fightin' words

[theCryptofishist]

There are some words that you really want to think carefully about before using them on this board. for instance:


Manifest Especially in the verb form "to manifest abundance."
People work hard to get to the burn, work hard at the burn. They pull ot or take on a second job in order to afford the burn. They eat ramen for weeks. They take ranger training and spend half their burn helping others. They join the dpw and perform weeks of stoop labor on indifferent food in order to moop the playa. They start working on thier art projects as soon as they've unpacked their bags and washed their costumes. They are putting together theme camps in December. They are smashing conduit for domes on Memorial Day.
And you waltz in and want a free ride. Expect to be pilloried. And then spit out and pilloried again. Then the personal attacks will start. Just do yourself a favor, and leave it alone.

[oneeyeddick]

I was manifesting ideas and putting pencil to paper as you were defining and cautioning the usage of the word.

If we don't do it, who in the hell will ???

We had one of those (hard working?) Rangers with us last year.
We secretly manifested his second nickname "Freeride".
at least he was able to keep us up on the real gossip........

[theCryptofishist]

Okay, not everyone who works for the event is a morally upright, hard-working, get 'er done, shining example to us all. And I bet Ranger Freeride doesn't want any competition from other leeches. So keep it stealth and fly under his radar, Drainbows.

And thanks for the laugh, dick. Wait, aren't you boobybar? Are you calling a booby barrer Freeride? Besides me, I mean.

[oneeyeddick]

Last year we were neighbors, this year will be a whole new adventure.
(for all of us) Weeeeeeeeee !!!!!!!!!

I shouldn't be capping on "freeride" so much, he was trying do be something that is beyond his capacity,
not unlike an ever growing majority of so called "veterans" that think that thier second or third year makes them one.
I am sure he learned many lessons and will learn many more, as will most.
I am done learning , for the most part, but I am hoping that someone will prove me wrong at the same time.

[Simon of the Playa]

i've been doing this shit for 11 years now, and after last year, i came to that point where most older burners come to, i didnt want to do it again....i've lost wives, houses, jobs, friends and lovers over my annual idiotarod to the west.

i burned my beloved boots, i had them for 20 years, 3 resoles and countless heels...they had been to every bm with me....the went up in the temple...

i swore that was it...

i worked from sunday until weds. coagulating all the modules we had pre-built in boston into a luscious chill dome...then the BFR (big fucking rave) started and by thursday night we were already in the prep for breaking it down...


i think i left camp like 3 times...there was 80 people in the camp, and enormous amounts of work every day.

there were some shirkers and "freeriders" that abused the relative luxury that was provided by the camp founder and patron.

at the end of it all, we had some discussions about the meaning of radical self-reliance, and the importance of it to the nature and experience of the event, and how that might have been lost thru the years as the comfort factor has gone up...

now with that said, i must admit i enjoyed the flying in, renting car, arriving with all the logistics handled.....it was weird, but nice....i had taken planes, trains, automobiles, motorcycles, and my thumb in the past, and every time it was a struggle....

i must say that after beating myself up for so many years, and suffering the consequences when i returned home, last year was a pleasant suprise, yet with a vague feeling that i had cheated somehow..

i have been convinced to do it again, actually, the whole "i'm not going next year" faded by the time i got to reno, but i wasnt gonna tell anyone i had already flip-flopped.

so i'm gonna build the furniture and some of the stage props etc and truck it all out there and assemble it and break it down and burn it and hopefully
spend more time wandering around, taking in the sights....

a year off so to speak.....i dont want the responsibility again....Just the Security detail alone almost poisoned me, because i was forced to be an asshole to maintain a small amount of safety in a 5000 person dome with all kinds of crap happening at once....it really was difficult, and i sympathize with and appreciate the rangers SO MUCH after getting a heaping helping of the shit they eat all week.

so i guess this year i wanna sorta freeride too....i dunno....it's selfish as hell, but it's come to the point where i get mad, mad at people littering, mad at people wihout lights on, mad at the losers who expect everything handed to them because it's a "gift" economy...

i dont like feeling mad at people, especially at the one "vacation" a year that i take...especially at burning man...a community i have come to love and participate in, a community i help build and destroy each year, a community that is getting so large that it is approaching, if not already crossed the rubicon into a new being.

just what that being will be in the future depends on us, and us alone...

this year, like 96' will be a Dust-Shed year, things are going to change in order to handle the influx of people and ideas into the Mix.

