GAY camp throwing parties EVERY NIGHT

[spacetastic]

Comfort & Joy is planning over 40 on-playa events this year. Among them:

Burner Vision, a stunning combination of drag, performance, and video art. Wednesday night 11PM

House of Love Drag Cabaret, Friday, 11PM

World Naked Bike Ride reception, Thursday afternoon

*AFTERGLOW* - EVERY NIGHT, MIDNIGHT TO SUNRISE
A sexy, daily late-nite "shortbus-style" dance party geared for
queers, with glittery cabaret performances starting at midnight &
sweet beats playing 'til dawn. Bring your playa honey (or meet him
there!)

Afterglow DJ Schedule:

Monday
Jovino
Dribl

Tuesday
Mermaid
Space
Rio
M@

Wednesday
Nikita
Hac Le
Mike Khoury

Thursday
DJ Studlycaps

Friday
Honey Soundsystem

Comfort & Joy is an arts collective dedicated to promoting queer culture, expression, self-actualization and community by acting as a mutual-support society for our members, producing art installations & organizing special events. We are active year-round in the San Francisco Bay Area and as a “theme campâ€

[spacetastic]

BTW we'll be located at 7:30 and Fairlane.

www.playajoy.org

[KestrelSF]

ZOMG, you got DJ StudlyCaps? I hear he's a total stud! And like totally a superstar DJ!

[alt12]

afterglow is a longstanding playa institution for straight and gays alike (well mostly gays)...but I wouldn't exactly call it dance party....more of a late night chill-out space...

[studebaker hoch]

Comfort and Joy was better when it was just tarps, blankets and a rental truck. People went in with respect for others there, silently, removed shoes, and found their spot in the blankets and pillows for the night. The DJ would play some downtempo and it was the perfect place. Truly "Comfort and Joy" after a hard night out ;) That was circa 2005...2006 or so...

AND then...times change.

They got a new tent, the cool "nest" like atmosphere has been replaced with what can only be described as a meat market. Nowhwere to hide. Too accessible. Full on fuckfest, all the time. People go in now fully clothed and just stand and stare at boys having sex. It's not cool. The blankets all have spooge on them now. Whole place smells like butt. No privacy.

Comfort and Joy has become the new Jiffy Lube. Nasty.

Note to peeps: Barebacking will KILL YOU. Yes, YOU. Knock it off. You're supposed to be smarter than that!

[theCryptofishist]

Speaking of respect...

I don't know that I think that because of last year's incident that C&J should get a pass on all future shenanigans, but


Oh fuck, I don't know. It may not be your cup of tea, but you could have been a little less shrill.

[alt12]

Comfort and Joy was better when it was just tarps, blankets and a rental truck. People went in with respect for others there, silently, removed shoes, and found their spot in the blankets and pillows for the night. The DJ would play some downtempo and it was the perfect place. Truly "Comfort and Joy" after a hard night out ;) That was circa 2005...2006 or so...

AND then...times change.

They got a new tent, the cool "nest" like atmosphere has been replaced with what can only be described as a meat market. Nowhwere to hide. Too accessible. Full on fuckfest, all the time. People go in now fully clothed and just stand and stare at boys having sex. It's not cool. The blankets all have spooge on them now. Whole place smells like butt. No privacy.

Comfort and Joy has become the new Jiffy Lube. Nasty.

Note to peeps: Barebacking will KILL YOU. Yes, YOU. Knock it off. You're supposed to be smarter than that!

totally agree with you 100%.... C&J changed about two years ago when they got bigger and got the new tents...not only is the afterglow scene not as fun or warm (I didnt even go once this year) but the whole camp is kind of dark and not friendly...not into it....definitely a clicky vibe and a I met a guy who camped with them this year and said the same thing....Celestial Bodies is my new favorite gay camp....really cool, really friendly and lots of fun....

Its just a reminder that you have to keep switching things up on the playa....can't get into a rut! Thats the kiss of death for burning man! C&J was great for me in 04 and 05 but since then downhill....How they handled the suicide I think is emblamtic....if that had happened in my camp I would have shut the camp down for the rest of the week (i.e. no partying, events or leapoardy in a tent where someone had just died the day before)....but thats just me....


and personally, I like Jiffy Lube :) It has its place, it is what it is and it does it well....heard they weren't coming this year and then I saw them listed on the map...never made over there but did anyone actually verify that they were still there this year?

