...who's going?

-For whom is it the first time?
-If it's not your first time, how many years have you been?
-are you part of a posse, or a small camp?
-are you looking for a ride/rider/troupe/joiners?
-are you holding any special playaside events that you'd like to blab about here?
-knowing that this is really the last Wigstock, how do you feel about missing it in favor of BM?

As a lover of festivals and spectacles, I would love to go to Burning Man - it's just always fallen at the same time as Wigstock, so we never have. I guess next year all kinds of new Labor Day options are available (sob!) so I'd be all for it - as long as the camping was a bit deluxe, which is up to us, right?

burning man is fabulous. it can renew my faith in humanity. and as a "ritual junkie" i'm so into the neo-pagan/cyber-shamanic aspect of the whole effigy burning in the desert thang. (not to mention the mind-expanding psychedelics!!)

i love looking out over "the playa" and fantasizing about a colony on the moon that would be just like Black Rock City. THOUSANDS of people all co-existing, all giving one another the freedom to create and live in their own realities, and LOTS OF ART!! it blows my mind to see what people schlep out to the middle of the desert only to burn it down at the end of a week.

past favorites - the giant bone tree on wheels - made from real cow bones, with lights underneath and an ominous soundtrack playing as it rolled around the playa... the running horses - electro-luminescent wire horses on bicycles programmed to look like they were galloping across the desert at night... the cathedral hearse - totally goth art car... the indoor real grass floor environment... the human sized gerbil ball... the glitter bath... i could go on.

empress - for luxe camping needs i reccomend a rented rv. you got a.c., a kitchen, a bed, and four solid walls for the vicious sandstorms that can erupt.

minerva - i'll be there. i'm approaching from san fran, camping in a 20 foot dome just off the playa with "WuWu Fields" from portland. we'll have a bigger dome as the center of our camp with a stage and a retractable cover - nice weather = open air shows. cum play!!

if anyone else has any questions about getting there check out their website...
burning man
or write me.

burn, baby, burn....

Well, it has taken weeks of thought on the issue to reach this decision, and it was tough, tough, tough...but after all the plans and arrangements, I've come to decide that I've simply got to attend Wigstock over Burning Man for the single and obvious reason: Burning Man will continue, Wigstock will not, and I've never been to Wigstock. I want/need that experience, end of story.

However, Michael Alig at his height couldn't produce an event that could rival the boundless energy and creativity and beauty and decadence of Black Rock City. If you haven't been, all the pictures, verbage, personal testimonies and footage cannot do it justice; you won't understand what it feels like four days into it, after all trappings of the dominant paradigm have fallen away and this new utopia finally sinks in...It's the Seelie Court, I tell you. Fucking land of the fae, magic abounds unavoidably. Yee fucking haw.

Thus, even though it is a full year and some change away, it isn't too early to start thinking about Burning Man 2002, socking away the dough, assembling the theme, the players, the pieces.

I'm glad to find that, unsurprisingly, there is so much interest in this crowd towards attending the big burn, and it's clear that if someone steps up to the plate and organizes a Jackie Further trip to the Playa, it'll doubtlessly be super sensational, unforgettable, and well populated by our maddening crowd.

...already plotting and bouncing numbers in my head like sugarplums,
Minerva

[This message was edited by Minerva on 07-20-01 at 05:20 PM.]

Well, Minerva, you definitely have my attention about planning a trip to Burning Man next year. I have been wanting to go for years, but commitments here always prevented me. This year, of course, I am compelled to attend the last Wigstock in order to complete THAT circle...
I am thinking that since so much of the New York we have known and loved is disappearing, we might erect a bit of it there in the desert. Or is that too tall an order?

what a fabulous idea hatches! like the scene in Planet of the Apes..

Yes, lets do 2002, FURTHER

I don't know why but it's reminding me of the T.S. Eliot poem-

"Shall we go then, you and I
When the evening is spread out against the sky"

pretty!

i'll mix the kool-aid!

Almost forgot to mention it in the excitement of recent days, but I spoke to Showy Arias on the way out to Coney and he is completely down for the Burning Man Jackie in 2002.

He is completely on doing a Klingon segment in some version of the Brian Damage cardboard armour amidst the buried buildings. I promised to learn Kling before then (at least enough to do some spoken word to accompany him.)

Of course the idea of Joey set loose on a whole spectacle like BM is soooo enticing. The imagination soars!

spoke to my burning man sugar daddy yesterday.
looks like i'll be arriving to the playa in high style. (30' r.v.!! hel-lo!)
will DEFINITELY be on a recogniscence (sp?) mission for 2002.
but i don't think there's anything i can do to prepare them for joey.

any directives from the MOTHERship??

Gobbs,
Just take in everything (except the brown acid of course). Then report back to the Empress.

...the dust is going to be an issue.
Last year it was hard and gritty in the wind, but this year there's a 2" thick layer of playa powder that's going to make breathing a concern.
-especially for asthmatics and those with bronchial difficulties.

Thus, bring appropriate dust masks, etc.

for those _not_ going until next year, the word I heard is that this wierd dust phoenomenon is a kind of cycle, meaning that next year is expected to be peak conditions. I like to support that meme...

MS

Actually it begins with the slightly more imperative "Let us go then, you and I ...
But I'm sure Her Highness INTENDED to paraphrase.

[This message was edited by xtzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz on 08-09-01 at 03:43 PM.]

...and Prufrock no less! I really HAVE gone quite to hell in a handbasket.

i saw a program on Burning Man (discovery civilization) tuesday night. they followed three young women from texas to the desert.
the women didn't understand the burning of the man (not sure i do either) but it looked gorgeous. i love the people and the freedom of a spiritual hippy love fest.
i'm not saying that i'm fancy but i don't think i could sleep in a tent for more that one night.
the RV looked so inviting. we need luxury or as much as we can bring with us.
the program got me very excited about going. i wish everyone could have seen it.

[This message was edited by dresscode on 08-16-01 at 03:37 PM.]

in my opinion... the man is an effigy into which we project all of the attachments we have to the things we arrived there with - our art, our posessions, our egos - and then watch go up in flames.

all the time, energy, money, and strife that goes into the event just burns so spectacularly. it's really powerful. (if you choose for it to be.)

RVs are nice but expensive. domes are better and much, much hipper. but the US BUS is the swankienda to beat all. wishing you were cumming with me. i think we'd TEAR IT UP!!

in 2002 we will rock BURNING MAN
i have a much greater understanding of the concept now, thank you Gobs.
so get back to NYC for DADDY, fall will be very special this year.

Dressy:
I've got a huge book, two vids and scads of pictures on the subject if you're interested. Seems like a great excuse to spend time with your lovely acerbic self again anyway...

Yeah, RV's are expensive, the Goblin's right about that, but they're so very worth it. Domes are dead essential too. My crew always has three or four of each and lots of supporting smaller structures.
BTW - Gob, we used to be the notorious Fleshlab, but this it's the "Black Rock City Tours" camp, check them out when you get out there; they're going full-on cheese, should be fun.

At some point there will be a gathering of primaries to hash out ideas and budgets, travel details and so forth. I think that means I'm hosting a tea party soon...

MS

[This message was edited by Minerva on 08-17-01 at 11:35 PM.]

Definitely RV. Worth the $$$. I am definitely a prospect for next year. After all, they have a landing strip...