A friend of mine that came with us said he had come up with a narrative for his time at [Transformus](http://www.transformus.com) and I thought that was a good idea.
Before our trip we spoke to many people about where we were going. Have you heard of [Burning Man](http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_man “Wikipedia: Burning Man”)? 9 out of 10 people had no idea, and the 1 would have only heard of it but didn’t understand it. Due to the nature of that I don’t expect everyone who reads this to understand it. Transformus is a regional offshoot of Burning Man. The same tenents are in place, there should be no spectators but participants, a [gift economy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy), and ecologically [leaving no trace](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leave_No_Trace).
None of these little ideas give it anything but some basic ephemeral bounderies. You can call this event by a number of names, experimental, self-actualizing, random peculiarity, human acknowledgement and expression, acts of kindness and absurdity which is what it is, what it isn’t and the myriad of terms in between. That is the reason why explaining the spectacle is so difficult. It is really something to just experience.
We were asked to attend by our friend Mike, a member of the [Tiki Torchures](http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciordia/sets/72057594140450404/). A bunch of metal oriented people who were gathering a drama-free zone of self-reliant behaviors along with a stage-show for some metal mayhem. A counterpoint to other touchy feely [groups](http://www.transformus.com/event/themecamps/camps.html) that generally exist. The point is very tongue-in-cheek, but makes for excellent polarity. Most of the core group arrived on Wednesday to begin assembling the last few months of work. We came out on Thursday packing up the Pathfinder from trunk to roof full of equipment and toys to last us the duration.