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Drama in the Desert 194

Posted by timothy from the one-day-soon dept.
Rerekuka writes "Imagine your home town is built on a moonscape, epic in cracked earth, hard sun, dust storms, thunderstorms, rainbow sherbet sunrises and tie-dyed sunsets that move you and your neighbors to applause. Imagine art born from 25,000 of your closest friends, from you, lining the streets and filling the dustbowl playa: a radiant cathedral built from recycled plastic "stained glass," a filigreed temple-mausoleum filled with messages to friends who have passed on, a coffin made of gun metal, a Tesla coil taunted by a wacky scientist, an art and philosophy-lined labyrinth, oases sprouting lawns and ferns." There's been a lot written about Burning Man; I especially like Bruce Sterling's report about it for Wired in 1996. Read on for Rerekuka's review of Holly Kreuter's book about the festival.
Drama in the Desert: The Sights and Sounds of Burning Man
author Holly Kreuter
pages 144
publisher Raised Barn Press
rating 9.5
reviewer Nina Rene Soreco
ISBN 0-9721789-0-2
summary Multimedia immersion into the Burning Man culture.
Imagine the only vehicles in the streets are art cars, like behemoth metal dragons spouting fire and spaghetti western covered wagons. Imagine strangers who would read to you from William Carlos Williams, offer you a snow cone or a Margarita. Imagine folk costumed in everything and nothing imaginable. Imagine walking into any jazz joint or grilled cheese stand, or getting your hair washed or your feet massaged, and your money is no good because this town operates on a gift economy. Imagine that everybody Leaves No Trace. Imagine diversity coexisting with common ritual - ritual based on radical free expression and purification by fire. Imagine a place where creation and impermanence, innocence and experience, the ridiculous and the sublime, are honored as facets of the same jewel. Imagine this is no fantasy.

Drama in the Desert: The Sights and Sounds of Burning Man is a compelling multimedia chronicle of life in Black Rock City, hometown to some 25,000+ "burners" who gather yearly over Labor Day week for the Burning Man festival in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. The book and accompanying DVD contain the stunning photography of Holly Kreuter and the artwork and voices of Burning Man participants, including an introduction by bestselling author Dave Eggers and a foreward by Burning Man founder Larry Harvey. The 74-minute DVD is, in Kreuter's words, "the book on steroids." Produced by Michael Lazar, the DVD showcases 560 of the author's images in a frame as large as your screen, and includes interviews with some of the artists and Larry Harvey. Sean Abreu's mesmeric, tribal soundtrack to the DVD is available separately. The CD drew mystified appreciation from a coworker who meandered into my cube, the DVD is an immersive meditation, and the book, gorgeously designed by Lisa Hoffman, has found its home on this reviewer's coffee table.

"How was it?" she asks, and attempts are made.
- Shannon Coulter, in a poem by the same name

Holly Kreuter's full-color images (283 in the book, 560 in the DVD), spanning five years of Burning Man citizenry, artwork, events, and land- and skyscapes, are captivating, both in the subjects she chooses and her own interpretive style. Some of the photos are stark and disturbing, such as the deteriorating iron, mesh-fleshed skeleton kneeling on the ashen earth, howling at the sky. Some are vibrant and whimsical, like the many-hued, body-painted folk in one mischievous tableau, the Ice Cream Freezing Man truck, the colorful, life-sized "chess" board, the city aglow with lights and electro-luminescent (EL) wire. Then there's the artwork, bewitchingly captured by Kreuter, that just falls into the "astounding" category: the Plastic Chapel, the Faces, the Temple of Tears, the Emerald City, the man made of books. The images of the tornado-esque dust devils, spinning like dervishes off the blazing 100-foot Man, are epic.

The book is sprinkled with diverse forms of word art, from haiku to narrative, written in strokes as broad as the spectrum of art at Burning Man. Overall, the writing is strong and bold; in a few places, it is a bit uneven or could be pared down, but these instances are minor. Writers include luminaries such as Free Will astrologer and author Rob Brezney, poet and author William L. Fox, and Chris Taylor, San Francisco bureau chief for Time Magazine.

All of the stories are intimate and real, describing journey, vulnerability, humor, awe, magic, and epiphany. One woman speaks of her initial shyness about slipping into the hot springs nude. (She gets beyond it.) John Kelly's testosterone-infused "Let Me Be Dangerous" dreams of riding in the back of a pickup truck going 60 on the playa:

. . . "Mind if I catch a ride?" I asked.
"You fall, you die," the driver answered.
"That's fair," I said.

Rob Brezsny speaks of an experience common in Black Rock City: "I have never in my life felt surrounded by such relaxing fertility, by so much luxuriant conviviality. For many days now I have glided without even a taint of fear through a city of 25,000 people. Unknown allies and I have spotted each other from a block away and run to each other like long-lost friends from previous incarnations . . . I have been in love with more than a few women in my life, but this is the first time I've plunged into the throes of spiritual infatuation with a time and place."

Tom Kramer's simple "Together," describes a premise intrinsic to the Burning Man community, a Buddha gift ripe for the world:

That we appear
separate
is the illusion.

At one time
the desert was
a mountain.

And we were children.

Holly Kreuter has been a Burning Man participant since 1995 and a staffer for Burning Man since 1997. She also founded Raised Barn Press, the production and publishing company that lovingly produced Drama in the Desert.

If you are a citizen of Burning Man ensconced in your everyday life, Drama in the Desert is a soulful trip Home. If you haven't been, Kreuter's collection is a playful, evocative dip into a culture as rich and exotic as can be found.

