Dr. Carl’s Through the Ages

1998-2004 The Lost/Suburban Years (more on that soon)


2005 The Psyche

Dr. Carl’s House of Head Shrinkin’

4:30 & Fetish

Noobs: Meghan, Jeff, Wade

  • “Do you know where Contact Camp is?”
  • The first year of the dome. Our camp looks like a place.
  • Chris sleeps in the van
  • We make the Camera Tree

Notable Neighbors

  • White Dragon Noodle Bar
  • GODBOX! (GODBOX!)
  • And Then There’s Only Love

Regrettable Neighbors

  • The Golden Cafe ahhhhahhahhhaaahhhhahahhah

2006 Hope and Fear: The Future

Dr. Carl’s Department of Collections

9:00 & Anxious

Noobs: Josh, Chelsea, SBS, Angel

  • Holy shit we can see the Man from our camp!
  • The first year of the board! Only 1 board, we flipped the tiles to reveal…
  • …a glorious mosaic crafted of liquid nails and broken plates! It was glorious!
  • Whiskey-a-no-go
  • DJ Moop is born
  • Carl meets Bethany
  • Camera Tree becomes wind sail. Retired.
  • Stilt walker tile vanishes
  • Camo Netting becomes first attempt at shade structure
  • Adrian of Piss Clear deems us “cool”

Notable Neighbors

  • Trashistan!
  • Gypsy something something
  • The taxi cab people
  • Damn Geishas!
  • 3am-7:30am PSYTRANCE! en-stt en-stt en-stt

Regrettable Neighbors

  • Endless PETA films

2007 The Green Man

Dr. Carl’s Department of Collections

4:30 & Arctic

Noobs: Heather, Brigid, Caleb, Sunny, Whitney

  • The board reproduces via budding forming 2 boards!
  • The Man burns early
  • A rainbow! Nobody wakes Di up to see it.
  • Caleb almost cuts his hand off
  • Josh removes the rain fly from his tent just before it rains
  • Whitney brings the dust storms, mooches off camp, and complains about “work”
  • Tiled Tarps become 2nd attempt at shade structure
  • Dr. Carl’s Whaaaaambulance takes a giant shit in the deep playa…We vow never to talk about it again…Til now.
  • Meghan goes to Center Camp. Disturbed by the “scene” she relentlessly reprimands BRC through the megaphone. The Universe responds, Meghan’s bike gets stolen…she then continues berating the occupants of BRC…. And almost gets in a fight with a Kiwi wearing jeans and loafers….and then loses her voice for the rest of the trip. Meghan 0, Universe 2.
  • Dr. Carl’s makes it into the LA WEEKLY.

Notable Neighbors

  • Trashistan!
  • Gypsy something something
  • The taxi cab people
  • Damn Geishas!
  • 3am-7:30am PSYTRANCE! en-stt en-stt en-stt

Regrettable Neighbors

  • Endless PETA films

2008 American Dream

Dr. Carl’s Department of Collections

Esplanade & 6:30

Noobs: Lyle, Derek, Shannon, Juliette

  • The city expands making bike travel really necessary
  • The playa makes bike travel impossible
  • A stabbing at Arachnid
  • Lyle invents the lever
  • We all decide not to camp on Esplanade again
  • Multi-leveled wooden structure of death becomes 3rd attempt at Shade structure
  • Neighbors set up a Quonset Hut with a crew of teen girls stupid fast
  • Meghan’s bike gets jacked a second year.. she realizes the universe hates her. Universe – 3, Meghan – 0.
  • Dr. Carl’s appears on Current.com
  • Alleged first sighting of Cougar Bait

Notable Neighbors

  • Improv Camp, or whatever the hell their name was
  • Spring Break art

Regrettable Neighbors

  • All the random dudes on our porch

2009 Evolution

Dr. Carl’s Department of Collections

Chaos & 4:30

Noobs: Alex, Sara, Julie, Dante, Os

  • Jeff & Meghan engaged at trash fence
  • Katie wins Burning Man
  • Random and awesome D sighting!
  • Self-fellatio tile “win”
  • Quonset Hut becomes 4th Shade Structure
  • Caleb breaks the Art Cart on the first time out
  • Poo Haikus
  • Charlie Brown group of ten night
  • ROCKET LAUNCH Friday night!
  • Dante embraced the future.
  • Do you guys know where Poly Paradise is?
  • Bang ya later.
  • Ghost writers submit pilot episode for “Yeti and the Bear” and receive mixed reviews.
  • Profitable trade routes are established.
  • Dr. Carl’s gets a write up in the Reno Gazette

