This is Burning Man
Chapter One
THE WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS DRINK BLENDER
A swirl of claims, some contradictory, runs through the endless
conversation that Burning Man engenders in its devotees and
detractors. You'll hear them over and over again at parties,
jubilees, raves, fundraisers, late-night welding sessions, tugboat
soirees, intimate desert rituals: Burning Man creates artists;
Burning Man is self-indulgent play; Burning Man renews lives;
Burning Man destroys lives; Burning Man changes the world; Burning
Man is a dangerous catastrophe.
For six years Jim Mason was one of Burning Man's most tenacious and
excessive artists, living out all of those dichotomies. He has a
wide, babyishly blank face (even when covered in a few days'
unshaven beard, as it often is) beneath his dirty blond hair
(usually longish and tangled). His characteristic outfit is a
dull-silver full-body fire-protection suit, which he has taken to
wearing even during those (rare) moments when his catching himself
on fire is only a remote possibility.
Mason is not a scientist, but his day job has been written up in
Scientific American. He's creating a d ... read full excerpt from This Is Burning Man ebook