burning man 1998

Cassandra and i loaded up the trusty silver hatchback and made to the arduous 8-hour journey to Black Rock City, arriving around 2 AM wednesday morning. Drifting through the scattered encampments in the dark we found the general area of Infinity Village, near the northern, noisy end of the City.

In retrospect, nothing much happened this year. Sure, i got to see friends, and bike around the playa, hear some good music, experience moments of fiery and electroluminescent spectacle from an altered mindset, but . . . it felt ordinary.
Our amazingly cheap tent did its job of elementary shelter. The dried food got dull rapidly, sending us to the BEHOP to barter ultrabright LEDs and BunnyPeople™ (as "ritual objects") for coffee and pancakes. Our neighbors in Infinity and Fleshlab were friendly and generous, though we never did find Fray camp or Ken Musgrave, an interesting graphics guru known to be in our camp.
Highlights included:
  • the freshly-made pancakes
  • someone's costumes made of "phosphor-coated wire"
  • the watery diffractional imagery of 2CB
  • the lightning generator
  • being "processed" by a large team of Fleshlab technicians with lab coats, sensors and analytic terminology
  • impromptu merriment in the Nub Chai tent
  • the vibration platform (below)
Lowlights... let's just say, if you are ever tempted to find out what DXM tastes like, and you're about to touch the smallest amount of it to your tongue... don't. No, the taste does not wash away with repeated gargling.

Also, more so than in previous years, the heat of the day left me too tired to dance at night.  Maybe i'm getting old.
I came away from the Man this year with a feeling of comfort and security... like i was departing from an extended gathering of benevolent and complacent tribes. Some challenge and novelty were present, but not enough. Basically, i felt like a spectator, the bane of the Burning Man experience. If i go next year, i want to contribute.

..............
ideas for 1999