What was the very first Theme Camp?

[AntiM]

Even I don't always check that thread if the elf is posting. Just don't have the mental energy for it.

[jkisha]

That's so encouraging because I thought it was only me.

JK

[Bob]

I get it, but like many threads it's become intolerable for me since people started embedding YouTube video links.

In any case, if the org thinks Christmas Camp was the first, that's good enough for me, given that they get to define what's a theme camp and what's not.

[mdmf007]

Great knowledge if you want to play historian, useless knowledge in the real world.

two operative words: "play" and "historian." The thread was for folks who think it's fun to dig into BM's past. On a board that routinely features such useless threads as "My Mind Begins to Hum," Stop posting so much," and "the person below me..." there seems to be little requirement that a thread deal with information useful in the real world.

Yeah, Kevin Evans is a BM has-been and I never suggested that any Burner was remiss for not knowing who he was. I was just expressing surprise that Crypto hadn't heard of him given her prodigious number of posts and length of time here.

LOL that is one thread that, no matter how much I try, I just don't understand. At all.

JK

It's a great excuse to use the "Mark All Threads Read" button.

What? i read and reread this thread a few times and still have no clue where its going. Its turning into a johnson tossing contest whatever that means. I love how some threads devolve into a sort of "Well you dont know so and so, so im burnier than thou" or "Wonder how many people know the ORG members roles?" Serisously? I am willing to bet that for the majority of the people at BM it is just a big party - why would they know or care who the production manager is, or who the head roadie is? They come for a good time, they have one and move on. Dont be surprised to find out someones experience is different or not as in depth as yours.

out
###

[theCryptofishist]

That's so encouraging because I thought it was only me.

JK

You shouldn't have mentioned it. The thread is active again.

I shouldn't have said that. Unkind.

[Teo del Fuego]

in case anyone else is confused, i was not dissing Crypto for not knowing who Kevin Evans was. Being Burnier than thou ain't in my playbook.

This thread is done

[SilverOrange]

This thread is done

Oh, is it now?

[Dr. Pyro]

Female Sword Swallower

Happily, I've know a lot in my day. And never at the circus.

[phreakshew]

but for those who are curious about the early days I suggest this book - it's probably one of the most detailed books on the who-what-where-when-why-and-how Zone Trip #4 became Burning Man.

ok so it's the only one I read but it's a really good book!

[url]http://thisisburningman.com/[/url]

[TomServo]

Complete Stranger Camp in 2002...then Black Rock Roller Disco (registered) in 2004

[Aiee! It burns!]

http://www.burningman.com/art_of_burnin ... llery.html

bunch of em .

"Fern Grotto" (1997)
"Xmas Camp" (1993)
by Peter Doty & Lisa Archer

[Teo del Fuego]

So far, the contenders are:

(unnamed) "Fancy" Camp in 1990
Bolt Action Rifle Club in 1991
Christmas Camp in 1993

(Not that it really matters)

[Trishntek]

The question was asked and answered this evening at the panel discussion after viewing "Dust and Illusion" in the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. Two of the founding members, John Law and Michael Mikel, declared it was indeed the Bolt Action Rifle Club.

edited to add fine print.

[Ugly Dougly]

[Teo del Fuego]

The question was asked and answered this evening at the panel discussion after viewing "Dust and Illusion" in the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. Two of the founding members, John Law and Michael Mikel, declared it was indeed the Bolt Action Rifle Club.edited to add fine print.

Ahhh, the anal-retentive historian in me can now shut down. Thanks Trish! How was the movie? How did it compare with "This is Burning Man?"

[Teo del Fuego]

Peter Doty, 1993 Christmas Camp

[Ugly Dougly]

Anyone got a pic of La Iglesia del Santo Pollo?

[Bob]

Imagine.

What interactive aspects does Bolt Action Rifle Club include? Please check all that apply.

[ ] 24 Hour Interactive Elements
[ ] Action for Reward
[ ] Bands
[ ] Bar
[ ] Barter
[ ] Body Painting
[ ] Chill Space
[ ] Circus Art
[ ] Collecting Data
[ ] Costuming
[ ] Crafts
[ ] Create an Environment
[ ] Creating Music
[ ] Dancing
[ ] Drawing
[ ] Drumming
[ ] Education Based
[ ] Entertaining
[ ] Experiments
[ ] Fire / Flame Art
[ ] Food Given
[ ] Formalized Dance
[ ] Found Art
[ ] Games
[ ] Gifts Given
[ ] Entertaining Guests
[ ] Environmentally conscious
[ ] Heckling
[ ] Improvisation
[ ] Kinetic Art
[ ] Library
[ ] Lectures
[ ] Marching Bands
[ ] Meditation
[ ] Misting System
[ ] Movies
[ ] Music
[ ] Other
[ ] Painting
[ ] Parades
[ ] Performance
[ ] Photography
[ ] Poetry
[ ] Performance Art
[ ] Recycling Into Art
[ ] Ritual
[ ] Ritual Performance
[ ] Scheduled Events
[ ] Sculpture
[ ] Services Rendered
[ ] Shared Experience
[ ] Silk Screening
[ ] Singing
[ ] Spoken Word
[ ] Structures to Climb or Play On/With
[ ] Theme-related activities
[ ] Theme-related visual effect
[ ] Water Art
[ ] Workshops
[ ] Yoga
[ ] Primarily Day Time
[ ] Primarily Night Time

cite

[theCryptofishist]

It's hard to tell if it's him. That beard. Maybe I should give him a call, see how he is.

