24 Hours at Burning Man | 2019 in 2020

[Music] oh hey it's you i didn't know if you were going to make it and i really didn't want to start without you but you're here now and that's all that matters once again and yet again i have seen and done and burned many wonderful things out here in the magnificent black rock desert and i want to share them with you um so if you're ready to do it if you've seen this before you'll know what to do if not basically on the count of three let's go do some burning man right now you ready one two three let's go do some burning man right now [Music] hey guys i'm benjamin langholtz and i'm originally from california but currently living in berlin and this is stone 27 it's a pathway of floating stones where you can walk up and hopefully have a moment of complete presence up at the top in the chaos of burning man i i'm originally a designer i guess from uh from my profession but i quit my job about five years ago and over the past uh two years i studied rope bondage in tokyo and so i've always been into this like rigging idea and hanging things in the air but normally people and then i just was suddenly quite inspired with this idea of taking stones and sort of shifting reality so now this thing that is very heavy and solid becomes something that's light and floats above the ground and is usually something very steady on the ground but now it becomes something that challenges you with its balance and things like that yeah it's a bit of like a pseudo meditation like i look at the stone right in front of me and this we did i have three engineers who worked on the project with me which would who out with it would not have been possible uh they didn't do any of the bolting or anything but we built this like full model of how it would work a digital finite element analysis of the forces apply to each cable to size everything and everything but uh then it finally came time to bolt them and i look at the 3d model i spin it around look at the stone in front of me and i'm like okay here you know and then i just go for it and then and then correct for a lot of things with the cables uh in terms of the yeah i sort of have an idea of how it will shift when it gets the the tensions on them and then uh some a few of them had to be re-bolted a little bit but the most i'd ever done before this was seven in the air so this was quite a leap fire alive [Music] [Music] [Music] hi i'm tahoe mack and this is the monumental mammoth sculpture so this all began three years ago when sherry grothier came to my girl scout troop and talked about tilly springs national monument and chili springs national monument is a place in las vegas where they have colombian mammoths saber-toothed cats and giant sloth skeletons in the ground that are just waiting for us to go discover them but a big problem was the illegal dumping the illegal shooting and people running their atvs over fossils just because they're unaware of what's in the area the community came out and really embraced this idea i had and made this happen i couldn't have done it without them we had three cleanups to pick up recycled metal and trash that were set aside for the sculpture and then we worked with two amazing artists to make it happen we worked with a local las vegas artist named louis varela rico and he did the interior skeleton structure made of the um quarter inch mild steel and then dana albany came from san francisco and helped us work on the exterior skin and brought in all of her friends to make it happen and the community came out and we got to teach them how to weld we had kids come out and we taught them all these cool metal working skills which has been really fun but i think the best part of the project for me is this is completely non-profit so all of the tools and things donated to us are going to be given to a girl scout steam program so they can empower young women to dream big and make metal art as well all right let's try that one more time one two three right now ladies how does the sky look today looks pretty amazing to me amazing burning man sky update going on the swings edition uh monday night or tuesday no monday night um i'm doing this more for my benefit than for years but the sky will very shortly be well it's already pretty amazing but it's heading rapidly towards full magnificence uh i may or may not report on that shortly i mean who are we kidding of course i'm going to have you seen the sky yet today yeah it's pretty big let's go do some burning man right now [Music] so i'm alan becker mara grieber so the project was called no place like home and overarching it was it was themed around uh wizard of oz and all the different aspects of that um we yeah we chose the project because it was it had a number of different elements that uh different people would enjoy both making and experiencing um large scale fire art a chill space with some ambient uh fire and metal sculptures and then a really detailed uh nook that people could explore some of the real backstory narratives thematic elements and also um some of the thematic elements that we really enjoyed about it were like in the wizard of oz sort of a transformative aspect where you're seeking something and at the end of this extreme experience like burning man you come to realize that you had it inside you all along um and so we had a number of mirrors around the piece uh hinting at that as well so people could see what was inside of themselves the risk of stating the obvious they're not in kansas anymore [Music] it's like coming to burning man the first time uh as a more of an observer even though you know you're supposed to be a participant and you participate in a certain way but then realizing that you can make stuff you can learn how to make stuff you can be an artist you can show other people an amazing time you went out there and you saw everything that everyone else was bringing and you thought i i want to do this and then part of being in the burning man community um is uh opening up to the to the freedom and the realization that you actually can do that you are a part of a community of makers builders people that are open to learning new things and then working together with your community you teach yourself how to do stuff and then when you bring it out there and you see other people's reactions to the stuff that you did and you realize you did bring them that experience [Music] burning man sky update mayan warrior adjacent edition it's probably too loud you probably can't hear this but the sky looks absolutely magnificent you guessed it [Music] first i was afraid i was petrified but i would never live without you by my side should have changed that like the address just made them change the key if i'd known for just one second from outer space no come back right here with that stupid look upon your face i should have made them change the lock i should have made them change your key but going for just one second that i don't know the one so this song gonna go [Music] i will survive [Music] nice [Music] blacklight coyotes in the middle of the nevada desert that's proper old-school burning man for you [Applause] [Music] do explain uh it's a it's a a fishing village from my childhood basically uh i grew up in a little island off the west of ireland and uh my my babysitter's husband was a fisherman and this is the inspiration on steroids and so what what compelled you to build this and bring it to burning man uh we i worked on a temple last year and it was so difficult and complicated