Burning Man photos

The adventure began as we waited for the "Cool Bus" to arrive and take us from Berkeley to Black Rock City. They told us to arrive at 10am Sunday, the bus left at 4pm, and we arrived at 5am the next day. We were already on Playa Time!

Helen paints Mike's face as we wait

Meredith walks

The "Cool Bus" complete with pimped out couches inside.

6am Monday, Meredith helps unload bikes

Phil plays Jonga. It's mad fun.

Aaaaaahahhhahahaha,.....!!

!!!!!!gggggf!!!!!!!!!! (it was a victory)

The city is arranged in a wheel and spoke pattern, with each spoke a half hour on the clock. The spokes are named according to the theme (2010=Metropolis), in alphabetical order. We were at 7:20 and Hanoi.

Our first day--it was magical, and of course I could hear the calls of "oh my god it's a double rainbow" every few seconds for about an hour!

Sunset, Monday, day one. In for some incredible adventures at night...

I met Nate, Justin, and Justin at a party and we went around exploring art installations. By far my favorite was "Bliss Dance," a 40-ft female nude by Marco Cochrane.EditLikeCommentShare

She is made of a welded steel framework and a steel mesh skin, lit (I think) from inside and outside. This makes her look as if she is made of plastic, mesh, steel, wood, and other materials under different conditions. The lighting is controlled on a specially designed iPad app.She took many months to complete and a giant team of welders.

I saw her a few days later in the middle of a dust storm; my field of vision was blanketed white and she would rise up like a phoenix.

The greatest challenge in building her was not to get her to stand upright, but to withstand the 50+ mile per hour winds that dust storms bring...

The detail on her legs is mind blowing.

The model is an opera singer (yes, she's that beautiful and she sings too!) and she came to Burning Man to sing by the sculpture; I didn't get to see it.

We are so lucky to have such beauty in this world.

I've borrowed some photos from Flickr to show you all here. This one is from user arnog.

Thanks flickr user dandawson.

On day two I asked Michael to paint "virgin" on my face. We were Burning Man virgins.

One of my few costumes. Never fear, I'm bringing tights back to the real world. And capes sometimes too.

Who needs saving?

Mike and I rode out into deep playa

Deep playa

Deep playa

Deep playa

An art installation

Sitting

Sitting

Delight, all ye hippies! Kombucha for all!

Jesse and I explored the Playa and found MalMart. It was one of the tallest structures and we climbed to the top.

A dust storm swept in--sweet!

Playa

No more photos happened between Wednesday and Sunday - I put down my camera completely and just experienced. On Sunday, I looked through the few pictures I had from the first few days and realized how nostalgic they were already making me. I took more. Mikey.

Mikey and Helen

Booth is a mad scientist!

Booth cooks

Resting

The rest of the photos are all borrowed from flickr users.Thanks flickr user yaar

Thanks flickr user sharpshutter

Thanks flickr user meganpru

Thanks flickr user meganpru

The temple - last year's was opulent; this one was simple and prehistoric, in contrast with the Metropolis theme. The sheer humanity written on these walls was breathtaking. Thanks flickr user nicoyogui

Thanks flickr user hollyannsibley

The temple lit up at night Thanks flickr user hollyannsibley

The temple burning. Thanks flickr user nicoyogui

9/13/2010: Burning Man continues as Meredith and I hand out free coffee on the streets of NYC.

we gave out these stickers!

Burning Man photos

Michael Morgenstern

Sign up for more like this.