That Time We Played Oregon Trail On The Side Of The 747 And Other Burning Man 2019 Shenanigans9/3/2019
As regular readers of this blog know, I'm a big proponent for keeping the weird, quirky, and subversive in Burning Man. Last year, a group of us in my camp started Weirdout Wednesday as a day for people to let their freak flags fly and escape the bonds of Instagram coolness. Granted, it's hard to be truly weird at Burning Man, but think of it as a call to embrace your quirky side rather than DJ chase or pose for Instagram shots on big art or whatnot!
So, here's how some of us from our camp - Friendgasm - celebrated Weirdout Wednesday this year. My hope is that others feel inspired by these kinds of antics and are moved to shenanigans themselves! Do you ever look around while at Burning Man and wonder why so many people are so intent on being ‘cool?’ I mean, sure, everybody likes looking good sometimes, but this isn’t Coachella. Burning Man is meant to be weird! It’s meant to be a place where we can embrace the eccentric and let our freak flags fly instead of trying to climb some sort of social validation ladder that plays out on Instagram. In aid of fighting against this, last year, a subset of us from my camp – Friendgasm – implemented an idea a campmate had. More of a dream of his, really. (Thanks Ginger!) We’d put on adult diapers, some of those hats that hold a couple of cans of beer/soda, and we’d go rock out at day dance camps and elsewhere while trying to photobomb suspiciously-clean Instamodels. We dubbed it Weirdout Wednesday and it went hilariously well! Weirdout Wednesday’s origin story is here if you want to read more. In the aftermath of that, people were talking about WoW on Facebook, and someone made a comment that stuck with me. She said, “Why would anyone wear adult diapers out on the playa? That’s not sexy at all!”
Well no shit, that’s the point! That comment really summed up why I think we, the Burning Man community, need to consciously fight against the vapidity that would result from a culture that has given itself over to the shallow and commercialized, to the worship of beauty over substance and the expected over the novel. Burning Man's culture, to be clear, is by no means at that point yet.... but we’re heading in that direction without some course correction. Let’s do our part! Now, of course, I encourage you to be weird all the time - no need to save it for Wednesdays. That said, we have to start somewhere. Think of Weirdout Wednesday as Tutu Tuesday meets a diaper-clad chaos monster! What fucked-up scene can you make (hopefully with a proverbial wink, rather than maliciously)? How can you break or subvert peoples’ expectations? How weird can you get, which, let’s be fair, is something of a challenge at Burning Man insofar as weirdness is a relative property? And if you want to come join us for some quasi-organized shenanigans, I invite you to meet us at Duckpond (9 & H) at 4 pm on Wednesday. We’re going to be there, and because it’s not weird enough to just repeat the same thing, this year we’re adding a new element alongside the adult diapers. We’re all going to have irritating instruments with us – kazoos, vuvuzelas, mini-tambourines, the world’s most obnoxious cowbell, etc – and we’ll form the Symphony of Cacophony, so-named as a tribute to the Cacophony Society that helped birth Burning Man. We’ll party there for awhile and then we’ll move on to other nearby camps to generally make a weird (and joyous!) spectacle of ourselves. We’ll have dozens of extra adult diapers and a bunch of small instruments, but you are absolutely encouraged to bring any instrument you want as if a lot of people show, we'll run out. Hope to see you there! Feel free to introduce yourself to me. I'll either be holding the WoW flag or whoever is will know who I am. Let's get weird together! Event details: When: Wednesday, 4 pm. Where: Duck Pond – 9 & H. How to find us: Look for the Weirdout Wednesday flag or just a bunch of idiots in adult diapers. A few years ago I re-wrote the lyrics to the song, "My Favorite Things" from the movie The Sound of Music, to be about Burning Man and was inspired to do it again, this time using the music from Billy Joel's, "We Didn't Start The Fire." I had a guy named Jordan Fox sing the lyrics for me, as I sound like hyena in the depths of a coke hangover while attempting to belt out a tune. The song's verses selectively trace Burning Man's history, in rough chronological order. There's a bit of skipping back and forth (like from '99 to '98 and back) within a verse, but in general, they're roughly in order, with imagery/footage in the video that almost always matches the song reference. In a a couple of cases, however, the footage I used is out of chronological order so doesn't match up with the time period in the song, such as the line "Man burn, Temple burn" where I used a Man and Temple from later years because the video looked better. "We Started The Fire" Lyrics, editing & production by Dr. Yes. Vocals by Jordan Fox. Music by Billy Joel. A line-by-line explanation of the lyrics follows afterwards! Lyrics: Baker Beach, Zone Trip 4, Cacophony, pissed off law Black Rock Desert, Larry Harvey, Jerry James and TAZ. Kevin Evans, Burn the Man, Danger Ranger’s Peter Pan Crimson Rose, Marian, Seventy-Eight Olds. Electronic music’s here, Turbo Ted’s spinning near, Java Cow, Christmas Camp, Burning Man goes glamp. Will Roger, Center Camp, Harley DuBois, Lit lamps Shooting range, trash fence downrange, everything is now changed! We started all the fires! We weren’t always burning but now we're returning We did start the fire! Yeah we tried to light it And we never fight it. Michael Furey, Papa Satan, Inferno and Hellco, Techno Ghetto, regulation, John Law leaves the nation Fly ranch, Hualapai, Rod Garrett, Sheriff’s eye New Earth Guardians, LNT is hard. Sergey, Larry Page, drama on the back stage, X-Force, DMV, First Regional will now be Piss clear, Best is here, Wheel of Time, Temple Mind Banksy’s art, Jiffy Lube, camels on the playa! We started all the fires! We're forever burning and the Conclave's whirling We did start the fire! Yeah we tried to light it And we never fight it. Theme camps proliferate, Contessa sails straight Principles, Thunderdome, weather makes it hard to roam Angels of Apocalypse, Passage and Colossus Belgian waffle, first moop map, children of the dust clap Addis’s Early Burn, Man Burn, Temple Burn TV Free Burning Man, Big Rig’s no minivan. Bliss Dance, Temple Flux, Dr. Yes’s epochs South Park, Mantfarm, we don’t need no fire alarms! We started all the fires Now the world's learning that we're out there Burning We did start the fire! Yeah we tried to light it And we never fight it. Tickets sellout, Rites of Passage, Temple of Transition Trojan Horse, Pier bestows, Oh the places you’ll go Bank of Un-America, playa dubstep mania, Space saucer, Cargo Cult, DPW catapult! Truth is Beauty, Church Trap, plug n’ plays are bullcrap Embrace hey, rain to play, what else do I have say? We started all the fires Now it's concerning and the community's churning We did start the fire! Yeah we tried to light it And we never fight it. Bug invasion, brutal cold, masturbating nun – bold, Promise Temple, Revolution, Sextant does electrocution White Ocean vandalized, Da Vinci’s work prized, Space Whale, Light House nailed, Catacombs are unveiled Fly Ranch purchase, hot as hell, leftover bikes bombshell Tenere, Hatted man, Aaron’s cut lifespan. Robots I saw bringing awe, Nixon’s under martial law Larry passes, Hexatron, diaper squad, the plane's not gone! We started all the fires We weren’t always burning Now the BLM’s turning We did start the fire! And when we are gone It’ll still burn on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on We started all the fires Turns out we were yearning Now we're always burning We did start the fire! Yeah we tried to light it And we never fight it. We started all the fires We're all still learning we're forever burning We did start the fire! Yeah we tried to light it And we never fight it. While many of the references in We Started The Fire are obvious, others are perhaps less so, especially for those new or newer to Burning Man. Here's your reference guide! You can always learn more about Burning Man's history here. Baker Beach - The beach in San Francisco where the first burn happened. Zone Trip 4 - The Cacophony Society's name for the first Burn out in the northern Nevada desert: "Zone Trip 4 - A Bad Day In Black Rock." Cacophony - The Cacophony Society in San Francisco, whose Kevin Evans and John Law were a big part of Burning Man's founding. Pissed off law - In '90, the cops kicked the crew off Baker Beach, forcing them to the playa and creating history. Also a side-reference to John Law, a key Cacophonist and one of Burning Man's founder. Black Rock Desert - The site of Burning Man, in northern Nevada. Larry Harvey - One of Burning Man's founders (to some who don't know better, "the" founder). Jerry James - One of Burning Man's founders. T.AZ. - Temporary Autonomous Zone - the original intention of Burning Man, arguably. Kevin Evans - one of Burning Man's founders. Burn the Man - Torch the effigy. Danger Ranger’s Peter Pan - Michael Mikel, aka Danger Ranger, is a Burning Man founder. Crimson Rose - She led the first fire Conclave and has been a core part of the Burning Man leadership team since the early 90s. Marian - Marian Goodell. The CEO and leader of Burning Man, having taken charge of the event in the mid 90s and having shepherded it for 20+ years. Seventy-Eight Olds - The first art car, owned by Danger Ranger. A '78 Olds that had been damanged during the '89 Earthquake, and had the exact time of the quake on its license plate. Electronic music's here - In '93, electronic music made its first real appearance on playa. Terbo Ted's spinning near - Terbo Ted, aka Craig Ellenwood, spun the very first set on the playa, in '93. I did an interview with him here. Java Cow - In the early 90s, someone dressed up as a kind of freaky cow would go around pouring coffee for people. Java cow! Christmas Camp - The very first theme camp, in 1993, complete with fake snow and decorated Xmas trees, started the grand tradition of annoying your neighbors with music on loop. Burning Man goes glamp - Refers to '93 and '94, which was when things started getting elaborate on the camping front. Fancy food, champagne in crystal goblets, people wearing heinous formal jackets, outrageous drag queens dressed to the 9s, etc. Will Roger - Cultural co-founder of Burning Man. Center Camp - A large structure in the 'center' of Black Rock City. It started quite humbly, but is anything but now. Harley DuBois - Along with Marian Goodell arguably rescued the event in the 90s. Effectively a co-founder. Lit lamps - In '94, lamps in front of the Man were elevated above the playa floor, led by Steve Mobia, leading to the creation of the Lamplighters. Shooting range - There used to be a shooting range out there. Guns were banned starting in '97, however. Trash fence downrange - The first trash fence was in '96. Everything is now changed - Refers to (and is an overstatement of) the changes that happened after '96. Michael Furey - A burner who died/committed suicide by playing chicken with a van outside of Gerlach in '96. Larry Harvey's reaction to this death initiated a split with John Law that led this to be Law's last year. Papa Satan - the '96 Burn had a strong theme and story running through it, involving Papa Satan, CEO of the evil Helco, trying to execute a hostile takeover of Burning Man. The Cacophonists put on plays and sublots in a series of pre-Burning Man events in San Francisco relating to this too. Inferno - The '96 theme. Helco - The evil company Papa Satan ran. One of the big art pieces that year was the Helco tower, which John Law famously climbed as it was lit, and then rode a zip line to the ground from the top as the fire began to get close to him. One of my favorite ever images of Burning Man. Techno ghetto - After friction between electronic music fans and everyone else, a "techno ghetto" was organized in '96 about a mile north of the city to keep the large sound camps away from everybody else. Unfortunately, people were injured when a vehicle driving at high speed across the playa - this was the last year that was allowed - ran over their tent out in the techno ghetto. Regulation - After '96, regulation started to creep in by necessity. No guns and no high-speed driving were big ones. John Law leaves the nation - '96 was John Law's last year, as he quit over severe disagreements over the direction of the event. Fly Ranch, Hualapai - Burning Man was held on Fly Ranch and the next door Hualapai playa in '97 in an attempt to escape the hassles of the BLM and law enforcement. The event nearly fell apart that year. Rod Garrett - The man recruited to create plans and documents for creating Black Rock City in compliance with county regulations. Rod's Road is named after him. Sheriff's eye - Even though '97 was on private property, the Washoe County sheriff was able to seize all the ticket sales at gate (back then you could just buy tickets at the gate), causing Larry Harvey to offer lifetime tickets to anyone who could chip in $500. New Earth Guardians - A group formed in '97 by Harley DuBois to teach people about Leave No Trace. LNT is hard - LNT in '97 was notoriously hard because Fly Ranch and the Hualapai are not barren. There are grasses, etc, and they had some tension with the Fly Ranch landlord. Sergey, Larry Page - Sergey Brin and Larry Page (the Google founders) started going to Burning Man, famously, in the late 90s. Drama on the back stage - This refers to the trouble BM was having with the local community in the late '90s. It was quite a contentious relationship. X-Force - Marvel comics referenced Burning Man in '98 in their X-force #75 comic, with people at the "Exploding Colossal Man Shindig and Hullabaloo", with a sculpture that is unmistakably the Man from Burning Man. DMV - The first organized DMV out there was in '99. First Regional will now be - '98 saw the first regional. "Burning Man Texas" had 30 people and a straw man built on site. The picture is of AfrikaBurn, however, which is the largest regional. I couldn't find any pics from the first Burning Man Texas. Piss Clear - The name of a venerable publication full of info and snark, published on the playa. Best is here - David Best and Jack Haye built the first Temple, in 2000. Wheel of Time - The 99' theme. Temple Mind - The Temple of the Mind was the first Temple. Banksy’s art - Banksy came to Burning Man in 2001 and left some art behind. Jiffy Lube - A camp at whose art display resulted in the Org, under pressure from law enforcement, ordering said art display (of two men having anal sex) taken down. Camels on the playa - There were real camels on the playa in the late 90s. Because people brought them, to be clear. And the Conclave's whirling - a reference to the Fire Conclave that performs before the Man burns. Theme camps proliferate - They started breeding like rabbits in the early 00s. Contessa sails straight - an awesome art car that was a big rigged ship. First appearance was in 2002. Sadly, it has since burned down. Principles - Larry Harvey wrote down ten principles in 2004 as descriptive of what the community at that time valued, in his opinion. Thunderdome - They've been coming since the late 90s! Weather makes it hard to roam - 2004 had terrible weather, with 40 registered art projects not making it because the weather stopped them from setting up. White-out dust storms to rain to very high temps and back again. Angels of Apocalypse - An art piece in 2005 from Flaming Lotus Girls. Passage - A large art piece in 2005 of a woman and her child, by Dan DasMann and Karen Cusolito. Colossus - Another very large art piece from 2005, of hanging boulders that could be spun around a large center spire. By Zachary Coffin. Belgian waffle - A group of Belgians came out in 2006 and built Uchronia, otherwise known as the Waffle, which was the largest art piece ever built on the playa at that time. There was some controversy later when it turned out that it had some kind of corporate sponsorship. First moop map - the first Moop Map was in 2006.... Children of the dust clap - ....and we're all excited about it! Who doesn't look forward to the Moop Map every year? Addis’s Early Burn - Paul Addis burned the Man early in '07 as a (dangerous) prank. Man Burn, Temple Burn - So much fire. TV Free Burning Man - There was a tv station broadcasting back to the default world via the internet in '06. Big Rig’s no minivan - Big Rig Jig was an epic piece of art in '07 involving a pair of semitrucks, by Mike Ross. Bliss Dance - A 2010 art piece - first in an eventual series of 3 by Marco Cochrane - that was the talk of the playa. A large woman posing gracefully. Temple Flux - The Temple of Flux was in 2010, which was very different from most Temples, shaped like a series of canyons instead of a building. Dr. Yes’s epochs - I'm Dr. Yes, and I started going in 2010. I later created a Burning Man history that divides Burning Man into "epochs." https://www.burn.life/history-of-burning-man.html South Park - Cthulhu destroyed Burning Man in a South Park episode in 2010. Mantfarm - a large art piece from 2010 that was like a big ant farm, but for people. We don’t need no fire alarms! - A filler line, frankly. Now the world's learning, that we're out there Burning - A reference to the increased attention Burning Man was getting in wider culture around 2010, leading to the first ticket sellout the next year. Tickets sellout - First time tickets sold out was 2011, and it's happened every year since. Rites of Passage - The 2011 theme. Temple of Transition - The 2011 temple. Still my favorite of all-time. Trojan Horse - A giant Trojan horse was built, wheeled out onto the playa, and burned in 2011. Pier bestows - The Pier was a giant installation that was a long pier across the playa in 2011, and then in 2012 it was back, this time with a half-sunken wrecked sailing ship at the end of it. By Matt Schultz and the Pier Group. Oh the places you’ll go - One of the most famous videos in Burning Man's history, set to Dr. Suess's book of the same name, released in 2011. Bank of Un-America - 2012 saw a massive installation