Y'know the Fleetwood Mac song "You Can Go Your Own Way"? Well that's what THIS burner and a few of her crew are doing. Well, they're not MY crew - we're a crew together - but the phrase just flowed nicely. ANYWAY...

It looks like I, my man, and four or five other folks are leaving the bosom of The Camp to go our own way. I won't bore you with the juicy details of why this happened, but the crux of the biscuit is that there are some stylistic and managerial issues that are concerning to us. The biggest is size. Yes, size does matter. The Camp is getting huge and taking on annexes and losing a lot of the intimacy it had the past two years. There's even talk of hooking up with a bunch of other camps and starting a village (which means camping with 150+ other people). Ummmm.... no thanks. If I wanted to camp with a village, I'd be camping with a village already.

For me, Burning Man is about making connections with people. There's a bond that's created out there in the dust that is not dissimilar to the bonds formed on the front lines or in prison or as a researcher in the Antarctic in July. I know, sounds FAAAAAAAAAAAAABULOUS, but it's true. In order to survive and thrive at BMan, you have to be able to count on your camp mates. It's a collective effort to make sure everyone stays hydrated and healthy, that help is given, that needs are met. And the conditions are tough sometimes. There's a reason nothing grows out there. But the beauty of it - and this is where the bonds are formed - is in the community... the coming together of human beings to build something out of nothing, both on a personal scale and on a city scale.

Now, I'm not adverse to camping with people I don't know. When I joined The Camp, I knew no one. Seriously no one. But damned if I didn't get to know these folks. The funny thing is that I spent the summer helping form the camp - taking on the food & cooking, helping to get beanbags made, etc. But I didn't really get to know them until we were out there counting on and taking care of each other. And now I call pretty much all of them friends and I'd trust each of them in adversity.

Thing is, it's a lot harder to cultivate that intimacy and trust in a camp of 50+ people. So some of us have decided to - cue the song again - go our own way in an effort to preserve what's important to us: community. Cause THAT'S what the whole experience is about for us.

OK, enough with the exposition. What does this mean on practical terms? Risk. Effort. Not having portapotties right in camp (**sob**). Possibly not having a premiere location on the playa. Know what? That's okely dokely with me. Once I got over the fear of not having the luxuries The Camp is offering this year - said portapotties, water delivery, art cars, a tower with a revolving bed on top (I kid you not) - I got really excited. It helped immeasurably to remember that the swank theme camps make up less than 1/10th of the population out there. Most folks DON'T go with theme camps. Most folks just go with their friends and carve out their own little homesteads without themes and bells and whistles. And they have a fucking fabulous time.

We're hoping to go for the middle ground. We want to have a theme camp, but we we're gearing it toward small. Twenty-ish folks max, preferably 10-12. Why bother going for a theme camp at all if we're aiming small? Two reasons: placement and early entrance. :) If you're accepted as a theme camp, you are allotted some real estate in advance and therefore don't have to scramble to find a place to set up. That takes a LOT of the stress away. And if you are a theme camp, you get to arrive on the playa before the general public can. This is WAY FUCKING COOL because a) you don't have to sit in massive amounts of entry traffic, and b) it's amazing to be out there when there are only 1,000 people in a five mile radius. It gives you perspective on the sheer scale of the desert itself and it allows you to witness the city being built. Literally. It's quite breathtaking.

So we've come up with the camp name, and the outlines of a theme: The Poisoned Palace. We're picturing a tea house during the day - mahjongg, nibbles, foot care (washing, toe-nail painting, reflexology), possibly a spa one afternoon with hair washing and body painting and massage. At night, a blacklight bar, with an as yet undetermined signature drink (anyone know how to get a slushy machine???). Lots of potential to play with both the poison theme and the palace theme. A little Ab-Fab perhaps? Twisted fairy tales? An entire night of listening to "Every Rose Has It's Thorn"??? Hmmm..... what can we do....?? The possibilities are endless. Except for that last one. That's NOT going to happen. Heh.

Our plan is to do as the old camp did: communal meals, water, shade, power, and greywater. We're figuring out the budget over the next few days, but we're hoping to keep the dues to a reasonable level. The big costs will be power (generators aren't cheap to rent) and transport of our gear (box vans aren't cheap to rent, either). We're pegging the cost at around $200 - $250/pp. + elbow grease, gear donations, and/or sexual favors. We'll be doing some fundraising, of course, but we've no designs on having the biggest, sexiest, coolest camp on the playa. We're just wanting to create a place where people can hang out and feel welcome.

The next four months are gonna be work hard/play hard. But the people I'm doing this with are worth every ounce of effort I can give.

Can ya tell I'm psyched??