I've been out in Black Rock City since Monday enduring heat, windstorms and several members of the "Too Cool for School" crowd. I arrived early to help out with an art display that's been put together by a group from the Portland area and I'll be working as a cub reporter for the Black Rock Beacon beginning this weekend.

As friendly and welcoming as some of the Burners have been, there's a somewhat nasty social hierarchy out here that places artists at the bottom of the pecking order. "Crew members," as they're called, are given special bracelets and are allowed to eat free meals in a large mess tent. Artists, meanwhile, are mostly left to fend for themselves. This is hard to fathom since the 40K+ people that attend Burning Man are all here to take in weird art displays ranging from the "fire chapel" I'm helping out with to the tower pictured below. Although, a new group has come together to help "feed the artists."

Anyway, here's a Flickr gallery of shots from out here in Black Rock City.

Updates here on the blog might become sporadic in the coming days once the festival officially starts on Sunday night at 12 AM and once Center Camp's limited wifi service becomes overloaded with users. Cheers...

Labels: art, burning man, sojurns