Burning Life 2009: the Man burns one last time

October 29, 11:27 AMSecond Life ExaminerApollo Manga

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The Man has burned again. As a favor to Second Life's Burning Life volunteers - including this writer - who were unable to attend the official burns last Sunday, a final burn was held last night. It was an exceptional experience, with only about a dozen avatars present, and free of both lag and griefers.

Sadly, the Lamplighters and their drumming and dancing were not there, but fortunately one person produced a drum and another danced, helping provide some traditionally festive spirit.

The burn began with a circle of fire encircling The Man. When it finally reached him, the fire worked its way up his legs and torso as fireworks lit the night sky. It wasn't long before he was completely engulfed, his head, arms, and body ablaze. Slowly, structural pieces began to fall, finally leaving only remnants of his legs intact; his head, arms, and body had completely fallen away.

As the fire lessened in intensity, none of the onlookers wanted to see it end. Avatars began picking up fallen logs from The Man's structure and returning them to the fire as one person danced and many cheered. Other objects were thrown in to the fire, a cow, a plane, even a piano. Eventually however, the blaze could not be kept going. As the flames subsided, Burning Life volunteers said their farewells and began laying plans for next year's Burning Man.

Burning Life's Department of Public Works deserves credit for this final burn, particularly Debbie Trilling, Elfod Nemeth, and Gypsy Paz. Without them, some hardworking Burning Life volunteers would have missed out on seeing The Man burn.

You can see more Burn photographs in the slide show below. The Burning Life playa will remain open for the rest of this week. If you haven't yet been there, or if you haven't taken the time to explore, be sure to do it. There are some extraordinary creations there. You can read about many of the best in previous articles in this series.

This is the fourteenth article in this series about Burning Life 2009. The previous articles are The Temple burns, Lamplighters' final fiery dance, Lamplighters' fiery dance, Rangers on the playa, The roof is gone, Burning Life 2009 is open, preview 1, preview 2, preview 3, preview 4, preview 5, preview 6, or preview 7.  Burning Life is inspired by Nevada's Burning Man and closely adheres to its Ten Principles.

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All photographs in this report are by Erik Gordon Bainbridge.