Burning Man in Bologna

I saw many memorable things in Bologna on my visit. One of the more interesting was their "Burning Man". This was a contruction, shown here, that was about 40 feet high, and is set on fire on New Year's Eve at midnight. It is a symbol of the end of the old, and the beginning of the new. The man is set up at one end of the biggest public squre in Bologna, Piazza Maggiore. I imagine this is packed with happy revelers on New Year's Eve. There was a large tower set up in the middle of the piazza, with monster speakers. The celebration may be the equivalent of Times Square, on a smaller scale, but with a 40 foot statue burning! The flames must shoot up at least a hundred feet in the air, and must be quite a sight. A bit more spectacular than a crystal ball falling.

I've always wanted to go to the Burning Man festival in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, USA. Maybe it's because I missed the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1968, and did not get there until the Fall of Discontent. And then I missed out on Woodstock, having been drafted and dodging bullets in Vietnam in '69. Anyhow, I feel I have to get one of those big festivals under my belt. Of course, Burning Man in Black Rock has turned into a lot more than the one in Bologna.

As a part-time videographer, I would love to be part of the video production crew at Burning Man.
This sounds like a fun and challenging job, and is well desrcibed in a recent issue of DV Magazine. My appearance, of course, is a bit more conventional than that of the featured shooters, Tim Laurel. But I do know how to use a camera and a Mac!

My aunt worries when I am out after dark, and I was not about to roll in at 1 a.m., so unfortunately I missed the lighting of the man in Bologna. According to my almost 94 year old aunt, she remembers going to see the burning man when she was a very little girl, so the tradition must be at least 90 years old.

Both Burning Man in Bologna and in Black Rock were about 40 feet high, and there is a thorough clean up after the event. I went to the Piazza Maggiore at noon on New Year's Day, hoping to get a photo of the burnt and charred remnants. Was I surprised when there wasn't a trace that anything had happened! The piazza was spotless, the layer of sand under the Burning Man was removed, with the stones underneath showing no sign of a fire. You had to look pretty hard to even detect the sand that was covering the stones only a few hours before.

In a similar fashion, Burning Man in Black Rock is a Leave No Trace Event

I aim to do a bit of research on the history of Burning Man in Black Rock, to see if it has its roots in any festivals similar to the one in Bologna, or if it was conceived independently. There certainly seems to be a symbolic connection, though I may not take it as far as a Jungian archetype. How long have the Bolognese have been burning their man, and does this tradition exists in other European cities and countries?

To the right is the Burning Man 2006 poster for Black Rock, designed by Dominic Tinio.

Cool iPod Accessory in Bologna

I recently saw the coolest iPod accessory.

First, a little sidebar. I was visiting my 93-year old aunt in Bologna, Italy, right after Christmas, on my annual visit. I have written about her before, she lives totally on her own, and does her own shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry, banking, etc. Her hearing and memory are sharper than mine, and she does not miss a thing.

I felt pretty guilty on my visit, as the only thing she let me do was wash the dishes. One evening, I brought home a few groceries, and she was mad at me for 2 days! She enjoys being totally independent. I felt a bit guilty having a 93-year old taking care of me. The photo shows her with her "young" 75 year old cousin.

When I visit Zia Lelle, I enjoy walking around Bologna every day. This is a great old city, and people have been living here for three thousand years. First settled by the Villanovians in the 9th Century BC and then taken over by the Etruscans a few centuries later, Bologna went through countless rulers until Italy's independence.

The University of Bologna was the first university founded in the western world, and is the world's oldest university in continuous service.

Every day I would walk to the Piazza Maggiore, in the heart of the old city, about a half hour from my aunt's house. The piazza is also the site of the unfinished Basilica of San Petronio. This took several centuries to build, and the facade was actually never finished. Now I don't feel too bad that the outside of our house also needs a bit of work.

Ok, on to the story. It Italy, people are always drawn to the piazzas, even if there is nothing special going on. There is always "people watching", and the many small open cafes at the periphery are usually bustling with folks coming and going, and in friendly animated conversations.

One of the days I went to the piazza, there was a street musician singing and playing who had an entire sound system mounted to his large motorcycle. I was amazed to see that the heart of the system was an iPod! This was connected to a mixer, along with his mic, guitar, and drum machine. The iPod provided the background music for his show, with everything amplified by a small amp powered by a small, very quiet, generator. I must say this is one of the cleverest uses for an iPod that I have seen.

Here is a close-up of his system, showing the weatherproofed iPod. Everything was sturdily mounted to steel bars bolted to his bike, so he could just fold things up, cover them, and hit the road again.



Now, how cool is that.