JRS/v:5:18c/06.28.01
THIS IS PART 3 OF 3, see 18a and 18b for more info….
//////////
//////////
Participants who want to contribute to the BM community, WANTED to fill out our new Burning Man Documentation Team!
We need enthusiastic, experienced shooters of still & moving images with their own equipment to help us capture images of theme art, playa art, and theme camps for the Burning Man archives. Some film may be provided:
- 35 mm SLR or 3 megapixel resolution minimum for still images
- 3 chip dv or high 8 for moving image
This is a great way to interact with artists and theme camp organizers while helping to capture the incredible and diverse installations on the playa year over year.
We are also seeking participants with a video or photography background who have an inherent hunger for organization.
We need pre-playa, playa-side and post-playa administrative help with:
- organizing and deploying shooters
- creating shooter schedules
- overseeing the sign-in and film distribution process
- archiving & logging processes post event
We are selective, but are interested in a variety of skills/talents.
If you are a videographer, please email vid-doc(at)burningman(dot)com
If you are a photographer please email photo-doc(at)burningman(dot)com
//////////
The Center Camp Cafe, Burning Man’s community gathering space, is still looking for Volunteers to fill all positions. We need trained baristas, Cafe Criers, Counter Help and Support. If you are interested in Volunteering in the Cafe please contact us at cafe-volunteers(at)burningman(dot)com. For more information go to http://www.burningman.com/participate/cafe.html (and check out the beautiful photo in the corner!
——-
The Center Camp Cafe is in search of large bolts of fabric. If you have old theatre curtains, rolls of fabric or large bolts of material sitting around collecting dust please contact us at cafe(at)burningman(dot)com
——
Center Camp Cafe is STILL in need of a HUGE amount of Carpet! We’re talking about 20,000 square feet minimum. Like, if a Reno Casino changed its carpet. That’s way more than your usual dumpster find, and we discovered last year that those dumpster pieces aren’t very practical or safe. PLEASE let us know if you’ve got Reno connections for this, or know of another large space (Convention center?) that’s dumping some rug. We would be saving them a lot of money in haul-away and landfill costs, so we’re doing them a big favor. (and recycling)It doesn’t have to all match, we just need a LOT from a single source. Contact Marcia(at)burningman(dot)com or Cafe(at)burningman(dot)com
—–
Center Camp Cafe seeks instrumental performers
The Center Camp Cafe Sound Team is seeking instrumental musicians to perform on our music stage, providing ambiance for patrons to relax and converse to. Please see our page at: http://www.burningman.com/participate/cafe_sound.html …you’ll find all the details and contact info you need there. Thanks!
—-
Performing onstage at Center Camp Café is a fun and high-profile way to participate in Burning Man. The Sound Team, cafe-sound(at)burningman(dot)com is accepting applications to perform in a scheduled time slot. If you’re interested in performing on the music stage, please read the details below. Demo recordings can be mailed to: Taran Ramage, PO Box 421077, San Francisco CA 94142-1077. If you’re interested in performing on the spoken word stage, email cafe-spoken(at)burningman(dot)com.
(from the rabbit, this is NOT a place for loud bands. Instead, it’s a space for diverse music)
——
Center Cafe seeks Artist(s) for Portals.
The Center Cafe is looking for proposals from artists interested in creating a sculptural ‘gateway’ or portal, in the same vein as the ‘Red Pagoda’ by David Best that marked the front entrance to the Café structure last year.
There are 3 grand entrance-ways (front and 2 sides) into the Center Cafe, and we’re aiming to embellish all of them.
Some materials cost will be covered, within reason. There are some safety limitations (sorry, no flame-breathing gargoyles this time), and weight/wind considerations. Some transportation may be available.
Dimensions: Cafe structure (wood) forms a square arch 11′ high, 12′ wide. Artist’s gateway may extend beyond these measurements, including out toward the playa. Installation must be complete by Aug. 26.
GUIDELINES: email Cafe-decor@burningman.com for detailed info & how to submit proposals.
DEADLINES: final proposals due July 13 via email or postal.
Decisions announced July 16.
//////////
Fulfill your Lover at Finley Fryer’s Plastic Chapel
Have you ever planned a wedding? Officiated over a union ceremony? Been in a wedding? Have you ever been TO a wedding? No matter what your talents or skills, there is a place for you to use your volunteer energies at the Plastic Chapel!
The Chapel exists to fulfill the Lover stage of life; our need to recognize the reality of others. All unions are welcomed here – couples and groups, actual weddings between real couples, or five-minute marriages between total strangers – all may participate in these “marriage” ceremonies regardless of gender or sexual orientation. We invite you all to make commitments to partners by sharing vows and gifts with fellow burners as witnesses. The nature and content of Chapel unions is whatever the imagination can conjure up.
A few of the events and art installations that we already know about::
- 10-foot wedding cake for picture-taking
- Midget Elvis / Yard Gnome wedding performance
- Fabulous spiritual unions, legal ones too!
