{"id":1462,"date":"2009-09-05T19:46:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-05T23:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/2009\/09\/05\/friday-night-saturday-morning-on-the-playa-at-burning-man-delayed-post\/"},"modified":"2009-09-05T19:46:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-05T23:46:00","slug":"friday-night-saturday-morning-on-the-playa-at-burning-man-delayed-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/2009\/09\/05\/friday-night-saturday-morning-on-the-playa-at-burning-man-delayed-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday night \/ Saturday morning – on the playa at Burning Man (delayed post)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\t\t\t\t\t\t Folks.. here are some thoughts and pics from Friday night and Saturday<\/p>\n

morning at Burning Man.. I couldn’t post them until today.. <\/p>\n

I’ll<\/p>\n

start with a short recap of the timecycle car saga that I wrote to my<\/p>\n

friend Bobby.. then try to add some descriptions to the pictures when I<\/p>\n

can .. <\/p>\n

From my note to Bobby B.
\u00a0\u00a0 … What a wild<\/p>\n

ride it’s been… I’ll give it more depth in my blog.. but.. here’s<\/p>\n

what happened..About 4 weeks ago I decided that I had red-lined and<\/p>\n

would not be going to the burn this year.. I kept working on the<\/p>\n

timecycle lights, but gave up on the idea of going to BRC\u00a0 It was a<\/p>\n

huge relief to be not stressing about i .. for awhile at least. . =
\u00a0The<\/p>\n

vehicle left vt last Saturday, made it 500 miles then the trailer broke<\/p>\n

down because of the weight. They dumped about a ton of stuff then<\/p>\n

hobbled back to VT .. we ended up renting a ryder truck , repacked and<\/p>\n

got them off on sunday. They got to the playa on wed AM….
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile.. on Wed my baby bro, billy and I started talking about\u00a0<\/p>\n

going to the burn just for 2 days.. at 3pm on Thursday we decided.. why<\/p>\n

the hell not.. He bought us airplane tix.. I spent all night on the<\/p>\n

phone with some folks in Amsterdam who still had 2 will call tix.. At 6<\/p>\n

am Friday\u00a0 I was on a plane headed to Reno.\u00a0\u00a0 We met up there and got<\/p>\n

to the playa at about 5:30.. The crew was just finishing the reassembly<\/p>\n

of the timeframe.. At 7PM\u00a0 Friday we got our DMV certification.. and<\/p>\n

this was without the lights. I spent a couple of hours mounting about<\/p>\n

half of the LEDS.. .. We took of for the playa at about 2 AM.. but on<\/p>\n

the way, a malfunction with one of the machine;s hubs\u00a0 chewed up all my<\/p>\n

wires on the right side. Ugh. I spent about an hour on ladder at the<\/p>\n

playa doing battlefield repairs and cursing the decision to go.. Around<\/p>\n

3:30 AM we were back in business.. and believe it or not.. everything<\/p>\n

worked !\u00a0 We drove around until sunrise. Folks really, really dug the<\/p>\n

design..\u00a0 I’ll never forget driving into the sunrise with a full load<\/p>\n

of riders, music going. lights working.. and a crowd following us like<\/p>\n

the pied piper. It was memorable.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We went back to camp around 7..<\/p>\n

but on the way we had a number of mechanical breakdowns… Two sheared<\/p>\n

pins on the hydraulic motor, a chain sprocket dropped off, etc. but we<\/p>\n

managed to improvise and got home for 4 hours of sleep. Sat afternoon\u00a0<\/p>\n

i mounted the rest of the lights.. while the guys tried to figure out<\/p>\n

why the diesel wouldn’t start.. Again.. me wondering about my decision<\/p>\n

to be there… around 5\u00a0 I was able to break free and go check things<\/p>\n

out, visit friends and make a pilgrimage to the temple.. Which I needed<\/p>\n

to do in Sam’s honor. That changed everything.. I came back recharged,<\/p>\n

loving the fact that I was there with my friends and my brother.. and<\/p>\n

ready to enjoy the burn.. Around 8 we were hit by a hellish sandstorm\u00a0<\/p>\n

.. it got bad enough that they delayed the start of the burn.. around<\/p>\n

10, things cleared up and we started up the machine and headed down to<\/p>\n

the playa.\u00a0\u00a0 Just as we hit Esplanade, they torched the man in a spray<\/p>\n

of fireworks. it was a perfect time to enter..\u00a0\u00a0 Somehow somebody was<\/p>\n

looking out for us (Sam ? ).. because from that moment until Billy and<\/p>\n

I had to leave at 2.. the timecycle worked flawlessly.. the motors<\/p>\n

motored, the lights were beautiful, the chairs gracefully\u00a0 went<\/p>\n

around.. It could not have been more perfect.. !!!!\u00a0 It was such a rush<\/p>\n

seeing how much folks liked the device.. we had a huge line of folks<\/p>\n

wanting to take the ride all night.. and the lights (if I may say so)..<\/p>\n

were pretty cool and distinctive.. you could pick the thing out from<\/p>\n

halfway across the playa..\u00a0 I don’t know if it was an amazing change of<\/p>\n

luck.. or our karma finally kicked in.. but whatever.. it all felt<\/p>\n

right and worthwhile…\u00a0 Around 2AM Billy and I hugged everybody and<\/p>\n

headed out to the Reno airport for our trips home..\u00a0
What an amazing 2 days…\u00a0\u00a0
<\/i><\/p>\n