Experience samples of the text and images from the book, the DVD, and the separate CD at www.desertdrama.com, where you can also order the collection. www.raisedbarnpress.com will get you to the publishing company, a story in itself.

. . . in the great fire
my heart is burnished

brushed
and burned clean

in the great fire
I fall in love again
only this time
I am awake
and the azure sky is as transparent as my imagination

-Mark Jan Wlodarkiewicz, My Heart Has Been Burned Clean

You can purchase Drama in the Desert: The Sights and Sounds of Burning Man from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
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Drama in the Desert More

Drama in the Desert

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  • puke (Score:2, Insightful)

    by kin_korn_karn ( 466864 )
    The artistic side of Burning Man is such bullshit. It's like any other post-modern gathering, it's based on drugs and fucking. Anyone else who shows up is there to watch stoned people have orgies.

    • You find what you look for. (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      When it comes to patterns emerging from chaos, you see what you look for (like clouds). If you, like most young American males, care only for intoxication and copulation, then that is all you will find.

      People who believe that "everyone is a theif at heart" only say that to justify their own black, dishonest heart.
      • lay off the crack pipe, you self-important cocksucker.
        • hey, some of us take exception to that crack-pipe crack.

          have you been to burning man? didn't think so. do you review movies only from the trailers you catch on ET? thought so.

          would you deny some body's experience of burning man simply because you're too shallow to see similarities of it to yourself? whoops, existentialism creep.

          push away from the tube and turn of tv. you need to get out more. -but not to burning man, please.
      • Give the guy a chance! Maybe hes Christian and only sees the stuff he doesnt like or cant have: intoxication and copulation. Though your point still stands as being correct.
      • I'm not sure how this got modded down, because it's very true. Maybe it was the overgeneralization of young American males... Anyway...

        I've been to a few burns myself, and you're right -- there are a lot of people who go for drugs and fucking. However, there are also very many (probably many more than the D&F contingent, though I've never taken a poll) who *don't* think the art scene is BS. There are also people who look at Burning Man as a sort of spiritual pilgrimage, those who view it as an experiment in community-building, and those who see it as a giant bass-thumping rave.

        That's one of the great things about Burning Man -- it's very hard to pin down what it is, because it's so many things to so many people. And, like the parent post mentioned, if you go looking for drugs and fucking, you'll probably be able to find plenty of evidence to reinforce your bias.
        • I find the notion of temporary art appalling. Art is meant to be permanent, a lasting mark on the world. Destroying everything you create is the ultimate in asinine stupidity.

          That leaves only drugs and fucking as possible attractions to Burning Man. Both are worthwhile pursuits, if you're at the age where drugs make sex better, but I've outgrown that.
          • History's filled with people who find others' notions of art "appalling." Obviously, what you think art is "meant to be" is different than some other people's.

            Are you suggesting that it's impossible to have a different view of what art is than yours? That seems a bit arrogant.
            • I'm saying it's arrogant to create art that you don't intend to last. That's stealing from culture and history. You demand that someone be present at the time of creation to enjoy your creation? Fuck that. Art is a statement, not an experience. Art-as-experience is a nihilistic, intellectually bankrupt, culture-rotting crock of shit.
          • I find the notion of temporary art appalling.

            So you find jazz improvisation [outsideshore.com] apalling as well?

            • For the most part, yes, unless it's captured as a recording and charted for posterity.

              What if Michaelangelo painted the sistine chapel and then painted over it? What if [your favorite musician] wrote the most brilliant song ever written, and never bothered to record it or write it down? The world would be denied the greatness of the work.

              I understand what people are saying when they want art to be temporary or just some instance in time, but I think it's the ultimate in cultural self-destruction to do so.
              • That was one of the reasons we had to go to Grateful Dead shows every night. They were always different, not only playing different songs every night, but playing each one differently every time. Sometimes it flopped, but sometimes it was pure magic. It wasn't just the performers on stage, it was also the interaction of the performers and the crowd. Recordings are nice, but they're not the same thing as being there, and the shows were always recorded for posterity - not necessarily on tape, but in the thousands of different recordings in the memories of the individual audience members. Also, while some of the songs started out good, what really happened was that there would be a basic structure that would evolve as they'd get more experience with performing it, and with how the crowd reacted to it, and with what their emotions were at the different times they were performing.
                • I see recording like Zappa did. The studio is another instrument - it allows the artist to perfect his/her vision. Live performance is too spontaneous to allow a coherent statement to come forth.

                  I'm a musician.. I used to play improvised music, fusion type stuff. One time I recorded a 13 minute solo over 2 chords. some people loved it. It was described as "genius" and all that other stuff. I was in a different zone when I played it and I felt like I really made a coherent statement.

                  Then, I lost the tape. I hadn't written the piece out on paper, nor did I have an extra copy lying around.

                  To me, this completely invalidated the concept of wholly improvised music. The statement that I made was lost forever, because a) I was dumb with the tapes and b) it was just one moment in time.

                  I could never reproduce the song because it was the product of a very specific mood. This made me realize that the holy grail of music is to write a song that always puts forth the same impression and always produces the same mood in the listener.

                  Words always mean the same thing, so should music. Humans being imperfect as they are, this requires that recording technologies be used to capture and perfect the vision of the composer. Even scoring the piece in musical notation leaves it open to mutation by half-assed musicians. Now, recording is even more fuckup-friendly with all the remix and sampling shit that's going on.

