Burning Man 2000: My Stories

BURNING MAN 2000
GOA GABBER TRANCE DOWN TEMPO

DRUM ‘N’ BASS +LARGE SCALE SOUND ART

What can I write about my Burning Man experience? – Guess I could do a semi-play to play & highlights of my experience.
On our map we were at 10 o’clock & gut. Our “satellite camp” (for people needing sleep) was at 9:05 & Knee – a 2 ½ hr. walk. That may give you a sense of the immensity of it all. The pictures in my album have a little explanation on them – just the tip of the pyramid.
About the headline: GOA: a style of music named after a beach in India where people meditate. The music itself is layers & layers of beats formed either by various synthesized drum kits, bass synthesizers & drum synths. It’s fast (160+ BPM!) & meant to be played loud (more on that later) & induces a trance-like state after about 30 hrs. of listening. Trance music is much like GOA & induces a hypnotic trance (more later). Gabber – sped up techno or drum & bass – like 180 – 220 BPM – really. Down tempo – any music with less than 160 BPM - like my music – most drum beats at 120 BPM) Drum & Bass – obvious, but you’ll be amazed how creative it is.
I likes GOA the most & recently purchased several CD’s of that type of music – its also very exciting music, simply because of the complex sound & audio designs.
How did it fit in?
Epiphany #1: I discovered new styles of music & lots of new terms.

About the large-scale sound art: the city was shaped like a horseshoe with the sound art facing out into the Playa. Why? The sound was directed out onto the open Playa. Our camp only had a 500 Watt system in our dome. The people to the left of us (Illuminaughty) had 3000 W & so did the people to the right (Phoenix) - each a
half hr. distance away. But that was until “Tonka” came to Phoenix camp – Tonka is a 30,000 W system! It wasn’t horribly loud – its more for the bass (is 16 subwoofer bins the size of a VW enuf?) – just very bassey.

