Photoboof @ Burning Man 2006!
Burning Man is fun, but it's even more fun when you get to drive around in a mobile photobooth, printing 2067 photo strips in 9 days...
You can drive out to the Belgian Waffle,
or Michael Christian's piece that I should really know the name of,
and have all sorts of strange things happening in the Boof,
not to mention on top of it.
Last year all the problems were software and printer related, but this was The Year of Carbeurator Trouble.
It's pretty much impossible to read, but that sign just above that person's hand says approximately "Argh! Boof is having carbeurator trouble! Help!"
And thus the universe bestowed upon Boof this man (the one on the right, not the drunken hippy with the blue teeth on the left), who taught me how to rebuild the carbeurator.
Here's a picture of the inside of my van doing it's best immitation of a dust-free environment:
And then this man came along and figured out that one of my spark plug wires was shot. Ugh, I should have noticed that sooner, but eternal thanks for figuring that one out. And for anyone thinking that was an easy diagnosis, remember that at Burning Man everyone loses 40 IQ points from the heat and dehydration alone.
It was amazing how well the signs on the side of The Boof worked. Need a drink? Put up a sign saying "Boof Needs Whiskey" and within a few minutes you'd have a full bottle and probably a nice blender drink to boot. Need a staple gun? Do the same and it's yours in a few minutes. I marvelled at this fact to one woman and she had the best response: "Now that you know the power of manifesting, you need to aim higher." Touché, or however you spell it.
As always, the hardest part about driving a mobile photoboof is driving away. There's always someone pleading to let them have a turn, and Murphy definitely goes to Burning Man so right when they're done someone else will appear and start with the "PLEASE JUST ONE MORE TURN PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!" And it doesn't help that Boof is a softie.
But it's all worth it. Every one of the hundreds of hours of work, every one of the thousands of dollars, every one of the millions of worries about things going wrong, and every one of the begging burners. Especially the begging burners.
Even the dust storms only add to the experience.
Sometimes I like dropping off the Boof at some random place and walking away and watching people discover it for themselves.
Another perk is the way the Boof lets you meet so many people. Here's some of the Belgian Waffle chefs signing a little piece of waffle mix I found out by their piece:
Another view, since this wood is about to play an important role in the story:
But all things must come to an end, especially events that only last a week, so I packed the Boof onto it's little trailer and began the long journey home.
KABOOF!
(or "Da Boof, Da Boof, Da Boof Is On Fire")
So Lura and I are driving down to the pyramid at Pyramid Lake, it's about a 20 minute drive down a dirt road, admittedly not the best idea with a trailer. Anyway, we reach the pyramid with all the burners trying to swim off the dust in the lake, and someone yells "Hey man your trailer's having a problem!" I figure the damn ramp has fallen down again so I basically wave him off, and he says "No man, you're on fire!" I look in the side view and sure enough I see flames. Holy shit, I jump up so fast I forget I have my seatbelt on.
I rush to grab my fire extinguisher, which is one of those goofy little car models, and I squirt it at the now raging fire and it does about as much good as pissing on it.
But all those burners came running from nowhere, fire extinguishers in hand, and by some miracle the raging fire went right out. Holy shit holy shit holy shit.
I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who helped put this fire out. If any of you are reading this, please email me, at the very least I'll send you a new fire extinguisher, and there's got to be something I and/or the Boof can come up with to thank you more properly. And thanks gigantically, not only did you save my goofy Burning Man project and possibly my van, but you made me remember that sometimes we all need a little help, and more importantly that sometimes there are people in the world willing and able to help. Thanks again and again for that.
It's incredibly lucky that this fire started where it did: even a hundred yards earlier and the Boof would have burned to the ground, and I wouldn't have been able to unhitch the trailer since the wood block that lets me do that was deep in the flames, so my van would have probably been next.
As far as how the fire started? Not sure. Razz, shown here doing his "I put the fire out with my bare hands" pose, said the trailer was smoking when I rounded the corner to the pyramid, which is about a half mile away from where it finally burst into flames.
So the theory is my gas can got punctured on the bumpy road and then either a spark from my trailer's safety chain, or maybe a cigarette butt, or maybe an electrical short lit it up. The Boof mascot is still smiling here, though she's got a bit of soot on her forehead.
Amazingly, the engine and all the electricals still work just fine. No significant damage at all, just lots of melted paint and seat foam. And see that wood sticking out the front? That's that piece of waffle mix that the Belgian Waffle creators were signing earlier. Maybe it just had to burn.
For those of you who couldn't make it this year, what can I say, you missed out.
Until next year.
Couple o links:
My goofy cigarette machine fortune teller project