Notes: When KellyA and I arrived at the playa where this outdoor event was being held, we discovered that the PA system we'd been promised was not there and was not going to get there. So, I turned around and drove 40 minutes back to Salt Lake City to get some 100-watt speakers and a 300-watt amp from home, then 40 minutes back to the playa. When I returned, KellyA had been having a great set... until the generator (a Honda 5000 or something) went out, just minutes before I got back. The next hour or so was spent futzing eith the generator and playing half-songs when it would come back up, only to have them stop as the generator crashed again. Meanwhile, the karaoke peopel let me play on their machine briefly, but it flattened the vocals because, hey, it's a karaoke machine! Finally, someone got the generator fixed, and I got to spin... just in time for everyone to run over to the huge fire, leaving me all alone.

Actually, it wasn't bad -- they could hear the music at the fire, and so I was able to lay down a nice sounbdtrack as they set the huge Sun Disc alight and welcomed the sun as we journey back from the farthest reaches of our orbit (which is, basically, what a Winter Solstice celebration is about). I was told that Mitternacht has new meaning for some people now, as it was playing when the Sun Disc went up in flames. Several people also liked my other fire-themed choices.

After the burners started getting naked, it was all sort of downhill. Our host, Richard, wanted to play some songs for his enjoyment, which was fine, but he didn't know what tracks they were on his CDs, so he couldn't just let me play them for him. This meant I couldn't make them flow with the other music, and it really messed up the night for me as a DJ, as I had to try to get the flow back each time he put on a song. No one else seemed to mind too much, so perhaps it wasn't as bad as I thought...

All in all, for such a messed up and freezing cold night, it was a pretty good experience. Even though I jokingly call them the "neo-cyber-hippies," I really like spinning for the Burners. They are very open-minded, open-hearted people who seem to genuinely enjoy the music I play, even when they''ve never heard it before.