Burning The Man #3

One afternoon, right at sunset, some yelled to look and about 14 or 15 sky divers were parachuting down together into the playa. I turned around and saw a huge smoke ring that had been generated by some machine. It was black and about 50 feet across I guess. They picked the right day because the ring kept it shape for almost a half a hour and doubled in size. At the same time the fire cannons were going off randomly – whump, whump. Then some lights came drifting over slowly, following each other. I realized someone had done what I had heard about years ago and wanted to do myself; You can get the plastic “bags” that come with dry cleaning. They are very thin. You can tie the corners with string to a little platform and mount a small candle on the platform. The bag will fill with hot air and the balloon will lift up and float away. As it rises into the sky, it is slightly lit by the candle. People have done this in the city every now and then and the phones usually light up about flying saucers.
Anyway, they did this at the same time as the rings and skydivers. This highlights
A recurring theme. Everyone, from each person to groups and art cars and art installations, puts together their “displays” just for the sake of blowing you away. And some people go to great lengths. You wonder how they could spend so much money for just a week and you wonder where they store some of these things. I will always be amazed.
You can only buy two things there; ice and coffee. No other sales are allowed. Even bartering is discouraged. The spirit of the place is to give when something is needed. This, to me, is they legacy of the hippies; to sidestep the regular commerce of the world. The day that corporate logos show up and licensed venders begin peddling crap there, it’s all over. Fortunately the people that run it are totally committed to this creedo. I worry a bit that it will became too successful and deteriorate in some way or collapse from it’s own weight. But this last one registered 49,000+ people and everything went well.
But the hippie thing is mildly frowned on. The mix also includes art, punk, rave, general danger, and beach mindsets and a few others I haven’t articulated. I kept thinking about movies I’ve seen and what came to mind was “Bladrunner”, “Mad Max”, Dr. Suess and “Tron”.
I imagined that when I got home I would forget it after a few days, and I did. But then I began to get flashes during the day. Something would remind me of a mutant vehicle or the dust or the peculiar background noise. I’m finding out that this is common. Burners tend to gather together after the event is long gone. And indeed, I have been contacted by friends I made there and I have already attended two afterburns. I now have more friends than I have had in years. Who knew?