random tuesday...

The yip yips were possibly my most feared, and favorite Sesame Street Characters. Assuming they are costumes. Clever!

Here's a good link to a tip from the environmental blog about storing ice in a cooler. She says to get one of those plastic 2.5 liter jugs with the spout at the bottom and pour your ice directly into that, and place that inside your cooler so the food never touches the melted H20. That way you can use the melted and cooled H20 in your camelback or cooking rather than having to put it on your H20 drying thing.

MWB cargo!

"Harry,
I know you're looking for another rider in the van. Are you also looking for people who want to throw down on uhaul costs in exchange for cargo space in the truck? Like people who are flying out? If so, we could put some info on our The Burning Man Experience page on www.midwestburners.com Putting info up for just one seat on a van seems like overkill but if you're looking to defray uhaul costs, then it could be worth it.
Let me know.
--Zay"

What should we do? Say we can fit a 'decent amount of shit'?

Shuttle Bus!

The "burn clean project" is doing a swanky sounding shuttle between Reno and BRC this year. 130$ to and from the playa - loose scheduling, but sounds great!

Burn Clean Project Biobus Shuttle.

I figure if this is still existent next year that it'll be expanded - then mostly we can FLY in and save a ton of hassle.

More costuming...

I found a site that links to tutorials for everything costume related. It's a little rough looking, but there are endless tutorials about making stuff.

A note on costuming...

For anyone that wants to make, or hire me to make a costume: the fabric store in Lawrence is having a big sale this Saturday. I've got 40% off coupons and everything will be discounted.

They have this glorious flag material, which I am planning using to make some 54 banners.

Also, the more I look at some of those plans for the below post the more I want to make a playa couch/loveseat and some chairs. They'd be cheaper than a camping chair and would pack down to a smaller size.

JRS

Just reading the JRS newsletter and clicked to the playatech.com page which has some really brilliant ideas for plywood furniture that can be broken down into small, easily shippable units.

What/Where/When

I've made a post to the What Where When! We might actually get printed and shit! Anyway: it's details

Title: 54 Conflagration Service
Date: 7:00 Thursday until the end of the event
Entry: "Tired of suffering with simple matches and torches to set your shit on fire? Unsatisfied with your current means of immolation? Come by 54 and talk with the Burna Boyz to burn anything at your request. Art of all sizes, any time, anyplace – the 54 Conflagration Service will burn for YOU!"

I thought it was clever - also prevents us from having to schedule shit.

Tips for Noobs

Quoted from the MWB mailing list. I found some of these positively delightful.

"From Seattle with love,
My Raveriffic Co-Regional Posted the Following on our local discussion list. My response is toward the bottom

It's that time of year folks, where I whip out ye olde regional hat, and declare:

TIPS FOR NEWBIES!

Tip #1: EARPLUGS.
Tip #2:
Tip#3:
Tip#4:

Bonus tip for the boys: Johnson and Johnson 100 percent cornstarch unscented baby powder. Put LOTS on yo' junk every day.
Riff Raff saved me with this one.
Tip #1: EARPLUGS.
Tip #2: 2 Emergen-C and 3 cups off coffee immediately
after waking up and immediately before drinking
Tip#3:
Tip#4:

Bonus tip for the boys: Trim yer armpit hair (don't shave). Seriously. I can give you at least 5 reasons why this is helpful. I know it sounds weird, but even you playa vets should try it.

Bonus tip #2 for everybody: The sooner you can embrace the dust, the better. If you fight it you will lose and you will be miserable. When the dust coats you and everything you own just let it.

Bonus tip #3 : Playa dust is an excellent sunscreen. YOu should embrace it (see Bonus Tip #2).

Bonus tip #4 : Do not belive anything Diem tells you. If you need earplugs to sleep, then you are not ready to go to bed yet. You are therefore doing it wrong.

Bonus tip #5 : The Peterman plan is grossly overrated.

Bonus tip #6 : You only need enough food to last you until wednesday. Seriously. Everybody always brings more food than they need. After wednesday everyone starts worrying that their food is gunna go bad so they start cooking it up and offering it out to strangers. On thursday the weekend yahoo lookiloo spectators get there with fresh supplies of abundant tasties. Go two blocks back from the esplanade and walk until you smell quesedillas. Follow your nose to deliciousness.

Bonus tip #6 : You do not need to bring any of the following :
-Blinky Things
-EL Wire
-Silver Clothing
-Funny Hats
-Glow Sticks
-Wings
-Pacifiers
It is possible to radically express yourself without a costume.

Bonus tip #7 : Unless you are overly sensitive, the dust cannot hurt you. Dust masks and goggles are very overrated. If you are overly sensitive, stay home.

