JRS Volume #6; Issue #1

BManUpdate v6#1/10.08.01

Hello again, Burners. Actiongrl here.

Wow.

Welcome to a “new year”. We’re back in the office after BMan 2001 and, just like the rest of the country, trying hard to get our legs underneath us again. It’s obviously been quite a trying time to return to “real life” for every last one of us. Keeping our community ties is more important than ever when the world is uncertain and upset. We send you love.

Burning Man 2001 has been described around the office as “the best burn yet,” and we all want to thank you for your hard work and play at making it such a success. From the moment Kelek’s Tesla coils lit up the Cafe at midnight on Monday until the last car exited the gate, we existed together in a place that is unlike any other on earth. And you were a part of it. What did you think?

This issue of the JRS is about staying connected, building community, DECOMPRESSING, and reflecting on 2001. Another JRS will be hot on this one’s heels.

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FLAMBE LOUNGE/DECOMPRESSION

First things first…it’s time to Decompress!!

Each year around October, the Bay Area burning community convenes (and far-flung visitors trek in to join us) to fend off the “playa bends” (“n: painful condition resulting from ‘returning to the surface’ of off-playa life.”) This joyful gathering is known as DECOMPRESSION. Burners bring photos to share; theme camps and artists set up their delights so that you can catch sight of some of your playa favorites, or the things you might have missed; folks begin to scheme and daydream about their “Next year, I’m gonna….” plans; entertainers strut their stuff; costumes are lovingly dusted off (or not!) and Indiana Street fills with the sounds and sights of BRC, brought into beautiful being for one more day… All this on 3 outdoor blocks and an indoor club with patio, 3 stages, dance floor, mezzanine chill space, 6 bars and multimedia wall of imagery. PARTICIPATE and help bring a little playa spirit to the city!

There is still room for theme camp installations and art installations. Also, we have some new video footage, but if you’ve got something edited we’ll add it to the bunch we’re showing. Images in a slide tray ready for viewing are also welcome. To share your playa images, bring VHS tapes, 35 mm slides in carousels, and photo images on CD-ROM to the Visuals Check Point in Cocomo or contact us in advance. PLEASE email flambelounge(at)burningman(dot)com immediately to contribute to the fun. Volunteers are also needed in a variety of capacities.

See the blurb after the post for info on how to get involved. Me, I’ll be working at the door, which is my favorite way to participate – I get to see everyone as they arrive, eyes wide, smiles burgeoning… be sure to say hello!

Flambé Lounge DECOMPRESSION ’01
Burning Man presents it’s 2nd ‘Heat the Street Faire’
Sunday, October 14th – Noon to Midnight
On Indiana Street, between Mariposa and 20th, just outside of Club Cocomo at 650 Indiana Street in San Francisco.

$10 in Black Rock Attire
$15 Street Wear
Shine or rain. ALL AGES OUTSIDE, but ages 21+ in Club Cocomo.
Check out the flyer:

Inflame your mind with visions of a new Burning Man!

Flambé Lounge is a gathering of like-minded artists, eccentrics and other PARTICIPANTS. It is one way that Burning Man creates COMMUNITY on a year-round basis; a venue to showcase new ideas for the playa, to learn what others are working on, and to share ideas and information in a social setting.

Flambé Lounge is a forum for people who have experienced Burning Man before, as well as those who are thinking about going for the very first time. It is an opportunity to speak with new as well as veteran participants and organizers; to find potential collaborators and to volunteer in areas that interest you! It is time you set aside to meet friends and begin planning your theme camp, art installation, performance, ritual, or other means of PERSONAL EXPRESSION-whether your plans are for the desert or your own backyardþAnd it just so happens to be one of the most unusual “parties” you’ll ever attend!

See the Picture Gallery of past Flambé events here:
http://www.burningman.com/blackrockcity_yearround/ special_events/flambe-archive.html
Flambe announcement on the web:
http://www.burningman.com/blackrockcity_yearround/ special_events/flambe.html

So how does a grand event like a Flambe Lounge get pulled off? The same way Burning Man happens – you! Bay Area burners and those who will visit for the weekend, check it out: your participation is vital to everyone’s Decompression!

p.s. Please note the the planning meeting this Wed, Oct 10th.

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The upcoming Decompression party is Sunday, October 14th from Noon-2 am. It will be a 3 block street fair! There will be multiple stages! Art! Costumes! Fun! An event of this magnificence needs your help! We are looking for a few folks to help us with the party. The jobs we need filled are listed below. Please respond with your interest & phone number & shift preference, and I will get back to you to confirm your shift and tell you where volunteer check-in will be.

