I just saw a microsoft commercial that has a dad with piercings talking to his teenage son about which tatoo to get before they go to burning man, and the son wants to just be left alone.

This ahows that even hip cool events can become refined, pasturized and processed and have all the nutrients taken out. It may have become BURNING MAN LAND and now requires a corprate stamp and an E ticket.

you lived, you learned, and hopefully . .

Change is the only constant – AnnaMaul93

As for who owns the idea of standing naked and purified before our Brother Fire, gathered in an undifferentiated mass of Love, Understanding and Vision…well…Woe to the man who thinks he can tame the wild Spirit which we have worked so hard to keep in the face of worse than this ;)

And above all else, remember that that is what is at the core of Burning Man. Burning Man is the culmination of a half million screams. Every year tens of thousands of people make their way to the desert to drop to their knees and at last let go of the shattered pieces that were once their lives in one soul searing scream…and allow the healing energy we create together to rebuild those pieces with a little meaning. A scream that holds all of the pain, hope fear, anger, hopelessness, despair, and frustration that is what it means to be Human. Trademark that.

Life (TM)

Love brothers and sisters. That’s what began this. And that is what will fix this.

Love and Respect
The Storyteller

A lot of news happened this week, especially in light of the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas and MacWorld in San Francisco. In light of my past few days of watching both a nearly four year old (as my nephew likes to say) and a 8 month old …

Labor Day weekend, 1989. I, with my roommates P. Segal, Dawn Stott & a mutual friend Cindy attended a wind sculpture event in the Black Rock desert sponsored by Planet X pottery in Gerlach Nevada. We hauled a lightweight mobile canopy bed (our sculpture) on top of a tiny sedan out to this remote, inhospitable area. The surreal local combined with mobile sculptures was both incredible and inspiring. That weekend was one that had a great & lasting impact on my life. I never wanted to leave. The desert attracted & stirred me, & I knew I had to go back.

Dawn once said “it’s so empty it’s full”.

When I returned to the Bay Area & started my final year in art school, I rallied a few friends & schoolmates around the idea of planning a Labor Day weekend trip to the Black Rock desert. I had been reading Hakim Bey’s “Temporary Autonomous Zone” & his ideas struck a chord. At that time I was into the youthful notion of destroying parts (if not all) of my artwork as a meditation on impermanence & the importance of flexibility. These concepts fused into a plan of generating a “creative incident” in the Black Rock desert with a central theme, the ritual destruction & immolation of both structures & artwork (a lager manifestation of the “meditation on impermanence & the importance of flexibility”). For an impoverished, young & naive art student, this vision seemed far too grand & expensive to accomplish alone. I decided to present the scheme to my good friend John Law (whom I had met through my involvement in The San Francisco Cacophony Society) and that was when the idea for “Zone trip 4, Bad day at Black Rock” was officially hatched as a cacophony event. I approached this individual because I sincerely considered he was (& is) person of great veracity & he would respect and lend a hand in my somewhat delusional concept. I was correct in my impulse & the event was to happen. Along the way, a few months from the target date of the Zone trip, I attended the Baker beach burn of the Burning man. Fortunately, (via the intervention of both the San Francisco police & fire departments) the monolithic figurine was not razed. Amidst chants of “burn it anyway!” and pagan-like drumming, a few of us cacophonist including Miss P. & Dawn thought it would be a great idea to invite Larry & his man along for our strange ride out to the Black Rock. If anything, he had the biggest, most expensive & elaborate piece of firewood that would make a glorious conflagration. It was a magnificent, awe-inspiring weekend. I would return and participate for the next 4 years, 1995 being my last year. (In all, 6 years every Labor day)

The event morphed from a Cacophony event into Burning man. In my opinion, it eventually got too big, supercilious & aloof. It had lost its soul (For me at least) & I felt a profound need to no longer contribute or attend. A year later, after the disastrous 1996 event, John and a few other key participants would renounce. In following years, other members of “the old guard” would trickle away for (I believe) similar reasons. This is not to diminish the importance of what others have contributed & experienced in the years since. The event is what one makes of it & I know countless have had their own, life changing occurrences in that desert. Since 1996 I’ve silently watched in admiration as numerous fresh & astonishing examples of creativity debut on the playa. I’m delighted to know that so many have had that same “feeling” I did Labor Day weekend so long ago.

