Now for my final post of Burning Man '07.
Greenman theme, blah, blah, blah. The only real art that stood out seemed to be the ones that went with the opposite and highlighted oil. The above sculpture being one and the large collections of sculptures, oil platform and what was supposed to be the world's largest FAE was another (as seen below). Notice the rather large truck in the picture for scale.
Earlier in the week, I had gone out at night and taken a few photos, notably of the temple and the oil platform whose name was "A Crude Awakening".
The Temple of Forgiveness
A Crude Awakening
When the time came for the second burn on Saturday night, I was back in camp on top of our veranda platform at Spike's Vampire Bar. The week and pretty much run me ragged and I was a big ball of hurt. I was fairly sober because I had signed up to close down the bar this year as a bartender rather than customer, so the idea of wandering around the playa with 50,000 messed up people and such really didn't appeal to me. I decided to sit back with all the other old timers and watch in comfort of a chair or couch. The burn was awesome as usual. Fireworks that made the finale at the 4th of July in Seattle seem tame and ended with a huge fireball that set the man alight.
The Man
The Man with fireworks going off and a moon directly above.
Then came A Crude Awakening. It was supposed to have gone off the night before but was delayed for some reason. It was also supposed to be the world's largest fuel/air explosion from reports of people who actually might know. The safety zone they had marked off was two or three times the diameter of what they give the man when it burned. Because I was back at camp, I missed most of the show, however I did see the fireball (see below). Keep in mind that this photo was taken from back in the middle of center camp and the tower was well past the man and temple. So, this photo was taken from about two miles away. It was pretty big but not as large as it was supposed to be apparently. It did make a nice mushroom cloud and was on scale with the the Trinity simulator they set off for the anneversary of the Trinity explosion. I didn't really feel any pressure wave and have my doubts about it really being an explosion rather than an ignition, but it was still impressive.
After that, I sort of hung around the bar and stuff and went to work. Shut down the bar and went to sleep as they kept going well past sunrise. We began to break down camp hardcore and worked most of the day, especially since I had to run over to Hardware and get them to break down the shade structure. I spent the Temple burn much like the man, from the comfort of my camp and then went to sleep and was awakened by a guy I promissed a ride back to Seattle early the next morning. We finished breaking down Hardware and then sat in the exodus line for three hours to go that five miles back to the road. Must remember to leave very, very early in the morning next time or get an extra day off to sit in a motel like the rest of Hardware.
All of my Burning Man Photos from '07