Part Two

Radical Self-Reliance

Chapter Four. “It Ain’t Ever Happening Again”

In 1996 Michael Furey died in a motorcycle accident, after colliding with a truck owned by John Law and driven by a person known as SteveCo. SteveCo was running a playa camp named Plundertown. Plundertown had recreated a life-sized mouse trap games.

The details of the accident are as follows [read here for John Law’s detailed account, which provides important additional color]:

Furey and a buddy known as Pogo were drinking heavily at Bruno’s bar in Gerlach. A female friend offered to load the two men’s motorcycles on the back of her trailer and head out to the playa. Pogo agreed by Furey declined. As the group traveled out to the playa, they crossed paths with SteveCo (and his friend Mark Perez) [who were driving a truck loaded with heavy items to the playa].

Furey began zooming around them and zooming toward them, only swerving out of the way at the last minute. SteveCo decided he should just keep driving his regular speed - around 40 mph, straight forward, in the heavily loaded truck. Furey swerving at the last minute but hit the mirror on the truck, instantly dying.

Vanessa Kuemmerle was the first on the scene. She was then chief of the Black Rock Rangers. She controlled the scene, and then headed to Gerlach to call the corner. John Law, Joe Fenton and a couple other people were on the scene by then.

Then Larry Harvey arrived, and an unsettled Larry announced “There’s no blood on our hands”. By some accounts he repeated this three times. [Ed note: despite some accounts that claim Larry did not say this, it has been confirmed by not only everyone at the scene, including Steward Harvey, but also by Larry himself repeatedly. To our knowledge Larry never denied saying this.] Many found his comments beyond belief. Larry explained his words: “All the way [on the drive to the scene], I kept seeing blood on my hands, and I was just relieved to discover there was nothing we could have done to stop it.”

Vanessa, John Law and Joe Fenton took the comment as an indication that he was more concerned about insurance and covering Burning Man’s ass than the fact Furey was dead.

***

In 1995 Chicken John Rinaldi discovered Burning Man. Chicken John was a punk-rock circus impresario, a quick-talking New York con man, and a former member of GG Allin’s band the Murder Junkies. In 1995, Chicken launched his circus, Circus Redickuless, a group of non-performers creating talentless acts (by their own account).

He was also a roadie for Ronnie James Dio, who gave Chicken several props from his touring act, including a “Great Pyramid”, which consisted of a painted fabric tent. Chicken had hoped to camp with the Pyramid as his tent at the 1995 Burn, but the poles had been damaged (by Chicken), and the pyramid flopped limply, one end pinned up to the side of the van, the rest dragging in the dust. Frustrated, after the Man burn in 1995, he burned the pyramid, whose not natural fibers burned brightly.

This emboldened your author to drag the remnants of a filthy two-man fiberglass boat I had brought from Los Angeles (to adorn and burned it causing thick black clouds, doubtless filled with many substances with dire and frightening names ending in -zene. “It was fucking toxic” Justin Atwood, Chicken’s right-hand man in the circus recalls. Then Howard Halls - an LA animator showman and former assistant to booth Timothy Leary and Perry Ferrell — tossed his own plastic tent into the fire. The group continued on, eventually tearing down the camp bulletin board, breaking it and torching it.

***

LA Cacophony returned each year and contributed to the more dark and destructive side of Burning Man. Their installation in ‘94, Burning Toyland relied on the endless supply of stuffed toys they got from Al Ridenour’s second wife, Veerle Govaerts, who worked for a company that imported knockoff toys from China. They were all staked out on display. A planned theatrical bit failed, and instead the toys were just lit on fire, while a sound collage made by Rich Polysorbate blasted from speakers, which mixed old commercials for beloved toys, songs from kiddie LPs and screams from slaughterhouses.

Al recalls that 1995 was the first year they used oxyacetylene bombs. “I knew they’d be effective in hashing people’s mellow on the playa.” In 1996, LA Cacophony created a Hollywood Hills scene, wired it with explosives and ignited it. When it didn’t burn properly Al ran through it throwing gasoline on the fire. Un-detonated gas bombs remained in the embers, and a smiling Al assured them Willie Wonka style, that no, really they ought not to be too close. When they detonated burning plastic rained down on some “…. but they still loved the show. So that’s what I choose to remember,” says Al.

