...and another video, a Flight over Black Rock City

I love this. It is a robotic flight (using DragonLink) over Black Rock City on Friday when the city was close to its largest size.  It has wonderful music background Ready To Fly by Clayton Joseph Scott.  Enjoy!

Burning Man Video...

Arrgghh!  The Futility of the Default World has already engulfed me.  I am so far behind in posting my blogs from the event, and with all of my work and hobbies (I am directing a musical cabaret in San Francisco this November so last weekend was filled with auditions and show pre-production) that the blog keeps taking second (or third or really just last) place.  

Oh well, I will get it done, it just takes more time (maybe a clone would help!) This is a link to a great video already edited and published on Burning Man 2012.  If you want to see in a microcosm what the event is about (at least the art and the people), have a look: 

What's a "Bleurose"?

I have had a few private inquiries from people who aren't familiar with the playa or Burning Man asking me "why do you sign your posts Bleurose/Jon"?  Bleurose is my "playa name" which I started using in 2009 (yeah, I know, playa names are supposed to be bestowed by others, but I took this one myself and it stuck so sue me LOL!)  

What is a "bleurose"?  Well, the story goes back to 1984 when I formed a consulting company with my good friend Don Bloom.  We wanted a name that would reflect both of our names, Bloom and Rosen and we decided on "Bluerose Systems".   The company didn't last long :-). 

Jump to 2001 and I had just gotten divorced (first time) and was starting to date again.  I needed a handle for a dating site and decided I liked "bluerose" but when I tried that name, it was already taken (although I never found out who had taken it). So being somewhat of a francophile, I tried flipping the letters in bleu (as in bleu cheese) and voila.  I have used it as a handle on dating sites and other places where I choose to remain semi-anonymous ever since.  It was natural when in 2009 someone asked me my playa name, to respond "bleurose".  

A "bleurose" gifted to me

Is there a real "blue rose"?  Technically, no.  Blue pigmentation can't be synthesized by the rose family of plants (although many other flowers do indeed come in real blue colors).  So, there are red roses, pink roses, white roses and even black roses but no blue roses in the wild.

However, some devilish geneticists have managed to mangle the rose's genes and come up with artificially created "blue roses" although they look a bit more purple than actually blue.

And of course, if it doesn't have to be "real", you CAN indeed have a "bleu" rose and one of the nicest sweetest gifts every given to me on the playa came from the niece of a couple (Queen Calvert and Doctor Phil) who met me on Tuesday when I cruised by their camp at 2:15 and B looking for a friend (who was actually on C and didn't realize it!) The niece and I had a nice conversation (it was her first burn) and I gave them all free tickets to the Default World. 

A few days later, when I came back, the neice popped out of her tent and said she had something for me.  

It was a "bleu rose". Fabric to be sure, but beautiful, too.

Sweet!

Bleurose/Jon

Things I Love About The Default World #1

Two-ply Toilet Paper

If there is one thing that makes the Default World superior to Burning Man it is two-ply toilet paper. No one loves the porto-potties that are the principal place for peeing and pooping on the playa. But most of us would probably feel a lot better about it if we could use that soft Charmin-quality two-ply toilet paper instead of the hard-on-your-ass one-ply that feels like it might have come from some third world country. 

As we left Burning Man, I couldn't help but think how happy I was that I was finally going to be able to wipe myself with something that didn't leave harsh abrasions on my tender butt cheeks. Why can't they make a porto-potty that can handle two-ply, for chrissake? 

Now, don't be fooled... the one-ply requirement is not an ecological thing, as some of you might be thinking. Its not about saving trees or some such idyllic nonsense. In fact, I expect that there is more physical mass of paper used at Burning Man per capita shit than in the Default World.

Why? Because every one of you knows that when you peel off that microtome-thin paper from the roll (assuming there actually is a roll in the porto at all) you immediately start doubling it up and then quadrupling it and so one because you KNOW that this paper will be useless if used in its virgin state. No one actually uses a single layer (if you do, I expect your fingers end up smelling pretty gross damn quickly!)  So by the time you are done constructing your makeship 8-ply, you easily use more physical paper than if you could just use a nice soft Bounty-type paper from the local supermarket. 

