Jrs V07 I01

JRS VOLUME #7; ISSUE #1

JRS/7.1/09.20.02

Burners:

Ah, do you mind a long-winded JRS from Marian? With a more concise JRS from Action Girl or Cabe next week? Bear with me. 😉

Welcome back to…the rest of the world. Gary Taylor the Arizona Regional Contact called it the “Default World”.

An email was passed to me recently with a LONG list of “You Know You’re a Burner When” thoughts. I’ll share the list in it’s entirety along with a funny “How To Enjoy The Burning Man Experience From The Comfort Of Your Own Home” list.

Here’s are some excerpts from the list chosen for their relationship to my OWN personal experience:

You Know you’re a Burner when:

– You have some Burner friends in a non )^( context and you have to ask them what their real names are to introduce them to your “mundane” friends

– You go to a park and find yourself picking up even garbage and MOOP that others left behind, because, well, “leave no trace” ya know… (I did this at a birthday party on Angel Island recently)

– You consider the epithet ‘Freak’ as a compliment.

– You’d drive 3 hours through crappy traffic just to have a beer with somebody you camped near two years ago.

– People don’t understand why you just “give things away”… or pick up litter

– You keep leaving your keys in your unlocked car and in an urban area!

BACK TO WORK FOR BURNING MAN

The administrative staff has begun to return to the office and we’re getting back into the saddle of doing our jobs. (DPW has yet to have a break, btw Building BRC 2002 or Days Of Our Dusty Lives) I myself have attended 3 days of meetings in Reno this week where the BLM along with other users of the Black Rock Desert have been discussing details of the upcoming Draft Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for the new National Conservation Area blackrockhighrock.org. Stay tuned in early winter for what you can do so your voice is heard on how recreation in the Black Rock Desert will be managed.

WOW:

It was a fantastic Burning Man event, with great weather and a record attendance of 29,083. Here’s the BLM’s official press release: BLM Press Release

Thanks to every participant who contributed to the beauty and community energy in Black Rock City. I can’t wait to go home, again! Larry has already been concocting next year’s theme. It will be a good one. STAY TUNED! We WILL share it with you as soon as possible. Probably by November 1.

MEOW:

A personal thank you to all the wonderful people who came by to say hello, shared gifts (including a medallion with cat head where the Man’s head would go, thanks Answer Girl!), and helped me and the other stress-out organizers enjoy the event. Our responsibilities make it so the event itself is particularly overwhelming and at times depressing. I did have some high points: I was fortunate enough to ride on the Cat Bus for several hours one evening with some new and old friends and kitty cats, and I enjoyed the Cloud Car briefly after the Burn… moments of anonymity, friendship and bliss.

Pardon my public gushing, but my most valuable experience of 2002 was a tandem sky-dive jump on Saturday afternoon at about 3:30 pm. I’ll never forget the sweet, mild-mannered, first-time-burner, Joe, with over 13,000 jumps under his belt who ON his BIRTHDAY gifted to me and also to Larry an experience of a life-time… floating over the most amazing city in the world. Larry’s jump ended up coordinated with Wes and his friends large human-made MAN figure on the playa. Burning Sky Human Man (I have no idea what the deal is with the plug-in needed for this site, anyone?)

Speaking of gifts, there were some very creative gifts being shared amongst the community. I encourage you all to contribute to the Material Culture Archive. Ladybee, archive volunteers and web team volunteers have been working for nearly a year to create a database of images of the material culture that makes our gift-giving so rich. You’ll want your creativity represented! Use this form for contribution: and mail your items to: Material Culture, Burning Man, P.O. Box 884688, San Francisco, CA 94188-4688.

THEFT!

Unfortunately, the experience of Burning Man was marred for many by an epidemic of thievery before, during and after the event. We are composing a Jack Rabbit Speaks dedicated to that issue alone. Look for it at the start of next week which will include an BBS url to share your stories publicly, and an email address to submit directly to the organization’s growing collection. The stories are quite distressing, and the removal of dragonflies from the Lily Pond brought tears to my eyes. Info Wanted

Every year there are lots of bikes left over after the event. People seem to borrow bikes without permission, and the borrowed/stolen bike is left behind. You MIGHT be reunited with your bike if you email: lostbikes(at)burningman(dot)com, but don’t count on it. The logistics of reuniting everyone with their bikes is costly and daunting.