                  Now does my stance make sense?
                  • So what you are saying is that if the art is any good at all, it will still impress outside of the context of its creation? Basically, if people are still in awe of a repetition many years after, then it is good?

                    So we can enjoy Bach, even though we do not live in early 18th century Germany?

                    Hence art designed to be destroyed is inherently bad art?

              • kin_korn_karn seems to be quite the asshole.

                Art is no good unless it's recorded? Music is no good unless it's recorded? What utter, unremitting bullshit.

                k_k_k has a very constipated sense of art.

                How is a live musical performance that doesn't get recorded "the ultimate in cultural self-destruction"?

                A culture had better be alive. Not just archives.

          • Art is meant to be permanent, a lasting mark on the world.

            So all the actors, musicians and singers who plied their trades before audio and video recording was invented are "nihilistic, intellectually bankrupt, [and] culture-rotting"? The Greeks of the Age of Pericles would probably take exception to that. Art is a means for the artist to express him- or herself. Permanence is not a necessary condition. Hell, an audience isn't even necessary.

            • No, that just means that pericles was the real artist. His work endured, the actors' didn't.

              Art is always valuable to the artist no matter whether it lasts for 10 minutes or 1000 years, but it's not culturally significant if it isn't permanent. I feel that any artist that isn't striving to be culturally significant is wasting his/her time, because art is humanity and if you don't want to contribute to humanity, then you are a selfish bastard(ette).
        • Thank you for putting that so well. I was struggling to come up with the same thing, myself. It's really like anywhere else in the world. Different groups and subcultures represent themselves, and the crowd you hang around greatly influences your experience.

          It's a strange microcosm of the rest of the world, really, with the freak factor magnified 100x. You even end up with neighborhoods in Black Rock City. Certain areas will be a large cluster of rave camps, and such, and some people end up thinking of them like a bad part of town, that they want to avoid.
    • Well I don't do drugs anymore, but I still haven't outgrown the other... Count me in!

      (Come'on, I can't be the only slashdotter that gets laid, can I?)
    • If you have to travel all the way out to the desert for stoned orgies, you're not making the right kind of friends in your own home town.

      You don't have to travel out into the desert for the things Burned Man is _accused_ of being, as pretty much all first-hand Burning Man accounts have pointed out.

    • The artistic side of Burning Man is such bullshit. It's like any other post-modern gathering, it's based on drugs and fucking.

      thanks for sparing me the need to say that. I used to believe I wanted to go to Burning Man, until I saw my friend's video from BM 2001. Nothing but babbling idiots on ecstacy and nonstop thumping goddamn club music. Kinda glad I skipped it!

    • I agree. But not because you were moderated up for it. I took the time to browse some of the image archives at Burning Man [burningman.com].

      I came to this conclusion. It is the stupidest thing I have ever seen. Granted some of the pictures are interesting, and some of the "art" is creative, the vast majority of it doesn't make any sense to begin with. For example, there's a picture of some guy dressed only in tin foil. Another guy wearing an oversized Campbells Soup can. Then the vast naked women with their naked bits painted with creative designs. Some of the people are dressed up like they've seen Mad Max one to many times. I mean, to me all this looks like is a huge college party.

      You can't try and slap some spiritual meaning or inner understanding to this "party". It's plain and simply a huge ass co-ed college party. Sex, drugs, things done for shock value. Thats it. I don't see anyone writing a book about me if I go running around naked outside with shit painted all over me. But when 25,000 people get together and do it, it's awe inspiring. Bullshit.

      • Re:puke (Score:2)

        by Trick ( 3648 )
        "You can't try and slap some spiritual meaning or inner understanding to this "party". It's plain and simply a huge ass co-ed college party. Sex, drugs, things done for shock value."

        This based on looking at some of the images on a website? That's a far, far cry from having actually *been* there. I'm also really curious where the "sex, drugs" part of your opinion came from, since neither are depicted in those pictures.

        It's always fascinating to me how quickly some people will dismiss anything they don't understand (or just don't want to take the time and effort to understand), and will find a way to make any evidence they can find fit their preconceived prejudices.

        There are a lot of elements of Burning Man that don't translate well to still photographs; things like the shared experience of the burning of the man come to mind, the camaraderie that develops in a vast, empty expanse of desert, and the *sounds* of the place -- everything from loud music to quiet conversations to distant drumbeats.

        I'm not going to try too hard to convince anyone who thinks Burning Man is a load of crap otherwise -- it's not for everyone, and it's probably better off without those who think it's just some giant drug-induced orgy. As someone who's been several times, though, and has *yet* to run around naked, paint myself, or witness an orgy (though, admittedly, I have been known to take a drug or two), I can say that the experience is vastly different from anything you might be able to view in a browser window.
      • The guy wearing an oversized Campbells Soup can is obviously the shade of Andy Warhol!!

    • You are so right on the money. I went to Burning Man twice for a creative experience, and was totaly asaulted buy young, glassy eyed girls trying to suck me off. It was so anoying. And all those huge art projects people spend yeard making- those are just there to lure the usnunsuspecting out so the girls will have man meat. Disgusting. Ihear next year that they are going to make it manditiory for all "art" to dispense Ecstasy. You might as well stay at home with some tall boys and porn.
      • > [I] was totaly asaulted buy young, glassy eyed girls trying to suck me off. It was so anoying.

