BM2K5 (the movie) SF -> BRC Kids Camp Kids Camp Fun Kids Camp Art Car Life in Kids Camp Chazz's Tacos bicycling the playa art cars Dicky / The Temples Passage / Clockworks The Machine / daytime art nighttime art nighttime scenes participant-citizens Center Camp The Man Rangers Lamplighters Contessa treasure hunt The Man Burns BRC -> SF desktops Ranger patch Ranger jacket
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Burning Man 2005: The Black Rock City Rangers
From our recent location at The Man we head down the main promenade, through Center Camp, to the Ranger Station. (For an overview of what a Ranger goes through, I made notes during a particularly interesting shift.)
This is the Ranger Station in the hours before the Man burns, when Rangers are hanging around, their preparation done; ahead lies a long evening of setting up a perimeter around the Man, cajoling 40,000 people into behaving well, and caring for the safety and well-being of others.
(Yes, I know this panorama is tiny; I'm working on a solution. If Microsoft Internet Explorer didn't deliberately break CSS you would be seeing a bigger panorama with nice slider controls, but it does. Sorry. Bug Bill Gates about his committment to mediocrity.)
Here's a smoke ring rising over "HQ", as it's also known.
This is Agent 9. He is, how shall I say it?, umm, perhaps our most enthusiastic fan. His art is being the Coyote in the Ranger village, the jester in our court. It was my pleasure to meet with Agent 9 and chat; we encountered each other here, at the Ranger Station, and in Center Camp. Alas, Agent 9 didn't make it to the end of the event; he was ejected mid-week after he bullyragged the wrong person. (Agent 9 responds.) I'm looking forward to seeing you next year, Agent 9.
My last Ranger shift started out the evening before the Man burned, a foot patrol that took me the entire length of the Esplanade, then finding a camp-mate to take an altered citizen off law enforcement's hands, then dealing with a medical call which turned into a Sanctuary stay, then hanging out at Sanctuary in case said altered citizen became adamant, then a patrol around Center Camp, and then a request to do a few hours of "Stick Duty" (fixed service at the Man).
On Stick Duty I encountered Chris, another altered citizen. He tossed his shorts on the playa and began doing a disjointed dance combined with equally disjointed poetry; think Vogon poetry. He bounced all around the Man, with us in tow. He sure didn't seem to be a danger to others, but here veered back and forth between charming and edgy. Law Enforcement came out and figured he'd crossed no line, so I got to hang (so to speak) a bit longer with Chris.
The phrase I best remember from Chris' poetry was "spinach marshmellow", although what he meant by it I don't know.
The Ranger Rapid Night Response (think really, really fast goth bicycle messengers) swooped down to keep track of Chris as he pranced across the playa. He was fast; they were faster. One RNRer is a crisis counsellor, so Chris was in very good hands. After Chris had been exposed to the elements for a half-hour an ambulance crew was dispatched to bring him to a warmer place for a while.
The rest of my shift was much quieter, without poetry.
Here's how things looked just before sun-up. (I am actually wearing pants - rather than my usual shorts - because it got chilly in the wee hours of the morning.) Check out these reflective traffic control gloves! (They're for another of my websites.) They're as bright as the Ranger patch I had made up.
Here I am with the object of our affection just after the sun rose. It went from brisk to warm in a few moments. (Bring on those shorts!) Behind me you can see the yellow caution tape surrounding the Man; for much of the shift the DPW (Department of Public Works) staff removed the artwork and interior maze from the fun-house pedestal in preparation for the pyrotechnic team's addition of accelerants and fireworks for this evening's excitement.
Here's a panorama of Ranger Casper, my partner in Stick Duty. Behind him the morning sun is coloring the hills red. They'll return to their usual brown in a little while.
As the rest of the city notices sun-up a cacophony of hoots and hollars can be heard, along with the blast of a fire cannon - perhaps the Impotency Compensation Project's - and the resultant smoke rings rising high into the air.
Ranger Casper takes a photo of me just before my time at the man ends; I'm heading back to Kids Camp, to make breakfast with Rose and enjoy another day of Black Rock City with the family.
As I head back to Ranger HQ for a fresh radio battery I spot (and call in) this artwork on fire; I don't recall there being something scheduled to go up now. I hope it's the artist doing it.
Now it's time to jump forward a day, to the late afternoon, for a brief visit to the Lamplighters.
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