Posted Sunday, September 30, 2007, 4:43 PM by Lonely Planet
Contemplating the other side of the table, Muhammad Cohen reflects how the writers festival circuit helped get him there...
I'm hardly glitterati, but the Ubud and Kuala Lumpur festivals were instrumental in making Hong Kong On Air. Silverfish Books, creators of the KL festival, published an excerpt of the novel that enticed me to keep at it, then a year later at Ubud, I was inspired by Hong Kong's Nury Vittachi. He said many people say "I've got a great book", but when he asks to read it say, "It's not finished yet."
Rule #1! Nury exhorted, is you must finish the book. So I cleared my calendar for a few months - 18 months, it turned out - to finish mine.
I had the good luck to get the book published and then accepted at Ubud, presenting the opportunity to mingle with 80 other writers here, plus more than 700 readers. In the few short days, a sense of community takes hold among the rice terraces and coconut palms.
Seasoned writers had plenty of advice for the book launch. My publisher preaches, "Nothing takes the air out of a room like reading from the book." But Philippine writer Reine Arcache Melvin and Hong Kong novelist Xu Xi both urged me to.
The launch was held at Tutmak, a trendy but casual restaurant near Ubud's central soccer field. In the end, I took the writers' advice and read. The audience of nearly 100 laughed - in the right places - with Vittachi and Silverfish editor Sharon Bakar seated in the front row.
I also participated in panel discussions with big names including Richard Flanagan and Adib Khan. Booker Prize winner Kiran Desai - lovely, charming, and witty (and taller than The Inheritance of Loss and her jacket photo suggest) - watched one and afterward said, "Come to lunch." I was thrilled.
But the panel on satire with new friends Kam Raslan of Malaysia and Sri Lanka's Manuka Wijesinghe was starting just then. So I turned down lunch with Kiran Desai. What a great and awful feeling I had as I pinched myself.
- Lonely Planet author, Muhammad Cohen launched his novel Hong Kong On Air at this year's Ubud Writers and Readers Festival.
Labels: Asia and Pacific, Festivals and events
Join the Discussion:
Posted Thursday, September 27, 2007, 6:11 PM by Lonely Planet
New York's best parties have never been in nightclubs or penthouse apartments - you find them on the streets and the best-kept secret (at least to the outside world, and possibly Manhattan) is Brooklyn's Atlantic Antic, held 10am to 6pm this Sunday.
Now in its 33rd incarnation, the annual Antic is a ten-block walk along Atlantic Ave (between Boerum Hill and Brooklyn Heights) past a catch-all of Brooklyn's diverse self: R&B bands in pastel suits, pulled-pork sandwiches, beefy grandmother belly dancers, free hapkido lessons, and indie bands in last-night's clothes.
If you're in New York this Sunday, go. Start from the Atlantic Ave subway stop (reached by B, D, M, N, Q, R, 2, 3, 4, 5 lines) and walk west along the avenue to Brooklyn Heights. Here's a few stopping points heading west, with all sorts of food stops along the way:
* Near the Atlantic Ave stop, Gumbo (493 Atlantic Ave), between 3rd Avenue and Nevins, stages Jamaican dub poet jaBEZ (at 2pm) and Bonga and Voodou Drums of Haiti (at 3pm). Nearby Hank's Saloon (46 3rd Ave) goes for rockabilly.
* Southern rock and white-goatee blues gets on at Downtown Atlantic (364 Atlantic Ave), between Bond and Hoyt Sts.
* Jolie (320 Atlantic Ave), between Hoyt and Smith Sts, goes for a bit more self-conscious folk.
* At the Antic's mid-way point, at Boerum Pl, you can climb aboard 1917 public buses as part of the nearby New York Transit Museum's annual display.
* A couple blocks west, between Court and Clinton Sts, is belly-dancer central, where Middle Eastern and Greek music is played on a giant stage all day.
