One of the most
coveted souvineers
of Burning Man is the Alien Monkey Love Nest (AMLN) necklace. To
get one, you have to stand in front of the crowd and do something to
entertain the crowd there. People did all kinds of things. I took these
pictures while I was waiting in line for my turn to "be the
entertainment". The woman with the rug rat was the last person who was
allowed to entertain by telling a joke. She was followed by a family
that entertained us with a tune done by synchronized armpit farting.
The young
woman shared a poem she
had written with us. It was a touching call for world peace.
This group had a wonderful drinking
song type corus that went
something like "I used to work in a Department Store in Chicago, and
now I don't work there any more." Each of them had a verse to sing
solo, which boiled down to a story about how they lost their job. One
of them screwed a customer, another took something home, all brought
laughs from the crowd and another round of the corus. At first I
thought they were weird, but the longer they went at it, the more I got
into it. A great show.
This was by far the largest single
group of people that heard my speech at the same time, assisted by the
AMLN sound system.
My impression is
that the main thing the Sherrif did was catch people smoking marijuana.
When that happened he would give them a $250 ticket and confiscate the
weed. People only want to go through that experience once.
Inside the
yellow dome, the light was very yellow. It was a big room, with
carpeted floor and lots of pillows. Lots of people were giving each
other massages and relaxing or napping.
The woman
looking through her bicycle had first gotten one of my stickers at a
previous Burning Man. Unfortunately, that one was deteriorating. I was
happy to give her this one. It gives me a warm feeling to
meet someone who has had my sticker on her bike for a long time that
still likes it. I'm hoping I'll remember her next time I see
her.
