loved ones

I hate to get all 'summer camp' on you, but the best thing about burning man for me was remembering how good it feels to have best friends.

Derek M. Powazek

old friends. new friends. strangers who became friends for fifteen minutes. strangers who may become friends forever.

trina <caterina@organic.com>

The point of BM is the =shared= immediatism of it all.

Nexist [DAR] <nexist@hevanet.com>

When I got home.
"hey why did you always disapear?"

There were too many "loved ones" too close by for me.
Strange? yes. but true.

a <bitch@floozy.com>

it's not easy to hide out there, no meetings or classes or excuses to duck behind. late friday night i pedaled off into the darkness, daring myself to hunt down the "loved ones" i never wanted to see again and make a stab at redemption. i tried, later, to find them. i failed.

in my own idiotic idealistic sense, i believed for one small moment that i could've walked into anyone's camp and made a meaningful connection. could have healed some old wounds and opened up new pathways. geographic circumstance was reason enough. "summer camp", indeed, derek, because i lost it all the minute i stepped back into the city.

drue <drue@vivid.com>

I have been waiting to find an interactive web sight about BM so I could share...and here you are...so great! Here is my "love" story...it also has a bit to do with mushrooms too.. Well, you all remember the one minute of fame booth, right?I bet there's others who will relate to what I'm about to describe...well...my groovy sistah' and I were cruising around main camp and stumbled ,literally, onto the little gem...and quickly proceeded to cram ourselves in, to check it out...we were a little too 'schroomy to communicate our inner emotions effectively and Carrie thought the walls were breathing so at 50 seconds we bailed... BUT...on my way out of the booth I made eye contact with HIM...who knows where He was from and who cared!! He asked what the box was all about and I told him "hop in and check it out"... ..."Come with me he replied"...and the rest was video tape history.. which is now just a clip on the cyber floor...an absolutely pure and perfect minute....of what you may be asking... a ****KISS**** One absolutely perfect kiss! It made my knees weak...and then the minute ended...I crawled out...waved goodbye...and rode off into the night. My lips will always yearn for that one...my heart thumps(*) now when I think about it and HIM. I actually saw him standing over the rubble of the Burn late Sunday night..He was beautiful...but nothing HE or I could have said would have compared with that undefiled kiss...I won't forget it. Burning Man was incredible! It was my first year also...I cried(not usual) as I drove off the playa in my RV "The BUBBLER"... It was the release I needed after that intense experience...and I almost can't wait until next year...So until then...all my love...-A

Ariana Raedene <Jivashanti@AOL.com>

The people I connected with out there are forever different to me. Underneath the Man the bullshit is stripped away, the things that matter exposed, magnified, intensified. The confusion and uncertainty wrapped around the most important things in my life melted away out there, unravelled far faster than I was ready for. I'm still reeling....

Right now is all that matters at Burning Man. I've always talked about living in the moment, but never so completely experienced it until I stepped onto the playa. Used emotions reduced to ashes, memories of how I felt about everything that touches me burned away by the omnipotent power of now.

I'm trying to remember, two weeks later, what that meant, how I felt, where I was. It's still there, but it's there like the traces of playa dust still clinging to my purple baja.

It's not enough.

These lines of text have done an inadequate job.

J.

Vagabond Jim <jim@vagabondage.com>

Friends, forgotten friends, love, forgotten love. Smiles, forgotten smiles, words, forgotten words. Life, forgotten life, death, forgotten death. Lines inspired by photograph.

Bjoern Eriksson <nowerik@algonet.se>

I can't quite remember that day, it was a blur of half forgotten faces,unknown lives brought together by fate. You were there with me I seem to recall, but there was someone else too. Who was she? I know we stood there as the light faded and the darkness grew; we knew our time was over. If only I could remember who I am... That guy with the parrot told us we wouldn't want to remember, but I don't believe him, he lies in every word. Maybe I'll find the truth I'm looking for out here, out beyond the lights of civilization, maybe I'll find you, and find my love again... maybe...

Andrew Lewis <alewis@oanet.com>

somehow i thought that i was going to get laid at bman, but i did not.

that's okay. i had a fabulous time anyway.

fresh one <fresh@bud.com>

Without friends to love and cherish and yell and whine at all the time..what would be the point? The only problem is why are all my friends mothers either manic depressive or schizophrenic.?..gee whiz is that really some STRANGE unseen sign that something is actually wrong with ME ???!! I have had some bizarre fate !! But thats ok I'm OK You're OK I'm dysfunctional Youre dysfunctional and life is a blessing !!