* Walk on, for the Antic's trashy west end. The block between Hicks and Henry St gets trashy: Last Exit (136 Atlantic Ave) is all about go-go dancing and shameless burlesque, including the xylophone-punk of Anna Copa Cabana.
* And the nearby stage outside Magnetic Fields (97 Atlantic Ave) is all crunchy garage rock and swinging-London wannabes; Mary Weiss from the '60s girl-band Shangri-Las - and sounding like her ol' Ramones-inspiring self on her new album - plays at 4.30pm.
- Robert Reid
Labels: Festivals and events, The Americas
Join the Discussion:
Posted Wednesday, September 26, 2007, 10:29 PM by Lonely Planet
In its four years, the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival has established a tradition of evening soirees in some of Bali's most inspiring venues. This year, opening night coincided with the full moon, so on Wednesday the Balinese dressed accordingly. For men, ceremonial garb is a white, short-sleeve coat and udeng, a cloth headband. For women, it's a lace kebaya, a multicoloured sarong, with a pedestal plate of fruit on the head for offering at the temple.
To accentuate their shape, women wear corsets, and to accentuate their modern fashion sense, high-heeled sandals. Just as they captivated Bali's early foreign chroniclers during the 1930s, lines of identically dressed, shapely females swayed under their loads, perhaps more precariously now than during barefoot times.
Tradition with a modern twist fits the festival's first public events, starting with the opening gala, held around dusk in the courtyard of Ubud's royal palace. Ubud's traditional royalty still serve ceremonial functions, and the orange brick palace with its traditional tapered gate posts and intricately carved doors remains the village's centrepiece. Indonesia's tourism minister spoke, but Balinese dance combining traditional forms, including fire and kecak chanting stole the show.
Saraswati Temple, dedicated to the goddess of knowledge and arts, was the setting for The Centhini Story launch. The Javanese epic Serat Centhini is a cross between Homer's Odyssey and the Kama Sutra, an ancient text, most of the originals lost, written in a Javanese script few people can still read. The Centhini Story (Marshall Cavendish) is its first English translation.
The old story was reborn in the moonlight, through a Balinese-style dance by choreographer Nyoman Sura, readings in French-accented English by the project's godmother Elizabeth Inandiak, and hip-hop with Kill the DJ rapping in the original Javanese.
- Muhammad Cohen is at this year's Ubud Writers and Readers Festival where he will launch his novel Hong Kong On Air.
Labels: Asia and Pacific, Festivals and events
Join the Discussion:
Posted Tuesday, September 25, 2007, 8:33 PM by Lonely Planet
Zo! Here at the world's biggest party gearing up for guaranteed anarchy. The first Oktoberfest (22 Sept - 7 Oct) was in 1810, celebrating the marriage of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. What would those royals think of the blowout that is their legacy? The 'Mass', a majestic stein holding a full litre of beer, is the measure of all that takes place at Oktoberfest. 6.5 million liters of this golden nectar will immediately raise the local water table levels considerably.
Our plan for Day One was to witness the arrival of the Brewer's Parade where all the officially sanctioned Munich beer-meisters arrive to signal the official opening of Oktoberfest, followed by the lord mayor's tapping of the first official keg. But that was then, this is now. Or words to that effect. Verbal skills, memory and many other mental functions quickly become impaired at Oktoberfest; it's akin to arriving in the 'Death Zone' on Everest. The nights before Day One of the Fest were spent in 'training' for our assault on the summit of the world's largest drunk but, alas, we had trained all too well. After much fumbling, we staggered out into the daylight with eyes the size of baby peas and charged off to snag the Opening Day parade. We never found it.
But we did manage to find the Wies'n, the huge former parade ground, already awash with about a million staggering dirndl and lederhosen clad lads and lassies. The grounds were quickly awash in beer and other less savory liquids. Our carefully crafted 'plan' quickly became one of mere survival. About three hours later we decided that 'the fog' was really rolling in as we spied ever-increasing numbers of 'beer corpses' and we headed to the Augustiner Brauerei where we scarfed up some huge portions of Schweinshaxen (pork knuckle) and dumplings the size of rugger balls (some of the best in Bavaria) and then lurched across the street to the hotel for a brief siesta, waking up about five hours later...thirsty. A near perfect Day One.
