Destination Burning Man Blog

I have seen and met old and new friends like crazy this month and my gratitude shines so brightly on all of you/them.  So many amazing freaks in this world and it usually takes a mind-boggling festival to become aware of the beauty that humans can attain....  the default world is a distant dream these daze... my life is morphing into one giant festival and my soul is afloat on a one-way adventure.   Really don't see the need to play the game with the old rules... don't need to play the game at all!  Now I am the pawn on the universal chess board... floating with my destiny in a giant pot of powdered puddin'.  The universal energy certainly seems to know what's best for me over my miniature mind, therefore now I listen and giggle back in acknowledgment. 

I have spent much of this last week with the sweetest French girls that camped next to us at Shambhala.  I just can't seem to fill up my angelic friendship slots but I sure as hell am gonna keep trying!!  The Selkirk mountains cradled me back home like a lonely mother of a single child... that place IS my home and it has never been clearer.  Making some moves to make it fairy-ready by 2012.  I plan on throwing the Mayans a doozee of a party when they return to earth.

So the burn... can't say I've thought/felt a whole lot about it yet (other than how I can integrate my fresh devil horns into my new bunny ears).  Pretty deep, I know ;)  As far as the theme "American Dream"... who fucking cares.  First thoughts that come to mind are big-ass Cadillacs and giant toaster ovens with a bee-hive Betty baking biscuits.  I spose' that thought is just my media induced idea of America as a whole.... bitching about gas prices because it's getting awfully spendy to fill the Hummer.

My American Dream is to live off the land, off-grid with a fat garden, fresh water/air with my community of friends around me and possibly a tequila still (if there is ever such a thing).  Simplicity, reverence and respect.

But for real, I've never given a little mouse turd about themes and this one neither pumps me up or deflates me.  I burn for the art, music, people, community and the opportunity to see deeper within myself.  A place that shatters me into tiny pieces which I can evaluate once they dangle near my toes.  Freedom, expression, uniqueness ... traits in which the default world has tagged as harmful and frivolous.  Traits which I value with the utmost respect and without them, we would all be salt-free Saltine crackers.  Ine lil' crackers.

Some folks love to talk shit about the burn and others really try to validate themselves when confronted about it.  Burning man has become a pendant on the "hard-core" folks bragging necklace... as if they are better than thou just cause they can party harder on Mars than anyone else.   Yuck... Ego alert... these folks need to get over it.  For those that talk shit about it (especially the too cool folks who have never been)... what's up?  Is this an equal reaction to all the wild and fun stories that your friends bring home from the playa and rub in your face?  For all of the hard core non-stop bragging burners:  are you really so shallow that burning man is all you can talk about... as if just physically being there makes you cooler than anyone who hasn't experienced it yet?

I think both sides of this spectrum are whacked out.  Black Rock City is a giant canvas that is a "tool" to create the beautiful dream that is considered Burning Man.  A mosaic of head and heart with a random tribe that wallows in the surreal.  I've been "burning" just as hard in the middle of a freaking bowling alley in any town USA (and yes I was in my pink wig and red hot ski pants).  For me, burning is not a location and time of year... it is a complete state of mind.  For those who talk shit about it then quit going and shut up (if you were not able to enjoy yourself on at least some level in BRC then you probably are not going to enjoy yourself ever... and I don't want to hear about it.)  For those of us who talk incessantly about the burn (I'm guilty as charged but working on it), maybe we need to check ourselves a little bit and not rave so much to others who obviously don't care. 

For all of you that participate in the burn to have fun and open your realities, come by my camp early burn for Fuckleberry Mojitos and a light spanking!!
 
This year is yet another new camp for Hekter... P-Cubed Oasis out of Arcata.  I know very few people, am bringing very few expectations and am ready to wander the deeper streets of BRC.  I have recently built some new bridges to parallel tribes that will definitely be coming by for mojitos  and dusty chap side shuffles.

Expansion, Intention, Resurrection

New voice stik is itchin for some action.  New camera is in the mail.  Broke dudes - Hekter has got ya covered.  You'll still be burning whether in the intertidal salad bar or afoot in the Cascade highlands.  Your definitely burning right now in my heart!!

Much Love,

Elliot McHeckerton

From the Burning Blog -- their updates from the playa have been crucial to me these past few days as homesickness is throttling me. They don't post often, but what they put up has been appreciated!





And the construction of this year's temple, Basura Sagrada --

I've told you already how the feeling is building inside me, and with each day the gathering draws closer, I feel it more intense. Some longing involved, like my soul is literally being pulled out of my center and southward, though it can't detach from me and is sort of dangling out there like a kite on a string, trying to sail me towards Gerlach. I had this quiet thought this morning on the drive that I will slowly and quietly start collecting clothing and funbox items for the 2009 Burn over the next year, and just see what happens!

Damn, Ramona and Hekter are ON THE MOVE!!$#*#@!~?!

love, P'Duster


-----Original Message-----
From: Edubious
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 9:33 AM
To: DJ Playaduster
Subject: re: southward pull

Looking to the 2009 Burn already!  Not surprising. I too am feeling the fire build inside of me and around me. The metaphor of fire, the image of fire, the memory of fire flares up in my everyday - in so many moments spiritual and mundane.  

