Riding Shotgun with a Real-Life Mad Max

Deep in the California desert, at a post-apocalyptic gathering where anything goes.

For Mike Orr, a.k.a. “Sweet Lips,” escapism comes in the form of Wasteland Weekend: an annual four-day post-apocalyptic festival held in the Southern California desert that attracts thousands of people from around the country. It’s basically a giant celebration of end-of-the-world culture, where, per Sweet Lips, “people can do whatever they want.” This includes everything from hand-to-hand combat to burlesque to bonfires that set the night sky ablaze.

But most of all, people come to Wasteland for the cars  —  DIY war machines that look as though they’ve rolled right out of "Fury Road." For his part, Sweet Lips is in a constant competition to outdo himself, always imagining, devising and constructing a junkyard monster that’s bigger and better than the year before. His main ride at Wasteland is a Camaro, the grill of which is adorned with a near life-sized mermaid (Sweet Lips rescued it from an aquarium where a bunch of turtles were constantly trying to hump it). And at the most recent …