"STUBBORN MAN" resists the burn in Black Rock City

I hesitate to write about Burningman because everything I can say seems cliched and overrated. I first made a pilgrimage to the Black Rock Desert of Nevada in 1999 and have struggled ever since to explain what I've seen there. I often try to correct those who claim that Burningman is merely Hedonism for its own sake, or "just a bunch of hippies" getting off in the desert. I say, sure it's sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, but you also can find that anywhere. What happens at Burningman is entirely unique yet common to all. I try to relate it to the ongoingSIGGRAPHcomputer graphics conference where emerging technologies applied to art have a venue with like-minding, tech-savvy global (and often geeky) brethren. Sure neo-hippies swarm at this alternative art conference in the desert, but they are not the only tribe that descend. They are joined by all walks of life, from grandmothers to children to bikers, programmers, lawyers, medics, musicians, rednecks, christians, native americans, farmers, politicians, writers, transvestites, football players, and maybe even your average Joe the plumbers. There's plumbers out there, I guarantee it. As well as a growing number of people from distant lands: Israel, Japan, Scotland, Fiji, France, England, you name it. And yet this continues to be an American phenomenon. Brazil has it's Carnival, and New Orleans has it's Mardi Gras even, but America has Burningman. "To those who ask: What is American Culture? Where is it? What does it look like? Their heads should point this way" exclaimed a participant on BMIR radiolast night. Another participant said it like this, "You can dismiss what is happening here. You can say its just a party, who cares!? But there are people here who are good caretakers of the human imagination as it unfolds." In fact, another said, "There is no describing it as much as living it. It is now a Global Event, a conference of the human imagination!" The symbolic burning of the man was streamed live from a webcam in the center of the action. Constructed of approximately 12 to 14 miles of board and 9.5 million nails, the Man refused to fall. I captured this screenshot time lapse animation of the event last night off the live feed from the Burningman website. Please enjoy!