Latest / Best of: Features / Surreal stories of 'playa magic' from the heart of Burning Man

Transcript

Surreal stories of 'playa magic' from the heart of Burning Man · Best of: Features

• 0:05
  Surreal Stories of playa magic, from the Heart of Burning Man. This
• 0:12
  article is being read by an automated voice generated by Everlett. Spend
• 0:18
  enough time in Burning Man's Black Rock City, and inevitably you will
• 0:22
  stumble on some Playa magic, be it your own or someone else's.
• 0:26
  Pleia magic is a tough thing to define, but you'll know your
• 0:29
  experiencing it when something inexplicable and amazing happens, leaving your with a
• 0:34
  sense that the fairy shrimp are not only real but swimming around
• 0:37
  and granting wishes. For example, your need a specific tool to repair
• 0:41
  your bike, and suddenly a lost bike mechanic stumbles into your camp
• 0:45
  in his underwear, carrying only that tool, or maybe you lose your
• 0:49
  fanny pack on day one with your cell phone inside, and after
• 0:52
  dropping a stone in a playa, wishing well asking that it be
• 0:55
  returned, the bag shows up at the lost and found, with the
• 0:58
  phone still in it. In other instances, Playa Magic occurs as a
• 1:02
  special moment or series of moments between two people, sometimes playing out
• 1:06
  in Black Rock City over years. Because burners tend to be open
• 1:11
  to new possibilities and connections, these sorts of serendipitous hap happenings are
• 1:15
  pervasive. So this year we asked a bunch of longtime burners and
• 1:19
  some newbies for their best Playa magic stories, and the Playa, as
• 1:23
  they say, provided. Dust Bus Real name Steph Solis Playa
• 1:29
  name. In twenty twenty five I stepped off the Burner Express bus
• 1:32
  for the first time. Ten minutes later a whiteout dust storm began
• 1:35
  that was so strong, I couldn't see my own hands. Irresponsibly, I'd
• 1:39
  stepped away from my bag so I was without goggles or a
• 1:42
  mask. The dust, whipped my face, creating a crust that sealed my
• 1:45
  eyelids shut. I was temporarily blinded, using my T shirt as a
• 1:49
  breathing filter. I thought that it would surely end in a few
• 1:53
  minutes. But after an hour of being pummeled by dust I started
• 1:56
  walking forward and backward, arms outstretched, blindly seeking shelter, until my fingertips
• 2:01
  bonked the empty parked bus I had arrived in. But the doors
• 2:04
  were locked. Then I heard someone yell, Person Unseen strong arms pulled
• 2:10
  me into then luggage hull on. The underside of the bus. About
• 2:13
  twenty people were crammed inside together, an instant community. Water bottles, food
• 2:17
  and wet wipes helpfully emerged from everyone's pockets. I wiped my face,
• 2:21
  I could see. I felt safe. I was safe. One burner then
• 2:26
  put his goggles on. He announced, I'm going back out there for
• 2:29
  others, and embarked on a search and rescue mission, quickly disappearing into
• 2:33
  the dust. Kissed by a coyote. Real name, Douglas Ross Francis Martin
• 2:39
  Playa name In twenty twelve I came to Burning Man and picked
• 2:43
  up a volunteer shift at Black Rock Hot Springs. The Earth Guardians
• 2:47
  took me out there for an overnight, and I was by myself,
• 2:50
  making sure nobody from the event showed up because it's outside the
• 2:53
  boundaries of Black Rock City. I took my food And everything, and
• 2:57
  I had a can of sardines for dinner and crackers. After eating
• 3:01
  dinner I went to bed, and when I woke up in the
• 3:03
  morning there was a effing coyote right here, really right here in
• 3:07
  my face, looking me in the eyes, licking his lips. I'm thinking
• 3:10
  to myself, You've never smelt sardines before and then I realize my
• 3:14
  own lips are wet. The coyote starts backing up and runs away,
• 3:18
  and I
• 3:18
  just watch him, so that's how I got kissed by a coyote.
