A couple years ago, Current TV ran a series of pods—and also live coverage—of Burning Man. I was mesmerized. The art installations blew my mind, and I can only imagine how they would look in person. I live in northern Indiana and I'm longing to connect with creative types.
Question: since I wear contacts, should I wear goggles to keep sand out of my eyes? Dorky-looking but functional, perhaps.
Question #2: is the event primarily for artists or are there book lovers there too? I'm a pulp fiction aficionado, retro pulp especially.
Those are my burning questions for now!
Take care,
Jeff Funk
I can reply to your first question. I also wear contact lens (gas/permeable hard lens), and usually wear sunglasses during the day to shield from dust. It's generally only windy during the day, due to the heat. I keep goggles around my neck for white-out conditions, but rarely wear them.
Just remember to bring extra lens and a pair of glasses, and you'll be ok.
Goggles are one of the few essential pieces of gear I swear by and I consider myself a hard core old timer!
I've met many out there with 'Book Mobiles'. Pretty much anything you are into, or what you are looking for, you will find out there...
Consider joining the BM Virgins Tribe for more details. It tends to get a bit snarky in here.
KK
ps We have a Regional here in the MidWest soon. You will find like minded people pretty much everywhere these days. Iffn you look.
KK's right....mentioning "sand," will get you an ass-ripping.
best to refer to it as "dust."
dorky-looking? who cares? the idea of attending & participating at BM is the freedom to be yourself. take a look BM photos & youtube clips to see what others are wearing. that will give you some ideas. wear what's comfortable to protect your eyes.
lots of book lovers the, but i haven't seem readers, other than those reading the beacon, and other BM newspapers. there will be much too much to do out there to have time to read. read before you go, or once you get home. no reason to spend $$$ to go read.
bigger question...do you have a ticket?
An even bigger question: Have you read the back of your ticket?
It's about the only truly required reading for the Playa. To paraphrase the information, it basically points out that Burning Man is a stress test, and that you might not pass.
Not everyone does. A few die, some just get really fucked up.
So, if you wanted to cower in your tent, and read about other peoples rip roaring adventures, you might want to save your $400.
However, before we dismiss your tourist attitude, let's find out more about your literary load.
When you say "Pulp fiction", I assume you really mean "fuck books"
Fuck books are the only thing I read on the playa, with the exception of the Chilton's guide for fixing my stupid truck that broke down five miles beyond Fly Hot springs.
And not just any spank rag either.
Lame ass goo catchers like Playmeat and Penthouse simply don't make it out on the Playa.
You need more esoteric fare.
Shemale Midgets, and enema bondage are always popular, especially with the Gate Crew folks, and you can't go wrong with anything to do with spanking. Fisting is even better.
Basically, anything that depicts the butt, anything that goes on top of a butt, in to, or out of a butt, even butts that don't belong to humans, are wildly popular among your new friends in BRC.
Our taste in pornography may be limited, but it is sincere.
So, by all means, bring your stack of boner books, and a bag of Cheetos, and everyone will cheer, as your magazines get stuck together, and your twig turns orange.
God, your such a pervert! I can't believe that you would go all the way to Burning Man, just to pound your own penis into submission.
You know, out of 50,000 people there, someone is probably willing to cop your pee pee.
And, you know that you don't need contact lenses to get laid. In many cases, it is better if you really can't see who is trying to get Mr. Winky to barf.
Ignorance is bliss, All cats are grey in the dark, and wrap that rascal.
Keep those three traditions in mind, and the Playa will open up for you.
>>To paraphrase the information, it basically points out that Burning Man is a stress test, and that you might not pass.<<
Yeah, play portal until you kill GlaDos then play it again without picking up the portal gun... that kind of stress... :)
"Shemale Midgets, and enema bondage are always popular, especially with the Gate Crew folks "
Damn!!!!
Last year I got a once over from the Gate Crew that the TSA would have been proud of... when I was bent over the hood of my car I was wondering what they were doing. Now I know were my stroke books went!
