Strange fish
3 October, 2011EDIT: hello, all the people suddenly arriving here from Facebook. Who are you all? 
There’s a lot of art hidden in the darkness of the deep playa. Charlie and I took turns choosing a distant light in the darkness and biking over to see it.
Far away from the city, it's dark and quiet.
We found people dancing in front of stacks of TVs. We found quiet places to sit under monstrous flower heads. We found an LED-lit tunnel through which people on acid wearing rainbow glasses were trying to walk*. We found a 360° laser spirit level for the desert**. We found a cinema.
What's On: stock footage, classic films, porn, CCTV of the surroundings and closeups of eyes.
We cycled around in the darkness, trying to triangulate a distant sound, and a bright object flew towards us and landed in the dust.
“Eh?”
We changed course and found a glowstick. Depending on your perspective, a fresh glowstick on the ground is either MOOP or a pretty good playa gift. We went to pick it up.
It moved.
Baffled, we chased the glowstick across the playa. Out of the darkness a dim light appeared, and a sound:
“Fishies! Fishies! Here fishy fishy fishy! Fishies!”
And a moment later:
“Fishies! Fishies get hugs!”
and a group of people ran out and ambushed us.
And by now the situation was clear. The dim light illuminated a wooden fishing platform, complete with deckchairs, fishing rods and glowstick bait. The people there taught me how to use the rod. Then, to my surprise, they left: it wasn’t their platform, they’d just been hanging out there fishing for a while.
"The Fishing Hole"
I cast, and caught a fishie, and hugged it. I passed on the rod and left, delighted by the whole experience.
Becky learns to fish.
And that is the story of how I learned to use a fishing rod in the middle of a desert.
* * *
This year’s epiphany: it’s all about the human interaction. You don’t make a big fan in order to cool people: you make it so that you can talk to them, however briefly. The gifts are not the point. The costumes are not the point. The fishing is not the point. The Man is not the point. It’s all just an excuse to connect with other human beings.
Hmm.
* So we switched on our lights and danced about in front of them to confuse them even further. Heh heh heh.
** We also met a guy who was feeling ‘bad vibes’ from the laser and stuck some tape over it.