and uh you know just a really hard build that i in october i decided i'd do something anything would be easier well actually doing nothing would be easier so that's not on the cards i think if when you catch people uh in right after burning man is the sweet spot for uh deciding to do another project because you're still a high from the desert you know so this is a classic you know what we should do next to your project it it really is and how has the experience been so far beyond beyond my wildest expectations uh we've been amazing crew we've had amazing support and we've had a laugh the whole way through with minor injuries with only minor engineers yeah minor flesh wounds so what's been the personal highlight for you so far um i think finally getting it up and and getting the structure up was a big relief um everything else on top of that is gravy and how are you feeling about burning it down i can't wait to burn it down but between now and then what are you holding yeah i mean between now and then we want thousands of people to enjoy it and have a laugh on it and party on it and enjoy live music and ballet and all sorts of cultural culturally enlightening events and and then we'll burn it down [Music] hello this is halcyon and this is the time in the video when i find myself setting up a flashback now mark was thinking that maybe i could talk about even though we're not all together in black rock city we can all look up at that same sky together look there is so many things that we can do as burners this year even though we are not in the desert in fact it's probably more important than ever that we dig deep and bring the 10 principles into the default world whether that is creating art drawing on the pavement putting signs in your window whether that is being that complementing eyes wide smiling person to the stranger as we go through the world as we are becoming more and more divisive in our country and in our neighborhoods this is the time to be that representative of your theme camp and see the fellow participants in the world civic responsibility is more important than ever seriously we do not need to be dusty to be burning this year mark seriously all that being said whether or not we can ever go back to burning man in the future we can definitely go back to burning man 2019 here comes the flashback oh hey it's you and what's going on now you might be asking yourself well this is me standing opposite the empire store for a bit of a flashback and at this point in the video a flashback is about as predictable as me talking endlessly about the sky which i'm going to do as soon as we get in there what do you mean as soon as you get in there we were already there i know again this is a flashback we've gone back in time we're on our way to burning man we're on our way to see what happens before the gates open i mean there's already going to be a lot of people there building stuff making art building infrastructure volunteering doing all the cool stuff that makes burning man the amazing experience that it is so because i like the structure of a flashback we're having a flashback hopefully you can hear me over the traffic noise um in a minute i'm gonna go and have an ice cream um and then we're gonna go and do some burning man right now that way um but first uh yeah actually there is no butt first just enjoy the flashback enjoy going back in time let's go and do past life regression for let's not do past life regression burning man that stuff's nonsense let's just go and do some burning man right now this is it people we are now literally and metaphorically about to cross the event horizon i'm pretty excited and the road's about to get pretty bumpy this is me killing time in line there's no point pretending i'm going to be in there before sunset the sun is going to go down over the mountains it's going to look beautiful we're going to howl we're going to howl at the sun not the moon the sun go figure but probably from out here not in there out here a sort of burning man but in there it's a lot more burning man mark how long is the line going to be i don't know 10 minutes 15 minutes top wait a minute that's total misinformation and i don't even work for the bureau of misinformation or do i [Applause] question t have we talked about the sky yet today the sun is just setting over the mountains oh that was a a week out it'll have to do so far that was more or less six hours of weighing in line which was fun for the first two maybe uh but we're through a gate we're coming up on greer station i'm gonna do a greater shift in a couple of days so that'll be fun have you done this before fastest greetings yes fastest greater ever we're gonna get out we're gonna hug the greeter we're gonna hug the great we're not gonna keep the people waiting we're gonna say thank you but welcome to burning man give me this stuff you know where you're going i know where i'm going yes so you go to the light you hook it right all right perfect [Music] [Music] [Music] time are you filming this of course i'm filming this something might go wrong we're back at burning man and much like last year heidi's trailer is being moved in a way that may result in trailer disaster and internet gold it's friday and we're at burning man how exciting is that hey did you look at the sky oh what was the other line was that a scottish accent do that again oh would you keep keep going and i see how much look at the sky beautiful look at it it's just magnificent that man has a point have we looked to the sky yet today we're at burning man the sky is vast more or less cloudless have you seen this have you see i'm trying to do an impression of someone doing an impression of me have you seen the sky yet today i can do i am the doctor yurt today we are looking at the magnificent head maze and what's your role with the head mace today i am the boom lift operator i take people up in the air and back down safely in one piece what's the best and worst thing about boom lifting at burning man the worst part is how incredibly slow they are it took me roughly 40 minutes to get from heat all the way out here and the best part and the best part well you get to go up in a boom i get to go up in the air and see the whole burning man from the sky so how does the sky look when you're up a boom at burning man normally when you're on the ground level it's pretty great but when you're up in the sky [Music] magnificent this is friday for burning man and um we're desperately desperately building this [ __ ] thing that's where we're at we're in the desperately building stage are you where you thought you would be at this point i'm on the black rock desert physically and i thought i'd be here at this point right and it feels like you have pushed through a lot of things to get it to this point yeah yeah it's it's actually it's pretty funny i'm really i'm really exhausted enough where i i'm having a hard time finding words for an interview um it just it's just been a complete mind [ __ ] it's been it's been a slog the whole time um metal is not easy nothing comes from free with metal it's rare that you can cheat it and and it's just it's a big project i think i think the scale reconciling my own ego and and when and how good a piece is based on the size has been something i've had a hard time with um ever since i started doing burning man art and um you know i think it's just this thing that's it's hard to see if the arts good enough or not and it's easy to cheat by making it bigger um and i feel like for the first