It’s rough. It’s both tangential and very tangible. I only ever met him once but I dug his vibe, and I immediately recognized that his vibe was, strangely, the vibe of the event. My friend Joshie and I were driving our mutant vehicle and saw him off the Esplanade at First Camp and Joshie said, “Hey, pull over, let’s talk to Larry.” We pulled up, waited our turn, and when he put his attention on us, he looked at our matching t-shirts, that were simple white words on black, that said “Burning Man is stupid.” Period included. He simply asked us “Burning Man is stupid?” We both said, “Um, yeah.” All three of us knew that it wasn’t his first time seeing this question put to the world, whether it be in email, Facebook, standing in line at Center Camp Cafe, or t-shirt form. He chuckled, and nodded, and turned his attention to the next acolyte. Mission accomplished, onward we went.
Burning Man is stupid.
as a post script to massive’s story, i had the opportunity to offer larry one of those t-shirts later that week. he graciously accepted it with his signature grin. word got back to me that he would wear it occasionally at HQ.
thank you larry – for so much.
what i owe you is beyond evaluation.