The Best of Burning Man: The Top Ten Series (4)… Costumes

March 9, 2015March 10, 2015 / Curt Mekemson / 29 Comments

Costumes are an integral part of Burning Man and some people such as my friend Ken (aka Scotty) love to dress up.

I am going to be on the road for the next few weeks, so I decided to produce several blogs that might be of interest to my readers but would be easy for me to do: Voila—The Best Of Burning Man series! I’ve now been to Burning Man for ten years starting in 2004 (and will be going again in 2015, assuming I get two tickets and a vehicle pass). Each blog will feature a top ten category such as top ten sculptures, mutant vehicles, etc.

Important: 1) These are from my perspective. Other people will have different points of view. 2) I never see everything that is available to see at Burning Man. There is simply too much. So it’s quite possible that I have missed some really great things. My apologies. 3) I missed 2011. 4) These photos are not in order of choice. That is beyond me. (Grin)

Basically, this series will include a brief introduction and then my top ten choices. There may be captions on my photos, or not. Finally, while Peggy and I have taken the majority of these photos, I have also included photos from Tom Lovering, Beth Lovering, Don Green, and Ken Lake… all members of our ‘tribe,’ and friends.

Series 5: Costumes

The first advice I ever received from a Burning Man participant was that I had to wear a costume if I went. “It’s an essential part of being a Burner,” he told me. If I contributed nothing else, I had to dress up. The only lecture I ever received at Burning Man was that I wasn’t dressed up enough. Okay, I confess, I have never been good at costumes, but I have tried. I am Outlaw, that’s my Burning Man name, and I try to dress like one, sort of. Doesn’t a black hat mean you are an outlaw? Umpteen hundred Westerns can’t be wrong.

Given that there are thousands of costumes at Burning Man, picking out the ten best is impossible. But here is a sample of what you might see: (Special thanks to Don Green, who is never shy when it comes to asking, “May I take your photo?”)

Some costumes, such as this shaman, can be incredibly elaborate.

Others can be as simple as artfully applied makeup.

Or, by adding face paint and a jewel.

This pink feather headdress, pink glasses, and pink lipstick were quite dramatic.

Small horns, red dye, and a magnificent mustache made for a magnificent devil. (One year, it seemed that every other woman was wearing angel wings. )

Small horns, red dye, and a magnificent mustache made for a magnificent devil. (One year, it seemed that half the women were wearing angel wings. )

It always seems that one or two people select silver paint, and little else, as their costume.

This exotic beauty has always been on of my favorites.

This exotic beauty has always been one of my favorites.

Simple feathers gave this man a dramatic look.

I’ll close with these elaborately costumed guys who would fit right into the Mardi Gras or Venice. NEXT BLOG: Mutant Vehicles

Burning Man 2013… Is It on Your Bucket List?

February 20, 2013January 24, 2015 / Curt Mekemson / 6 Comments

The Burning Man festival, which takes place each year around Labor Day in the remote Black Rock Desert of Northern Nevada, has become a Bucket List event for thousands of people.

Peggy and I have our 2013 Burning Man tickets!

I dutifully checked in a week early, received my authorization code, and then jumped on the Net when Burning Man opened its general sale of 40,000 tickets. I was put in the queue line. I would have my opportunity to shell out $720 for two tickets (two are all you are allowed to buy) when my number came up… if there were any tickets left. Burning Man made it clear; there were no guarantees. Everything was on a “first come first serve” basis.

I was worried. Three days earlier I had upgraded my Hugh’s Satellite Internet Service. (Peggy and I live out in the woods beyond the reach of normal Internet.) Apparently the upgrade impacted my ability to get on AOL where I had stored my authorization code, a fact I learned 10 minutes before the sale started. Forty minutes later I had worked my way around the problem. Was I too late?

Three hours… that’s how long I waited in the queue, and I am not good at waiting. I twiddled my thumbs, read the newspaper (yes, they still exist), and read several chapters in a book by Nicholas Carr on how the Internet is shaping our brains. It’s making us less patient. Finally, I was allowed to buy my tickets. I figured I was probably number 39,998.

My friend Tom Lovering, AKA Adios at Burning Man, who had been warning me for days via phone and Email not to miss the sign-up, failed to get tickets. So it will be Craig’s list for him in August. Several hundred if not thousand people will have discovered by then they can’t go and will need to sell their tickets.

So was it worth the hassle? My response is a definite yes! Burning Man is a Bucket List kind of event. I been going since 2004 and it’s still on my bucket list. Every year is different. Burning Man is so big and so diverse, there are always new things to see and experience. Last year’s program, make that catalog, listed over a thousand different events… all free.

