DA VINCI’S WORKSHOP • GATE EDITION • SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 2016 • VOLUME XII, NUMBER I • 1:15 @ CENTER CAMP • WWW.BLACKROCKBEACON.ORG WELCOME CasCadia sERapEuM TO NOW- BY BICKLE In most cases, when a work of art is put to fire, that’s that: There are ashes and a HERE scar to clear, but the piece is gone. BY ROCKSTAR The Cascadia Serapeum, though, is designed to live two lives: before and First off, congratulations. You after the flames. failed to buy the hype about Burn- ing Man being finished and showed The project re-creates the famed up anyway. Still, before your Burn is Library of Alexandria, which perished in even fractionally over, expect to hear a conflagration centuries ago along with from a dozen grizzled and overworked untold volumes of ancient learning. mouths that the thing you’re stand- ing in a) has kicked the bucket list, That history will be recreated in a b) was better last year, or last decade, single week on Playa. or 1957, before the locusts and hippies came, or c) would be a fuckton better For several days, the Serapeum without all the noobs, code jockeys, will be an open-air library filled with and Arizonans. books to read, write in, play with, and take away. In a secret chamber will sit chandelier. But the project comes, as its says, “we all have lives, so other than Kindly indulge these idiots. They’re the Community Book, a ledger of the name reveals, from Cascadia, the Pacific very rare instances, we kept working like the guy who hated high school Serapeum’s history inscribed by visitors. Northwest, where teams in Portland, in our own cities. I can’t wait to see yet still hangs out in the parking lot Seattle, and Vancouver, B. C., created everything come together for the first five years after graduation. Often On Thursday, the structure will pieces independently. time on Playa!” such balloonhead babble is but a burn -- save for the books, which will momentary lapse brought about by be donated to a local library, and some The initial plan was for folks And then, of course, to see it dehydration or the speaker recently concrete elements, which are designed to bounce from town to town to all go up in flames and live a new life tripping over some rebar. For the to survive. Afterward, the Serapeum collaborate. “It turns out,” Beaudreau as skeletal ruins. one simple truth about Burning Man will stand, like its classical ancestor, as (which you’ve probably already intu- an evocative ruin with only a few parts ited) is that you are the spectacle you -- including the Community Book -- to came for. All the art and fun and skin suggest what it once was. and lights and dazzle you see heaped everywhere is just there to flog your According to Deb Beaudreau, senses while the desert sucks you dry one of its presiding geniuses, the project of moisture and further addles your arose as something of a lark: “A bunch wits. It’s how you react to this rolling of friends just start getting silly and mishigas that will determine whether throwing out wild and random ideas. in years to come you recall this week Some are ridiculous, but in between with dazed amazement or a supercil- there are some gems. From that point, ious “meh.” eureka moments of creativity spring up until you have something you love.” Remember that half the world wishes they were standing where you Many elements of the Serapeum are now and you owe it to them to suggest Greek influences: columns Burn until you drop. and friezes and statues and a flaming Midnight Poutine BY BICKLE Disabled & Injured I’m not sure I should share this, because the cheese into stringy strands of yum. Ameri- As for sheer numbers: in a single Transportation Options: the line is already epic, but you’d likely hear can cheese fries, even chili cheese fries, simply about it sooner or later, so what the hell. week, Midnight Poutine will serve approxi- don’t compare. mately 850 pounds of potatoes, 200 pounds of cheese curds, and 30 gallons of gravy. Injured? Stuck at camp? It’s late, you need a jolt of energy, Midnight Poutine has been avail- maybe some entertainment, and maybe, if able on Playa intermittently since 2008, the Midnight Poutine is part of a village Goldies Taxis offers rides in you’re really lucky, something hot and freshly brainstorm of a single intrepid Quebecois chef pedicabs, and “rents” mobility