OK.. Here are some pictures.. Here’s what greets you when you get off the plane in reno
<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
Billy<\/p>\n

was there waiting for me.. He’d rented a car and raided a grocery<\/p>\n

store.. We had enough food and supplies for a month stay…\u00a0 <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The drive from Reno to lack Rock was just under 3 hours.. really beautiful country.. Hot, arid, rocky, so unlike Vermont<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We<\/p>\n

were enjoying the scenery so much we got stopped by a local police guy<\/p>\n

for follwing the car in front of us too closely (we wern’t). He let us<\/p>\n

off with a brief warning… <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

It<\/p>\n

seemed like in no time we were in Gerlach, the town 9 miles from lack<\/p>\n

Rock City.. Ths town lives for the Burning man traffic… <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Finally we were there… or ‘home’ as the Burner community says.. (so unlike <\/i>home, though) <\/p>\n

Since it was late friday afternoon, tehre were few other cars to get through.. last time I was here this place was packed<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

I went over to pick up the will call tickets I’d<\/p>\n

ought at the last minute on Thursday night from Eva and Rick in<\/p>\n

Amsterdam (thanks guys.. if you’re reading this).. The transfer papers<\/p>\n

Eva put together worked fine and in a moment.. we had our two tix !\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As a frist time runer, illy got to ring the new burner bell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then we drove into the camp and looked for our crew at 8:30 and<\/p>\n

Kinship.. (Black rock is arranged in a circle.. with radiating streets<\/p>\n

named after the time on a clock face and concentric connecting streets<\/p>\n

named theme related words that begin with hte letters A through I. )\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We quickly found the camp and suprised the hell out<\/p>\n

of the folks who saw us.. nobody there expected either of us to come..<\/p>\n

I quickly introduced billy to everyone.. then Ben took us on bikes to<\/p>\n

find the other guys. They were just finishing the assembly of the<\/p>\n

TimeCycle.. They had to get the thing finsihed so it could get<\/p>\n

registered.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

On the way we ran into one of my favoritepiueces from last year.. this<\/p>\n

is a beutifuly crafted human powered dragon.. it’s pedal powered and<\/p>\n

it’s graceful neck and head are all actuated by a complicated but<\/p>\n

elegant set of cables. It has a flame thrower in it’s moth (of course)<\/p>\n

… A cool feature is that it’s made entirely of aluminum backing<\/p>\n

ware.. eg. cupcake tins, cookie sheets, etc.\u00a0\u00a0 Ben knew this guy.. so<\/p>\n

we talked for awhile. He’s dreaming up some collaboration with<\/p>\n

Homer..based on his first look at our car.\u00a0 I can tell Homre will soon<\/p>\n

be a legend here. \n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We found Homer, duane, Kris and Dave out on the playa<\/p>\n

doign soem finishing touches.. They found a girl with a gas generator<\/p>\n

welder to pin the exel into the clock work. It had turned on first try<\/p>\n

and sheared off some of our wiring (.. yikes 1) <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Soon we were assembled and under our own poer.. no<\/p>\n

fancy lights, just some 12Volt car headlights.. It’s amazing.. that we<\/p>\n

walked in at the exact right moment for the car’s maiden trip.. it was<\/p>\n

late.. but running well enough to get registered at the DMV (department<\/p>\n

of mutant vehicles). The DMV folks really dug the design. They gave us<\/p>\n

a license on the stipulation that we get at least some of the lights up<\/p>\n

tonight. The lights are as much a safty as they are an aesthetic<\/p>\n

requirement.. both are regulated in BRC> <\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

We then started takign in the night life and night art.. it’s just so amazing.. and so overwhelming. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Wre then drove back to camp, grabbed something to eat .. and I finished wiring the the two sets of lights that Carly had already mounted.. We took back off to the playa at 2:30 AM.. Miraculously, the lights survived the trip.. Things looked good !<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

That is.. until the hub mechanism snagged some wires and ripped out the rotating hub mechanism.. It was an awful moment.. Homer had to talk me into fixing it.. I was so frustrated\/sad that this mechanical linkage hadn’t been tried out more.. kind of a shared problem.. but.. I pulled it together and did a duct tape battlefield repair..<\/p>\n

Around 3 we got everything moving asgain. and it was beautiful. <\/div>\n

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Folks.. here are some thoughts and pics from Friday night and Saturday morning at Burning Man.. I couldn’t post them until today.. I’ll start with a short recap of the timecycle car saga that I wrote to my friend Bobby.. then try to add some descriptions to the pictures when I can .. From my … Continue reading Friday night \/ Saturday morning – on the playa at Burning Man (delayed post)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}