Burning Man

No, it's just going on now and it's just lol in my opinion. I can think of very few places I'd less want to be at less.

I'm not sure that sentence made sense but you know what I mean.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/08/libertarian-burning-man/

http://www.ustream.tv/burningman

really looking forward to the inevitable drowning-in-a-sea-of-shit deaths of all those seasteading assholes, I must say

You know, every couple of years I think back to this thread and how someone like Geeta recommends it and I think, hmm maybe... And then:
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/09/burning-man-2012/100363/

I dunno, some of those photos are really beautiful and almost make me want to go. Almost but not quite.

Mountain Spirit (left) and Shooting Star, their Playa names, dance in the desert during Burning Man 2012, on September 1, 2012.

The Samurais dance at sunrise in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, on August 31, 2012.

Eric Yttri plays a flaming tuba in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, on August 30, 2012.

Hallie McConlogue stays cool, partially submerged in a fishbowl helmet, during Burning Man 2012, on August 31, 2012.

Art car "The Sperminator" cruises the Playa, on August 31, 2012.

Two men bare-knuckle fight in the Thunder Dome during Burning Man 2012, on August 31, 2012.

A man with the Playa name "Shaft" rides his bicycle in the Unicorn Stampede, on August 29, 2012.

I am just not that into watching thousands of people exhibit their fantasies to one another.

Mountain Spirit (left) and Shooting Star, their Playa names

http://www.sherv.net/cm/emoticons/sick/throw-up.gif

I am being mean. If this is what floats their boats then more power to them. I will, however, reserve the right to rme a little because c'mon now.

haha I just realized that they meant the actual word "playa" and not the in-vogue mispronunciation of "player"

or... DID THEY?????????

Ask Kitten, she would know.

I am terrified to look at these pictures because I may know ppl in them

lol iirc playa is what they call the area on which the event is held so it means their names while in that space. It's a lot funnier when read the other way though.

They all appear to be vagrants or else trustfund babies.

one of my roommates is into this but this year she just went to a "burning log" which i guess is a local splinter for people who don't have $400 or whatever to spend on going to a party

playa is a geological/geographic term guys

which is why i said it was the area on which the event is held

xp to Shakey Mo

As DJP so aptly pointed out, it's a double bonus word. Except it is not known whether the playa-on-words was intentional.

Shakey, what part of "oh right, they meant the real actual word" made you think I didn't know what a playa is?

lol

geography, guys.

I hope at the end of a burning log gathering they actually all watch a single log burn

haha that's exactly what I was thinking! I mean because it just sounds a little sad. They should just call it a campfire party or something new altogether.

don't really get why you'd do this when you could, i dunno, just go off camping in the desert with your friends

yeah rilly the same thing basically

http://i.imgur.com/fcUAa.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/OkHGn.jpg

ha, otm.

being a west coaster I have many friends who are there right now but I totally understand the eye rolling. I have never been, and am not really into the whole culture of "transgression" via recycled Re/Search motifs. but there sure is some cool shit to see out there on the playa.

when people roll back into town after this the cars are covered in this telltale superfine alkaline dust, it never quite goes away.

God yeah that stuff is like, idk, talcum powder. we had friends who would come camping with us a few weeks after Burning Man every year, and their tents looked like ancient relics, lol.

I've never been but def is kind of a West Coast 'shrug, lol art hippies' thing. I love all the creativity though! Like, some of the cars people rig up are amazing.

ok full disclosure, i haven't been in over a decade (too late to be all cooler-than-thou about it, there were already 20000+ people a year by the time i made it, certainly not too early to have people going "well it *used* to be good" etc etc) but in my era, and from what i've heard from san fran types who still go, or still have friends who go - it's still a good time. a pretty crazy party. hell, the party of the year! mardi gras for the city of artists hippies fags and hackers that is san francisco, and anyone else around the world who thinks that sounds like a party worth traveling 3000 miles to.

i mean, sure, there's a certain amount of TAZtalk and blathering about organic societies and what not, in part because it's actually, to an extent, true. but most people are just getting naked, taking all the drugs they've been saving up all year for this one holiday weekend at once, and unleashing their various art projects on the world. many of which are flammable. it is difficult fun. you're in the desert. nothing is on sale, even water. ok, coffe, coffee is on sale. but that's it. it's mainly byod. and there are more geeks, goths, ravers, & industrial types than hippies, and there are more hard-to-pigeonhole eccentrics than there are all of the above combined. all this "dirty hippies, bleh!" is blah blah blah from the mouths of people too uptight to go.

one of the biggest DUDs of all time. I should note that I haven't been, but every thing I've ever heard about it makes me cringe.