called Burn Wall Street out on the playa. One of the five buildings was the Bank of Un-America. Others included Merrill Lynched and Goldman Sucks. Playa dubstep mania - Dubstep was huge for awhile in the late 00s and early 10s, and then suddenly everyone decided they'd just had enough and it all-but-disappeared. Skrillex wasn't really playing the playa during that time, but as he started out in dubstep and is recognizable, I used him. Space Saucer - The 2013 Man base was huge, shaped like a space saucer, and burned like an inferno. Cargo Cult - The 2013 theme. DPW Catapult - in 2015, the DPW (Department of Public Works) launched a flaming piano from a giant trebuchet. Truth is Beauty - 2013. The second installation of Marco Cochrane's series of giant metal women on the playa. Church Trap - An installation I enjoyed in 2013 of a church tilted up on its side and propped up, like a mousetrap. By Rebekah Waites Plug n’ plays are bullcrap - Fuck plug n' plays like Caravansicle, Humano Tribe, and Lost Hotel. Embrace hey - Embrace was a large and beautiful art installation in 2014 of two human figures half-buried in the sand, embracing. By Matt Schultz and the Pier Group Rain to play - it rained hard Monday morning in 2014, causing the gates to close and leaving some people trapped in line for 24 hours. What else do I have to say? - Filler line! Now it's concerning, and the community's churning - A reference to the fact that it became harder to keep communities at BM together in the post ticket-sellout period as demand for tickets keeps rising. Bug invasion - In 2015 bugs invaded the playa pre-gate opening. Brutal cold - It was really cold in 2015. I remember wearing faux-fur at 4 pm. Masturbating nun in bold - Inside the huge Totem of Confessions in 2015 was a box with a nun masturbating with a cross in a box. The Burning Man Org made them lock the box, reportedly under pressure from law enforcement. Promise Temple - The Temple of Promise was built in 2015. Revolution - The third of Marco Cochrane's series of women on the playa, in 2015. Sextant does electrocution - Sextant camp started building giant tesla coils in the mid 2010s. White Ocean vandalized - White Ocean camp was famously vandalized in 2016 by what turned out to be disgruntled contractors. I dove into this story and discovered the truth of the situation was not what the media wanted it to be. Da Vinci’s work prized - DaVinci's Workshop was the 2016 theme. Space Whale - The Space Whale was an epic large stained glass whale in 2016, by Matt Schultz and the Pier Group. Light House nailed - One of my favorite all-time art pieces out there, in 2016. A set of giant, crooked wooden light houses. The project was led by father-son team Max & Jonny Poynton. Catacombs are unveiled - Also 2016, the Veil of Catacombs, led by Dan Sullivan, was a huge pair of pyramids that never got quite finished, but made for one hell of a fire. Fly Ranch purchase - In 2016, Burning Man bought Fly Ranch with $6.5 million donated by wealthy Burners. Hot as hell - 2017 was legendarily hot on the playa. Leftover bikes bombshell - Thousands of bikes - something like twice as many as usual - were left behind by people in 2017. Tenere - the Tree of Tenere, by Symmetry Labs, was an incredible art installation of a large tree lit up by 10s of thousands of sequenced LEDs for leaves. Hatted man - the 2017 burn featured a Man inside a hut, and he looked a like he had a hat on. Aaron’s cut lifespan - Aaron Mitchell died in 2017 after running into the fire intentionally during the 2017 Man burn. I wrote an article on having empathy for him here. Robots I saw bringing awe - 2018's theme was I, Robot, which, being a nice and tangible theme, resulted in a lot of robot art on the playa. Nixon’s under martial law - The BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) set up squads on tribal lands on the way to Burning Man to arbitrarily pull over Burners in Nixon and surrounding communities in 2018. They used nonsense reasons to search their cars, sometimes for hours, and almost all of the charges were later dropped. Larry passes - Larry Harvey died in 2018. Hexatron - A huge art piece by Mark Lottor originally built for the Electric Daisy Carnival, that was hundreds of giant LED-lit and sequenced poles, making a kind of LED forest. Diaper squad - My campmates and I came up with Weirdout Wednesday in 2018 and put on adult diapers to go troll people. Read about it here. The plane's not gone - The 747 was famously left on the playa for quite awhile after the 2018 burn. Now the BLM’s turning - The recent proposals from the BLM are shitty and while the Org has had trouble with the BLM before, these new proposed restrictions could wreck Burning Man. <end> If you're interested in more Burning Man history, check out my year-by-year history of Burning Man. If you enjoyed the video, you might like my other videos. I couldn't have made this video without the photos and footage of a lot of other people. The only photos and video that I took myself are from 2010 onwards, but by no means is all the media covering 2010+ mine. Thanks to: Jamen Percy - Some of the drone footage, including the opening shot. Roy Two Thousand - Some time lapses and burn footage. Mark Day - Various pieces of footage of burns. Terry An - Video of the Galaxia burn. Infinit Studios - Footage of the mostly topless woman with a mustache riding a bike. SevenClouds - Some drone footage from 2013. Alex Freeman - Some burn footage. Guy Jackson - Some burn footage. Pete LaMoia - Video of 2013 Man burn. Rick Parker - Video of Veil of Catacombs burn. Afonso Salcedo - Some drone footage of the Temple of Promise. Ahmed Elhusseiny - Some burn footage, and footage of fire dancers. Brad Templeton - Some photos from the late 90s and early 00s. Stewart Harvey - Some photos from the very early years. Duncan Rawlinson - Many photos from the 2010s. Scott Beale - A couple photos from the 00s. David Gee - A couple photos from the early 00s. Nick Lynch -Photos from the early years. The Burning Man Project - A number of photos. Danger Ranger - Photos from the early years. Kevin Evans - Several shots of early years. Carvermom - The photo of Java Cow. Malderor - Shooting range photo. Jim Provenzano - A photo of the early Temple. Thomas K. Pendergast - A couple art shots. Andrew Miller - DPW Catapult. Jim Urquhart- Tea ceremony photo. Dustin Mosher - Photo of the 747. Probably others I forgot to thank, for which I deeply apologize! Feel free to email me at yes@burn.life and I'll be happy to rectify any error I made. TL;DR: The Bureau of Land Management is proposing that Burning Man must contract independent, third party security forces to screen vehicles and participants coming into Burning Man for contraband, and install concrete barriers and steel fences around at least some of Burning Man and/or gate road. They also want to mandate that Burning Man increase the number of people who take buses in or fly in (most of whom can't bring sufficient supplies for themselves that way) and go onto say that this may necessitate the need for more plug n' plays to accommodate those people. Is this what we want? We have an opportunity to be heard. Let's take it. Details below. BackgroundThe Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a draft proposal yesterday in response to the Burning Man Project's ("the Org") request for a 10 year Special Recreation Permit (SRP) for Burning Man. For those unaware, the Burning Man event is held on federal land that is managed by the BLM. Every year, the Org has to get an SRP to hold the event, which comes with a maximum population for the event, but they have now requested a 10 year permit that would allow the population to grow to 100,000 people by 2022. The draft proposal is technically called an "environmental impact statement" (EIS), which the environment in this case referring to everything that surrounds Burning Man, from the actual environment to the impact on local communities to the roads to protecting burners themselves. It's really long! 372 pages across two documents, which makes sense considering that Burning Man is the largest event in the country that receives an SRP. I've read the interesting parts and skimmed the rest so you don't have to! Much of this is pretty dry but a couple parts really stand out. The Scenarios ConsideredThe EIS considers five scenarios:
Should We Be Concerned?I think so, yes. I'll explain, but you also don't have to take my word for it. Jim Graham, spokesmen for the Burning Man Project, told the Reno Gazette, "Our staff is reviewing the document and accompanying 11 special studies, and our initial review revealed serious concerns with parts of the proposed stipulations. At this time it is premature to provide an assessment until we have completed a thorough review. We will then provide a more detailed response." I don't know which parts he's speaking of, but there are four areas of concern that stuck out to me when going through the documents. I've read through the stipulations for Burning Man in previous BLM EIS/SRP reports, and there is nothing like these requirements in there as far as I can tell. These are new provisions.