Bonus tip #8 : Cheering when the sun either goes up or down will only show how much of a sheep you have become. I promise you, it will be up again tomorrow about a half-day before it goes right back down again. There is really no need to cheer. However, if you cheer every day for the sun's rise and set anyway well, I really can't help you.

Bonus Tip #9 : Give a man a glow stick and he will be happy for about 6 hours. Teach a man to Raver Fish and he will be happy forever.

Bonus Tip #10 : Nobody at Burning Man wants to buy a space station.

Bonus Tip #11 : Cuddle domes may seem like a good idea, but make sure you bring Purell and you watch out for pink eye.

Bonus Tip #12 : Bikes are overrated. Walk to the esplanade and hop on an art car. That is why they are there. Who cares where its going? You will end up where you need to be.

Bonus Tip #13 : Never, ever, ever under any circumstances embark on an outing with more than two other people. More than that is like herding retarded kittens. Nobody can ever decide where to go and then someone gets lost and someone else sees a blinky thing and then its all over.

Bonus Tip #14 : The Poop Hammock. When the Jonny On the Spots (porta potties) have been freshly clean, you must watch out for splash back. The way to prevent splash back is the Poop Hammock. Instructions:

1) Lay a couple of long pieces of toilet paper lengthwise over the bowl. Let it droop a ways down into "the pit" Tuck the ends under the seat. Do the same thing lengthwise a couple of times.

2) Poop

The Poop hammock will break the fall of the poop therefore creating less splashback of the blue water on your ass. As a second feature, the hammock will serve as a guard for what splashback there is. Blueless bottoms every time!

Bonus Tip #15 : Funnest thing ever : "Playa Spins." Go find an open piece of playa with no obstructions nearby. Look directly up and find a star to fixate your eyes on. Spin around as fast as you can for as long as you can. Stop. Run as fast as you can. Fall down. Laugh uproariously. Repeat. (there are many ways to enhance this experience, which I encourage).

Bonus Tip #16: Playa Navigation. Look for blinky shiny bright looking anything. Go there. Repeat.

Bonus Tip #17: Get lost on purpose.

Bonus Tip #18: Great Game to play (of my invention). Cargo Shorts Vs. Burner Hair. This game is best to play on the esplanade in center camp. Find a friend and pick teams. One person takes cargo shorts the other takes burner hair (extentions, dreadlocks, blue hair, etc.). If you pick cargo shorts you get a point for each pair that you point out. Likewise for burner hair. Play to 50, 100, 1000 whatever. Other
variations such as Funny Hat Vs. Hippy Drum, Topless Vs. Bottomless, etc.

Bonus Tip #19 : Pants.

Bonus Tip #20 : First Camp is where all the organizers of Burning Man camp. Its right on the esplanade where the promanade leads into first camp. Their coolers are always well-stocked with tasty food and microbrews. Feel free to stop in, hang out as long as you'd like, and get wasted. Make sure you ask lots of questions. Especially personal questions. If you do Reiki or Massage make sure you offer it to everybody.

Bonus Tip #21 : Walk into a trance camp with a megaphone and you will be the life of every party.

Bonus Tip #22 : Do not volounteer to do anything in your camp if it is your first year. We all already know that once you get there you will be disappearing for the first three days. When you finally come stumbling back to camp and are all like "Oh my god, you'll never guess what I saw blahblah blah blah...." we will laugh at you and tell you to drink water. That is what is going to happen. Seriously. Watch.

Bonus Tip #23 : You know those hilarious cat pictures on the internets with captions like "I like Moar now Ples" or "I'm in your bass, killin yer d00dz." And then there is that other thing with the prairie dog turning around, and the "all yer bass belong to us." You know what I'm talking about, funny things that catch on quick and go on and on and on in different incarnations and variations ad infinitum. Well, the
playa is like that only 1,000,000 times better. So learn to be funny. Quick.

Bonus Tip #24 : You know how the vikings called it Greenland even though it was covered in ice and called it ICeland even though it was all nice and purdy? They did that to confuse conquorers. So with that I have one word for you: Hushville.

Bonus Tip #25 : If you ever feel the temptation to use the words "be quiet" or "shut up" at any point during the event, it is time to go home.

Bonus Tip #26 : One of the most horrifying and entertaining things you will ever see is your closest friends going into complete and utter meltdown. Its a special moment to be cherished. Welcome to the Playa.

Matthew A. Conlon, Esq.
//Seattle Burning Man regional"

Circus Freaks

I like these peoples samuri banners and funny circus mustache. Nothing new to report.

Also, this site has a pretty thorough guide and list and makes for interesting reading.