Of course, you have to use the stuff they provide (or something similar of your own) if you honor the code. The portos can apparently handle doubled or quadrupled single-ply but not commercially manufactured two-ply at all, or so they say.  

Why? I have no idea but I imagine there is something in their recovery systems that needs to ultimately break down the tissue and even when it is wadded up, the single ply junk works while the store-bought two-ply stuff gums up the innards.

But I can not figure out why someone hasn't just made a porto that can handle the soft stuff that soothes your rear. Yeah, it might make the portos more expensive, but at this point, with ticket prices pushing $400, what's another $5 or $10 a year to have a baby-smooth ass when you are done, instead of skin that feels like sandpaper?

C'mon, United Sanitation! Make us all happy and figure out how to solve this universal problem.  You will make 60,000+ burners feel a helluva lot better with their week at home.

Bleurose/Jon

Please feel free to post your comments. An exchange of ideas about Burning Man as well as the Default World is one principal reason for posting this blog.

A Note About the Burning Man posts...

Those of you who have been visiting waiting to read about my 10th anniversary journey to Burning Man this year are aware that we had awful Internet access and I just didn't have time or ability to post my blogs as they happened, but I did type them into my laptop and so I will be posting those old posts with the "T-Plus # of hours" title to distinguish them from anything else I write about Burning Man or the Default World. The T-Minus and T-Plus times are relative to Friday, August 24, 2012, at 6 PM, my originally planned departure time, which would have been T-Minus 0 hours. 

(No, I didn't adjust the 0 point with a countdown "hold" like NASA does, although I guess I could have. Deal with it.)

I will try to post one or two a day over the next week or so. This will keep anyone from feeling overwhelmed at the amount of prose I am foisting on an unsuspecting public at one time.

I may occasionally write about something post-event, in which case you will know this because the post won't start with T-Plus.

Thanks for reading!

Jon 

T-Plus 22 hours: Hot, Windy and Definitely Dusty!

Day One

Nadine and I are finally on-playa, arriving on Saturday afternoon around 4 PM, approximately 12 hours later than our original plan. As always, getting home to Black Rock City was not as straightforward as we would have liked LOL!

What a crazy week it has been!  Several weeks ago, Greg Junnell (a long-time burner from San Luis Obispo and a good friend) died of cancer and the week before I was scheduled to leave for Burning Man, a group of Greg’s best friends decided that we needed to build a temple for him which we would take to Black Rock City for our own memorial service and then burn by placing it in David Best’s big temple. I felt I had to be there in solidarity over Greg’s loss and so I spent a good part of that weekend down in SLO helping create and then build the temple. Although certainly not on the scale of Burning Man’s temples, our temple was a personal creation to honor the memory of one of the most sensitive souls many of us had ever known.

With most of my planning/prep time reduced drastically because of this (but absolutely without any regrets, it was one of the most important things I feel I have ever done), I spent most of the week working and trying to cram my last minute shopping and packing into spare hours (of which I had few). My plan to pick up the Groove Tube on Wednesday, turned into Thursday and then into Friday. In fact, because of work, I couldn’t even get out to Discovery Bay until early Friday night. Making matters worse, I had to hitch up the trailer in Discovery Bay and then trek all the way back to the peninsula to pick up Nadine. What could possibly go wrong?

Lillith, if you are reading this, you know what could go wrong LOL.  The trailer lights!  (I say this because it already happened last year when Lillith and I went to Burning Man together and she knows the whole said story which just repeated itself a year later).  Groove Tube is a vintage trailer, over 40 years old and its electrical system is a bit dicey. I have had recent problems getting the lights to work and this time, they failed on me again just as we were ready to leave. So, I tried stopping at Walmart on the way back to see if I could come up with a solution, but it was clear that the running lights were not working at all, and one of the turn signal/brake lights was also out. Sigh…

I called Nadine and told her to stand by, that things were getting delayed hour by hour. I had no idea when we would actually leave and we were already a few hours past our planned departure time of 6 PM (which we hoped would get us to the playa by 4 AM Saturday morning with time enough to sleep a little, get up in the morning and pitch camp and still provide me with some time before I had to go to the DMV – the Department of Mutant Vehicles – and work my first shift – more on that later).

