| Just finished reading your official
take on Burning Man, and I have to admit it makes me a bit sad. When I think of the
Mind Blowing amount of work that went into each project as well as the thing on the
whole... I just cant see where you did it justice. The burn itself...fire passed
from a woman's torch to a man in a fire proof suit (as hollywood stunty as it was)
deserved a tiny mention. The shared dinners at Carp camp, the 70 free bicycles at
pedal camp, the circus, the ballsy marching band that tortured the hung-over types at 9
a.m. with "In heaven there is no beer..." A tip of the hat to the medics
that LITERALLY saved lives! Geez guys, these people were your neighbors. There is no doubt that the Cyberbus & Wrybread crew was one of the coolest groups in the whole mess of 16,000. (The phones & station were great!) And sure, there were a lot of jerks, freak peekers, dealers & undercover cops running around. But, I was camped a short 2 minute walk from you, and it's like we weren't even at the same event. I dunno. I'm probably missing something here. You guys are for one week a year, as far as I know, the first line of communication from the Playa. I, and many others are very interested in what you have to say. All love&hate mail to
Raven- Thanks much for the reply, I loved it. It's one of the things that makes Burning Man so interesting to me, which is that we each leave with such different takes on it.As for my (Hugh Mann's) entries, the big thing I want to point out is there was nothing official about what I wrote. I spoke only for myself. That said, my philosophy behind the entries was a) this event is completely different for each participant, and b) everyone's always praising Burning Man unconditionally, so therefore I'm going to talk about how things feel to me, absolutely honestly, with no skew. I did that as best I could, and I didn't mean to take credit away from anyone who deserves it. I should say that in my opinion the work that went into Burning Man was incredible, fabulous, and all that, and I agree with all the praise you gave it. But I wasn't trying to capture the feeling of the event as a whole, only the feeling of the event as it felt to me. If you think about it, part of the spirit of the event is that we as a group collaborate, each doing one small part. So my entries represent my small part of capturing the event as a whole. Or something like that. -Hugh Mann
Hugh- It's kind of funny. When I got to Black Rock, the first camp I went to was Cyberbus. I remember saying "Ok, we're here...I see the Cyberbus." I was invited on the air minutes after parking. And the last Burning Man image I saw was the Cyberbus pulled over on I80 for a well deserved nap. We were laughing at how much stuff you guys were able to fit on the roof. I'm sorry, that I saw your personal take as the official one. When I think of what is best in SF, your group does come to mind. As far as the drugs, I wasn't put out by the people using them. (I spent 99% of the time there sober) What really pissed me off were the professionals that showed up just to deal & the cops that were there just to catch them. One time, as I was walking to the sani-cans, An undecorated blue van with gangsta looking types stopped me to sell "mushrooms & opium" (Opium for cryin outloud!) Two other times I was approached by very healthy straight looking guys in tee shirts and shorts that said stupid stuff like "Hey man, do you know where I could score some....I heard this was the place" I laughed in their faces. One of these "hip dudes" stopped a guy in pedal camp who was welding and asked where the delivery of CRACK was! The guy was like "OH Yah! I always like to smoke some crack before I weld in 102 degree heat!!!" This was my biggest pet peeve. Other than that, I liked the company of most of the people I met. Especially those who stayed for more than just the weekend. And even more the locals of Gerlach who are nuts enough to live there all year long! There is something really magical about a 70 year old widow who loves to see "the kids" every year. Tracy
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