Prior to 1999, Al fondly recalls, "there was no fire marshal and there was some potential for vast personal injury and destructiveness. There was this wonderful atmosphere, for a few years there, this teetering feeling that there was a good chance lots of people would be killed in the most colorful possible way.”

***

Steve Heck, a piano mover, lived in an Oakland warehouse. He never threw things away. When his house caught fire many years ago he had hundreds of burned pianos on his hands. He had participated in Survival Research Labs, along with Vanessa and John Law, and knew of Burning Man through them. He had a vision of his burned pianos in the desert. So he brought them out and put them on the playa.

Before setting up his vision, John Law invited him to the hot springs. He went, and on the way back to the playa, John and his crew made a detour for dinner and to reload the truck with supplies [from the storage site behind Bruno’s]. Steve, impatient, left without saying good bye, to walk back to the playa. He didn’t pay attention to how far away it was [a good 12 miles]. Eventually he got a ride in the back of a pickup, but when it started to rain he jumped ship and began to walk again. Wearing a t shirt, shorts and no socks. He becomes very lost. By dawn he’s reach Trego Hot springs [around 2 or 3 miles from center camp that year]. Dehydrated and deluded, all he can think of are the 88 pianos he has dropped in the desert that will be left and that no one would see him again… nor know what happened to him. As the sun rises he sees an RV and then a car full of kids.

He waves his two possessions at them - a knife and $300 in cash, while saying “Don’t be me, don’t be me!” They gave him a Asian pear and a ride. He ate five pounds of grapes and fifteen bottles of water. Finally, back at the playa, after being berated by John Law for wandering off, he completed his project: Piano Bell. For the rest of the burn, people would hit keys and pluck strings, creating a non-stop resonant hum, and then at the end of the event it burned.

[In 2004 Reason Magazine published the author’s article on Steve. in 2017, Steve was in the news, loosing his workspace in the aftermath of the Ghost Ship fire in San Francisco.]

***

In 1995 Law and Mikel made a pitch to Larry to form a limited liability entity to own Burning Man, to shield them from potential liability from the event. Larry was resistant, both because he felt that many people beyond the three of them were contributing to the event, and because he felt John and Mikel didn’t have the right to the trademarks, which were created before they arrived. He was also concerned that the two of them would out number him, given their ties from the Cacophony days.

A divide had already been forming between Law and Harvey before the death of Michael Furey. Larry envision the event being focused around the annual man burn, growing ever larger, and developing a more significant infrastructure around center camp. Law favored burning a different symbol each year, managing growth, and leaving the even highly unstructured.
***

Through some hip media coverage, Burning Man, by 1996 had become the playground for the then-rising techerati and the computer industry’s temporary nouveaux riche. An article in Forbes declared it cyber-culture's “de rigueur power-networking retreat of the year.” Wired Magazine published its cover story “Greetings from Burning Man!” Time ran an article which declared it the “bonfire for techies”.

Wired also release the first book about Burning Man, a coffee table book that includes most of the photos from the Wired article, and many others, plus some interviews, including with Larry, and work by Erik Davis and others.

Erik Davis, an enthusiastic Burner and author of TechGnosis, a book on the links between computer technology and spirituality, notes that as techies got rich in the 90s, Burning Man became a place to burn away ungodly excess in a potlatch gift economy, while finding a place still to be a cool freak.

Burning Man had launched a website earlier, but In 1996 Staurt Mangrum helped revise the site and Burning Man organizers pulled of the first live webcast from Black Rock City that year.

Around the same time, Burning Man began to focus more on changing its press coverage away from the “orgy in the gun-sights” story. “Yes, we are radical, but in a somewhat structured way…Burning Man is not a complete meltdown. It’s not a place to go shoot up the world and shoot out the lights. Beyond that, be free to draw your own conclusions” became the party line passed from Larry to Stuart. This press management was designed to attract the right type of people… it continues today but now primarily for political reasons.