time we've made a piece that didn't need to be as big as it is so i'm kind of struggling with that but it's big now so let's just pick it up for the rest of the week oh yeah no we're just we're going to have some trucks here and finish it and uh yeah we've got some volunteers about [Music] that [Music] me climbing things at burning man more for your benefit than mine 2019 edition ah they wobble a bit didn't see that coming we're getting there i'm outside of my comfort zone what a beautiful piece the thoughts running through my mind of constantly falling off and i wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people go to the hospital on this one you think oh yeah all right you have to hear first could this be this year's idiots versus gravity machine at burning man let's wait a day or two and find out if this entire thing is roped off if so gravity won idiots nil gravity always wins by often by more than one point oh my god is this [ __ ] safe my friend libby broke her arm on day one of burning man last year climbing up the car structure yeah [Music] all right we know how this works it's friday night at burning man it's after sunset guess what right do i even need to say it no i don't need to say that's why it makes it more fun to say it the sky looks absolutely magnificent look at it there's ron looking at it back there i'm about to look at it too you should also look at it let's all look at it together [Music] it looks hi jocelyn it looks the sky looks absolutely amazing i'm being heckled but i'm being heckled about a good thing so it's fine [Music] [Music] [Music] and there we go as if by magic a photobooth emerged out of the desert floor um you know i helped i'll be a tiny little bit i did i mean i did the tiny little look i absolutely i did help didn't i you did it all no that's very generous of you to say without this man that's marty yes it's very nice of him to say but also not really true [Music] all right one two three let's go do some me reviewing the line for ice there is no line for ice in fact there is no ice yet oh hey it's you let's go if you must film yourself repeatedly at mirrors and burning man at least some of the time it should be the mirrors at xbar in burning man my name is kai douglas and i'm the art director for the folly yes what does that entail uh it entails a lot of different kinds of things um i make a lot of trash art and this is very much a trash art project so we've done everything from cutting out dozens of tiny metal butterflies out of beer cans to making nail chimes and kind of gathering donations of wood and fabric and everything else that will go into this piece so okay tell me about the crew tell me about the foley crew so i think the magical thing about this project is the crew um a lot of people from it have worked on temples together have worked on the blackrock city lighthouses um are part of the flux foundation which is a very long-running group of people and there's so much detail in this piece there's no way that any one person could have come up with everything in it and the reason that it works so well is because we all trust each other and build with each other in a way that feels really collaborative so as people walk through it they'll see like oh there's you know little eyes hidden under the staircases so as you walk up the stairs you get watched or there's you know a radio transmitter and it's playing like whale sounds in different rooms and all of that layering is because our crew is so amazing and because we're willing to trust each other and like incorporate each other's work into it and i just wanted to make sure that i was out there in the world as like a way to build art together because i see so many people trying to do it top down and then you end up with something that even if it's really beautiful just can't hold all that complexity that you get when you have dozens and dozens of people's artistic vision and opinions incorporated into things nice i like how you gesticulate with a nail gun just to get the point across are things clear yet [Music] sky update dust storm edition the sky is very dusty um dust storms in the desert awesome a lot of fun but remember to put your goggles on kids and not just wear sunglasses like i have been doing for the most part [Music] thank you we're home again [Music] hi i'm dustin i made shelly the crab over the course of about three years with the help of some makers here in the bay area and on the west coast i want to give you a brief overview of how she works so if you're interested in making an electric mutant vehicle from scratch you have some kind of starting points the uh most important part is the 36 volt battery system it's lithium ion which means it's a lot lighter than lead acid batteries it's the only way shelley is able to carry them that power goes straight into a speed controller and then into two different motors one for walking and one for driving the drive motor is retractable using actuators which are controlled by an rc receiver so i'm able to pilot shelly from a distance uh or up close you know riding on top of her am in no way standing in front of a picture of myself hoping that people will notice i just want you to know that tom lee i just wanted to know it was a coincidence and it didn't happen on purpose hi let's do some burning man right now we're out of camp to look at sunset which is what you should do at burning man see when it's sunset do not be in your camp eating spaghetti looking at the back of an rv be out here looking at the sky it's magnificent on that note i'm off to look at the sky as you were [Music] this year on idiots versus gravity at burning man it's a literal stairway to heaven except i guess if you fall at the top one can only hope heaven's the appropriate destination hey this is benjamin the artist of stone27 and i know there was so much excitement around the installation being really dangerous and that someone would fall off and get hurt and the installation would get shut down but i'm sorry to disappoint you that the emergency services crew actually came out to our strike just to let me know that they hadn't received any reported injuries on the installation and i was really happy to hear that no one got hurt [Music] this turned out to be pretty speaking of someone who enjoys a good immersive light tunnel this is really good [Music] me sliding down things at burning man more for your benefit than mine going on swings addition relatively benign not remotely dangerous so as a parent you're sometimes left wondering if you're done with swing sex um in this instance the good news is no [Music] hello so this is me at the greater station greeting people today have you seen the sky yet today no i haven't it looks absolutely magnificent let me look and it's the moon we were up there once neil armstrong don't swear online it's interesting all righty that's us [Applause] [Music] [Applause] it's nobody tells you how loud the bell's gonna be by the time you've heard me [Music] [Music] at the risk of stating the obvious this is a small step for mark but a giant leap for mark kind i'm on the surface of the moon mark day filming himself in mirrors at burning man since uh 1999 still works burning man update it's monday morning now last night i ran into people who told me i sometimes happens at burning man that they've watched my videos um as a way of preparing for burning man i can only assume that they're preparing for the kind of scope of the art on the playa and the magnificence of the sky because