I think that when the night arrives at Love Burn, a mysterious and more solemn reality begins to unfold.
The inevitable arrival of the night is first signaled by the sun setting into the horizon.
We can see the sunset when we get to the beach and we stare at the horizon. We can also sense it 'happening' around us when we are away from it.
I believe that when our body picks up the change in the color-palette around us, we start sensing the night is approaching. And it is in that moment that something inside us shifts a little...
I think the term I am looking for is circadian rhythm: "A circadian rhythm, or circadian cycle, is a natural, internal process that regulates the sleep–wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours. It can refer to any process that originates within an organism and responds to the environment."
Since I was a kid, I felt this time of the day had a different weight. It's more important. It has a certain finality. It signaled I had to go back home, to shower and to get ready for dinner. It also indicated that not too long after that - say by 10pm - I would have to go to bed... but that was ok; that was when I would read Verne, Twain or Asimov and I would jump into the most incredible fantasy worlds a young kid could imagine.
Later in life the night and its intrinsic palette of colors became the bed for the most intimate moments of my life and the night blended into the morning on more than one occasion. My life experience led me to believe that the night and some level of darkness are essential elements of the deepest friendships, of sexuality and of love.
When night surrounds the Playa, I love to walk around aimlessly and alone from time to time.
I circle around the playa and the campgrounds and wait for something to grab my attention. I have no expectations because I'm certain something will amaze me.
It usually doesn't take long to find something worth stopping for. I was parked with my van very close to the beach, and when I finally walked towards the sand I was presented with this:
The colors where fading into one another as the sound of the ocean behind them found an unexpected synchronicity with the morphing lights.
In my mind this point marked the entrance to the dream world that is Burning Man. Think of this as a special place in an RPG game that leads you to a new level or a major adventure.
This was it. Passing this symbol was to accept what was to follow and to embrace the magic. I spent the next five minutes in silence, enjoying the breeze and the smell of the Ocean; a big smile beaming my happiness back to the symbol.
I think of the surreal night-world of burning man as a weird mix of a dystopian cyber punk novel and Star Wars. The sandy beach of Virginia Key and the familiar roads we walked all day suddenly darkened, and colorful LED lights took control of the shadows we cast behind us.
The purple colors of The Sky Bar are a great example of this:
Towering over everything else at Love Burn, the Sky Bar is a reference point everybody can see on the Playa. In my mind it looks like it was extracted from the future or from another planet:
Colors change once again when I walk away from the Sky Bar. The gloomy, synth-wave colors of the tower slowly become a memory as I walk in the streets and merge with the crowd.
The colors of fire are primary for the streets of the Playa.
When I feel the heat of the fire on my skin and I hear the bass of the music pumping in my ears, I feel like being near a huge creature that is as alive as the crowd and I are.
It manifests as an invisible field that we can feel just as we can feel another body before the skins touch. We sense life around us in so many subtle ways...
Does life release energy like fire does? If so, what type of energy would that be? The warmth of the Playa has more than just fire in it.
Carnival games have their own special glow, too. One of my favorites was the slanted basketball hoop:
I wish I had better pictures, but the hoop is slanted to the right: the weird curvature on the picture above is not a distortion: it's how the hoop was built. It's not horizontal and the white and red lines on the backwall are also slanted.
The goal of the game was to score one basket: when that happened a huge flame would be fired in the sky to signal the point. Whenever that occurred the crowd would cheer in celebration.
I had to wait a long time to shoot my first shot. After watching another burner (drunk as a pirate) try at least 12 shots from under the hoop before scoring, I finally got the ball: a big smile on my face, I felt the ball in my hands. I made it bounce on the floor three times and got ready to throw... I looked at the hoop, remembered that it doesn't matter if it's slanted if my throw is correct and... I scored at my first try!
Incredulous (I have not played basketball in years) and over-excited, I went towards the ball to attempt my second shot. For some reason I assumed I could keep shooting until I missed. And that's when I awakened to the crude reality that when one scores their turn ends... Disappointed but appreciative of the fairness of the rule, I waited for what seemed another 10 minutes. It was probably a minute an a half but when the girl before me attempted a 3 pointer I got a brilliant idea: I usually suck at 3 pointers, so maybe that's what I should do when my turn arrived, in order to get more shots! The girl missed the first 3 pointer but landed the second shot like a pro. And this is when my Michael Jordan streak continued: I managed to land the 3 pointer at the first try and had to pass the ball to the next burner in my complete shock and amazement. Anyhow, that that is when I decided to follow Michael Jordan's example and leave my two-shot basketball career while still on top :)
The piano on the beach was another treat:
The piano and its supporting lights created an atmosphere that was very similar to the one over at the symbol that marked the beginning of my walk, but I was wondering how the piano would sound once the pianist started playing. The sounds of the wave were pretty loud and we could hear the bass of the music that was playing less than a hundred yards to the right... And that's when I understood we needed to wear their "Mind Travel" headphones to enjoy the show (they had dozens of headphones).
The piano was electronic and the pianist announced that what he was about to play was entirely improvised and it was meant to go with how the ocean, the crowd and burning man was making him feel...
For the next next 15 minutes or so I listened in complete stillness to the best piano I have ever heard in in my life. The pianist harmoniously switched between 4 or 5 styles (i.e. the sub parts of the composition) so seamlessly and properly that it was like listening to a long conversation about feelings and ways of being. I am not sure how else to explain this, but the music and the waves were talking to me about different types of feelings and how we - people - feel...
When the set and setting are right, music is magic to me.
Back at the Sky Bar, on the left side of the megalithic structure, we could see a completely different type of light; the light needed to paint in the night:
My friend Scott Frias was inviting the crowd to contribute to his meta painting.
A meta painting is essentially a community painting. The heart shape you see in the pictures above was divided in 40 parts and each part was to be painted by a different person.
The end result blew my mind: a uniquely human way to immortalize the event and to give a way to make art right there, right then, to anybody who wanted to.
Scott has many of these incredible pieces of art built across his many years as a burner, artist and musician: I think that what these works of art tell is not something we could communicate with words or photos.
The Kitty Kat Land tower was another reference point like the Sky Bar: how could anybody not see the mega Kitty? Who didn't go admire this synthwave version of the Egyptian sphinx?
I certainly didn't miss the opportunity!
The music that was being played at Kitty Kat Land was incredibly good: the DJs absolutely killed it. It was almost impossible to leave the dance 'floor' so good the tracks were.
Here are some more types of light we find around. More fairy tale / science fiction to enjoy...
And finally, the Temple Burn to wrap it all up...
More about the Temple and other cool things in the upcoming articles!
