I dreamed I was in an old store full of racks of vinyl records, looking at one labled “Songs that Make God Swoon”… It was well after sunrise when I woke up Thursday morning, August 29th. People were still up in the bar drinking. Some of them had been up all night. Peanut was tending bar. He said he never dreams on the playa. I met a guy named John, also known as Puzzlebuttons. It was his first burn. He saw my notebook, and said he used to write a lot, but after he got out of school he said it was “hard to write when you’re happy.” A monstrous art car rolled down the street.
 
I got out my stove and cooked up the spicy ramen noodles I got from God’s Vending Machine. They really were spicy, too. I met Janie, an adorable brunette girl who had been helping out with the bar all week. She had a Minnie Mouse tattoo. She wanted to cook some ramen noodles, but needed hot water. Honeybee offered to microwave some water in her RV, but Janie insisted it wasn’t a microwavable package. Finally, Molly offered to boil her some water to cook the ramen. Janie only brought beef jerky and protein bars with her to the playa.

Billy talked about the “djembe-megaphone war of 2012.” A drum circle was playing really badly late one night, so some people on megaphones started making fun of them. That just prompted more drummers to join in, which prompted more people with megaphones to make a racket, which continued until sunrise when a beautiful woman came out of her tent and yelled at everyone to shut up. I took my cellphone by the commissary, but still couldn’t get a signal. A group of people walked by singing “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning.”
 
Blurose was tending bar when I got back to camp. I met a guy called Dexterous, who was head of the Oregon CORE team. He was hoping for good weather that evening when the CORE effigies went up. I told him my idea for changing the addresses on Rod’s Road. Some people were confused by the addresses. For instance, HOTD was at 4:30 & Rod’s Road, the time designation meaning the point on the circle of the road. Some people, however, meant it to mean the 4:30 road which was blocks away. My idea was to keep the time correlation, but change it to military time: instead of 4:30 & Rod’s Road, we would’ve been 1630 Rod’s Road; 9 o’clock & Rod’s road would be 0900 Rod’s Road, and so on. Dexterous said he would mention it to the team that set placement addresses.
 

I changed the batteries in my digital camera. It was the last day to view the CORE effigies, so I rode out on my bike to look. The weather had been exceptionally mild all week, but the wind started to pick up that morning.    Several already had people taking art out from inside the effigies, or prepping them for the burn that night. The big mug of beer was simple and whimsical. The church was an amazing piece of art. I liked the paddlewheel riverboat, and marveled at the creative ways artists put together simple pieces of plywood and  2x4s.  The wind kicked up, and white-outs of dust made the world disappear for moments at a time. I rode down the Esplanade, taking in the various camps. I stopped at Radio Electra and saw Halston; she gave me a hug.