***

In 1996, Burning Man had its first art theme, which Larry contributed each year. In 1996 the theme was Inferno. The big idea was that Satan, through his mega-corporation Helco, was out to buy Burning Man. Flash played papa Satan, in red face paint, horns and a dapper red suit. He laid the hard sell on Larry… think about what Burning Man could become with some corporate money behind it. The crowds watching the performance yelled “Don’t Do It Larry!” Finally Larry declares “I… Burning Man is you, it is not for sale. I cannot sell it!” Helco tower, along with Helco Mall stood all weekend, with Caca Bell, Starfucks and other corporate logos displayed. Kal Spelletich had supervised the building of the mall. Christian Ristow, who later ran RoboChrist Industries in Los Angles, managed its methodical destruction Saturday night. Ristow’s pet machine, the Subjugator, which he operated via remote control, all crushing treads and man-sized extending clamping metal jaws and fire-spit, led the orgy of destruction.

Finally John Law, wearing the long coat of a western hero climbs Helco tower. At the top he detonates a powder bomb rigged by Kimric Smythe, and triggering a chain reaction of flammable and explosive materials detonating. At the last minute, John throws himself off and zip lines to safety.

***

One Burning Man artist remembers that 1996 “was clearly not a sustainable event. That was an apocalyptic event. Things were going wrong. It felt like we were at war. But there was this curious sense that there was something very important going on…” On the inside it was ugly. Larry recalls hearing rumors of a brewing Ranger revolt and being warned to leave the playa. Chris Radcliffe remembers chocking Larry when he tied to suggest John Law bore responsibility for Furey’s death, forcing Larry to drink absinthe with him, and then chocking him again. [Not everyone has the same recollection of these events]

Larry recalls the moment when he realized that the fault lines among himself, Law and Mikel would likely resettle their relationship. In the midst of the turmoil, Mikel visited him in his trailer and Larry asked him “Are you with me, Michael.” “I’m with you.” Michael said. After he left, Larry cried.

***

John Law and Chris Campbell were a little worried about the effect the Helco / Inferno theme. To diffuse some of that dark energy and turn it to whimsy, they installed amid the Man’s neon face a smiley face, without telling anyone else. They set it up on a timer to flash on occasion, late at night.

Things turned genuinely horrific late Sunday night/early Monday morning when a drunk and drugged driver ran over a tent with two people inside, and then crashed his car spilling scalding radiator fluid all over another woman. All three lived, although one was permanently injured (and received compensation from Burning Man’s insurance). The driver, Larry Dean Hudson, Jr. was arrested.

***

On the last night, after the burn, I am running around with friends stealing fire from other camps. John Law staggers to the heaps of stolen fire to talk with some of his old friends. His hair is a mat of playa dust, and his hands are quivering near the radio on his belt. “I hope you enjoyed this,” Law comments, “‘cause it ain’t ever happening again.”

Chapter Five: The Fall of the Temple of the Three Guys

By 1996, Burning Man was generating cash. But they had not yet developed cash management. John Law would stop by the gate every hour or so and pick up cash. Whoever needed to buy something would generally just take cash. Sure, whoever was at the trailer where they collected money and tickets had weapons. One early video documentarian captured William Abernathy out there with his rifle and asked an obvious question: “Is that loaded"?”. With strained patience, as if talking to a slow child, Abernathy replied, “Of course. If it weren’t loaded it would just be a stick.”

In ‘96 they dug a hole in the playa with a backhoe and submerged an old water heater. They thrust a pipe into the water heater and left the other end flush with the playa surface, and put Law’s tent over it. Daily, bagged wad of cash ere shoved down the pie. The tank was below the water table and as a result the currency were soaked. Vanessa had to deposit soggy mounds of mush paper into a safe deposit box in o. And later the money had to be literally laundered.

***

Following the 1996 event, John Law, Chicken, Chris DeMonterey, Vanessa and a few others spent weeks picking up debris, with some funding to support the efforts from Law using Burning Man money. Back home there were some grumblings about what was John Law doing in the desert, and where was the money.

Flash

Flash was born Michael Hopkins. He came from the world of old New England money, and had dated Ellen Into’s daughter - Whitaker Chamber’s granddaughter - for many years. An early man was built in Into’s garage. Flash met Larry on a mom-daugther double date. He skated around San Francisco living off of the state’s vocational rehab program, and encouraged his friends to do the same “The Flash School of Economics”.

Larry did get some training on the state’s dime in video camera operation at the beginning of the desert-era Burning Man, in order to document his own ritual. He told his caseworker about how he and his friends would take this wooden giant to the desert, the remotest place you could possibly imagine, and burn it. That’s what he wanted to do with his life., And the case worker “felt really sorry for me” Larry remembered.

