[You Only Burn Twice]
Burning Man 2007 considered as poetic disaster
San Francisco prankster Paul Addis may one day serve as proof there's at least one work of beauty inside every failed artist. The 5-foot-3 actor accused of prematurely setting fire to the Man at this year's Burning Man festival might cut a puny figure on Bay Area boards aping six-foot Hunter S. Thompson, but I cannot deny the mad electric thrill of watching the structure go up in cinders in the early morning hours of Tuesday, August 27. The festival, held annually in a remote, dangerous stretch of Nevada desert, had lately taken the controversial step of inviting corporations to display their world-saving commodities as part of this year's "Green Man" theme. Business 2.0 magazine hailed the festival for growing up and selling out.
The thought of all that megabuck merch crisping in someone's crackbrained Big Statement made me merrier than Addis must've been at that instant. A lunar eclipse had brightened to an occult and blood-red moon when the garishly painted suspect was nabbed by volunteer security, sparing ramshackle Black Rock City a D.B. Cooper-style manhunt. Surrendered to authorities and hauled to the county jail in nearby Lovelock, Addis grinned idiotically for his mugshot, a Sylvester who'd swallowed an LSD-soaked Tweety. Booked for felony arson, he was soon bailed.
At Center Camp, I waited with other vacationing media folk for official word as relays of buttery, inept publicists stonewalled us. Handed a hard choice between acting like showfolk professionals and living up to oft-invoked Burner ideals of community, organizers split the difference with a chainsaw. The "green" ballyhoo preceding the event died in a wasteful frenzy to run up a second Man, lest hordes of late-arriving gawkers spend Labor Day weekend somewhere else. Man Resurrectus debuted on time, neon glowing cash-green over more than one half-completed art project.
Gonzo ifrit Paul Addis faces arraignment at the Pershing County Courthouse on September 25. Telling Wired News he'll plead not guilty to all charges, the suspect hinted darkly of an "Intelligence" service of sympathizers that abetted him, adding that all but he had committed suicide. Oddly, a still-unnamed festivalgoer actually did off himself Thursday morning, his hanging corpse reportedly taken for art by patrons. Displaying a fine critical acumen to the Reno Gazette-Journal, Sheriff John Skinner pronounced this impromptu exhibit "surreal."
-Ron Garmon
Published: 09/20/2007
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