1.This year was bigger and wilder
Black Rock City was able to get a permit from the BLM for an additional ten thousand people this year. For this reason, and perhaps some kind of cultural point of inflection, the event was packed this year. Last year we had camped at 7:05 and Iris without problem, after trying for the G ring. This year I got in early and found 7:00 and Holy to be already almost full. I could see the I-ring filling up quickly that evening. That night when I set up temporary camp in my small tent, it was on the J-ring street, which barely filled up at all last year until mid week. By morning my tent was surrounded by other camps, and there were people on the K-ring street as well. Eventually even the L-ring street filled up in the 6-10 o'clock sector of the city. Amazing So many folks.
By Monday afternoon I had still not found Okki and Ash. I kept cruising the streets in the 7:00 area looking for the Swedish flags that Okki said he was going to set up, as well as the hexayurt that he was going to construct (his first attempt).
By I found no sign of them, nor of any notice on the signpost at 7:00 and Holy, as is the customary thing to do, to contact people coming in.
With growing frustration, I went down to Center Camp with my laptop, hoping to contact one of the members of my camp my email. Eventually I would find them, I knew, but I disliked the clusterfuck we had fallen into, of trying to find each other.
At Center Camp I bought a mocha (sweet coffee is one of the few things you can actually buy at Black Rock City). Then it took me twenty minutes of trying to get a connection to the Internet to finally get through. Gmail was painfully slow, but I was able to send a message to my camp mates still arriving informing them of my temporary location at 7:05 and John Frum, which is the name of this year's J-ring street. John Frum is the central mythological figure of the Cargo Cult, which was the theme of this year's Burn.
At this point I was feeling quite down about everything. I was beginning to regret having come to Burning Man and just wished to be elsewhere.
Fortunately back at my camp I made friends with a camp of folks from California next door., One of the Californians saw me arranging my gear while wearing my captain's hat. She called out, "O, Captain, my Captain," to me. Then she debated about the movie source for that quote. As she did I walked over to say hello, taking a seat under their crude but effective PVC and tarp covering in front of their tents. That evening they bar-b-cued steaks and we sat around talking about our excitement for this year's Burn.
That evening we walked out on to the playa, all the way to the Man, which wasn't finished yet, so we couldn't go in. On the way we stopped at the infernal Skeeball machine set-up. It was a row of alleys with real digital scoreboards, spouting flames. Whenever someone got a ball in the middle, it shot a huge ball of flame above the set-up. Very clever. There was also a game where you stood on platforms against an opponent and used motion sensing gloves to send fire balls along the playa floor.
The playa seemed full of colorful art carts, and the Esplanade was alive with lights and music. All of us were veteran Burners, and we all agreed that on Monday night the playa seemed as lively as on the night of the Burn last year. It boded for a very lively event ahead.
On the way back we based a small camp on 7:30 where one was to spin a wheel to receive either a lap dance, a massage, or be spanked in chains. When we rode up, a gay guy with his pants all the way down was being held in Charlotte's Web, a spider web device. He was getting spanked mercilessly by two young women, and with spank he screamed in pain.
My California hostess spun the wheel and it landed on the spanking. So she put her hands in the leather clasps int he set-up known as "Charlotte's Web." The dungeon master gave her a spanking for a while, but it was not satisfying to her. So I volunteered to give her a few whacks as well.
We got back to our camps around midnight. As I preparing for bed in my tent, and about to take out my contact lenses, I heard my name being called. I came out of my tent and called out back. It turned out to be Okki and Sean, on their bicycles. They were both trashed drunk, and were heading out for another round. I was quite relieved to find them, and we gave each other big hugs. They wanted me to go out with them. I told them I was too tired, and was turning in for the night. They told me they were at 7:45 and Kowtow, further out on the clock, and further on the ring structure than last year.
Yes, it was a big turnout this year.
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