprisingly moving structure to explore.


This was a steel tower out on the playa with a throne at the very top. It's one of the things that really drove home just how raw and potentially unsafe this environment is. None of the rounded edges of modern society.


Giant tetrahedronal Menger Sponge!


These kites appeared at dusk one night. There were more than you can see here. They were beautiful and terrible at the same time, like some mythological army on the march.


A bike-powered fire-breathing dragon. (Seats four.) The head was fully animated. They claimed there was an interlock to prevent the jet from blasting when it was pointed down. I sure hope so.


A steel cage with burning logs inside, spun around by a long crankshaft and two burly-looking guys. Absolute madness.


Saturday brought another dust storm. It got much worse than this, at times getting dark and limiting visibility to a few meters, but I didn't dare use my camera when it was that bad.


Ah, Burning Man irony.


The Man burns!

Comments

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Not much to say, really. I was out there Thursday night with some AEZ people. I found the raw expression of that much pain and loss, untempered by ritual or liturgy, very moving.

[ivy]

It is beautiful from a distance.