General items that you feel might be found can be listed at: lostfound(at)burningman(dot)com. MORE on lost/stolen items in the upcoming JRS for next week.

OUTSIDE AGENCY PARTICIPATION IN BURNING MAN:

Things went very well with the BLM and all other outside agencies at Burning Man 2002. BLM staff shared over a pallet of electrolyte replacement (“G”-brand name not included here). One BLM staff member there for a day said he couldn’t believe how long it took to pass out the beverage-gift from the back of the golf cart. WHY? “People kept saying, don’t go yet, I have to give you something.” and would fish for a gift. He said he’d never seen anything like that… of course not. 😉

We have received some complaints about law enforcement behavior, and we’d appreciate if you direct your stories to: lawenforcement2002(at)burningman(dot)com. Details should include date, location, the agency the officer belonged to, what your concerns are, and any other information related to your experience if you believe proper procedure was not followed.

And, if you’re so inclined send me submissions for a list of: “Ways you can tell who the undercover BLM Rangers are”.

WIND, DUST AND DUNES OH MY!

Those few hundred left on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday experienced something of a magnitude we’ve not quiet seen before. At around 11:30 am each day high winds kicked up and didn’t cease until after 7 pm. This daily routine effectively created a white-out and as it became more serious an orange/brown-out condition for over 7 hours each day. Jim Mason’s adventure in the 2002 playa storms can be read here: LA Weekly Article

The ramifications of the weather was and continues to be serious. Not only could we not remove items from the playa, which threatened the permit timeline set by the BLM, but small surface items disappeared under the fine dust. Enormous dunes developed against all buildings and larger items yet to be removed. The storms have seriously hampered clean up efforts, but the clean up staff and crew are continuing undeterred from their duties.

I should point out at this time that the maxim to “Clean As You Go” becomes particularly valuable in the event there is a dust storm. If I hadn’t spent a little time each day picking up stray MOOP from my camp each day, I can guarantee that the items would be covered by dust and would subsequently come to the surface over the winter. Our permit with the BLM stipulates that in addition to a fall “inspection” after the event, there will also be one in the spring when the playa surface is dry. Items covered by dust are certain to appear in the spring threatening our April BLM inspection. CLEAN UP AS YOU GO, ya never know when a dust storm will hit!

CENSUS FORMS AND PEOPLE, OH MY!

Hey, thanks to all the participants who remembered to turn in their pink Burning Man 2002 Census forms. And, big hugs and kisses to those who took the initiative to send stray forms to the office. Your response to the Census carries a high value to the Burning Man organization. The data helps those not familiar with our event to better understand our diversity. Please, if you’ve not already turned your survey in, do so to: Burning Man, P.O. Box 884688, San Francisco, CA 94188-4688. We will be creating an online version, and I’ll post the URL early next week. Thanks SO much for your participation in this effort. Stay tuned to the JRS and the bman.com home page as we have plans to issue periodic survey questions throughout the year. The results from the 2002 Census will be posted on the web site as soon as some nice volunteer steps forward to help us do data entry and another to create charts and graphs.

MISSING YOUR FELLOW BURNERS?

WHAT TO DO NOW THAT YOU’RE BACK IN THE DEFAULT WORLD?

You could scan the “MISSED CONNECTIONS” on craigslist.org, there are some great Bman missed connections there, and someone might be looking for you!! I was planning to share some posts for you here, but you’d better just go check them out yourself. Thanks Holly for posting them to the staff discussion list!

You could attend a short talk by Larry Harvey at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on Thursday, September 26, Inforum

If you like films, you could on Saturday, September 28 starting at 1 pm in Santa Cruz sit in an historic theater for a handful of hours and watch a marathon Burning Man film festival benefiting the Santa Cruz region. List of films below or on: burningbeach.org

Hey, you could also check out the fuckin’wow images on the bman.com site: images.burningman.com

While you’re on the bman site, visit the AfterGlow portion of the BBS bbs.burningman.com

You COULD attend the BURNING MAN SAN FRANCISCO DECOMPRESSION “HEAT THE STREET FAIR” on Sunday, October 20 at Cocomo from noon to midnight, Indiana St. at 19 St.

If you’re a bicyclist in SF you could ride in the 10th anniversary CRITICAL MASS ride on September 27. 5:30, Justin Herman Plaza with a Pot Luck in Dolores Park afterwards. More info next week.