****VOLUNTEER MEETING— THIS WEDNESDAY NIGHT*****

ALL FLAMBE VOLUNTEERS INVITED TO SPECIAL PLANNING MEETING FOR VOLUNTEERS
When: Wednesday, October10th, Cafe Cocomo, 8PM-9PM, 650 Indiana Street (Cross 19th Street) in Portrero Hill

Come to a really brief meeting followed but a brief, but meaningful, period of social time. See the Flambe Lounge Planning Process in Hot Live Action. Figure out how you can contribute to making this very special event happen.

**** CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS — PLEASE RSVP YOUR INTEREST *****

Even if you can’t come to the planning meeting, here’s what we need!

 

  • PRE-EVENT SETUP VOLUNTEER S

 

 

 

      When: Saturday, October 13th from Noon – 8 PM (you don’t need to work the whole time…)

 

      What: Help do general set up around the club

 

  • SET UP VOLUNTEERS

 

 

 

      When: Sunday, October 14th from 8 AM – NOON (4 hours)

 

      What: Set up club, street fair. See the behind the scenes scene — what it really takes to produce this event.

 

  • STAGE HANDS

 

 

 

      When Sunday, October 14th from Noon – Midnight (4 hour shifts)

 

      What: Some stage construction, deconstruction, and light lifting. Make sure performers get on and off stage. Hang out with rockstars. Be perceived as “cool” at all times. Etc. Etc.

 

  • BACK STAGE MGT.

 

 

 

      When: Sunday, October 14th NOON – MINDNIGHT (4 hour shifts)

 

      What: Watch back stage area and help performers access area and discourage non-performers from accessing that very same area. Again, must be willing to hang out with rock stars, rock star groupies, musicians of all types as well as other performers.

 

  • GREETERS and INFORMATION

 

 

 

      When: Sunday, October 14th (NOON-MIDNIGHT) in 3 hour shifts

 

      What: Greet! and Welcome! folks to the Street fair. Greeters station will be immediately after the ticket gate…. and for the Flambe Lounge event this area will function as a joint greeters/information booth. We would love to have as many Playa Information and Greeters volunteers as possible to staff this area. In addition to answering “general” questions– you will serve as the critical information nexus to the event…. so when folks are looking for the stage manager or “who is in charge of such and such”– they will go to that booth. Also! Volunteer Check-in will take place in this area. Please bring your successful greeter and playa-information selves together again for this great opportunity for off-playa volunteering.

 

  • PARK CHECKERS (EARTHGUARDIANS WANTED!)

 

 

 

      When: Sunday, October 14th (late afternoon, early evening) — about 1 hour shifts

 

      What: Walk through the park area near the street fair and make sure all burners are practicing the Leave No Trace practice at the park adjacent to the street fair… Distribute garbage bags if necessary, and be generally outgoing & friendly & encouraging others to not trash up the park.

 

  • STREET SWEEPERS $$$$$

 

 

 

      When: Sunday, October 14th (late evening — 11 PM- 3AM)

 

      What: Sweep garbage into the gutter area to facilitate the picking-upping of garbage by street cleaning truck. This job is a paid job. You get about $30 for helping us sweep the street.

 

  • VOLUNTEER CHECK-IN

 

 

 

      When: Sunday, October 14th (noon-midnight) 3 hour shifts

 

      What: Help check-in volunteers and assign them to various tasks about town. Stay in radio communication with other event organizers. Direct volunteers as needed. Recruit volunteers if necessary. No experience required, but it would be good if you had worked with Burning Man volunteers in some capacity….

 

  • RANGERS

 

 

 

      There will be some rangering going on at the event. If you are a ranger and interested in volunteering, watch the Ranger list for details, and/or let me know.

 

  • POST-DECOMPRESSION SITE CHECK

 

 

 

      When: Monday, October 15th (11 AM – 1 PM)

 

    What: Come back the day after event and do a quick look around the streets and the club and make sure everything is in fair order. Help out with whatever loading, cleaning, sorting out that needs to be done. Win big gold stars in the my big book of volunteer love.

What do you want to do?
Please write to: safetygirl(at)burningman(dot)com TODAY!

THANKS!

YOU ALL ROCK!!

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ARCHIVES: Art Curator Lady Bee on the mic:

This is the first year the Archives has made an active effort to collect the varied objects burners make to give out on the playa, and quite a few were dropped off at the Artery in Center Camp. However, I’ve seen several other interesting items around town and would love to acquire them! How about that fetching Burning Man charm suitable for stringing on a necklace, made by someone from Pt. Arena? And especially those silk-screen prints seen in various locations on the playa, made by Todd Lovering? Todd, please contact me ! If anyone has contact info for him please send it to ladybee(at)burningman(dot)com.

If you have items you made and gave out at Burning Man – stickers,charms, postcards, etc. – and want to be included in our Material Culture Archive, please download this form – http://www.burningman.com/installations/materialculture.html – and send it, with at least two of your objects (okay, we’ll accept one if that’s all you have) to: Burning Man Archives, PO Box 884688, San Francisco, CA 94188.

