"The Louvre of Underground Art"

The title is a from a quote in this half-hour video report from Russia Today about this year's Burning Man. It's definitely the best video I've seen about the event this year. It was a nice coincidence seeing it my Youtube feed this morning, as I spent last night out in the motel parking lot scrubbing some of the remaining playa dust from the door frame of my car.

Just watching it brought back some powerful flashbacks---especially when I saw the Central Camp building with the flags on top, where we would go every morning for coffee and ice (the only things that money will actually buy when you are there).

A couple points:

• I passed right by the Light-up Coats shop in Mendocino County recently. I wish I would have known it was there. If I go back, I definitely want to be more appropriately attired.
• The art installations were definitely my favorite part in the end. It's the number one reason I would go back.
• The segment about the Temple was quite powerful. Seeing the Temple at night, both outside and inside, was overwhelming. The report gives you and idea of what struck me as the spiritual aspect of the Temple, in that although BM is supposed to all-inclusive and non-judgmental, it seemed clear that all faiths or lack-of-faiths were tolerated except (traditional) Christianity. The only truly negative note I heard during the entire week when when people booed and cat-called when a group started singing "Ave Maria" during the Temple burn. 
• I chuckled when one of the guys in the video said he was at the "outermost" streets of the ring at G or H. Our camp was on 7:00 & I street (which this year was called "Iris", as the alphabetic ring streets all had flower names due to the theme of Fertility 2.0).
• There is a scene of the rarely mentioned Black Rock City airport in the video. It is just on the outskirts of the city and functions as a real airport. There were at least a hundred small planes there from people who had flown in. I got to visit it during my time there, as one of the Glorious Aspenites I was with had brought his ultralight aircraft in a trailer and was giving rides. The twenty minutes I spent as his passenger flying around the desert on the outskirts of the city (flying directly over is prohibited) were one of the highlights of the week (Thank you again, Tommy). Of course it was rather terrifying as well, since there is hardly anything below you, as you look down from your seat.