Man On Fire

After 21 years, somebody finally got antsy and set the man off.

Burning Man burnt four days ahead of schedule Tuesday, and a San Francisco performance artist was arrested on suspicion of igniting the signature figure. The early morning fire scorched about 85 percent of the Burning Man structure, so event engineers decided it would be best to dismantle it and rebuild a less elaborate version. Their plan is to accomplish in two days what normally takes weeks so the figure would be finished in time for Saturday night's scheduled burning. The approximately 40-foot-tall wood and neon structure was supposed to go up in flames in the ceremonial climax of the weeklong annual event, an art, music and performance festival that draws thousands of people annually to Nevada's Black Rock Desert.

Many festival-goers who were awake watching Tuesday's lunar eclipse said they saw a man deliberately ignite the figure at about 3 a.m.

That man was alleged to be Paul Addis, who was booked on suspicion of arson, illegal possession of fireworks, destruction of property and resisting a public officer. Addis, a San Fransisco actor and writer who is active in the local arts scene may have taken his recent portrayal of Hunter S. Thompson in a play too far. Event officials assumed the early burn was timed to coincide with the eclipse.

Torching the man and fucking with everybody's plan to get completely wasted at the end of the gathering to trip out on the giant flaming figurine may go against the wishes of the people there but is 100% in the spirit of being a lunatic in the desert. Everybody will get their second chance to fry and check out the burn, but so what if it didn't come together. Either the point is to parade around like a freak, do copious drugs, display bizarre art and wares, hump weirdos, and generally live outside society, or to watch four stories of humanoid burn. Space Mountain was closed for repairs last time I was at Disneyland...I got over it.