Burning Man

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.

-- Tep (te...) (webmail), August 11th, 2003 11:15 AM.

otm, btw

Every year I went there were at least 3-4 art pieces that were truly mind-blowing. Sure, this isn't a great ratio, but who cares?

And as far as the "I hate raving partygoers/weirdos/hippies" crap, when did you all turn into reactionaries (this is where one of the assholes pipes in with '2001! No! 1997!")?

And really, the trick to avoiding the more beer-guzzling obnoxious side of Burning Man is to leave on Friday. The weekend DOES turn into something a little ugly and scary. If I hadn't gone with a theme camp (and had to clean it up on Sunday), I would have left early, for sure.

And the blogger linked on the revive eventually said this:

UPDATE #2: It’s rather apparent from the comments that many readers did not understand the satircal nature of this review. This review contains a large component of satire.

For what that's worth. Apparently he was writing from a "character's" perspective rather than his own, and exagerated much of what he experienced.

In terms of how they treat the land, I'd venture that its true a lot of BMers seem to be rather careless about their commitment to "leaving no trace". The BM organization themselves, however, are uber-hardcore about it and tend to do a pretty phenomenal job of going over every inch of the playa and picking up cigarette butts, ashes, etc.

Premature combustion

What kind of hippies call in The Man?

This is his mug shot -

http://img464.imageshack.us/img464/4362/baburningmanburner104zh2.jpg

HERO