Public Art Censored At Burning Man Festival
This just in from Not-the-Journalist-Stephen-Vincent-killed-in-Iraq:
Burning Man Festival Site in Protest Ritual
(Reno, Nevada, Gothic News Servce, 8/04/05) Two Rangers at Black Rock Desert – the annual site in Nevada for the Burning Man Festival - were greeted by a strange site this morning. Talking to a Reno newspaperman, one of them reported, "It was sunrise across the playa and we were on our first patrol. When we looked down from the perimeter ridge, we initially saw an astonishingly large grid of either body or garbage bags. Through our binoculars against the rising sun, we could still see that they were definitely filled - it could have been potatoes or anything big and lumpy. Each bag was spaced about 30 feet away from the next one - about 50 parallel lines going north and south, and about 40 going east and west. The whole thing made a large rectangular space, about a mile long and a kilometer wide. Frankly I can’t say if was just spooky, or both spooky and spectacular, to see all those black bags begin to get the first rays of the sun.”
"When we got down inside to the actual site,” reported the other Ranger, “You can't believe what we found in each of those bags. Each one had a couple of breathing holes, thankfully, for otherwise they were tied down close with duct tape. I had to use my knife carefully so as not to cut anything inside. Low and behold, when I opened the first one, it was a body. The first one a female and the next one a male, both in their twenties. Each body was in a fetal, curled up shape, breathing, thankfully, but absolutely comatose, or so it seemed.”
"Yep, not saying a thing," his fellow Ranger interrupted. "Nothing at all. But more strange, on the back of each body - and now we reckon there were over 1,000 - someone had scripted in large, lavender letters, "We Mourn for Iraq".
"When we cut open a few more bags, we realized that the people were of all ages and colors. I don’t know why, but we both started getting real sad and had to work real hard – opening one bag after another - to keep from breaking down and crying. I think we're still both pretty upset."
According to the Reno Newspaperman – apart from his interview - nobody from the local Press was allowed to visit, photograph or film the occasion. Park and Regional authorities in contact with Attorney General Gonzales' office apparently decided that any published images of the comatose bodies might become a national security issue. The rangers did report that it took a full day to open the bags and deliver the bodies to a local, unidentified military base. It's not known whether any of the participants have begun to wake up, whether or not they will be charged with any crime and when or from where they will be released by the military.
Posted by Stephen at 03:56 AM
Stephen Vincent
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Visit his blog for good word art.
Burning Man Festival Site in Protest Ritual
(Reno, Nevada, Gothic News Servce, 8/04/05) Two Rangers at Black Rock Desert – the annual site in Nevada for the Burning Man Festival - were greeted by a strange site this morning. Talking to a Reno newspaperman, one of them reported, "It was sunrise across the playa and we were on our first patrol. When we looked down from the perimeter ridge, we initially saw an astonishingly large grid of either body or garbage bags. Through our binoculars against the rising sun, we could still see that they were definitely filled - it could have been potatoes or anything big and lumpy. Each bag was spaced about 30 feet away from the next one - about 50 parallel lines going north and south, and about 40 going east and west. The whole thing made a large rectangular space, about a mile long and a kilometer wide. Frankly I can’t say if was just spooky, or both spooky and spectacular, to see all those black bags begin to get the first rays of the sun.”
"When we got down inside to the actual site,” reported the other Ranger, “You can't believe what we found in each of those bags. Each one had a couple of breathing holes, thankfully, for otherwise they were tied down close with duct tape. I had to use my knife carefully so as not to cut anything inside. Low and behold, when I opened the first one, it was a body. The first one a female and the next one a male, both in their twenties. Each body was in a fetal, curled up shape, breathing, thankfully, but absolutely comatose, or so it seemed.”
"Yep, not saying a thing," his fellow Ranger interrupted. "Nothing at all. But more strange, on the back of each body - and now we reckon there were over 1,000 - someone had scripted in large, lavender letters, "We Mourn for Iraq".
"When we cut open a few more bags, we realized that the people were of all ages and colors. I don’t know why, but we both started getting real sad and had to work real hard – opening one bag after another - to keep from breaking down and crying. I think we're still both pretty upset."
According to the Reno Newspaperman – apart from his interview - nobody from the local Press was allowed to visit, photograph or film the occasion. Park and Regional authorities in contact with Attorney General Gonzales' office apparently decided that any published images of the comatose bodies might become a national security issue. The rangers did report that it took a full day to open the bags and deliver the bodies to a local, unidentified military base. It's not known whether any of the participants have begun to wake up, whether or not they will be charged with any crime and when or from where they will be released by the military.
Posted by Stephen at 03:56 AM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Visit his blog for good word art.
posted by Lorna Dee Cervantes at 1:48 AM
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