- Tacky Bridesmaid auction
- Wedding Singer Expo
- Wedding Fashion Show
We are seeking folks with all manner of energy to offer the creation of these unions. You can participate in the unions, officiate over them, blow bubbles, be an usher or bridesmaid – anything that will add to the spirit of union. There will be more events organized once we are on the playa.
Everyone dreams about the ideal setting for union ceremonies. View the wonderful art and beauty of Finley Fryer’s Plastic Chapel and know that your dreams could come true at Burning Man 2001!! http://www.snowcrest.net/finleyfryer/
If the Chapel is the place for you, whether to volunteer to facilitate activities, officiate legal ceremonies or have your legal ceremony at Burning Man, please contact weddings(at)burningman(dot)com for more information about participating.
//////////
The Black Rock City Post Office
The Black Rock City Post Office (BRCPO) provides basic lines of communication between all citizens of Black Rock City (BRC). Simply, we deliver mail in a 5-square mile city that is often tumultuous, spontaneous, and chaotic, but our messages get through. We also will deliver mail off-Playa to a US Postal Pickup site– IF it is pre-stamped, we have been sufficiently induced to do so, and we feel like it*. (We run on what we call a “bureaucratic barter system,” but we DO NOT vend US stamps. We barter only BM stamps, postcards and our services.)
The BRCPO is currently accepting volunteer applications for BM01. Of the many positive statements made by BRCPO volunteers last year, perhaps the most concise was: “Working at the BRCPO was SO much fun that it should be illegal!” (This statement came from a former US Customs Official.)
There are many enjoyable facets to being a BRCPO volunteer, which include getting out to meet people and see the city while delivering mail, working at our Center Camp Central Office or at one of our Outposts to disseminate information and communiques while collecting good barter items, and the chance to either lovingly mock bureaucracy or vent some bureaucratic angst.
We are accepting applications for Clerks and Carriers. However, we also have many niche categories of volunteerism for one of our new specialty service– the Playa-Gram. For this we need performers– dancers, singers, novelty acts, and generally uninhibited and creative souls willing to deliver a message through performance.
If you are interested in volunteering for the BRCPO at BM01, then respond to brcpo(at)yahoo(dot)com and– and this is important– your NAME and STATE/ COUNTRY in the Subject line. We will send you an application once you complete this step.
Thanks!
Postmistress General, BRCPO
* We offer NO delivery guarantees. Off-Playa delivery is a courtesy service offered through the BRCPO by The Postman of the Playa.
(The BRCPO is a subsidiary of the Soup Advisory Board and the Playa Express Delivery Services– PedEx. For more information on our general esprit de corps and proclivity toward bureaucratic obfuscation, you may want to visit these sites.)
//////////
So, now after having read a number of posts calling for help it might occur to you and yours that not all “participants” who contribute to making the event happen are likely to be dressed in gay party-wear! Sometimes the person you’re sneering at figuring they’re a “spectator” is actually an individual who’s not comfortable in body glitter, body paint, or a costume of any kind…but who instead may have helped twist 3000 pairs of wires together for the L2K installation, OR who slaved tirelessly to code 230 pages of web templates, OR who helped unload 6 truck-loads of STUFF for the Mausoleum, OR who designed or installed the cafe stage, OR who worked 2 Greeter shifts back to back and had to get outta the costume and just hang around and watch people for awhile.
Every year after Burning Man I receive an email from more than one person who had an unpleasant experience with being taunted for not having a costume on, OR for looking like a spectator, OR for watching something unfold before him/her. In each case the person had put a significant amount of time into a project, and he/she was annoyed that in a place so accepting of one’s uniqueness he/she was under pressure to do or behave in a way that the other felt qualified to judge as being engaged in “participation”!
I myself was witness in 1999 as a fast moving art conveyance tore through Center Camp carrying obnoxious individuals of this sort. I was walking beside Bruno’s daughter, and she’d just handed me her camera to snap a photo of her and her friends from Gerlach. They were all dressed to the nines as you would to any party. Only their clean pressed jeans and Stetson’s weren’t acceptable to the shirtless, drunken individual yelling: “Participants only, rednecks go home!” I was mortified. Here were local citizens that allow us to camp in their back yard each year. Some of them attend the public meetings held by the BLM for public comment. Most are ambivalent about our presence, but very very few have done anything to keep us away. Bruno is a significant force in the small hamlet of Gerlach. He owns the only working motel and restaurant. He also owns the Texaco station not to mention a fair portion of property in the area. Every year he and his family and employees welcome Burners into their businesses and their town.
Listen, so many organizers are so exhausted from their work at the event they hardly have time to don a costume. Wouldn’t you feel embarrassed if you hassled me? Wouldn’t you feel embarrassed if you harassed someone who’d put in 200 volunteer hours working for the Tech Teams?
Think first.
Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.
rant over
-=-=-
thtthtththat’s all folks
//////////
bman-announce-subscribe(at)burningman(dot)com
bman-announce-unsubscribe(at)burningman(dot)com
//////////
Wfew!
What are you waiting for? Now, GO HELP!
—
Maid Marian
Burning Man
jackrabbitspeaks(at)burningman(dot)com (for questions and post requests)
The JRS: guaranteed to be interesting every now and then. 