        Nice troll... You've just ruined the NEXT Burning Man when 50,000 Slashdotters show up looking for young glassy eyed girls :-)

    • Post-modern gathering? No, just a modern gathering. I think that the urge to reduce things to simple monikers isn't always productive. Think of Burning Man as one or more of the following:
      - drugs and fucking
      - commercial bullshit
      - rich yippies trying to get back to their roots
      - poor stoners telling rich yippies that their roots were in Harvard, so fuck off back there, please
      - an attempt to cohere around a new symbol of spirituality that doesn't necessarily adopt the cultural baggage that a traditional religion carries
      - a search for meaning and identity in an age when the supposed ghost in the machine has been exorcised
      - a place where cool things happen
      - a striving to bring into existence an American version of the pagan mythos that is the predominantly European western esoteric tradition
      - a banal re-imagining of The Wicker Man
      - a place where, y'know, you can watch, like, cool stuff
      - all and none of the above

      • Actually, this pluralism of styles, philosophies, and standards is exactly what postmodernism is. Modernism is quite different.

        Burning Man is pretty much the archtypical postmodern event--so far as anything postmodern can be thought of as "archtypical", of course. One of the core concepts of postmodernism is the rejection of fixed archetypes.

        When you say that Burning Man cannot be narrowly or exclusively defined, what you are really saying is that Burning Man is postmodern, by definition.
    • Well put. You sir are my hero.

    • it's based on drugs and fucking.

      Sweet! I am SO down with that.

      -Laxitive

    • "The artistic side of Burning Man is such bullshit.


      I don't know whether you have actually been to Burning Man, but suffice it to say that I had a very different experience than the one you suggest. New friendships were forged, and old ones were strengthened. I found amazing works of art, clever uses of technology, beautiful dance performances, impressive hand-built structures... I could go on and on.

      I suppose you could spend all your time in the desert on drugs and fucking if that's what you were looking for, but you would be missing so much great stuff! (And probably failing to contribute to the festival as well.)
  • where is the dirty hippie option in preferences?

    ostiguy

  • ...a Tesla coil taunted by a wacky scientist... (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Do not taunt Happy Tesla Coil.

    • Warning: Pregnant women, the elderly and children under 10 should avoid prolonged exposure to Happy Tesla Coil.

      Caution: Happy Tesla Coil may suddenly accelerate to dangerous speeds.

      Happy Tesla Coil Contains a liquid core, which, if exposed due to rupture, should not be touched, inhaled, or looked at.

      Do not use Happy Tesla Coil on concrete.

      Discontinue use of Happy Tesla Coil if any of the following occurs:

      • Itching
      • Vertigo
      • Dizziness
      • Tingling in extremities
      • Loss of balance or coordination
      • Slurred speech
      • Temporary blindness
      • Profuse sweating
      • Heart palpitations
      If Happy Tesla Coil begins to smoke, get away immediately. Seek shelter and cover head.

      Happy Tesla Coil may stick to certain types of skin.

      When not in use, Happy Tesla Coil should be returned to its special container and kept under refrigeration...

      Failure to do so relieves the makers of Happy Tesla Coil, Wacky Products Incorporated, and its parent company Global Chemical Unlimited, of any and all liability.

      Ingredients of Happy Tesla Coil include an unknown glowing substance which fell to Earth, presumably from outer space.

      Happy Tesla Coil has been shipped to our troops in Saudi Arabia and is also being dropped by our warplanes on Iraq.

      Do not taunt Happy Tesla Coil.

      Happy Tesla Coil comes with a lifetime guarantee.

      Happy Tesla Coil

      ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES!

  • I'd go to see a stoner orgy that used life-sized chess pieces.
  • this is /. you're talking to here, or is that the total number of close friends the /. community has?

  • Hmmm (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 27, 2002 @10:58AM (#4966416)
    Imagine your home town is built on a moonscape, epic in cracked earth, hard sun, dust storms.... dustbowl playa: a radiant cathedral built from recycled plastic "stained glass," a filigreed temple-mausoleum filled with messages to friends who have passed on, a coffin made of gun metal, a Tesla coil taunted by a wacky scientist, an art and philosophy-lined labyrinth, oases sprouting lawns and ferns

    What is this? A new Doom level?
  • Burning Man is a huge commercial event now. It's not what it used to be, and we're due for something new.

    If you've only seen the photos and seen the press coverage, there's one alternate view [livejournal.com] in JWZ's journal.

    • Burning Man is a huge commercial event now. It's not what it used to be, and we're due for something new.

      Then shut the hell up, and do something about it. Or you you honestly think that you're "due for something new?" That the world owes you freedom of self expression?

      You need to get out there and take it back.

      Need some help getting started? Check for a regional event in your area:
      http://www.burningman.com/calendar/regional .html

      If you're on the East Coast, there's a great regional called Playa Del Fuego that you should check out:
      http://www.playadelfuego.org/

      Maybe one of them has what you're looking for.
    • hello? commercial? name *1* corporate sponsor or promotion anywhere at burning man. you can't because your ticket price is the tax. there is no corporate underwriting. i take it back: ice and coffee are for sale but only because of the losers who can't figure out what they'll need... but no logo's!

  • drugs and f***ing (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I went twice -- '96 and '98.

    I didn't do any drugs

    I didn't get laid.

    I had an amazing time.

  • Uh huh. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Grendel Drago ( 41496 ) on Friday December 27, 2002 @11:04AM (#4966449) Homepage
    Where thousands of the wealthiest and most powerful pay scads of money to celebrate anti-commercialism and equality. Gag me with a fucking spork; the hypocrisy is going to make my skin peel.

    --grendel drago

    • Re:Uh huh. (Score:2, Interesting)

      by SlightlyMadman ( 161529 )
      Where thousands of the wealthiest and most powerful pay scads of money to celebrate anti-commercialism and equality. Gag me with a fucking spork; the hypocrisy is going to make my skin peel.

