The stairwell I used to make my way upstairs had little cartoony ant creatures painted on the walls. And of course, more art. As I made my way upstairs I saw that the top floor was another area where there was more booths set up for different volunteer groups within the man umbrella that allows for the infrastructure to be established within black rock city. Some of the booths were the exodus, greeters, lamplighters, BMIR (burning man independent radio), and a guy from some flashing panda site where they sell light up fry toys. I spent a bit of time talking to the BMIR guy to see what it would take for me to get on the air and have a freak out beat poetry spin time and he was all for it. I left a card and got his name (yo bobzilla!) and the promise of a microphone in my direction anytime I walk in. I’d love to be able to play some groovy music and all during that time as well, I just don’t know if the CD’s would survive the heat of the car/day/desert/playa. Pity. I’ll try to come up with a solution but I’m not sure what it would be.
There were also a couple of guys there, they had said they had been to burning man since they were eighteen. They had to be in their early to late twenties, so a few years or so, and they offered their camping area to me as I’m still unsure whether my buddy will be going or not. They said they went to burning man, they set up their camp which takes them about eight hours or so, then they leave camp and explore the city, leaving their camp set up for all the other citizens of Black Rock City.
As the day continued they started the open suggestion forum where they were trying to come up with ideas for any ay for the man to be able to survive in the economic issues that our country, and even our world, are experiencing today. There were suggestions about the toilets, the cleanup, the mass of MOOP (matter out of place) left behind. During this meeting I came up with an idea for a themed camp maybe in a few years that I would love to do having to do with the reduction of garbage and waste on the playa, but I’ll keep that idea close to the vest for now.
There were a lot of different ideas that sprung up from the fertile minds of burners and virgins like me alike and also information about the man. Things like, for one week Black Rock City is the third largest city in Nevada. That the money to the BLM and other law enforcement agencies is only slightly more then the money spent on toilets.
So there were many different ideas and suggestions, and right in the middle of it my buddy started talking about how long it would be till we got to Sierraville hot springs if we left right then. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. And over. But for you out there, my reading little monkeys, my acolytes of bizarrity and untold strangeness, I tried to hang on for information’s sake. So we hung out for a bit longer, at least till the end of that meeting, and off we went to the hot springs.
