MONKEY BUSINESS AT BURNING MAN

I’M BACK.
The playa dust is still (literally) settling from my most recent trip to BURNING MAN, so forgive the lack of posts. I’ll get up to speed soon.

I’ll also get to all of this year’s playa chatter in an upcoming column — Yes, the man did burn twice. Yes, there was a swarm of newbies and jaded veterans jockeying for space close enough but not too close to the port-a-potties. Yes, the Green Man theme was inspirational until you looked around at all the plastic Vitamin Water bottles blowing in the wind. Oh, and yes, there were some nasty dust storms.

But there was also something else at Burning Man that had folks all wide-eyed and gasping in disbelief — in a good way.
Every year there’s an art installation that is the talk of the town. Last year it was the engineering marvel “Uchronia,” lovingly nicknamed the Belgian Waffle.
This year it was “HOMO OUROBOROS.” (I had no idea until just now that was the name. Most people just asked, “Have you seen the monkeys?”)

It’s hard to get the full concept from these videos but the thing was TERRIFYINGLY COOL. It busted the charts on the awwwe-factor and was great because it included audience participation.
Sure, “Crude Awakening” was dramatic in its fireball exit, but “the monkeys,” still win this year’s art excellence award.

More to come, stay tuned …

— Kim Nowacki