I shall now spew forth a list of Burning Man 1997 memories, in hopes that they shall always trigger an avalanche of beautiful images.

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• fluorescent orange everything -- Safety Camp!
• blinking lights
• first ride with my bike-cam turned on
• little naked poi-poi dancing girl next door
• Portland-raised neighbors play volleyball using stuffed animal
• how the dawning sun went right into my eyes
• Jason finding us the first morning -- early
• night so cold, day so hot; make up your mind!
• silver suits and coveralls by night, muslimgauze robe by day; always the web gear
• handing out Safety Camp stickers by the dozens
• meeting the littlest Messiah and Camp Carp Howard, both at the foot of "the man"
• fish tacos at Camp Carp
• Catherine's fluorescent orange polyfleece overalls glowing in the dusk-light
• first time I asked freeform if I could help at Bianca's; he said the words which changed my life: "yeah! you could cook!"
• dancing, everywhere we could
• Colin, dancing (swimming?) in his oversized silver fire pants
• so much sunblock!
• every single server I asked to "show me the smile!" as I handed them a tray to serve at Bianca's
• the anonymous lunatic (mikek!) who served bananas in the quesedillas; and how The People loved them
• every "cooks must dance" incident
• Brady and his cinnamon raisin bread grilled cheese sandwiches
• Dr. Mike Crazyhair and his endless kitchen advice, including:
  "They'll never notice, they're drunk."
  "Quantity, not quality."
• The Bianca kitchen signs, including:
  "STAY BACK! COOKS KILL!"
  "Bianca kitchen rules - all staff must wash hands ... just kidding!"
• every single couple (and triple, etc.) who I served food to while they engaged in some sort of sexual adventure at Bianca's; especially the folks took the orange marmalade I brought them
• mixing donated Gatorade and donated tequila -- and The People loving it
• Flasher and Spastic, the two elfen and insane Bianca cheerleaders; Flasher threatening to put me to sleep -- fast
• the chants of "cooks rule! DJs suck!"
• every sunrise in Bianca's back yard
• all of us seriously offering to stay awake and make pancakes as the St. Ides was passed around at sunrise
• Isabell, sitting and playing in the dust with me at sunrise and "reading my palm"
• the leather guy whose friend shoved a handful of mushrooms in his mouth at dawn, and the way he ran around like a spaz
• Vanilla Camshaft and her friend Diesel crawling off the Bianca backyard band at dawn and performing the sacred "synchronized peeing" for us
• Colin suddenly jumping up at sunrise and running off into the hills; subsequent murmers of "beautiful!" by those of us left behind
• superhero Leila, telling fortunes by giving you a shot of tequila; I got tequila and avacado!
• staring with Leila and Colorful Man in a German experimental film, me starring as "the Buddha", emerging from the kiva
• Steev ended up knowing Isabell and Christopher!?
• explaining what Fluxus was to a group of naked, body-painted females who had grabbed some of the Fluxus stamps from our free gift box
• meeting X Magazine's Jeff Hansen, who was from Detroit and I never met when I lived there
• gin and tonic (vodka and tonic, etc.) spritzer bottles at Bianca's
• the two girls who asked me for a paper plate at Bianca's so they could hold it under people's mouths while they fed them squirty whipped cream they had brought
• the secret word (for more St. Ides!) at Camp Carp
• Nina and her imaginative recipes with all the donated food at Bianca's (Nina! where are you now?!)
• saying bye to Nina as she went back to "Camp Jeep" to sleep after dawn
• Carmel, the recurring and smiley Bianca server, whom I never got to say goodbye to, because I was too embarrassed to wake up from her naked slumber with new-found friend in the morning
• blinky LEDs in the middle of the playa
• Steev, Kevin, and Mykle playing under the blacklight in the middle of the playa, with a handful of fires burning, as back drop, at 2:00 am
• some crazy guy stamping every passed-out person's body with the Bianca stamp
• Camp Carp Howard joining us at Bianca's late on the last night; sorry I served you tequila watermelon by mistake Howard!
• desert eating! luke-warm cup-o-noodles, corn nuts, "chili", powerbars
• drinking so much water!
• Nikki always disappearing and sleeping, and Colin always disappearing and dancing
• running off after the water truck
• solar-powered bubble blower!