Pictures From Burn2 Whimsy

 By Gemma Cleanslate

 

Whimsy was the name, and some of the installations were delightful.

Some avatars visiting; the third one is Yman Juran.

Gemma using antigravity "boots" to visit a bar on the playa.
 

A greeter passing out gifts from her backpack
 

The lamplighters before the effigy burning.

The effigy burn and aftermath

And dancing in the embers

Gemma Cleanslate

The "Eggfigy" Burn

 *
By Bixyl Shuftan

Lately things have been more than a little complicated for Second Life's Burners. A tribute to their early days, Burn ONe, turned into their gathering place when the leaders of the Burn2 team shut down the Burning Man Deep Hole sim for what they stated was a temporary time period.

On Monday July 11, a few of the Burners decided to lighten things up, literally, by constructing something to burn and set it afire. This was a giant egg-shaped effigy, or "eggfigy" as it came to be called.

It was made by Jeff Olhoeft. I would later hear from him, "I build it last Easter when for some egg themed antics on the Burn2 region. Brought it back out to the beach for fun."

"Eggfigy burn in a few minutes. (teehee) Come to the beach."

 I went there, along with a number of Burners. Someone asked, "Can't remember, does this build explode?" And the puns started, "No, but it gets scrambled." "Good, no hard hat required." "Not exactly, although does tend to toss embers far." "Yes, you're egg-xactly right."

And before long, we noticed smoke coming from inside, "Does anyone smell smoke?"

And then, the underside went aflame, "Fire fire fire."

The fire slowly worked its way up.

And the whole structure was afire, "Smoked omellette?"

Panning inside, it was an inferno in there, "and hear the crackling."

As the fire blazed on, the structure started to become charred and brittle.

Then pieces started to flake off.

And as time went on, more parts were flying off.

Some pieces were getting a little close to the Burners.

There were more egg puns from Mrs. Mia Wallace (Mia Quinote), "Terreggific. EGG-cellent!"

Before long, pieces had scattered in all directions, "I'd say this event went, 'over easy'." "Yeah, getting past hard boiled now too." Mia remarked, "Everyone 'scrammbled' here very quickly."

They ended up redoing the egg burn.

One guy took a "Bobcat" and moved burning pieces away.

Some of them into the water. 

Before long, not much was left. 

Not everyone stood around. Some were dancing.

For the Burners, it's been a turbulent time as there's been some trouble behind the scenes. But events like these allowed them to put aside their worries and relax for a little while. 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Burn2: The Burning of the Man

By Bixyl Shuftan

Saturday October 24 was the day of the "Burning of The Man" at the Burn2 Art and music festival. In the Burning Man Black Rock sim, the effigy of "The Man" was set up on top of a maze of circus signs, made to look like a wooden structure lit up by neon tubes.

The maze was made of of signs from carnivals and freak shows of old. Though a few were just parodies of them done to poke fun at things.

Underneath "The Man," a couple of the volunteers were presumably making last minute checks to make sure all was set.

The map showing the numbers of people in the surrounding sims. The greatest number were in Looking Glass, the closest to the effigy.

Many of the onlookers in Looking Glass were on this walkway near "The Man."

 Me with a couple friends, watching as sparks of flame appear.

Just sparks at first, but they'd soon grow.

An explosion sends fire and smoke around The Man.

And the first supports of the structure begin to fall off. Unlike The Man in previous years I've seen, the neon tubing stayed lit.

 More pieces began to fall. Once again, a difference from previous Burning of The Man events becomes clear. It's not falling apart from the head down, but all over.

A major piece of the head falls off, though the rest is still atop the burning the structure, refusing to fall.

More parts of the effigy fall as it burns.

Another explosion, but still The Man maintains it's basic shape.

By now, it's clear in real life, The Man would have at least partially collapsed.

 The head of The Man continues to defy gravity, even as most everything else is burned away.

 Finally the structure is completely down.

The head, usually the first big piece to fall off, was among the last this time.

Dawn begins to break as the Burners are invited to head to the wreckage and dance among the flames.

 Looks like one Burner made an ass out of himself.

The burning of The Man didn't go completely as expected. I guess someone like me who's been to several is just used to the structure falling apart from the top down like it would in real life. Still, it was an enjoyable event well worth going to. And there was the Temple Burn which would take place the next day.

Bixyl Shuftan