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Burning Men and Explosive Dreams.
Sep. 4th, 2011 11:13 amStayed 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.
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.