This is severely circumcised history of my experience, but I feel I needed to regurgitate further the early conception of that desert “art” festival. A more concise history may be found in Brian Doherty’s “This is Burning man”.

That said, I wish to wholeheartedly express my support of John Law & his decision to go forward with his current legal actions. In the 20 or so years that I have know this man, he has been a wonderful and loyal friend, part of my family (he was the minister at my wedding) and an individual of great integrity. He has brought countless invaluable, “eye opening” & enriching experience to my life & the life’s of many others. In short, I would not be who I am today without him. For that I am forever grateful.

-Kevin Charles Evans
January 12, 2007

then you have these guys, Harvey and Mikel making all this money and about to open up a big can of money making and that is where Law steps in and says, yo! Not without me getting a cut you ain’t!

So, there you have it. I think they should do whatever they want with it. Sell it, make money, whatever. But common, share the wealth you guys.

As for myself. I would love to keep it for us all. I think we all should keep the opportunity to sell BM merchandise if we want to make it! I like the private domain way!

But seriously… I don’t think that is what John Law wants. He wants money!

And Harvey is becoming an ass!

just my two cents…… but WHAT DO I KNOW!!! I just read the complaint, I don’t know ANY of these guys.

: )

Care to address the actual issue?
————————
comment by Jonathan
on Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 at 11:52 am

And to the self-righteous “native”, your homies in Mexico were also yanking out about 20,000 beating hearts per year in order to appease the Gods… you’re not in the position to brag about much of anything, Chief Burning Junk.

As a ‘movement’, this devolved interaction of the ‘founders’ becomes a lesson for the greater communities Burning Man has spawned. One of these lessons (or questions) is, “What/Who do you identify with?”, and/or “What the fuck are you doing the rest of the year?”, or “How are you making a living knowing what you have learned?” ? ?? ???

What more the recent discussion has spurred (through vocalized discontent, blind faith in the event, hero/idol worship, blog dissent, etc.) is of much greater gravity and learning opportunity for the ‘movement’ upon which these communities thrive. I don’t think this is so much about identity rights, or even money or corporate/intellectual property. I see it as another upswelling of discontent and growing pains in response to the greater (like it, dislike it, believe it, or not) corporate/manufactured culture, identity, and management structure formed in the translation of this beautiful experience into greater society.

“Mainstreaming Pains”, if you will. A “Mainstreaming Abortion” we may need.

In trying to capture *and* produce this essentially Pagan connection with the Universe through an experience anchored to one week our of the year, the production of this event has taken on an almost unquestionable theocratic bureaucracy. A c**t of personalities, perhaps.

Questioning, discussing, and perhaps taking even legal action upon this major edifice is part of the greater shift to the next level. The next level being a strength in our connection and community building event production, decentralized manifestations of beauty, and becoming what we need to be – in time of climate change, global upheaval, war, peak oil, etc.

I find myself thankful for the work that John – and Larry and Michael! – have done and are doing by evolving through this situation in such an open way at this moment in history. It is an evolution we must all consider, and participate in – or else we poison the ‘movement’ for future generations and cultural iterations.

I also find this to a *most* worthy discussion to be happening in the Year of the Green Man, aka the Year of the Pig. A time to dig down to the roots, devour all the shit, and get hog wild with changing of what exists and needs to be reformed. Leaping Ahead in a more connected and as a team and as intertwined communities, to a greater and impending pressing future. And yes, perhaps the Last Year.

So What? Why should you care? Do to not be attached to the outcome, legal or otherwise. What you crave/need/desire to create will survive, and thrive!

I hope this deeper meaning, questioning, and strive for evolution reaches the outer most realms of society this phenomenon of Burning Man has enabled, created, and connected.

my (almost 10 years of experience in this scene adding up to nearly) $0.02,
teiwaz