The best laid plans of mice and men, yada yada yada… Nadine was very hesitant about any quick fix that would leave us without full lights on a night trip and I agreed. We discussed just delaying until the morning, but we really didn’t want to do that. Then as I passed Home Depot, a thought struck me. I had a set of temporary trailer lights that worked and the only problem was they were magnetic and the trailer doesn’t have any metal for the magnets to stick to (it’s a complete plastic outside wall).  But if I purchased a couple of mending plates, I could screw them into the trailers roof and the trailer lights would stick to them, I was sure. So I turned In to Home Depot and sure enough, the plan worked.  It was now 10 PM and we actually had a chance of getting on the road in the few hours. I went straight home and finished packing the trailer, and then headed over the bridge to Nadine’s in Belmont. 

It took us another hour to pack her stuff into the trailer and by the time we were ready to depart, it was almost 1 AM. But we had a chance to make it, so we headed out towards Sacramento. Forrest (my Ranger truck) did an admirable job of pulling the trailer (partially thanks to the fact that most of the heavy stuff was already on its way in the Hair of the Dog camp truck which made things much lighter than in previous trips). We grabbed a quick bite of food on the way and headed up into Donner Pass.

Nadine is a “birgin” and we spent a lot of time talking about Burning Man, but as anyone who has been here knows, you just don’t really get it until you actually participate. So I gave her the overview, but I could tell that she was still skeptical of the concepts behind gifting and radical participation. It will be interesting to see if she acclimates well.

By the time we got within 50 miles of Truckee, I was fading fast and so was Nadine. At about 4 AM, we pulled off the road behind a huge semi-trailer. Nadine didn’t like where we were (she spoke of bears and crazy guys with guns, etc., oh well).  I just went straight to sleep in the seat and didn’t wake up for 3 hours.

With a little rest, I figured we could make it the rest of the way, although we still had to shop somewhere. We made our first real stop just a couple of exits up from where we slept (if we had continued for a few more miles, we would have reached a rest area, but who knew?) It was at this stop that I gave away my first couple of Default World tickets to some obvious burners who also had early entry and were heading for the playa at the same time. They both got a kick out of the ticket and that made me feel good about what I was planning.

We got back on the road and made quick work of the remainder of Donner Pass and the downslope into Reno. I decided we would take the Sparks/Pyramid Lake route because it was more scenic and only a few extra miles compared to Wadsworth/Fernley. It also has one of the biggest Walmarts to shop at (okay okay, we all know that Walmart sucks, but we also know that almost every burner shops there because it is just too expensive to buy all that crap at the regular stores, right? So, please, no snarks or flames, okay? J). 

We pulled into Walmart at about 10 AM, and immediately started shopping, mostly for food. We only had to shop for one BIG meal because we are going to be part of a camp dinner consortium, meaning we will cook for about 20 people one night and be fed the rest of the nights by the others.  That is a terrific way for a small camp to really get to know each other and also to make buying food easier.  It is hard to buy 6 meals that are interesting for 2-4 people, but if you buy one big meal for a lot of people, and the others feed you the rest of the time, you have a good chance of eating really well all week.  The cost is about the same (maybe even a little less due to volume) but the main thing is the camaraderie of eating with everyone else. 

Unfortunately I have to miss several of the meals because I will have DMV shifts. On the plus side, the DMV will feed me either at the shed or in the commissary and that is fun.

We had already decided to make a burrito/soft taco bar, but now we faced a dilemma.  Our dinner isn’t until Saturday (burn night) and we either have to figure out a way to make the food last until then without spoiling or we will have to do a mid-week exit and go back to Fernley or Sparks and shop again on Wednesday or Thursday.  The pass to leave Burning Man is only $20, but the gas is huge, as it is 100 miles each way to either major shopping center (about ¾ tank of gas in my truck) plus it takes over 2 hours each way so it is a big time loss.  I decided to take a shot at using dry ice to keep our critical food in good shape. I bought an extra Coleman cooler and purchased dry ice at Safeway (and gave out a whole bunch of free tickets to the Default World because there were a lot of burners at that shopping center). 

All told, shopping today took us WAY more time than I had hoped.  In fact I started to worry about making my 7 PM shift at the DMV. We finally got on the road and headed to the lake.