Flash made sure he stuck around for Larry’s party, and started selling beer, tacos and hot dogs. Whatever problems the org had with money or its disappearance, Flash could afford not to care - “I had my concessions. I was the only one who made money every single time.”

There was a strange, brotherly link between Larry and Flash, and Flash could get away with things that no one else could. To this day [2004], Flash has revived his on the sly burrito stand, dragging in for free everyone who caravans with him, and even picking fights with workers in the Burning Man staff commissary.

He owns some nice real estate, and tells me I should never believe you need a lot of money to buy real estate. He lives part-time on hundreds of acres in rural Placerville, out east of Sacramento. He’s a host to a constantly shifting bunch of friends on hard times, friends who just want to hand out and all summer long, big Burning Man art projects that need a lot of space to construct.

Flash was known as Larry’s bulldog. If Larry had a problem, Flash would take care of it. When Flash heard that John Law had become a problem, by most accounts Flash began spreading accusations that Law had misappropriated Burning Man funds, among other things. (Law notes that these rumors were false). While Law knew Flash was spreading these rumors, he still blamed Larry, and believed Larry fed Flash the false information. Larry insists that Flash was acting according to his own nature and on his own. “Ugly things were said, but I didn’t say them,” although he still criticizes Law’s easygoing and un-managed spending of Burning Man money on his crew. Meanwhile, Law and others spend weeks after the 1996 event cleaning up the desert.

Law’s last appearance at anything related to Burning Man occurred later that year. Sitting in a circle, people began to comment on the event, and criticisms of Law’s handling of the money were abound. Vanessa, second to last to speak, excoriated everyone over how absurd it was that Law’s reputation was being attacked. By most accounts, Law left without speaking, while Flash yelled accusations at his back.

***

Stuart Mangrum was Burning Man’s press relations maven from 1993 to 1996 [and in 2012 began to work with Burning Man again]. In his ‘zine Twisted Times he wrote a perceptive analysis of the state of Burning Man, noting: “Many of the misconceptions surrounding the event spring from Larry’s own dueling views about what it really means”, noting “he can describe it in highly spiritual terms”, "[o]n the other hand, he takes great pains to point out that Burning Man is not a religion: that it has no priests and no dogma”, and “[o]n the third track, he has been known to shelf the spiritual angle entirely and pain the event as strictly an arts festival and an experiment in temporary community….”

Stuart also is the only member of the inner circle to have written about Larry: “Larry is intelligent, quick-witted, and a near-total stranger to the work ethic… [who] aspires to never work another honest day in his life…. I [once] accused him of confusing obsession with genius…Larry really wants to be a genius, and maybe he deserves to be, but passion and rhetoric are no substitute for substances. He happened onto a Big Idea, and he’s riding it for all he’s worth, but he doesn’t own the idea any more than a surfer owns a wave.”

***

After 1996, Larry created a new LLC. The first board was Larry, Mikel, Crimson Rose, Will Roger, Joegh Bullock, Harly Bierman, Andy Pector, Carole Morell and Marian Goodell. Crimson was a fire artist who first arrived in ‘91 and coordinated the burn of the Man. Will Roger was a former photography professor, and Crimson’s boyfriend. Harley was a Cacophonist attending since ‘91, and who had begun coordinating theme camps. Marian was then a web developer, and was dating Larry. She took up media and government relations. By ‘99 Andy Pector, Bullock and Morrell each left the Board. A new permanent six person llc was formed, with Larry, Mikel, Crimson Rose, Will Roger, Harley Dubois and Marian Goodell.

In 1997, the focus of the event became community. Larry noted “We decided to build a vessel to contain a community… If you look at the [Burning Man] newsletter in ‘97, it’s one big propaganda sheet for community. That’s when the litany began - community, community, community.”

Andy Pector, an old friend of Mikel’s, had become a general business wrangler for the event. He had been the first person to bring a motor home to Burning Man in 1991. [Note, Mikel claims the RV arrived in 1991, describing it as “an old Apollo”]. Pector was squat, heavy, bearded, terribly friend man old friends with and occasion housemates with Mikel.

