Dinner with Larry Harvey!

name: Larry Harvey
age: 57
nickname: Patchy Dense Fog “I didn’t embrace it, but it’s a frequent condition around here.”
Occupation: Hero and founder of Burning Man
Recommends: The Incredibly Sad Story of the Rainbow Man

I was very excited when a friend of mine, Lessley Anderson, offered to put me in touch with Larry, founder of counterculture mecca Burning Man. I’ve never been to Burning Man, but it’s a city of thousands that appears in the Nevada desert for a week at the end of August. He knows about how to bring people together and build community, and I wanted to hear his story.

We talked on the phone and he wanted to come have dinner in the RV, so I got a spot right in front of my house on McAllister and ran the extension cord from the garage for shore power.

Larry poked his head in the open door and asked, “Is this the dinner place?” He is so dry, I love it. He was wearing a cowboy hat and cowboy duster jacket. This was the first dinner and I forgot to take a picture of the man, but his cowboy hat looked very similar to the one in the picture I posted above.

Lessley showed up with a gallon of vanilla caramel swirl that quickly melted in the refrigerator, and spinach salad. You can’t understand how small the RV is, and there were five of us in there. Jon was in the sleepover cab, taking notes, Clark had the video camera going, and Lessley was about three inches from the lens cooking up some linguine, while Larry and I sat at the table. When she put the onions on the skillet to sauté, our eyes began burning.
“Open the windows” the cry went up.
“No” Clark cried. “The street noise will blow out the body mic’s.”

He was right. So we stayed in there with our eyes burning, our nasal tissue sweating, and our stomachs rumbling because dinner was just about ready.

“I think it’s beautiful you’re going through California, people need to know about this state… it’s lost its cutting edge, it doesn’t seem relevant, with the last elections and all.” Lessley said.

This got us talking about politics, and Larry got me thinking about how our country is going more and more away from social to private ownership. We are going towards a private army in Iraq, and that’s scary. The private sector demands profit, and isn’t the criticism this war is about oil profit? What happens when we all agree that is a good idea to fight for?

I had a cigarette with Larry even though I’m fighting the flu. Everyone has it right now.
“It must be hard to manage a grocery store. I went into one today, and the OJ prices are slashed because it’s gonna move fast, and cold medicine is right up front. There is so much to think about.” I guess graduating from business school makes me think about these things.

Larry says, “There are more frustrated artists in advertising than anywhere else.”

I believe it.

We began to talk about the troubles brewing within Burning Man, but there is so much back-story I’m not aware of, we decided to talk about anything but Burning Man.

Lessley had to duck out early to get to her swing dance class with her husband, and Larry stayed a long time talking about how culture needs to be built, how big the universe is, and other things Lessley said reminded her of college. The plastic plates, the pasta for dinner, and existentialist conversation. We ought to do this more often.

Larry eventually had one more cigarette for the road, then headed up the hill on foot to his place just a few blocks away. This was a great beginning to the National Dinner Tour. Here on the sidewalk in front of my house.