Burning Man 2002 gave birth to a bunny-man.

Part I

Photo credit: Dave Archer and Burning Man.

It was Burning Man 2002

I was butt ass naked caked in mud. Bunny ears and Aviators.

I started out onto the playa with roller-skates on at 1am in the morning. Thursday?

The skates lasted about a day because playa got stuck in the bearings. Some of the nuts holding the wheels came loose from the axle threads and a few wheels eventually slid off. It turned futile.

I transitioned to walking and then on about the third day I was in luck! I found an abandoned bicycle that had no tires/inner tubes. I was so stoked! Away I rode, with inordinate amounts of effort to get across the playa peddling into oblivion. Naked bunnies don't give a shit!

One of my first concerns about going to Burning Man was dealing with the heat and scorching sun. I had never been and I was going along in my red Honda Civic EX that I had originally purchased through Military Car Sales in Wurzburg Deutchland.

I hate putting on sun screen, creamy oily shit that you have to keep caking on to your fragile human body. I had to overcome this problem and I was going to do it with style. In a CVS, somewhere in Los Angeles County, I came across Halloween costumes in August because we live in Merica.

There was a bunny outfit for kids. It had a skullcap style with medium sized pointy ears. It had cute little pink ties if I wanted to secure it to my head and I did at times. It fit snug and it protected my dome from burning at Burning Man.

I still needed to worry about my face and my body. How was I going to bare the heat and sun. I had envisioned going naked which would help with the heat theoretically- if I didn't want to feel sweaty under clothes.

You see at this point I could segue into reasons other than the heat to explain- wanting to be naked. A fanciful sense of titillation? A desire to overcome my fears? Or a dying urge to unmask the reality of my existential problems about identity and feeling like an outsider?

I have a small penis which has driven me at times to ponder asexuality. Being a naked bunny was a perfect test for me. I could come out and let the world know that I was an asexual naked bunny and I don't fucking care what you think.

Beyond that, I was also thinking about what happens when I try to talk to people and communicate with them. I felt words were useless. I started seeing myself as a naked bunny who would enter into a trance and only speak through utterances.

I was suspicious of all the drugs, alcohol and bacchanal behavior I might encounter at Black Rock City. The desire to reach elevated states of euphoria in searing heat didn't make much sense to me. I felt like some weed would be nice to have. Instead I bought a 24 case of some kind of crappy ale out of a reluctance to go with nothing to inebriate me.

What I was about to do out on the playa for Burning Man 2002 was nothing short of miraculous. I achieved a kind of sober nirvana that most participants probably only dream of. Who the fuck does Burning Man sober?

to be continued.....