What Can We Do?I doubt any of you reading this like the idea of concrete barriers and k-rail fencing, and private security forces screening cars on the way in unless you're just trolling. I can see some people liking a 50k population cap scenario, and in future years I might even agree, but it'd be a terrible thing to implement this year with ticket sales already well under way. And if you think Burning Man needs more plug n ' plays, you're probably reading the wrong blog. Mark Hall is the BLM officer who issues the SRP, and the EIS specifically asks that feedback be sent to him. We like to say that Burning Man is a do-ocracy. That's true, but I believe that's the case for life generally. If you want something to happen, or oppose something from happening, do something about it, don't just complain. You may not be able to dictate the reality you want, but you can do your best to nudge it in the direction you wish. His contact info is: Dr. Mark Hall, PhD EIS Project Manager Black Rock Field Office 5100 East Winnemucca Blvd. Winnemucca, Nevada 86445 (775) 623-1500 Mr. Hall's boss appears to be Ester McCullough, the district manager of the Winnemucca District Office. She can be reached at: Ester McCullough 775-623-1500 wfoweb@blm.gov The public comment period goes until April 29th, so make yourself heard! Mr. Hall told the Reno Gazette that, "Right now I have an open mind and I'm very curious to see what the public has to offer in terms of our analysis." I urge you to contact Mr. Hall and potentially Ms. McCullough if you share my concerns, but to do so in a calm and informed manner. Let's paint a positive picture of Burners for Mark and Ester and not deluge them with the equivalent of all-caps emails. There are also going to be public hearings for comment on the EIS in Reno on April 8 and in Lovelock on April 9th. Details on them are still forthcoming as of this writing (I'll update this when I have them.) I'm tentatively planning on being at the Reno meeting to see if I can give the reality I want to see a boost. I hope you'll consider joining me. If you're coming, please get in touch at yes@burn.life and I'll put together a mailing list to coordinate as many Burners that will be at the Reno meeting as possible. I think it's important we have a tight and organized response to the items in here that need to go. Other Areas of InterestThere are some other interesting tidbits in here that I thought some of you might be interested in.
Hello Burners, Happy New Year, and welcome to Burning Man season, 2019 edition! To kick off the year, I've got an interview with Eggchairsteve, who is a very long-time burner and the head of Eggs Bar, the best bar on the playa that's never open. Dr. Yes: What got you out to the playa the first time and when? Sounds like you were first there in ’94 or ’95? Eggchair: Indeed, 1995 was the first time I attended, which makes 2019 my 25th consecutive Burn....holy shit! In the early 90's I had begun hearing mentions of Burning Man in various magazines as well as on the radio, but I hadn't really given it very much thought at all. In particular, there was a morning radio talk show hosted by Alex Bennett. This had to have been '93-'94, listening to his morning show, he would mention it often, which is where I first got a real idea of what this mysterious anarchist-party-in-the desert was all about. But I guess you could say what really go me to first go out to the playa was the early SF rave scene. Though I didn't really consider myself a "club goer" at the time, I was particularly fond of the Wicked Soundsystem crew, and their legendary Full Moon parties. These monthly all-night dance celebrations were always held outdoors, and quite often at Bonny Dunes beach near Santa Cruz. Something about hearing booming dance music while outside in Nature, dancing all night under a full moon, sparked feelings that to this day still give me goosebumps. Fast-forward to the summer of 1995, and I hear that Wicked is planning to bring their sound system out the the Nevada desert to this Burning Man, and it just seemed like the perfect excuse to go, so that was all it took. With a ticket price of a whopping $35 (!), a spur of the moment decision to attend could easily be made. That first year I went with my best friend and my girlfriend, with all of our minuscule amount of gear for our 4-day weekend fitting into my tiny Isuzu pick-up truck. Absolutely anyone who attended that year in 1995, can recall with great fondness and awe the quick and powerful storm that hit us that year, followed by the largest double-rainbow we had ever seen. It even hailed! Having our tiny camp instantly destroyed somehow exhilarated us and made us want to return. Dr. Yes: Holy shit indeed! And to never have missed a year is kind of incredible too. So what year did EGGs bar first manifest? Eggchair: Well, EGGS Bar proper didn't actually manifest under that name until 2012, but you're jumping way ahead. We need to go back to Eggchair Camp which first happened in 1997 (with Fertility 1.0) for the origin story. Dr. Yes: Let's hear it! And why EGGS? I mean, I like eggs, but...
As I started to talk with them, they shared that if I looked closely, the surface of the table was covered with pocketknife carved graffiti, they explained some of the markings were from their older brothers in the 70's, and that, holy shit, this was the ACTUAL picnic table they all first started drinking and partying on back in their day in their local park. It profoundly blew my mind, NOT at all that this was a motorized picnic table (which is cool, but c'mon we are at Burning Man, something so simple barely registers), but the fact that this object held meaningful juju for them, and they had this absurd idea to not only swipe it from their local park, motorize it, and give it a whole new history. To me this is just the coolest. I like to hope that to this day, if you take the time to scratch beneath the surface, you can continue to find amazing original stories from everyone, really about everything. I mean we are all moving through life, with all these material objects floating around us. They only matter if we say they do. So there we are in '97, the theme is Fertility... Eggs seem like fertility objects, sure that makes sense. We create Eggchair camp and we get placed on the very first officially mapped Espalande! Yes, it was simply a chair, sitting along Esplanade, but hey, people seemed to love it! I'm not sure people truly understood what the chair actually meant to US, (Yes, Eggchair really was placed on Esplanade through 2003!) but I do think there was something about sitting alone, with just yourself, cut off from this cacophonous city filled with distractions and sensory overload, that people connected with. I began to dread that it somehow became a photo-op with literally lines of people getting their pictures taken sitting in the eggchair. It was because of those years that I earned my playa name, Eggchairsteve. But by 2003 it had fully run its course and it all became a bit embarrassing. "Hey why do they always get Esplande placement? It's just a fucking chair."
