photo of the month
from randy kato





Hi,

It has been a hot month. I don't mean the warm weather that's months ahead of itself, rather it has been a month of fiery activity.

The "Burnal equinox" - exactly 6 months from the burning of the man - came and went. With it, came a flurry of activity associated with our Burning Man theme camp application and trying to get an allocation of tickets so there could be enough of us to actually have a theme camp (this year demand for tickets increased exponentially, and in a well-intentioned but untested lottery system only about 1/3 of the people who build and create the city got tickets).

The flames were also stoked under our NYC Sparkworks Fire Conclave that hopes to be honored with another invitation to the inner circle to perform with the burning of the man. We'll start rehearsals soon.

So with these things blazing I chose a photo of a renegade fire performer. This picture is from 1999 during the Orange Party.

Let me explain... the NYC subway is public property. The subway lines are color coded. So in much the same way a bunch of people would gather for a picnic in the park, we would gather for a party in the subway. The theme was the color of the subway line, which is why he is wearing orange. A marching band, some street performers, and lots of friends in the know would gather at a specified station at a specified time and hop on the train, mixing and mingling and dancing all the way to the end of the line - which was often the beach, where the party would continue. This display is what greeted us at the last stop as we got off the train.

Another bit of trivia tying this picture in with Burning Man: this fire breather is actually Taylor Kuffner, the artist behind the Gamelatron - the mesmerizing robotic gamelan orchestra that was installed inside the Temple of Transition at Burning Man 2011.

Enjoy!
Randy




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