Vladimir Khodel was building a Shukhov Tower
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shukhov_Tower, out of 24 feet bamboo poles for the Burning Man.
http://www.burningman.com/I offered woodworking help. The tower has a circular plywood foundation made of 12 trapezoidal pieces. There is a large trampoline at the base and a smaller one at the top. Bamboo poles are attached to the plywood metal brackets with threaded rods. Wooden spools containing these rods are epoxied into bamboo. I created an improvised lathe and made these spools. The first few slides depict this process.
My perspective of the Burning Man is that Burning Man is an iteration of the hippy gatherings of the 60s. The strong spiritual component, which was characteristic of the hippies, is absent. Instead there is a strong sense of social cooperation. The Black Rock City is created for one week in the hostile Nevada desert. See Google map:
https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!q=Black+Rock+City%2C+NV&data=!4m10!1m9!4m8!1m3!1d8407651!2d-119.306607!3d37.2691745!3m2!1i1920!2i993!4f13.1It contains radial streets from 2pm to 10am and arc streets labeled by the letters of the alphabet. It accommodates 68,000 people, who come from all over the world. The desert should remain unchanged after everybody leaves. Everything you bring in you take back. Nothing should be spilled on the ground. Toilets are provided. There is no commercial activity. The only things sold are ice and coffee at the Center Camp. I cannot imagine any country other than US, where a perfect flawless operation of this scale can be created and maintained by individuals and without government intervention.
The camp where I stayed thanks to Vladimir’s hospitality had people from the Bay Area, San Diego, Irvine, New York Moscow, maybe other places too. People leave their rigid job routines to meet with friends from distant places and to make new friends. Every camp does something for others: offers ice-cream, drinks, divination or massage services, etc. Excessive heat and dust storms bond people together and make attitudes cooperative.
There are two large structures, which are burned down at the end of the week: the Burning Man and the Temple. The Center Camp is a large marquee where you can buy coffee, stay in the shade and away from dust, listen to the rock performances or observe acrobatics. At night mutant vehicles slowly float on the playa.
The last sequence of my slides shows the burning of the Burning Man. Notice how well the spectators are assembled, leaving wide empty radial roads marked only by light yellow tape.