... lived a grizzly adams life in the wild ...

"THE GIRL CAN DANCE"

Unbeknownst to most of the people in our camp, Leslie was quite the dancer. Combining a number of dance styles including Irish traditional and some sort of modern American, she dances up a storm, in fact. In most environments, pulling out a 4"x4" slate of wood and hopping up and dancing on it, would probably result in a lot of people watching, but only until the men with the nice white jackets arrived. However, at Burning Man, it gets you on the radio. Yes indeedy, one of Leslie's friends not only plays a mean fiddle for her to dance to, but also had a show on the Burning Man radio station and wanted to record a piece of her dancing to air on his segment. Thanx to the cooperation of Shmeg from the film crew, a quick mike setup and performance later, a tape was completed and ready to air.

"THE GIG"

As the playa began to dry up, we began to set up. Next to the ice booth which was fundraising for the local (I believe Gerlach) girls basketball team, we found the main stage. Allen, being the wise man he is, got us down there with hours to set up and be prepared. As we all trudged around with 3 inches of mud on our shoes making us all taller, but equally so, a man with a toolbelt built a ramp to the stage. My inner self wanted to question this man. Why was he building a ramp? Why was a ramp needed? If a ramp was needed, why wasn't it done beforehand? Why are Beavis and Butthead the role models of our youth? The ramp was for the fashion show which was scheduled just before the Mermen's performance. Oh, and what a fashion show it was. Participation was open to any who were interested, and by the time it was ready to start, there was quite a crown surrounding the stage ready for anything. What an odd combination of costumes paraded in front of my eyes. Ranging from tall glamorous men in slinky dresses and heels to women in whips and lingerie, it all got great applause and I must complain publicly at having been passed over by the mother-daughter team who were throwing gum into the crowd. The finale of the show featured a strip down of two women who after gyrating around seductivly for a bit were joined by some comic relief in the form of random guys in the crowd who stepped into the circle and mimiced their moves.

The film crew built up a full dolly system on the side of the stage which allowed them a clear set of swooping camera shots here and there. By the time 6:30pm came about, the crowd of fashion show onlookers expanded in anticipation to the Mermen's set. The sun hung lazily in the sky, almost as if to wait for the band to start in order to provide it's own natural light show. Jim, Allen, and Martyn agressively jumped into their first song, blasting their music out into the desert crowd and beyond. The throngs of a few hundred people were a mix of all types, either gyrating as if they were at a Grateful Dead show, full of flailing punk rock limbs, or standing still with an awed focused expression on their faces. Jim treated his guitar in his usual way; ferociously thrashing on it, wrenching unbelievable noise from it's innards, and then playing gorgeous melodies with gentle hammer-ons and pull-offs. Martyn powered away in front of the green camoflauge of the tent behind him, often in his trademark expression with his tongue partway out the side of his mouth, pausing here and there to make use of one of his toy noisemakers. Allen took on the usual role of rapport with the crowd, making them be part of the experience and commenting on whatever odd thought might be going through his mind. He repeatedly traveled the line which went from his amp to Martyn's drum set and Jim, returning back to force his bass onto his speaker cabinet to get sustain, threatening to overturn the cabinet & amp entirely. At one point, a dog from the crowd, apparently enjoying the blaring music hopped onto stage and when Allen, mid-song, kneeled down, it happily licked his face. The dog wandered around a bit, hopped off stage, but returned a number of times throughout the set, always hanging out in front of Allen's speaker, ready to give him yet another friendly lick on the face. On the other side of the stage, Jim's brutal approach to the guitar resulted in ripping part of one of his nails from his finger, sending a spray of blood across the guitar.

As the sun set ...

... unfinished notes....

As the Mermen's set drew to a close, the sun ...

SUNDAY
    the gig
	- setup
	- fashion show
	- dog
	- jim's hand
	- sunset
    burning of the man
	- rocket car
	- fireworks
	- megaphone man
    burning lingham
    sharkbait
    seemen
    moon setting

MONDAY
    pyramid lake
    pack-up
    surreality of returning to BP land

MISC
    hot springs
    naked mud dancing
    spud gun shooting baby