Pyramid Lake is indeed a spectacular sigh, almost as spectacular as Lake Tahoe. As you come over the crest, you see a huge wide mass of water (it almost looks like a land-locked sea). I always love taking pictures of the lake but we decided to push on instead. We just had to get to the playa as soon as possible.

We did stop at the Nixon store to top off the gas tank and met some more burners (and gave away some more free tickets).  Two of them were actually biking all the way to Burning Man (and I think that is an amazing achievement).  Back in the car and off we headed on the last leg of the journey home.

Another 2 hours drive to Gerlach and we were almost there. We didn’t stop at the Empire Store, something I have almost always done on the way to the playa, but time just didn’t permit it. Maybe we will stop on the way back to the Default World.  (I want to say that it is amazing what Tammy and Dana Sparkes have managed to do in keeping the Empire Store open since the entire town was virtually shut down just over a year ago by the closing of the US Gypsum plant. They have kept the store going in the face of outrageous odds, relying on the few weeks of massive activity surrounding Burning Man and the lower level of tourist activity that takes place around the Black Rock Desert the rest of the year. I actually felt a little bad that I couldn’t make a contribution to their economy on the trip home.)

The last couple of miles was amazingly short even at the reduced speeds that are required by Empire and Gerlach and believe me, you won’t catch me breaking the speed limits after my double ticketing in 2010, for “speeding” through Nixon 4 miles over the posted 35 mph limit and then for having expired license tags by ONE DAY when we ventured out to Fernley in mid-week! The best part of that experience was getting to explain my license plate (MRPERKY) to the tribal cop in Nixon who offered to go easy on me if I would tell him what it meant. I warned him, but he insisted and the answer made him turn beet red! I got off with a special “day speeding” ticket with only a $75 fine and no points on my driving record, plus he gave me a Drunk Driving tee-shirt! LOL!

We hit the entrance to the playa and I could see that Nadine was getting excited (as was I). Of course the long drive in to Gate was as bumpy as ever (possibly more bumpy!) and we watched on art car which had several bikes hanging from a rear rack but obviously not roped or bungeed to the rack as it bumped over the road and lost several bikes without even realizing it!  We tried to catch them to tell them, but they were driving far faster than the 10 mph speed limit we were supposed to follow so we gave up. It wasn’t our fault, of course, but it was sad.

And then, finally, there it was. Gate!  We were just a few minutes from being home.

Well, actually not L. Nadine had her ticket (a lucky $240 face value ticket she scored two weeks before the burn as the ticket market collapsed – if we waited another week, she might have gotten a ticket for just $100 or less!) but mine was at Will Call, so the Gate guy sent us out of the line into the Box Office parking and I made the trek to Will Call.  It was about this time that I noticed the wind picking up and we started to have some early whiteout conditions. This was looking just like people had been saying: lots of wind and lots of dust – nothing at all like 2011 which was virtually perfect.

My friend Lillith was in line too (playa serendipity!) and we waited together as the line slowly got shorter. As always while waiting at Will Call, almost everyone had a story to tell, of a previous burn or their trip in. People are hugging friends, and even strangers as we all welcome each other home. Newbies are being told what to expect (sometimes way out of proportion to reality LOL).

Lillith and I made plans on how to reconnect to get her the stuff I had transported for her camp and we agreed to meet before I headed for my DMV shift. I got my ticket (cool, it is marked “SPECIAL” without a price as it was a staff ticket I earned for working DMV last year for 18 hours – I knew I had a ticket to Fertility 2.0 without even worrying about lotteries or STEP programs, yeah! Total cost, $160).

I made my way back to the truck and we got back in line. In just a few short minutes we got to security and they did the “dance” through the truck and trailer. The obviously sent the smallest Security person (a miniscule but lovely young lady who couldn’t have weighed more than 90 pounds) they had because she clearly could get into our trailer even as packed full as it was (and she did!)

Fortunately, they didn’t find any of the hidden contraband (JUST KIDDING!) and they scanned our tickets and our early arrival passes and sent us on our way (but not until I gave them all free tickets “outa here”!)