      That's not really true. Have you been there? It really doesn't take much to come up with $150 for a ticket, and you go there with just the clothes on your back, if you've got a true gift to offer. Sure, there's lots of yuppies who sit in their RV's until it's time to burn the man, but you really don't see to much of them.

      Just stay away from the main attractions, and you'll see the real participants. You'll see the most beautiful things of your life.
      • you go there with just the clothes on your back, if you've got a true gift to offer.

        So you go there with the clothes on your back and your true gift, then?

        Coming up with $150 for the ticket isn't the only expense, of course. You still have to buy or barter for transportation, food, water, art supplies, shelter, &c. When many of my acquaintances go, they expend significantly more treasure than the $150 that the ticket costs. They claim that the experience is worth the couple thousand dollars worth of resources they expend to get there, stay there, and get back, but sometimes I'm not so sure... it seems possible that they've bought into the Burning Man hype, and that their resources would be much better spent getting a job, keeping a job, saving some money, repairing their cars, furnishing their homes, or any one of the ten thousand other things that don't involve spending money they can't really spare on some sort of overhyped "celebration of anti-commercialism and equality".

        No doubt I'm missing out on something really good and special by avoiding Burning Man, but on the other hand, I seem to live better the rest of the year than almost anybody I personally know who makes the effort of going. Certainly I spend the rest of the year with less dodging of creditors. As far as I can tell, you need a certain minimum commitment to commercialism and conformity to even be able to afford Burning Man, without taking a significant hit to your overall quality of life.

        It was probably much better in Soviet Russia, where Burning Man would come to you.

        • Actually, I spent significantly more than the price of the ticket, because I had to travel there from Baltimore, and I brought food & water. I certainly wouldn't recommend anyone show up without food, water, and shelter, but my point is that it can be done, and plenty of people do it.

          A lot of people overprepare, though. Renting an RV, for example, is a ridiculous way for most people to experience the event. Granted, there are always exceptions, and someone who is really making an effort to participate can always do so, but it can easily be an isolationist act. Practicing isolationism is a great way to completely miss the experience.

          I think that the trick is to prepare just enough so that your needs are met, and you don't become a burden on others, but no more. Just find something that you can offer as a gift, and don't just buy a box of 1000 glow sticks, there's plenty of that already. If you give freely, people will do the same for you.

          As far as I can tell, you need a certain minimum commitment to commercialism and conformity to even be able to afford Burning Man, without taking a significant hit to your overall quality of life.

          Absolutely. Just like you need a certain minimum commitment to commercialism to buy a tuna sandwich in this country. This is America. Capitalism rules supreme. The only way to avoid commercialism is to hold the event outside of America (or any other country which practices capitalism), but, even then, anyone traveling there from a capitalist society would still need money to leave their country, so it's unavoidable.

          The point of a Temporarty Autonomous Zone, like Burning Man, is to give you a break from that, not to replace it. Just to sidestep it for a moment, then allow us to return to our lives. Hopefully, everyone that was there takes a little bit of it home with them, and maybe even carries the philosophies on to their daily lives. It doesn't directly change the world, but it changes the people who live in it, which can be just as good.
          • Renting an RV, for example, is a ridiculous way for most people to experience the event.

            Well... There is plenty to experience at Burning Man, without also experiencing sleeping in the dust. Handling the RV was itself an experience. An RV should not be an excuse to isolate oneself, but creature comforts help a lot in making it bearable.

            Just find something that you can offer as a gift, and don't just buy a box of 1000 glow sticks, there's plenty of that already.

            Drat, and we thought this was such a great idea. No wonder we didn't make many friends there. Isn't there a Burning Man FAQ somewhere that talks about stuff like that?

        • without taking a significant hit to your overall quality of life.

          That is, if working to stay a step ahead of the creditors, being gainfully employed and commuting in a nice car could be called anything other than slavery.

          If I did go, I would tell my coworkers that I went camping. I find that if people hear you're out doing things, they tend to think you're pretending to be something your not.

          • That is, if working to stay a step ahead of the creditors, being gainfully employed and commuting in a nice car could be called anything other than slavery.

            Slavery to what, exactly?

    • ...self-righteous, privileged neo-hippies that make goofy arts and crafts are especially pathetic when portrayed in coffee table books of their own making.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Twice Burned (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dogfart ( 601976 ) on Friday December 27, 2002 @11:10AM (#4966502) Homepage Journal
    Been there twice. Book sounds right on as far as the art and attempt to build a community goes. Some amazingly well crafted art, some incredibly funny stuff (the parking meter in the middle of nowhere...). The temple is even better than the Man, IMHO.

    Burning Man is not for the fastidious - you are in an alkaline desert with no public facilities. We took a rented RV (complete plumbing, etc.). These small comforts cost a bit. The rental places are hip to this event, and they require an entire week's rental. The Oakland El Monte RV rental place is very cool, the guy in charge knows the Burning Man head honcho, has Burning man posters all over, etc.

    I get a sense though that all the talk about community really applies to the few hundred hard-core burners. Not much effort is made to integrate newbies into this community. You sort of have to wander around and find thing hit-or-miss. Maybe this is a flaw in other intentional communities, where insiders are tightly knit, and outsiders may feel unwelcome.