But here's a word to the wise: a lesson I learned the hard way that year was about variety, be it musically, or thematically. No matter what your theme or schtick is, it's going to get really old, really fast on 24/7 repeat. Maddening even. One year I was camped directly across from Black Rock Roller Disco (and please do not get me wrong, I fucking LOVE them, I actually LOVE the music) and the constant 24/7 repeat, often the same playlist played on repeat, was literally annoying. 2005-6 I took off from planning any theme camps, and just camped in the back streets. I found it profoundly boring and passive to just go out into the city as a spectator. So we returned in 2007 with a bar-themed camp, still with the old-world facade out front, but much more variety in music and experiences and events, sometimes live bands would play, having variety and not being pigeonholed into one schtick, is everything. For years we would riff off of the years them for our bar name; Metropolis became EGGchtroplos, Rites of Passage became Left of PassEGGch....so when 2012 rolled around with Fertility 2.0 being the theme for the year (at the same time a good friend of mine humorously proclaimed that he was tired of calling me Eggchairsteve, and from henceforth I would be known as simply EGGS) It seemed like a perfect opportunity to shorten the the bar's name to just EGGS, especially since we initially brought the eggchair out for Fertility1.0 and now we would be simply EGGS for Fertility 2.0! Dr. Yes: What was your infrastructure like its first year and how as it evolved over time? Eggchair: Having run theme camp for so many years, I what works and what doesn't. I've seen evaporation ponds turn into disgusting swamps. I've seen kitchen setups turn into shambles. I think the two most important lessons of Burning Man are Radical Self Reliance and Communal Effort. So for our camp we have always expected everyone to pull their own weight. And you have to have solid campmates. In the early years when we were such a smaller bar, it didn't take much to just ask everyone to contribute booze and mixers to stock the bar. Our structure was so much smaller that it all fit in a trailer, and we all chipped in to pay for it. In 2016 we built the current iteration of EGGS Bar, which is much bigger than ever before. We now have to throw fundraisers, as well as crowdsource funding, to pay for everything. We now own a trailer, which now means yearly storage costs. We also serve way more folks. Dr. Yes: How big is your camp population-wise now? Eggchair: I personally feel that anything over 30 members starts to fall apart, so we try to keep the camp population around 30. Dr. Yes: Same here. So what’s the leadership structure of the camp like? How many formal or quasi-formal positions do you have and what are they? Eggchair: With our big jump in camp presence in 2016, it required a lot more leadership structure. I am the first to admit that I suck at leadership, and I have been blessed to somehow be surrounded with people who support my vision of having one of the best bar experiences on playa. I had to learn to let go of doing everything myself, because it is simply impossible for one person. So we now have several formal positions, Camp Lead, Financial Lead, Build Lead, Bar Lead, LNT Lead, but again, everyone is expected to pull their own weight. Dr. Yes: How often is EGGS open during the week…even though we all know it’s never open? Eggchair: Always Closed! Yes, that actually has a funny origin. I made that sign years ago, one side saying Closed, the other saying Open, and for some reason one year it just stayed on the Closed side. It never ceases to amuse me that we can be in the midst of a raging party, and you can point up to the Closed sign, and a patron will be "oh, I'm sorry" and actually walk away! And you have to say, "no, of course you can have a drink!" and it really breaks the ice, and you can begin to have a conversation with a stranger. Conversely if they are being rude (you can sort of always tell the type that just want to get a drink and continue on their way) and they loudly bang their cup on the bartop, you can always point up to the Closed sign, and they will leave. EGGS Bar strives to be friendly and welcoming to everyone, but we are NOT there to just serve the masses. We truly want patrons to sit down and talk with us, that is the whole point. To answer your question, we are technically "open" whenever we feel like it, which seems to be all day every day. I really I would like to see it as more of a late afternoon in to evening sort of space, but the last few years have become more of a round the clock bar. Dr. Yes: You guys have been at 6 in the Center Camp ring for a bit now – when were you first placed there? Eggs: Actually we have only been placed at that spot 2017 and 2018, and I kind of enjoy having slightly different spots every year. Before that we were in various spots within the Center Camp Plaza, and even earlier in various spots on Rod's Road. We have been part of Center Camp proper since 2007. Dr. Yes: How much booze do you guys go through during the week and how many people do you estimate you serve? Eggchair: This is a question that a lot of people ask, and it is hard to accurately answer. We fundraise throughout the year to buy booze, but we also get bottle and mixer donations (PLEASE DO!!) The truth is, no matter how much or how little booze you ever bring, you will always go through it all. We've got a pretty good system going now, of two premixed drinks in 5-gallon containers that we restock as needed, as well as beers, but we also have a stock of special or unusual shots going too. As for many estimated served, I really couldn't even guess, but it is quite a few. But again, encouraging patrons to sit down and talk with us, fills the stools, and discourages the masses of folks that just want a drink and run. And as a bit of advice to every Burner out there, if you get a drink at ANY bar in Black Rock City, and you DON'T stay and hang out with the bartenders or camp experience, you're being fucking rude! Dr. Yes: What's the craziest thing you’ve seen happen in your own bar? Eggchair: That's a hard one to answer, I just love everything about it. Spontaneous things happen all the time. Bands show up to play, etc. I guess having Bryan Cranston as a patron was pretty cool....
Eggchair: If you are ridiculously drunk (as happens often in BRC!) it's time to head back to your tent. If you are being rude and obnoxious, you can get yourself the fuck out of EGGS Bar - there are a million other bars.
Dr. Yes: What’s your favorite thing about Burning Man generally? What’s kept you coming back two dozen times? Eggchair: Oh my god, it's EVERYTHING! After all these years it still continues to blow my mind. I think people tend to forget that literally everything you see out there, someone brought out to the middle of the fucking desert, just for us, just for a week! I can't believe that it even happens every year. The art you get to see and interact with out there, you simply cannot do anywhere else, at least on that scale. And music! One of the unique things about dancing in the desert to large scale sound is literally having endless space to dance any way you wish. I hate the feeling of being constricted into a tiny personal space in a dance club. Dancing in the open desert is simply magic. Dr. Yes: You were there in ’96. That year seemed like kind of peak crazy between the Satan theme, John Law riding the zipline off the burning tower, the existence (though last year of) the shooting range and high speed driving on the playa. How has Burning Man changed for the better and worse since then in your view? Eggchair: Yes, I was there in '96, sitting on a hay bale, watching the Helco tower burn. I saw the infamous zipline. I did also drive out to watch the shooting range, I'm not at all a gun person, it didn't excite me, but driving out off the playa exploring the outlying areas DID spark a lifelong love of the Black Rock Desert area. | The questions most often asked after going for over 20 years are "What was it like back then?", "How has it changed?", "Was it better, or worse?" And I don't want to sound cliche, but because I've gone EVERY year, I've seen every incremental change, I've experienced the reasons for every new rule that came along, its truly hard to compare what it was like back then as opposed to now. What I mean by this is, I think of "Burning Man" as one long ever-evolving 25 year long experience that I've been involved with. I can't really separate back then from now. Of course it has gotten bigger, but along with that came bigger and better everything. People tend to look back at those early years as anarchic and wild-west, but there was never the scale of beautiful art and music and theme camp experiences as there are now. So, yes, it's only getting better! This last year, one night I rode my bike randomly on way back streets, and I was blown away at all the elaborate, amazing camps that I had never even heard of, and I just love that. I truly think that eventually the entirety of Black Rock City should be as interactive as Esplanade. Too many people is not the problem, a lack of participation is the only potential problem. Dr. Yes: Yeah! Give it up for the back streets! If you could wave a magic wand and change anything about Burning Man, what would it be? Eggchair: Hard to say... I guess I'm upset by the new influx of supermodels posing in front of art so that they can post that perfect cool shot on their instagram feed - they just seem to be missing the point of attending the Burn, and because they have an audience of fans, they are inadvertently sending out a very inaccurate image to the world at large of what Burning Man really is. The whole millionaire/plug and play/sherpa/curated faction of the burn I feel are also fundamentally missing what it IS to attend the Burn....the reason everyone in the world wants to go, is to EXPERIENCE that magic, and that only comes through participation and passion, and collective effort. I think the Org is struggling with this issue a lot, they see all these wealthy and influential people, but are failing to see that THEY are all passively missing the whole point with these curated experiences. If I had a magic wand, I would use it to wack some common sense into all the federal law enforcement officials who are illegally pulling us over and infringing on our civil liberties. That shit has got to stop! Dr. Yes: Yeah, it does need to stop! Nice to see that many of the prosecutions were dropped, but it was still unwarranted harassment. Thanks for taking the time and for your verbosity! Note: If you'd like to support EGGS, they would love your donation here - https://www.paypal.me/eggsbar Like the title says! You can check out the history section here, or in the menu above.
