CAVEAT EMPTOR: Tuesday is the New Saturday!
Alright, if you haven't had enough of the controversy already, I have finally scribbled out 1933 2101 2240 2249 words about my experiences, thoughts & feelings concerning this year's mischief @ Burning Man:
If you see The Man in the road... burn him!
It was the night of the Lunar eclipse @ Burning Man, and lauraleanalle & I were at The Greenhouse Project.
It's been a while since I had done the third of the Tai Chi sequence that I know; so after Laura Lea kindly walked me through that section, she then went back to do the whole thing solo from the beginning.
While I was watching, I noticed something curious in the distance...
"Laura Lea, it looks like the man is burning..."
"Whisky, Tango, Foxtrot?"
"...Seriously, the fucking man is burning!"
So, we jumped on our bikes & rode down to check it out!
There were many other people & bikes there, but there were no annoying art cars; so, it was an experience somewhat like the temple burning... except that instead of sacred feelings of serenity, forgiveness & compassion... people were confused, dumbfounded, happy, afraid, amused, angry, laughing, chaotic...
I started yelling, "Save the Man!" ...while others shouted, "Burn the Fucker!"
The first two fire trucks couldn't get enough water pressure to extinguish the flames (they only managed to diddle on The Man's toes, and I seriously thought they must have been doing the whole thing as a gag); but the next couple of larger fire trucks weren't so impotent, and managed to douse the fire rather quickly (at which point, i returned to wondering if someone who might have some unresolved resentment towards BMORG may have pulled off the stunt).
If you ask me, the next few nights were delightful without the neon stench of The Man polluting our landscape. Humans are tool using creatures, and we can still navigate without neon... perhaps if we have a compass... or maybe if we are fortunate, a gps device... oh wait, you mean we can tell where we are on the surface of the planet by using the stars & other celestial objects, as well? Wow, there was so much potential to learn about our environment, this year!
But seriously folks... even Larry Harvey has been snickering about the premature immolation of The Man (go ahead & ask him about it).
If you have any doubts, here's a quote from a Wired article by Brian Doherty:
"Larry Harvey, Burning Man's co-founder and director, was on a platform in his camp watching the eclipse when he noticed his Man on fire. Once realizing that the fire was under control and no one was apt to be hurt, he says, his immediate reaction was laughter.
The early burn, he said, will help show that the Man itself is 'nothing but a wooden doll,' and that the event is really about the joint effort of attendees to create it. It will turn this year's Burning Man into a 'narrative of community and redemption' as the attendees get to see or assist in the public rebuilding of the statue, he said."
There were some fascinating rumors that turned into legends on the playa, as mordwen recounts in this profound story of the Phoenix that was shared with her on the night of the Temple burn. And here is a photo of the Phoenix before the final burn. And apparently, this phoenix is still spreading its wings...
But I suppose a corporation can't officially encourage people to do things that would increase their liability, can they?
Who would sell them insurance?
The "back of the ticket" warnings would never hold up in court as a defense for their negligence or malfeasance, anyway.
Curiously enough, I had pondered some similar questions about our own local community's tolerance of torts when we were dealing with some con artistry, recently.
But after all of the hubbub, the feds kicked Paul Addis's case down to the lower courts & I think that he'll probably get off with community service.
Yes, the charge is Arson of an occupied structure, but this Trickster clams that there was actually a team of operatives that cleared out the structure before he started the fire & they alerted the Rangers that he was doing the deed, although there is some discrepancy about whether or not this actually happened... and there is also an indication that some of the people were difficult to convince that they needed to leave the structure which was being set on fire.
People have been talking about trying to torch The Man early practically ever since the tradition was started... there was even a sign on gate road this year that read "The Man Will Burn on (a Weekday)!"
Paul is just that guy who finally ran the gauntlet & torched the fucker ...and that's pretty legendary chutzpah, if you ask me!
But yes, in the past, other people have managed to prank the man in creative, rather than destructive ways, such as: adding a neon happy face, or attaching silver-painted beach-ball cojones to his crotch (oh wait... that was Paul Addis, too!).
So, couldn't he have come up with a better way to jam the culture than fighting fire with fire?
Well, someone was bound to do it eventually; so let's just get on with the show, shall we?
Besides, sacred cows do make the best meat, y'know!