    Lots of neat stuff there however a realistic portrayal would also show zero visibility dust storms, long lines at porta-potties, etc. There are also several notorious speed traps along the road - Nevada Highway Patrol must make a mint here. It was not always a comfortable experience. Knowing what to bring is very important. For example, lots of old terry cloth towels, to wipe off the dust. Oh, and bring some sort of beverage to share with your neighbors, and do so as soon as you get there. Helps break the ice and you get to know the folks in your vicinity.

    If you go, stay over Sunday night for the Temple burn. Also, as it tends to be windy, maybe a large kite to pass the late afternoons

    • build it - burn it!

    • "lots of old terry cloth towels, to wipe off the dust"


      You wiped the dust off? Heck, I stopped bothering after the first day. One gets used to the ever-present dust after a while. In fact, I sort of missed it when I returned home.

  • Lot's of geeks at bman (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    There are a *lot* of geeks at bman. I was reading with interest the previous single chip linux computer article as it sound perfect for an art project I have with 1400 ultra-bright LEDs. The home brew radio stations number in the dozens, and there are always tons of interesting robotics, laser, LED, and other projects. You get out of bman what you put into it.

  • Imagine walking into any jazz joint or grilled cheese stand, or getting your hair washed or your feet massaged, and your money is no good because this town operates on a gift economy. Imagine that everybody Leaves No Trace. Imagine diversity coexisting with common ritual - ritual based on radical free expression and purification by fire.

    I suspect you'll have to imagine pretty hard - especially that "leave no trace" stuff ...

    • Yeah, there's a bit of a battle going on there, between the "true believers" and those who just want to party. The latter group can be seen tossing beer cans in anything that looks like a trash can, and the former group can be seen following them around, picking up the beer cans, and taking them back to their own camps for disposal.

      It works out surprisingly well, actually. A lot of people don't mind doing it so much, since there's plenty of people to spread the burden (the former group still outnumbers the latter, at least until the last couple of days). It's a pretty good feeling, to be walking across the playa, and happen upon a bit of trash. It's like a treasure, and you cram it into some overstuffed pocket, and hold onto it all night long, until you can make it back to your camp.
    • They do get pretty close to the "leave no trace". Bureau of Land Management requires this as a condition of their continued use of the playa. BLM checks both immediately after the event and after the first strong rains in the winter (to catch items buried under the dust). Considering 25,000+ people, the playa is amazingly free of trash.

      • Credit where credit is due! The DPW carries a large part of the praise for the resulting no-trace condition. They spend months cleaning the place up, and months more building the next one.

        That being said, BRC is a nigh trace-free encampment.

    • That's why we keep the incinerator out back, er, I mean why we're gonna purify you by fire ;)

    • ...the only people with time to imagine that shit (and to play the tea party version of Utopia) are fucking trust fund hippies.

  • Shouldn't This Be Free? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Didion Sprague ( 615213 ) on Friday December 27, 2002 @11:22AM (#4966567)
    Shouldn't this book be free? And where are all the photographs? Shouldn't they be free, too?

    Two years I went to Burning Man and got violently ill. It was too fucking hot, and I ate too much roasted papaya. A doctor in nearby Ralston, Nevada made me wait for hours in a tiny waiting room. There were no windows, no white sheets of protective paper on the prep table, and only a single mason jar full of tongue dispensers. On the wall was a calendar from 1977.

    Anyway, this doctor -- he was an old guy, maybe in his 70's -- took all kinds of blood tests, urine samples, you name it -- but said, finally, it was a bad papaya. He advised me to pack up my shit and head home.

    And then, just as I was putting my clothes on -- I'm not kidding -- he launched into a speech about hippies in the 1960s and how his son fought in Vietnam and how when his son came home, nothing was ever right in his son's head. He claimed that these burning people -- that's what he called them 'burning people' -- were hippie wanna-be's too young to protest in Vietnam and too dumn to understand the thing they shoulda be protesting was Ho Chi Minh, not the US government. I asked him: did he vote for Nixon? He said, yeah, he sure did, and then I reminded him that Nixon was just this side of a wack-job.

    The doctor didn't like that and ordered me to leave his waiting room. I grabbed my shirt and shoes and shorts and on the way out wondered if he was going to give me anything for my stomach.

    "Give you what?" he yelled. "You fucking peacenik."

    I said, wait a minute hoss, I'm no peacenik. I came here under the assumption that guys like you were bound by the oath of hippocrates to help out all the peaceniks and hippies and burning man washouts.

    He said to hell with that and said he didn't want to see me in his office again. I brought shame to him and his son.

    "My son," he yelled at me as I walking across the parking, "fought for hippies like you. He was in Marine and got a piece of NVA shrapnel in his arm which corroded and rusted and caused a rot that nearly ate off his whole arm."

    I yelled back: Where's your son now, old man?

    He said he's in a VA hospital in Galveston. His arm is shot, he smells bad, and he has a drinking problem.

    "So much for Vietnam, then," I yelled, got in my car, and fishtailed out of the parking lot. I stopped at a drugstore down the street and picked up a bottle of Milk of Magnesia, and spent the night in a little motel in Henderson, Nevada. I puked a couple more times, but all was well the following morning.

    I put a couple dollars worth of quarters into a couple of old slot machines, and won enough money to get me across the desert and into Idlewild -- another hippie-type community at the foot of the San Jacinto mountains. Last I heard, my father was supposed to live there, but when I went to the address I had for him, the house was occupied by a woman named Sylvia who threw pots and knitted sweaters. She invited me to stay for supper and told me that she knew my father but had no idea where he left when he moved out.

    Anyway, I drove around the desert for a couple more days, then headed back east. I work at a tech company, so I was glad to get back home.