you're certainly not getting basic desert survival tips here it's i've been here since uh thursday today is monday morning and this is my first attempt at preparing myself warm food i've boiled some water and it's taken me like four days i have a giant box full of food that i have no interest in eating i should have known that this is not my first burning man rodeo and yet here we are surviving on beef jerky granola salted nuts and now four days in boiled water let's go do some burning man breakfast right now and get get get your information as regards eating our burning man from anywhere but here please for your own sake here are the noodles i'm having for breakfast impressive eh one to four monday through friday put on some fancy play again go get your picture taken tell your friends about it these guys are excellent photographers they send you your pictures via email when it's all over um they even touch them up and stuff they're beautiful it's a really nice thing and people signed up for shifts to attend the bar you can without signing up at any time bring your booze over and serve it to people take your bottles back to your camp when you're done we don't have there's no communal trash if you are a volunteer that is driving the art car you must absolutely be sober everyone hear that yes awesome hi good morning i'm alpha [ __ ] for those of you who don't know i do design the maps for black rock city all of the medical and ranger stations are on your tip sheet which is accompanied with that map we're going to do a ceremony of greeting as you saw there are many people in the village here and many of you are first time to ebb and glow and many of your first time to the playa but our intent here at evanglo is i take it is we are kind we're a village and we kind of help take care of each other and we want to get to know each other a little bit help out each other have a great burn a lot of people who you've never met before you may end the week as your best friends you just don't know it yet and you might not know how to how to meet them so our goal here is we're going to do a little ceremony of greetings [Music] lorraine [Music] 24 hours at burning man idiots versus gravity my camp edition emma glowcam as one are climbing up our scaffolding to take a photo hopefully the whole thing doesn't fall down because then we'll have nobody to take the scaffolding down because the scaffolding will have taken them down this has been 24 hours at burning man idiots versus gravity ebb and gocap edition all right you guys ready [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay [Music] shockingly i've got to say hopefully i don't get run over but i really enjoy this it's such old-school burning man and i feel i should probably stop right now before i get run over [Music] i'm enjoying this very great let's do some burning men right now [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] this one's a little cheesy no cheese for you homage and some are just right like i said a little cheesy [Music] burning man sky update man based edition the sky looks yet again absolutely magnificent let's take a look we go sky sky sky sky sky sky sky sky sky sky sky sky sky sky sky sky sky guy sky guy celia opening burning man's ceremony the countdown has begun to the opening burning man ceremony feel appropriately seen the excited that looks magnificent yes i have ladies gentlemen non-binary freaks weirdos degenerates and software programmers not saying you can't be all of those okay we are the vote of your society and we are so very excited [Music] hi ladies hi john hello hi there hi how are you doing how long have you been in line for john uh 45 minutes that's not so bad we just started get your nice sticker oh so you can stick it to the night we're gonna have a great time this year yeah baby [Laughter] [Music] bad [Music] oh my god this is the best i love cake you got a marching band playing on the second story you've got a slide coming down there's tons of people i it's my birthday month right doing things more for your benefit than mine fire thurman edition i did that for your benefit i'm kidding i did it for me for me where is it there we go 29 from outer space only on fire [Applause] things going on fire at burning man press the button make a trip and shoot fire edition apparently the week's like fire budget has been blown on this video so i hope you're enjoying this at home because this poor man has worked through a lot of propane for your entertainment i hope you're appreciative [Applause] holy [ __ ] this is proper burning man standing next to somewhere you can feel the heat in your face and you have to ask yourself if this is maybe not a good idea next work man with fire tornado there [Applause] [Music] is [Music] with special guests and first time on the fly uh himself again i'll have to put subtitles and you won't be able to hear me [Music] nice work blaming lotus girls who is very enthusiastic thumbs up the flaming lotus girls is a group of female-led artists who make interactive large-scale fire art installations over twenty years we've created ten installations and shown them to two hundred thousand people internationally flg empowers volunteers to develop fabrication tech and leadership skills by fostering a proactive educational experience that expands to our art our community spans 200 women and men and newbies are welcome to join us regardless of any specialized skills we will teach you our works fall between sculpture and kinetics always involving pyrotechnic pyrotechnics and crowd interaction because inclusivity really does matter sculpture materials include steel copper aluminum glass resin wood and electronics diverse flame effects blaze from two inches to 75 feet me pushing some buttons me pushing more buttons not one did nothing that one was weak ah that was good funny man sky update bathroom break edition we are looking for porta potties in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night hopefully we'll find them we're on a giant moving cheese that's that for now we're going rhino hunting apparently to track down the dusty rhino and dawn maybe i give us about a 30 chance of success but i've been told i'm wrong so we'll see i stand corrected over there there is a rhino although the line to hunt is quite long so we might have to just it could be a while and at the risk of staying the obvious sky pretty special particularly over here [Music] wow thank you [Music] thank you [Music] this only looks mildly terrifying [Music] ladies you're looking spectacular don't be spectacular you're gonna start murdering people now okay let's go do some burning man right now [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right one more time good we got the camera this time so the last one did you shoot he got the camera and he's getting it out really yes oh it's a lot better with the sriracha yeah [Music] cheers am i you're an awesome sauce what am i about to drink a spicy pickle juice spicy pickle juice nice let's see how that's going yeah just shout out did we change your mind i'm very much doing this for your benefit not mine because it's like it's [ __ ] i'm not going anywhere yeah my legs are getting slower than they already were okay pull the break win a prize the prize is you get to get off the bike oh hell yeah today yes you need a bidet we have just stopped to drink water that is the most important thing in the desert i mean visually you would assume that the most important thing is to put ridiculous outfits on but it's second