So, what makes this prank different than the burning of La Contessa after last year, or this year's other acts of vandalism, such as detonating the phone to God(), pilfering offerings from the altars in The Greenhouse Project (thieves even took prayer beads & amulets off of the Buddha's neck)... and in perhaps the worst of all vandalism @ BM07, torching the pregnant Statue of Liberty which had been carved by Timeless (along with the artists' trailer & all of his tools, underneath)... Wasn't The Man also a project produced by many artisans whose work will never be appreciated in the way that they had intended, and which had to be re-created in an imperfect & incomplete manner? For instance, the neon in The Man's heart had a receiver & digital processor which controlled the pulse in a way that reflected participation from handheld devices transmitting information through infrared). OK, I agree that it really sucks for all of us that no one was able to play with that really cool toy, damnit (but i'll bet we could build another one... maybe Paul & his friends will do a benefit to pay for that? Don't count on it. But we could make it happen!). Yeah, and there was also a whole sound collage that was going to play in the "zen garden" of trees under The Man, which no one got to hear, too; 'cause the $3K sound system was destroyed by the fire & dousing the fire. There was a backup of the sound data, and they managed to get another sound system together to play it through. Oh yeah, and there were a bunch of traditional masks from indiginous cultures around the world which had been placed on the trees, and rocks & benches which were arranged around the trees; but those survived the first burn. And I've gotta say that I, for one, would have liked for people to be able to explore the green exhibits under the pavilion, more. There were some groovy projects for sustainable development under there.
Perhaps it is enough that The Man is a corporate symbol/copyrighted/trademarked/brand/logo that was burned... But what about all of the green projects under the pavilion that almost no one got to see? Although there were projects from many sources under the pavilion, allow me to remind you that many people were... shall we say, displeased about the corporate presence on the playa, no matter what the justification.
Will any of this have the faintest chance of waking up the spectators from their sleep of stagnant convenience? That would be great, but I doubt it.
Was anyone harmed? No... Although they seem to have been potentially endangered to some degree, but q.v. the tort question... except that if your community tolerates pranksters, and they know the risks, then why are they complaining? Oh, there are boundaries & a bottomline, eh? Pray tell, where are those written? Please pardon my sarcasm, but I have seen many people get away with much more cruel pranks without this kind of furor being raised. I just tend to keep on the alert with goggles & respirator, in case people get stupid ideas to set things near me on fire. Safety Third!
For those of you who are unfamiliar with some of the traditions at burning man, please do some research on The Cacophony Society, The Temporary Autonomous Zone & Survival Research Laboratories and get back to me when you have some context.
But here's a clue: many of those original pioneers had left by '96, with firearms having been banned & "the man" in the process of being elevated further & further away from "the people" (symbolism, who?)... some resentment still remains, and ocassionally, someone stirs the coals a little. Paul Addis has not made a strong enough statement to attain to the status of Jesus overturning the money changers' tables (even considering his "bring the troops home" video interview), but his actions have been compared to Merry & Pippin of the Shire prematurely igniting Gandalf's firework dragon, as well as St. Patrick lighting the fire on the Hill of Slane. Others compare him to a foolish child, or a BMORG stalker. To me, it seems that his antics are more akin to Shooter's shenanigans, except that Paul has upped the ante considerably.
Perhaps I should give y'all another example, which still survives to this day:
When we're not working, many of us @ DPW are often enjoying a rather serious game of Capture the Flag.
During 2006 DPW parade, I almost killed my own dumb ass with the flamethrowers in my car exploding in my face while participating in the attempted retrieval of the Damn Fucking Texans' flag!
...Yeah, I know we're supposed to be burning a man in effigy, but I was feelin' rather incensed, at the time...
heatherthegreat & I didn't get the flag back during the parade, but we managed to recover it under the cover of night in a ninja raid (& speaking of Heather's great prowess in combat, during Orfunner, she & pandora_0 defended Circus Nafarious from a couple of Speedfreak Chodes with a taser).
While we're at it, let me share yet another piece of playa wisdom with y'all, if I may:
During '05, my first year, I was @ Spike's Vampire Bar in Center Camp, where my friend bloodraynn was working as a bartender. I was beaming in a way that attracted the attention of a certain hardened desert veteran. Thanks to a post by mordwen, I believe that this person may have been Rodent, but I am currently waiting for confirmation of that suspicion. We talked for a few minutes about our experiences, but he quickly sussed out my idealism. What he said to me then was basically quite simple, if I may paraphrase, "Yeah, the 10 principles are great, but the one thing you need to know first is that this is a culture of hedonism. If you are interfering with someone else's enjoyment, then you are fucking up."
When I think about it, the question of whose enjoyment has been interfered with leads me to contemplate the culture known as the Orang Asli's system of taboo, referred to by the word, "punan"
Perhaps we could get some of our own cultural elders to sit around and have a moot about this issue... but who would we invite?
Somehow, I am reminded of some of the questions brought up by V for Vendetta.