    All in all, my own Burning Man experience was a disappointment. Months later, however, I got a bill from the doctor who treated me in Ralston. He charged my three hundred dollars for the office visit.

    I wrote 'Fuck You' across the bill and sent it back.

  • Burning Man is William Shatner's version of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" come to life. And no, that's not a good thing...

  • Now imagine a bunch of freaks and weirdos getting together with a bunch of junk, taking drugs, and going out of their way to prove themselves "more artistic than thou". Then watch as they try and do as many oddball things as possible to desperately cling to the notion that their meaningless lives have some sort of purpose. Hey, if you can't have a purpose that is actually productive, at least you can have an anti-purpose that tries to demonstrate to the world how "cool" you are.

    Most teenagers go through this phase (e.g., Goths), and grow out of it. It's really pathetic when they don't.

    • Well put. I couldn't agree with you more. I speak as an ex-goth, ex-punk-rocker, ex-nihilist. I don't see a problem with going through that as a phase as long as the person eventually grows out of it. It makes me sick to see grown people (i.e.: 30 year olds) still anti-establishment. Ugh.

      • Speaking from a 47 y.o. viewpoint... People outgrow those phases when they get past the stage where they've got nothing to lose, and go beyond the point where being part of the tribe means more than truly thinking for one's self. Of course, some people never do grow up, and never learn that parroting any dogma that goes "against" something else is not exactly "freedom of thought".

        I've got nothing against such festivals, and some of the elements have their place (catharsis can be useful). But too often they're used to reinforce an essentially irresponsible way of life (such as was too often the case with the hippie era).

        And there's another name for people who never outgrew being a hippie or whatever anti-establishmentness: Loser.

      • True. Some people just aren't fortunate enough to mature into the "cynical curmudgeon" phase of life. Pity them.
    • Now imagine a bunch of freaks and weirdos getting together with a bunch of junk, taking drugs, and going out of their way to prove themselves "more artistic than thou". Then watch as they try and do as many oddball things as possible to desperately cling to the notion that their meaningless lives have some sort of purpose. Hey, if you can't have a purpose that is actually productive, at least you can have an anti-purpose that tries to demonstrate to the world how "cool" you are.

      There's a lot to be said for that point of view. But at least at Burning Man, some people do it well. It's better than the SF art scene, where nobody tells artists when they suck, and they continue doing bad art for decades.

      Burning Man has a faction of Deadhead types, bereft since their idol overdosed. They have an annoying 60's stoner tendency to pretend that what they do for fun is really important. But they're dying off. The younger people admit they're just having fun.

      • It's better than the SF art scene, where nobody tells artists when they suck, and they continue doing bad art for decades.

        You know, I actually have more respect for a bad artist who probably knows in their heart that they're bad, but continues trying, than some flashy idiot who shows up at Burning Man to prance around in tin foil to somehow demonstrate that they're on a higher plane of artistic existence. At least the bad artist is about the bad art, rather than trying to be about "being a cool artist".

  • Excellent! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Resident Geek ( 16074 ) on Friday December 27, 2002 @11:46AM (#4966716) Homepage
    There are some pretty wild things going out out in the desert--people find all sorts of applications for technology. Some are artistic, some are practical. One of my friends is learning how to build a flame cannon...I learned engineering skills to make a temporary, stable structure (a 33' geodesic dome). The cool thing is that each of the people behind the projects they bring will gladly share what they learned. The free software community and the Burning Man ideal aren't so different when it comes down to it.
    • I learned engineering skills to make a temporary, stable structure (a 33' geodesic dome).
      Did you really learn engineering skills, or did some guy show you how to build a geodesic dome? There is a difference.

      Unless you learned how to do a structural analysis of a geodesic dome, or something similar, I'd conjecture that you learned simple construction techniques, not engineering.

      Besides, you could've learned how to build a geodesic dome from a number of websites, without even leaving the comfort of your home.

  • I have to say... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Lysol ( 11150 ) on Friday December 27, 2002 @12:22PM (#4966991)
    that the drug thing is pretty true. I tried bm a few years back and it was definitely an experience. i liked a lot of the crazy shit. and i think there were a lot of genuine people there for the community and the art and the whole 'journey'. i can definitely understand just wanting to get the hell away from 'civilization' as one can.

    but on the other hand, i felt a huge disconnect there. i'm not the raver type and just wanted to hang out with people, check stuff out, but there was definitely much more of a non-stop party than i really wanted. all party and no one to share it with i suppose.

    however, one cool thing i did was to walk across the playa, find some friends, who in turn followed some dj in a big rolling fish bowl with speakers and monitors all over back to some 'club' in the middle of nowhere. it was interesting, but i didn't care much for the music so i headed back the way i came. the dust storm was incredible. i would just see people and vehicles and weird shit come out of no where. luckily i wasn't run over cuz people are all over the place in their art cars.

    anyway, off in the distance i heard motors and drumming. i walked by and there were these mad max cars circling this big artsy wooden thing (no it wasn't the man), shooting flames at it, torching it. also lined up next to one of the cars that stopped were these drummers banging out a steady tribal rythm on their drums. pretty surreal.

    so, yah, i guess you can take whatever you want from that place. there were definitely dorks, but also cool people and whatever else you wanted there. for me, it was definitely an experince and i like weird shit, but i'll probably never go back. just not my thing, really.
  • Been reading through some of the comments about burningman. Pretty typical. There's a tendency for people that haven't been there to blather on about it having become "commercial" or how it's just a big drug party/orgy whatever. When the truth is that the person complaining is too lazy to get out to the desert to see for themselves. Burningman is extreme by design.
    If you haven't been to Burningman I strongly urge that you check it out for yourself. As others have pointed out, you don't have to go to the desert to find many of the things that are there. For those who will seek it though Burningman is about much much more. I have been for 5 years now. There is nothing quite like Burningman. I wouldn't miss it for world.
  • Consider for a minute the contrast between Burning Man and "regular life". For 51 weeks out of the year many burners have ordinary jobs among ordinary people, perhaps not by choice, but by necessity. One reason so many people go to Burning Man and have unquestionably the best time of their lives is because they, briefly, want to get the hell away from our society that's teetering on the brink of war, that's finally getting Big Brother armed and operational, and where every decision and choice of any consequence is ruled by the almighty dollar.