David Peevers will be keeping us updated on the business of beer at the 2007 Oktoberfest so stay tuned for his next post (if he manages to stay up straight).
Are you at Oktoberfest this year or have been in the past? Share your Oktoberfest experiences here.
Labels: Culinary culture, Europe, Festivals and events
Join the Discussion:
You could say the debate started in 1962; some would say 1988, others 1990. But the official travel boycott - called for by Aung San Suu Kyi, came in 1996. Travellers since have questioned whether they should visit Myanmar, coming up with a host of reasons why and why not. Currently the debate is back in the spotlight as protesters take to the street and international media coverage experiences a groundswell.
This week protests in Rangoon have been building with monks and inured citizens congregating at the cities' Shwedagon Pagoda in defiance of the ruling military junta. The suspiciously self-titled State Peace and Development Council took power (then as the State Law and Order Restoration Council) in a 1962 coup and have since failed to instil democratic processes.
Although Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy officially won government in a 1990 election - power was never handed over.
A result of 1988 protests, Aung San Suu Kyi was put under house arrest. Those protests ended in thousands' killed, and although the climate may be different today - with the media's attention on the country unlike ever before, it cannot be guaranteed this latest round won't deteriorate in the same way.
Travellers in Myanmar or those deciding to travel there should make sure they take caution and read widely on the matter. Check news websites and the Thorn Tree Myanmar branch for more information.
Labels: Asia and Pacific, Breaking travel news
Join the Discussion:
Posted Monday, September 24, 2007, 6:51 PM by Lonely Planet
Restaurateur and author Janet de Neefe, a Bali resident for 20 years, developed the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival to commemorate the 2002 Bali bomb attacks that killed 202 mainly foreign tourists. Now in its fourth year, the Ubud festival has grown into a leading stop on the Asian literary circuit and an emphatic counterpoint to the extremists' message of division among the archipelago's hundreds of ethnic groups and between Indonesians and foreigners.
Ubud is a traditional village in Bali's foothills ascending toward volcanoes considered sacred in the island's 1500-year-old Hindu tradition. Rivers twist through Ubud, cutting gorges between green hills. Rice paddies still fill spaces between temples, hotels, museums, restaurants and villas.
Ubud is also famously fertile ground for culture and cultural exchange. This year's festival closing gala takes place at the villa turned museum of east-meets-west painting archetype Antonio Blanco. As well as influencing visitors, over the decades, Bali has proven uniquely able to stamp what it absorbs as its own.
Balinese tradition and tourism mix most comfortably through culture. At one end, Balinese customs of massage and meditation beget spas and yoga classes. In the fine arts, interest and influence by talented visitors and moneyed tourists has helped preserve and nourish art forms originally grounded in religion, including painting and dance.
Back in 1930s Ubud, European painters Walter Spies and Rudolf Bonner, along with their Balinese royal patron Cokorda Gede Agung Sukawati jointly founded the Pita Maha (Great Vitality) movement that extended painting beyond temple life and texts into village scenes.
Western and Balinese artists - from jewellery designers to sculptors to musicians - still find each other irresistible influences. For decades, this crosspollination has enriched and deepened, rather than cheapened, Bali's artistic reputation and output, as shown by Bali's continued pull on foreign imaginations.
The Ubud Festival extends Pita Maha to literature, using Bali as a catalyst for 80 writers from 18 countries across the globe to learn from each other and from Bali. Whatever happens this week, it's surely not what the terrorists had in mind.
Muhammad Cohen is launching his novel Hong Kong On Air at this year's Ubud Writers and Readers Festival.
