More pictures from Nowhereland

I just created a new photo set on Flickr.com - enjoy these pictures of Nowhereland in May!









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Quixote Cabaret Camp and Green Man Pub

It was inevitable - after hanging out with the Euroburners at Nowhere 2007 I ended up camping this year with the Euroburners. Well, after all, I'm European too, and a burner! I guess this makes me an Euroburner too...

It really has been a chance, my friend Paul decided not to set up the Hammock Hangout this year, Flaming Lotus Girls were too tired from an entire year traveling the world with the Serpent Mother and the Hand of God, and decided to just hang out this year, with no big artwork commitment. At the same time, I was hooked with the Euroburners newsletters, reading about these Eurofellas actually setting up a nice thing: the Green Man Pub!

I couldn't resist so I got in touch to join the Quixote Cabaret Camp, and I really had a great time. I have also met great people that now belong to my Burning Man family, with which I hope I'll be doing more stuff, starting with Nowhere 2008, for example!

Yes I had some scratches with a couple of campmates - it never happened to me before on the Playa, but I know this is pretty normal, and it happens all the time at all BM camps. Hey, screw that! I really enjoyed my campmates, and I had a great time!

Here are some pictures of my campmates, and some Euroburners friends and Green Man Pub guests - click on any image to be magically teleported on Flickr.com, where I created a Quixote Cabaret Camp and Green Man Pub dedicated photo collection!














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My Burning Man 2007 pictures on Flickr.com

Check out the 8-set, thousand pictures collection of Burning Man 2007 pictures I created online to share my Playa shots.


I also prepared this Euroburners photo collection for my campmates at the Quixote Cabaret Camp & Green Man Pub.


Enjoy Burningmax's Burning Man pictures!
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Flaming Lotus Girls, the Serpent Mother, and a new Burning Man family!

I LOVE Flaming Lotus Girls, one of the most creative posse on the Playa... and beyond!

I always enjoyed Flaming Lotus' work, since I hit the Hand of God on the Playa back in 2003. And then there was the Angel of Apocalypse last year - awesome. I still remember the Friday night party with the Space Cowboys soundsystem (the mighty Unimog), but this year they really moved forward, and created the incredible Serpent Mother.


An art piece bigger than a parking lot, the Serpent Mother is an articulated fire-animated pyro-mechanic art installation that will go on a world tour after Burning Man, from the US to Australia, then Europe and more. The art piece really deserves some fame, and FLG deserve some spotlights on their amazing artwork, too. Bravo, FLG!

I do have some cool pictures of the installation, like the one above and more pictures on Flickr.com, with many shots not only of the Serpent Mother, but also of the people partying at the art installation site. Click on the image below to see more pictures of these cool burners!


People is always good, but I believe no picture can describe how majestic the metal-fire art piece is, an installation to be experienced first-hand (of God...). So maybe a video can help a little more.

Flaming Lotus Girls were actually performing a number of shows each night at the Serpent Mother, starting with fireworks and other cool pyrotechnics, then opening up to the crowd to get inside the hot embrace of the big FLG snake.

This video has been shot immediately after the end of the fireworks show, so you can (kind of) experience walking inside the Serpent Mother. Enjoy.



This other video has been shot on the Friday before the burn, with the sound of Space Cowboys as a grand soundtrack for such epic scenery. People chill within the Serpent, and dances nearby, by Space Cowboys' Unimog.



Do you want more Space Cowboys? Here we go, this is one of the movies I posted on YouTube from that night - the description I added to this video goes like this: Space Cowboys rock the house. Flaming Lotus Girls rock the scene. The Serpent Mother is the perfect ultimate rave location for the Space Cowboys' Friday night classic: the Unimog big party of the Playa!!!

It's all true, folks! Here we go with the nasty and trancey Unimog beats!



Flaming Lotus Girrrls play hard, but work hard too. I approached FLG after the big crowd left Black Rock City on Monday after the burn, just to say hi! before driving back home.