number one drink water [Music] i'm obviously not doing that not even for your benefit come on [Music] here we are watching someone learning on the job so dub it in and just swirl as fast as you can no don't dump it into the middle it's okay i am now about to eat some blueberry flavored cotton candy so the next time my kids demand cotton candy at a sporting event don't tell them you saw me do this [Music] i'm not bad i mean it tastes like blueberry and it's not quite like choking down dry cotton wool buds like i thought it was going to be let's go do some berlin man right now oh right now yeah oh you mean not not later but right now right now yes okay right now let's go come on let's go what are we waiting on yes alligator or a meringue that's a joke for exactly three people one of which is me meanwhile you can see what's going on here shenanigan-wise in the background these photo shoots aren't going to take themselves you know that is pretty rad [Music] burning man sky update classical music edition um this guy as with the rest of us is waiting for stravinsky's firebird to start i'm sure what it does and the sky will be most likely magnificent we might as well wait around and find out right we hope you enjoy the show and thanks for hanging out for a moment while we get everything fixed up it's we're probably looking at the sky over there it's quite well reviewed this time of year and particularly this time of evening [Music] so igor stravinsky was a russian composer who created a lot of really groundbreaking works in his days uh firebird is a score that he wrote to accompany a ballet it's one of his most famous works and this year's burn theme was metamorphosis and so we felt like there was no ballet that would be more appropriate for this theme than firebird in 2018 uh our art house camp put on a ballet called we human and unfortunately the night before the performance i had a pretty uh traumatic health experience and was helicoptered out of burning man so i didn't actually get to see the performance in 2018. um so this year coming back for the 2019 burn and this concept of metamorphosis and really coming back out of the ashes coming into this experience of burning again and really all i needed to do was not die at burning man and i won so i won burning man you know when the when the performance is done and uh seeing all of the dancers and the musicians audience members coming together and hugging and crying and having gone through this experience that spanned you know a couple of months for all of the performers from beginning rehearsals and preparing for this to doing this performance in front of thousands of people in conditions that are definitely not ideal for dance or playing music that to me is like the biggest gift seeing everyone just so filled with gratitude and joy and love at the end of it that's why we keep doing it is to create those experiences for our performers and for everyone at burning man [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] my [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] next to the red top beverly fire edition [Music] yes have you seen this guys [Music] so [Music] burning man sky update temple edition the sky is beautiful and full of clouds i've just been in the temple having a bit of a cry for my friend glenn who died earlier this year he was part of our burning man camp many years ago and a unique and beautiful human being and he will be missed so this is for you glenn i only knew the temple from the beautiful pictures that i'd seen you know published from burning man like wow these are beautiful structures i'd love to build a beautiful structure and then it was actually in the course of the build in alameda that i started hearing people sharing why why are they temple builders and for many of them it was because there was a particular year that they went to burning man that they had lost somebody near and dear to their heart and they found such soulless and released catharsis from doing that and that's powerful stuff yeah i was i was incredibly incredibly moved from my first time there and couldn't have been happier uh with where i found myself felt like yeah exactly where i was supposed to be [Music] so [Music] oh we believe today that the sky the sky is what this guy is magnificent it's fabulous it's beautiful it's beautiful beautiful so um after this we should what we should probably well let's go do some burning right right now perfect thank you april [Music] you're definitely doing right now is [Music] not a very coordinated camp i see either in terms of outfits i blame our leader here right like you basically spin the wheel there's six different masons okay hold your hand up palm up either one ginger frosting [Music] burning man sky updates wednesday afternoon edition the sky looks magnificently ominous there may be bad weather later and people are losing their minds i on the other hand i'm like yeah we'll believe it when we see it so catch me again in two hours time when i have been proven wrong and it turns out the weather is going to get really bad and i spent time that i should have spent preparing for the bad weather talking to you instead this is for your benefit not mine nice job star trek is a little darker of a grape so maybe they didn't have a middle palette or a back pellet instead of adding chemicals so the reason why cheaper wine is cheaper because they put chemicals in it hi there howdy [Music] are you self-repairing a bicycle yes sir so you know what to do you just needed the tools uh not really no i'll figure it out are you learning on the fly yes uh the chains keep coming off the slew so these gentlemen here saying that you should stretch them out so they don't like um excellent we're getting fixed chemo reporting from cranky's bike repair store yes it is closed right now and i'm a little disappointed in the do-it-yourselfers because they list all the tools out but other than that we're having a good burden so the message is if you're going to use someone else's tools tidy up after if they've heard this from their parents years ago right nothing new okay one two three let's go do some burning man right now [Music] hey there so has been pointed out to me that i'm perhaps a little over reliant on talking about the sky so i'm not going to do it again for the rest of the video i'm done with that now it's just other stuff from now on i'm kidding obviously oh my god have you seen this look at it it's absolutely amazing [Music] wow i mean really it's all magnificent isn't it just soaking in burning man sky updates photo opportunity edition i love the sky at burning man in case you hadn't noticed so i've been the bonafication station maven since 2003. i've been making humans into bunnies as part of the radical inclusion that is the billion bunny march since 2003. so the billion bunny oath the um was i can't remember the first year it started but we make every single bunny raise their right paw and say the bunny oath before they participate in our march [Music] carcass i will and support the universal campaign of fluffy goodness do a bunny march this carrot looks [Music] amazing oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] update billion bunny edition my bike has fallen down so many times that i was too busy dealing with my bike to even look at this guy it sucks [Music] miniature idiots versus gravity be careful edition get it because it's a b be careful get it never mind on to the next thing [Applause] [Music] [Applause] yes [Music] hi there um burning man's