Andy had already been in business with John Casey, owner of Fly Ranch. Casey also owned poorly tended property near a small playa in the Hualapai Valley (pronounced "wall-a-pie valley”). Preparing for the event, the organizers had to remove the remains of countless neglected cows. Artist Michael Christian used the cow bones to construct an arch that spanned the entrance to Burning Man in 1997 In 1990, the bones were attached to an art car by Flash and Dana Albany to make a roving Bone Tree.

Hualapai offered a benefit: “The virtue of that site was an irrigation trench dug the length of it. This playa was inaccessible from any other point [but their gate]. For the first time in our history we had a barrier that would allow us to charge every person who came to the event a fee, which we styled a tax at that point. As citizens, you pay a tax to maintain our city.” Noted Larry Harvey, who also estimated a third of the citizens up to that point had not been paying the entry fee.

A downside of the move was the event was now being held in Washoe County, instead of Pershing County, as in prior years. Washoe did criminal background checks on LLC members and instructed the organization who they were going to hire for fire control and how much they were going to pay. There were news reports noted the potential of road blocks, police turning away people, and a search of every car coming in." Washoe county didn’t grant the permit until the day before the event, and the permit included pointless requirements.

More than $300,000 in fees were demanded by the county, and a uniformed Washoe Sheriff officer collected cash and dispensed tickets, with the cash box having two keys. One held by Andy Pector, the other by the sheriff’s accountant. The city grid, now a feature of Burning Man, was mandated by the permit.

The year was a financial disaster, and in response, Larry Harvey made a now famous speech to gathered participants. “I asked them to do something that you would never reasonably expect any group of people to do: to give us more money. Having, as it were, already consumed the event, to pay us more. We knew the authorities would not confiscate that money - it would be too naked an act; there were too many cameras present. The police on the ground had begun to realize this was not what they thought it was. It was not just frightening licentiousness. The police were actually starting to feel sympathetic. So we made the appeal, and a man wrote a check for some huge amount - a few thousand, I believe- and it was one of the most moving things I’ve ever experienced. It was the reward of faith in tangible form. I’ll tell you this: Disney land will never collect money from people as they leave. It gave us enough to limp on without immediately defaulting on some bills.”

Chapter Six: Of Course It’s All Right to Shoot Papa Satan!

In 1998, Burning Man hoped to return to Black Rock Desert.  However, the BLM informed them they were too busy to even consider a permit application.  Marian Goodell started an email campaign, a newsletter to keep the Burner community informed of happenings in the “off season”.  She also suggested to the BLM that with the growing awareness of Burning Man, people would show up whether or not a sanctioned event was occurring.  [Ed note:  In the 2019 BLM ten-year permit review, the BLM noted concern that even if no permit was granted, people would likely arrive at Black Rock Desert and stage their own event].  

The 1998 permit application included a ban on driving on the playa, a city map, and a move of venue close to Gerlach, outside of Pershing County and into Washoe County.  Rather than the 11 mile drive dirt road used in past years, the turn off was three miles down Highway 34.  A trash fence would for the first time surround the city.  The residents of Gerlach and nearby Empire had become accustomed to the annual event and its odd inhabitants.  Two business enterprises began to greatly benefit from the event.  The Empire Store and various establishments run by Bruno Selmi - a restaurant, bar, hotel and gas station.  

The BLM eventually considered and granted the permit.

***

In 1990, Gerlach had less than four hundred people and five bars  By the late 90s only three bars were left.  In 1997, Flash Hopkins came to town. By his own accounts he quickly ingratiated himself to Gerlach society, and became a business partner with Joan Grant, running Black Rock Saloon. [Ed: Read about the Black Rock Saloon on Michael Mikel’s blog. The Saloon was acquired in 2004 by Burning Man].

Flash also started a chamber of commerce in Gerlach and named himself president. In ‘97 he was host and helper to Sir Richard Nobel’s land-speed record team.

In September 1998, shortly after Burning Man ended, Flash was shot in the street, in from of the Saloon. At the trail, a witness testified that Flash went by “Papa Satan”. The jury did not convict, despite Flash’s testimony that he was and knew the shooter. Soon after he wrapped up his adventures in Gerlach.

Justin Atwood showed up at Burning Man in 1997 at the end of another Circus Redickuless tour. The tour was supposed to combine Plundertown’s failed Burning Man Mousetrap with Circus Redickuless and Minneapolis’s Hard Times Bike Club.