Another drive to the Greeter stations. And shock of shocks, NO BURMA SHAVE signs this year? Wassup with that?  Fuck, I practically LIVE for the Burma Shave signs. It keeps the mind busy as you slowly make your way from Security to the Greeters. It was even funny sometimes.  Disappointment was clearly felt by that missing element. I hope that this is purely because we are early and they will be up before Monday, but last year they were up as we drove in, so I am not sure. I will try to find out by the end of the event.

And finally we arrive at the Greeters station. They ask if we have been here before and of course I say yes, but Nadine admits to being a “birgin”. So they ask her out of the truck and go through the Burning Man Virgin ritual, but not before the Greeter observes sagely that given the strength of the wind and blowing dust, the ritual is largely irrelevant. 

Nadine takes it all like a trouper. She lies down in the dust and makes dust angels, then rolls around. She finally gets up and rings the bell, and she is no longer  Burning Man Virgin! We all hug and we get back in the car and slowly head for camp (although we can barely see forward more than about 30 feet!)

Fortunately, Hair of the Dog is a very short ride, almost straight from the Greeters’ station to 5:30 and Alyssum. As we pull up, we see that the big U-Haul has made it, but the camp is still virtually empty. It will be interesting to see how long that remains.

Unfortunately with the wind blowing badly, we can’t do a whole lot. We manage to lay out the ground tarp and tack it down with stakes and move the trailer onto the tarp, but that is about all we can manage in these almost whiteout conditions. I guess set-up is going to wait until tomorrow.

I have to head out for my first DMV shift in a few hours, but just as I think that thought, Lillith shows up. We talk about what stuff she needs (some of it is in the camp trailer, but fortunately they have unpacked the important stuff – the conduit for the shade structures). Lillith needs to go to Fandango to pick up some more stuff and asks to borrow the truck while I go to the DMV shift. I figure why not? So I hand her the keys and she is gone, promising to be back in a few hours. 

And now its time for the DMV.  I will report back after shift and hopefully sooner or later I will be able to post this first on-playa blog entry I have ever written.

Namaste to all,

Bleurose/Jon

I know, I know, WTF is going on?

Hi all,

Sorry for all the delays in posting.  Internet access for us has been unbelievably spotty this year.  Our camp internet (which I managed to get one post out from on Wednesday) disappeared on Thursday and with the dusty conditions this year, I didn't want to take my laptop on a bike ride to any of the few places I could get decent Internet access, so I made an "executive decision" to just wait until I get home and then start posting about the burn from day one in order.  Also, that way, all the people who got The Default World tickets (see earlier post) can follow along as well.  So you will start seeing my blog posts from the first day of our early arrival probably tomorrow.

We are ready to break camp today and will depart early Tuesday morning.  Everything is full of playa dust, but I will say (preview of coming attractions) the burns were incredible.  The Man did a cartwheel this year (first time I ever saw that in my 7 burns) and the temple burn was spectacular.

I did manage to honor three friends in the temple this year. Greg Junnell, a long-time burner from San Luis Obispo, who I met through my friendship with Lillith K, passed away from cancer two weeks before the burn.  We built him a small memorial temple just before we left for burning man and we burned it in the ashes of the man on Sunday just before the main temple burn.  The moment was quite moving. 

I also honored Cathy Sue Ovalle, the sister of Cindy Ovalle, who left us a month ago.  I learned about Cathy Sue through my Facebook friendship with Cindy. Cathy Sue lived many years beyond what was expected and was a truly brave and wonderful person.  

Finally, I honored another dear friend in my life, my friend Shirley's kitten, Sugar Magnolia, who died in July of a congenital heart defect before she even turned 2 years old. Maggie was the sweetest kitten, and I fell for her as much as I fell for her "mother".  That both are now out of my life has saddened me greatly but as always, the temple burn at Burning Man provided me a way of honoring that loss.


I will provide more on those memorials in the course of the blog. There were also many new friends made and enjoyed during the burn, and I can say that I am glad I made it, as touch as go as it seemed at times.  

It also provided many interesting  observations that we can all learn from about both the culture of Burning Man and the culture of the Default World. I plan to write more about that as time proceeds.  I invite you to comment on these posts as well, and I hope that many of the people I met at the playa who received "free tickets" to the Default World will spread the word.  

Best to all of you and see you in The Default World!

Bleurose/Jon