I spent a long time last night before and after our video chat, reading blogs - tribe.net, burning man.com; looking at music line ups, visiting websites - Cypher Town, Opulent Temple, Purple Palace; basing on the images floating across my desktop - Crude Awakenings, Boogie Pyramid, Jackson Junk, The Temple. I have committed my audio listening to the many podcasts that we created to focus our intention before the burn and capture our experience post burn. I find myself talking about to everyone around me. I feel my spirit flutter, drawn toward home, seeking freedom but tethered by the same string that keeps you from flying away south.

Perhaps I need to keep any eye open for items for my funbox?

Looking forward to connecting deeply with you.  To Light It Up, Burn It Down and blow it out!

Soon come!

~E

I have heard many reasons – speculations and rants – as to why those who have sparked the Fire will not be burning this year. A few have felt disconnected from this year’s theme of The American Dream. Others are feeling the pinch of the American economic reality and are just plain too broke to go. While some who are broke are going anyway, knowing that all that they need and desire will come to them on the playa if they channel the Pure Power of Potential. Still others are skipping the Burn this year because they have grown disenchanted with the way things have changed, “It’s not the same anymore…it’s too this, or it’s too that.” Whatever the myriad reasons for not going to Burning Man this year, one this is for sure, there will still be a lot of fucking people making the journey out to the Black Rock Desert seeking a cosmic party, a spiritual awakening, random sex, art, creative self expression, community or a combination all of these. But, I won’t be one of them.

I am not going to Burning Man because I don’t want to go. I am longing to spark the fires of creative self expression and dive into the dusty melting pot of the most absolute freedom that I have ever know. I want to Light It Up and Burn It Down. I want to blow out the limiting thoughts and habits of the Default World and delve deeper into the core of who I am. I want to be inspired and entertained. I want to admire the beautiful people. I want to be among the freaky people – my people. I want to reconnect with my tribe. I want to receive the gifts of strangers and offer them my gifts in return. I want to be cracked open and filled with the power of intention, Love, creativity and deeper self-awareness. I want go to Burning Man, but I’m not.

This year I don’t have the bandwidth to go to the Burn, to prepare for the Burn, to be at the Burn, to decompress from the Burn. I straight up don’t have the time in my life to commit to Burning Man this year. “But it’s just a week. You can break out of the confines of the Default World for a week, can’t you?” No. Not this year.

My 2007 Burning Man experience (including pre- and post- playa) awakened me to the Pure Power of Potential – the ability to manifest anything that you want, when you want it; the soul attraction that draws the abundance of the Universe to you. I have harnessed that power over the last year to bring many of my personal and professional goals and visions to fruition in the Default World. The truth is, I not going to Burning Man because I am choosing to stay present with all that I have created from the energy I got from the 2007 Burn.

The Fire is still burning inside me. It has dimmed and times I thought it was snuffed out, but it continues to smolder and as we approach the pilgrimage to the playa and the burning of the man the fire rises in me. I will Burn this summer, as I have done all year. I will create space to escape the Default World and revel beneath the wide sky. I will Light It Up and Burn It Down. The spirit and energy of the playa lives inside of me.

I went through a similar process of longing in 2006 during Burn week, when I was back here in the Default World but feeling the massive energy gathering on the playa (the intensity of that longing was what ultimately led me to find a way back to the Burn in 07). Night after night in Bellingham, staring at a webcam focused on Center Camp and tuning in to the video reports from TV Free Burning Man, I wove together deeply-felt musical mixes on my Macbook. The music and the vibe were inspired by Burning Man, reflecting what I learned from my first Burn in 2004.

I set out to make a cohesive 1-hour mix, but got carried away on a wave of inspiration, and didn't wind the mix up until 4+ hours later. I had to split it up and the Hearts of Flame trilogy was born. It was a mixing session that lifted my skills to a new level -- I took what I knew about serving up music mixes and then pushed my own boundaries until I ended up with a blend that was like nothing I had heard before. It was strange and lucid and inspired and unpredictable, with massively overlaid sounds morphing in to a weird soundtrack emanating from my heart.

Listening to it today, there are all kinds of things I would do different, tracks I would like to get rid of and transitions made smoother. Yet when I hear it I am instantly transported to Black Rock City, as well as to those feelings of participating in the Burn from far away. It connects me to the primary vibe of the Burn, plugs me in and takes me away.

So, yesterday I decided that to share it here on Destination Burning Man and plan on posting one chapter of it per week from today until the Burn. (I posted it in 2006 as I was creating it on my other podcasting website, The Podcast Cafe, but have a more sympathetic audience right here.)

I hope it will inspire those of you who are busy getting ready for the journey to the Black Rock Desert right now. I send it out with the intention of connecting all of us, those who are Burn-bound and those who have chosen other routes this year. If Hearts of Flame stimulates you in any way, I'd love to hear about it: destinationburingman@gmail.com

Love and dusty kisses, DJ Playaduster