I will be blogging about various aspects of Burning Man every week or so over the next several months leading up to the event. I will also continue my series on Mediterranean Ports I visited a couple of months ago. This summer I will feature the trip up the Alaska Highway through Canada and the Yukon Territory to Alaska that Peggy and I are making. As always, there will be lots of photos.

Burners, as BM participants are called, watch in fascination as the Man burns (shown above) in 2012. A mechanical steam-punk octopus lurks in the background.

Burners, as BM participants are called, watch in fascination as the Man burns in 2012. A mechanical steampunk octopus lurks in the background.

Elaborate costumes are an important part of the Burning Man experience. (Photo by Don Green.)

Hundreds of Mutant Vehicles, such as this Mammoth, make there way through camp and back and forth across the Playa.

Hundreds of Mutant Vehicles, such as this Mammoth, make their way through camp and back and forth across the Playa. I took this photo from our camp.

Hundreds of works of art are displayed annually at Burning Man. This woman, who was kneeling, stood at least 15 feet tall.

Art comes in all shapes, colors and sizes. Here, a pair of mantises face off.

Art comes in all shapes and sizes. Here, a pair of colorful mantises face off far out in the Playa.

Much art is made to be interactive. Here, burners were invited to walk through the ant farm tunnels. The farm was at least 50 feet tall. Big Ants.

Regional art has been added to Burning Man over the last three years. This Texas Longhorn came from Texas. (Photo by Tom Lovering)

Regional art has been added to Burning Man over the last three years. This Texas Longhorn came from, no surprise, Texas. (Photo by Tom Lovering)

The Black Rock Desert can be quite beautiful, as this rainbow demonstrates.

Over the next few months, I’ll be blogging about various aspects of Burning Man. Join me. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson)

NEXT BLOG: The beautiful walled city of Dubrovnik on the coast of the Adriatic Sea in Croatia.

Next Burning Man blog: This year’s theme is Cargo Cult. What does it mean? I will use themes from other years as examples.

On Becoming Outlaw… Burning Man Costumes

August 24, 2012January 24, 2015 / Curt Mekemson / 12 Comments

The best dressed member of the Horse Bone Camp is Ken Lake, AKA Scottie.

I am a minimalist when it comes to costumes. In fact I am a shorts and T-shirt kind of guy. For Burning Man, I add a black hat and a neckerchief and consider myself dressed up. I become Outlaw.

Here I am in my Outlaw persona sans neckerchief. The Great Ape was part of a sculpture on evolution. Playa dust decorates my T-shirt and hat.

Everyone is allowed his or her little fantasies at Burning Man. In fact wearing a costume is highly encouraged. It is a key element in the principle of involvement and an expression of personal art. In theory, and to a degree in practice, people go to Black Rock City to participate, not observe.

Costumes have a liberating influence. They allow us to escape whoever we happen to be in everyday life and become, for a brief time, someone else. There’s a bit of the outlaw, or vamp, or siren, or shaman in all of us. One year at Burning Man, fairies and angels were in and it seemed like every other female Burner had spouted a pair of wings.

This is the most graceful pair of wings I have seen at Burning Man. Note the shadows.

Some guys like to get in touch with their feminine side. Or at least I think that’s what it is. Dozens of men don dresses. If nothing else, their costumes come ready-made.

A manly man dons a dress.

In 2006 I was standing outside of Camp Center with my camera when the annual costume contest was going on. It’s where Burning Man’s best dressed strut their stuff. Somebody assumed I was ‘paparazzi’ and ushered me over to where participants were having their photos taken, a sort of Burning Man Red Carpet. I dutifully snapped away.

Many of the following photos are from that 2006 experience. Others are more random. I have also included photos by Don Green, a fellow Horse-Bone Camp member who is handy with cameras.

This is one of my favorite photos by Don Green. I can’t help but wonder if this is a costume, or whether it is who the woman truly is. For me, she defines exotic.

Another favorite of mine because the man absolutely bursts with personality.

This shaman represents how elaborate costumes can get at Burning Man. Think of the hours and imagination that went into producing it.

Another costume that caught Don Green’s eye. The pink tint to the glasses and the pink lip stick add a nice touch.

Henna Tattoos and body painting often become part of costumes. This woman was quite striking with her stripes.

I usually don’t post nude or partially nude photos out of respect for Burners and my readers. I couldn’t resist this cute pair of umm… kitties, however.