Jack Flash in cuffs

The Underwire

Burners Plan to Resurrect the Man After Arson Shocks the Playa
By Lewis Wallace EmailAugust 28, 2007 | 6:23:32 PMCategories: Burning Man

BLACK ROCK CITY, Nevada -- Resurrection, or possibly a big fiery bird, might be an appropriate theme for this year's burn on the playa. Like the phoenix, the wooden Man will rise from the ashes after it caught fire early Tuesday, only to be burned again.

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Burning Man staffers claim the Man will be ready to be set alight again within two days -- plenty of time for Saturday's regularly scheduled burn. A San Francisco man was booked into Pershing County Jail in St. Lovelock, Nevada, for allegedly setting the giant sculpture on fire around 3 a.m. Tuesday.

"We have the means and the will to rebuild," said Andi Grace, Burning Man director of communications, at a playa press conference Tuesday morning. "I imagine we'll see a completely reconstructed man. It looks pretty goth right now."

Paul Addis, 35, of San Francisco was booked into the Pershing County Jail on charges of arson, possession of fireworks, destruction of property and resisting a public officer, according to a sheriff's dispatcher who declined to give her name for publication. The incident is still under investigation, said the dispatcher.

In his mug shot, Addis grins, his face covered with red, black and silver paint.

"That's how he was when we booked him in," said the dispatcher.

Addis -- who has no prior arrests, according to the dispatcher -- is part of the production team behind Gonzo, a Brutal Chrysalis, a show about the life of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Addis goes by "B. Duke" as is identified as a "freelance counter-intelligence operative" on the show's website.

While the dispatcher said the investigation is ongoing into a possible motive for setting the sculpture ablaze, some burners were not so gentle.

"Someone went to a great extent to interfere with everyone else's burn. I think, frankly, an attention whore has made a plea for attention," a Burning Man volunteer named Ranger Sasquatch told the San Francisco Chronicle. "In three days, we will have this rebuilt."

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Others' reactions to the early conflagration were mixed.

"It really wasn't all that exciting," said veteran burner Djinnaya Cassatt. "You'd think it would be, but it wasn't."

Some thought it was new way of celebrating the big burn.

"It's like a burnwich -- a burn on each side of it," said burner Alan Nichols.

"It smelled really toxic -- like the burn doesn't usually smell that way," said Catherine Levy-Barnard.

Kaihea, a fire performer, said she talked to the man who apprehended Addis.

"A big 6-foot, 3-inch ranger guy said a guy climbed up to the foot of the man and lit it with a blowtorch," said Kaihea. "(The ranger) got him."

For his efforts, Kaihea awarded the ranger, who she identified as Ranger Crizzly, with a medal. "He caught the guy. I wanted to thank him," she said.

The sheriff's dispatcher said there have been no other arrests of any magnitude at the festival this year, just the usual DUI and general disturbance complaints.

Reporting by Eli Milchman and Lewis Wallace.

The great festivals of Avebury, Stonehenge, and Newgrange during the Neolithic era were based around the movements of the stars, planets, and eclipses of the moon. Addis knew the true time to light the Man on fire! May the Goddess bless the Brave Man who understood the Earth’s shadow.
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Posted by: Doctress Neutopia | Aug 28, 2007 9:44:07 PM

I'd just like to point out that St. Lovelock does not exsist in Pershing County. It is Lovelock, Nevada. No St. about it.

Posted by: Max | Aug 28, 2007 9:59:18 PM