Spark: A Burning Man Story Page #2

to go in the middle of Tecate Park,

Tecate Park is the... is in the

center of Burn Wall Street

surrounded by its four banks and

the New York Stock Exchange.

And then up here, we're going to

have two big glowing red eyes

so at night, again, he'll have

his big demon eyes glowing and,

you know, to show the evil

that is Wall Street.

[VON DANGER]:
To me, it's more a

representation of, uh, to the powers that be

of this is what happens to you

if you don't fix things.

When the riots start, everyone

will go down to Wall... Wall Street

When you don't know how to

feed your kids, what do you do?

Go kill the rich people

and take all their stuff.

I'm a Marine.

I swear to defend the Constitution against

all enemies foreign and domestic, there uh,

Congressmen and Senators and

President.

These will be capped,

and you can see the ones that are

completed over there that are capped.

I'm not a Kool-Aid drinker,

I don't believe in everything

Burning Man says is the word of...

of the almighty

or whatever like that.

Like, I don't think you should

radically include the hippie

that shows up with just a

backpack and no water, no food,

and expects us to take care of

them 'cause it's a gift economy.

I think, everybody should carry

their own weight,

and enough to help the rest of

the community out.

I mean, obviously we are, most of

the people go to Burning Man...

Hey! Stop hammering!

[JOHN LA GRACE]:

I got married at 24.

She was 21.

And she at the time was a

professional figure skater.

I'd always tell people what she

does and what I do

it's the exact same thing.

The curtains go up,

the lights go on and it's either

the Jon show or the Jamie show,

you know, she'd come home

with a medal,

and I'd come home

with a bag of money,

but it was still a show.

[LA GRACE]:

Well, it's very disconcerting,

in a one week period of time,

to realize that

everything that you've done

in your entire life

leading up to that point

could potentially be wrong.

The a-ha moment for me was,

like, the burn of the man.

And I saw myself in that image.

I saw myself and my life

and everything that I thought

that it was supposed to be

going up in flames.

I lost my job in banking,

I got a divorce,

I came out of the closet.

The last decade of

my life has been

in a constant state of change

and the only thing that's been

consistent in my life

in the last 10 years

has been Burning Man.

Playa Skool is a Burning Man

theme camp.

And we're about

150 members strong.

It was created as a school

because we thought that

our form of giving back to the

Burning Man community

was to create a

platform of learning.

Welcome, citizens of Black Rock

City, is this amazing or what?

[LA GRACE]:

I was a founder of PlayaSkool,

I've been leading the project

management aspects of it,

leading the communication

aspects of it.

We have water trucks that we

have to rent.

We have a 40 foot

kitchen trailer.

All of those things need to be

transported to the Playa

and picked up from the Playa.

It's an overwhelming amount

of work.

[GOODELL]:

Yes, we decided four yes...

Okay... for crying out loud.

[ANDIE GRACE]:

Okay... four per person.

This is hard...

Okay so then the better

way to do this is...

Because that's actually what

we should try to do here...

[GRACE]:
So the question isn't,

"How does the system work?,"

maybe the question is, "How can I

get tickets to Burning Man 2012?"

And we need to change this to not say,

'Burning Man Ticket Lottery FAQ, '

this is 'Burning Man Ticket

Distribution process FAQ.'

Are you going to make these

edits or do you want me to?

[GOODELL]:
There's a lot

happening right now.

We're trying to improve

our infrastructure,

we're trying to improve

our processes,

we're trying to grow

the Burning Man Project

and have it go out in the world and create networks

and connect with people in different cities.

You know, a lot of change.

This is to help improve

the ticket process...

But I wouldn't want anybody to

think that they're doing a quiz

to prove that they're a burner.

I've been helping produce it

since late '96, early '97,

depending on how you want

to slice the numbers,

so at least 15 years.

Fifteen years?

I mean that's longer

than my cat,

you know, it's longer than

any roommate or lover I've had.

I think most of the people here

are on the media team,

but you're the art team

and you're part of art cars...

[GOODELL]:
And we all took on

whatever was in front of us.

I took what was dropped

in my hands,

which was public relations

and communications.

So Larry, this is the media team

and... and friends.

[GOODELL]:

And all I wanted to do was

help Larry and the rest

make the magical circus happen

in the Black Rock Desert.

Because that was the most interesting

thing that I imagined I could ever do.

...you know, why is it this, why

is it pagan, or whatever it is

that you hear that you think the

group might learn from,

please feel free to ask it.

[WOMAN]:
What are your thoughts

on the expansion of Burning Man?

Do you see where it could be

a point where it gets too big

and it loses the essence

of what it is?

Believe me, that... that

question's been asked for years.

I guess the question is

'Too big for what?'

There's some pretty important

edits here that are...

There's structural typos,

and then there's...

[GOODELL]:
If the most important

thing about being a woman

is to have children

and have a family,

yeah, I absolutely sacrificed having

children and having a family for this.

Hands down.

But I take a lot of solace in the

fact that what I've actually done

is build a community that won't

be abandoning me

when I'm in my 60's

or 70's or 80's.

I'm pretty certain that, that's

what we've done is build

a community of people that are

going to look out for each other.

[GOODELL]:
I don't have enough

stress right now.

If you two would look at me

and ask me to write faster,

it might help.

You don't like me, do you?

[BOYNTON]:
When I got back from the

playa I kind of put a post on Facebook,

saying um, "I'm looking for

work of any sort."

"I will paint your room,

I will organize your closet."

"I will watch your kids, I will

do your grocery shopping."

"Let me know what you need."

And I've been coming out

once a week since then,

working my way

through her house.

I was forced out of my house because

I couldn't afford it anymore.

But, I do feel like if I have to

go back to couch-surfing

and living out of

the back of my car,

I feel like I'm stronger

and I'll be able to do that.

Yeah, this is, this is, uh,

it's difficult to talk about

my fears around her.

Just that...

She's gone through

some scary things.

And she's gone through sheer

terror and loss of everything,

and, um, is still doing it.

And, I don't want her

to get hurt.

[LA GRACE]:

Listen... listen, you guys.

The existential threat

that we face as a camp,

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes