No, I'm not attending Burning Man this year. Yes, I've broken down on my every-second-year rule. But I thought I would be simpler to follow this advice from Ozzy:
- Stack all your fans in one corner of the living room. Put on your most fabulous outfit. Turn the fans on full blast. Dump a vacuum cleaner bag in front of them.
- Buy a new set of expensive camping gear. Break it.
- Set your house thermostat so it's 50 degrees for the first hour of sleep and 100 degrees the rest of the night.
- Before eating any food, drop it in a sandbox and lick a battery.
- Have a 3 a.m. soul baring conversation with a drag nun in platforms, a crocodile and Bugs Bunny. Be unable to tell if you're hallucinating. Lust after Bugs Bunny.
Ah, memories.
There's lots more items on the list, if you dare to look. Special mention for this one, which is genius:
- Read Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany. Read The City Not Long After by Pat Murphy. Cut off the bindings, throw all the pages up in the air, and shuffle them back together. Reread The City After Dhalgren by Samuel Murphy. Burn it. Read the ashes.
I'm tempted to actually do that one, given that I dearly love Dhalgren but have never succeeded in getting through it cover-to-cover.
I didn't know that you'd ever been. I went last year but the Japan trip is more important this year.
ReplyDeleteHuh. I didn't take you for a Burner. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteI am incredibly impressed with Dhalgren, but I have never managed to finish it.
I've only been ONCE since becoming a parent 8 years ago! :( Just hasn't been in the budget and things are just *different* when you have the kid...
ReplyDeleteBut the FIRST four times...ah, yes.
Back then I use to explain my annual trek to others by saying "I go to Burning Man each year because it brings me in contact with other souls like me. And if feeds that soul enough nourishment so that I can come back to my place in society and do what is needed and necessary, and still have faith that there *are* others like me out there... But that like me...they are in hiding and they don't glow so brightly as they do when they take off their disguise at the yearly Burn...