I hope that the notion of "the more you put into it, the more you get out of it" prevails, and that the newer burners show and articulate their appreciation for all that is seemingly magically created for their enjoyment and pleasure.

as a part-time chef, there is nothing like peeking thru the window and seeing a group of people really like the food you just made them...it's a secret smile that makes it all worth it...

and so i recommend to all burners that you try gifting to someone who doesnt even know they've been gifted, and if they do, they know not from whence it came....

the ones on high will notice.




ok...thats about all the sincerity i can do for now...i have to go back into my protective shell of sarcasm...

[theCryptofishist]

a year off so to speak.....i dont want the responsibility again....Just the Security detail alone almost poisoned me, because i was forced to be an asshole to maintain a small amount of safety in a 5000 person dome with all kinds of crap happening at once....it really was difficult, and i sympathize with and appreciate the rangers SO MUCH after getting a heaping helping of the shit they eat all week.

ONe of my personally most disgusting things I've ever experienced at Burning Man was the couple making out on one end of the couch while Scott tended to an overdose on the other. I asked them to move but they didn't care. I would have loved some security. I would have loved some security through the dance floor to get us to that couch. So, thank you, and yes it is horrendous responcibility. You've earned a light year or two.

[Simon of the Playa]

yes fishy, it amazes me how many old-timers, especially women, have a sense that it is not as safe out there as it used to be, ESPECIALLY at night...

i had to confront and ultimately threaten with bodily harm some 6'8 goon frat boy who was doing the rub and grope bullshit to the women he felt like fondling.

as i explained to him that i had a mom, a sister, a grandma, and two daughters, and that if anyone did what he was doing to those women without approval, i would rip his nuts off and shove them down his fucking throat.

now i'm 6'5, but this guy had me by 3" and 100lbs, but i had the "crazy guy"
advantage, he backed away, and, so i thought, left the dome....

within 5 minutes, he was back in the smaller dome at it again.

the rangers finally interceded, and not a minute too late as one of the gropees happened to be with root society, and a posse was quickly gathering for blood....it was ugly, to say the least, but it would have been uglier to let it continue.

i dont condone some of the heavy handed tactics the LEO's use when arresting substance offenders, but by all means, Gentlemen and Ladies of the Badge, do not hold back on these motherfuckers who take advantage of the chaos to get their sick suburban jollies at the expense of others.

so, you see, that kind of anger and violence should not be at burning man in any form unless it's REALLY peformance art...I felt sick to my stomach that i had to get to tht point, and then "brush it off" and "have a good time"....


yeah, right.....more like shoot down 4 shots of whisky and bob my head up and down like a child with autism because i just couldnt believe what had just happened, and how pissed i was as a result...


it really was the first time on the playa that i had ever felt such rage, and having been shoved to that point, had to sit alone in my tent for 15 minutes and cry.......i didnt want anyone to see me.

it was at that moment i swore i wouldnt return....


i was wrong....i will return....



but god help that fuckwad if i catch him in a dark alley on one of the sidestreets.

[Kinetik V]

i've been doing this shit for 11 years now, and after last year, i came to that point where most older burners come to, i didnt want to do it again....i've lost wives, houses, jobs, friends and lovers over my annual idiotarod to the west.

6 years for me...and pretty much all of the stuff you wrote hits home. Last year's BM closed a circle for me...I was able to take my fiancee out there and she understood what the multi-year obsession was all about. Also the temple offered something very special to us, a sense of closure with the loss of Jasmine Amaya and an opportunity to get it out and talked about....