I've spent quite a bit of time working on it over the last few years, so if you have any interest in how Burning Man has evolved, I hope you'll check it out!
Last year (2017), a campmate - Ran - and I spontaneously decided Wednesday morning that we'd play the Hamilton soundtrack later that day. Because we're also big fans of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and because the mighty Rum Ham is an object of desire and worship to all of Friendgasm, serving rum and calling the event Rum-Hamilton seemed appropriate. He wrote some shit on a whiteboard advertising it, and put it by Arctica, and 15-20 people showed up for what proved to be a really good time.
This year, we put the event in the event guide, and a lot more people showed up! Not too shabby for a backstreet camp. The below video is about 20 minutes long, and if you're not either a big Hamilton fan or someone who was there, it's probably waaaay too long to hold your interest. That said, multiple people told me after or later that it was their favorite thing they did at Burning Man all week, which made me pretty happy!
Couldn't host it on YouTube, Facebook, or other usual suspects because the rights holder for the Hamilton music is quite strict, and upon trying, I was blocked from using those, so I'm just sharing it from my google drive. You're also going to have to trust that I'm linking you to a video here, and not something that will give your device a virus. I may be Dr. Yes, but I say no to viruses! Link to Rum-Hamilton video. It'll play in 720p. You might want to switch it to 1080p. If you want to view it in all its 4k glory, you'll have to download all 6.6 gigs of it and watch that way. Favorite moments: 5:22 – Hamilton’s duel against Lee. 5:46 – Hercules Mulligan incoming! 7:36 – Crowd starts going crazy in Battle of Yorktown. 14:57 – Washington dies, crowdsurfs. 19:42 – Hamilton’s son dies – big group circle with arms around each other. 22:16 – people start eating dead Hamilton’s red vine entrails.
We're going to do this again next year, so if you loved it or missed it, don't throw away your shot and you'll be back. You will be helpless before its sonic glory, and you will be satisfied, because, wait for it.... we just happen to be in the greatest city in the motherfucking world. You'll be in the dome where it happens, right in the eye of the hurricane, and while it may be quiet uptown, it sure as shit isn't going to be quiet at Rum-Hamilton 2019!
Rum Ham! Your obedient servant, --Dr. Yes
This is the camp I've always wanted, filled with people I love and who love me back. Friendgasm v1 was great (though not the heat), but with Friendgasm v2 we really hit our stride! You are the most incredible hard-working, hard-partying, tender, fierce, loving, supportive, non-judgmental group of people I've ever been privileged to be close to. You've reignited that exquisite lust I had for the burn, and I can't thank you enough for it.
We formed this camp to focus on community, after some of us had had a bad experience with a camp in 2016 that had very little focus on community, and it's worth protecting. We limit ourselves to 30 people to stop us breaking into sub-communities. We allow no randoms, and require all new members to have a camp sponsor who can vouch that they will be the kind of person we want to burn with. And it works. It was a simply superb Burn and while I wasn't sad to leave Burning Man at the end, leaving you all was pretty depressing.
I want you to know that at least twice during the week I was talking to Maybe or Ginger about our camp and broke down into tears, overcome with all the feels thinking about how much I appreciate and love all of you and what we've created.
I've made a little video to help us remember our time together. Hope you enjoy it!
Let's do it again next year! Rum Ham!
Dr. Yes: What first brought you to the playa?
Syd: Like many, my gate way to Burning Man was the SF underground dance music scene. I had already heard of Burning Man as early as '97 when some friends I worked with at a group home were going. But it wasn't really on my radar until I had started going clubbing in late 98' and heavily into '99 and 2000 when I was volunteering at Red Melon events and helping organize an intentional underground party called Radiance. That party grew from another underground called Gratitude organized by 'The Community' who were all very influenced by Burning Man communities and culture, as well as Landmark and later Arete. Radiance always invited other communities to participate to create each party, so I got to know many SF crews and playa collectives. In addition, my first involvement in parties always were 'parties with purpose' and that's influenced me to this day. My friends Tamo and Fannie finally convinced me to go in 2001 and I camped with their group of friends called Garage Mahal, organized by Pleasure Sean and others. Great group of friends, amazing first Burn. I dove in head first, it was the first and only year I wasn't involved in a project, had no responsibilities and acted accordingly. Dr. Yes: What were the sound camps like then? What were the major ones? Syd: I remember distinctly standing in front of IllumiNaughty in 2001 on the 10:00 corner and being blown away at what they had created and brought out and set up. As if planting a seed to later overcome, I even remember thinking to myself "Wow I could never pull that off..." I also remember the neon maze at Xara, the Wizard of Oz motif at Emerald City and the small domes that made up Space Lounge. That was also the first year I believe the Space Cowboys Unimog had hit the playa for a full mobile party experience.
Dr. Yes: Why’d you found OT? What moved you to say to yourself, “I should definitely sign up to spend a significant portion of my time producing a sound camp?” Syd: Haha if only I knew... Well, in the summer of 2002 I had been laid off and used my severance to have time to help build the Garage Mahal Art Car under the direction of Captain Ken at this house & shop in Mill Valley. It was (and still is) a double decker bus built out of an Entemann's bread delivery truck. In '02 (pre-ubiquitous mega art cars), it was impressive! I also founded Opel Productions in 2002 originally as a vehicle to throw benefits for causes I supported around SF, and so also helped fundraise for it. It was early Burning Man project creation and fundraising practice.
Had a blast DJ'ing on the Art Car but wasn't very good at it yet, and was hungry to create my own manifestations of bringing people together, sharing art and music on a bigger scale than what the Art Car afforded. In 2002 I also met Rich Martin and Chris Sia. Chris was the leader (of sorts) of the Infinite Kaos (IK) performance and music collective when they still had their space on Taylor St. Rich, a fabricator and general mad scientist, worked with IK on their camp in 2002 building a huge steel pyramid and doing sound for them. Rich wanted to work on a new and bigger project for 2003 and approached me to get involved on the production and fundraising end to make it a proper sound camp on 10:00 along with Infinite Kaos. The theme of BM in 2003 was 'Beyond Belief', so to reflect the theme and the communities we called it the Opulent Temple (to reflect the spiritual implications of the Beyond Belief Theme) of Kaos (IK). Chris Sia named it, I later regretted the confusion it caused between my party throwing vehicle in SF (Opel Productions), and the Burning Man camp I was a part of (Opulent Temple). I didn't help by trying to help raise money for BM projects using the Opel name in early parties before I figured that needed to be separated better.
We were located at 10:00 and Creed and built a huge open air steel tension dome, as well as other art projects for the camp such as paper mache statues, a stage that never made it up, and fire lanterns that leaked kerosene. The Infinite Kaos crew lived up to their name, and we had a great time. Even in our first year, I was keen to bring in what I considered more interesting and higher tier talent than just SF / Burner locals, so I brought out Sandra Collins and Josh Gabriel (from Gabriel & Dresden), and IK had invited Tipper, Bassnectar, and others. Partly my motivation was just to be sure I got to hear the music I wanted to hear at Burning Man! Nothing worse than being high at Burning Man itching for a dance floor experience and not being able to find good music.
Dr. Yes: Did you know at the time how much work it was going to be? Syd: The first year in 2003 was ideal cause my job was to fundraise, organize and book talent, things I was good at. The IK guys provided most of the labor to set the camp up and take it down so it was a nice way to ease into the beast that it became.
We've learned the hard way just how much work it can be because when you're full of great ideas and ambition, you have a tendency to to say yes to too many ideas, and every 'yes' is full of action steps, obligations, money promises and execution problems. We usually came out all right but we've also had some major project failures that were painful lessons.