[JezebelinHell]

I still think C&J is a cool camp, but I do miss the way things used to be there. Back in '04 I met a nice girl on the playa and after a night of semi-naughty fun we didn't feel like walking all the way back to camp. C&J was right by us and it was an awesome place to cuddle up and catch some sleep while we waited for the sun to come up. This year I was wandering around with my girlfriend and we felt like just chilling out and cuddling up so we wandered into C&J and we were a tiny bit put-off by the mass pile of boys having sex everywhere. There's nothing wrong with being a big gay sex camp, but if that's what you're gonna be you should advertise yourself as such. My first year there I was told by everyone that it was strictly a no sex camp, and I didn't get the memo that that was no longer the case.

[mk-ultra]

We camped across from C&J this year (hi neighbors: from the Paradise Motel & Sno-Cone tent).

Everyone I met over there was really nice. I especially enjoyed lounging around in the "small" (kitchen) tent taking to folks... and listening to one of my camp-mates DJ in the "big" tent.

[carabiner]

[quote="mk-ultra"]We camped across from C&J this year (hi neighbors: from the Paradise Motel & Sno-Cone tent).

Everyone I met over there was really nice. I especially enjoyed lounging around in the "small" (kitchen) tent taking to folks... and listening to one of my camp-mates DJ in the "big" tent.[/quote]

Hey neighbor! We were the folks with the trampoline next door to you (Camp Tramps-O-Line). You guys were absolutely stellar. Thanks for being so nice and friendly!

[jkisha]

How they handled the suicide I think is emblamtic....if that had happened in my camp I would have shut the camp down for the rest of the week (i.e. no partying, events or leapoardy in a tent where someone had just died the day before)....but thats just me....

It was unfortunate that some idiot decided on BM and the C&J Camp to kill himself. But it was his choice. Why should C&J have allowed this to ruin their entire burn? (Frankly I'm sure it did ruin it for some anyway, but I commend them for carrying on!)

I have no sympathy for the weak.

JK

[mk-ultra]

We camped across from C&J this year (hi neighbors: from the Paradise Motel & Sno-Cone tent).

Everyone I met over there was really nice. I especially enjoyed lounging around in the "small" (kitchen) tent taking to folks... and listening to one of my camp-mates DJ in the "big" tent.

Hey neighbor! We were the folks with the trampoline next door to you (Camp Tramps-O-Line). You guys were absolutely stellar. Thanks for being so nice and friendly!

Howdy Hi, neighbor!

LOVED your trampoline! Y'all were fantastic -- and it was cool seeing passers-by enjoy the daylights out of your tramp One of the highlights for me this year was when we all piled a crapload of glowy things on it at night and bounced around giggling ourselves silly. The nekkid bouncing contingent of boys from Ireland was pretty sweet too

Hope to see ya all out there in '09!

[mk-ultra]

How they handled the suicide I think is emblamtic....if that had happened in my camp I would have shut the camp down for the rest of the week (i.e. no partying, events or leapoardy in a tent where someone had just died the day before)....but thats just me....

It was unfortunate that some idiot decided on BM and the C&J Camp to kill himself. But it was his choice. Why should C&J have allowed this to ruin their entire burn? (Frankly I'm sure it did ruin it for some anyway, but I commend them for carrying on!)

I have no sympathy for the weak.

JK

Meh.

Choosing where and when you're going to check out doesn't mean you're weak. I, personally, would never end my life somewhere that puts a burden on other people... but I have the emotional and physical luxury of being able to make that sort of choice.

Not everyone else does.

I lost my mom when I was 10 when she committed suicide. She was massively bi-polar. Meds (this was in the '70s) weren't very sophisticated back then, and (for her) the choice was between feeling things and being a zombie. On meds, the down cycles were manageable -- but (as was often a complaint then), the flip-side of not feeling depressed was never feeling happy... or, really, *anything*.

Fast forward many years. My dad was diagnosed with Lou Gherig's disease. If you're not familiar with it, it's a degenerative neuromuscular disease. You get weaker and weaker, starting with long muscles in your extremities... and slowly progressing until you can't walk... eat... sit yourself up... take a bath... and finally breathe. In the last stages, you're in a diaper, having to be sat-up regularly to have someone smack your back to knock mucus loose in your lungs so it can be vacuumed out. All the while, your brain continues to function normally, so you're perfectly lucid and aware of your slow demise.

It's a fucked-up way to go. My dad's condition progressed (mercifully) fast. In the end, because he had a doctor who knew the deal, he decided to check out after losing all mobility and having to wear diapers and have someone else feed him... just as breathing became a real issue.

He knew, early on, what was going to happen. He knew there was essentially zero chance of anything other than a slow descent into crappier conditions. He tried all of the available courses of action -- until his quality of life was, genuinely, shit.

Then, with the help of a doctor who wasn't a pussy, clicked away on his demand morphine until it depressed his respiration enough to check out and die... on his own terms, when he chose to do so.