To address the "dorky looking" that doesn't have to be true.
www.bearclawmanufacturing.com/cat...html
compare.ebay.com/like/260817654572
there's more to be found...
"Our taste in pornography may be limited, but it is sincere. "
And at Porn 'N Eggs, it comes with breakfast. That and a relief shot of Jack Daniels starts a wonderful day on the playa.
There are a handful of lending libraries across BRC over the years. I don't know if any of them will be around this year, since each of those marvelous shelves are there because some weirdo dreamed it up and hauled them out into the desert. Usually lots of poetry, Alice in Wonderland and opportunities to write in the margins (that's encouraged!).
My imagination is sparked. Books in the desert—that's very cool! God I love hippies :o)
I think most here would argue that we're anything but hippies.
For instance, we do shit.
I'm a big reader.. and perhaps it's just me, but with all the stuff that is going on all around me, all the things to do and see, the idea of putting my eyes down to read a book on the playa has never appealed to me.
Right now I'm reading Neal Stephenson's book Reamde. Fantastic!!!!
The best thing I read at burning man was a stamp that said "Dirty Little Slut" on a hot naked girls ass.
Haha. Sounds hot!
Well, incidentally, if anyone's looking to kink up their Kindle, I can accomodate you there. It seems that four of my books—Bad Boy, Curious, Rascal & Stranger—made their way to Amazon and are eVailable. Prime Member may read free...
...it's gay smut, you should know. That's what I write. Some of us enjoy that sort of thing ;o)
Take care,
Jeff Funk
"Question: since I wear contacts, should I wear goggles to keep sand out of my eyes? Dorky-looking but functional, perhaps."
Since the others mentioned that you'd get a "ripping", but stayed vague on why you'd be getting it, I thought I should explain this. The Playa is not a sandy desert. It is a dusty desert. This is both good news and bad news.
Good news: When a windstorm comes (and they do come), you don't end up with this abrasive flying grit that scratches up your glasses, and can do much worse than that. Getting a grain of sand embedded in a cornea is a serious matter. That won't happen to you at Burning Man. Unless somebody decides to bring a pile of sand.
Bad news: The dust turns to something like wet plaster when it comes into contact with water, very heavy, very clingy. It will grab onto your feet and won't want to let go. When it's dry, the particles are so small that the dust acts more like a heavy, low lying gas than it does like a solid. It gets into everything.
In addition to the dorky goggles, you might want to invest in a keffiyeh. The part that goes over your head is anchoring. What really matters is the part that goes over your mouth, although I suppose keeping gypsum dust out of your hair might not be a bad idea, either. It's not something that you want to breathe in. The wind can go from 0 to 35 and the air from clear to nearly opaque in seconds. This is called a "white out", and they often come with little warning. This is why you keep the keffiyeh close at hand - it's a dust filter.
"Question #2: is the event primarily for artists or are there book lovers there too? I'm a pulp fiction aficionado, retro pulp especially."
The event is primarily for drugged out naked hippies who want to drink gasoline and blow fire out their asses. Burning Man is mostly a tomfoolery event, with some art on the side. Still, you will find book lovers out there, as would be expected, given how well the tech industry is represented out there. I will give you one very strong suggestion, though - do not bring anything to the Playa that you would be very upset about losing, because there is a good chance that you will lose it out there. Vintage books are fragile, as are books in general, and they're hard to replace.
The reading I'd bring to the Playa would be something recently printed, inexpensive and without great personal significance. Something easily replacable during your next trip to the bookstore.
If a hippy shits in the forest and nobody is there to smell it, does it still stink?
The dust consists primarily of four components: microcrystalline quartz, halloysite (a clay mineral related to kaolinite), and calcite, with less than 30% gypsum even if the Selenite Range is right next door. (Selenite being clear cystalline gypsum, which is a component of the stratigraphy locally. The gypsum tends to get leached when the playa gets periodically inundated with water (what is a playa but a dry lake bed anyway?). That's essentially the results of most chemical/petrographic/X-ray diffraction analyses I'm aware of., including one I had done two years ago.