Dr. Yes: Tell us about one of those failures? Syd: The biggest was what I still call the 'weird year' of 2007, aka the bamboo disaster. Weird because Paul Addis tried to burn the man down on Monday night during the lunar eclipse, among other reasons. We had two projects to choose from to add to the production that year. One was a bigger version of the Synergy Dome we erected in 2003, and the other was an elevated stage that Rich had designed that was supposed to be in the shape of a star, aka the 'Star Stage'. Feeling that we wanted to push ourselves hard this year, and take 2008 off from any projects, we decided to do both. Spoiler alert - bad idea. The stage was conceived to be a great platform for a large group of performers, as it provides, in many ways, an ultimate performance venue because it sits 10 feet above the crowd. It would be largely self funded by Rich (taking loans from anyone that would help, parents included), with about 25% of the costs shared by the camp. Out on the playa, due to a design snag, Rich decided to 'open' the stage and not enclose the 'star', though it was delayed getting up because of the problems with the Bamboo Synergy Dome..
The dome, this time made out of bamboo instead of steel, was supposed to be about a 100 feet in diameter. Myself and Dutch led the construction following the same design plans Rich devised in 2003, modified for the bigger size, at a warehouse in West Oakland. Simultaneously while one team was working at the Box Shop on the Star Stage, another dedicated team busted ass to get the bamboo dome pieces done, complete with a hellish night of loading the 50 foot truss pieces onto a flat bed semi trailer right before we left for the playa. On playa, lots of build challenges. Just when we thought we'd have to scrap it due to running out of time, we problem solved and were ready to lift. We used 2 patient cranes from Art Services, and our own forklift to bring it in the air. We were almost there.....
The Bamboo Dome is probably one of the all time great failed projects in BM history. During lifting, a rope got caught under a tire, a key truss broke, and the project was still possible but not safe so we chose to scrap it. Flushing $25k and a summer's worth of work down the drain. We kept the bamboo around a few years for a fence, a bar, etc, but we never had the heart to try again.
Dr. Yes: Ouch. Opulent was already legendary when I started coming in 2010, and it seemed to me that you guys and Root Society were the majors that ushered in the modern age of sound camps. How accurate is my perception there?
Syd: I credit Sol System in 2003 (the pyramids) and '04 ('Sol Henge' and sonic runway) and Lush in 2004 (that crazy twisting wood organic structure and all those palm trees) for kicking that off production wise. For the time, what both of them did in those years was huge and inspired the scale that we evolved in the on-going years. We did have the first (as far as I know) raised line array sound system on scaffolding that escalated the size of sound rigs people brought out.
As some of those earlier generation camps stopped coming, and OT and Root Society held down the corners from like 2006-2010 we both continued to elevate our games.
Dr. Yes: Did you know what OT would turn into? How was its first year compared to now? Syd: Definitely not. I caught the creative bug that Burning Man sparks in so many. You see a costume, an art piece, a theme camp, etc and it inspires one to want to make and create yourself, and you follow that passion. I was really passionate about the SF underground dance music scene even before BM as a vehicle for spreading joy and therefore (if intentionally channeled), perhaps a force for good. And so once I got into BM and its creation and community spheres, I applied that ethos there too. And we just kept going, and as we rolled we added more talent, and with added talent comes added capabilities and ideas to continue to grow, evolve, create, and challenge ourselves. Meanwhile BM became more known to international producers and DJ's who play the world's biggest and best parties and they came to learn BM was an amazing place to play (except for the part where they had to play for free). So through my efforts and the event's growth, we were able to host some of the biggest names in dance music and for better and for worse (there's definitely 2 sides), that's standard fare now at the event. We've come so far, as has the event, that a sound camp with the level of production we had in '03/04 wouldn't even get placed now.
Dr. Yes: In 2005 you brought Tiesto, arguably the biggest DJ on the planet at the time, to play OT. You’ve had big names in the years since (Armin Van Burren, Infected Mushroom Skrillex, Diplo, Carl Cox, etc) but 2005 was way before Burning Man had entered the general consciousness. How the did you pull that off?
Syd: The trail blazing distinction of world class DJ's playing Burning Man belongs to Paul Oakenfold, who at the height of his popularity played for IllumiNaughty in 2000. (Rumors of Oakey playing BM again abounded my first year in '01, but he didn't come back until '05, same year as Tiesto). Tiesto has part of his claim to fame owing to Oakey putting his classic 'Silence' remix by Sarah McLachlan on one of his mix CD's, and I'm pretty sure Tijs (real name) knew about BM from Paul having gone. In 2005 he was touring for Gods Kitchen who had partnered with local West Coast promoter Spundae on some dates. I had worked with Spundae on some benefits and knew their team, one of whom was working with Tijs on shows and somehow they got talking about BM and she pointed him to me and Opulent Temple.
We also had Paul Oakenfold that year, who incidentally only came when he heard Tiesto was coming. (For more competitive than friendly reasons I think.) We got major shit from certain segments of the BM community because by virtue of them being popular, they are automatically too commercial for BM. We don't see it in that way. Being popular should not exclude one from participating at BM, as long as that participation is in the spirit of the event. Which -of course- it was, (ie., no one gets paid and they participate in the project in some way.) Given that the OT also exists to be a vehicle for a message, we see things that elevate the platform of the message (within reason) to be in line with our vision. Anyway, most of that comes from trance haters anyway so we take it with a big fat grain of salt. We also owe it to Oakey that it was him who told Infected Mushroom they should come and play for us, and they've returned many times and put on some of the most memorable performances at OT.
Dr. Yes: This might be a touchy subject, but do you get help from the Org in the way other artists do in the form of grants to help defray your costs? Syd: We wish. We get nothing from the Org. We don't get tickets, we certainly don't get financial help. We aren't allowed to even apply for grants for new art pieces at our camp and be judged on the same merits that art pieces on the open playa can apply for. We don't get a thank you or a visit from any Org higher-ups to acknowledge in any way the massive contribution ours and the other sound camps make to the success of the event. Only Maid Marian [Burning Man's CEO] has ever said thanks, and made any moves to help us, but that was some years ago. We appreciate her for that, but overall the taste in our mouth when it comes to the Org is very bitter. They tolerate sound camps 'cause we drive ticket sales, but Larry in particular had disdain for what we did, wrote us off as 'the ravers', and last we heard, in our entire history had never come up to 10:00 or 2:00 at night to see what was going on and what we did and how many people were enjoying our offering. Too late now of course. Of course there's awesome people who work for BM. The Governess has been (mostly) awesome, except the year she wouldn't place us cause we weren't interactive enough. That hurt because it took no account of our previous contribution, but was a heartless 'what are you doing for us this year' calculation. They don't want to treat sound camps like they're special, even though it could be argued - they are. Of course we know some Burners hate sound camps and how ubiquitous the 'thumpa-thumpa' has become with roaming art cars and not being able to escape the ever-lasting pounding bass, and I totally empathize with that sentiment too. You learn to deal with it and remind yourselves the reason we do what we do has nothing to do with the Org. Of course it'd be nice if they tried to make our lives easier instead of harder. It's astounding we're (as in the sound camp community) all still here contributing in the ways that we do year after year. We are a big reason the event now sells out every year, because it is an international destination for dance music enthusiasts. But they just want to have their art festival while enjoying the financial resources the 'ravers' bring them. I also understand we bring them headaches with law enforcement. Overall they take us for granted because they can. If we stopped coming out, some other camp would take our place and while some within the Org might care, overall the 'Org' as a decision making body couldn't care less. Now that there's an ego-driven millionaire / billionaire pissing contest around sound camps and massive Art Cars, the Org has even less reasons to support community driven camps like ours with limited resources.
Dr. Yes: So, how do you guys fund yourselves?
