Curiosity Roving : V.5 : Through the Fires

roadside attractions · morning missions

                September 18, 2019

            Curiosity Roving : V.5 : Through the Fires

Curiosity Roving
The Grand Adventures of Rose Goossen

V.5 : Through the Fires
in which the protagonist is dusty, dirty, and decadent
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Greetings and Salutations! 

Welcome to the fifth volume of Curiosity Roving. I thank you kindly for your attention. To all new subscribers, congratulations! You have successfully navigated all the necessary links and confirmation emails and you will now receive my sprightly updates in the third week of every month, until you grow weary of them or until I do.

My velocity during this recent period can be calculated as exactly zero. I have been far, far away, but I have returned to the same village of tiny purple houses from which I wrote to you in August, because life is very good here. I've been busy with manual labour. Imagine hoses, gloves, sheds, ladders, wrenches, rust, hammers, rags, staples, silicone, dirt, mud, dust, sunshine, and grunts alternately of pain and determination, with rice and beans to keep me on my feet, afternoon Screwdrivers to keep me on my toes, and evenings spent moon-gazing in a hot tub while quaffing ice cream treats or the sweet grape-flavoured juice of the poets. There are few things in life that taste quite as good as dirty work when it's paired with clean living, and I am loving it.

morning missions

It is wonderful, when traveling, to develop some familiarity with a place. It takes time. I stayed in this neighbourhood for about three months in 2010, but only on this second visit have I become sufficiently comfortable to refer to three major stations of the area by their abbreviated, colloquial nomenclature. I can now say with pride that I've been from T-Town to CJ to GP and back. I also once went to Talent and Merlin in the same day, passing through both Four Corners and Wonder en route. I know the way to Green Bridge, to Rogue River, and to Jumpoff Joe Creek. When making these local rounds, I keep an eager eagle eye pointed out my passenger side window to exchange winks with the cryptic side streets, such as Turnagain Drive, Enchanted Way, and, my personal favourite, Too Far South. Josephine County is pure charm, and I am happily under her spell.
roadside attractions

We're about to go deep into the goodie bag, but first: when was the last time you walked into the shower with all your clothes on?

If you can't remember, it's been too long! Go out, do something very messy, cleanse thyself and thy vestments beneath a water spout, and then meet me back here. I'll wait.

The bulk of this edition is dedicated to Burning Man, the event which occupied me between August 22nd and September 3rd. It is a phenomenal environment and it merits all the words I can muster.
home, home on the dust

Burning Man is a gathering of humans that takes place annually in late August or early September on a parched lakebed situated at the altitude of four thousand feet - that's twelve hundred meters - in northwestern Nevada. The event began as a small arty party in 1986, and is now attended by approximately eighty thousand people from around the world. This temporary community erects a temporary metropolis, known as Black Rock City. The city measures seven square miles, or eleven kilometres square. It is bordered by a pentagonal trash fence and lined with ring roads in a radiant clock formation, at the centre of which is the sculpture of the "Man" for whom the event is named, and which is ceremoniously, explosively immolated come Saturday night. The city is navigable by foot, bicycle or slow-moving motor vehicle, and the conduct of its citizens is guided by ten basic principles that promote equal parts responsibility, creativity, and levity.
desert denizens, with bicycle

Although it is a festive scene, Burning Man disdains the title of 'festival'. And indeed, there are features which set this event apart from its closest relatives. A prime example is the gift economy. The road to Black Rock City tends to be long and expensive, but once you arrive, you can put your wallet away. The only things for sale on site are coffee and ice. Everything else is provided free of charge by the participants. And when I say everything, I mean everything. Food, drink, shelter, services of grooming and healing, repairs, novelties, bacon, champagne, entertainment, education; whatever it may be, someone brought it to share with you and me and everybody. Unless you're serving cold drinks or indulging a streak of cafe snobbery, there's no reason to buy anything.
deity on demand

Another distinctive feature of Burning Man is the extremity of the living conditions, which necessitates a certain degree of preparation, or ruggedness, or simple discomfort. Black Rock City is a dry and dusty place. The alkaline properties of the dust cause metal to rust and skin to crack. It is blazing hot during the day and freezing before the dawn. When it rains, the entire joint becomes a sticky, impassable mud bath. In addition to the natural conditions, there are many opportunities to put oneself in harm's way in the course of enjoying the man-made offerings at the event, and the back of the ticket reminds the general public to "play at your own risk". Still, every year, people die in the desert. People also get arrested, injured, indicted, robbed, and raped, but none of this has been a significant part of my own experience at Burning Man, and I'm only including it so that you, too, can taste that special, life-affirming paprika of hypothetical danger.
i heard talking heads are playing at the trash fence

Any event that enjoys longevity is bound to go through growing pains and awkward phases. Burning Man was in its thirty-third year in 2019, which means that the first wave of participants has, for the most part, grown older and grown out of the core group. Key founder Larry Harvey passed away just last year, and a friend told me that in the demographic studies of recent Burns, approximately fifty percent of attendees are first-timers, whereas only ten percent have participated in the event more than five times. This suggests that, although there is an established community, the playing field is wide open for newcomers to reimagine the experience, and as the administration reportedly aspires to expand the city to accommodate an additional twenty thousand people in the near future, those ratios are likely to become even more dichotomous. 
headmaze and last rays

