Jrs V14 I07

JRS VOLUME #14; ISSUE #07

Burning Man Update: The Jack Rabbit Speaks
Volume 14, Issue #7
November 23, 2009

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INTRODUCTION

LATEST NEWS:
+ BLACK ROCK SOLAR INSTALLS SOLAR ARRAY ON RENO HIGH SCHOOL
+ BURNING MAN’S NEVADA DAY PARADE ENTRY WINS FIRST PLACE, NOVELTY DIVISION
+ BURNING MAN COVERED BY ARAB NEWS
+ OF PANORAMICS, GIGAPANS AND OTHER THINGS PAN
+ PHILIPPE GLADE’S IMPRESSIVE GALLERY OF BURNING MAN ARCHITECTURE
+ DO YOU HEART BOOKS? BURNING MAN BOOK CLUB’S READING LIST

PARTICIPATE:
+ NIMBY COULD USE YOUR HELP
+ SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS WANTED FOR PARTICIPATORY ARTS CMS

PHOTOS & IMAGES:
+ SCOTT LONDON’S BEST OF BURNING MAN 2009 GALLERY

CONNECT WITH BURNING MAN:
+ Burning Man on your favorite social networks

ADMINISTERRATA:
+ Want to unsubscribe from the JRS? Srsly? OK, here’s how: http://tinyurl.com/2rwqzx

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Last weekend, Burning Man completed Part One of our annual staff debrief process, which included four solid days of putting our noses to the grindstone, brains together, thinking caps on, and all that good stuff, to reflect upon the successes and challenges of another Burn year, the ways to improve our operation and organization, what our future looks like…at the event and beyond. Four days is a lot of talking & working, but it’s hard to imagine a better, more dedicated crew of people with whom to be doing it. After Thanksgiving? We do even more of it. Yeehaw!

The input YOU provided through our Feedback Loop is included in that process, so thank you for taking the time! We’re going to be compiling the highlights (read: trends) of the feedback we collected, and our responses to it, in both a soon-to-come JRS, and in our annual Afterburn Report (http://afterburn.burningman.com).

So here we go. We really like this edition of the JRS … it’s a delightfully varied collection of the cool, the interesting, the inspiring, and the downright breathtaking. It’s kinda like a stroll through Black Rock City, in that way. Just like we like it.

Oh and hey, our Ticket Pre-Sale opened on Friday, so if you want to spring for some Burning Man tickets for holiday gifts, hop over to:

http://tickets.burningman.com

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{============================================================} ========================LATEST NEWS========================= {============================================================}

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BLACK ROCK SOLAR INSTALLS SOLAR ARRAY ON RENO HIGH SCHOOL

BRS’s Tom Price writes:

“Black Rock Solar is putting the finishing touches on their latest, and largest project: a 100 kilowatt array for the Bishop Manogue Catholic High School in Reno. Once operational next month, this array will save them about $24,000 a year in energy costs. “That’s money we can use to provide scholarships to families in need, and right now there are more in need than ever,” explains BMCHS President Jim Toner. This project was built in part by our newest team member, and Nevada’s newest licensed solar installer, Wakan Waci (Konch) Blindman, a member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe who lives in Nixon. Learn more by clicking here:

http://www.blackrocksolar.org/?p=609

Up next for Black Rock Solar? We started Friday installing a 150kW project for the Food Bank of Northern Nevada, with the aim to finish by Christmas; the money saved from that project will go to work feeding hungry families. More proof, were any needed, that gifting creates its own forward momentum.”

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BURNING MAN’S NEVADA DAY PARADE ENTRY WINS FIRST PLACE, NOVELTY DIVISION

Somebody recently asked us “what do you want to change the world to?”. Perhaps the answer starts with an annual parade in Carson City, NV. The Burning Man entry in this year’s Nevada Day Parade won 1st Place in the Novelty division. Congratulations and great work, participants! Danger Ranger reports:

“The 2009 parade theme was ‘Nevada salutes President Lincoln’. Burning Man presented artistic interpretations of Mr. Lincoln himself, mixed with elements of “Steam Punk Fashion”- an imaginary world of Victorian-Era High Technology where the limitless power of steam and a boundless imagination created a 19th century never-land world of tomorrow. The Burning Man entry was lead by Honest Abe’s 1862 Presidential Horseless Touring Couch. Reno’s Controlled Burn group & fire truck followed the Burning Man entry and won 2nd Place in the Novelty division.”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10111/sets/72157622825293776/

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BURNING MAN STORY IN ARAB NEWS

Fatima Najm of Arab News writes about Burning Man.

