| Burning Man 1993
I was really going to start early, I was going to make something cool and really big to bring out to the Playa this year. I decided to create a larger than life sized man. He would pray before the Burning Man and just as the Man fell he would leap in the air as if living only to be crushed under the flaming Burning Man. I spent a couple of months thinking, gathering materials, then two weeks before the event I went crazy, night and day working on it. I ignored all my responsibilities, didn't worry, didn't clean didn't do anything other then prepare my work of art. My new girl friend, Helyn became very sick and I didn't go and see her. I had to finish the sculpture. She would call crying and I would promise to come over and take care of her and then cancel because I had to work on MY sculpture. (She got even sooner than later.) Finally, it was time to go so I packed up a couple of tents, some toys, found some cool costumes, and some tapestries. I put my sculpture in a friend's truck and drove to San Francisco to Helyn's home. She was going with Dave and I and she had agreed to drive her car. I felt totally ready. We had a stove to cook on, crazy clothing, and tons of water. I had this beautiful woman who loved me and wanted to go and I had my sculpture. Our friend dropped us and everything we had on the corner, clothes, camping gear and sculpture. He waved good bye and left. Helyn looked out her window and yelled for us to come on up with all our stuff. Up we went, ready for the Man. She gave me a big kiss looked over my shoulder and said "There is no way in hell that piece of sculpture is going on top of my car all the way to Burning Man" I was stunned, speechless. She was not kidding and hated that sculpture because I had worked on it, ignoring her, while she vas very, very sick. She was sure we would get arrested if it was on the top of car. We argued, I begged, she wouldn't budge. I called everyone I could, trying to get it there, all to no avail. She left me no choice and I left it in her living room and went on to the Man. By the time we reached the desert, I had pretty much forgiven her for making me leave it behind. She was right, if I had planned a little more, started working a little sooner and thought a little harder about how I planned on getting the damn thing there, it would have made it to the desert. If I had planned on putting it on the top of her car, I should have been a little nicer and come up to the city when she was sick and needed me. Nevertheless, this was one of the best Burning Man experiences I have ever had. Our camp was just right, two tents, a car and a bunch of tapestries. Everything tied to everything else, just enough shade for the three of us. Every couple of hours some part would fall and I would hear "Charlie, Fix!!" It would come from under some collapsed part of the tent from a sleepy camper and I would fix. This line has lived on for many years. There were about 1,000 people there and it seemed huge at the time. The Man had feet, Pepe's tower was a single chimney and the fashion show was not a show but a great parade without spectators. I remember going out to the rave camp, it was five guys, a van, a couple of big speakers, a card board box covered in tin foil, colored lights and a strobe light. It was all cool.
This was the year I saw Christmas Camp. Christmas Camp was my all time favorite Theme Camp from any year. They had Christmas lights, elves and a Christmas tree. They gave out wrapped gifts and had a very twisted, skinny, drunk Santa Claus. Santa always carried a shot gun and didn't stop swearing all weekend. We went over there one night and saw Santa get a lap dance from two young ladies from NY wearing nothing but silver paint and silver G-strings. I think we saw Santa coming down the chimney. Later in the weekend, the "Healer" from Wellness Camp stole Santa's shotgun because it bothered him. It created one of the funniest bits of gossip to spread like wild fire through the Playa. This was the year of the neon crop circle. This was the largest neon piece of art I had ever seen. It was so apropos to the desert: Aliens, Neon, it's fragile nature, just the name crop circle in a world with out plant life. The artist put a lot of trust into a lot of people's hands and the work lived through the weekend. I felt lucky have seen it. There has never been a greater burn for me than the last night of the Burning Man 1993. They lit the Man, it burned and then the sky began to light up with lightning. Huge bolts traveled horizontally through the sky. The lightning grew stronger as the Man burned. People began to scream, "the gods are angry" or "the aliens are coming" or we preferred "Mother Nature is partying with us". Just as the Burning Man fell, a light rain began, lasting only a few minutes. Then the rain stopped and a calm settled on the camp. With a snap of a finger, a sand storm appeared out of nowhere, covering the already wet celebrants, camps, cars, everything out there with a layer of fine white dust. The storm lasted only a minute, but left everyone and everything covered, head to toe, in playa . Only eyes and teeth and the fire of the man could be seen. Everything became part of the playa for a minute. Then the real rain came and everything was washed off, and everything became completely soaked. We sat in the car the rest of the night thinking that we were going to be there in the middle of this lake for a very long time. We were able to leave the next day, the playa sucked up all the water and it looked like it had never rained in the first place. ps. My sculpture did burn. We took it out to Ocean Beach and had a little burn. My Man and Brian Goggin's Tiny Town both burned great with enough gas. I have been having my own little burns ever since. Charles A. Gadeken |