Labels: Asia and Pacific, Festivals and events
Join the Discussion:
Posted Thursday, September 20, 2007, 11:33 PM by Lonely Planet
Gale force winds and sleep deprivation were two things we hadn't expected. But camped at the Nepabunna community in outback South Australia, they were just a couple of the challenges we faced on our volunteering stint...
Lonely Planet staffers Emma Gilmour and Ellie Cobb recently pulled on their volunteering boots. Here's what they experienced:
On paper it sounded good
Join a Friends of the Earth trip to a remote Aboriginal community to help in the Bush Tucker garden and build on existing relationships with the community and the Adnyamathanha people of the area.
In reality it was amazing
Eight of us were on the trip - a diverse group of people ranging from a paramedic to an anthropologist - all with our own reasons for volunteering. We drove 10 hours north of Adelaide to the Gammon ranges, and camped in some of the most epic and impressive scenery we've ever seen.
The wind was strong and the nights bloody cold, but the priviledge of staying on indigenous, protected land and being accepted into an Aboriginal community was fantastic. We helped out in the bush tucker garden, ripping out old crops in preparation for new season planting. We learnt about native plants, and as a thank you were taken to see sacred sites of the Adnyamathanha people.
Not everything was perfect, we questioned how useful our work was and whether we could have been more effective, but overall it was an incredible experience and one that neither of us will never forget.
For more information on Volunteering including tips on how to get started click here.
Labels: Asia and Pacific, Volunteer
Join the Discussion:
Posted Wednesday, September 19, 2007, 6:48 PM by Lonely Planet
By no means the worst casualty of Typhoon Wipha, but interesting to note, is as a result of the storms lashing at China's Eastern coast, Tuesday's and Wednesday's scheduled matches in the FIFA Women's World Cup were delayed.
With China to host the Olympics in August next year, numerous international events in the lead up, and both the Paralympics and Special Olympics tournaments in September and October respectively, there will be close observation of organisers' capacity to adapt to unforseen disruptions.
The matches to now be played tonight are:
Norway v Ghana
Brazil v Denmark
Canada v Australia
China v New Zealand
Travellers in and around Shanghai should still be wary of flood, wind and storm warnings and can check out what's being discussed on the Thorn Tree and news websites for more.
**Good Luck to the Matildas tonight!**
Labels: Asia and Pacific, Breaking travel news, Festivals and events
Join the Discussion:
Posted Sunday, September 16, 2007, 11:51 PM by Lonely Planet
The first OzBus London to Sydney overland trip has just hit the road. Haven't heard about it? OzBus - in return for 3750 of your hard-earned pounds sterling - will pop you in a bus with around 35 other people and take you on a 12-week drive from London through Europe and Asia to Timor, where you'll jump on a plane to Darwin for the drive down to Sydney. It's old-skool as.
Of course, many independent travellers are turning up their noses at what is, essentially, an organised tour. And why not? They and their progenitors have been legging it overland since the 1960s without the help of a bloke with a microphone pointing out the sites. Despite the media-generated excitement about this 'world first travel experience', for some people taking such a short overland trip is about as adventurous as a week on Ko Pha Ngan. And of course there's the cost: you won't have to go far to find someone who'll tell you 45 pounds a day for transport, food and a camping spot is a heinous rip-off and they could do it for less than three.
But you know what? I reckon it's great. Sure, there are plenty among us who are hardcore enough to do this trip themselves. But there are also plenty among us who find the whole thing just too hard, and end up opting for the plane even though we'd rather save the emissions and see the world close-up. OzBus is saying it's possible, it's fun and anyone can do it. Anything that encourages travellers to take it slowly, meet the locals and enjoy the trip rather than pelting their way to the destination; anything that makes travel a journey that you have to plan for and live over a sizeable chunk of your life, rather than a short-break that you've forgotten before you've even paid off the credit card, has got to be a good thing.
- Jane Rawson
Labels: Asia and Pacific, Europe, London, Middle East, Sustainable and responsible tourism, Travelsnitch
Join the Discussion:
Posted Thursday, September 13, 2007, 11:23 PM by Lonely Planet
Thank God, thank the Virgin of Guadalupe, thank whomever you wish, nobody died at the hands of Hurricane Dean... Now the hard part: rebuilding a town ripped to shreds.
