Burning Men and Explosive Dreams.

[gridlore]

Stayed up last night to watch the live stream of the Man burning. The U-stream had an interesting approach, with three cameras being used. One was a long shot from across Black Rock City (which really gave a view of the apocalyptic cyberpunk vibe of the place at night) of the Man on his stand. The second was a really nice view of the fire dancers performing, and the third was from a crane mounted camera near the Man's base. You got two of the views as insets of the main view. The usual quality issues cropped up, but I figure getting to watch a live event happening in the middle of the desert is cool enough, so I'm not complaining.

But watching the whole thing pointed out another reason I'm not going.. the burn took forever! Based on the website's countdown clock, I tuned in about five minutes before the announced "The Man Burns" time. The fire dancers' routine took up a good forty minutes. Then, after they had dosed their source fires and tools, we got about fifteen minutes of very little activity except for some pretty impressive lasers blinding pilots on Mars. Then, the Man raised his arms, and there was a fireworks display that lasted roughly 20 minutes. Only after that were there a series of loud booms and fire engulfed the structure. Which then took close to half an hour to collapse. Even the crowd sounded a little weary when the structure finally fell apart.

I know that I don't get it, and I'm not saying that the people who do get it are wrong. Just not my thing.

Went to bed, and after my usual paranoia attack that happen when Kirsten isn't here (she normally comes to bed long after I do, so she locks the doors and makes sure everything is off. I always worry that I've missed something when she's not here.) I fell right to sleep. Woke up about 0730 with the fragments of a very strange dream in my head. All I can really remember clearly is setting off a M18A1 Claymore mine in my sister's room to prove some point.

Comments

[grimmwire.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it can be a bit anticlimactic. And the Man burned relatively swiftly last night! The last two years I've been, the Burn was delayed for 1-2 hours by high winds. That's a lot of time to stand around in a windy dust storm. And in 2008 the damned Man just refused to fall; kept burning and burning until we gave up watching.

On the BMIR feed last night it was good to see some fire performances happening in smaller circles outside the crowd circle, in addition to the main Fire Conclave by the Man. This is good because on the ground you often can't see much of the fire performers unless you're near the front.

For me, the fireworks are the best part of the Burn. Most civic fireworks displays take place at a safe high altitude; at the Burn they seem to be going off right over your head. With the occasional leftover piece cooking off as the Man base burns -- I've seen fireballs fired sideways, bouncing through the crowd. That'll definitely wake you up! (Read the back of your ticket, folks :)

[kshandra]

Oh, man, there were LOTS of leftovers this year - including one of the rapid-fire cannons that went off after the perimeter had been released. I don't think I've ever seen pyro that late before.

[kshandra]

Standard timing for the Man Burn (except in cases of weather delay as grimmwire mentioned) is usually ~2200, with the Fire Conclave performance starting an hour prior. (Meaning that most of MASH 4207, as 80% of the Oregon Fire Conclave, has to report to the Stick at 1900 and then just SIT there....)

Were you able to see any of the actual burning men in the Conclave on the video feed? The CO (who does safety for OFC) believes there were records set on Saturday, both for simultaneous full-body fires and for duration of exposure.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was wondering about that. Watching the feed, and suddenly a guy fully engulfed runs by...