So, anyway... after the Man got burned early, DPW got another chance to prove yet again what bad asses we are.
After I helped build the fence & moved a bunch of the science-fair/trade-show exhibits around to make space under the pavilion for tools from the ranch, I was deputized to guard the man base.
Basically, I helped the Rangers distinguish between on-duty DPW & well-meaning citizens who were curious or simply wanted to help in any way they could.
So, for the rest of the evening, I found myself paraphrasing bax's words (Saludos, Comandante Cobra!): "DPW has the situation fully under control, so the best way you can help is to go out there in the city and have a great fuckin' time!"
Without exception, people were quite enthusiastic in their celebration of this duty.
Whether they were there to visit the Postindustrial Disco... be entertained by the Alterna-Disney experience... possibly compete in a Post-Armageddon version of the Olympics... maybe participate in the meta-communal apocalyptic phantasmagoria... perhaps to work building the "world's happiest company town"... &/or even display some degree of embodiment of the 10 principles which are more-or-less adhered to, or at least idealized by many of the participants?
At the end of the day, perhaps if they are fortunate, or if they work to educate their own conscience... only the individual knows their own truth... when we look at ourselves in the mirror, or see ourselves in dreams?
What have we done to bring Burning Man back to life?
And what will we continue to do... immediately... spontaneously... capriciously... fugaciously... passionately.. improvisationally... ephemerally... without attachment... with serenity?
--
After all of Paul's claims of two burns for the price of one, brought to you by Black Rock Intelligence... amusingly enough, lauraleanalle & I were fortunate enough to arrive in Santa Fe on the day of Zozobra, so we actually got to see three men burn in little over a week!
But I will save the not-so-subtly esoteric, as well as largely exoteric explanations of that festival in person for another post... Meanwhile, here're some of my ol' musings about effigy burning, in general
--
Tonight, I will be attending Church Night @ The AAR, LLC warehouse (oops, willya look at the time!)... I am looking forward to participating in lancehunter's Burners Without Borders-inspired project to clean up Cherrywood Green!
--
My lj friends list only goes back 960 entries, which only took me back to august 31st & thus about a week short of being able to catch up on everyone's posts... and honestly, I really only skimmed most of the entries that I could read; and I will go back later & read things in more detail when I get more time... so, if you posted something during the time I was @ burning man that you urgently want me to read, then let me know! otherwise, it may take me a while to get around to catch up with events in the "default world"
If you see The Man in the road... burn him!
It was the night of the Lunar eclipse @ Burning Man, and lauraleanalle & I were at The Greenhouse Project.
It's been a while since I had done the third of the Tai Chi sequence that I know; so after Laura Lea kindly walked me through that section, she then went back to do the whole thing solo from the beginning.
While I was watching, I noticed something curious in the distance...
"Laura Lea, it looks like the man is burning..."
"Whisky, Tango, Foxtrot?"
"...Seriously, the fucking man is burning!"
So, we jumped on our bikes & rode down to check it out!
There were many other people & bikes there, but there were no annoying art cars; so, it was an experience somewhat like the temple burning... except that instead of sacred feelings of serenity, forgiveness & compassion... people were confused, dumbfounded, happy, afraid, amused, angry, laughing, chaotic...
I started yelling, "Save the Man!" ...while others shouted, "Burn the Fucker!"
The first two fire trucks couldn't get enough water pressure to extinguish the flames (they only managed to diddle on The Man's toes, and I seriously thought they must have been doing the whole thing as a gag); but the next couple of larger fire trucks weren't so impotent, and managed to douse the fire rather quickly (at which point, i returned to wondering if someone who might have some unresolved resentment towards BMORG may have pulled off the stunt).
If you ask me, the next few nights were delightful without the neon stench of The Man polluting our landscape. Humans are tool using creatures, and we can still navigate without neon... perhaps if we have a compass... or maybe if we are fortunate, a gps device... oh wait, you mean we can tell where we are on the surface of the planet by using the stars & other celestial objects, as well? Wow, there was so much potential to learn about our environment, this year!
But seriously folks... even Larry Harvey has been snickering about the premature immolation of The Man (go ahead & ask him about it).
If you have any doubts, here's a quote from a Wired article by Brian Doherty:
"Larry Harvey, Burning Man's co-founder and director, was on a platform in his camp watching the eclipse when he noticed his Man on fire. Once realizing that the fire was under control and no one was apt to be hurt, he says, his immediate reaction was laughter.
The early burn, he said, will help show that the Man itself is 'nothing but a wooden doll,' and that the event is really about the joint effort of attendees to create it. It will turn this year's Burning Man into a 'narrative of community and redemption' as the attendees get to see or assist in the public rebuilding of the statue, he said."