OR, if you’re not in San Francisco, and can’t make it for this sure-to-be great event you can “do it yourself” and connect with your local “REGIONAL CONTACT” to help bring others together to play and share stories, photos and video.

–REMINDER AND BEGINNING OF A DIALOG AS TO WHAT’S AN “OFFICIAL” BURNING MAN EVENT: ??

The name “Burning Man” is trademark protected. Using the name for commercial gain is prohibited without permission of Burning Man, period. Anyone producing an event, charging admission, creating advertising, etc. and using the name Burning Man without permission is making themselves vulnerable to legal action.

If you are attending and paying for admission at an event, there are keys to tell that the event is an allowed “Burning Man” regional affiliation event: a) it is mentioned on the appropriate “regional” page of the Burning Man web site (we’re encouraging the regionals to use their announce lists and the bman.com site instead of the JRS to publicize their events); b) any publicity includes a @burningman.com regional alias; (NOTE: some regional areas have started their own related domains like: burnaustin@ and burningbeach@, publicity should nevertheless STILL include a bman.com email address); c) it is mentioned on the JRS as a regional event.

Why should you care? If the event isn’t a regional event, money you may be paying for the door, drinks, activities, etc. go towards the organizers of the event and have nothing to do with “Burning Man”, and you shouldn’t be deceived into believing something is “Burning Man” when it’s not! Many things are “in the spirit of Burning Man”, “Burning Man-like” “Burning Man-esque”, etc. Theme Camps and other groups have “decompression” and fundraising parties, but no one should be mistaken as to where the money taken at the door is going.

We are currently in the process of further defining what accountability participants can expect from a “regional event”. To date, however, we do know and expect Burning Man “regional events” to have certain characteristics consistent with the desert event. The event includes Burning Man art, theme camp installations, art cars, video/film, images, or other interactive art. Any admission fee goes directly towards the event production, and surplus funds will be earmarked for regional outreach activities. The event isn’t politicized nor does it fund any group outside the regional group. The ethics around what’s sold at the event are in keeping with the non-commercial nature of the desert event. Stay tuned as we hone this down.

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Santa Cruz Regional Event –

Burning Man Film Festival – Santa Cruz – Sept. 28
Ever wonder why 29,000 people trek to the Nevada desert each year and brave heat, cold, hurricane-force winds and dust storms to participate in the arts event known as Burning Man? This the the first Burning Man film festival in five years. Films include Nosolomusica’s “Burning Man 2001”, the first ever documentary done in Spanish; Chuck Cirino’s “Burning Man 1994”, a glimpse of the early days of the event; and the official Burning Man film festival premiere of San Francisco filmmaker Renea Roberts’ “Gifting It – A Burning Embrace of Gift Economy.” The event, hosted at Santa Cruz’s historic Rio Theatre, will also include some rarely seen video shorts and introductory remarks by Burning Man Executive Director Larry Harvey. The festival is a benefit for Burning Beach, the Santa Cruz Burning Man region. Doors open at 1 p.m. and the first film airs at 2 p.m.

Tickets: $15 at the door, $12 if you’re in playa garb. Children under 12 are free. For more info check out burningbeach.com or email santacruz(at)burningman(dot)com

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CRITICAL MASS

I’d like to find out if JRS can keep the Burning Man spirit going during the other 51 weeks a year “back in society” by letting burners know of the upcoming 10th Anniversary of Critical Mass in S.F. We already have the full X-tra Action Marching Band performing at the start of the ride. Gather at 6 PM at Justin Herman Plaza. A pot luck gathering will be held at Dolores Park afterwards. Bring yourself, and something to share.

Joe “Playafish” Carroll

P.S. There are over 150 Masses that take place once a month around the world. Any Burners that can’t make it to SF can always go bike in there own local Critical Mass.

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Fray.org

My apologies to fray.org for not posting a JRS in time to encourage participation in their story telling event last Saturday. In 1996 fray.org was one of my favorite web sites, and in the past a favorite theme camp. I’m still trying to get Derek to help us create a shared story section on bman.com like the one in which I participated in 1996. ! ? 😉

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You’ll see a more orderly version of the JRS early next week, and another one related to Thefts before or after it. Thanks everyone!

Cheers

Meow meow

>^..^^..^

Burning Man
jackrabbitspeaks(at)burningman(dot)com (for questions and post requests)

The JRS: guaranteed to be interesting every now and then.

old rabbits: www.burningman.com/blackrockcity_yearround/jrs/

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