sky update sky update edition uh i've been making these videos for a number of years now and some of the jokes that i put in them are very much for me um aura marang no you're right mark you put them in there for you that for example was one of them um and i am absolutely aware that these videos have devolved into a series of me walking around talking about the sky um and not without good reason the sky looks magnificent it was being at burning man in the first place that taught me how to look at this guy and find it to be magnificent um something i do quite regularly when i'm driving around in the default world so i guess at the risk of uh recycling some of my previous sign off statements um not quite be your own bing bong but figure out your own magnificent figure out what it is that's magnificent to you and take the time to look at it regularly all of this stuff that we've seen people made all of this people that saw their magnificent and pursued it hard they just looked further or looked a little harder or looked in a different place to where everybody else was looking or they looked bigger or they looked smaller and found the detail that everyone had missed either way stop rambling mark wrap it up burning man is a great place to find your own um magnificence i found it in the sky uh i hope you have as much luck as i did finding yours [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] hi mark i'm tom white lead artist of an amazing team from norfolk virginia we made happy birthday mega cake the mega cake was a four-tier wooden birthday cake that rose over 50 feet above playa we placed interactive elements and artworks throughout like the gifting calendar with shelves representing everybody's birthday where you could give or receive presents i hope you found your birthday twin on the outside of the cake were 24 handmade glass signs of the zodiac by artist jen hand inside the two-story party hat chamber held celebrations and you could take the slide down through the gifting chamber and be born on playa in august further up the spiral stair we had two moon phase archways made of glass by artist type of the anger and on top were six propane fueled [ __ ] candles by jamie elkins and team you can press buttons to fire these off and make a wish the burn of the magma cake was our final gift to blackrock city preamble and her incredible pyro team brought the party to a close in a spectacular way thank you we can't wait to bring big art back to the dust oh we have a container coming tomorrow wow note to self listen to the audio of this afterwards and see what it sounds like it made sense at a time [Music] so [Music] wow thank you [Applause] [Music] 24 hours at body man reviews the line for ice the best line for ice is the line in your own camp where you give someone money and they go and get the ice hi i'm duncan rollinson i come out here every year to document the burn through still photography uh i'm one of those annoying photographers and roughly how many pictures are we talking uh this so far 14 000 images uh yeah it takes a while to go through them all and then i share them with the community online after people seem to like how many hours a day are you spending photography all of them well when i'm not resting i'm just out shooting so um yeah it's i don't recommend it you don't recommend it it's a terribly cliched question but what's the best thing you've seen this year at burning man uh probably my friends my burn family you know i i love seeing my homies you know i i don't get to see them in my normal life so it's fun to see them out here excellent good answer duncan thank you so much [Music] [Music] [Music] i clearly marked violin but it's also dangerously sexy so i use vinegar i swear ticket got a parking parking thing in your jiggy here look for being for being in insufficiently dusty we were parked in a fire lane which just magically appeared 10 minutes ago and dangerously sexy so now it's really up to our bachelorette to figure out who she wants to potentially go on apply a date with you guys figure it out amongst yourselves afterwards okay so contestant number two while the donkey story was highly entertaining that is so not my bag thank you very hot much bachelorettes [Music] and now welcome the burning man [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hello [Music] i'm going home tomorrow before the man burns uh but i just added a little fire to the fire cauldron that the conclave likes the man from so i did my part i'll see you later [Music] so burning man sky update friday night edition this is my last um sunset on playa for this year fortunately it's really good i think it's only going to get better so once again i'll get out of your way just look at that i'll try not to talk and interrupt you [Music] i can't promise i'll be any good at it but i'm trying [Music] this is me trying to see after all these years if i can still manifest some sort of primeval emotional response to the iconic figure of the man or have i just seen it too many times in too many incarnations or does it still do what it says in the packet let's just check hang in there [Music] yes still works good morning [Music] [Music] [Music] feeling this much heat directly on you is proper burning man at its finest makes sense that you might just get roasted at any minute let's have another look at that oh [ __ ] [Music] [Music] [Music] so yeah today we burned it down um that's always a that's always i suppose a day filled with emotion and hard work because you have to you basically go back in and you strip everything out all everything you want to keep from the piece which we had a lot of artwork and a lot of things that people wanted to keep as a little memento the folly so we spent all day prepping it and packing with paraffin and the fire effects and all that kind of stuff and by the time we got to burn it we were all ready to burn it i think you know it was been a long road to get to there and it was it was a successful uh a successful burn i think our successful project for us at least right so by the time we got to burn it we were ready you know it was like the full circle right and what were you telling me earlier about the notion of why it's important to burn it in the first place oh yeah i mean i think it's it's like editing in life we're all just here for a fleeting second and and we're gone you know and just like the art the art is uh we built it we burnt it it's gone it's a memory and it's kind of symbolizes life you know it's it's just a it's just a distant memory now but it's uh something you'll always have in our [Music] hearts this is fun something on fire so [Music] it's uh saturday morning and i'm rapidly running out of sky superlatives i've got none left i've used them all off hi there campmate i see you've lost your voice and you can't talk fortunately i've brought spare excess talk for just such situations faith family and friends the diary of dorothy gale dear diary monday september 1st 1930 it's not rice it's not right for this season but it feels like there's a storm coming i can hear uncle henry outside in the distance it's nearly dawn and i have had another night filled with strange dreams and thoughts thanks mark i can take it from there and oh hey it's you i didn't know if you were going to make it but here we are at what i swear is the end of the video more or less um thank you for joining me here on baker beach where burning man all began it's august of 2020 and here i am reflecting on burning man 2019 i of course had