Mail is welcome.
gryffyn@there.net | index of journals | home
|
I don't really have a story in my head for you all today...and I'm not
going to try spontaneous poetry twice in one week, neither. Hm. I've
been avoiding detailing all my preparations for Burning Man in this space
because I think it will bore you silly, but that's where my mind is at
these days. I suppose I could talk about part of my personality that
shows its ugly head at Burning Man: possessiveness. About my
clothes. See, I have LOTS of great clothes, (although I think there is never enough) and people know this. Carol and Jodi and Ian and Elle know this. Last year at Burning Man, Elle tied up all her clothes on the walls around our dome, so anyone could take down a piece and wear it as costume. Elle has lots of great clothes, too. It was said that we all should do this - put our clothes up there for general consumption. And I had a hard time with that. For one thing, I have lots of color. I used my bedspread last year as a shade INSIDE the dome and it faded. A lot. I am very hesitant to hang up, say, my scarlet gypsy skirt with cool silver/black trim because it WILL fade if I do that. In fact, I don't want it worn outside at ALL during BM because if it is, it will fade. And, because of the trim, it is impossible to re-dye to get back that brilliant color. Costumes are usually worn at night, anyway. My second quandry is wear. This year I'm bringing my butterfly costume, which I painstakingly pieced together from silk saris for Halloween last year. It has delicate styrofoam and wire antennae too. It is very fragile, overall, and the "tails" of the wings drag the ground. I don't want to ruin this in the playa. I can't wash it, so if it gets caked with mud, it will be a pain to clean, if I can clean it at all. I don't want to loan it out - I only trust myself with it (and if I ruin it, I can only be mad at myself--I hate being miffed at people). I want to keep it packed away. But Jodi said over the phone the other day - "Well, you've got the clothes, Heather...we can rely on you for costuming...". And I couldn't figure out how to tell her without sounding like a big fat selfish brat, "I'll let you know what clothes of mine you can wear, and when." But that's how I feel - I want to have control over who is wearing what. I want to know where every piece is (or at least who is wearing it). I want to operate more as a library than as an open door - save some things for special archieve use only, giving everyone a little lecture on treating things with care, signing pieces in and out... Unfortunately, this isn't in the spirit of Burning Man. At least, not with my group. I don't know how I can approach this subject without everyone being a little put off by me for enforcing it. Hell, last year I didn't really get a say, it was just "hang your costumes up here so everyone can use them". Burning Man is a harsh environment and my clothes and costumes are my babies. I don't want to let them out; I'm afraid of babysitters. I'm afraid of losing a favorite piece.The costumes are my art, but I never intend to burn them. I put too much effort, time and money into making them beautiful. | ||
| Previous
| Next Day by Day | Journal Index | Current Entry Home |