[ CyberScape | MetroActive Central ]
MetroActive Road Trip
He Blowed Up Real Good:
Over the weekend, we loaded up the car with eight gallons
of bottled water, the tent, a handful of safety flares and an ice chest
full of beer. Destination: the Black Rock Desert, 100 miles north of
Reno, site of the peculiar but oddly enthralling Burning Man Festival.
Each Labor Day a caravan of Bay Area, well, "pyrophiles" sets up gypsy
camp in the middle of a dry lake bed to torch a towering effigy built
of plywood, neon lights, high explosives and kerosine-saturated burlap.
Why? Well, we're not sure, but there are scads of theories: It's an
atavistic quest for the lost thrill of tribal ritual; it's a kind of
catharsis, a chance to exorcise the pent-up frustrations of the 1990s;
or maybe it's just an opportunity to get drunk and burn stuff.
Whatever the attraction, the
Burning Man Festival--founded by San Franciscan Larry Harvey--draws an
unusual mix of folks: neopagans, crusty hippies, San Francisco
cybernerds and club barnacles, gun-toting survivalists, and unabashed
nudists. In short, a very Bay Area crowd transplanted to an extreme,
lunar landscape.
Check out Richard Von Busack's report on 1995's
Burning Man Fest. And then dig into the MetroActive archives for
Gigi Bisson's account of an early Burning Man
gathering, back in 1993. You can also link to CNN's
Quicktime movie
of this year's big burn, or visit the official
Burning Man Web
page.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