Syd: We are funded by our supporters who come to our events, camp members that pay dues, and 3 (literally) supporters who've made helpful donations when we've needed it because they believe in our vision. Our camp budget this year (which includes some year round storage costs that are considerable) is $196,664. This year we threw 11 fundraisers in 5 cities that raised $89,232. (Note - almost half of that was raised in one night when the very awesome and generous Seven Lions played for practically nothing at Mezzanine in SF in April). That party was an outlier in our annual fundraiser plan. Most events make $1500-$5000 so it takes a lot of events. We have 225 people paying dues + crew, production staff etc. In 16 years of OT going to BM, we've ended the week in the black on 3 occasions.
Dr. Yes: What do you think about the sound systems on the playa? What do you guys use?
Syd: I'm amazed (though by now I shouldn't be), at the quality of sound systems people bring out there because sound systems get pulverized in the dust and weather. Concert-level quantity and quality, on the big flat desert. We really have it so good for an incredible music experience to take place. OT's system this year is 20 L'acoustics V-DOSC tops and 24 L'acoustics SB218 subs. We pay a lot for our sound guys to bring it out (from Texas!), but we certainly don't pay close to market rate because they are awesome and believe in what we do and why we do it. (We've used the same sound company since 2006 every year). Dr. Yes: One last question - you said your first year on the playa was the first and only year you weren't involved in a project. Would you ever like another year like that at Burning Man? Syd: Not at all. In some respects I'm textbook Jaded Burner guy, and it's a wonder I've gone what will be 18 years in a row. It's the group of friends / community co-creating the annual project and the joy of that process that keeps me coming back. Everything else is diminishing returns. I can’t emphasize enough that Opulent temple exists and continues to show up because of the awesome people on the core team. Great people, diverse skills and in it for the right reasons. Dr. Yes: Thanks so much for this, Syd. See you in the dust!
Someone recently asked about drug schedules at Burning Man, and while most people are afraid to talk openly and in public about this very serious subject I, Dr. Yes, am not afraid to share someone who isn't me's experience with you.
I wanted to get a real expert's opinion here, and so I set up an interview with renowned Burner and shitposter Elon Musk. He describes how he likes to get messed up below, but be warned, dear reader, he is not a man of insignificant appetites...
"I like to start with the basics. [David] Sacks will typically break out a massive bag of coke on whichever jet we're flying into Burning Man on. We usually try to include the flight attendants and pilots, because it's really not fun to be the only ones getting lit up and Sacks can't keep up with me anyway.
Then as soon as I get to camp I start downing sizzurp non-stop, because hydration is important out there. That usually puts me in a good place to start assembling my camp [Dr. Yes's note: He means his assistant unlocks his RV for him] though I'll typically break out a six foot bong to do a few rips in the middle, just to keep things on an even keel. Now, once camp is done, I'm going one of two typical routes my first night out there: Crystal or bath salts. It just depends on my mood, you know? Do I want to go pick a fight with Russian gangsters at White Ocean, or am I in more of a "I'll go rave at Camp Walter, which actually turned out to be Kidsville..." kind of mood? Usually by 2 am or so though, I'm going to need a pick-me-up, so I swing back by camp, smoke a couple packs of cigarettes, beer bong at least one bottle of Mad Dog, and go through a couple boxes of whippits. I'll pop 6 or 7 stems and caps - something I try to do every 12 hours out there, just to keep things properly weird - and now I'm all sorted out and ready to go fuck shit up! By 8 am I'm typically back in camp again, huffing some butane, or possibly just gasoline if I'm feeling more Mazda than Telsa. Really takes the edge off. A couple hours later I'm ready to start the day, and after a breakfast of shatter-laced cereal in more sizzurp, it's time to for the real fun to begin. So, first, I thumb in a methadone suppository and then, as tradition dictates, day 2 out there is always a heavy acid day, I'll pop a baker's dozen hits and head out to deep playa, bringing nothing with me other than whichever fanboy has currently got his tongue buried up my ass, knowing that the playa will provide. One time, it provided not-so-friendly BLM law enforcement types after I saw what I swear to god was a giant replica of the Sydney Opera House doing the Danube river doggy style out past the trash fence. I, obviously, went towards it to see about participating. [Dr. Yes's note: Ask first folks! #consent] Acid being a bit of a commitment, that will usually carry me through to dinner time, at which point my body is often feeling a bit tired, as if I'd just squashed another effort at unionization, so I'll head back to camp and hit myself with a couple ampules of adrenaline. You can really do a proper howl at the sunset with that shit racing through your veins, and it's also great prep for a night of heavy, heavy flakka use. I know people say it can cause permanent psychological damage, but at Burning Man, would you even know? Nah man. Plus, I'm Elon fucking Musk. I do what I want! Now, flakka makes you feel like the Falcon Heavy, or maybe the Incredible Hulk - full of fragile male rage and power - and you just want to grrrrrr fight someone! There's only one place on the playa to go when that mood hits you, and that is the Temple, so this is usually the night I dedicate to loudly and angrily appreciating it. "FUCK YOUR FEELINGS!" I have been known to shout in the Temple (also on investor calls), but I hope people understand that's not me talking - it's the drug cocktail my mind and body are marinating in. The other Temple denizens and I have a good time that night. They're usually all around, clamoring very loudly and angrily at me about how you're not supposed to do this or that or whatever. You'd be surprised at how agitated all the poors get. I bet none of them have ever had the iron balls to call a guy rescuing Thai children from a cave a paedophile! I could buy this this fucking Temple a million times over. I make a mental note to ask Jack to shadowban their Twitter accounts. Anyway, I'm so off my face by now they usually morph into something much more pleasant and less poor, like clones of Alvin the Chipmunk, the small of Kylie Minogue's back, or a South African emerald mine.
Usually, after my flakka night, I need a little sleep, so I'll do a heroic dose of ketamine, drift into the blissful k-hole, and just sit there (wherever there may be....once it turned out to be the floor of Grover Norquist's RV) for awhile, recovering.
After a couple hours of that, I'm back, baby, and I'm ready to go! A liter of bourbon and a couple grams of molly wake me right up and then it's fucking ON. I'll run around all day while my body temp slowly creeps up to brain damage range, laughing at all the pussies expressing concern for my condition. I'm rolling hard, bitches! Nobody escapes my hugs. I'll typically redose six or seven times, consuming maybe 10 grams total throughout the next 18-20 hours, after which I'm usually feeling like things are getting stale, and it's time to up my game a bit lest I get bored. That's usually when I'll decide it's time for my own version of a Jeffrey, and I'll combine all the synthetic designer drugs I have into one big dose and just do them all at once. Last year I think I mixed together 3-MPM, homomazindol, some variety of cathinone (there are so many, who can keep track), a little Benzo Fury, and of course some tetrahydrofuranylfentanyl, to keep things in equilibrium. Science, bros!!
I usually try to grab a few hours of real sleep after all that wears off, typically using penothal, though sometimes just a lot of opium, to make sure I fall asleep, because it's important to take care of yourself out there.
At this point, I'm rarely aware what day it is, but I usually just figure that as long as there are still people on the playa, I can continue to judiciously self-medicate, so I tend to devote this entire day (whatever day that is) to krokodil. It comes out of Russia, which is how you know it's good, and strong! Like Putin. It's cool to watch your skin get all scaly. Reminds me of that guy in Game of Thrones - he could really swing a sword! Usually on the way out, I try to keep things low-key. Hop on my flight out of the playa, get a quick BJ from Sacks, snort a little DMT, and if I have a headache, I'll put a morphine drip in and maybe pop a few ambien before I finally let myself really have some fun and open up three or four veins for a good old-fashioned smack session. And I mean, that's it really. Pretty basic stuff." |
AuthorI'm Dr. Yes. I run this site, lead a theme camp called Friendgasm, and make Burning Man videos. Just say yes, folks, and help keep Burning Man weird! Archives
September 2022
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