Hard Times Bike Club were pioneers of goofy bikes … tall bikes for jousting, bikes that went backwards when you peddled them (read about an encounter with the club here).

The Redickuless tour fell apart, but Justin and some other members of Hard Times were left on the Playa (Hualapai in 1997), and formed what became the DPW. Remember that 1997 was the first year that cars were banned on the playa, so Chicken John (the founder of Circus Redickuless) and Justin set up a camp that allowed participants to borrow bikes and also helped fixed broken bikes.

The bikes used by Pedal Camp were found at a nearby ranch, as was corrugated metal, used to build the camp’s shade structure. Pedal Camp returned in 1998, and again was filthy, raw and rude. And the first to show up and the last to leave. They played loud, thrash metal and punk. It was the era’s version of the Official Bad Element. Despite this, pedal camp received a grant in 2001 to bring some of their home-made bicycle based carny rides back to the playa.

Chicken recalled the issues with exodus in 1998. It had started raining the last day of the event, and kept raining for days. Chicken went around asking for donations of booze and drugs. “Your party’s over. Our nightmare’s beginning”. For uptight looking people, he’d argue (using his bullhorn): “Hey, be careful man, be smart. The Highway Patrol is totally targeting us. Lots of stop-and-searches. It would be a real dumb idea to take anything illegal out of this place. Leave it with us, man. Hey, no problem, we’re totally glad to help. That’ what clean-up crew is all about.”

The most promising theme art that year was a roving device called the Nebulous Entity, conceptualized by Larry, and executed by a team of artists including Michael Christian and Aaron Wold Baum. It was a giant mechanical alien squid rolling awkwardly thorough the city, loaded with sound and light. After the event, it was set on fire. It wasn’t supposed to be. Elements of its frame were used for Bone Tree by Flash and Dana Albany.

In 2003, Justin told the author. The Nebulous Entity was started on fire. It “wasn’t supposed to bur. It didn’t make sense”. Someone set it on fire. It was a big mystery. Who did it? I don’t know.” A few sentences later, “So we lit it on fire, and they were all pissed off. Burning Man, duh? What do you expect?” After a pause, more soberly, “I dont condone burning anybody’s art…I guess. Yeah I do! It’s fucking Burning Man, burn it…”

***

In 1998, the Man didn’t just burn. It exploded. Kimric Smythe increased the fireworks for the show. And the Man was ignited by a person on fire (protected by a suit), but that person accidentally not only lit the Man, he also ignited the fireworks prematurely. All the fireworks went off almost at the same time.

The burning man who ignited the Burning Man ran toward his safety crew, but his crew was also running away from the premature explosions. He was, eventually, safely put out. The video shows all the action.

***

In 1998, Joegh Bullock, then a member of Burning Man’s owning LLC, burned down his own camp. The result of using tiki torches for illumination and hay bales for the structure.

This surprisingly lead to the departure of long time Man builder Chris Campbell. Chris had already become disenchanted with the event’s changing look and feel. However, the catalyst for the public break was the annual Donner Award being given to a DPW worker who got his truck smashed by a train on the tracks bordering the playa. Campbell thought Bullock deserved the award. He noted: “I said publically at a post event meeting that the LLC obviously wanted to just be a love fest. And they all stared at me, like I’d forced their hand on something they didn’t want to talk about.”

At the award ceremony Bullock offered to share it, but Campbell insisted “it’s all yours”. Campbell insists this made the other organizers leery of him - he was cut out of discussions and had budgets that had been promised him arbitrarily reduced. And after 1999, he began making public complaints about the increasingly heavy damage to the desert surface. “Why are we digging holes? Why are we Trenching? Why don’t we call up some solar people and some wind people and subsidize installation of low-voltage lights….” After nine years, Chris Campbell stopped building the Man.

***

Everyone in 1998 survived, even the wounded Flash. In 1999, the city plan reflected the design that survives today. From the beginning of the desert event, Larry rejected the idea of having the Man with the camps. Beyond the fire danger, he noted “I said no because at the beach it was against this great horizon, integral to the original experience. My aesthetic intuition told me it should be that way.” Larry noticed that the entire city had - without intention - emulated the shape that the first small band attracted to his and Jerry’s burning figure on the beach formed more than a decade earlier, a natural half circle, contemplating the wonder of that proto-man.