OR if you will be attending our Decompression street fair on October 14, please bring several of your items and the material culture form with you: there will be a box for these items at the front gate.

– LadyBee

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IMAGE GALLERY: 2001 photos are rolling in!

The Image Gallery on the Burning Man website is our own family album. Browse through hundreds of beautiful photos from Burning Mans past – including new photo galleries from 2001! Check it out at http://images.burningman.com. For information on how to submit YOUR photos, visit http://images.burningman.com/index.cgi?action=showfaq&.

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More images from the community of our time together in 2001:

PleasureSean shoots mostly the shiny happy people of BRC:

http://pleasuresean.homestead.com/PleasureSean.html

Rob Corwin and Matt Veltcamp: people and art in B&W and Color:

http://www.brianrobert.com/BM2001

Airport Village and some aerials from Laurence Cook, as well as links to previous years:

http://www.laurencecook.com/burningman/photos01.html

The inimitable Playa Chicken site has hundreds of photos. Be sure to look around the rest of the site as well:

http://www.playachicken.com/burn/burn01/

Tom Bullock’s site has carefully indexed shots of art and the city:

http://www.tbullock.com/bm2001.html

This family travelled together and set up their site to load as one long, horizontal page. Wait for it to load fully, then scroll across their tale:

http://www.berkeleystathouse.com/burningman.html

Send us your links!

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RETURNING TO EARTH: Decompressing got ya down?

You drive off the playa, waving goodbye to the last Exodus volunteer you see, and your heart begins to sink. Another year until you can feel this way again? You sigh longingly.

Decompressing is tough on darned near everyone. We get letters all the time here at the office expressing a pervasive sadness at returning to “real” life after Burning Man has ended. It’s a mad, mad world, and for some of us, Black Rock City can feel like the only “normal” place on earth…like the only place where we’ve ever felt truly “at home”. It’s there that you meet like-minded souls who treat one another differently, somehow – our daily interactions in BRC can hold a respect, joy, and friendliness that sometimes feels absent in our daily lives.

But you can keep in touch with your community. Here are some ways that you can bring it home and live it year-round.

Burning Man Regional Contacts are dedicated burners who help maintain community connectivity all year. In many regions there are Burn events happening at various times throughout the year, such as Austin’s Flipside, Playa Del Fuego on the East Coast, and other camp-out gatherings-of-the-tribe. There are also cohesive community activities in dozens of other towns – from blowout Decompression parties to art workshops to simple “hey-Burners-let’s-all-meet-for-coffee” gatherings at cafes. Anything to keep the flames alive! You can find out by getting in touch with your local Regional Contact, and signing up for any of the discussion or announcement lists that they help facilitate. Visit http://www.burningman.com/blackrockcity_yearround/ contacts/regional_email.html.

Another great way to stay connected is the ePlaya. Enjoy lively conversation and frivolity, serious debate, comraderie, and find like-minded souls for everything from simple chat to project collaboration. It won’t hurt a bit, we promise. We’ll be adding regional discussion areas too – keep your eyes peeled for this new section. Get your login and password, or just browse the messages and bask in the afterglow, at http://bbs.burningman.com. Check out the new “Regional Discussion” area for more ways to get in touch with your local community.

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Actiongrl’s quintessential moments of BMan 2001

10. Thursday, 7:30 PM….Waking up in my cart, on my sweetheart’s shoulder, with his head on mine, realizing we had both fallen fast asleep outside Finley Fryer’s Plastic Chapel when we were due a half hour before, at a party inside. Dreamily driving back to camp for a nap instead.
9. Inscribing the name of a recently departed friend at the Temple of Memory
8. Spitting fire on top of the Rubik’s Cube at 4:30 and Enlightenment
7. Burning an old memory on the late-night ashes of the Man and crying it allllll out
6. Keeping it very real at Bianca’s!
5. Giggly midnight trampoline-jumping with happy friends on the North Side
4. Tooling along the silent back side of the city in a cart at 2 AM singing a sweet made-up duet in Swedish into the starry night
3. The utter, overwhelming joy of sitting in the seat at Jenne Giles’ “Mandala” in the keyhole
2. Surprise venturis escaping from the flames of the Man*
1. Unexpectedly hearing “Starálfur” on my birthday in the middle of Gigsville…sigh!

For me, it’s the little extraordinary moments that make a Burn. How about you? Post your own top ten list on the ePlaya in the “Rants and Rumors” discussion folder.

* Curious about how those happened? For the physics geek in you, a couple of pages that attempt to explain this phenomenon:

http://members.attcanada.ca/~stefanac/weather/dustdevils.html
http://tooldoc.wncc.nevada.edu/fluids.htm //////////

LOST ITEMS?

