Burning Man

I mean, if the haters stay home, so much the better (it's not like "no no, you just have to GO there, then you'll SEE"--if you're predisposed to hate it, you will anyway), but it's kind of disconcerting to see the knives coming out.

Not that I'd ever go, but if I did I'd have to make myself a Christopher Lee costume.

Last year, Tom Schild (current PPLO President)
ventured to the Wrong Side of the Trax at the
invitation of Yuta Lee (PPLO Ambassador to the
Dave Train).

This year, our fearless leader Tom is unable to
face the playa but vows to return next year. In
his place, a crew of 11 DC emissaries will be
representing the PPLO on the playa. I believe we
are the largest DC contingent in any camp.

Ambassador Lee arrives in Black Rock City today
for preliminary infrastructure development. Phil
Psilos (General Mayhem) will be in charge of
military operations for recreational terrorism.
In the absence of our President, I will assume
duties as Field Commander-in-Chief. (I'm
currently on TDY in the Bay Area).

We are the PPLO – The Party People Liberation
Organization. We are recreational terrorists
dedicated to decriminalizing the underground and
preserving our constitutional right to express
our individuality, dance, create house music,
celebrate life, groove to whatever makes us
groove, be freaks and, above all, assemble in
the name of love and peace!!!!

PPLO PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
I Pledge Allegiance to the cause of preserving
our music and culture, and to the PPLO that
protects it, at Nation or underground, all night
long, with partying and dancing for all...

Namaste,
Ky ("Key")

Field Commander-in-Chief
PPLO (Party People Liberation Organization)
Wrong Side of the Trax (Dave Train)
3:30 Serious Authority, Black Rock City

Hahahahahaha... yeah, generalizations about people from entire regions or countries are great. Nothing else does as good a job of bringing the ignorant flotsam of society to the surface. But I'm sure you didn't REALLY mean anything by that, did you Tep? ;)

GERLACH, NV—The Burning Man festival, a prominent artistic and countercultural event that draws tens of thousands of people to the Nevada desert annually, is in danger of cancellation this week because "no one had their shit together enough to even make it," organizers said Tuesday.

http://www.theonion.com/current_top_story.html

"The event likes to bill itself as radical self-sustainability, but really it's an orgy of consumption," said Jack Haye, a computer modeler at Industrial Light and Magic in San Rafael. Haye was exhibiting one of his sculptures at Burning Man.

"There is way too much utilization of new materials that are wasted. How many hundreds of thousands of dollars -- or millions -- are spent in Costco in August getting ready for this?"

http://blog.hisnameistimmy.com/?p=12

-- sexyDancer (jjjjjjjjjjjjj...), September 9th, 2004 12:42 AM. (link)

http://shopbilder.comonline.net/pics/pa/015/picx/603218.jpg

Much in the same way that Burning Man is.

i don't know much about it, but it seems mostly uninteresting and mostly harmless. i think my sister's been at least once.

That blog post that revived this thread - that guy's a fucking moron who should've read up on where he was going before complaining so vociferously about alkali dust, heat, etc. He has no one to blame for his discomfort but himself.

What makes you think we haven't been? Granted it was well over ten years ago, but the one most OTM thing in that blog post is this:

Whatever Burning Man supporters claim, know this, the event is a 24/7 bacchanal of booze, drugs, nudity, S&M, public sex, and bad art

Complaining about the heat at Burning Man is ridiculous though... Er, it's the FUCKING DESERT. I've done a lot of desert camping/hiking so it didn't bother me at all, but it seems like > 50% of the people didn't adequately prepare for it.

Don't disagree that yes it is largely a 24/7 bacchanal of booze, drugs, nudity, S&M, public sex, and bad art. Altho I'd add the caveat that in a good year there is also a fair amount of good art, and the public sex isn't really all that public in most cases.

(uh you are aware that LEAVE NO TRACE is one of the central catchphrases of Burning Man...? You can find moments of contemplation and serenity out there for sure, you just have to walk a ways away from the rave camps)

I'm with you on this - I don't go anymore. The first year I went there was no layout, no map to get there, you could still get away with firearms and explosives, there was WAY better music, and all the raves were restricted to a rave camp 2 miles away from everything else.

Maybe I'll go back when I'm 75 if its still happening, just out of curiosity.

i'm sure it is, and i'm guessing that there are many people who show up who have no interest in adhering to this, and that the people in charge can't entirely clean up after them. i'm also sure that however-many-thousand bodies and automobiles collecting in a place has an impact that doesn't disappear overnight even in a desert.

You can find moments of contemplation and serenity out there for sure, you just have to walk a ways away from the rave camps)

not anywhere i can see or hear rave camps

"If there is anything worse than a pervert, it’s a self-righteous druggie pervert, dressed as a chipmunk, offering unsolicited fashion tips. If you want catty advice on how to dress from a crowd of Rocky Horror Picture Show rejects, Burning Man is for you."

"Any random collection of Toto and Yes album covers would contain better trippy art than all of Burning Man."

Funny!

But one of the coolest things about it that I enjoyed is that the environment is SO extreme - there is literally nothing there but hard-packed dry-as-bone dirt that stretches for miles, its like being on an alien landscape in a lot of ways. Although I've been to Black Rock at non-Burning Man times so this impression was perhaps made more profoundly on me then... and yes this impression can be mediated and diluted by throngs of naked idiot ravers with their shitty music.

Only if they were also FIFTY FEET TALL! Burning Man art is all about scale.

I didn't get all the way through that blog entry, when the dude started complaining about being tired from the heat and the dust I gave up (that's why everybody sleeps during the day there - get one clue)

Prior to him going, he'd come up to our place, constantly remind us that he was older than us and we'd learn how to make wise decisions when we were his age (28 I think), make sure that we weren't going to be amking any noise after 10pm on a weeknight, wander in and out of my roomate's studios making negative comments on thier works-in-progress, and complain about the string of visitors coming and going from our place.

After BM, he was still constantly dropping by unnanounced, but instead it was just to make sure we all "felt good vibes" and to just check in to make sure we knew that "everything is cool now." Dude got seriously evangelical about how BM changed his life.

So, while I've never been, (and I used to spend hours looking at people's pitcures of BM on-line while I was a College Freshman in 1998, hoping and praying for the day I too could go) I'd say it's a draw.