The Zone was just a line in the sand that Larry Drew. He and some friends had been at Baker Beach up above San Francisco in the eighties, running around naked and burning things. Inevitably, the cops showed up, and Larry and some friends took their effigies out into the desert in 1990, I think, where the sand was germinated and the man grew to what I was looking at today. Back then the thing was eight feet tall. Today it was ninety, and looked like it may have taken years to build. Looking out across the Playa you could see off in the distance, some sort of Chrome rocket ship, breathing fire, temples and strange structures dotted the landscape way out from the camp half-circle, way out in the desert. Somebody had flown hundreds of giant weather balloons into the sky in another corner. You could see them up there, floating, but you couldn’t quite make out what was going on underneath. Domes were everywhere, Giant ones, covered with sheepskin or something. I couldn’t really tell from our camp. Camp was like a city, with streets named with letters, and cross streets with a time. I think we were at k and 4:15 or something. If you are looking at the satellite photo, on the far right outer circle.
Burning man was founded upon Ten Principles. Everyone out there likes to talk about them. Here they are.
• Radical inclusion – Basically anyone who can afford a ticket can get in. Tickets are 300 bucks. But once you are inside nothing is for sale. See below.
Gifting - Instead of cash, event participants are encouraged to rely on a gift economy, a sort of potlatch. You bring what you need, but while you are about camp, if you need something, you can go in and ask for it at another camp.
• Decommodification - No cash transactions are permitted at the event in accordance with the principles of Burning Man. They mean that shit too. If you tried to offer money for a beer or something else, they would just be like “no money, just ask the playa, it will provide”. Later on, while trying to procure weaponry with which to fight off the craziness of the night, I would throw all the money in my pockets out onto the playa, demanding it give me something in return. We’d later adopt the philosophy that, what this really meant was that you would get what you needed from the desert, not necessarily what you wanted. Even later, we’d say fuck that, we’ll just take whatever we want. We’d call this the somalian Pirate approach to burning man.
• Radical self-reliance - Because of the event's harsh environment and remote location, participants are expected to be responsible for their own subsistence. Since the LLC forbids any commerce, participants must be prepared and bring all their own supplies with the exception of the items stated in Decommodification. The two things Burning man sold were coffee and Ice.
• Radical self-expression - Participants are encouraged to express themselves in a number of ways through various art forms and projects. The event is clothing-optional and public nudity is common, though not practiced by the majority. Bullshit, everyone is naked, and heaps of them are beautiful.
• Communal effort - Participants are encouraged to work with and help fellow participants.
• Civic responsibility - Participants are encouraged and assume responsibility to be part of a civil society in which federal, state and local laws are obeyed and communicate this to other participant. Another bullshit rule to help keep the law at bay.
• "Leave No Trace" - Participants are committed to a "leave-no-trace" event. They strive to leave the area around them in better condition than before their arrival to ensure their participation does not have a long term impact on the environment. Basically this barren land that had turned into another planet would again become just barren land less than two weeks after we left the place. Pretty Amazing.
• Participation - Burning Man is about participation. This would prove the most vital concept of Burning Man.
• Immediacy - Participants are encouraged to become part of the event, to experience who and what is around them and to explore their inner selves and their relation to the event. We immediately felt the need to be ready for whatever, down for almost whatever, and we knew to beat down the desert was going to take some doing.
Ten Years ago I would have run out here in the Desert with sixteen cases of PBR and some psycolbin, and I would have died in three days, of dehydration and exhaustion. I’d have turned to beef jerky out here like a big burly Whitney Houston. I was smarter now though. I had to think about this. By the time we made camp, I’d downed six Gatorades. I wasn’t touching the beer till sundown. We’d upped our tent. Bill and I drug ours across the country and would be sleeping in it side by side. It was twice as small as everyone else’s, and probably half as sturdy. I didn’t know how we’d fit in there at night, all restless and wasted, but figured that was for worrying about later, not now. Sandstorms were brewing. It was early afternoon. Somebody handed me a brownie. Nothing was left now but to go explore this place out here.
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