cooked to eat. dedicated to sharing Quebecois culture on with a camp stove and a yen to share his native Playa, with music and other delights. But trailers. cuisine. Now it boasts a full kitchen and a staff poutine is the main dish, and it’s a real point Send a friend to reserve a ride or Voila, Midnight Poutine, a deli- of 23, none of whom are food professionals, all check-out one of our mobility cious dish from Quebec, Canada, where it’s of honor. As Couture says, “for once we have of whom, says crew member Antoine Couture, something greasier and more bad for your bike trailers for the day. Playa a drinking-night staple and something of a are “a bunch of passionate weirdos.” Bike Repair @ 9:00 plaza, ask secular religion. health -- but even more delicious -- than what you Americans cook. We’re proud of it!” for Goldies Taxi. Trailer check- The excellent poutine -- it would be out times are 10am-11am and you What, you ask, is poutine? among the best even in many Canadian cities And where can you find it? can have them through the night -- has made Midnight Poutine an extremely until the following day at 10am, Ah, mon frere et soeur, it is ambro- popular spot. The line at the counter can take Pedicab rides offered 11am-4pm. sia: A heap of freshly fried potatoes is tossed Ah, dear Burner: therein lies the three hours to snake through, leading the adventure. with cheese curds, then doused in brown camp to offer live entertainment, including an gravy. The heat of the fries and the gravy melts open mic, for those waiting to be fed. POPULATION: Will they say this year? “If those long-time Burners are so “SOMEONE jaded, why don’t they let someone else have a turn?” BLACK ROCK Bee ACON has to run the city!” (25 miles) per hour. At the appointed time, Aqua and Cid BRAINTEASERS BY DURGY FiRsT EuROpEaN lit the effigy with dragon’s breath [magnesium pellets fired from a shotgun] and a R E D O N A T E L L O BuRN BuRNs! [propane] poofer, respectively, BY DURGY Werkhaus staff built and to satisfy a stipulation that B E F F I G A R E X E installed over 150 fire extin- the lighthouse be lit near its Durgy has been a member of the guisher boxes. This reporter top. O P N O M A D L I U G DPW in BRC and at international personally augured many As the effigy burned, a burns for the last few years. Last year, he holes, as “Auggie” (Werkhaus’s stream of sparks roared down T E L A H R A E O I D told us about Midburn, in Israel. This gas powered augur), is fickle, the desert. After a short time, year’s story is from Spain. particular, and knows how paraffin- soaked cloth freed T C O S I M O N B T E Nowhere, established in she wants her buttons pushed. itself from the lighthouse 2004, was the first official On the last day of the build and floated away, burning. I I R F G S R K U A L international regional Burn. In before the event start, partici- Firefighters sprayed the fiery 2016, Nowhere drew a crowd C T E L H A S S R L W pants conducted a fire drill to airborne debris and nearby of over 2,000 participants, up show we could evacuate the bushes with water in an effort from about 1,500 in 2015. E S N U S I D A N I O site on foot. to prevent the spread of fire For the first time in its Local fire officials attended outside the Burn perimeter. history, Nowhere was also able L U Z F R I O O N C N the drill, which was a beau- After the effigy fell, fire- this year to build and burn an tiful dance. Using sheets of fighters parted the crowd with effigy: a 4-meter (13-foot) tall L J O F L O R I N C K orange, red and yellow fabric, high-pressure hose water and lighthouse. Middle of Nowhere (MON) moved towards the collapsed The Monegros region near I N E D A N A L P S E crew gathered and then spread structure. Consistent with Sariñena Spain bans open the simulated fire towards stipulations, they extinguished fires from May until Octo- Find the below words in the grid. The leftover letters town. Abby Fantastic took the lighthouse almost as soon ber (Nowhere 2016 ran from spell a burning principle that people do radically. position with her fire extin- as it had become a reasonable July 5 to 10 ). The Nowhere Find the below words in the grid. The leftover letters spell a burning principle that people do guisher, but the fire danced bonfire on the ground, leaving site is desert-like, with small ARNO,radically.