At the height of the storm, much of Mahahual, a tourist town about 300 km south of Cancún, Mexico was underwater. The other coastal areas, including the tourist town of Xcalak, are fine. There's a bit of wind scour, but they are up and running and the beaches and reefs are still in good shape throughout the Costa Maya.
Two inland ruins, Dzibanché and Río Bec, are temporarily closed. They should be opening up in the next week or so, according to authorities.
The first person I came across in Mahahual (weeks after the storm) was Aura. She was selling Corona t-shirts near the beach. She used to have a great spot, just a block or two from the port that brought in up to three cruise ships a day. But now that port is underwater, and most people think it will be at least a year, maybe two, before it gets rebuilt. In short, the people of Mahahual, who depended on tourist traffic to stay alive, are royally screwed.
But Aura has set up her little t-shirt stand again, looking expectantly at the horizon for any ghost ships that might roll in and businesses remain optimistic, many expecting to reopen within a week or two.
So now could be a good time to travel to Mahahual, buy a t-shirt, some conch stew, and look out over that great blue sea.
Hurricane relief can be sent through www.playa.info. The Red Cross is not operating in Mahahual.
- Greg Benchwick
Labels: Breaking travel news, The Americas, Volunteer
Join the Discussion:
Posted Wednesday, September 12, 2007, 6:58 PM by Lonely Planet
Since January this year, an unprecedented number of Americans have waited unprecedented periods for their little blue books. The result of the niftily named "Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative", new requirements for travel to neighbouring Mexico, Canada and Caribbean countries saw a pre-emptive rush on passports and the US government's security obsession, turn into an administrative nightmare.
In part, it is a myth that Americans don't travel - traditionally, passport numbers have not necessarily accounted for those who cross borders to the country's North and South. So where as it is true that until two years ago less than a quarter of the population were in possession of a passport, many more may have travelled 'internationally' on other ID documents.
Now as numbers near the 30 percent mark, it is apparent that although still low in comparison to other Western countries, this amounts to approximately 12 million new passports in 2006, 16 million in 2007 and a projected 22-25 million in 2008.
Where as we welcome the positive potential for Americans to travel further a field, gain increased cultural awareness and facilitate the peace process, US Congress spin chooses to focus on the new capacity to prevent terrorists and reduce the use of fraudulent documents.
We encourage all Americans to consider the impact of their travelling, beyond the very attractive prospect of drinking Sol at only $1US dollar a bottle! Certainly there is the grass-roots opportunity to improve foreign relations, but also the imperative that if you tread widely, to attempt to tread lightly. But this of course goes for all travellers.
September is National Passport Month in the US. For more information see: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/passport.
For US citizens who require more information on applying for a passport visit: http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html.
Labels: Passport, The Americas
Join the Discussion:
Posted Tuesday, September 11, 2007, 4:06 PM by Lonely Planet
When I moved to California, I didn't know my junmai from my daiginjo. To me, sake was simply a warm contrast to my cold sushi, served in sweet little cups. Today, while not as educated about Japan's 1400 breweries or the world's countless sakes as I'd like to be, I love all things sake. And until about a year ago, I was ignorantly happy with my delectably clean and dry Shiratake Junmai Ginjo, or some sweet, milky Nigori.
But then, last year the manager of my favorite Japanese restaurant asked if I was going to the upcoming Joy of Sake sake-tasting event. 'Not to be missed,' she insisted. Oh, how right Gina-san was. The next night, I walked into the Moscone Center, was given a glass and a booklet of the sakes available for tasting, and was changed forever. Tables lined with bottle after bottle of sake - hundreds of them, each with a small dropper in a full sake cup for gathering a few precious drops into one's tasting glass.
