Weird America’s Video of HELCO from Burning Man 1996

posted by Scott Beale on Tuesday, January 16th, 2007

So all this talk of John Law and Burning Man history has prompted Chuck Cirino to dig through his massive Burning Man video archives. He just posted an amazing video of the SEEMEN performance of HELCO from Burning Man 1996 that was produced by Kal Spelletich. This was a legendary point on the Burning Man timeline and one of the highlights of John Law’s involvement with the event, taking place the last year he was an organizer, right before all “hell broke loose”.

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filed under: Burning Man, Video

this blog post was written by Scott Beale on Tuesday, January 16th, 2007

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sophie 01/17/2007 01:38 PM 1 point
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wow. now that's a trip down memory lane!

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DaBomb 01/17/2007 02:36 PM 1 point
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very timely, considering tickets went on sale today.

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http://www.burncast.net

sammie bigguns 01/17/2007 03:05 PM 1 point
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who was that caped man who climbed the helco tower and ziplined off in the nick of time?

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http://www.fray.com/bm/6/index.html

chicken john 01/18/2007 12:27 AM 1 point
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Wow. That was the second best night of my life. I'm glad that exitsts. Thank you, Chuck. John Law sliding down that cable made me think that anyone can do anything. I still do.

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http://chickenjohn.com

Ted Rheingold 01/18/2007 02:12 AM 1 point
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When I saw this happen, I had only the vaguest idea of who and what it was all about. After years of considering existentialism something one read about in books written by dead people, or discussed in cafes, I had my first realization that instead of living with itÂ’s weight, some people weÂ’re people embracing the existential burn full on and finding great strength from doing so.

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http://www.spideysenses.com

Kevin Evans 01/18/2007 04:11 PM 1 point
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was that Vee chasing John?

hehehe

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http://www.kevinevans.com

Mike Bolger 01/25/2007 09:03 PM 1 point
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Excellent ! Chuck Cirino is my favorite Burning Man filmmaker. Both the self titled 1997 video, and the Talk Show Camp footage on the Motorized Living room in 1998 are priceless. I just discovered recently though that he also did a 1994 video (!) Worth posting if you have access to it. Whatâ€™s amazing is how different it was back then, like camping on the moon with a bunch of gun nuts. The ticket check point was just a dude in a trailer that would point you in the right direction. Thereâ€™s no way that the event would have survived to the size and scope that it is today if they were as lenient about guns as they were back then in the days of the drive by shooting range. You look at that video and you understand why things like Burning Man 1996 happened.

Thereâ€™s a great interview piece with John Law in that tape, itâ€™s pretty rare to see him in the mix, and heâ€™s talking about how the gun centric faction of the Burning Man crowd is what helped to cement ties with the Arizona neighbors. Something I never really thought about before. They would all go out to shooting ranges and the Arizona people wouldnâ€™t just see the Burning Man crowd as a bunch of California freaks, but as people who could hit a moving target from howevermany feet and that was how they started to develop more trust and respect relationships between each other. Kind of a cool boy scout meets the NRA moment.

Thanks again for posting.

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Mike Bolger 01/26/2007 05:13 PM 1 point
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EDIT : Brain fart. Substitute Nevada for Arizona. Parts of Black Rock will just always remind me of Arizona, both the landscape and the culture.

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Pete Goldie 08/31/2007 04:39 PM 1 point
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Chuck made this video exactly 11 years ago tonight. It's also the night that Sarah and I first hooked up, right there on the playa, so we celebrate this day as our actual anniversary. It's so very fine to see this video again.

We're home for the holiday playing with our delightful daughter and laughing at all the premature burn drama. Any regrets about not going to Black Rock City anymore? Only that we should have stopped going about 5 years sooner.

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sam 08/31/2007 08:33 PM 1 point
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Finally, I get to see it. I was disappointed that I missed the performance (I have no recollection what I was doing that night) and had to rely on second hand accounts.

Fucking brilliant. But where are the burn platforms? And who had to pick up all that MOOP? And the security rope to keep the idiots from getting too close to the fire? And...

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Colleen Sudekum 09/03/2007 04:40 PM 1 point
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Wow. That was a spectacular and well edited video of perhaps the most dramatic, political and terrifying artpiece Seemen ever did at Burning Man. I waited for a couple of hours to see it but was squeezed in front of by several 8 feet tall men so I missed a lot. I had lots of time to see the installation before it burned tho. Very clever. sHELL gasoline, Colonel Sanders with horns, corporate fastdeathfood. It was sooo funny. And when you knew there were corporate interests that wanted a piece of this art event, it made it even darker. There really is a hellco. I just hope that Burning Man is just too innovative and insightful for corporate interests ever to control.

PS The music was an excellent addition to the video - cudos to the composer.

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Danger Angel 09/04/2007 03:00 AM 1 point
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Chuck is such a great editor. I'm glad to see it - I missed everything up to John on the zipline - I was putting out other fires and got there in time to see that... what a completely unsafe and totally fun performance.

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Alex 09/15/2008 01:37 AM 1 point
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Helco was my first time. The second time was just this year (2008). What a contrast. Somethings now are really amazing and better BUT something important has also been lost.

Still worth going imho but Helco was absolutely unreal.

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Weird America’s Video of HELCO from Burning Man 1996

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