Last year I spent an additional week or so to tear down the Hammock Hangout, so I felt happy when FLG accepted my help to pack up the Serpent Mother. Funny, I said "I can help you for a couple of hours", then I ended up spending the next three days with FLG !!!


Packing the art installation took less than two days, after which we went for another Burning Man veteran classic: Trego desert hot springs! After that I spent another day with FLG dusting off in a Reno casino, drinking poolside margaritas! The FLG posse works hard, then plays hard again... love them!

I like these pictures at Trego, the Black Rock City desert hot springs - bathing at night, waiting for the sunrise, and cooking eggs in the hottest spot of the spring (the water was actually boiling in the spot!) - follow this link to see more Trego and FLG chill pictures.




Here is the last Flaming Lotus Girl video for this post, shot while packing the Serpent Mother in the middle of a dust storm. Check out how close objects disappear into the dust white-out, and how big the container truck is!!!



For more info on Flaming Lotus Girls and the group's artwork, visit their site at www.flaminglotus.com, the Flaming Lotus Girls blog, or the website created to support the Serpent Mother world tour that started right at Burning Man 2006, of course!

Final note: after sharing so much with the FLG gang this year (we also met in San Francisco to discuss potential art projects in Europe) I can now say that I'm a Flaming Lotus Girl too!
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The Hammock Hangout at Burning Man 2005

Planning, preparing, setting up, running and tearing down the Hammock Hangout this year has certainly been my biggest commitment to the Burning Man experience to date.

Not only because it has been a huge work, but also because the work has been done mostly with the smallest team ever: 2 people!!! well, sometimes even 3, and in some cases we had a great support from our BM family, specially in running the Hammock Hangout. but setting up and tearing down has been a two-men-against-time-and-nature work. Heavy, but amazing!!!

Here are some of the pictures of the Hammock Hangout tear down, the guy in most of the pictures is Burning Man veteran, ex-DPW, crazy Dutch cowboy Paul DeJong, a great friend of mine who lives in San Francisco. Paul look tough but really is the sweetest guy around, and a crazy genius. I had a great time in getting involved with him in this project, and in becoming friends, brothers - desert brothers.






Check out how awesome our Hammock Hangout is!











Look how many beautiful people and good vibes we were having on daily (and nightly) basis. You can click on the images to get to the Flickr.com photo album where you can browse all the pictures in full details.






And how about my DJ Sonic silver RV, which I entirely foiled in aluminum wrap paper (and silver glued glitter for some details)?

I love my Burning Man RV, he just passed away after my recent trip to the Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave Desert - but it has been a great companion and comfy home for two Burning Man events, and many trips around beautiful California.

Check out my real grass garden, strategically placed to be in the shade after 1pm, and regularly fed with a water recycling project (all my showers where taken on the lawn, and all the melted ice was feeding my garden too). I really enjoyed having friends over for a tea in my garden in the late afternoons, before getting ready for the Playa nightlife!


Though work that lasted forever, but I really loved it. Paul and I stayed a few more days on site, waiting and hanging out with DPW and PlayaQ and going to the hot springs before even thinking to tear down the Hammock Hangout, then working really hard against a dust storm that lasted two days, and the usual harsh environment of the Black Rock Desert.

But we did it, of course! and we are very proud of it!!! I look forward to set it up again next year, we already have a few upgrading ideas....
Check out also the pictures from the Trego desert hot springs, they are pretty cool...


In the two pictures of me you can see the difference between before going to the hot springs, completely covered in dust, and after hanging out in the hot water ditch all night, back to clean again!!! It's funny, I drunk some water right before Paul took that picture of me, and you can see the sign of the water cleaning off the dust from my mustaches!

If you want to get more info on the Hammock Hangout you can check out www.thehammockhangout.com, or reach Paul directly through his website www.pauldejong.com.
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Plenty of pictures from Burning Man 2005

A better year for my BM pictures, also in coincidence with my final passage to my new Sony digital camera (coming from Panasonic digital / Lumix) and, of course, to the wider availability of 1Gb smart cards!


Enjoy the several photo sets I arranged in this Burning Man 2005 photo collection on Flickr.com!
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