while agent.ZAI proceeds to go out and capture some users, etoy.VINCENT is occupied with final touch-ups of "the wall" (as the agents have come to call our recording studio).
an announcement on
radio free burning man, where first contact is made with the
BORG2 (Burning ORGanization committee 2).
an interview together with our friends from
save the man on an unnamed station, and addition of
Piss Clear to our list of must-reads.
also on the menu are a visit to the temple of dreams (on foot, no less), an entirely analogue place of mourning and rememberance. a very impressive place, both cheerful and somber. where else can you see people getting married, crying for their dead loved ones and playing golf at the same place at the same time?
finally, MISSION BURNING MAN is in full swing. immediate swarming of all available agents. users 050902122710 and 050902023125 are capsulated.
the protocol designed during our
berlin workshop works perfectly! we can capsulate a user in 90 minutes!
the local setup is quite difficult to handle, though. while the electronic equipment plays along nicely (we can recommend ibooks for future ventures to burning man due to their mostly fanless operation), the recording environment turns out to take the user's stamina to its limits: standing in front of a reflective backdrop in the glaring desert sun isn't easy on anyone!
a successful day is successfully terminated with our newfound friends at
"the lost penguin".
bad news: seems like our studio site was run over during the night.
much of our equipment, such as the "foldable backdrop" we planned to use
for taking pictures and as shade structure, is destroyed.
always at their best in crisis situations, etoy.AGENTS quickly organize a drill:
the surroundings are then stripped of spare nails, wood screws & scrap wood.
dusk. we got our job finished. to celebrate the accomplishment, each agent gets to empty _two_ cans of our tightly rationed beer supply.
spent a first night in our tent on a renegade campsite. now taking a first look at black rock city.
next task: find a permanent campsite and set up our mini-studio.
after stumbling around black rock city for a few hours, we finally run across the fine people from
the artery who quickly provide us with a spot at
4:45 & 1900:
ah, yes, and of course made first contact with BM's fascinating
portapotty subculture.
set up our equipment & lighting and left it for the night.
long and uneventful flight, followed by an overnight stay at creepy castle. addition of americanisms to the etoy.MEMEPOOL:
discovery of wal-mart as an excellent resource of reasonably priced
etoy.EQUIPMENT as well as an
atmosphere of subtle entertainment.
later that day, awestruck by the colors of the desert at dusk, a first on-site test of our mobile video equipment:
On to a first whiteout (dust storm) at the burning man reception. good news: we brought goggles:
bad news: our reservations do not parse -- we're not on the BM map, don't have a camp-site and need to go for the $300 last-minute tickets.
... and were confronted with an exhilarating, multi-faceted and exhausting environment. jetlag, therefore more later. suffice it to say we found soulmates:
