|
Playa lingo 1998
The lexicon of Black Rock City
Ductmania
The act of frantically battening down everything in your
camp with a roll of duct tape. Dude,
after that storm, I was overcome with ductmania! Now, I swear, nothing is going
to blow away!
Dust rhino
The small dust tornado that carries off your tent in a
storm. I guess the thin, three-inch metal
stakes I used for my tent were just no match for that dust rhino.
Dust slugs
The dirty glob of mucus that appears across your front teeth
after a dust storm. There I was, charming
the fuck out of this girl, when I had a dust slug on me the whole time!
Dusty munchkins
The semi-feral children that run loose around the playa.We ran out of food on Sunday night, but
fortunately a dusty munchkin came by our camp and "fell" into the
fire.
Flake factor
The surprisingly consistent percentage of people who talk
about their big, exciting art projects for the playa and then never even make
it out to Burning Man. Our theme camp was
supposed to be much bigger, but I forgot to take into account the flake factor.
High & Mighty
Power Ranger
A Black Rock Ranger gone bad. What happens when a Ranger
goes on a power trip, thinking they're all that merely because they're a Black
Rock Ranger. Geez, Dave used to be cool.
But get him in khakis and put a walkie-talkie in his hand, and he suddenly
turns into a High & Mighty Power Ranger.
Keeping up with the
Harveys
Slang expression for the feeling that you must make your theme camp bigger and
better than last year's. Burning Man has
gotten to be so high-maintenance for all my friends. We used to just hop in the
car and go, but now everyone is trying to keep up with the Harveys, building
some elaborate theme camp or village.
McGyvering
The act of fixing just about anything in your camp by using
the most random, unrelated items you can find laying around. A reference from
the long-cancelled television show, McGyver. The wind blew down our radio tower, but we McGyvered a new set-up for
ourselves using some aluminum foil, fishing line, and chewing gum.
Mirage
A theme camp that looks cool from far away, but actually
sucks when you get up close. We saw this
theme camp that had these really colorful banners and stuff, but when we got
there, the people were kind of rude and obnoxious. It turned out to just be a
mirage.
One-eyed shit
Any annoying person with a videocamera, who sees the entire
Burning Man festival through their viewfinder.There I was, with a perfect view of the Burn, when this one-eyed shit
appeared out of nowhere and totally got in the way.
Plastic buddy
The stinky plastic bag full of garbage that you drive out of
the desert with come Monday morning. My
campmates had a plastic buddy so big that it had to sit between the us the
whole way to the Lockwood dump.
Playa coma
What happens in the middle of the day, when the overbearing
heat of the playa makes it damn near impossible to even get up, much less walk
around. Central Camp was nearly a ghost
town this afternoon. I guess everyone was in a playa coma.
Playa brownies
The hard crust that forms on the still-moist muddy areas of
the playa. So named due to distinct feeling that one is walking on brownies. Some assholes from Reno tried to gate crash,
and got their truck stuck over there in the playa brownies.
Rebarred
What happens when your ankles or shins get scraped with
rebar stakes. Someone stole all the
plastic soda bottles off our stakes last night, and I ended up getting totally
rebarred!
Rogue boner
Any annoying, horny guy loose on the playa. Maybe it's the Viagra or something, but
there seem to be a lot of rogue boners blundering around this year.
Sleep guilt
The feeling that if you go to sleep, you'll miss out on
something cool happening out on the playa that night. I'm sorry I'm such a wreck today. I had total sleep guilt last night,
so I did a few lines of speed to stay awake.
Speedballing
Trying to reach orgasm through sexual intercourse before
dying of heat exhaustion. Hey honey,
let's not fuck during the day anymore. This tent is way too hot, and I'm sick
of speedballing.
Tourist
Derogatory term for anyone who is obviously a spectator, and
not a participant, i.e. obsessive picture-takers, yahoos asking where the beer
tent is, and other people who don't get it. We
saw these tourists driving around the playa, asking if there were any RV
hook-ups here.
Troll
A drunken, stumbling, unintelligent life form. Often leaves
a trail of beer cans. You think this year
is bad, you should have been here in '96! This place was crawling with trolls!
Vultures
Mass-media reporters, camerapersons, and associated crew. I think the media indoctrination program
that Burning Man Project initiated this year is really working. The vultures
have been kept at bay better than they were last year.
Vapor camp
A cool theme camp that you heard or read about, but once
you're out here, you can't seem to actually find it. I was really looking forward to the Anti-Burning Man camp last year,
but it turned out to just be a vapor camp.
Zonker
The honorary person in your camp who seems unable to leave
his/her lawn chair all weekend. Dude,
don't be a zonker! Come on, let's go visit Bianca's Smut Shack. You can sit
around there and do nothing!
÷ compiled by ÷ compiled by Bryan Finch, Charles Lucas,
Swirly Rat Jr., Hurricane Linda, Lizard Man, Stewart McKenzie, Adrian Roberts,
|
