Hey y'all--

So, this blog and me are back from hiatus (no longer to be referred to as hiadust as you will read) and the next post will be looking forward. Below is most of the copy to my resignation letter to Burning Man in general and to my volunteer post as a Ranger, a service to Black Rock City that I was proud to provide for the last three and a half Burns...

wasn't necessarily planning on penning this today

but it seems appropriate:

the second rational act i performed after quitting my corporate job, my wife and my city and buying a one-way ticket out

was to buy my first burning man ticket for 2002;

was it prophetic - as the guy working will-call suggested - when my staff credential bracelet was number 911 this year?

*******

having learned many burns back to not to pack the expectations, 

i sincerely did not expect this to be my last trek out to BRC:

but that's what it turned out to be...

going in i was eyeballing the ticket fiasco

and the fear of a newbie-swarm

as an opportunity to walk the dirt, dressed in khaki

and tell it how it is, how it can be

but found myself more often than not

encountering those who had come to a party, but not even knowing what they were celebrating

those who had no clue as to why we come and do what we do in that godforsaken desert...

people who i had camped across from for 3 years now, thought i was a cop

despite as they said, my propensity for wandering around naked (not nekkid)

big blue mohawk playafied up--

but then i'd put on my "uniform" and they were afraid that i was going to bust them for smoking...

i found myself face to face with far more stupid than i ever had in a decade's worth of burns previous

having realized some time ago that i am over certain aspects of the burning man experience

it was the "shooting fish in a barrel" ease of meeting people with whom to have amazing conversations

(or, at the very least, they'd get the joke...)

that had kept me coming back year after year after year

but i palpably felt that dissipate this year;

scales fell:

The Man has no clothes...

but what nauseated and turned me off me far more

was the attitude of "seasoned" burners

and their overwhelming sense of entitlement:

this was something i came across both on shift and off

and it made my decision to leave playa early

and not return the right call for me...

yes, i am long-winded, but i do have an anecdote

that seems worth sharing especially after a friend forwarded me a fb post today

(i usually return from the playa adding friends,

but this year found more call to drop "friends")

i'm on a bike mobile shift w/Geronimo 6p-midnight monday

it's very nearly the witching hour when we're cycling toward hq

when a sheriff driving past waves my partner down to tell us to clear some bikes that are blocking the road;

Geronimo also gets the call from khaki to the same camp/issue

(now here's the set-up:

on the very 1st shift Geronimo & I had walked together 3 years back

we had gotten a call to ranger a mountain of bikes on the esplanade

(btw: i refer to this as "pushing schwinn" but anyway...)

and we spend time/energy hauling chained together bikes out of the way;

there had been 2 more senior rangers working from the other side

who watched us finish up, sweaty and frustrated

(moving 4 bikes chained together no easy task)

the other pair of rangers comment "well, that's one way of doing it..."

they'd gone into the camp and asked the dj to make an announcement for the bike-owners to move them themselves--

brilliant!)

so, there's Geronimo about to go into the camp and speak to the dj while i monitor the radio and his back from the street

but then i look up at the camp's signage and volunteer to be the one to go in

since i had known a lot of people in the camp for a decade, 

known the dj very well from 2 years worth of toil w/mutaytor in los angeles

of course i am going to be the person who goes in to make our simple request

and i go in and find the dj in question (he's not spinning just yet but is about to start)

and i make the usual pleasantries, etc. before bringing up the bike situation.

but when i do, he asks if this is now me in an official ranger capacity

and i say that, yeah, i guess it is...

and he slaps me on the chest and says "that's great" although i heard what he really meant to say.

(had i known then what i know now - that these were my last 10 minutes of rangering at ttitd,

i may have responded "in kind;" that response could have included taking off my lammy 

and something else including my right fist and his mouth)

but instead Geronimo and i cleared the bikes...

pondering why someone other than an ass-hat wouldn't prefer dealing with the likes of me instead of LE)

so:

here's the fb post that said dj posted:

Deejay Wolfie
My experience of Rangers this year at the burn reminded me of the stanford prison experiment, where providing a uniform "swamps the internal moral judgement" of an individual. I went from "aww nice, they're helpful" to "wow, if one more uniform walks in here with that attitude, we're going to throw them out in the street" Just because someone is a cos play uniform volunteer in love with a rule book, does not mean us other burners can be approached as if your self appointed authority holds any water. We all see through the laminate and the brown shirt vibe to the hall monitor child, desperate for the authority one cannot command oneself, but instead must rely on a uniform to furnish. Try approaching us as fellow burners, start by introducing yourself, and you may then get some respect. However, if you ride in out of the dark and bark orders at women campers in the process of getting dressed for the evening, You'll get thrown out of our camp in the rudest way we can muster. 

it's rather amusing that i did EXACTLY what he says would have garnered respect from his camp...

*******

but when there's a self-appointed "neighborhood watch" around where i was camped

calling the sheriffs on disoriented participants who had been wandering around,

"he looked at my bike" was their justification.

fortunately, as i looked on (still a little on the fence about leaving and following a lovely chat w/Ultra in hq-- thanks!) 

the watch committee complimented themselves for calling the sheriffs so that they could keep "burning man good"

i felt done with this part of burning man

but as it took my people 40 years, i suppose i got off easy (good behavior?) after but 11 years wandering that desert...

Cheers
Brian