Saturday, May 31, 2014

Burning Man - Midburn - here we come, ready or not...

Right...so we're going to Midburn - Israel's first Burning Man event. And we're packed and ready (ha ha ha).
I have two burning questions: (1) will we ever get everything into our ridiculously space-challenged Subaru; and (2) will we be the same people coming back home after this daunting (at least from this end of the tube) experience?
The closer we get to this event, the more questions I have: questions about existence, about relationships, about the meaning of life... oh, cut the bullshit! I'm far too much of a cynic for that, so what I'm really anticipating is spending four days in the desert with all our kids and "Omri Bomri", the original desert boy, our gorgeous grandson who lives only 20 minutes from the Midburn Playa, in Mitzpe Ramon. That will be the fun part.
Omri Desert Boy
The not fun part will be packing the car (like I said, very little space even with the seats folded)...and then UNPACKING the car when we get home; removing all the garbage we will have collected - leaving no trace of our ever having been there; setting up our camp; trying to survive on dry rations for four days (home-made granola, rice, pasta, biscuits, energy bars...maybe some vegetables).
Seriously folks: I can't help feeling a sort of deja vue pre-Woodstock butterflies in the stomach trepidation about this entire enterprise: not that I was at Woodstock (I have some friends who were and it was held on the farm of an uncle of a friend - and that's another story); but I've seen the movie enough times, and spent my teenage years wallowing in the sound track! I know Midburn-Burning Man is NOTHING like Woodstock in terms of the event, performances, installations, workshops and so on... however, the expectations of being in the gorgeous Negev, surviving with only Porta-potties provided and everything else based on self-reliance - along with 2,000 other masochists - fills me with a sense of adventure and, yes, excitement.
Here's our check list...no, on second thoughts you don't want to read that, it's PAGES long but it does include some very important basic survival items such as: ground black pepper (don't ask); good Italian coffee; machineta (to "espresso" the coffee); a couple of bottles of red wine; corkscrew; Marlyn's denim scraps (for her workshop!); gallons of water; and of course our home built, very professional and sophisticated Midburn spec shower cubicle (!) Here's what we're not taking: Smartphones, iPads, laptops, email, Internet, TV...YAY!
This is what our apartment looks like at the moment:
Waiting at the front door...
...and the shower stall (absent the ground sheet curtain)



Now let's understand each other: we're no strangers to camping- we've camped in the Negev and we've camped in the Galil; we're regulars at Jacobs Ladder and we even spent a Pesach yonks ago on the shores of the Red Sea (well, really on Coral Beach in Eilat, but it kinda counts). However, THIS experience is beyond the pale for even the hardiest members of our camping crowd. They all think we're nuts. Comments range from: "Are you bonkers?" to "Well, good luck and thanks for all the fish." (Don't worry folks, we're taking good, robust towels with us: OK if you get it, you get it, if you don't then ... ah well, update your reading list...:) ) Mind you, the weather this morning was enough to raise a few doubts...
Briefly, why are we actually doing this? Is it some kind of advanced-age dementia? A searching for our youth; a need to express ourselves once again in an artistic, free-form manner? Or just the thought of being isolated from the daily scramble to survive in the modern world, transformed to the need to survive in a more primitive format? Actually, it's all of the above and more:
Our younger daughter, Liz (Aliza) has been to two Burning Man events in Nevada. She is now a key member of the Israel Midburn organization and she threatened us with instant mortification if we didn't come to Midburn to support her! Well, not quite as dramatic as that. We've always believed in inter-family support: whenever the kids were doing something: sports, dancing, performing, exhibiting, we've always made every effort to be there for them...to cheer them on, to be part of their triumphs (even if they didn't win the 25-yard egg-and-spoon race)...so we felt we just had to support Lizi-Bizi and the amazing team of Midburn volunteers by joining in and letting go of our middle-class, middle-aged, middle-of-the-road existence (truthfully, we're not really like that -  ask the kids - but it sounds good). We even gave up on Jacobs Ladder this year to be there for Lizi. We're damned proud of what she and her team have accomplished and we understand exactly what goes into putting together an event like this (It's not a "festival" folks; it's an EVENT!) That's where our support comes from: and it's exciting, like I said earlier; and even pioneering, given that this is Israel's first Midburn-Burning Man regional event. 
And to those of you who were just too damned chicken to join us --- waaaahhh; waggling fingers on each side of head, tongue extended: "I blow my nose in your general direction..." disdain - harrumph!  This will certainly be an experience to remember - or try to forget, we'll let you know about that  later...

2 comments:

  1. You Guys ROCK! love you to bits, have a blast! enjoy the experience! would not go (maybe if you paid me) myself. and look forward to reading all about it when you blog and post pictures. most of all enjoy the time with the kiddies. that will be the best part. LoveTe xxx

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  2. Looks amazing. If you are prepared to do it again next year... Well lets read about the experience this year and then I'll let you know. How are you going to blog about this if you don't have your lap-top with you? Marlyn, I'm sure that your denim quilting is going to be an amazing success. Enjoy and let us know how it progresses

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