an incredible year i i spent a lot of time wandering around the playa trying to figure out what was the ending for my video i found it ironically at the end of the yellow brick road i found it more specifically in an art installation called there's no place like home and i found it even more specifically tucked away in a drawer um in the back of a diary the diary of one dorothy gale better known as dorothy from the wizard of oz um it was a wonderful art installation it really spoke to me it spoke to me as a parent experiencing what it's like my oldest daughter is 12 years old and is starting to carve out her own shape and colours in the world the way dorothy was um and and my youngest daughter is always scanning the horizon for magical things and as things like tornadoes and excuse me and being able to look out the window of dorothy's bedroom and see a fire tornado coming i don't know in 1997 when i first went to burning man if anyone had told me that i would be most profoundly moved all those years later by something that spoke to me and my experiences as a parent i don't know if i would have believed them but there we are and then of course there were all those universal burning man themes of layering wizard of oz on top of burning man and stories about you know going on fantastical adventures to find things that were inside ourselves all along i mean what more can you say really um dorothy in her drawer had a diary and in the back of her diary was her dream journal and it turns out she'd been having dreams about a place very much like burning man and haven't we all had dreams like that i know i have and i don't think i could say it better than dorothy did in her dream journal so i want to end what might be the last 24 hours at burning man for a while uh by reading something to you from dorothy's dream journal so here we go we went on a long journey together following an endless path we went to the city to see a great man a wizard we had heard so much about but in the end it wasn't about the man at all it was the self-discovery and the courage to go out and test ourselves in ways we'd never guessed or imagined the wizard man was looming in the distance scarecrow felt inadequate the tin man felt unloved lying cowered in fear i just wanted to go home we asked in unison where is my mind where is my heart where is my courage and the wizard man did the most unexpected thing he burned he threw his arms up to the sky fiery sparks making new stars in the full canopy of night and then burst into an inferno of light he was nothing but a hollow wooden thing he had no specific power he had no insight he had only himself the stuff of his body to silently illuminate us [Music] as the fires consumed him the wind whipped flaming twisters off of his pyre and the four of us looked at each other in each other we saw mirrors of ourselves and through that we saw our own true strengths grew bigger than the burden of the wizard man dancing laughing planning through the night all the remarkable things we would do after we left this desert land the wizard man turned out to be something of a fraud but he gave us the initiative to find what we needed he was a spark a catalyst just like i learned about in science class and because of him we learned that everything we seek is already inside us [Music] the goodness and the bravery the creativity and love the resilience and wisdom sometimes i may need this dream world to remember we have it but i don't need this desert to keep it it's here it's me dream 14 dorothy's final dream burning man sky update baker beach edition the epiphany of ecstasy and the ecstasy of epiphany enter the passage into the infinitarium at night you might see a giant metal octopus all eight arms aflame you might see a house-sized unicorn sailing across the desert or a giant driving chicken lit up against the night sky you might simply find a whirling spiral of fire and dust a beacon of metamorphosis that changes nothing but your perspective which which is everything you might find your way home you might already be home after all there is no place like home there we have it friends the dream journey of dorothy gale the dream the journey the journal and the journey of dorothy gail and the journey of 24 hours at burning man and the journey that you came on with me thank you for coming on it um don't know when we'll get to do it again but let's go do some burning man again sometime together see you later see you on the playa hopefully or just on the beach either way all [Music] works so i've never been to burning man or really understood what the temple was so when i first started the project it was just about building something and having fun i was really nervous about coming i thought i would be pretty lonely for the week but um it's been so incredibly filled with love and it's been incredibly healing so i super appreciate it i think just everyone just being so like open and just you know being so open about how they feel and just like all their emotions has been really awesome it's just been really nice to like have that part of your soul open up again oh hey it's you i didn't know if you were going to make it to the end of the video and i didn't want to start the end credits without you that's right the end credits that means that you have just sat through anywhere between uh 90 and a gazillion minutes of 24 hours of burning man 2019 i'm on my way to burning man everything that you've seen none of that has happened yet it's all still in the future um you've seen more of my burning man than i have at this point you lucky people um and uh yeah i fingers crossed it's gonna be awesome really i'm just killing time here while the credits roll uh thank you to everybody who contributed to this video um if it's anything like the last few that i've made it becomes an incredibly collaborative effort and i get wonderful photos and footage from great photographers and videographers and drone pilots and i appreciate um all of that particularly anybody who's footage or photos or whatever i used and didn't get credited in the the credits as i've said on previous videos i'm a little disorganized and i will try and do better but i'm a little disorganized some friends a lot of friends this year are going for the first time either in a couple of years or even longer um and i'm looking forward to hanging out with them i also want to thank the people who stayed at home and made all of this possible in the runway i speak of course with my family so thank you to esther and ruby and cat we used it all while i did this anyway i probably should focus on driving and not videoing myself this has been 24 hours of burning man 2018 i have enjoyed having you along for the ride i hope you have enjoyed coming along for the ride um i hope yeah again you get a good sense of why having first come here in 1997 i keep coming back all right this is me i'm signing out i'm on my way to burning man let's go do some burning man right now do you like your magic glasses yeah yeah this has changed my life hmm i thought we'd be in that more yeah i was kind of thinking the same thing do you think that he thought he could put us in like this and we wouldn't notice that we weren't in the movie knowing mark probably [Music] damn you marked it well i suppose we should go do some burning man yeah i mean that's what it says in the script so yes let's go to some burning man right now right now [Music] what am i supposed to say your stupid catchphrases now that's not happening ramarang enjoy guys

