MOUNT VERNON, Wash.--From inside my tent, the sounds outside are typical of Burning Man: constant laughing, art cars driving by and the steady beat of techno music.
And while for many Burning Man attendees there is little that can top that event, a growing number of people all around the United States and the world are finding that events like Critical Massive are a fantastic way to approach, if not actually repeat, the experience of being at Burning Man.
The events, organized along the lines of the general principles of Burning Man--participants only, leave no trace, radical self-expression and radical self-reliance, and no commerce--have been quietly taking place for a few years in cities like Austin, Texas; Las Vegas; and in rural areas of Delaware, Arizona, and several other states and countries.
As an eight-time Burning Man attendee myself, I'd always wanted to see what one of the so-called "regional burns" was like. Could they feel like time spent in Black Rock City--Burning Man's temporary city--or would they be a cheap alternative?
That's why I found myself this weekend, during my Road Trip around the Pacific Northwest, in the forest near this town about an hour north of Seattle for the fourth annual Critical Massive.
And I have to say, after 48 hours of fire art, gourmet cooking, terrific costumes, improbable and creative shelters, a small collection of art cars and time with this branch of the community I have spent so much of my time with for the last eight years, that while Critical Massive is not and could never be Burning Man itself, it is one hell of a lot of fun.
For some time, Burning Man founder Larry Harvey has been touting the idea of small, do-it-yourself festivals. That's because, he often says, people are always coming up to him and saying they wish Burning Man could happen more than once a year, or that they just can't figure out how to survive an entire year before returning to the event.
As a result, events like Austin's Burning Flipside, Arizona's Toast, Las Vegas' Dark Skies Arts Festival and of course, Critical Massive.
And these are not gatherings of a few dozen unprepared campers. Rather, Burning Flipside attracts more than 1,000 attendees, and this weekend Critical Massive topped out at at least 550, many of whom arrived with what looked like their full Burning Man setups.
For example, there were 17 theme camps at the event, including the Seattle group Flight to Mars' huge sound system, a very large dance floor setup and even a small version of the Martian-theme maze it erects each year at Burning Man.
Another group, the Alien Monkey Love Nest--which is famous in Burning Man circles for the medallions it creates each year and gives to participants who perform on its stage--was on hand at Critical Massive and had set up a 60-foot parachute shade structure that was connected to a similar parachute belonging to another group.
The result was a giant shaded area under which dozens of people could regularly be found listening to music, talking, cooking and drinking. And it was exactly the kind of large structure that can be found at Burning Man and which I was not prepared to find at a regional event.
Part of the Burning Man community In fact, several camps at Critical Massive had set up the kind of infrastructure that I would have expected only people to bring to Burning Man, and that is testament to the idea that many people now look at regional events as a piece of their larger Burning Man experience.
"If you give them the opportunity and the opportunity presents itself," said Dave Martinez, aka Diem, the lead Critical Massive organizer, "the community will come forth and they will make it happen."
Martinez said that as an official Burning Man-blessed regional event, Critical Massive has grown to include many of the same departmental organizations as its parent event: a Department of Public Works, Black Rock Rangers (nonconfrontational, uniformed mediators) and others.
True, there is a teeny tiny bit of breast in one or two pictures... and to be nice to people who fear boobies, they should probably be labled - but I can't imagine an HR department being more bothered by this, than your boss would be to have you surfing news stories about arts festivals while at work.
The two telecom carriers will carry a next-generation iPad running on the fast, next-generation wireless technology, sources tell The Wall Street Journal.
Google creates an animated doodle that features a boy, a girl, Google's search engine, and a jump rope. But might there be darker, more analytical, more troubling interpretations to this tale?
The Silicon Valley online payments startup grew by 1,000 percent last year and is hopeful it can repeat that level of growth this year. To do that, it's had to move away from its early friends-and-family roots and embrace small businesses.
Chamtech's spray-on antenna uses a nano material to provide a low-power boost to antenna range. The wireless-in-a-can product may some day bring an end to unsightly cell towers.
EnerG2 opens a plant to make an engineered carbon that will improve performance of energy storage devices and make storage for start-stop hybrid cars less expensive.
