Burning Man

Posted on October 6, 2013 by Fred Stiening

This entry was posted in Global Instability. Bookmark the permalink.

22 Responses to Burning Man

  1. Art Stone says:
    October 6, 2013 at 6:17 pm

    You know, after maybe an hour watching various YouTube videos of Burning Man, I didn’t see a single black person out of the 50,000 participants. Maybe there is something in the 10 principles that sends out bad vibes

    http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/about_burningman/principles.html#.UlHhAmt5mSM

  2. Nidster says:
    October 6, 2013 at 10:30 pm

    Burning Man has lost relevance. Those folks need to wake up to reality.

    • CC1s121LrBGT says:
      October 6, 2013 at 11:02 pm

      This too shall pass, as did Burning Women did in Salem.

    • Art Stone says:
      October 7, 2013 at 1:07 am

      It’s so crowded there, nobody goes anymore. Their BLM permit (cost $1.5 million) permits only 50,000 people which they now exceed.

      Ticket price is $340 so you can experience noncommodization. Their budget is $20 million a year, $7 million of which is for paid staff.

      The only way in/out (other than airplane) is over a windy two lane road. They have a “pulsing” traffic control scheme that can let ~640 vehicles/hr out during the Exodus. It takes pretty much an entire day for people to leave. It’s practice for waiting in line at your primary care physician.

      • CC1s121LrBGT says:
        October 7, 2013 at 3:06 am

        wow. all those people on a two lane road. i know that if you’d see a folk, they’d take it.

        • Art Stone says:
          October 7, 2013 at 4:30 am

          A folk in the road?

        • Art Stone says:
          October 7, 2013 at 1:00 pm

          It’s incredibly remote. Fire up your favorite map program and search for Gerlach NV. When you get out to the state road, you can take the road South toward the Interstate or North toward the far NE corner of California. During peak times, it can take 8 hours to get to Interstate 80. An accident or car breaking down in the desert can snarl that even more.

          Black Rock City is around 4,000 feet above sea level which moderates the high temperatures during the day.

          The most fascinating thing about it is the number of agencies of government who have tried to stop it or make a deliberately risky (“self reliance”) event into one that is “safe”. The number of rules placed on them by the Bureau of Land Management is amazing, to protect this empty wilderness from being damaged.

          Contrary to Jack’s impression, Burning Man is not a place for old hippies. The ticket costs $340 to get in. It’s the event where the 30 year old Facebook millionaires go to convince themselves they don’t really care about money – and try to find some meaning in their lives by participating in a vague pagan ritual someone made up.

          • Nidster says:
            October 7, 2013 at 1:36 pm

            For all those who wondered what is relevant these days in the Land of Everything Liberal is an event that ought to reverberate throughout the Halls of Homeland Security, and scare the cheese out of ’em.

            Earlier this week, California Governor Jerry Brown signed AB351 into law – the California Liberty Preservation Act. It makes a new state policy to refuse to help the federal government implement indefinite detention under any federal act such as NDAA.

            Now, that is relevant.

  3. jackkeats says:
    October 6, 2013 at 11:55 pm

    Now I know where the peopleofwalmart come from when they get old.

  4. Art Stone says:
    October 7, 2013 at 12:40 pm

    Still no ID or motive on the self-immolation on the Mall in DC. Maybe this happens a lot and it was just national news because of the shooting the day before.

  5. Art Stone says:
    October 7, 2013 at 1:44 pm

    As it turns out, because of the mining, there is a rail line that runs right past Black Rock City. If BLM would allow a siding to be built, getting water and people in and out would get simpler, but that would also defeat part of the purpose

  6. Parrott says:
    October 8, 2013 at 6:56 am

    Bill Geist did a story on ‘Burning Man’ years ago on CBS Sunday Morning. It looked different than this video.
    I think I will go see UFO feast in Hobbs New mexico, easier to get to.
    parrott

    • CC1s121LrBGT says:
      October 8, 2013 at 10:49 am

      Bill Geist is great. Always has done wacky stories. His son Willie Geist is on The Monrning Joe on MSNBC weekday mornings and is quite good too.

      • Parrott says:
        October 10, 2013 at 1:37 pm

        Yeah, oL Bill is good CC. He did a story once on the Mothman festival over in Point Pleasant West Virginia. They were struggling to get it going and about the third year Bill showed up with the CBS Sunday Morning crew, and now they are at year 12.
        I have been a couple times. Its safe, you can take your kids, unlike ‘ burning man’. They have a pageant now, for Miss Mothman. Lots of good food, hayrides through the old Army Ammunition plant that is abandoned. Supposedly Mothman showed up there and chased some kids ‘ parking’ there.
        They have people give talks on Mothman, the bridge that collapsed into the Ohio river.
        Supposedly Debra Messing was there one year, and signed a few autographs when she was discovered there milling about the crowd. She was in that movie with Gere that was about the bridge and Mothman. Ol Debra looked good back in the 90’s.
        The have a awesome Mothman statue in downtown Point Pleasant, made of stainless steel. I have a pic somewhere standing beside it with two Miss Mothman Candidates : )
        God I wish I was twenty years younger !
        Viva la Mothman ! http://mothmanfestival.com/
        Parrott

  7. Art Stone says:
    October 9, 2013 at 5:49 am

    The immolation guy in DC has finally been identified. His name was John Constantino – he was 64 years old, which puts him right in the Vietnam war generation. He is married and has three children and was from New York, but living in Mt Laurel NJ.

    Acquaintances report he was fed up with the US Government falling apart. The family and their lawyer insist his salute at the Capital and self-immolation was not a political act.

    Mount Laurel NJ is fairly close to Philadelphia

  8. CC1s121LrBGT says:
    April 1, 2019 at 9:56 am

    Update: “The Chinese Burner”
    by Chen Qiufan

    A Chinese science fiction writer goes to Burning Man.

    https://logicmag.io/07-the-chinese-burner/

Leave a Reply