Just watched the Malcom in the Middle goes to Burning Man episode, which can be found here. One thing that really bothered me was that Malcom steps on a cactus (there is no plant life on the playa) and the little kid gathers rocks (there are no rocks on the playa). Also there was no dust, and the man was weeny. It's sorta cute though.

Been reading the BM websites enviornment blog and they had this clever tip for managing stinky trash...
Place kitchen scraps in an old onion bag, one that lets air flow through, and hang it in the sun. Your actual trash, the stuff that can’t be recycled, will be cleaner and dryer. Your food scraps will dehydrate instead of rot. No smell. Now you can carry them home to be composted.

Also note... I am considering putting a rideshare out to see if somebody in our area needs a ride. Obviously they would be contributing to our gas and would save everyone a spot of money. We've got 7 people going and can probably fit one more person in the van. Thoughts about this? Yeah or nays?

Another thing we need-- a cheap boombox/stereo system. Everybody look in your basements to check if there are any lying around. Remember: anything you bring out there will be playa-fied. So don't bring anything too nice.

$$$

Everyone saving their pennys? As discussed with Michael, we probably need to collect for gas prior to going. Bobby and I are not going to have the savings to pay for it as we go and collect it afterwards. Mark has generously offered to put the money down for the trailer.

Other than that... my pirate costume is coming along swimmingly, as well as my Marie Antoinette costume. Suck it!

Trains, planes and motherfucking vans.

Ok, Fib has acquired us a van! We can fit 6 comfortably, and 7... possibly. So, truck/trailer and motherfucking van. That is how we are getting to the playa.

Gas prices are as follows: Total Estimated at $3.50 a gallon
$1983 in gasoline, $270 in trailer costs.
That's $281 per person if Jen comes with us. $321 if she doesn't.

In the unfortunate event that we have $4 a gallon gas
$2266 in gas, $270 trailer.
so $317 a person with jen, $362 without.

If she comes and gas stays level, we're getting out there for $100 bucks cheaper per person. Spend it on alcohol.

Immolation

Ok, I've posted to the MWBs a few times about burn barrels and such. Instead of just summing everything up I'll just copy the messages over here.

spiteridden wrote:

Hey all,
Our camp this year is considering having a burn barrel or two for warmth, added light and other goodness at night. I know many of you made some for IF a year back - I was wondering where they were purchased? What cost should I expect, how heavy are they? I'm pretty much a blank slate as far as steel barrels go.

Secondly, we have a "Fire Effect" which we plan to put on display this year. The ATF would call it a flamethrower - it's capable of about 20-40 foot sustained flame and is completely portable. I used all my creative juices just making the damn thing, I have no idea how to showcase it. Does anyone have any funky ideas as to a show/scene we could create out on the greater playa?

-harry

-----------------------------------------------

Sup Harry!
Ranger Danarchy got a bunch of the 50 gal steel oil drums from his Fort Leavenworth Army Base back in '04 I believe. I'm not sure if he had to pay for them or what the price was. He's since moved back to Minnesota. Kathleen also picked some up for us. Kathleen, where did you get yours?

We cut the tops off the drums at HullabalU 06 and InterFuse 07. I don't know the exact weight. Maybe 20-30 lbs?? One person can heft the barrels and of course they become lighter when you cut designs in them.

Jimbo does beautiful burn barrel art and brings it to InterFuse and BM too I believe. I've cced this to him in case he knows where to get barrels and prices.

The BM LLC is going to want you to have them on burn platforms so you don't leave a burn scar on the playa.

BTW folks, Harry's crew is a themecamp from Lawrence that we didn't even know about till now.
--Zay

-----------------------------------------------

Weldboy wrote
"The LLC has past a new rule this year. You can only light your burn barrels from 1pm to 6pm. That means they will be useless for warmth or light but who cares as long as you're burning something."

i am not sure what event or LLC you are referring to but that is not true. fire is allowed at all times baring high winds at burning man!

the green theme means we are trying to be more thoughtful of our burning and its effects and taking steps to burn recycled wood and wood that had to be cleared post forest fire.
i look at this year like a light cigarette all the great burning taste but half the tar and nicotine

Dave X

p.s I have included the guidelines fore fire and open flame in Them Camps.

-----------------------------------------------

Dave X is the "fire effect supervisor" at Burning Man Org, so I take his word as law. Zay said he'd check with the people currently storing the burn barrels for interfuse - we may be able to snag a couple from them without having to dish out any money.

Oh yeah, I encourage anyone to join the MWBs mailing list and group. www.midwestburners.com.

AMERICAN SPARTIATORS!

Allright ya buncha I be needing ya'll to get some gym membership and hit the weights, cause we got about 13 months to get sweet as hell! There is like @least three or four events that would be simple as hell to setup, But we all need some

so gotta fix that first. Good luck men!