Lost something on the playa? You could still find it. It’s worth a try. Hint: don’t write to us…it’s rare that we end up with much, as most lost items are picked up by people cleaning up on their way out. This page of the ePlaya is the place for Burners who lost and Burners who found.

ePlaya “ Lost and Found” postings.

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BIKES BIKES BIKES

And now, a message from Harley DuBois, who heads up Community Services for Burning Man. In her many years of involvement with this event, you can bet she’s seen Black Rock City from every angle. Here’s a note from her that provides a little food for thought about bikes at Burning Man.

Dear Burning Man Participants,

Another wonderful year has come and gone. Thank you all for making it happen. There were many amazing changes and improvements from last year; the weather, the porta potties, the burning of the man… but one thing remained the same. I am sorry to report that organized bike thieves are still hard at work at our event. This was evident because not one “nice” bike was turned in as “found” to Playa Information (where Lost/Found is located in Center Camp) after the event.

We would like to catch these thieves, and will continue to do our part in solving this problem. We encourage all participants towards a “citizens’ alert” for bike thieves on the night of the Burn. As Burning Man 2002 approaches the JRS will keep you informed on what plans are being made and how you can help. In the meantime, please consider bringing an older, inexpensive bike next year (which is less attractive to a bike thief)and/ or locking your bike. It’s an unfortunate necessity.

Please make sure you and all of your friends read the article on the web site on bicycles:

We can solve this problem with a little awareness and planning.

Thanks everyone!

Harley

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More on staying connected to your Burning friends:

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA:
from Andrew Nolley

I would like to call attention to my Southern California calendar of off-playa events, for those in the Los Angeles Area, or those who might be travelling there. I keep a calendar of Burning Man flavored events down here that I update twice weekly, and I would like to make sure that folks know about it.

the URL is: http://www.localendar.com/public/ajnolley

ARIZONA DECOMPRESSION:

Write arizona(at)burningman(dot)com to receive the flyer…

Date: Saturday, October 20th
Phone: # 520-323-0892
Address: 2262 E. Grant Rd.

If you are coming from Phoenix, take the Grant Rd. exit and turn left. Just keep going East and watch the addresses. It is a few miles up Grant. Be advised, at the I-10 exit you are on West Grant road. Stone Ave. is where it changes from West to East Grant. After you go through the Cambell and Grant light start looking off to the right. The house is on a short frontage road that runs parallel with Grant.

DENVER DECOMPRESSION:

in 2001 – the decom will be on friday oct 19th 2110 Market Street – the Spray warehouse in Denver.

$5 balck rock attire/ $10 street wear

www.kosmikaos.com/decompression.htm

Visit the BMan Calendar for more information about regional events:

Or…add your own!

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IMPORTANT HISTORICAL ITEM MISSING

Our Dynamic Board is missing! Has anyone seen it? It was the large beautiful map of the city mounted on foam core at Playa Information in Center Camp. It was the board where people were encouraged to put in a push pin itentifying their camp’s exact location. It was approximately 4 feet by 4 feet. We use this board to recreate our city map as it really happened, post-event. We also keep it for archival purposes which some day will probably include important “collections”

Please return it if you have it. We have every year but 2001!
Call me at 415 550-3080, ext 106 or email at harley(at)burningman(dot)com. //////////

This project has been conceived and directed by one of our staff members in collaboration with a number of artists and designers:

DRAMA IN THE DESERT:

A Call for Submissions!

Drama in the Desert – Sight & Sound
A multidimensional project based on the images of Holly Kreuter www.desertdrama.com

Drama in the Desert wants YOUR essays and poetry!

Drama in the Desert is a compilation of images and sounds captured over five years at Burning Man. It’s a fully-sensory, audio-visual experience of what it feels like to be at the event. It uses images, poetry, essays and a digital soundscape CD recording to explain how the place is whatever you make it: a city of freedom and friendship. From snapshots and snippets of sound, this book attempts to document experience and archive moments from this tremendous humanity festival.

Essays & Poetry Wanted

We’re accepting essays and poems relating to images from Burning Man. After receiving a private URL from our editors, some images may be viewed for creative writing ideas. Ideally, your submission(s) will be inspired by one of the images or a group of images, or be about a particular piece of artwork or performance/activity.

Please visit www.desertdrama.com for submission guidelines and/ or email submissions(at)desertdrama(dot)com for more information. Deadline for submissions is December 1. If you think you want to write something but the deadline is too near, email us, we will work with you.

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-=- ADMIN ON AND OFF THE JRS (don’t reply to this message – you can just D.I.Y.~!)

Subscribe: send a blank message TO:
bman-announce-subscribe(at)burningman(dot)com
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bman-announce-unsubscribe(at)burningman(dot)com

Soundtrack to BManUpdate v6#1/10.08.01: Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Camper Van Beethoven, John Vanderslice, Polkacide, Azure Ray.

See you at Decompression!

xoxo

*AG*