This year is rough financially but in years past it's always been a struggle to make it to the playa. Yet I've found a way. Normally by this time of year I'm starting to mentally gear up for the challenge of hauling my ass West one more time. But this year it's just not there. My fiancee has the block of vacation time approved and locked in so that's covered. Technically if we don't take the old RV we bought we could swing it financially too. But yet it doesn't seem worth the hassle anymore. The event has grown too big and it seems like unless you're part of a theme camp your opportunities for interaction get less and less. I see more of the defenses going up against leechers and camps that don't exactly look all that inviting to visit. I ran into the expanded Artica outposts running out of ice early last year and when I asked why I was told to shut the fuck up and go home. We tried several times to even stop an art car last year for a ride...and had hard alcohol and other things to offer as gifts...yet we couldn't get a ride....and some of the vehicles looked like oversized garishly lit clique transport vehicles...

I'm just bitching but I know the energy level I felt in the first 3 years has not been there the last 3. And here I sit wondering if I'll go back again. This event has been a huge black hole in my life sucking in more money and resources than I want to think about. When is it time to say enough? With the attitudes, people having absolutely atrocious behavior, and then having to get into a fight and kicking some punk to the ground after he tried to steal my bike...at what point do you say it's not fucking worth it anymore? The bike thing is not something I've said anything about but it's bothered the hell out of me for months now. I shouldn't have to get violent just because some punk tries to steal my stuff and then punches me over it. I don't know if it's worth it...I really don't.

Maybe it's time to do what all the old timers used to say to the bitchers and that's if you don't like it start your own fucking event. The means to do that and the space to do it are within 60 minutes from here....it might be time to go that way instead.

[oneeyeddick]

OMG !!!

Was he wearing a jester hat and no shirt ???

If so , we saw him in action.

I pointed him out to my woman and we fled the scene as he was headed our way.

Simon, if you get all stressed out like that again, head around the corner to the Booby Bar, you will find empathy within.
And some friends, and booze, and um...er...something else to ease your pain if I am in the house.

Dammit !!!!

[Simon of the Playa]

i had never really thought aout it before, but this might be the ultimate purpose of a "regional' mentality...I know many people who go to and organize PDF (Shouts out to Andy Wing and Ed who are tireless, undaunted, and truly nice guys) but have never been simply because of some of the above mentioned issues....i didnt want to spend money, shoot my wad etc, and jeopardize the big run...

maybe this year i should go....smaller, more intimate, i dont know...more personal.

it's beginning to have some appeal.


(of course, i wouldbe lying if i said that i was not going to BRC, again...because i am....why else would i spend some of my day here, on the virtual alkali....i think that, above all, draws me back....i am in love with the nothingness that is black rock desert....and so a different locale has never really seemed quite right)

[Captain Goddammit]

This is gonna be my 7th burn since '00. I took a few years off ('05 and '06) for similar reasons. Over the years I've been in fights, I've been tasered, I've bloodied up a would-be boat "pirate"... shit, it's gotten to the point that I carry weapons. At my old theme camp (the bike repair at 9:00) we had a guy and a girl bust into a girl's tent and tear the place up while they did their "thing". The Rangers did nothing, we had to chase them down ourselves.
I try to avoid figuring the total cost involved... many times I've asked myself "It's a lot of fun, but is it THAT much fun?" but I can't bitch about that because we all decide for ourselves how much money we want to invest in it all. It does "snowball" on you, though.
I definitely needed a few years off, and I took 'em.
I came back last year and had a great time. I've got my tickets for this year.

[Simon of the Playa]

one eye, i honestly dont remember much except he looked like a young Dom Delouise if he was GINORMOUS and intimidating...

keep in mind i had two lumps with my tea that eve....but as far as i can recall...

slightly balding....big head...possibly glasses, i'm not sure...

i cant even remember the names of the two rangers assigned to our "sector' that night, but to their credit, they managed to deflect and calm the whole situation with shaolin like verbal and physical gestures....they escorted him out and talked to him and suggested he leave....they also alerted the surrounding leo's as to this numbnuts behaviour, and that was the last i saw of him...

by then i was drinking.

and you bet your bippy i'm heading to far corner ALOT more this year...

i'm working on a moped with sidecar that looks like an old 1920's torpedo shape in wood based on an old czech model, so i'll be mobile...