There were some fascinating rumors that turned into legends on the playa, as mordwen recounts in this profound story of the Phoenix that was shared with her on the night of the Temple burn. And here is a photo of the Phoenix before the final burn. And apparently, this phoenix is still spreading its wings...
But I suppose a corporation can't officially encourage people to do things that would increase their liability, can they?
Who would sell them insurance?
The "back of the ticket" warnings would never hold up in court as a defense for their negligence or malfeasance, anyway.
Curiously enough, I had pondered some similar questions about our own local community's tolerance of torts when we were dealing with some con artistry, recently.
But after all of the hubbub, the feds kicked Paul Addis's case down to the lower courts & I think that he'll probably get off with community service.
Yes, the charge is Arson of an occupied structure, but this Trickster clams that there was actually a team of operatives that cleared out the structure before he started the fire & they alerted the Rangers that he was doing the deed, although there is some discrepancy about whether or not this actually happened... and there is also an indication that some of the people were difficult to convince that they needed to leave the structure which was being set on fire.
People have been talking about trying to torch The Man early practically ever since the tradition was started... there was even a sign on gate road this year that read "The Man Will Burn on (a Weekday)!"
Paul is just that guy who finally ran the gauntlet & torched the fucker ...and that's pretty legendary chutzpah, if you ask me!
But yes, in the past, other people have managed to prank the man in creative, rather than destructive ways, such as: adding a neon happy face, or attaching silver-painted beach-ball cojones to his crotch (oh wait... that was Paul Addis, too!).
So, couldn't he have come up with a better way to jam the culture than fighting fire with fire?
Well, someone was bound to do it eventually; so let's just get on with the show, shall we?
Besides, sacred cows do make the best meat, y'know!
So, what makes this prank different than the burning of La Contessa after last year, or this year's other acts of vandalism, such as detonating the phone to God(), pilfering offerings from the altars in The Greenhouse Project (thieves even took prayer beads & amulets off of the Buddha's neck)... and in perhaps the worst of all vandalism @ BM07, torching the pregnant Statue of Liberty which had been carved by Timeless (along with the artists' trailer & all of his tools, underneath)... Wasn't The Man also a project produced by many artisans whose work will never be appreciated in the way that they had intended, and which had to be re-created in an imperfect & incomplete manner? For instance, the neon in The Man's heart had a receiver & digital processor which controlled the pulse in a way that reflected participation from handheld devices transmitting information through infrared). OK, I agree that it really sucks for all of us that no one was able to play with that really cool toy, damnit (but i'll bet we could build another one... maybe Paul & his friends will do a benefit to pay for that? Don't count on it. But we could make it happen!). Yeah, and there was also a whole sound collage that was going to play in the "zen garden" of trees under The Man, which no one got to hear, too; 'cause the $3K sound system was destroyed by the fire & dousing the fire. There was a backup of the sound data, and they managed to get another sound system together to play it through. Oh yeah, and there were a bunch of traditional masks from indiginous cultures around the world which had been placed on the trees, and rocks & benches which were arranged around the trees; but those survived the first burn. And I've gotta say that I, for one, would have liked for people to be able to explore the green exhibits under the pavilion, more. There were some groovy projects for sustainable development under there.
Perhaps it is enough that The Man is a corporate symbol/copyrighted/trademarked/brand/logo that was burned... But what about all of the green projects under the pavilion that almost no one got to see? Although there were projects from many sources under the pavilion, allow me to remind you that many people were... shall we say, displeased about the corporate presence on the playa, no matter what the justification.
Will any of this have the faintest chance of waking up the spectators from their sleep of stagnant convenience? That would be great, but I doubt it.
Was anyone harmed? No... Although they seem to have been potentially endangered to some degree, but q.v. the tort question... except that if your community tolerates pranksters, and they know the risks, then why are they complaining? Oh, there are boundaries & a bottomline, eh? Pray tell, where are those written? Please pardon my sarcasm, but I have seen many people get away with much more cruel pranks without this kind of furor being raised. I just tend to keep on the alert with goggles & respirator, in case people get stupid ideas to set things near me on fire. Safety Third!
For those of you who are unfamiliar with some of the traditions at burning man, please do some research on The Cacophony Society, The Temporary Autonomous Zone & Survival Research Laboratories and get back to me when you have some context.
