Matthew's Portraits of the Tengu
Morgan's Black Rock Adventure
A field guide to the 2002 art cars 8
And if you like, check out my photos 'n' stuff from:
"This floating world's a dream, so burn in mad abandon." Once again, I submerged myself in the strange miracle of Burning Man. This year, the City's official theme was "The Floating World," a play on seafaring and an allusion to the Japanese artistic genre of the same name. So, as pirate ships, schooners, party trawlers, frigates, powered canoes and other manners of party boats glided across the desert past schools of enormous passenger fish, our camp, The Tengu Teahaus provided a home for Japanese trixter demons. And in perhaps the perfect moment for the parallel themes, a large junk sailing down the Black Rock streets dropped anchor at our camp at 4 AM after the Man burned, to share vittles and drinks.
In heavy memory rotation:
1) Morgan discovered his Inner Carnie, and actively encouraged visitors to the Tengu Teahaus to risk their souls gambling for the cheap plastic beads Burning Man Org wanted us to distribute as part of the City's treasure hunt. In all, we sent 220 people away without beads, and having signed over their souls to the Tengu.
2) a filthy, sloppy, drunken Santa couple from Nasty Santa Camp arrived late one morning to wake up Carl. They came back from his tent with a bottle of tequila, from which they were liberally swigging and offering us rounds. As they turned to leave, they said, "Oh we got this tequila out of your truck. Can we borrow it? We'll bring back a bottle just like it." Joey replied that for years he'd wanted a train for Christmas and only got socks . "Trust you? Fuck no, Santas. Get the fuck out of here."
3) Playing Body Twister at our neighbors' camp, Porn Star Lounge.
4) Being unable to spin the haircut roulette wheel at the Black Rock City Barber, since he was closed whenever I went by. What was I thinking?? "Oh, I really want to come back from the Playa with a mullet?"
5) A clown rage at Death Guild's camp. As my friend Richard said, "it was a magic moment seeing a gaggle of clowns muscle leather-clad goths
out of the way to stomp on, shriek and generally pee all over Thunderdome." On their way out, one glared at me and honked a horn in my face, while another pinched my friend Suzanne, whispering into her ear, "
Bite me."
In all, there were too many moments that exist better in memory than in story. Unfortunately, I was relying on my untrusty Holga to document some of the beauty and strangeness, and only a handful of photos came out, and here they are:
---the fire worshippers in Kurosawa's HIDDEN FORTRESS.
One of the countless ships of the desert.
Tamara, Queen of the Horns.
The Duck, one of the best clubs on the Playa.
Bicycle Repairsatyr arrives to fix Farai's bike.
The Carnie at work, stealing souls.
A junk sails past the Temple of Joy.