The Temple Of Promise
There were some pretty weird and astonishing things being created, constructed or transmogrified this year. And this was also the year that the Choir finally – after so many years of wandering – had their own permanent home.
When Miss Ayme decided to take the reins to make this dream a reality, some time in late-Autumn of 2014, after exploring any and all options, from inflatable domes to choir shells, domes made of pvc or conduit (cheap, but not load bearing), she was perusing craigslist for anything ‘burning man’, and stumbled upon an ad for someone selling a custom-made, rolled-steel 5/8V Dome for $15,000.
As it turned out, it was the Black Rock Cantina Dome! We had just performed there a few months ago! So without a penny to our name, she offered $10k. They settled for $12.5k. And it was off to the fundraising races! Inside of three months, with the generous assistance from John and Sherry Beckman (Bird and Canary), we bought the dome. Guthrie then found a place to store it (a rented storage container at Iveson Ranch), designed and built dome jacks, bought choir risers and all kinds of necessary stuff (extra bolts, tools, tubs, etc.) We were rocking!
Our success turned out to be our undoing, however, because we now had so much stuff, it took us two trips to get it to the Playa! That was expensive (in/out fees) and double the work. While we felt so proud of building that dome for the first time, and experienced a satisfying Sunday Service like none before, it was a painful lesson learned. Strike this year was a disaster, no other way to put it.
So how to solve that problem? Rent a truck each year? Buy our own? We were broke again, but again Miss Ayme was up to the challenge. And that’s a story for 2016.
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