“Art is democratic here. This entire enterprise serves as a gargantuan art gallery. The art is interactive — you can touch it; you can climb it; you can shelter in it. The institutionalized world and all its preconceived notions about art are challenged here.”

The full story at:

http://bit.ly/4zcAGq

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OF PANORAMICS, GIGAPANS AND OTHER THINGS PAN

The Rabbit neglected to piece together that the awesome gigapan image of BRC we put in the last JRS was shot by none other than Brad Templeton, purveyor of Black Rock City panoramics since God knows when, and now server-upper of amazing gigapans too. Rabbit culpa, Brad … you are the awesome. Oh wait, dear reader … you perhaps doubt our claims of Brad’s awesomeness? Well then, we shall prove it to you. Brad says:

“This year, with a new camera able to shoot well in low light, I did a lot more night panoramas, something that is generally hard to do. (They often end up as failures.)

The gallery of giant panoramas can be found here:

http://pic.templetons.com/brad/pano/bman09.html

In addition, I have regenerated many of the older ones at higher resolution, so you can check out the prior years (2005 onward, plus the best of 1998 onward are now at higher res.)

http://pic.templetons.com/brad/pano/bestburn.html http://pic.templetons.com/brad/pano/bigburn.html

Finally I am also uploading a number of them to gigapan, where you can zoom in at full resolution. Links can be found in the 09 page to start. Definitely try the gigapans in full screen mode.”

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PHILIPPE GLADE’S IMPRESSIVE GALLERY OF BURNING MAN ARCHITECTURE

Are you into architecture porn? We are. As such, we found this photographic collection of architectural styles seen at Burning Man, compiled by photographer Philippe Glade (of Burning Man’s documentation team), to be some serious structural hardcore. It’s good to see that people are out there documenting the amazing ingenuity of our community and the fruits of the DIY creative spirit. Enjoy:

http://thisisblackrockcity.blogspot.com/

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DO YOU HEART BOOKS? BURNING MAN BOOK CLUB’S READING LIST

We love this stuff. Scott writes:

“My name is Scott and this past year was my first Burn which was ….. well you’ve hear the story a thousand times. Anyways, I just wanted to write to you regarding the Burning Man Book Club… on a couple of the days I strolled around for several hours and asked people for book recommendations and after several hours I had collected a list of about 100 various titles… ranging from anything to everything.

Anyways, I have posted the eclectic mix here at the link below and I would love to have the list spread and added to. If you’re going to find out about a great book it’s going to be at Burning Man!!!!

http://www.sporlederart.com/blog/?p=158

Thanks and I hope the list gets spread!!!

Scott Sporleder”

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NIMBY COULD USE YOUR HELP

NIMBY does an incredible amount for the artists and the art of our community, so much of which has been enjoyed by Burning Man participants on the playa. This is part of our community fabric here, folks. Snook writes:

“NIMBY is an industrial art and DIY space where projects like the Steam Punk Tree House, Colossus, Dance Dance Immolation, 2pir, and The Disgusting Spectacle have been built. The Flaming Lotus Girls Serpent Mother, The Life Sized Mouse Trap and Michael Christian’s sculptures are among the pieces currently stored at NIMBY. This is just the tip of the iceberg – thousand of artists depend on NIMBY for support each year.

When you last heard from us NIMBY was going through a massive effort to re-locate to a bigger, better space in East Oakland, California. Thanks to your wonderful support NIMBY made the move. The past year has been spent setting up our beautiful 64,000 square foot space to be a wonderful place to create art.

We have been working tirelessly with the City of Oakland to have NIMBY be a fully legal and permitted art, performance and gallery space. Part of our goal is to pave the way for other art spaces to do the same. This effort has been fraught with monumental political and bureaucratic issues. For many months nearly every moment of our time has been spent in meetings with city officials, compiling paperwork or preparing for inspections. Things are moving forward and after great effort – progress is being seen. NIMBY is the first art space we know of that is close to having building department approval for the use of steel shipping containers in a shop space. This may sound trivial – but this is a huge victory for art spaces everywhere.