Signs

Above: A rough idea of what the shadowbox could look like. Not sure if it should be painted black... as it'd be much more difficult to see during the day. But we could put glass, or something like that, behind the cutouts to defuse the light. Actually dyed cloth or thick paper might work the best-- as glass would be liable to break if the sign got blown over. Depending on how hot the lights would be.

This one may be a bit ambitious... but it'd be cool to elevate the numbers and make them as a sort of entrance way to our dome. Obviously the numbers would be a bit thicker to allow more light through.

This one may actually make the separate entrance idea more workable by attaching a top box to secure it. If we screw it onto larger boards and make holes in the board for rebar attachment into the ground it may actually achieve relative sturdiness. Also it would come apart into three boxes for travel and storage.

I don't know precisely how they do it, but the banners below would be cool... and easy to appliqué the 54 on everywhere. I think the more 54's we have around the better. That way when people ask what our theme camp IS we can look at them funny and say something ambiguous about 54.


It'd also be kinda cool to make a stencil and spray paint the dome with 54s. Maybe. Assuming we are going to roll with the 54 theme for more than one year, which I would assume is highly likely. It's ambiguous enough to go about anywhere.

Also, I read somewhere that you can use your run-off water from the shower and stuff to water a plant that you bring. I personally have no problem dumping it into the road (now somebody random is going to read this and freak out) because they spray it down with H20 anyway and we use biodegradable soap. However, the plant idea is a good one-- and probably something we will do whenever we get an awesome trailer.

Assets - Kunt.

Ok.

I will check into the availability of 55 gallon steel barrels. I know the MWB's used a few so they must know where some are. The tarp for the evap pond is cheap, I'll grab one my next trip to the depot.

I have a couple ideas with things to do for a camp sign - mainly doing some sort of shadow box with a couple cathodes inside - but I dunno how to make it artistic. Jys, would you sketch out a few designs so I can visualize wtf to do? I'm not a fan of having raw el-wire exposed on surfaces, it looks too 'krinkliey.' I'm thinking similar to the LTC studios sign we had rocking - just with cathodes and plywood and some artistic spraypaint.

Mark has one cooler. Bicho has/had two. I may purchase one for adequate beer storage, or may look into securing one through other sources. It depends, I'm not planning on bringing much food.

I have four 6 gallon water jugs, the green sort. I need to wash them out as they've aquired a queer taste about them. Last year I used them as 'emergency water' for when my gallon jugs ran dry. I'm thinking about doing the same this year, bringing maybe 2 for myself for the shower and any misc water needs I may have. I AM bringing bottled jugs of water as they kick untold amounts of ass. Maybe the fancy square and stackable kind for ease of package. Having semi-disposable 1 gallon containers out there never got old. Doing so means I never had to worry about contaminating a full day's water to get some delicious tang for my wodka.

Water from winnemuca/battle mountain is definite. Hauling it even that far is almost a waste. Where was it purchased from? One of those water-supplys places, or just walmart?

One of my final camp-design issues I'm facing is the ability to put up a flag pole. I REALLY want a jolly roger/54 banner flying high. I've thought of things like a wooster (painting pole) messily taped and hose clamped to the top of one of the domes. I've also considered doing it like our neighbors last year. Ebay has collapsible aluminum 'winsock' poles for ~ 50 bucks but if anyone has a cheaper idea I'm all for it.

Etc.

Funny costume!

Assets, Needs

Alas, you really do have to stake your tent.

Assets- (As a group)
I've recently acquired another parachute, some white winter shade coverings (the guys at the surplus store swear they are virtually unrippable (which I giggle at), two 6-foot folding tables, camp stove, fire pit. John has (I belive) gotten our shower stuff.

Things we still need (As a group)- Hammock stand, barrel for fire (if we decide our fire pit is too unstable for the playa winds), bike pump (John is checking into this), coolers, black tarps for H20 evaporation pond (people get really snarkey if you don't have one of these), plywood and El-Wire for sign

Everybody needs to be gathering up a tent for themselves, a bike and a camel pack of some sort.
Who has coolers? We need at least 3 for the dry-ice system I previously posted about.

Also from my experience purchasing H20 in Winnemucca (despite Johns extreme hatred for the city) is a really good bet. Hauling all that water from Kansas seems wasteful, and is probably more expensive than buying it. That said, we may still need to think about getting some water containers-- like the green 5 gallon kind, so we can better pack the water in. The website says we will be needing 1.5 gallons per person per day. From previous experience this is PLENTY of water. However that will mean we need 13.5 gallons per person and for 7-8 days that equals around 100 gallons. Thats HEAVY!

Finally, check out this really cool site in comic book form of pics from the last 10 years of Burning Man.