Last night I was struck by surprise by the massive rock in the heavens. I unknowingly witnessed a full lunar eclipse. Upon looking to the sky I instantaneously had flashbacks of the last lunar eclipse I saw on the playa in Black Rock City (Burning Man for those of you that aren't aware). It brought me in awe and the stresses of the day were no more. It is amazing how such an event can change the course of the day. I sat thinking of all the fun I had back in BRC and watched the eclipse till it was no more. I haven’t shared much about that day but that day in BRC will go down in history.
This is how the day’s story goes…
Late Sunday night we were scheduled at the greeter’s station to prepare for the rush of people waiting for the gates to officially open to the public. We worked for four hours and worked our butts off to get as many people in during our shift. The line to enter the city was not dying down. The line stretched far and went around the curve which was about 5 miles away. We got little sleep and in the morning we woke up and spent our day in camp (between G and H at 8 o’clock) rocking out at Kalamitie’s Bistro, the day was filled with naked trampoline jumping and dick tricks ala Puppetry of the Penis. We traded blended drinks for trampoline tricks or dick tricks. It was a hit because they did not start selling ice till Wednesday of that week. We had LOADS of it. It was perfect not a lot of people were at BM yet and it was very intimate and relaxing.
The day couldn’t have gotten any better nothing could have topped off the day, or so we thought. Our camp split in two one set of campmates went to the edge to one of the lunar eclipse events while my group went to check out the man and do a walkabout through the desert. The eclipse looked almost evil; it had a tinge of crimson and loomed over the man as if it were there to check it out too. As we walked towards the Man it looked magical a full lunar eclipse behind this huge structure.
We were under the man looking at the structure, the people, and the hippy corporate commercial crap that should not have been there. In the back of my mind I thought someone should burn this, this is against the whole reason of having the event. The event is meant to be an escape from the strains of everyday corporate life. Solar power and natural fuel displays littered the main area near the man. I sat and thought WOW what has it come to.
The bottom of the man was structured with huge wooden poles as the base making it easy to climb and touch the man. I kind of looked like a tee pee without the cover on it. I saw a burner climbing one of the poles and thought I want to climb and touch the man too. Lab Rat (aka IAN) had to pee so we searched for our bikes and went to the nearest portapotty.
As we reached the facilities one of the guys in our group noticed smoke coming from the Man. Then a little flame burst at the foot of the man. The MAN was on FIRE!!! We ran to the edge of the man and watched dumbfounded as people scurried from underneath trampling over each other to escape the inferno. Rangers came from every direction; they nearly hit the burners running towards the man to see the spectacle. Water filling trucks that doubled as emergency fire brigade came from all over the city.
Our group was speechless we stood there in amazement that just minutes prior to this we were under it. We had only one camera with us and tried to catch as much as possible of the event. While standing there a man comes running by us, I yell that’s the guy that was climbing to the Man. The guy I saw early that night was the gun who set the Man on fire. Five rangers drove past us and surrounded him and you hear the guy yell his now infamous words “please don’t hurt me”.
A night that became a part of Burning Man history was a part of our camps history. The lunar eclipse has new meaning to me and that night is one I’ll never forget.