Day 1: we drive from Winnemucca, NE to a mining road. It takes about an hr. of driving with no road signs or any landmarks to get to the 1st thing on the topo map. Then a turn – another 20 mins. on a mining road (non-maintained – nice washboard, dry run-off rivulets, potholes big enuf for a major breakdown, no shoulders & a dip big enuf to swallow a truck) The dust rises as we drive, & even tho its not to warm, we use AC instead of windows down. You can taste the alkali dust – it creates an instant dry mouth condition & irritates the back of your throat – you start drinking water constantly to get rid of it. We meet a guy from BLM at an unmarked crossing & he tells us he’ll lead us to a shortcut that’ll save us 45 mins of driving. He also tells us the road conditions worsen – it was a jeep trail already . . .
He leads us to the edge of the Playa – he stops & tells us to drive as fast as we can & to avoid sand dunes. We drive 75 MPH for about 20 mins. We finally see the edge of a road & the edge of Black Rock City. After MM gets his BM ticket, we drive to the entrance & are met by a guy straight out of Mad Max (gotta see it if you haven’t)
Then we drive 5 MPH to out camp. About 4hrs. later we try to set up the tent in 30 – 40MPH gust.
After sunset & eating some, we rest & get up with Casey’s prompting around 10 or 11PM to go to a party at the Teardrop Dome. Its about 500 ft. in dia, has a 2 platform stage, a guy playing 2 synths. Its all good. We walk around afterwards; I go back to our camp about 2 or 3AM - Try to sleep –NOT – the bass is incredible, the tent zippers scream, the wind is punching against the tent. It’s like sleeping in a Doritos bag. And MM is snoring louder than the music. SO I go sit in my truck with earplugs, but it doesn’t help, I go sit, drink, smoke & eat.
Its another day – no watch – no clue about the time. I bike to the Man, see the huge art pieces – see pics in my album. They’re really large – the maze is probably 900 sq, ft., the windsock maybe 600 ft. long & 30 ft. high. The dragons: 120 ft & 60 ft. respectively. The big one is articulated, all metal – it blows 20 ft. sheets of fire & is ridden by Dragon Masters. It has a parade of fire dancers & “virgins”. -- Yeah right.
Too much to see & do, then another sandstorm comes up. They’re horrible & it also gets cold. Everyone ducks for cover. At night, the partying goes into high gear – did I mention partying is 24 hrs a day? The music gets faster, louder & its done by live DJ’s. No sleep. SO by Thursday morning I’m a little dazed & get a little chemical help (G) from the camp “nurse” (a guy in drag). I sleep like a rock through all of it for about 2 – 3 hrs. – but if feels like 10. I stay up for another 20. More freaky sights, sounds, people, art, huge neon fireflies zooming through the desert & neon fairies. We had sand storms & rainstorms that day, so didn’t get out much. It was really cold at night (around 40F).
---Lots of anejo tequila.
Losing track of time – slept on the Playa in the cold – in a sleeping bag with all my clothes on & a coonskin hat for my head. Very Nordic. Kinda like the shower I took at 6AM – about 45F out, windy & very cold water. That’ll get you going. The music never stops. IF one camp happens to stop, you hear the other ones better. Outrageous costumes, fire dancers at Phoenix, nude young women & girls dancing & visiting. You’re too lethargic to notice but you can’t help looking. Friday night I go see the sights – I had several folks form my camp – all high on Ecstasy or acid – they were showing me the sights. We didn’t end up where we were supposed to – we planned to go to the Electric Opera. – ended up at the Heart – watched it burn. It was so bright I wore 2 sets of sunglasses – they were using magnesium – the heart glowed red & pulsated. It was made out of metal.
More wandering & biking in utter darkness – saw sights that were amazing – again. Dropped into some camps – don’t remember which. More music, art & sights.
Epiphany #2: you can go without sleep for 4 days & not go insane.
It makes you very lethargic & your body is this big thing you have to drag around to get things done. Wish you could just fly around with your spirit – plenty of other people are. Also it takes really long to do anything & you lose everything. I had lighters in my pocket & in a fanny pack but it took 20 mins. to find one. It takes an hour to change out of your pants. Or to find the flashlight in your tent. Or do any simple task. Your whole body is buzzing like you’ve been drinking coffee continuously. Its strange & in a weird way, kinda cool – it’s a trance state.
Also everything is a little more surreal, you don’t need to eat & smoke as much but drinking is fine – booze that is. Sometimes a handful of vitamins & a half gallon of OJ is your meal for the next 6 hrs. even tho plenty of food is available. It takes too long to make a sandwich, much less eat it! I passed up all the hallucinogenics – too bad, but
I was worried about panic attacks. Did the Herb quite a bit, drank more tequila than I ever had & water too! Piss Clear was the mantra & I always did – often! It helped a lot – the water that is – kept you clean in a weird way.
Epiphany #3: nothing is really yours. You share everything.
By day 2.5 or so, I stopped worrying about who was using my tent, the utensils, the bike, (& the microwave oven I brought!). I always got back what someone used it & it ended up in the place I left it – even when everyone was tripping!
Back stepping somewhat – day 2 I was biking around & I see “Drowning Man” – actually I think it was called Water Boy. It was a man suspended in a very big (prob. 300 gallons!) bag – naked. The whole contraption was on wheels & he was suspended in the water with a breathing apparatus. It was very surrealistic. Somewhere around day 3,
I went to the Thunderdome. Straight out of Mad Max 2: Beyond the Thunderdome. It’s a huge geodesic dome (over 600ft+ in dia.) with loudspeakers on top & lites – loud Swedish death metal surrounds you (don’t ask) Two guys challenge each other & get hooked up in bungee harnesses that are attached to the top of the dome – they get foam battle axes or swords & duke it out. The Dome Master is in the same costume as the one in Mad Max 2 – he pounds his staff on the ground – thunder & lightning erupt from the staff (how did he do that?) – anyway, quite cool & a surreal spectacle (what wasn’t?)
Somewhere around day 4, I see two young girls wearing small fuzzy pompoms on their breast & beavers, they were dancing at Tonka & came by. We get invited to a party starting at 4:20 AM at the end of the Burn.
Burn day. Still in a daze – chili with tequila blended in for breakfast. Losing more energy, so didn’t do much but try to stay warm. Music never stops – then all of a sudden it gets deathly quiet at around 6 or 7PM. I feel this moan – the Man is calling – later I see speakers the size of a house – that musta been the source of the sound or maybe the source of the awesome 420 acre laser lightshow after the Burn.
We all converge to the central area of the Man. All 30,000 of us - --
Epiphany #4: - it’s true we can all be one –.
It was a feeling I’ve never felt before – it was emotional, thorough & all –encompassing unity. PLUR – peace, love, unity & respect – not just rhetoric. Its also a little scary – thousands of people – you don’t know anyone, because its easy to get separated from familiar faces. There’s a large circle of people about 300 yards from the Man. The fire dancers start. After much drumming, the Fire Masters start a small bonfire, receives the first set of “virgins” & ritually cleanses them in fire – that’s right – they pour fire over them. They don’t seem hurt or affected by it. The fire dancers & drummers continue the procession & various rituals – it is dark & hard to see.
The Man raises his arms. Everyone kneels so others can see. The tension is incredible – then the lasers converge on the head of the Man. It burst into an incredible fire works show & starts burning. It is quiet except for the sound of fire. The fire is huge – there were lots of hay bales – so it was really big. I don’t need to use the flash on the camera. I realize it’s raining.
As the Man collapses, more fireworks, more dancers, more burning. You see fires everywhere in the camps.
All the art goes up in flames – that includes the metal sculptures. On the way out to the Man I saw men starting a statue of a women made of glass & metal on fire with acetylene torches – it took 4 hrs. to burn.
After the Burn people disperse, however there is an amazing laser show happening.
I’ve lost all sense of direction & it takes me an hr. or more to find any sort of landmark. I head back. Its all very quiet – some camps have music now – again. People converge at our camp about 2 or 3AM for multimedia projections on our stage. I musta missed it.
I try to sleep.
Next day was pack up -- time to leave– getting my first real shower & 7 hrs. of sleep in a real bed at a motel later. Its seems surreal. I smell like the Playa mud for 2 days. I still miss it. After all that excitement, everything else seems blasé.

