Lemille is off this week, no doubt working up some future regrets, so in his place - Burning Man! America's 'premier counter-culture event' starts today...
What started off in 1986 with a few friends and their families on a small beach burning a wooden effigy, has grown to include 48,000+ people taking a week out of the year to be part of an experimental community which celebrates artwork, decommodification and revelry...States the official Burning Man site, the festival 'challenges its members to express themselves and rely on themselves to a degree that is not normally encountered in one's day-to-day life.'
Here are two perspectives from people who have attended the festival in Black Rock City: here and here. And a video here. Lastly, you might check out a slideshow of photos. Have you been to Burning Man yourself, or would like to go? We'd love to hear about it in the comments below.
And TOMORROW: More 'Freewheeling with Joe Kurmaskie'...! And if you can't wait until then for the mighty Joe, take a look at The Oregonian where Joe has just published an article about storytelling this past weekend, entitled
'The Work and Art of Writing: Muscle vs Muse.'
Meantime, below is the trailer for 'Dust and Illusions', a history of the Burning Man festival, due for release in 2009.