• 3:22
  Friendship unlocked. Real name, Roba Linder Playa Name. In two thousand six
• 3:28
  I went solo to Burning Man in a rented vehicle. Monday morning
• 3:31
  I locked my keys inside my rig, along with all my food,
• 3:34
  water, and clothes. I had a tent, some vodka, and a water
• 3:37
  bottle. That was about it. I went to Playa Info looking for
• 3:41
  a locksmith, but there were none registered. The Rangers basically laughed at
• 3:45
  me. I was on foot, everything felt impossibly far away, and I
• 3:49
  shut down. I stopped talking to people and obsessed over how miserable
• 3:52
  I was. Tuesday was an absolute nightmare. I kept trying to solve
• 3:57
  the problem using default world skills, find the official people, get an
• 4:01
  official solution. I wasn't interacting with anyone around me, and my mood
• 4:05
  kept getting darker. Wednesday morning I'd had enough and went looking for
• 4:09
  a rock to smash my window. Of course there were no rocks,
• 4:13
  so I had to start talking to my neighbors. I was gifted
• 4:16
  a hammer in under thirty minutes, and went to my window. I
• 4:19
  hit it once, and the hammer bounced off. Before I could hit
• 4:23
  it again, someone from directly across the street came running over, asking
• 4:26
  what was wrong. I was basically a crying mess. I told him
• 4:29
  I'd locked my keys in my vehicle days ago. He was A
• 4:33
  locksmith. He got me into my rig in under ten minutes. He'd
• 4:37
  been camped literally across the street for a day and a half.
• 4:41
  It was such a lesson in how the playa works. You really
• 4:43
  get out of BRC what you put into BRC. Make friends. Be
• 4:47
  open. Be daring. I cooked him breakfast, we became fast friends. I
• 4:51
  had
• 4:51
  a much better time after finally stepping outside myself. A margarita wish.
• 4:57
  Real name Liz Lyman play a name Total Lisaster. There's camp where
• 5:00
  you can put a wish and a playa address on a rock
• 5:02
  and drop it in a wishing well. In twenty eighteen I made
• 5:06
  a silly little wish for a margarita, and sure enough, a mustached
• 5:09
  man showed up at my camp on the hottest of days and
• 5:12
  said, I'm here to grant a margarita wish. He had a small
• 5:16
  bar with him, and pulled a bottle of tequila hand a shaker
• 5:19
  out of nowhere. He then cut a lime on his belt and
• 5:21
  made me the best cocktail of my entire life. Duck, duck, ghost.
• 5:27
  Real name, Caroline Lee Playa name. Last year a guy came up
• 5:31
  to me, my partner and my one year old on the playa.
• 5:34
  He was a stranger, and that was a normal Burning Man experience,
• 5:37
  to have a stranger come up to you and offer you something.
• 5:40
  He was like here, I have a bag. Put your hand in
• 5:43
  the bag and choose anything you want. So we all put our
• 5:47
  hands in the bag and pulled out objects, and all three of
• 5:50
  us pulled out rubber ducks. That was especially magical, because we had
• 5:54
  previously lived with an eighty year old woman names:
• 5:56
  Judith in Oakland, who collected rubber ducks, and she had over three
• 6:01
  hundred of the that she lined her bathrooms with. After reaching our
• 6:05
  hands in the bag and pulling out rubber ducks, we realized that
• 6:08
  it was the two year anniversary of the day that she had
• 6:11
  died, and so we were like, Oh my God, hi Judith It
• 6:14
  was crazy, and we had some tears over it. It was pretty
• 6:17
  special to have a stranger come up and just open a portal
• 6:20
  for us. You have to manifest some water. Real names Tim Hansford
• 6:25
  and Tamarmonus Playa names unknown. We're from Kentucky, And twenty twenty two
• 6:29
  was the first year we came to Burning Man. We took then
• 6:32
  burner bus, which allows you to order water. But Tamara forgot to
• 6:36
  get her water tickets, so she was kind of freaking out. I
• 6:39
  had water and she immediately started drinking my water. I was like,
• 6:43
  okay, that's cool, but listen, you have to manifest some water? And
• 6:47
  we're getting there, and I said, Look over there. There was a
• 6:50
  girl struggling to put up her tent, and I was like, Go
• 6:53
  over there and help her and manifest some water and she was
• 6:55
  like, Can I? I'm like, You can you can do it and
• 6:59
  so she went over. She started helping the girl put up her
• 7:03
  tent, and then another lady walked over and was like, Hey, when
• 7:06
  you guys are done, will you help me with mine? So they
• 7:09
  sent over to help the second lady. While they were putting up
• 7:12
  her tent, she was like, Hey, by the way, I've got all
• 7:15
  these extra water tickets. Do any of you need some water? So
• 7:18
