So, another of the ‘Things To Do Before You Die’ is getting crossed off the list. It has been on my mind to check out Burning Man for many years and, thanks to the lovely folk of Camp Cyberia, we are off to pop our cherries at this year’s event. Since it’s all about experiences and sharing, we will be bringing our rope skills to the party. It will be an ideal place to pull out the UV ropes and other eye-dazzling accessories 🙂 Before you accuse me of plagiarising Kinoko, I will offer in my defence that I stole the idea of cyber-rope shows well over a decade ago from Kazuyo, who was the first person I saw doing shibari, never mind using UV ropes, at Torture Garden. I dug the photo below out from the archives of me doing a show with UV at Vice in Brighton in 2006 with the stereo-typically Swedish Amazonian beauty, Erika. I think it’s probably a blessing that there don’t seem to be any showing much of my rope work 🙂
It sounds like we could get every extreme the weather can throw at us judging by past events: Scorching 40+ degrees, cold nights, dust storms, flash floods. Having read up, I’m beginning to question our sanity and wonder how much we might yearn for room service, a pool and iced beers. Thankfully, sanity is one of the least required faculties at BM from what I have heard.
It remains to be seen how Playa dust mixes with ropes and I have been warned it will mix with everything. However, one of our friends is getting married at BM so we have been promised champagne, while being driven around the site in Charlie the Unicorn (below), so there will be some of life’s little comforts. Of course, Black Rock City goes out of its way to provide surprises.
Charlie the Unicorn
As a Romanian national, Nina didn’t qualify for the EU Visa Waiver, so had to attend an interview at the US Embassy. Since the advice on the internet seemed to indicate that US visa application procedure could make an ‘interview without coffee’ by the KGB sound like a walk in the park, she went well-prepared with all the paperwork neatly filed and smartly dressed. When asked what she did for a living, she answered with complete openness “Teaching and performing shibari, plus on-line rope sales”. Her jaw must have visibly bounced off the desk when he replied “Oh, isn’t that something to do with hojojutsu?”. To my mind, as Michael Caine reputedly put it, “Not a lot of people know that” and suggests more than a passing acquaintance with the subject ;-D Visa granted!