Burning Man 2009 – The Narnia Awakening

The Beginning
We met up with Tam at 6:30am to head out to Gerlach. Getting up early was a smart decision considering we didn’t have much traffic on the way out, and we didn’t have a long line ahead of us. We were able to grab coffee and head out to the gates of the Black Rock in no time. Greeters soon took Tam by the hand and hazed him into the city with a good playa dust shower, a stamp on the ass, and ring of the devirginizing bell.

Camp
We met Erron and Alexya on their horse bikes when we got in, and they led the way to camp. We were located at 3pm and J, a little east of the boonies, but it turned out well.

The camp overall was great. We were next to some of the nicest people you could meet. And a lot of dust storms attacked the center of camp, rather than us. It also allowed us to set up a nice, spacey camp. And here’s a look at our Narnian camp:

Erron – Made a huge “ice castle” which was a ridiculously well crafted, 20-foot shade and lounge structure
Dave, Brett, and Jen – Brought the “Beaver Dome” and came up with a great idea of creating a wardrobe where people could exchange clothes in the wardrobe. This was a popular thing to do in our camp.
Tam – came as Aslan, a walking lion
Us – We came with a 12-ft lamp which we used either a a propane lamp or a color-changing solar lamp depending on the wind.
All: It wouldn’t be Narnia without horses for our bikes, which we all roamed the playa with.
My sister, Jenni – She didn’t come out with us, but she did make me some sweet furry pants. She crafted them from hand and they turned out great!!! Yep, I was Mr. Tumnus with Scarf and All. And the pants will make it to the next Burning Man expedition. (However, I think I have discouraged her from ever making Halloween costumes.)

The Playa
This year the playa had some really great pieces to look at, as you can see below. Some of my favorite pieces were:

John Locke: Not really his name, but it was a huge man made out of padlocks, dragging a huge key behind him. The rope was made out of thousands of keys. Really, my favorite piece.
Spaceship: To show how much we’ve “evolved”, this piece was a huge rocket ship, which showed off well on the playa.
Nest: This was random but fun. It was a giant nest that you could climb up to the top and lounge out.
Butterfly: Here, they had this huge metal piece and the top was a butterfly that rotated with the wind. Inside they displayed a cacoon of color.
Rubik’s Cube: This was a giant rubik’s cube that you could play with the help (or hindrance) of two other players.

Night of the Rave
This was our first night out, and I think this was one of the best. We ended up checking out the art pieces on the playa, and then Dave suggested going out to one of the globes to check out a famous techno dj. We showed up, and there were some Jamaican rappers on stage in one globe and the techno dj in another. But, they weren’t playing to that big of a crowd. But then we saw a shiny, bright thing about a 15 minute walk away. And so we went.

Well… we found our crowd. DJ Van Buren was playing there, and he really was playing well with the crowd. There were thousands of people there, fire blasting out of the stage, and everyone was feeding into it. I was able to climb behind the crowd to see everyone, and it was amazing to see thousands of people dancing to the DJ’s music. It was a good time.

The Rocket Launch
While not our first night here, this was our first special event night. We tried to visit the rocket ship earlier in the day at about 1oam, but they had a crew out there that was working on it. They said that there was going to launch the rocket that night. What? Really? I guess anything in Burning Man can happen, so…

That night we got ready and proceeded to go down to the playa. It was a bit windy when we got down to the spaceship, but I was ready to see them launch this sucker. Then I noticed some guy in a medusa hat dancing his life away staring at the neat things his hands were doing. He was awesome.

Well… we waited for 45 minutes still. Nothing happened, and I tried a few different times to go towards the rocket. (Basically, security would stop me each time, and then give me an update on the progress. I’d then let everyone else know, so it worked out well.) I then looked back to see that medusa guy still dancing in the same spot, same intensity. Pretty funny.

Finally the “launch” happened. The delay came because they cancelled the skydivers, but the firework show was good. But unfortunately, I didn’t see a launch. Boo. The best part of the night came when I met up with my friend on his art car, which was a huge birthday cake. I hadn’t seen him since I left Seattle, but it was great to catch up. He did tell a story about a group of boyscouts with giant sticks roasting roasting marshmellows on his birthday cake lights.

Also, we met up with Michelle that night as well at Camp Welcome. She was going to see the marching band, but it was good to see her. Tam was impressed by the carpet at her camp. I think they had about a three-quarter inch pad underneath, it was so cushy.

One disappointing thing is Spike’s Vampire Bar didn’t make it out. This was one of my absolute favorite places to visit on the playa: they serve Merlot out of IV bags.

The Burn
The night of the burn turned into a windstorm, and we really thought they were going to cancel the burn. Wind blew down our neighbors bamboo temples, among other things. But, we decided to venture out there, and luckily around 10:30pm the wind finally calmed a bit.

We ended up getting great seats for the burn until we became the part of the crowd that had to sit down. The fire dancers came out, and it was amazing to see about 50 to 100 fire dancers all at once, lit up, and tossing the fire. It was definitely a site to see.

Finally, the dancers stopped, and the burn took place. It was an intense burn, and while it was no Oil Derek, it still had an intense burn to it. It was a good night. I even went out to see my friend’s art project, but the wind had disabled it unfortunately. It had to deal with walking through this dome, and music would play based off your movement.

We ended up hanging out at the playa for awhile, and then returning home. We then woke up early in the morning, cleaned up, and went home.

Our Gallery (using your regular disposable camera)