But here's a clue: many of those original pioneers had left by '96, with firearms having been banned & "the man" in the process of being elevated further & further away from "the people" (symbolism, who?)... some resentment still remains, and ocassionally, someone stirs the coals a little. Paul Addis has not made a strong enough statement to attain to the status of Jesus overturning the money changers' tables (even considering his "bring the troops home" video interview), but his actions have been compared to Merry & Pippin of the Shire prematurely igniting Gandalf's firework dragon, as well as St. Patrick lighting the fire on the Hill of Slane. Others compare him to a foolish child, or a BMORG stalker. To me, it seems that his antics are more akin to Shooter's shenanigans, except that Paul has upped the ante considerably.
Perhaps I should give y'all another example, which still survives to this day:
When we're not working, many of us @ DPW are often enjoying a rather serious game of Capture the Flag.
During 2006 DPW parade, I almost killed my own dumb ass with the flamethrowers in my car exploding in my face while participating in the attempted retrieval of the Damn Fucking Texans' flag!
...Yeah, I know we're supposed to be burning a man in effigy, but I was feelin' rather incensed, at the time...
heatherthegreat & I didn't get the flag back during the parade, but we managed to recover it under the cover of night in a ninja raid (& speaking of Heather's great prowess in combat, during Orfunner, she & pandora_0 defended Circus Nafarious from a couple of Speedfreak Chodes with a taser).
While we're at it, let me share yet another piece of playa wisdom with y'all, if I may:
During '05, my first year, I was @ Spike's Vampire Bar in Center Camp, where my friend bloodraynn was working as a bartender. I was beaming in a way that attracted the attention of a certain hardened desert veteran. Thanks to a post by mordwen, I believe that this person may have been Rodent, but I am currently waiting for confirmation of that suspicion. We talked for a few minutes about our experiences, but he quickly sussed out my idealism. What he said to me then was basically quite simple, if I may paraphrase, "Yeah, the 10 principles are great, but the one thing you need to know first is that this is a culture of hedonism. If you are interfering with someone else's enjoyment, then you are fucking up."
When I think about it, the question of whose enjoyment has been interfered with leads me to contemplate the culture known as the Orang Asli's system of taboo, referred to by the word, "punan"
Perhaps we could get some of our own cultural elders to sit around and have a moot about this issue... but who would we invite?
Somehow, I am reminded of some of the questions brought up by V for Vendetta.
So, anyway... after the Man got burned early, DPW got another chance to prove yet again what bad asses we are.
After I helped build the fence & moved a bunch of the science-fair/trade-show exhibits around to make space under the pavilion for tools from the ranch, I was deputized to guard the man base.
Basically, I helped the Rangers distinguish between on-duty DPW & well-meaning citizens who were curious or simply wanted to help in any way they could.
So, for the rest of the evening, I found myself paraphrasing bax's words (Saludos, Comandante Cobra!): "DPW has the situation fully under control, so the best way you can help is to go out there in the city and have a great fuckin' time!"
Without exception, people were quite enthusiastic in their celebration of this duty.
Whether they were there to visit the Postindustrial Disco... be entertained by the Alterna-Disney experience... possibly compete in a Post-Armageddon version of the Olympics... maybe participate in the meta-communal apocalyptic phantasmagoria... perhaps to work building the "world's happiest company town"... &/or even display some degree of embodiment of the 10 principles which are more-or-less adhered to, or at least idealized by many of the participants?
At the end of the day, perhaps if they are fortunate, or if they work to educate their own conscience... only the individual knows their own truth... when we look at ourselves in the mirror, or see ourselves in dreams?
What have we done to bring Burning Man back to life?
And what will we continue to do... immediately... spontaneously... capriciously... fugaciously... passionately.. improvisationally... ephemerally... without attachment... with serenity?
--
After all of Paul's claims of two burns for the price of one, brought to you by Black Rock Intelligence... amusingly enough, lauraleanalle & I were fortunate enough to arrive in Santa Fe on the day of Zozobra, so we actually got to see three men burn in little over a week!
But I will save the not-so-subtly esoteric, as well as largely exoteric explanations of that festival in person for another post... Meanwhile, here're some of my ol' musings about effigy burning, in general
--
Tonight, I will be attending Church Night @ The AAR, LLC warehouse (oops, willya look at the time!)... I am looking forward to participating in lancehunter's Burners Without Borders-inspired project to clean up Cherrywood Green!
--
My lj friends list only goes back 960 entries, which only took me back to august 31st & thus about a week short of being able to catch up on everyone's posts... and honestly, I really only skimmed most of the entries that I could read; and I will go back later & read things in more detail when I get more time... so, if you posted something during the time I was @ burning man that you urgently want me to read, then let me know! otherwise, it may take me a while to get around to catch up with events in the "default world"