    Consider for a minute that maybe it's not what Burning Man IS that matters. It's what it ISN'T.

    If you think Burning Man is a real-life porn movie, or a drug-drenched GigaRave, or a city full of art wankers, or any of the many other stereotypes people use to knock it, then guess what: YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO! 28,000 of us are having a good time, and frankly we don't care what you think of us.

    Consider for a minute that maybe a committee didn't design Burning Man so it has maximum entertainment value for your demographic. Maybe you have to participate and contribute what you've got to offer, instead of consuming what you think you need.

  • I have gone out to the playa six years running now, so I am clearly drinking the Kool-Aid.

    Each year, wandering around turns up a huge number of jaw-dropping art projects, cool new friends, diverse lectures, performances and debate, and solitary time for reflection. It reinvigorates my sense of the possible, restores my faith in human nature, and pokes me to make more of my extra-desert life. I got the book as a gift yesterday, and it is really really well done; can't speak for the DVD.

    Notably, it has given me a whole new outlet for my robotics obsession. I have tinkered with EL wire, LEDs, motors, seismometers, lasers, servos, and sound activated circuits. Other friends have learned to weld, build domes, and created elaborate games ( www.gyft.org ), costumes, props, and sculptures for the event. At the East Coast ( playadelfuego.org ) and Austin regional ( burnaustin.org ) events, an even merrier crew of hard core campers turns out, somehow.

    There is a buttload of tech out there, from stage equipment to powerful lasers. There is wireless internet, pirate radio and TV, and amazing one-of-a-kind sound and light sculptures.

    Of course, if you can't see past your own cynical ego, maybe it is better you don't come. You can go see bare breasts locally for much cheaper, and their owners won't threaten you for gawking. It is hot and dusty and cold and rainy and loud 24/7, with lines at the portapotties AND these people are freaks.

    They're my people.
  • Try to stop at Pyramid Lake, if you're coming from southern Nevada. It's a huge lake surrounded by desert. The whole place is an Indian reservation. At one corner of the lake, a natural stone column (strikingly pyramid shaped) rises out of the water. At another part of the lake, is another stone shape that looks strikingly like a cloaked woman with a baby basket. The drive from Reno is breathtaking, from what I hear. And if you're into fishing, some of the world's largest cutthroat trout (Lahontan) are caught there.
  • For a while I was into taking panoramic photos, where I set my camera on a tripod and take pictures at angular increments around the vertical (or sometimes horizontal) axis of the camera. I'd stitch them together with Live Picture's PhotoVista.

    PhotoVista was meant for making QuickTime VR-like images, where you can scroll the panorama around in a web page using a viewer plugin or Java applet. But I always thought it was cooler to have just a photographic banner.

    I have a panorama I took at burning man on this page [geometricvisions.com]. The panorama in that page is quite small so that it will fit on your screen - click it and you'll get a greatly enlarged view where you can see some detail (including the PhotoVista Demo Version watermark!).

    I have promised the organizers of Burning Man that I'd give them a hi-res panorama on CD that they can print and hang in their office, but I've never gotten it together to make it for them. I'll try to do that sometime soon.

    You can find a few other examples of my photography, art and music here [geometricvisions.com]. I have a lot of stuff on PhotoCD that I mean to put on the site, but again I've been too busy to deal with it. There are several MP3's of my piano compositions though.

    I'm not sure if PhotoVista is still published. Live Picture was bought out by MGI Software, who were then themselves purchased by Roxio (the Easy CD Creator people). Roxio has an inexpensive graphics bundle package, but I don't know whether PhotoVista is included. Besides stitching the images, it would handle such things as lens distortion quite nicely.

    I have a couple panoramas I took up on the Eiffel Tower that are still waiting to be scanned.

  • what it's like until you've been there.

    A lot of people don't believe it can be as good as claimed, Leave No Trace, gift economy, etc. And most of them they stay at home, bitterly bitc^H^H^H^Hposting about how lame everything is.

    Those who do believe show up and create it. This self selection process yields a pretty amazing bunch of people.

    Ask anyone who's complaining if they've been. For those (few) that have, ask if they were invovled in anything, or just were waiting for the experience to happen to them. It's all about being involved.

    And yes, there's drugs, frat boys, and trustafarians. But there's also the most incredible art you've ever seen, more intense life experiences that you didn't mean to have, and more real possibilities for life than you had any idea existed.

    The truth has been said before: you find what you're looking for. If you want lameness you can find it anywhere. But if you want transcendant, indescribable life epxerience and community, you'll find it there like no other place.

    Here's [oacious.com] a good, short article on the vastness and variety of the experience.

    Another good bit is the speech [burningman.com] Larry Harvy (founder of BM) gave at Cooper Union earlier this year.

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