[Ugly Dougly]

It's hard to tell if it's him. That beard. Maybe I should give him a call, see how he is.

Does he have a real white beard now?

[theCryptofishist]

It's hard to tell if it's him. That beard. Maybe I should give him a call, see how he is.

Does he have a real white beard now? :)

He's had a beard as long as I've known him. Now that I'm developing a Lily Munster streak on my right side, perhaps his beard is white.

[Trishntek]

The question was asked and answered this evening at the panel discussion after viewing "Dust and Illusion" in the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. Two of the founding members, John Law and Michael Mikel, declared it was indeed the Bolt Action Rifle Club.edited to add fine print.

Ahhh, the anal-retentive historian in me can now shut down. Thanks Trish! How was the movie? How did it compare with "This is Burning Man?"

Interesting you would ask since Brian Doherty was also on the panel along with Olivier Bonin who produced the movie. The historic footage of the beginnings at Baker Beach, interviews with many members of the Suicide Club and Cacophony Society made it as legitimate documentation as I can imagine. Footage of shooting everything from stuffed animals to propane tanks enhanced the notion that BARC deserves bragging rights.

There is sufficient acrimonious innuendo toward Larry Harvey making the event "legit" in the eyes of the law and commerce. It is a film mostly about beginnings and controversies whether it should be about art or free expression in general. The film concentrates on the Borg, the founders, the evolution of Cacophony, Suicide and those who recreated on the playa long before the first MAN was erected. The one thing missing in the film are the voices of the participants. A few artists are highlighted, but theme camps, mutant vehicles and art cars are shown without much commentary.

[Bob]

There's a gun shop on the peninsula, with a home-made black powder canon on display cut out of a Caterpillar tractor hydraulic cylinder. Proprietor said they used to take it out to the Black Rock in the 70s-80s and shoot bowling balls.

[Simon of the Playa]

wow, i wonder if they had ten pound balls?...

i saw the film in san francisco last year and have to agree with trish about the exceedingly "French" tone to the film in it's "Poo-pooing" a la Zhou-Zhou of Larry and Cabal.

yes, i understand and appreciate the origins....LOVE LOVE LOVE the Cacophony Society and their beautiful Car Wrecks thru the years, but i also have to hand it to the Hat for his uncanny vision and guidance that has Made Burning Man the 800lb Bass Monkey in the Counter Culture.

i think ollie's piece is historically accurate and interesting, but a tad snide.

[jkisha]

Don't blame the Frenchman for this one. The animosity oozing from the panel at the Q&A was palpable between the founders that are now "on the outside" and those that went on to make Burning Man what it is today.

Though my take-away was that had the event not taken the direction that it did, it would have probably ceased to exist by now. Those that are no longer involved with the event are having a hard time accepting that, and have no problem expressing their opinions at every available opportunity.

Based on some of the comments, I was impressed that BMORG allowed them to be on the panel.

[Bob]

I meant "cannon" of course. Only Bach could produce a major canon.

[Trishntek]

I meant "cannon" of course. Only Bach could produce a major canon.

Oh? The high-hat crew in Constantinople did a pretty good job of producing canons in the 4th Century.

Be that as it may, shooting bowling balls as you describe would be an absolute hoot,,,, especially if they were shooting at some kind of structure or vehicle!

[Ugly Dougly]

Explosions are always fun - when they're happening to someone else.

[theCryptofishist]

Though my take-away was that had the event not taken the direction that it did, it would have probably ceased to exist by now. Those that are no longer involved with the event are having a hard time accepting that, and have no problem expressing their opinions at every available opportunity.

I feel much the same way.
I also think it was doomed from the get-go. I simply think that things don't and can't stay that pure. Sometimes I think of this passage from one of the original surrealists. (Or maybe that's one of the original hangers-on of the original surrealists...)

I am often asked whatever happened to surrealism in the end. It's a tough question, but sometimes I say that the movement was successful in its details and a failure in its essentials. Breton, Eluard, and Aragon are among the best French writers in this century; their books have prominent positions on all library shelves. The work of Ernst, Magritte and Dali is famous, high-priced, and hang prominently in museums. There's no doubt that surrealism was a cultural and artistic success; but these were precisely the areas of least importance to most surrealists. Their aim was not to establish a glorious place for themselves in the annals of art and literature, but to change the world, to transform life itself. This was out essential purpose, but one good look around is evidence enough or our failure.
Needless to say, any other outcome was impossible. Today we see the place of surrealism in the world as infinitesimal. The the earth itself, devoured by monumental dreams, we were nothing--just a small group of insolent intellectuals who argued interminable in cafes and published a journal; a handful of idealists, easily divided where action was concerned. And yet my three-year sojourn in the exalted--and yes chaotic--ranks of the movement changed my life. I treasure the access to the depths of the self which I so yearned for, that call to the irrational, to the impulses that spring from the dark side of soul. It was the surrealists who first launched this appeal with a sustained force and courage, with insolence and playfulness and an obstinate dedication to fight everything oppressive in the conventional wisdom. Where these aspects of the movement are concerned, I see nothing to to repudiate.

--My Last Sigh

I also find the way that the surrealists began to have trials and excommunicating people who didn't tow the ideological line instructive.

[Simon of the Playa]

let us hope that this revolution does not eat it's young turks.