Channel: Mark Day

Views: 446,612

Rating: 4.8666668 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: N4hL7t8cfus

Length: 106min 53sec (6413 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 27 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/markday]

​

Multiverse? Schmultiverse!

Welcome back to the 24 Hours at Burning Man Cinematic Universe, and my annual love letter to being at Burning Man.

I deliver this to you with mixed feelings, of course.

I'd sort of assumed I'd be posting it in late July, and today's literally the day I'd be most likely to be heading back out to the playa, with the slightly confused look of a man who's been so immersed in the previous year that it felt like "I was here just yesterday."

But doesn't it feel like that regardless?

15 minutes longer than Art on Fire, and proud of it!

Well, maybe proud isn't exactly the word... At the end of the day, I want even casual viewers to make it to the end, and being unable or unwilling to cut the fat of excess pointless playa ramble is counter productive in that regard.

But who wouldn't like an extra 15 minutes on playa right now?

Like many sequels, it's heavy on tropes, formulaic plotting and delivering on pre-existing expectations.

It's comfort food. And that's fine.

I tried a few new things.

But I also went hard on the catchphrases.

And on that note, I have worked hard to introduce certain formulaic statements to the Burning Man argot. Magnificently hard.

Little phrases that I hoped would linger like a peeling "Gonzo Frothwood" sticker in a portapotty, disintermediated from its author, but part of the fabric of the event, like the Burma Shave signs on the drive down the road to BRC (that I now avoid because driving on the right is for amateurs because of all the people turning across traffic for Will Call. Little #protip for you there....).

Because honestly, I love every fucking detail from cycling past BMIR in the morning to the flapping flags over Centrer Camp to, well, you insert your own detail here. Whatever little pieces, big or small, from the neon on the Man himself, to the easily overlooked, that makes up your own big picture.

Sadly, Covid has poked a sticky viral stick through the spokes of my linguistic masterplan. At least, for right now.

u/nycburner talked me into doing a greeter's shift last year, despite my general horror at being tied down to doing anything for more than an hour.

I repaid him handsomely by forgetting to include him on the video credits.

But that's one of the things I was looking forward to this year.

Being right there at the moment when people who had waited all year for this, finally got this.

Recognizing that the virgin dust angels are as much for the person who brought the virgin in the first place.

Who decided that someone they knew should go to Burning Man and got their wish (so savor that moment because, for now, nothing has gone wrong, no one is melting down in a tent, this might be as good as it gets...)

And, of course, making the most of those "all that stands between you and Burning Man now is me!" moments.

What was my point?

Oh yes.

This is me at the virtual, video 24 Hours at Burning Man Greeter's Station.

You don't have to get out of the car, obviously.

I can tell this is not your first rodeo, for the most part.

But I have been waiting here specifically for you -- yes you -- to go do some Burning Man.

Let's take a minute to look at the sky.

I mean, I'm doing it sort of ironically at this point.

But also not.

I know, it gets very meta at times.

So yeah, enjoy!

If you are planning on watching it at your leisure, at some point over the weekend, movie style with popcorn & chocolate and whatever other edibles you have handy (ahem), that's awesome.

That's exactly my plan, and I am thrilled that anyone, anywhere would make an event of it.

Because "content discovery algorithms" feel free to have your grandmother watch it in the other room in the meantime (ahem) as your views now make it easier for other people to find it later.

OK, cheesy "growth marketing" over.

Christ this goes on a bit

Just like the video does.

Have we talked about the sky yet?

Fuck it, here it is, enjoy, share widely, make your camp mates watch it, let me know what you think, see you in the multiverse...

[u/zebrashitshow]

I should be pulling my vehicle up to a dimly lit campsite sometime around fuck-me thirty tonight after getting delayed somewhere for some reason that was entirely avoidable if I had just put it on a list, but not the list I lost, because I think the avoidable problem was on that list.

Instead, I'm going to open up one of my many dusty bottles of something, dip my rim in one of my bags of playa dust, get my best pair of stripes on, and enjoy.

[u/Flamando]

Today would be my first morning on playa, and I've been feeling pretty down about it.

This will assuredly lift my spirits! Thank you so much!

[u/Catnip323]

That ending was magnificent, someone must've been slicing onions while I watched. I take it we'll have to wait till 2021 for Behind the Scenes: Bidet Winning Showcase

[u/SnarkySanta]

Can we talk about Mark's beard at the end of the video?

Dare I say it? It was MAGNIFICENT!

(The video was pretty amazing too...)

[u/Persyah]

Thank you! And thanks for including me in your movie 🙃 It was very special meeting you last year on the playa 🔥❤️🔥

[u/tri_art_]

Bless your soul, Mark. My boyfriend is a huge fan of you and we ran into you on the Playa by the cloud swings (serendipity at work). It was our first burn and we were so awkward in front of the camera. Alas, we're in this video!! It was such a shock to see, but feels so awesome to see ourselves through your lens.

This is my first time checking out one of your projects and I love it. It brings back a lot of memories and emotions that I've been trying to share with others in default world. Thank you for collaborating with so many folks and bringing more color to this amazing world! 🌈

[u/zebrashitshow]

I'm nine years in to this dusty shitshow (supposed to be ten now, but that's besides the point, somewhat) and I've long since thought I was a little over it. I think folks who have gone for 5+ years know what I mean.

The absence of the city at this moment in time is rather deafening, and the ending of this video hit me in a way that only this special dusty shitshow can do on occasion. I'm not over it.

God damn. Thank you. That was beautiful.

[u/bad_tenet]

Shai hulud!