Great Rite 1 Some Eminent Atlanteans Village Life Elsewhere on the Playa
1- Papa Wu leads Atlantean-style Tai Chi
Most mornings Papa Wu (in hat) led us in Atlantean-style Naked Tai Chi.
This was cited in Salon by a reporter from Time Magazine as "the strangest thing" he had seen at Burning Man.
Didn't feel strange at all to Atlanteans...
2- Cody recruits for Tai Chi
We always encouraged passersby to join in rather than gawk. No spectators!
3- Could be Washan Bear Clan
(Actually still Tai Chi, but it looks the same). After Tai Chi, Papa Wu held initiations into the Washan Bear Clan, a "teddy bear kung fu cult." This is the most delightfully absurd organization to which I ever hope to belong.
We are Washan Bear Clan!
Our style: the deadly fluffy fingers of the fuzzy teddy bear!
We could show you our style, but!
It is forbidden.
Ohhhhhh...
4- Outside the Burning Man Wedding Chapel
Near Atlantis Village on the edge of Center Camp was a tent set up as a wedding chapel.
Lawn Boy and Dancing Fool had a 'playa wedding' there in the middle of the worst of the week's dust storms.
5- Playa wedding of Lawn Boy and Dancing Fool
Lawn Boy and Dancing Fool swearing to stay together "until dust doth us part."
Weddings here can actually be legally binding if the couple has previously gone through the procedures required by the state of Nevada.
Or you can have a "playa wedding" and decide for yourself just what than means.
7- Hooter Shooters
Marnie, Kassandra and Rebecca demonstrate a drinking technique taught us by some wild Canadiannes.
The lucky drinker sits on the lap of a woman holding a shot glass between her breasts and a slice of lemon in her teeth. One breast has been licked & primed with salt.
The drinker licks off the salt, grabs and downs the shot without using his or her hands, and finally squeezes the lemon slice from the celebrant's lips. A third person optionally helps out with the salt and offers any other help that seems necessary.
8- Water Woman and her reflecting pool
Ray Cirino's Water Woman sculpture doubled as a community shower.
After the Great Rite, her reflecting pool began to swirl beautifully with washed-off body paint. Here I am enhancing the effect with vats of dye left over from the pyramid rituals.
9- Destruction of the temple
The Professor, Twan and Paradox attack the second floor of the pyramid.
10- Denailing beams
Too big to burn, the pyramid was dissembled piece by piece and its wood stacked for reuse.
Here Rebecca, Cody and Robert come across a beam inscribed "Pure Love" and react characteristically.
11- Jojoba in front of the vanished pyramid
Water Woman lingers on.
12- Pepe on his trailer
There was almost nothing out here when the trailer arrived, and almost nothing remained when Pepe drove it away.
14- Late Tuesday--not yet No Trace, but close
The ephemeral nature of Burning Man serves to heighten the energies of all its participants.
The playa is a literal tabula rasa, on which we build dreams. We know it will all quickly disappear, which reminds us to enjoy life with Dionysian intensity.
For all we know
This may only be a dream
We come and go
Like a ripple on a stream
So love me tonight
Tomorrow was made for somebody else
Tomorrow may never come
For all we know.
--Coots/Lewis, 1941
Great Rite 1 Some Eminent Atlanteans Village Life Elsewhere on the Playa