It was tremendous. I approached timidly. But once I learned that many of the sakes were not available in the USA, I knew what I had to do. I opened the brochure, tasted and took copious notes until I was thoroughly enlightened, and called a cab.
This month the Joy of Sake event is on again. The largest sake-tasting event held outside of Japan provides a rare opportunity to sample award-winning sakes in peak condition. The three-city tour kicked off in Honolulu in August, and is coming to San Francisco and New York for only one night each. Over 300 sakes will be available for sampling (again, including over 100 not available in the United States), and some of the best restaurants in the Bay Area will be serving up sake appetizers to both complement the sake and to help imbibers maintain.
So if you find yourself in San Francisco or New York and the time is right, experience the Joy of Sake. To quote Gina-san, it is not to be missed.
The Joy of Sake
San Francisco: 13 September 2007, Hilton San Francisco
New York City: 27 September 2007, The Puck Building
Tickets are $70-90. To order, visit the website or call 888-739-1007.
- Emily K Wolman
Labels: Asia and Pacific, Culinary culture, The Americas
Join the Discussion:
Posted Thursday, September 06, 2007, 12:03 AM by Lonely Planet
The Burning Man festival climaxes with the torching of the neon-covered Man-sculpture, which has been hastily rebuilt after an over-enthusiastic pyromaniac started the ceremony early. It's a fittingly primal end to eight days of crazily decorated, trance-blaring 'art cars' zipping around Black Rock Desert. In a tribal fashion, fire-twirlers and bongo drummers circle the Man, watched by a sea of head torches, glowsticks and light sabres.
The incineration takes me by surprise: a sudden explosion engulfs the sculpture and sends a wave of heat across the crowd. After the pyre has crashed to the ground, everyone surges towards the embers with the air of New Years Eve revellers. A guy in a red mask and black cape catches my eye: 'Happy burn, man.'
The festival has been an emotional experience. It's a classic case of 'only in America', not just because it's the heart and soul of the country's counterculture but also for its epic scale. Black Rock City, as the population on the playa is known, is Nevada's fifth largest city and, as a festival radio DJ opines, 'the best city in the goddamn world'.
Money is not used outside Center Camp Café. Burners contribute to the whole by running free bars and barbecues, building sculptures, decorating the port-a-loos, performing random acts of kindness, or just donning a costume and bringing smiles to the faces on the playa. The festival's mantra is 'participate'.
Leaving the smouldering Man, the crowd drifts to watch the next fiery display. It's rumoured that a gang of Texan 'death punks' will be using a mixture of liquid propane and jet fluid to shoot a flame 1000 feet upwards. As I wait for the spectacle, I experience the same mixture of excitement and trepidation I felt on the way to this intense gathering. Then the mushroom cloud fills the night sky, illuminating the sunburnt faces of 47,000 burners.
James Bainbridge was at Burning Man researching for a Lonely Planet book on worldwide festivals; this is the last in his series of blogs from the event. You can see more of Jonathan Clark's photographs at www.art-clark.com.
Have you been at Burning Man this year or in the past? Share your Burning Man experiences here.
Labels: Burning Man, Festivals and events, Nevada, The Americas
Join the Discussion:
Posted Tuesday, September 04, 2007, 3:48 PM by Lonely Planet
Last night, between visits to the festival's English, Irish and German pubs, I checked out some of the more interactive entertainment on offer. The best, apart from the roller disco of course, was a game called Dance Dance Immolation.
Contestants in heat-resistant suits had to dance to bad '80s music; if they stopped or stepped out of tune, they were strafed with a jet of fire.
It was just another night on the playa, the salt pan in Nevada's Black Rock Desert that, for eight days a year, is overrun with wild-eyed 'burners' from as far afield as Australia. Artist Larry Harvey and friends started the happening in 1986 and shifted it to the outback in 1990, when San Francisco police moved them on from Baker Beach. At a press conference this week, Harvey said that Burning Man, in its idealistic mission to influence the way people live in the world beyond the festival, is succeeding where the '60s failed.
