Burning Man
Black Rock City, NV
August 24 - 31 2K03

Day Four:
In Which the Camp is Complete, and We Walk Out into the Night Again In Search of We Know Not What (thought it may involve Bad Pirates and Poetry)...

CONTENTS
Day One (Saturday): Arrival
Day Two (Sunday): Burnin' & Bikin'
Day Three, Part One (Monday): All God's Chillun Must RISE UP
Day Three, Part Two (Monday): All God's Chillun Must WALK OUT
Day Four (Tuesday): Children of the Night
Day Five (Wednesday): Pork, Prom, and Pee
Day Six (Thursday): Platonic Form
Day Seven (Friday): Neighbors
Day Eight, Part One (Saturday): Jack Taylor, Art Lover (v 2.0)
Day Eight, Part Two (Saturday): Burning Things (v 2.0)
Day Nine (Sunday): Shake the Sand Off

All domes up, Gate shining bright, all is quiet, all is right.

 

If you got a stage, you may as well dance on it. I seem to remember the song was Rufus' "Tell Me Something Good".

So here's where I mention to those who have never been on the Playa: that isn't snow. It's the flash reflecting off the dust particles in the air. Those particles are always, always there during the whole week, and you are breathing them in, getting them in your eyes and nose, and generally becoming one with the dust.

 

MATT'S HEAD HAS TURNED TO LIGHT!

I'M FREAKING OUT!

Plus, Joey hydrates like a good lad.

 

More Man.

Which version of the Shark Car is scarier?

Glowing Red?

 

Or Gaping Maw?

 

On the Roaster Coaster, they cranked you up to the top, released the car you're in, and that car spun in a circle while you went up and down the "U" shape.

Very. Fucking. Fun.

It was while waiting to ride the Roaster Coaster that Joey learned that Safety is not 3rd, as we had long thought.

"Safety third!" he yelled at one point.

"No, no," said the woman running the line. "Safety fifth!"

 

"Fifth? How do you figure?"

"1. P
2. B
3. R
4. Always be entertaining.
5. Safety."

Joey could but agree.

Also, I was told that, later on the week when the keg of PBR ran out, a cold can of PBR would get you to the front of the line, not matter how long.

Oh, and: that's a woman in a chicken costume in the Go-Go cage attached to the Roaster Coaster. She is anxious to get out of the cage.

Temple in the distance, at night.

OK, this takes a bit of explanation. This was the night I decided I would document a new and exciting example of Playa Pee every night. This is about 3AM, near the fence line.

I believe I thought this was a good Playa Pee, because it looks vaguely like Australia.