Monday was a work day, no bones about it. We got up in the morning and after greeting all our campmates and getting our own setup finalized (which didn’t take long), it was time to get building. Luckily we had a lot of help and enthusiasm and the weather was decent (which we would not be so lucky about later in the week). The (Inner) Freak Show and Wheel of Participation pieces, which had been sent up on the camp truck for early arrival, lay forlornly on the playa just across the Esplanade in a dust-covered pile where it had been dumped earlier in the week. We got out our tool boxes and Josh the master builder sprang into action with the able assistance of Ray, Joe, John, Anji and Emily. We got pretty far and got the whole Freak booth set up, but eventually had to take a break at around 2:30pm because most of us had committed to go work a group shift at Arctica (this is the place that sells ice, beloved by all burners).
The Arctica shift actually turned out to be a ton of fun and the three hour shift flew by super quick. Josh was a slinger (moving big bags of ice out of the freezer truck for distribution). I was a Greeter with Anji, Liezel and Kristin, which basically meant hanging out in front of the igloo with all the folks in line, welcoming them and asking them if they knew what kind of ice they needed (which helped speed the process along). We got silly, we danced and bounced and played with people. We got to meet an amazing cross-section of burners. People gave us little gifts. We had a great time. I would definitely do that again.
After the shift we took our free ice and went back to camp. We had dinner and then went back to work on the Carnival. With the able and enthusiastic assistance of Viren, Josh hung the giant heart sculpture that Emily had made out of 2000 cable ties, mesh screening and mylar, at the top of the booth. After that Emily and I got all enthusiastic about putting up all the shiny decorations inside the booth. Tom helped us glue the mirrors (let me just say right now that Strongstik glue is awesome) and then we hung mirror strands and stapled mylar strips and shiny spirals and curtains. We stayed up til something like 1 or 2 in the morning but when the booth was finally finished and the spotlights installed to shine on the heart sculpture it looked pretty damn awesome and we were very proud.
[Click here for Part 1] | [Click here for Part 3]
[Click here for the full set of 2015 Carnival of Mirrors pictures on Flickr and Facebook]