Certainly, the event is much more than an annual holiday for devotees such as the 'Euroburners' running the English bar. For 51 weeks of the year, they keep the contents of their elaborate camp in a storage unit in nearby Reno.
Another example of the serious sense of purpose underlying the event is its various themes. This year, as part of the green theme, there are schemes in place such as bio-diesel generators and the world's largest per capita communal bikes project. The theme will live on after the event when Burning Man gives the largest ever solar power donation to two local towns. In return, the state government will rename nearby Rte 447 as the Green Highway.
Like the '60s, Burning Man may not change the world, but it certainly has a profound effect on everyone who experiences it... even if their moonwalking skills aren't up to Dance Dance Immolation.
James Bainbridge is at Burning Man researching for a Lonely Planet book on worldwide festivals; check out the last in his series of blogs from the festival here soon. You can see more of Jonathan Clark's photographs at www.art-clark.com.
Labels: Burning Man, Nevada, The Americas
Join the Discussion:
Posted Monday, September 03, 2007, 7:33 PM by Lonely Planet
It is a sacred text to some, an old scroll that was made into a book that today is read all over the globe, the inspiration for countless pilgrimages, for quests for meaning, a way of life.
Fifty years ago, on 5 September 1957, On The Road was published, the book that mapped Jack Kerouac's journey down a stream of consciousness and through the US of the 1950s. A book fathered by Dada and the surrealists that became one of the midwives to the counter-culture children of the following decades. An anniversary edition of the book is being published and the original 120-foot typewriter roll - according to legend belted out in one long coffee-and-Benzedrine fuelled burst of hypergraphia - has itself gone on the road visiting libraries and museums across the states.
But does the Kerouacian desire to 'burn, burn, burn' still resonate today or is its message of rebellion against stifling conformity a relic of a time when people paid a higher price for kicking against the pricks of suburban rectitude?
Does On The Road's celebration of the spontaneous and the improvised get lost in the advertiser's command to 'just do it'?
As travellers what do you think?
- Dan Caleo
Labels: The Americas
Join the Discussion:
Posted Sunday, September 02, 2007, 4:37 PM by Lonely Planet
We're waiting to take an art tour of the Burning Man collective when the whiteout hits. The tour goes ahead anyway; the idea of not being able to see any of the art appeals to the sense of illogic that governs Black Rock City. As we strike out onto the playa, our dragon-bus' horns bob in the 50-mile-an-hour winds that fill the air with dust.
Tank Girls, touregs and Mad Max villains emerge from the haze, protected with bandannas, goggles and gas marks. We look down from the top deck of the flapping float at our samurai escorts who jog alongside the dragon.
The first stop is a sculpture made of two trucks. I walk away from the bus and, within 50 metres, I am alone in the playa dust. It's just me, a sea of colourful flags and a metal pole bristling with bike reflectors. The only sound I can hear, other than the whistling wind, is a soundsystem playing Johnny Cash's slow-motion cover of Nine Inch Nails' song about an 'empire of dirt'.
The festival seems far away... until a cyclist clad only in a Viking helmet wavers past. Nudism is one of the many forms of uninhibited self-expression at this tribal gathering for America's subculture.
Back on the dragon, the next strange shape that appears in the blizzard is the Man himself. He lacks a head as he's being rebuilt following an arson attack. Our last stop is the Seattle glassblowers collective, who will be producing art all night using a kiln adorned with glassy off-cuts.
Nearby, a gang of burners wearing pink jump suits and fuzzy rabbit ears parades by. Following in their paw prints is the syringe-toting 'inoculation squad', intent on eradicating those pesky bunnies. It'll take more than a windstorm to stop the surreality on the playa.
James Bainbridge is at Burning Man researching for a Lonely Planet book on worldwide festivals; check out the next in his series of blogs from the festival here soon. You can see more of Jonathan Clark's photographs at www.art-clark.com.
Labels: Burning Man, Nevada, The Americas
Join the Discussion:
