Archive for the ‘BurningMan’ Category

Guest History: The Greatest Burn

Posted: October 19, 2011 in BurningMan, History
Tags: ,

The Greatest Burn

by Ben
Without a doubt, the greatest burn ever was the Burn of 1553.  I arrived on the playa that year, early arrival as usual, to find it festering with bears.  Now these weren’t just any old bears, these were polar bears bedecked in tuxedos, each equipped with a guitar.  We paid them no mind and set up our giant subwoofers at 2:00, ready to blare solid beats for Lady Jane Grey and her entourage–well-known ravers all.  But every time we’d take a break, we’d come back to find our speakers disassembled and packed away again.

After a few days of this, it was getting close to the time for the unwashed masses to come in.  We were way behind schedule, and couldn’t make any headway with all of our work being undone.  So we decided to spy on our speakers to see what we could see.

We lay in wait for hours.  Then we saw something strange: one of the bears approached our speaker.  He said, “I’ll give you a nickel to tickle my pickle.”  I couldn’t believe it–he was hitting on the speaker!  Another of the bears approached.  He started hitting on another speaker.  This went on for an hour.  Then, and this really surprised us, the speakers started to move slowly away from the bears, packing themselves up.  You could see from the way they moved that they were filled with disgust.

We came out of hiding, and the bears and the speakers froze.  They were all ashamed at the scene we had witnessed.  When we explained to them that we didn’t have any judgment about bear-speaker love, we all sat down to see whether we could work something out.

It turned out that the speakers were just upset that the bears hadn’t been listening to them.  And then it came out: the bears all liked to play only Pete Seeger songs.  So we came upon this–whenever we didn’t have a rave going on, we’d play Pete Seeger songs through the speakers, and the bears could listen and strum along on their guitars.

This arrangement worked out beautifully, and the speakers began playing our drum and bass with the sweetest beat and the best melodies.  Our camp was the place to be at that burn.  Twinks and nymphs and leprecauns filled the dance floor, powered all night by Timothy Leary and Hunter S. Thompson themselves.  Lao Tzu, Rumi, and L. Ron Hubbard subtly imparted wisdom through the vocal tracks of the music.  Che and Davy Crockett fired their guns into the air and at the ground, to keep the dancers on their toes. And a horde of butterflies hovered overhead, achingly beautiful to those who were sober and completely trippy to everyone else.  The hours before the temple burn, God Himself appeared and began to dance the simplest and most beautiful dance I had ever seen, moving to the music, and bringing us all along with Him, whether we were talented ballerinas or cripples without any feet.  After He departed, we turned the speakers to Jonathan Richman and Pete Seeger.  We wept.  The
n the bears left to hibernate and the rest of us went to watch the temple go down in flames.

That was a good burn!

Gerlach, NV (CN)  –  It’s been over a month since you Burned.  It was a good Burn!  You had that one time out at DISTRIKT that was hella awesome.  Ohh and that one night at the Temple – Wow!

But the Burn wasn’t perfect.  It certainly wasn’t anything like the Burn of ’56 (1456 or 1956, both were spectacular!).

But now you are back in the default world after a half decent local Decompression.  You’re underemployed and feeling a bit pinched financially.

You spent thousands on Burning Man.  How can you get some of that filthy lucre back?

No, don’t take that dusty, unused can of Corn Beef Hash back to Walmart.

Request that Burning Man refund the full price of your ticket.

Burning Man Corp. was founded by people with names like Black Swan, Chicken John, Jonny Law, Paul Addis, and Danger Ranger.

Burning Founder

Now do they sound like the type of people who would refund your money?

No, most certainly not.

But like a billionaire paying her taxes there is a loophole you can exploit to ensure you get a full ticket refund.

An obscure statute in the Magna Carta from the Burn of 1215 allows anyone to receive a full refund of their ticket to Burning Man.

22. Nullus ticketus amercietur de refundum tenemento suo, nisi secundum modum Burning Man Corp. perfectorum, et non refundum quantitatem beneficii sui event north of Reno.

However time is limited.  The deadline is October 19th – read the instructions below and fill out the form to apply for your refund today.

  1. Attending this past Burning Man 2011, ‘Rites of Passage‘ is a requirement.  If you didn’t attend your chances of getting a refund fall dramatically.
  2. A scanned copy of your ticket stub, DOB and Social Security Number are also required.
  3. Write down a list of what did not go perfectly at the Burn.

Examples of a less than Perfect Burning Man experience are endless but some of the more common are as follows:

a)  Not hooking up with the hot blonde yoga teacher/Australian art school guy you flirted with Monday night next to that cool Flaming Octopus car. Fuck!

b)  Pulled your hamstring on that LOVE installation posing for a picture.  Fuck!

Ouch!

c)  Emergency Cigarette resupply didn’t happened until very late Wednesday Night.  Fuck!

d) Chafed and cut up hands real good Friday night pulling on Charon’s Ropes.  Fuck!

e) Exodus.  Fuck!

f) Japanese Rope Bondage Girl Smoking a Cigarette Cheapened the Whole Experience.  Fuck!

g) Losing your travel-sized toenail clipper.

“Its somewhere inside my Camelback, or is it in my tent? Fuck!”

h) No proper dust storm.  Fuck!

i) Two Hour Wait at Sandpaper Handjob Camp only to discover all you got was a sandpaper handjob and a half frozen pickle.  Double Fuck!

t) Where was all the fucking Trance music?!

If any of this happened to you fill out the below form by October 19th and you will have successfully applied to receive a full refund of your ticket.

There are many fascinating and complex ways in which Burning Man turns out not to be perfect.  Share your experience and gripe with your fellow Burners in the comments section below.

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

Complaint(required)

I am Applying for a Full Ticket Refund(required)

You will be asked for a scanned copy of your ticket stub shortly after submitting the form.

Isn’t getting $300 back in your pocket worth throwing Daddy Consumption some Greenbacks?

Be Generous.

Tender Burn, San Francisco, CA (CN) — A battle that spans the centuries appears to have taken a turn for the Hippie.  For as long as people can remember and then a little bit longer Hippies and Ravers have battled for subculture supremacy.  At the Burn of ’69 Wendy Carlos groupies and fans of Strawberry Alarm Clock  squared off in a violent melee and Burning Man has remained the epicenter of the Hippie vs Raver battle ever since.

Burning Man Bureau of Labor Statistics (BMBLS) released a report on Wednesday showing that Hippies have now gained the upper hand at the event North of Reno.

Numbers Don't Lie, Man

Ravers have always done acid, present company certainly not excepted,” said Bryan Stefarios, Executive Director of the Pro-Raver advocacy group DanceSafe.  “The troubling aspect for ravers is the growth of the drum circles and Beats Antique.  You can’t Rave to Beats Antique.”

Nearing the End of Raver Dominance

Professor of Techno and Raves at Detroit University, Jeff Mills predicted the flagging fortunes of Ravers in his 2008 book, ‘Raving Alone’.

“For years Ravers have held the upper hand at Burning Man – blasting Hippies into aural obscurity with 120 decibels of 150 bpm bass.  As the bpms have come down with the English Dubstep Invasion drum circles started to grow again.  Throw in Daniel Pinchbeck’s quixotic popularity, the four fold growth in Peruvian Ayahuasca Tourism, a severe decline in good Anthem Trance and Progressive House and Hippie Supremacy soon becomes inevitable. Sigh.”

Long time Hippie Burner ‘Dusty Lentil’ who was once co-consensus leader of a short lived association of Hippie Burners was reached for comment from his penthouse in the Upper West Side of NYC.  “I don’t know, I just love hanging out with my friends, listening to some Sector 9, lentils, my air conditioned teepee and ummm…yeah.”

Gerlach, NV, (CN Wire) Burning Man Bureau of Labor Statistics (BMBLS) has released a metrics and graphs intensive report on ‘Rites of Passage’. Normally no one would care but for several startling surprises that is rumored to have Burning Man Corp. rethinking its whole raison d’être.

Careful measurement of foot traffic throughout Black Rock City confirmed rumors this year that NectarVillage received more foot and bicycle traffic than Center Camp.

Matheus Klinnsman, Chief Burner Statistician for BMBLS stated on a UStream Press conference, “As the above simple parametric graph shows NectarVillage cleaned Center Camps clock.”

“My recommendation to Burning Man Corp. is to rename Center Camp because it’s clearly no longer the center of the Burn, NectarVillage is.”

NectarVillage 2011 was composed of HBGB Healers, Shamandome, SnowKoan Solar, Contact Camp, Steambath Project and the mysterious Bumblepuss.  NectarVillage was formed in the 19th Century after New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley stated “Go West Young Swedish Deep Tissue Masseuse, Go West,” or alternately after a group of Burners in a Bob’s Big Boy in Van Nuys, CA heard the new 1993 Pet Shop Boys single “Go West Young Rent Boy, Go West.”

Village Chief ‘Soup’ stated over 325 people camped with NectarVillage and were overwhelmed with traffic from every direction.  Responding to press inquires via his iphone Soup responded, “Have you been destroyed!  Welcome to NectarVillage Ma’am, have you been destroyed yet?”

A post-Burn DPW crew member ‘FireDust’ was asked for comment as she stumbled out of Bruno’s Country Club in Gerlach, NV.  “Jazz Club? Jazz Club!  $8 Coffee?!  Fuck Off.  NectarVillage has a Steambath.  Throw up one of those and we’ll talk.  Speaking of throwing up…Blaaaahhhhh…”

Burning Man Corp. was on holiday at their dacha outside Minsk and released a short response via e-mail stating, “If NectarVillage is really that popular perhaps we need to become a 501(c)3 non-profit.”

BMBLS has promised “thundering revelations of a statistical nature” later in the week.  Stay Tuned to Consumption News Wire

It was great to meet so many Consumptives out at the event North of Reno.

A special shout out to all my peeps in Bumblepuss and NectarVillage – thanks for keeping it real.

This blog is not dead – updates, prizes, celebrity interviews and more will be appearing in October 2011 on this blog – stay tuned and beware!

Cheers,

Consumptionblog Management

Playa Report 2011.

Black Rock City, NV (CN) – I have received several accounts of the state of the playa surface from my well feed dusty moles in DPW.

It don’t sound good folks.

Over the past decade the playa has slowly decayed from a reliable rock hard surface where Andy “Green Man” Green’s art car ‘Pedal Masher’ broke the land speed record at the Burn of 1997 at 763 mph while 20 guests sipped dusty martinis and danced relentlessly from the roof deck into muck and decay.

DMV Would Never Approve This Now

From my most trusted source in DPW:

“In past years the playa surface resembles a baked brownie crust surface.  This year it resembles a brownie mix still in the mixing bowl – a mixture of mud topped by a frothy Santorum  of gas, PBR and last years Astroglide.  It’s like a swamp.

Don’t even consider bringing a bike unless you plan to turn it into fire art.  The playa is unridable.  Hell, it’s nearly undrive-able.  The higher ups at Burning Man are talking about having people park in Gerlach and be bussed in because so many cars are likely to get stuck in the muck.”

Your best way from Gerlach to BRC?

DPW Source #2

The weather has also been more extreme than usual.  During the day it’s actually humid.  The humidity has brought wildlife back to the playa.  Last night I killed a Atropoides picadoi I found under the wheel well of my  Toyota Tundra.  Speaking of tundra; at night it’s gotten so cold that Trego and Frog Pond hot springs have frozen over.  Think Ecuador in August during the Day, Kiev in January at Night.   I expect most people will leave after a couple days, no matter what humiliating things they had to do to get tickets.  50,000 people my ass! By Thursday more like 5,000.

Do whatever you want fellow Burners but I’ve ditched the bike, bought some hip boots and anti-venom of Craigslist and am hoping just to survive.

Black Rock City, NV (CN) – The awesome folks at BurnerMap are holding a fundraiser by offering personalized Temp Tattoos.

From the website:

Share the love…

BurnerMap is our playa gift and will
always be FREE! But if you want to
pitch in and help us make the app
even better, we’ve got a lovely treat
for you…

Oh yes. Your own personalized

When you meet new friends you want
to see later, slap your playa address
on their asses. (Or wherever they like!)
The tatt isn’t permanent, but we
assure you the memories will be…

Order by Monday to make sure you recieve them.

Perfectly Cooked Bacon for the Masses

by Robin

It was stunning to me to realize that I had not shared my perfect bacon 
cooking method prior to 2010.  Apparently the breakfast shift I was on was the first time many Bumblers were the recipients of my 
perfectly cooked bacon.  T-Dazzle remembers it from our time together at HeeBees.  This is the method to getting all of your bacon 
cooked all at once perfectly.  You can have it as crispy or chewy as you 
want.  And this method cuts down on the little snatchers who like to sneak 
bacon before the entire meal is done!  BACK YOU RABID BUMBLERS!  YOU  MUST 
WAIT UNTIL THE EGGS ARE DONE!  Oh, whoops, the eggs exploded in the boiler. 
I guess I should share my recipe for strained eggs also.  See below!

Your Typical Bumbler Breakfast

BACON
In order to have all of the bacon done all at once, and perfectly for that 
matter, you must put all of the bacon in the pan at once.  Yes.  Pile it 
in!  5 pounds if you must!  As long as the pan is not overflowing, it will 
work just fine.  You just have to keep stirring.  KEEP STIRRING!  STIR THE 
BACON!  It may take 20 or 30 minutes, depending on how dark you like it, but 
trust me, when you pull all of it out at once and put it all out there for 
the hungry Bumblers, no one will complain.  Each piece will be cooked 
exactly like the next, and all the way through. It will all be warm!  No 
half-charred, half-raw pieces here.  Oh no.  This bacon is perfect.

These go well with Bacon

STRAINED EGGS
Hopefully we won’t have to use this method again!  If your egg bag explodes 
in the boiler, fear not.  Juicy eggs are just a strain away!  Simply get the 
colander and a friend to help you.  Discreetly bring the boiler of eggs and 
the colander to the gray water.  Whether its early in the week or later will 
determine how careful you need to be about people seeing you strain the 
eggs.  It might not matter as much later on in the week!  Anyway, one person 
holds the colander over the gray water container and the other person 
carefully pours the watery eggs into the colander.

Voila!

Strained eggs. 
Perfect for any occasion.

 

Gerlach, NV (CN)  –  Burning Man is rapidly approaching.  You have a ticket and an iffy ride from Eugene to Reno in a school bus.  The next two weekends will bring a flurry of packing, preparation, procrastination and trips to Walmart fraught with guilt and amazing deals.

In these tough economic times how can you get back some of the thousands of hard earned Euros you’ll spend on making your experience north of Reno as exciting and comfortable as possible?

No, don’t take that dusty, unused can of Corn Beef Hash back to Walmart.

Request that Burning Man refund the full price of your ticket after the event.

Burning Man Corp. was founded by people with names like Black Swan, Chicken John, Jonny Law, Paul Addis, and Danger Ranger.

Burning Man Co-Founder

Now do they sound like the type of people to not refund your money?

Yes, they are.

But like a billionaire paying her taxes there is a loophole you can exploit to ensure you get a full ticket refund.

An obscure statute under the jurisdiction of the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology allows anyone to receive a full refund of their ticket to Burning Man.

However Burners need to complete the following steps carefully.

Step by Step instructions for asking for your money back after attending Burning Man.

  1. Attend Burning Man.  Failure to attend will dramatically reduce your chances at a refund.
  1. Do whatever you do at Burning Man (just stay away from me).
  1. Make sure not everything goes Perfectly. Examples of a less than Perfect Burning Man are endless but some of the more common are as follows:

a)  Not hooking up with that hot blonde yoga instructor/long term art school student you flirted with Monday night next to that art and fire thingy.

b)  Forgot some critical piece of equipment your camp mates were counting on you to bring.

Examples: zip ties or that eight-ball of coke you snorted waiting in line at the Gate.

Fuck!

c)  Art Project gets finished Thursday afternoon instead of Monday.

d)  Got lost and cold one night after raving it up at Nexus.

e)  Exodus.

f)  4am Friday night port-a-potties.

Techno will do that.

g)  Losing your travel size toenail clipper.

“Its somewhere inside my camelback, or is it in my tent? Fuck!”

h)  Can’t find your friend.

“I have gone over to my best friends camp like six times and she hasn’t been there and her camp mates have been less than helpful – Fuck!”

4) Return from Burning Man.

5) Take a shower.

6) Take another shower.

Follow all those easy steps and you will be on your way to achieving a full refund for your Burning Man ticket.

After Burning Man come back to ConsumptionBlog for a  form letter you can fill out to aid you in your quest for justice, dubstep, and a full refund of your ticket.

You’re Welcome.

The following truth falls like pearls from the lips and gilded onyx keyboard of Clear, a man who has many roles in Bumblepuss – High Holiest Highest Priest of Goat Slapping being first and foremost – bringer of many vibrant people to Bumble – massage artist – DPW representative and soon he’ll be cracking your ribcage open and massaging your heart as he undertakes an online course in cardiac surgery.

Please retain this for the records:

The Alternate Unabridged Version of Our people, where Burning Man Originated 
and how to roast an apple without getting your feet burned.
The night was one of the full eclipsed moon circa 2539 BC when the idea 
first hit our historical godfather’s ancestor le Gizzle del Pete…who was a 
dope gangsta style version of your classic Roman emperor, and the chief of 
the nomadic goat herding tribe the ~Umbfus’ious of Nec’ar V”lleege.  It was 
an ancient people who’s history could go back farther, but to what end, for 
Gizzle was the dopest chief off that ever made history.
His father’s ancestor, it is said, was the guide to Moses.  It is saidith 
and so it is written that the great P-Gizzle was the first of know man to 
step foot on the desert and piss clear.  From here, people reared him as a 
savior.  How could any man in a desert be hydrated they wondered.  The 
Gizzle said, I am the savior and leader and one day I will bring great peace 
to this desert.  I will lead a revolution of sorts and invention of sorts 
that will be the basis that saves humanity, the basis that allows humanity 
to evolve to the next level, conquer other planets, to go where no goat has 
ever gone before.
P-Gizzle roamed the lands on a vision quest, but before he left, he taught 
his people to cook a reguvination apple:

  • 1 Apple
  • Honey
  • 
Spirulina & 
Maca (or earth blend)
  • 1 Black handled mini knife/toothpick
  • Core Apple
  • 
(leaving the bottom fully intact so as to act a cup for the honey)
  • Heat Apple
  • 
Poke holes into apple from core towards skin (do not puncture skin)
  • Pour in Spirulina and Maca and Honey
  • Let sit overnight 
Eat Naked next day 
Steam Bath Project 
Massage 
Sit in sun/kitchen with other Bumblers 
Feel reguvinated

As time would have it, the Gizzle had been gone for what seemed centuries. 
Later we find out he met up with a homey named Jebus in the wilderness and 
granted him three wishes….long story.  Nonetheless, Gizzle returned home 
and the people were joyous, but upset they had lost their leader for so 
long.  They found he had returned with a man named Jebus.  They blamed this 
man for his having had taken away their leader.  Lies, said Gizzle, but 
nobody listened.  They burned Jebus.  It was…

The First Burning Man.

Later that night….they realized their wrong doing and built a temple in 
his honor. 
Gizzle said, “We shall burn this temple too for our mistake hath written 
history wrong! And I shallf forever be known as Jebus the savior, for I will 
return to the towns as he, and all the lands will know not that which has 
been mistaken here.  And as I am gone you will make this spot your camp 
forever and ever and ever forever.”
They made camp upon the spot and raised an apple  each to their leader.
That very night the first goat was 
slapped as Jebus, the leader, left.  It was his famous last words in which 
we recall today, “From henthforth hitherto ye shall never again have a 
leader.  For ye all will lead when leading and lead not when not leading. 
You will be the last and only tribe upon this planet of which will know the 
ways of the way.  You shall be aware that you will go into history, isolated 
in this desert as the only leaderless group ever and forever ever forever. 
Ye shall know and remember, that to lead is the false way of phophets and to 
slap is the true belief in self, humanity and the way.”  (Word for word as 
recorded by Broseephious the Righter in the year of Broseephious 1298 DB as 
in During Broseephious, which we are not sure what correlation it has to any 
other calender as he did not record anything else and lived isolated with 
the rest of the tribe from the rest of the world thereafter the recorded 
history.
Years later archeologists believe they have found the remains of this first 
tribe with their only weapon, device or food preparation tool in the Black 
Rock Desert where it is believed they lived during those times of old.  It 
is also believed they fashioned thier tiny knives and picks with the bone of 
goat, which is long gone and the handle yet still remain, of rock.  Today 
you find this rock between itself and the soft place we call playa.
It’s believed the camp Bumblepuss of Nectar Village and their holy Godfather 
T-Dizzle fled the desert in 1980 PDB as in Post During Brospephious when 
word came that a new people were to colonize the land, and they had a leader 
named Larry.  The people of Bumble decided it was time to let the world come 
to them and they did.  They opened up to a new way, they acted as if they’d 
never been to the desert and let the newbies believe it was a “discovery!” 
They populated the desert with these new peoples as one of them.  They even 
opened their own camp to particiapte in the goings ons with them.
It’s said when someone comes around Bumblepuss and asks, “Who’s in charge?” 
The best answer is “I am.”  Cause they don’t want anyone to know they, we, 
who we really are.  And Jebus forbid, the Burners of today start coming to 
the Bumblepuss asking, how do we live a utopian society like you have?  How 
did you figure it out in just the few short years since we’ve all been 
coming to the desert?  How come our camp has leaders and assistants and 
people in charge of this and work hours and shifts, and still nothing gets 
done, and still there are fights and dramas?  How is it your people has not 
a single list or leader and all is done and not a drama is in the air?
The Bumblers are said to usually direct the questions to the Goat…
And so it is said, and so it is written.