(last year i had the bad luck to break 3 toes 2 weeks before the trip, so my range was limited, unless i could hitch)

[mdmf007]

There is definitely street justice at BM. I have seen gropers knocked out, asshats bounced from domes and bars - nothing new there. As far as LEO draconian tactics; I actually think they are softer touched at BM than in the default world.

[BitterDan]

Wow, I had no idea you guys were so disillusioned about the event. I understand the things mentioned but does it really ruin it for you?

As far as interaction goes, and this isn't to be a dick, maybe if you don't bring an RV you'll get more interaction? I sleep on the ground and migrate around the city on foot most of the time and meet myriads of people and have great interactions with them every day. I might be part of a theme camp but last year we had a satellite camp in the city where I spent most of my chill time. I met hundreds of people at that camp alone because people constantly wandered into our areas and they were welcomed wholeheartedly.

As far as the money goes, our preliminary estimates for booze alone at the Moonshine Tavern will be over $10,000. I hope it's appreciated.

[thirt33n]

i've been doing this shit for 11 years now, and after last year, i came to that point where most older burners come to, i didnt want to do it again....i've lost wives, houses, jobs, friends and lovers over my annual idiotarod to the west.

i burned my beloved boots, i had them for 20 years, 3 resoles and countless heels...they had been to every bm with me....the went up in the temple...

i swore that was it...

i worked from sunday until weds. coagulating all the modules we had pre-built in boston into a luscious chill dome...then the BFR (big fucking rave) started and by thursday night we were already in the prep for breaking it down...


i think i left camp like 3 times...there was 80 people in the camp, and enormous amounts of work every day.

there were some shirkers and "freeriders" that abused the relative luxury that was provided by the camp founder and patron.

at the end of it all, we had some discussions about the meaning of radical self-reliance, and the importance of it to the nature and experience of the event, and how that might have been lost thru the years as the comfort factor has gone up...

now with that said, i must admit i enjoyed the flying in, renting car, arriving with all the logistics handled.....it was weird, but nice....i had taken planes, trains, automobiles, motorcycles, and my thumb in the past, and every time it was a struggle....

i must say that after beating myself up for so many years, and suffering the consequences when i returned home, last year was a pleasant suprise, yet with a vague feeling that i had cheated somehow..

i have been convinced to do it again, actually, the whole "i'm not going next year" faded by the time i got to reno, but i wasnt gonna tell anyone i had already flip-flopped.

so i'm gonna build the furniture and some of the stage props etc and truck it all out there and assemble it and break it down and burn it and hopefully
spend more time wandering around, taking in the sights....

a year off so to speak.....i dont want the responsibility again....Just the Security detail alone almost poisoned me, because i was forced to be an asshole to maintain a small amount of safety in a 5000 person dome with all kinds of crap happening at once....it really was difficult, and i sympathize with and appreciate the rangers SO MUCH after getting a heaping helping of the shit they eat all week.

so i guess this year i wanna sorta freeride too....i dunno....it's selfish as hell, but it's come to the point where i get mad, mad at people littering, mad at people wihout lights on, mad at the losers who expect everything handed to them because it's a "gift" economy...

i dont like feeling mad at people, especially at the one "vacation" a year that i take...especially at burning man...a community i have come to love and participate in, a community i help build and destroy each year, a community that is getting so large that it is approaching, if not already crossed the rubicon into a new being.

just what that being will be in the future depends on us, and us alone...

this year, like 96' will be a Dust-Shed year, things are going to change in order to handle the influx of people and ideas into the Mix.

I hope that the notion of "the more you put into it, the more you get out of it" prevails, and that the newer burners show and articulate their appreciation for all that is seemingly magically created for their enjoyment and pleasure.

as a part-time chef, there is nothing like peeking thru the window and seeing a group of people really like the food you just made them...it's a secret smile that makes it all worth it...

and so i recommend to all burners that you try gifting to someone who doesnt even know they've been gifted, and if they do, they know not from whence it came....

the ones on high will notice.




ok...thats about all the sincerity i can do for now...i have to go back into my protective shell of sarcasm...

