Burning Man

burning man : leisure activity :: dotcom : sound business model

(ps no it doesn't)

since everything dries immediately in the desert (it's like 110 degrees out during the day) nothing smells at all

so many different crowds of ppl go that you can avoid whatever people you dont like (hippies, ravers, whatever) -- not to mention there's always about 1000 things going on simultaneously so you can go to what you like and not go to what you don't like

i'm pretty anti-hippie myself

i'm going in two weeks -- i am psyched (douglas will be there again also!)

i'm not sure about the CA contingent, so i can't comment on that

Actually, that comment is from a friend of mine who goes to Burning Man every year (translation: he' s serious)

a) like with anything else some of it is crap and some of it is really cool
b) everything gets set on fire so if you didn't like some of the art that's ok, it'll all be up in flames at the end

DUN NUH-NUH-NUH NUH-NUH-NUH NUH NUH NUH-NUH!

Granted, I think part of me dies any time someone says they "feel like an artist." That's me. But the rest is actually supposed to make it sound good?

Is it called "Bill Graham Presents©: Mountain Dew eXtreme™'s Burning Man 2003" yet?

i should become a professor or something

“(i.e. see literally any aggressively child-free Facebook group...)”

wth is this

i hate it so much it goes way past cool but then my hatred becomes so powerful that you start to think hey yeah maybe hes right we should start a rival festival... on fire guy

I’ve been to Autonomous Mutant Festival— one of the original splinters of OG Burning Man—- DEMF (aka Movement), Honcho, and a few others. I think all of those are pretty wasteful, too, fwiw, tho none are at the scale of Burning Man. I wouldn’t go to a music festival again, mostly because large crowds and/or camping around thousands of people just isn’t very me any longer.

my main problem with Burning Man, in my heart of hearts, is that its aspirations and intentions seem completely contradicted by its reality. it makes me recall the song “Halloween” by the Dead Kennedys.

Your points are literally unhinged subjective biases (the music and art sucks boo!)

― octobeard, Wednesday, September 6, 2023 8:53 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

honestly the best argument against it tbf

true hubris is believing that one can and should replace all technology with steam technology. But I don't think anyone at burning man believes this.

It really is a trash event now (from 2019)

An individual Burner’s footprint is about two-thirds of a ton for the week, twice that of an average American. But Burners aren’t average, and they’re becoming less average every year. The median personal income of attendees went from $51,100 in 2013 to $71,500 in 2019.

Burners are famously good at leaving little to no trash on the playa (principle number eight: “Leave no trace”), but that’s cracking under the stress too. This year, the team that sweeps the playa to ensure it’s truly clean before inspection by the Bureau of Land Management was shocked by the amount of trash it found, attributing the mess partly to punishing winds and dust storms, but also excessive heat and fatigue. It’s telling that the thing they found the most of was tent stakes. Tent campers were just done.

You might be wondering why we should care about an 80,000-person totally optional festival and its first-world problems, when the ancestral homes of millions of people are fast becoming unlivable due to climate change. People without access to air-conditioning die every year in Pakistan, but there was only one death at Burning Man in 2022—a middle-aged man had a heart attack. But if a collection of some of the most capitalized, connected, and tech-forward people on the planet can’t figure this out, what hope is there for the rest of us?

i went to a country fair last year and they had a exhibition of all these early machines with the old guys whos hobby it was to restore them, it was pretty cool they should get that at burning man

at that tho i’ve unbookmarked this thread— i can’t apologize for my bile because i’m not sorry for it, but as some have pointed out, better to just put it out of my head after a hearty chuckle

I suspect it was good but is now "over"

Just unfashionable. Like living in SF. Or having nuanced discussions online that don't involve snap judgements on wholesale groups of people over the actions of a few.

I will also openly confess I haven't been since 2015. But was building an immersive sound sculpture to bring out in 2020 that was derailed by the pandemic and still haven't been back. I just really dislike a pile-on on something that really isn't the "cause of our ills". It's like y'all are taking the bait.

they wanted to clear up all the trash after 2019 but the stakes were too high

if the burning man thread can't handle a few punks blowing off steam

https://i.imgur.com/yynT4rU.png

lol goddamnit

I love you all. I've probably consumed too much acid over the years.

;)

you what I'm at a Melvins show right now and Buzz is basically a Republican so who am I to judge

octobeard itt is like me if there was a thread where people said what they think about community theater

MAYBE COMING DOWN FROM THE TREES WAS EXCRUCIATING AND CRINGE YOU EVER THINK OF THAT

MAYBE ALL OF SOCIETY IS AN "UNWANTED OBLIGATION"

you what I'm at a Melvins show right now and Buzz is basically a Republican so who am I to judge

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, September 6, 2023 9:56 PM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

ive def had deep burning man type experiences at melvins shows

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5GTnj5boAAJITh?format=jpg&name=large

have we obama's (acting) solicitor general's attendance

I went to Crash Worship shows when Burning Man was still being held in the city at Ocean Beach... and then SRL's Crime Wave in the mid-90s, in my mind those were perhaps a purer expression/root of what the BM experience was targeting, at least initially.

I saw one of the Burning Man organizers on a panel at a U.S. Conference of Mayors thing, and tbh he was pretty interesting. Mostly talking about the logistics of putting it on, all the problems they had to learn how to solve over the years.

For me, the Desolation Center shows were always the ideal version of this but it just seems incompatible with always-online influencer culture and crowds greater than 200.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDSJ-Aj43oE

My first impressions with the event back in 2011 made me feel it was closer to something like Pride in that it allowed a safe space for people to celebrate and explore their personal identities and express themselves in ways regular society wouldn't normally allow.

well, Pride did eventually turn into a self emasculated self congratulatory corporate jerk circle, but it still provides a safe space for people - but mostly because a lot of us still carry the spirit of what it’s supposed to be.

