PHOTO--shekky speaking his mind on pedopheliacs at the rant-o-matic
IT WAS and always has been a great time for me but i think that eight straight years of attending the Burning Man Festival has been enough at this point.
the time has come for a year away from burning man. plenty of my burner friends have taken a year or two off from the event and have returned with a renewed vigor and it is my feeling that this time has come for shekky and my blib blib agrees. don't get me wrong, i think that Black Rock City is a wonderful place in which to spend up to about nine days but in 2007, my girl and i are thinking about doing something a little different with the who-knows-how-much money we shell out each summer on Things Burning Man. maybe we'll drive and camp in the desert southwest, perhaps the grand canyon via las vegas, making a railfanning stop at the tehachapi loop and four wheeling the rugged dirt roads in red rock canyon state park along the way.
yes, i know only two days have passed since half of the radio free burning man crew sat in our cars wondering why the exodus was taking so goddamned long but my feelings of taking a year off started rising to the surface like hot water being forced up between cracks in the earth sometime sunday afternoon.
radio free burning man may also not return to black rock city in 2007 as well. gordon has been pretty much single handedly transporting, building and storing the first pirate radio station in black rock city about ten of our twelve years of existance, and he is definately showing some outward signs of Playa Burnout. even though we were blessed with our largest set up and tear down crews in years at the 2006 event, i could see the exhaustion and exasperation in gordon's face when blib blib and i arrived on thursday. if radio free burning man will be broadcasting on the playa during 2007, we will need a large infusion of cash from non staffers and charge hefty camp dues so that we're able to rent a large truck to transport the station from the storage facility in empire in ONE trip, rather than several small loads in gordon's tiny ford ranger with a u haul trailer lashed on to it.
if DJ big E had not been able to work out a deal where we were able to borrow a box van, gordon would almost certainly be still unloading station parts TODAY, wednesday in empire--and i'm sure that he would have been threatened by BLM rangers with a ticket for not leaving the playa on time.
on the other hand, this year was probably one of the absolute best radio free burning man camps ever. i guess the fact that RFBM's camp last year turned out to be such a rousing success was the primary factor in convincing a number of long time RFBM staffers to camp with us in 2006--we were blessed with the presence of big E, nevergirl, DJ shoe and greg rose (who had taken the last TWO years off) along with chalkie (another staffer who has taken multiple years off) and stinky pits, not to mention the friends that we dragged along with us just for fun. we had a big dome that stinky pits hauled south from seattle to hide under during the heat of the day, the front porch of the RFBM building to watch the three o'clock/anxious parade roll by and my top notch barbequed meats every night to keep all of our bellies happy.
our programming this year seemed to be right up there among the best years of radio free burning man's history on the playa, from the tracks greg rose selected from his vast collection of music that he brings to the playa to big E's absolutely hilarious interjections over BMIR's five o clock newscasts. cooling man indeed! i might add that my four shows were probably some of the best radio shows i've done in seven years of working with RFBM--the fact that i was sober during each two hour set was probably an important factor. i'll post my four playlists sometime over the next four days.
maybe these next four days will soften my attitude towards making my way to black rock city in 2007. we'll see. there are so many, MANY reasons to return to the playa next year--the fact that blib blib and i love hot weather and sunlight is right there at the top of that list, along with the wonderful, fun people i've met on the playa, year after year and the incredible sense of community. now is the time for me to type in caps while i THANK THE DAMN TEXANS CAMP FOR ALLOWING RADIO FREE BURNING MAN TO USE THEIR GENERATOR POWER FOR TWO AND A HALF DAYS AFTER WE RAN SHORT ON PROPANE. WE ARE FOREVER INDEBTED TO YOU WONDERFUL BURNERS FROM TEXAS!!! ALL WE HAD TO DO WAS ASK NICELY, AND YOU HELPED US OUT JUST LIKE NEIGHBORS OUGHT TO! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
it's good to know that for all of the negative things lots of people spew about burning man, the intense sense of a tightly knit community still exists. i don't suppose anything will ever change that, even though black rock city grows larger every year.
this year, there were probably ten thousand more participants than in 1999, my first weekend in black rock city. the fact that thirty nine thousand participants now choke nevada state route 447 rather than twenty five thousand cannot be ignored and one can feel those extra ten thousand souls in every corner of black rock city. julia blib blib and i felt them at the trash fence on saturday just around sunset, we felt them at the rant o matic, and especially at the serpent mother performance on friday, which we bailed on due to the crowds and julia's eleven o clock radio show at RFBM. maybe if blib blib and me don't come back to burning man next year, we'll either be doing our small part to ease up what is now becoming a congested feeling on the playa, or we'll open up two new spaces for a pair of freshed faced virgin burners, anxious to know the taste and smell of playa dust.
i think i've mentioned earlier that radio free burning man may not be back at burning man next year, either. if such is the case, julia and i definately won't have a compelling reason to pack our gear and step on the gas eastwards in 2007 unless BMIR opens their arms to us, which is something i'm not holding my breath for. once again, we'll see, we'll see.
gordon and i are talking about bringing some small part of RFBM to the san francisco decompression in october, probably the big sign on the roof of our building and a small sound system from which we'll play back some of the wonderful programming we broadcast over black rock city in 2005 AND 2006. i still have some stickers to give away so feel free to find us, where we'll have a nice chat about our experiences on the playa, both from this year and from the past.
maybe, just maybe, somebody might give me a reason to return to black rock in 2007 that i can't refuse...
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