That there, is the biggest baddest quote EVER.

Thanks for that Simon. I am doing the same thing this year, albeit in a very scaled down version. I hate being the guy everyone asks everything or the guy who has to take care of all the crucial details. You hope they all get it but so often they don't and you watch it crumble without your direct attention.

A deserving hiatus that's not really a hiatus.

[Simon of the Playa]

absolutely....i mean whiskily....you know...thanks...

i think most people on the playa have the right intentions at heart.

and it's up to the older ones to tazer the youngin's every now and then.

it's a learning process, just as everything else is.

with that said, there are small pockets of nasty no matter where you go...

i dont mean nasty, i mean Nasty....mean spirited, possibly criminal behaviour and i sort of hesitate to use that term because of legal implications concerning drugs, but those who are crossing that point where personal space and safety have been violated, and often, intentionally.

these people have to be community policed......men, stand up and do NOT ACCEPT unnacceptable behaviour (again, alot of what happens on the playa is consensual, just ask...) dont turn a blind eye....be nice, courteous, but firm if someone is really an asswipe, and may be in need of some calming down, medical assistance,if they are looting, whatever.....get the others....draw a crowd....let the issue be heard and worked out, or if neccessary authorities brought in...

9 times out of 10, a quick verbal swat, and group shaming works wonders.

it does and can work....the playa community is amazingly cooperative and tolerant...i hope to keep it that way.

and as we all know, it's not about the money....it's about option to leverage old ticket stubs into 1000 block shares when the BMLC hits as an IPO.

[oneeyeddick]

Wow, I had no idea you guys were so disillusioned about the event. I understand the things mentioned but does it really ruin it for you?

As far as interaction goes, and this isn't to be a dick, maybe if you don't bring an RV you'll get more interaction? I sleep on the ground and migrate around the city on foot most of the time and meet myriads of people and have great interactions with them every day. I might be part of a theme camp but last year we had a satellite camp in the city where I spent most of my chill time. I met hundreds of people at that camp alone because people constantly wandered into our areas and they were welcomed wholeheartedly.

As far as the money goes, our preliminary estimates for booze alone at the Moonshine Tavern will be over $10,000. I hope it's appreciated.

Dude...I am by no means disillusioned, I prefer the term enlightened.
Maybe you could be too someday, seriously, quit being so damn bitter, Dan.
and then , your carping on the whole rV thing and it's not even mentioned in this thread ???
OK...is that aimed at me or at Cpt. Goddammit ?...never mind , I'll cover for us both.
The RV does not cut down on interaction, it makes for more interaction. I don't know what you mean when you suggest otherwise
We shared every resouse the RV could provide to everyone, blender, drinks, sinks, showers,
ovens and stoves, and shelter and air conditioning, as it was gifted to us to do so with.
Everyone in my camp was thankful that we had it, that leaves me knowing that my work has
been appreciated as it will be again in the future as I plan on making it as such.
I slept on the ground previously for 9 years, organized and ran a REAL theme camp (not a bar, although we had drinks to share)
and produced an artcar for all to enjoy.
Hundreds of people in your own camp is nothing to meet, hundreds everyday is.
Will your individual tab be $10,000 ???
Mine alone last year was $8,900 and thats not including most of the gas that the RV used,
and last year was the least amount I have spent in the last 4 years.
And you know what else... I am not doing it for the appreciation, I am doing it becase it feels good and it is fun.
The appreciation is just a piece of cheese that goes well with the pie that I am sharing with everyone.

[BitterDan]

I guess you told me....

I'm not going to argue. Sorry you took it personally....

[oneeyeddick]

No big deal, man, this thread is "fightin' words"
Swing by the Booby Bar and I will share some of my RV's amenities with you.