Call it assisted suicide or whatever, but this was his choice and (after being there firsthand to take care of him for months) I would have made the exact same decision and done the same. Instead of lingering for months in some creepy nursing home, he pulled his own plug... and in doing so we had the opportunity to say goodbye and I was there to hold his hand and tell him that I loved him, and thank him for everything he had done for me.

My dad stuck around as long as he could -- taking care of many aspects of his life, knowing he was going to die, until his life became utter shit. He wasn't "weak" for deciding to die when he did... he was strong and took charge of his destiny rather than suffer many more months living a shit life with no prospect of improvement.

Misery isn't just limited to physical pain. Some people, even after vigorously exploring all sorts of medical treatments, are still in genuine agony, mentally. If you haven't experienced this, it's really easy to just write them off as weak... and feel indignant that someone would take their own life.

Again, I may not understand why someone would take their own life in a public space like C&J last year... but I won't presume to know what they were going through when they did.

I'm not about to condemn them for being "weak" though. Compassion goes a long way. Pretty easy to call someone an, "idiot" without knowing anything about them, isn't it? Do you think the guy's motivation was to "ruin somebody's burn?"

[jkisha]

Misery isn't just limited to physical pain. Some people, even after vigorously exploring all sorts of medical treatments, are still in genuine agony, mentally. If you haven't experienced this, it's really easy to just write them off as weak... and feel indignant that someone would take their own life.

Again, I may not understand why someone would take their own life in a public space like C&J last year... but I won't presume to know what they were going through when they did.

I'm not about to condemn them for being "weak" though. Compassion goes a long way. Pretty easy to call someone an, "idiot" without knowing anything about them, isn't it? Do you think the guy's motivation was to "ruin somebody's burn?"

My life partner committed suicide abruptly ending a ten year relationship.

It turned out to be the worst and the best experience of my life.

If you've ever seen the movie Herald and Maude, I like to think I have her philosophy on life--and death; and would not hesitate to end my life if I were ever to not be able to care for myself. Fortunately, I have lived a full life and have few if any reqrets.

My father had nine brothers, he and 6 of his brothers died of ahlzheimers. If I ever start exhibiting symptoms; I'm hording pills now to take care of the situation. I joke that when I need them I won't remember where I put them! But there are contingency plans in place.

So I guess I must have mispoke using the work "weak"--or more truthfully, I guess I put that sentence in there to stir up the pot.

It sounds like you and I are actually in agreement.

JK

[mk-ultra]

Misery isn't just limited to physical pain. Some people, even after vigorously exploring all sorts of medical treatments, are still in genuine agony, mentally. If you haven't experienced this, it's really easy to just write them off as weak... and feel indignant that someone would take their own life.

Again, I may not understand why someone would take their own life in a public space like C&J last year... but I won't presume to know what they were going through when they did.

I'm not about to condemn them for being "weak" though. Compassion goes a long way. Pretty easy to call someone an, "idiot" without knowing anything about them, isn't it? Do you think the guy's motivation was to "ruin somebody's burn?"

My life partner committed suicide abruptly ending a ten year relationship.

It turned out to be the worst and the best experience of my life.

If you've ever seen the movie Herald and Maude, I like to think I have her philosophy on life--and death; and would not hesitate to end my life if I were ever to not be able to care for myself. Fortunately, I have lived a full life and have few if any reqrets.

My father had nine brothers, he and 6 of his brothers died of ahlzheimers. If I ever start exhibiting symptoms; I'm hording pills now to take care of the situation. I joke that when I need them I won't remember where I put them! But there are contingency plans in place.

So I guess I must have mispoke using the work "weak"--or more truthfully, I guess I put that sentence in there to stir up the pot.

It sounds like you and I are actually in agreement.

JK

It does sound like you do get it -- especially if you've experienced Alzheimers and that sort of slow progression. I hope I didn't jump on you too hard here. Dealing with suicide is a tough thing... both in the decision to do it... and from the side of having to live with it.

[jkisha]

It does sound like you do get it -- especially if you've experienced Alzheimers and that sort of slow progression. I hope I didn't jump on you too hard here. Dealing with suicide is a tough thing... both in the decision to do it... and from the side of having to live with it.

And I can tell you other stories of friends with aids in the old days that also committed suicide when quality of life became unacceptable; but that's neither here no there.

I don't think you came down too hard on me at all. I was actually trying to bait the person that posted previously. So I probably deserved it. But I like to start little debates on the board to keep it interesting.

Frankly, I wasn't expecting any responses extolling the courageous aspects of suicide; of which we agree there many.

JK