Part the I - pre-Burn preparations
Part the II - We arrive, and Mistress Weather subdues us . . .
Part the III - From Thursday to the bitter end
Ahem. And now for a few corrections and amendments . . . . .
Giac writes in with praise for the writing and the correction that he had to be hydrated by medics, whereas there was only a quick trip to them and then back to camp where the Quixotes supplied the necessary liquid refreshment. As I said before: Burn on, Giac!
He'd also like to add that my comments about programmers not knowing much about the history of their technology should be refuted as he wrote an article about Alan Turing.
OK, it's not so very important, just to me.
Just as long as people stop presenting bloody Ada, Countess of Lovelace as being the first programmer and a far-sighted computer pioneer, along with Babbage as the "father of computers".
It's not true, and it's not history!
(OK, rant over.)
But I should also mention that he - Giac, you sillies, not Babbage - performed magnificently at all three shows, providing inter-act standup with his "I'm a Burning Man Virgin" spiel.
'Twas very good.
And Ib would like to point out that he never went to Public School; he "merely listened when my mother taught me how to pronounce things".
Well, yes, after all, that's how I obtained my ridiculous 'Received Pronounciation'.
So both a warning and advice, really.
And that's all, although I think I should leave you with just two things
1. MOOP (Matter Out Of Place)
Don't you just hate it when a particular cultural sub-grouping creates its own acronyms and then expects everyone to know what they mean? Well, Burners are no different, and while there's a perfectly decent description of MOOP as rubbish, its a bit more over-cranked than that.
It's more like: don't even open the packet if the contents are likely to fall anywhere. In fact, don't even bring it to the Playa, if it's going to drop on the floor. And if you really must, certainly don't let it drop on the floor. Neither deliberately or accidentally. And think for yourself about this.
Certain some things are automatically banned. Feathers. Sequins. Any decoration that's glued, rather than sewed. Things that will fray in the wind and lose threads.
There's a longer (and better) description on the Burning Man site, but as BM is a Leave No Trace event it makes sense to follow the guidelines.
And once you've been to it, you'll hate any normal British music festival where everyone leaves their crap everywhere, usually just outside their tent, the animals.
2. And this is an email from Thomas, one of Hushville's regulars, posted on the 25 of September, so only three weeks after BM ended:
"I was travelling to eastern Nevada last week so I decided to take a shortcut across the playa. It was a warm, clear beautiful day, there was only a light breeze. The road to Black Rock City is still easy to find and the T posts are still on the street corners so I was able to find Hushville with little difficulty.
I spent half an hour walking about our campsites and unfortunately found a good handful of trash. There were several small pieces of paper which may have blown in from elsewhere. A few sequins were around, feathers are discouraged at Burning Man but they either decompose eventually or are carried by the wind off the playa, a sequin is forever. I found a matchstick left by some flange headed moron, I think it was me. The serious items I found were things left over from constructing structures, one nut and several wire ties. The wire ties were all in the same area as if someone had collected them then forgot to put them in their place.
Last year when I completed my search I found a dime, this year I found a penny, I am getting closer and closer to getting paid what I'm worth.
There was a group of twenty or so DPW (read Department of Public Works - ed.) workers in a line going over the city searching for debris they had not been to Hushville yet. After they combed the area a truck pulling a screen drove over the playa eliminating most traces of our presence.
When I go back in a month or so I suspect that it will be difficult to find any trace of BlackRock City."
And that's what a Leave No Trace event is all about and why there are rules for BM participants.
So that they can do it all again next year.
Thanks for reading all this, and so far.