Notable Neighbors

  • Darwin Lounge
  • White Dragon Noodle Bar
  • Trashistan
  • Porta potties
  • Sucky Fucky

Regrettable Neighbors

  • Roor
  • Those French kids in the RV drinking warm Schlitz
  • Porta potties

2010 Metropolis

Dr. Carl’s Department of Collections

4:30 & Baghdad

Noobs: Chris P, Roy, Jen, Nick, Knicki

  • 2am(ish)…Sunny, Hen, Misfits and Suckaye Fuckaye hold megaphone conference on the four street corners
  • Morning Train
  • Sunday evening, Di is nearly killed when the RV pumping truck drives thru camp and over the corner of her tent. Driver is unapologetic.
  • Double-fucking rainbow, ya’all

Notable Neighbors

  • Trashistan
  • Mystikal Misfits
  • Suckaye Fuckaye
  • White Dragon Noodle Bar
  • Animal Control
  • Black Rock Diner
  • Ironicorn (of doom and black lung)

Regrettable Neighbors

  • None?

2011 Rite of Passage

Dr. Carl’s Department of Collections

4:30 & Divorce

Noobs: Lucy, Giulia, Baxter

  • Trashistan is placed inexcusably far away
  • Alaskans
  • Bass bike makes its first trip to the playa
  • Storage Unit acquired
  • Brigid vs. Early Times. Early Times wins. Brigid has breakdown.
  • Footpussy

Notable Neighbors

  • Spank the Monkey
  • Porta potties
  • Darwin Fish Tank

Regrettable Neighbors

  • None? Again?

2012 Fertility 2.0

Dr. Carl’s Department of Collections

4:30 & Begonia

Noobs: Matt P

  • Wind nearly defeats the quonset hut setup
  • Caleb and Sara surprise Thursday arrival, the population of pregnant ladies in our camp increases by 100%
  • Caleb makes use of the sundries bin
  • Cougar Bait destroys the ramp of death
  • Blow job couple
  • Kids that won’t leave

2013 Cargo Cult

Dr. Carl’s Department of Collections

5:00 & Biggie Size

  • Cougar Bait marked his parking spot well before our arrival. Dick.
  • Wind nearly defeats porch setup
  • Fewer people…faster setup. WTF!?
  • Mystery bag of pot
  • Mystery bag of shrooms
  • Ree secretly sets up our shower. That was embarrassing.
  • Fargo Chris is run over by darkwads. Elbow broken.
  • Ree sets up neighbors “border” PVC into art piece. Neighbor gives us the stink eye.

2014 Caravansary

Dr. Carl’s Department of Collections

5:00 & Basra

  • Welcome to the BRC HOA. A Nice Place to Live in Black Rock City.
  • Rain! Wind! Thunder! Lightning! Hail!
  • City shut down for 10 hours
  • Where’s Ree?

Regrettable Neighbors

  • That karaoke camp – Hammock Hangout

2015 Carnival of Mirrors

Dr. Carl’s Department of Collections.

We assure you something happened. Record keeping efforts have slipped.

  • You were there…you remember…right?

2016 Da Vinci’s Workshop

Dr. Carl’s Department of ReCollection

The scavenger hunt like game gave way to a large head-to-head game of memory.

  • Side note. The memory game was impossible to win.

2017 Radical Ritual

Dr. Carl’s Department of Eaten by Bears

  • It was a…lean…year.

2018 I, Robot

Dr. Carl’s Collection of Departments & Dumpster Dive Bar

4:00 & Fribo

  • Anvil launch
  • Dumpster Dive Bar!
  • TUBES!

Regrettable Neighbors

  • Inspiration Point

2019 Metamorphoses

Dr. Carl’s Collection of Departments

4:00 & Fortuna

  • Things happened

2020 The Multiverse

Dr. Carl’s Collection of Departments?

Across space and time.

  • Scattered across the multiverse we did things and had experiences and made the best of it. The Man burned.
  • Click it!

2021 The Great Unknown

Dr. Carl’s Collection of Departments?

Across space and Things happenedtime.

  • Once again facing the unknown. Once again the Man burned.
  • CLICK IT!

2022 Waking Dreams

Dr. Carl’s Collection of Departments

4:00 & Fugue