This effort has been far more costly than expected. While our space is viable on its own, once again we need to ask the greater community for help. During the course of working through the city of Oakland’s permit process, NIMBY has been compelled to pay for permits, inspections, architects, and engineers. When we finish, this will be an unprecedented victory for art spaces. Not only will we be in the clear, but other art spaces will have a blueprint for success. Sadly, however, NIMBY has been forced to pay the city before all others, which means that we owe not only our permitting and engineering fees, but we are falling behind on our regular monthly bills. As we press forward to obtain our Public Assembly permit (which means we can host events again!) we know there will be more bills. To set-up more studios we need to purchase wiring and several very expensive transformers.

To date, in addition to loans, we’ve raised over $5,000.00 in our campaign to raise funds for infrastructure and permit fees. The end is in sight. However, NIMBY needs $35,000.00 to be current and get through the leanest time of the year. We need your support. If everyone who has appreciated the artwork that has come out of NIMBY were to donate just $20.00 we would be out of the woods, and on our way to bigger and better things. Please, consider donating now.

Watch our video on Kickstarter:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1362561841/nimby-industrial-art-and-diy-space

Lend your support:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1362561841/nimby-industrial-art-and-diy-space

PayPal: NIMBYLLC (at) yahoo (dot) com

Tax Deductible Donations – email rachael (at) nimbyspace (dot) org

Keep up with NIMBY:

NIMBY Announce List – http://www.nimbyspace.org/contact/

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/nimbyspace

Twitter – NIMBYSPACE ”

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SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS WANTED FOR PARTICIPATORY ARTS CMS

While not an offical Burning Man event, FIGMENT is a great example of a Burning Man-inspired art event, created by New York Regional “Not That Dave” and his hard-working crew. They’ve got an initiative under way to create an open source content management system to manage participatory arts. Pretty cool, and something that could serve people all across the arts community in the future. If you can help them out, holla at ’em. Dave writes:

“FIGMENT, a three year-old participatory arts event in New York, is building an art project management application. In 2009, FIGMENT had over 400 art projects, performances and special events. Coordination using ad hoc systems, wikis, Google spreadsheets and other generalized tools has proven insufficient. We’re making the plunge and building something better.

This application will help coordinate content submissions, scheduling, placement, communication with artists, and web publishing. It will be open source, and available for use by art festivals and large-scale events around the world.

Figment has a feature specification, and is seeking experienced web application developers to help with coding. If you’re interested, please contact database@figmentnyc.org.”

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SCOTT LONDON’S BEST OF BURNING MAN 2009 GALLERY

Scott’s Burning Man photography continues to hang out in the upper eschelons of the breathtaking category (as well as NSFW, depending on where you work). Scott writes:

“I wanted to let all of you and the readers of Jack Rabbit Speaks know about my photos from Burning Man 2009. As in year’s past, I’ve gathered a set of 100 personal favorites online. You’ll find them here:

http://www.scottlondon.com/bm09

This year I was invited to be part of the documentation team, so I worked a little harder than usual. But not so hard that I didn’t have time to kick back and enjoy things. It was a beautiful and enchanting week.

As always I’d be grateful if you would share the link and help spread the word. Thanks so much.

Scott.”

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{============================================================} =================CONNECT WITH BURNING MAN=================== {============================================================}

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The Burning Man Regional Network – connect with Burners in your hometown:
http://regionals.burningman.com

Visit our own Lyceum and engage with published authors, bloggers and thinkers in and around the Burning Man community as they observe and comment on our culture and like-minded cultures around the world:
http://blog.burningman.com

The Official Burning Man Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/burningman

Official Burning Man Twitter Account – All Things Burning Man:
http://www.twitter.com/burningman

Black Rock City Twitter Account – All Things BRC:
http://www.twitter.com/blackrockcity

{============================================================} ==================ADMIN ON AND OFF THE JRS================== {============================================================}

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Soundtrack for this JRS: The Mountain Goats, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Trentmoller