Making lemonaide

[Tazz]

The receipt of my "Dear John" letter several days ago led to several days of sadness and frustration. It still looks like a less than 50/50 chance that I will get a ticket. But, time to think about making lemonaide.

I have a small unplaced theme camp that gifts root beer floats, ice cream sandwiches, and a part-time bar (called "Another Damn Hippie Camp"). None of us have tickets. If I do get a ticket, I was still thinking about setting up may camp, but in a smaller format. Then, as I read about the staffing issues with the other larger camps I realized there would be abundent opportunities for me to help these larger camps. My first year in BRC, I came across a Mutant Vehicle crew doing repairs and pitched in to help. In each of the following 6 years, they were one of the first people I looked for when I returned to the Playa.

This year, there may well be more Burgins than ever before. For me, nothing helped me feel more at home than being able to help with that mutant vehicle. So, all you Birgins out there, here is your chance to make your first burn even more awesome. Strap on a tool belt, grab some work gloves, hope on your bike and just roll up to a working team and ask if you can help. You are not only welcome to our city, but now you are NEEDED more than ever before. Check with your local Burner organization NOW to see if they need help getting ready. I suspect many will. In reading this forum, some of you are already burning! Check out "Rainbow Hair Explosion" in the welcome thread. Now that is Birgin spirit.

If I do get a ticket, I will roll out the red carpet for you Burgins and would love some help. I have a feeling that this burn will be different but maybe even better than ever!

Dreaming of dust filled days and nights,

Tazz

[hatfield]

Yeah, you're probably gonna have to make your own lemonade this year, because at Black Rock Lemonade, out of 80+ people in the camp, three got tickets. Three.

[lemur]

root beer is getting hit hard in 2012.

[BoyScoutGirl]

I like your idea of offering help where it seems needed. I'm worried about over-committing myself in my virgin year and creating too many expectations, so I've been very sternly not letting myself volunteer for a million projects.

Thank you for the warm welcome, Tazz.

[The CO]

root beer is getting hit hard in 2012.

Sell it short now!

[kerb]

It's quite a relief to see a thread like this, I've been worn down quite a bit by the unburny attitude that has gone wild in the wake of this ticket thing.

My friends and I have been lucky in the lottery, so 11 out of 12 got tickets, and only three of those went to virgins in case you're raging about something like that.

Even if theme camps don't go/scale back I am going to go this year, and I will do my personal best to make sure it's a good burn for everyone. That's why I'm sort of hoping that people will calm down at some point and the people who do manage to go in the end make the best out of it and maybe like contribute to camps who has lost a lot of people.

ePlaya would be a decent place to recruit new people who are going but aren't part of anything, and it's especially nice if virgins get to be part of a project as well.
Of course there's planning and money and time and everything that needs to be put into theme camps and art projects or whatever, but it's worth trying at least.

Sure it's a real shitty situation but it's not made any fucking better by going mad and declaring it the end of BM or something and sulking.

[inog]

If I do get a ticket, I will roll out the red carpet for you Burgins and would love some help. I have a feeling that this burn will be different but maybe even better than ever!

Tazz

...and I'll help as I am able.

I am with you on this. It will be different. Some camps will fail. Many will be reborn. And there will be new ones. But when I think about this experience, I don't want this to be like going to Coachella where the Sierra Tent is always what it is, year after year. I do not want this to be like Disneyland where I might go to see the rides of my youth. I want to go to see something new and different. I want to go and perceive and experience the new, not recognize the old and reminisce about creativity that occurred years before that someone drags out onto the Playa out of nostalgia.

Some of the old will be back. Some will not. I really see this as an opportunity for "fertility" to take hold. In a forrest you burn to clear out the old and make way for the new. The forrest after a fire is teeming with life that cannot survive under the old growth canopy.

[Tazz]

. But when I think about this experience, I don't want this to be like going to Coachella where the Sierra Tent is always what it is, year after year

Each year I see/experience a fraction of the amazing art/camps/venues that burners build for all of us. Later in the year, as I view pictures of the last BRC, I think "holy crap" where was that incredible art/structure/MV and how did I miss it?!! Even if every large camp returns, the city is different every year. I love the first day that I hop on my bike and see Opulent Temple, Thunderdome, Root Society, and other large venues that have returned. To me, it feels more like home to have some familiar sights. It would be sad to roll down the street and not see all of those Barbie Dolls (thanks Doc Pyro). Part of the reason for my post was to encourage Birgins with tickets to step up and help these camps return.

No worries. There is always many, many new and amazing experiences. Enthusiastic burgins will help reinvent the city and may even help the established camps with their desire to be more amazing than the previous year. It does take the veterans to provide the time-tested experience of what works and what does not. I believe they are the backbone of the city. I really hope that the BMorg finds a way to assure that a sufficient number of core members of the large camps find tickets. But it also takes all of you amazing Burgins and newer Burners to pump new ideas and enthusiasm into the system.

The frustration you are reading on eplaya is a reflection of the heart, soul, blood, sweat, and tears of veterans that are seeing all that they have worked for swept away with a bad decision by the ticket organizers. However, I have no doubt that these amazing people will regroup and again build the city that I love!!

[Tazz]

Damn. I am going to be so sad if I cannot find a ticket!!

[tamarakay]

I hope you find a ticket too! Never fear, the barbies will be there, and when you see them, look around. My little Dye with Dignity monkeyhut will be close by, come paint/dye a dust scarf, have some juice, Texas wine, or perhaps a nice cold southern sweet tea!

[theCryptofishist]

It will be different. Some camps will fail. Many will be reborn. And there will be new ones.

I'm hoping for wacky hybrids from two or more camps that have half of their personnel unable to attend...

You know, I believe in human creativity in a crisis...