Haiku:
the tent zipper scream
the sadistic wind teases
MAXX goes sleepless/
with bass in his bones

What I learned: sharing means truly that on the Playa.
30,000 people can get together, party like mad & still there is
no violence or serious problems
if I went back now to that Playa there would be no trace of
what happened there

Things I would do different:
bring more warm clothes
Stay in a satellite camp (even tho I may still not get as much sleep)
Won’t ride with MM ever again (he was extremely selfish & difficult on the ride – no need to go into detail – I’ll never do that again.)
bring art or an art piece
wear a watch to keep track of events
try Ecstasy – at least a little
go to more places in Black Rock City – weather, motivation, lack of energy got in the way all the time. (good reasons for Xstacy)

I AM going next year - & as often as possible after that.
During a 106 hr. day -- after a while – the music becomes part of you, you don’t notice it – you are the beat – this is truly a trance…
About our camp on 2000: it was called “Magic Fingers”, we had a geodesic dome, inside it were “magic finger” beds – the old massage beds that where in motels you plunked a quarter in & the bed would vibrate – we had 3 of them. Computer graphics were projected on the ceiling of the dome when possible & of course we had music, sometimes with live DJ’s. On the edge we had “hand chairs” – shaped like a hand, you could sit in the palm. We also had a hand made out of rebar on top of a fire barrel –
the fire sometimes came out & around of the fingers. We had several large flat bed trucks, one filed with 50 gallon water barrels, another truck full of food & booze, another with other equipment. There were about 15 of us or so. We all pretty much worked together when we had the energy... so that’s it, except it was a long ride back.
- About MM– on the drive in he insisted that he’d smoke pot -- a lot – I wouldn’t allow him to smoke in the truck so we stopped about every 4 hrs so he could smoke. He wanted to do that in our hotel room in Utah, but I wouldn’t let him, so he smoked in his own room – I really didn’t want to get busted in Utah for pot…..