[Captain Goddammit]

No big deal, man, this thread is "fightin' words"

Exactly! Overall I'm still looking forward to this year. And I had fewer problems last year than in previous years.

[mdmf007]

disillusioned hell -

I love Black Rock City - BRC is way cooler than IRL.

[Simon of the Playa]

i think we all do....i love BRC too...

which leads me to another thought....


would the citizens of Black Rock defend it from Auslanders?

Invaders?


would we fight to protect our "home"?

would we put up a resistance?

what type of situation would force us into this position?

and most importantly, will we be going with black leather or dusty browns for uniforms?

[Ugly Dougly]

Today's fighting words are Objective Realism. You have six minutes to use in a sentence. Good luck.

[blyslv]

Burningman is like any other drug, you take it long enough, you'll develop a tolerance.

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

It is impossible to be objective about realism because everybody creates their own reality.

[theCryptofishist]

and most importantly, will we be going with black leather or dusty browns for uniforms?

Black Leather, naturally, because looking cool trumps practicality every time.

[Simon of the Playa]

it's good to see Dandyism making a come-back...

A dandy[1] (also known as a beau, gallant or dude[2]) is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies. Historically, especially in late 18th- and early 19th-century Britain, a dandy often strove to imitate an aristocratic style of life despite coming from a middle-class background.

Given these connotations, dandyism can be seen as a political protestation against the rise of egalitarian principles — often including nostalgic adherence to feudal or pre-industrial values, such as the ideals of "the perfect gentleman" or "the autonomous aristocrat".[citation needed]

Though previous manifestations, of Alcibiades, and of the petit-maître and the muscadin have been noted by John C. Prevost,[3] the modern practice of dandyism first appeared in the revolutionary 1790s, both in London and in Paris. The dandy cultivated skeptical reserve, yet to such extremes that the novelist George Meredith, himself no dandy, once defined "cynicism" as "intellectual dandyism"; nevertheless, the Scarlet Pimpernel is one of the great dandies of literature. Some took a more benign view; Thomas Carlyle in his book Sartor Resartus, wrote that a dandy was no more than "a clothes-wearing man".

Charles Baudelaire, in the later, "metaphysical," phase of dandyism[4] defined the dandy as one who elevates æsthetics to a living religion,[5] that the dandy's mere existence reproaches the responsible citizen of the middle class: "Dandyism in certain respects comes close to spirituality and to stoicism" and "These beings have no other status, but that of cultivating the idea of beauty in their own persons, of satisfying their passions, of feeling and thinking .... Contrary to what many thoughtless people seem to believe, dandyism is not even an excessive delight in clothes and material elegance. For the perfect dandy, these things are no more than the symbol of the aristocratic superiority of his mind."

[Elorrum]

"Only take a half a cup. I don't want to have to make coffee all morning."

[catinthefunnyhat]

"Only take a half a cup. I don't want to have to make coffee all morning."

"Fightin' words" is right. Honestly... I'm not sure I could've held my temper.

[FeetOfClay]

all this talk of creepers and gropers violating the rights of women at the event--i think i am gonna take a self-defense class before the event, and anyone who touches me without permission gets a knee to the groin or a thumb to the eye.

Simon--i know i only know u from e-playa, but i just wanna say, thank you for your years of service to the event, and especially thank you for confronting that asshole groper guy. hope there are lots more guys like u there with ethics and courage. i would feel a lot safer that way

[wh..sh]

all this talk of creepers and gropers violating the rights of women at the event--i think i am gonna take a self-defense class before the event, and anyone who touches me without permission gets a knee to the groin or a thumb to the eye.

It all comes down to common sense. Watch out for yourself.
Yes, it can be unsafe, but I was generally surprised how nice most people were. Mostly, people are not forceful or overpowering. They do express their desires openly, mostly with an option to say no. The gropers are a minority but they still exist. Usually, an assertive "NO" works. If it doesnt, don't hesitate to walk up to someone close by and ask for help.

I wish I had a Simon-signal though... Simon shows up at speed of light, kicks groper's ass, and everyone lives happily ever after