I keep an antenna tuned to the community of global Burners, and in recent years I've heard complaints that the event has been hijacked by the superwealthy, or has become exclusive, and that most people are just coming to look, rather than contribute. All of this is true, to some extent. There are a lot of spectators, because there is a lot of spectacle, and the superwealthy are largely responsible for financing the nuts and bolts of that spectacle. Even though you might not see an actual dollar bill for the whole week, there is evidence of big money all around. Hierarchy is paramount, and for career Burners, this can be a source of ambition that has the potential to lead to some truly amazing achievements. Burning Man may have been created as an outlet for outlaws and a vast gallery for visionary art, but it has now emerged as something a little more accessible and mundane: one of the greatest, flashiest, most advanced and professional weeklong parties to ever grace the planet Earth. 
here today

Here is a really nice video made by a big rich camp that shows you how the beautiful people are living out there: 

https://youtu.be/Q213Ow-1h3g

In sum, Black Rock City remains a temporary territory that is unique on this planet, and I feel privileged to have played my small role in the grand drama of it all once more.
gone tonight

Now, hear ye, hear ye: by the power of my charm and the strength of my conviction, I hereby declare that what I called Rhapsody in the last issue shall henceforth be known as Sauce. I know that this newsletter is a bit dry for some of you, and I am always happy to serve up a little extra juice. Sauce is also exempt from the word count that governs the format of this monthly missive. I write until it's finished, and I cut only the egregious fat.

**Attention! The content of Curiosity Roving will always be PG and appropriate for all ages, but Sauce could feature racier material. **

It might be really long, it might make you blush, and the only way to find out is to read the dang thing. Actually, since I've had a little time on my hands, you also have the option to consume this one through your ears. It seems that my network connection here is too slow to run my website editor, so I'll have route it through plain ol' Google Drive, and be content with content, overlooking the limitations of presentation. I can do that.

after all, it's just an ephemeral temple of tin

Today's Sauce is my personalized bike tour of Black Rock City, obviously. Come along, chickadees, it's fun here! I'll show you around:

hear it: https://drive.google.com/open?id=17jsGwftc8S2psR10vTIeBDN1OeoJmwTD

read it: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vrQ6mPKD3w9JC-DRJj-GbKSx-rHL9L9d

And as extra extra snacks, I have two new videos with my stamp on 'em:

1) My singer/songwriter alter ego released a music video on September 18th. It was filmed in my little town of Gimli, Manitoba, which I told you all about in V.2.

https://vimeo.com/360847271

2) My first live video for The Music Nest features a private performance by the glorious songstress Bella White in the forest at Frog Fest, the rural Alberta music festival that I documented in V.3.

https://youtu.be/K9olyQGvP_0

In all seriousness now, it's getting a bit too cold for my clothing around these parts, so I'm soon to be southbound. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and New Orleans are all on my dance card, and, come December, I expect to be singing Feliz Navidad rather than Merry Christmas. Please do send me to your friends, to your hallowed haunts, to your odd jobs, and to fledgling performers who need a video!

safety third

Thanks again for receiving this newsletter, the monthly generation of which brings me so much pleasure, and until next time, stay curious. -- Rose

Appendix : BRC Vernacular

Any organization with a cult-like following inevitably develops its own language. Here are some basic terms for navigation and discussion of Black Rock City, surreptitiously collected from the mouths of my friends and acquaintances:

playa : (n.) : the hard-packed lakebed that hosts our fair city
 -- often used in the sense of an adjective in connection with an object that is only used at Burning Man, for example: playa name, playa bike, playa hat, playa boyfriend, etc.
 -- other derivatives: 
playafy (v.) : to customize an object and prepare it for the event OR to completely cover in the alkaline dust that infiltrates every crevice of every thing that a person brings to Burning Man
playafied (adj.) : decorated and customized or perhaps covered in dust
playafication (n.) : the process of fancying up your stuff or getting it totally covered in alkaline dust while at Burning Man

burner : (n.) : a person who attends Burning Man and lives wholeheartedly in accordance with the ethos of the event

virgin : (n.) : a person who has never been to Burning Man

home : (n.) : Burning Man

theme camp : (n.) : a group of humans operating under a collective name and offering a particular service or habitat that is sanctioned and placed on the city map by Burning Man administrators

t-stake : (n.) : a variety of metal stake, usually 5 - 10 feet in length, that is pounded forcibly into the hard ground and used to secure tents, art pieces, etc.
-- see also: rebar, baling wire

rally : (v.) : to summon energy for a formidable task such as the noisy and effortful pounding of t-stakes, often but not exclusively at an unusual hour

art car : (n.) a vehicle that has been modified for Burning Man. These range in style from 18-wheeler mobile dance parties with fully stacked sound systems to cute l'il golf carts coated in neon fun fur to steampunk sculptures endowed with large flamethrowing appendages, and everything in between.
-- see also: mutant vehicle

schwag : (n.) : small gifts, such as stickers, scarves, magnets, or mugs, that are emblazoned with the insignia of a particular Burner or Theme Camp and are meant to be distributed widely in random interactions throughout the duration of the event

plug n' play : (adj.) : used to describe a theme camp that facilitates the experience of the superwealthy at Burning Man, a practice disdained by Burners committed to principles of self-reliance and radical inclusion
-- see also: turnkey camp (n.)

sparkle pony : (n.) : a person, usually female, who has come to the event in order to dress well and be photographed, often but not exclusively for Instagram

default world : (n.) : the entire world outside of Burning Man

decompression : (n.) : the process of preparing oneself to reintegrate with the default world following a Burn event
-- see also: afterparty

exodus: (n.) : the process of leaving Burning Man, which, at certain peak times, has the potential to become an undertaking of biblical cumbersomeness

pulse : (v.) : to move slightly forward at intervals of approximately one hour in the six-lane lineup that forms on the road out of Black Rock City

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