Jayce Marshall <mediamusic.interlog.com>

Being with my sister their in the playa I discovered so much about how you shouldn't accept anything but the most invigorating life.

Joshua <joshua@techno.ca>

who is loved and who is not can change any minute sometimes you just open your eyes and see the things you never seen before that's not something to be afraid of it just happpens like raindrops disappear in the pool go with the flow dool

dool <sikko_gerkema@yr.com>

I will hold these people to my heart forever. What we experienced together, the work we did, the beauty, the despair, the connections... will last many lifetimes. I would lay down my life for these people and I know they would do the same for me: John & Vanessa "We are no longer in the Festival business" Michael Michael "St. Michael of the lost souls" Boggmann "The adopt a moron program" Joseph & Mary "The newbies who knew" Flash & Dana "The arty aunt & crazy uncle of us all" Harley "Harley, this is Angel do you need back up?" Chicken & Circus Boy "Who has the keys to the flatbed?" Abernathy & Fry Cook ""The rosy fingers of dawn..." Will & Crimson "Keeping cars out of Central Camp" and all the rest...you know who you are...I love you we did it.

Angel <satori@sirius.com>

Tattooed middle-class parents, driving Chevy Cavaliers. Those two guys wearing Zoot Suits in the height of the noon-day sun were the coolest people there. "Danger Twenty Foot Man." Guy being pulled behind a pickup truck, on a toilet, pants around his ankles, READING, every day @1:30pm. Rave Camp. anytime you want. People, square as can be, brothers and sisiters with people freaked out as can be. ME? somewheres between FreakSquare, wishing it could happen again. I can't play a room full of pianos in Chicago. Wite me Love and Kisses.

Mike Brooks <mkbrooks@popmail.leapnet.com>

so easy to look into a strangers' eyes, and smile. so easy to love someone you've only just met. the realization that *this* is what life should be like. why can't it always be so ? Walk with me, Beatrice.

jeremy <jeremy@got.net>

I laugh at your attempt to detach yourself from consumer culture. You are just as much of a dupe as the rest of your progenators. Your elevation of the counterculture to mass culture is your down fall. Soon Coke will be sponsoring the event. Just Do It, Burning Man! will be seen from banners. Thanks a lot for popularizing a special and personal event, you self absorbed techno-phreak.

corporate stooge <greed@CapitalistTool.com.>

I think it is sad that the most soulful personal experiences so many people have only occur when at some kind of event or show that exists to engender those feelings...do we need facilitators and festival organizers to enrich our lives like this? Maybe we do.

andrew <andrew@in-sync.com>

jeez..., danger-like love reeds in a storm of tears surrounded by the good the bad and the ugly there have been many things in my life that seem to say "yes, im the only thing here" just as many cry the oppisite? bm for me is a cat both alive and dead just me and all of my strengths my failings and 10000 not me's completly unaware of this one.

arial

It was my friend Elmo who introduced me to The Man in '95; We brought a few new friends this past year. My first year was completely magic, and I got to know both Elmo and Kristine, whom I had known for years already, better than I ever expected. The connections we made that year have continued to this day. Out there we shared everything -- food, water, experience, dreams, failures, shelter, and showers. This year, I decided to share that feeling with a few more friends. Of course, I made proper introductions with The Man, telling my friends to climb up the hay bail mountain and touch him. At the top, some random person turned to me and said something I could not understand. When I asked, she told me it meant "I recognize your inner light" in a language that I can't remember. What I do remember clearly is what I was feeling at that exact moment; it is a memory snapshot I will take to the grave -- a feeling only close friends can evoke.

Dave <Kilmore@ix.netcom.com>

Burning Man 96 was the end of one era and the beginning of another for me, with friends and lovers. I'm more at home now than ever with my tribe, but I miss my old friends dearly. I'm doing something about it now. The strange and wonderful part is that I met my fiancee at BM 96 in Bianca's Smut Shack. He was an acquaintance who worked 20 feet from me. But it was as if we were meeting for the first time.

Elinor <elinor@idg.com>