Saturday in the Nevada desert at 10pm the wooden effigy symbolizing the community-powered event called "Burning Man" was ignited and consumed by flames (for the second time that week). The same Saturday, many miles west of Nevada, in the sleepy college town of Palo Alto, an event also took place in the same spirit.
That event was in all respects a private party, at a private residence, where we drank beer, snacks, and drinks purchased from capitalistic grocery outlets. So I suppose, on the surface, the party lacked a lot of what the real Burning Man is about. However, at the same time there existed promising and convincing signs: there were people dressed in strange fur and horns, there was a geodesic dome tent swathered in many yards of hot pink fabric, and don't forget the hookah. Anyone with even the slightest amount of imagination could fathom its relation to the desert party some 279 miles east of us.
A highlight for the Palo Alto partygoers was the adult-scaled teeter totter (or see-saw) in the backyard. I've never seen such a large and dangerous looking teeter totter before. A couple people challenged each other to a knock off and it was very amusing to watch and participate.
Delicious drinks fabricated using Trader Joe's Blueberry juice rounded out the evening that had included some light, recreational drug use. I was very pleased, although the martinis would have been even more out of this world with a fresh mint and blueberry garnish.
The evening did not end with our burning down of any kind of human shaped wooden doll. Earlier in the evening, someone entertained the idea of fashioning a miniature one out of loose popsicle sticks, but that idea barely made it past the shelter of our geodesic dome.
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