  we ended up getting ten gallons of water But here's the real
• 7:22
  story. The first girl that Tamar helped with the tent became one
• 7:26
  of our best friends. When we left the Burn, that year, we
• 7:29
  had kind of quit our jobs to do it, right? So we
• 7:32
  were in this unemployment gap and we were going to get hired
• 7:35
  on, but it was taking a long time and we were running
• 7:38
  out of money. Our new best friend, who is from Ireland, by
• 7:41
  the way, sent us five hundred dollars, which was enough to buy
• 7:45
  groceries and get us through until we got hired on where we
• 7:48
  currently work. This year we brought two first time burners from our
• 7:53
  new workplace, who we never would have met if it wasn't for
• 7:56
  the twenty twenty two water problem and our new friend, so it
• 7:59
  definitely came full circle. The disappearing, reappearing sunbrella, Real name
• 8:05
  Kellen Foxman Playa Name. On a Tuesday at the burn, I'm riding
• 8:09
  my bike somewhere on six o'clock near the plaza, and after riding
• 8:12
  around for a long time, I bike all the way back across
• 8:14
  Playa. I get back to my camp, I
• 8:17
  look in my bike basket, and this really sweet paper Chinese sunbrella
• 8:20
  that my mom had given me is gone. It. Was devastating. I
• 8:24
  tried retracing my steps in my neighborhood, but the sunbrella was nowhere
• 8:28
  to be seen. Fast forward to Sunday and everything is getting broken
• 8:32
  down across the Playa. I'm heartbroken that the burn is over. I
• 8:36
  go to a bar on the other side of Playa from my
• 8:38
  camp, because it's one of the only watering holes that’s still open.
• 8:42
  I'm sitting there at the bar, just sad that it's all over.
• 8:46
  Everything's falling apart around the bar, and I look up at the
• 8:49
  shade structure right above the bar, and there's my paper umbrella. It's
• 8:53
  just hanging there like an ornament, looking so beautiful with its cherry
• 8:57
  blossoms and a missing handle that made me sure it was mine.
• 9:01
  I tell the guy behind the bar, Hey, man, that's my umbrella,
• 9:04
  and we kind of get into a fight about it. He was
• 9:06
  giving me a hard time for issin giggles, and said something like,
• 9:10
  Get your effing moop Burning Man, word for trash out of my
• 9:13
  bar. This is mine now. We went back and forth, and eventually
• 9:16
  I started crying. The he said, Oh no, I was just kidding.
• 9:20
  You take it So he unhooks it from like the rope that's
• 9:23
  hanging it up and brings it down, and I get my umbrella
• 9:27
  back. I still have it with me today. Being somebody Real name
• 9:32
  Melissa Ryan Playa name. In two thousand seven my best friend's parents
• 9:36
  signed up to bring seven young adults to Burning Man, I was
• 9:39
  twenty, and do not recall being tasked with meals, packing, cleaning, or
• 9:43
  anything remotely close to medical self reliance. But I did learn by
• 9:47
  example from one of our camp dads, Jack Opa Hay. My bio
• 9:52
  father, David Norton Long, had passed away when I was fifteen, so
• 9:55
  I had always gravitated toward father figure types. For me, at Burning
• 9:59
  Man, that was Opa, and he was deeply involved in the event,
• 10:02
  collaborating on temple creations, the man and the Opa lights that have
• 10:06
  encircled the festival for over twenty seven years. After attending Burning Man
• 10:11
  six times as a participant, I felt called to volunteers. And once
• 10:15
  I had completed nursing school, I joined the Burning Man Emergency Services
• 10:19
  Department as a healthcare provider. In twenty fourteen, I was at my
• 10:22
  first ESD shift, and I was very nervous. I wanted to be
• 10:26
  a helpful city dweller, and I did not want to disappoint. I
• 10:29
  made sure to read all my trainings and prepare as much as
• 10:32
  possible. That morning, Opa drove up to the medical station in his
• 10:36
  Department of Public Works vehicle and called out, Who are you? You
• 10:39
  really must be somebody. He must have known how much it meant,
• 10:43
  because he did the same thing the next year. And the next.
• 10:46
  And for nine years after that, instilling confidence in me as I
• 10:49
  got promoted up through ESD, until he died in twenty twenty five.
• 10:54
  This year is my sixteenth burn and my tenth year working for
• 10:57
  ESD, and I am now the Deputy Chief of Clinical Operations for
• 11:01
  the Medical Branch and its three hundred plus volunteers. I love the
• 11:04
  work that ESD does and all the support we provide to burners.
• 11:08
  This year though, I teared up on my first day at work
• 11:10
  on Playa because I knew my annual visit wasn't coming, but I
• 11:14
  also still knew I was somebody.