People I know and like really love this and swear by it and always try to tell me how amazing an event it is, but they're all new-age hippies retards, so I'm gonna say dud, even though I personally know absolutely nothing about it and am too lazy/too hip to bother learning.

This is one of the few times where I can't stop myself from judging something by the people who like it; the people I know and have known who go to Burning Man are among the most loathsome, flaky, obnoxious, insulated, sheltered, spoiled, and flat-out stupid people I've met (I'm talking almost exclusively about northeasterners, if there's a significant difference). It isn't possible for me to separate out my utter contempt for them from my impression of Burning Man, even if it should be. If I miss out on a big zoomy zeitgeist-a-go-go as a result, I'll live with that.

"dude, we can buy some really great soap and maybe some bracelets" <-doesn't have to say he's never been

i can honestly say i'm totally glad these people didn't go. this is exactly the kind of lame excuses my friend made to talk us out of going one year. then me and my bud moved to s.f., we went cause everyone said it was awesome, and they were right.

http://galleries.burningman.com/photos/Portaplaya/Portaplaya.44929?mediatype=photo#pastheader

when you're there, and in the mood to have fun, this is the kind of stuff you notice, wandering around the desert high as a kite. also, *everyone* is totally in the mood to get laid.

so, classic. i'll accept "dud" from someone who's actually been, and agree to disagree; certainly it's a far from perfect event. but the rest of you? pssht. you deserve to never go.

also, :

http://www.ifc.com/malcolm-in-the-middle/videos/malcolm-in-the-middle-burning-man

one of my roommates is into this but this year she just went to a "burning log" which i guess is a local splinter for people who don't have $400 or whatever to spend on going to a party

― a hauntingly unemployed american (difficult listening hour), Tuesday, September 4, 2012 6:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I went to what I think was described as "Burning Man East" back in 1999. It boiled down to an overnight beach bonfire here. There were probably about 40 people in attendance. The next campsite over was a group of boy scouts. It was a decent bonfire with some good people. There weren't any cool art projects or anything though and it was too cold that night for any awesome nudity.

I wouldn't go to anything the size of what Burning Man is today, but just based on the people I know who have gone, I'd feel at ease with at least some of the crowd. I wish I had headed out there a couple times in the 1990s instead of doing Phish tour.

i think this thing's less interesting to tucsonans because we already have +100 degree summers and hippies and entire blocks devoted to warehouses filled with weird sculptures.

messiahwannabe mostly OTM I think even if I have no interest in ever going again. too many people/too much raving.

BURNING MAN ALASKA 2012 - or is that just wicker man

An ex-gf of mine went this year. Over the past few years, these have turned into her people. Which is fine, I guess. More power to them all. But you wouldn't catch me within a hundred miles of this shit.

a friend of mine has worked for BM for over a decade now and it's been interesting to hear her behind-the-scenes take on the organization and the event itself and how things have grown and changed. long story short - when the men were in charge things were wild, dangerous, unplanned, etc. as the event grew in size and the women in the organization took over, things have become much more regulated, restricted, well-organized, etc. which was probably required by the event's scaling-up. even so I basically have no interest in an event that involves this many people, no matter what it is.

Burning Man, LLC?

Black Rock City LLC

also, *everyone* is totally in the mood to get laid.

This sounds amazing until you realize there's a possibility you'd be the odd one out. Then it sounds like the most treacherous thing ever.

xp It's the LLC that really matters.

http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/organization/index.html

also, *everyone* is totally in the mood to get laid.

Burning Sensation Man

lol