For me, a big part of the attraction of being in the desert is being away from other people.

When I was growing up in the desert we had our own version of Burning Man called Getting High in a Wash.

Is there a lot of crossover between BM and all those Survival Research Labs / Re/Search San Francisco types from the 80s? Seems like the one could have grown out of the other to some extent but I don't know if any of the same people have been involved.

xp Yeah, one of my closest friends grew up in Palos Verdes, they used to go out to Joshua Tree and do shrooms.

xp yes

"the high desert"

Most of my distaste for BM comes from

1) having to work on an Art of Burning Man museum show. The art was terrible and most of the artists were incredibly disrespectful assholes high on their own supply. I realize this is a common criticism of artists but ime it's usually around 30%, not the 95% that the burners were and the art is rarely so empty as theirs.

2) maybe social media posts aren't representative of the BM "culture" as a whole but I've seen so much gross cultural appropriation in burner fashion (white dreads, warbonnets, etc) and events (white people leading a kecak dance) that are enough to put me off the event entirely.

That said, I know a few perfectly nice people who go regularly and don't pull that shit.

Octo, I'd love to check out your sound installations if they ever happen somewhere other than the playa! An old coworker of mine used to throw a desert sound art festival down near Joshua Tree, though not sure if he's brought it back since COVID hit.

Whoa that's cool! - I'm currently working on some synesthetic stuff with LEDs but I'm actually getting paid for it, so won't be out on the playa or at an art exhibit per se, but next time I get some more time for personal projects I would love to revisit the ideas I had pre-pandemic or expand on them in a different way using more creative visualizations.

xp Yeah, one of my closest friends grew up in Palos Verdes, they used to go out to Joshua Tree and do shrooms.

What year are we talking about here? One of my friends from high school was from Palos Verdes, shroomed, and rock climbed all over Joshua Tree (and the southwest)

Early 80s.

The date tracks... maybe we have mutual friends? I knew a guy named Rick S.: he played bass in a punk band that I played guitar in. One of our better gigs was when we crashed a giant RPV/Palos Verdes Estates graduation party with all our instruments "hi we're the band" "oh cool, set up over there - beer kegs are in the back"

Is there a lot of crossover between BM and all those Survival Research Labs / Re/Search San Francisco types from the 80s? Seems like the one could have grown out of the other to some extent but I don't know if any of the same people have been involved.

when I first became aware of burning man in the mid-late 90's that exactly who was associated with it.

yeah, I think I almost assumed the BM was an offshoot or somehow related to SRL, they used to blow shit up in the desert all the time back then

I saw Vale from ReSearch fairly recently, at a festival.. someone told me he's 79 or something like that!

^^^^ He IS 79 and played keys in Blue Cheer before they went power trio

Found an old web site for the Tales Of San Francisco Cacophony book, and the link list is a who's who of early pre-playa BM

http://talesofsfcacophony.com

I'm neither a burner nor an electrician, but for some reason, Facebook just gave me Burning Man Generators and Electrical Systems as a recommended group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1627137627565692/?ref=share&mibextid=Na33Lf

The comments in that group read like NextDoor Burning Man

Irina Krapiva
worst neighbors ever!!! invest in your generator! it was 90 dc at the end of our camp and we were across from you!

this is stupid to drive electric vehicle and then use old generator with tons of exhaust and super loud to charge your truck and the suck energy from it. You got feedback from other neighbors as well, hope you reconsider for next time and I hope you won't be my neighbors.

Sandra Jurado
@Irina Krapiva As first-time burners, we definitely learned a lot and have lots to reconsider for next time. We are hoping to share what we learned so other first-timers will have a smoother (and quieter) experience than we did.
- Your Sincerely Apologetic Loud-Ass Neighbors

Nick Radell
@Irina Krapiva speaking as an old school type of player, I can only point out that one unattended moment with the offending genny and a sugar cube, will cure all problems for everyone.

Irina Krapiva
@Nick Radell at some moment I was seriously considering sugar cubes 😜 but this year was pain enough to cause even more.

Thanks God other neighbors also complained about loud generator and guys turned it off for a few hours. The first night they run it all day and night as well, which was insane. Later they switched to day hours 🤨 (5-6 hours every single day!) which was still too much.

If I were at their place I would move out of that area to a place with less people and run generator as much as they want.

It was obviously not very pleasant for them as well to get dirty looks from all sides.

Ernie Workman
@Nick Radell Sugar isn't soluble in gasoline. It's a myth that it causes serious engine damage. Especially for non fuel-injected engines, it would at most clog a fuel filter or land in the float bowl, which would be an easy fix. I appreciate the sentiment though, attempting to destroy someone's means of leaving the playa instead of simply chatting with your neighbors is sure in the spirit of Burning Man.

China Wilson
@Nick Radell vandalism definitely the way to resolve problems🙄

I met someone on Friday night who went there this year for the first time and had a great time.
Heard a podcast a couple of days earlier that talked about the rich glomming onto a successful festival over teh years and it largely being them who had had trouble this year and had the wrong attitude to the thing anyway.
Also talked about the expectation that people went to Burning man for the bands which I hadn't been aware of the festival enough not to think.

I gotta mention too that there’s some seriously impressive portable solar rigs in that Facebook group.

Your points are literally unhinged subjective biases (the music and art sucks boo!)

Lol

glad to be of some use around here