This Year's theme sucks.

[Roberto Dobbisano]

http://galleries.burningman.com/photos/postg/postg.5000

[wh..sh]

Missed the train...
what's the theme this year? Fertility or Futility?

[Bob]

I believe the '97 SOMARTS pre-event party theme was Mysteria. Event theme was Fertility: The Living Land or some crap.

[Eric]

I believe the '97 SOMARTS pre-event party theme was Mysteria. Event theme was Fertility: The Living Land or some crap.

I can't find "Fertility" listed anywhere other than Wikipedia as the '97 theme. According to the Bman Site there was no theme in '97 for the actual event. There is a listing in the 2008 Afterburn about the calendar having "a historical retrospective of the past 12 years of Burning Man art themes" which would take them back to '96, but, again, I haven't found anything official on a '96 or '97 theme.

Granted, unlike Bob, I wasn't there. I'd still like to find it somewhere on the Bman site, however.

[Simon of the Playa]

dammit now i have to drag out the giant dusty box of evide, i mean ephemera i've collected...

[junglesmacks]

prolly from here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Man

Exactly. If I'm wrong, then I stand corrected. I was taking my info from Wikipedia.

According to the official Bman timeline there was no theme for 1997. On the page for 1997 it says the theme was "Mysteria". The first "official" theme was 1998.

I've submitted an edit to wikipedia.

Why would this be "2.0" then if it wasn't used before?

[Simon of the Playa]

because it sounds cool....duh.

[bluesbob]

No reason to change the street signs this year. They'll already be pornographic.

[Nipple]

Why would this be "2.0" then if it wasn't used before?

I'm going to webapp friend tag-cloud like your Fertility, and share podcasting mashups with standards compliant p2p crowdsourcing.

[junglesmacks]

Why would this be "2.0" then if it wasn't used before?

I'm going to webapp friend tag-cloud like your Fertility, and share podcasting mashups with standards compliant p2p crowdsourcing.

UDP that shiz.

[pvp]

http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/1997/97n_letter_sum_2.html

See the last section.

[Eric]

Why would this be "2.0" then if it wasn't used before?

I'm going to webapp friend tag-cloud like your Fertility, and share podcasting mashups with standards compliant p2p crowdsourcing.

I'm with Nipple.

Larry's been in SF too long and thinks 2.0 sounds cool.

Like I said- I can't find anything official (yet) that says that Fertility was the theme in '97 or any other year. Doesn't mean it wasn't, but as far as I've found it certainly isn't looking like it was. I may be eating my words later, but at least they're low calorie.

[wh..sh]

I'm going to webapp friend tag-cloud like your Fertility, and share podcasting mashups with standards compliant p2p crowdsourcing... Bazinga!

[Eric]

Found it! It was not the theme that year, but it had been planned to be.

This was accompanied by a memorable motto: "Let's put the cult back into culture!" It focused on the idea of fertility. I'd intended to carry this theme forward onto the playa, but events of that year - chiefly, a pitched battle with authorities in Washoe County - forestalled these plans.

Yes, I chase down facts like this on everything. I once had someone say she wasn't going to argue with me because I "knew too much".

[jkisha]

Can't embed youtube?

[theCryptofishist]

Ah, Eric has the soul of a historical researcher. I forget, is that one of the narrow pointy-headed souls or one of the grand and majestic ones?

[Risky]

In the book, This Is Burning Man, Jim Mason is quoted:
"The Burning Man organization gave Mason $4500 to create the piece. “I wrote my first annoying Jim Mason project description, the first time I tried coopting
Larry's writing style,” recalls Mason. “The art theme was fertility that year, so I wrote a bullshit mythic narrative relating solar cycles to fertility."

According to this link - http://www.topeventsusa.com/nevada-burning-man-nevada.html
Past themes of Burning Man have included Fertility, Time, Hell, Outer Space, The Body, The Floating World, Beyond Belief, Vault of Heaven, Psyche, Hope and Fear, The Green Man, and The American Dream. The theme for 2009 was "Evolution", the 2010 theme was "Metropolis" and the theme for 2011 is "Rights of Passage".

And this link "A Brief History of Burning Man" = http://www.zpub.com/burn/bm-history.html
1997 First year at Fly Hot Springs
Theme: fertility
Wired publishes Burning Man book
Extensive media coverage - both online and traditional - media 1997
1997 pre & post event websites
{fray} hope - the book of burning man 1997

[ygmir]

oh, this might be good.............

popcorn, anyone?

[Simon of the Playa]

Nicolas Cage sucked in Wickerman 2.0, also.

connection?

http://www.philipcoppens.com/wickerman.html

hmmmm, fertility rites, burning effigies, naked yoga....it's all there..

[oneeyeddick]

Zozobra did it first...well at least here in the US he did.

http://www.zozobra.com/history.html

[VultureChow]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEGDlC9MVEk#t=5m16s[/youtube]

Can't embed youtube?

Sigh... Was trying to link directly to the part where jesus tells the mormons to start fucking so they can make big mormon families.

Really would have been appropriate to the theme.

Now it's just wierd.

[Eric]

oh, this might be good.............

popcorn, anyone?

Nah, it's the joy of multiple sources not having the same answers.

From what I'm gathering from the website, and from Larry's quote above, is that "fertility" was planned as the theme for '97, but due with problems with the county and the move to Fly Ranch it was never official. Apparently enough info was out that it was assumed to be the theme, but if you look at the Org's own timeline the first theme was 1998. Of course, like Pravda, the website has to be taken with a grain (or pound) of salt sometimes. I don't see a reason why they would distort the themes, however.

If you think this is a challenge, try to figure out why the first Burn took place...

[theCryptofishist]

Zozobra did it first...well at least here in the US he did.

http://www.zozobra.com/history.html

So, wait. I could watch big effigies get burned two weeks running?

[oneeyeddick]

If you read into it, Zozobra is way cooler than either of the other copycats.

[Simon of the Playa]

eric, i'll have you know you have already caused a conspiracy on the BM facebook page..

Huh, just today someone changed the Burning Man Wikipedia chart and relisted the themes for '95, '96, '97 and '98 as "unofficial". '97 was also changed from Fertility to Mysteria. LOL!

[Eric]

eric, i'll have you know you have already caused a conspiracy on the BM facebook page..

Huh, just today someone changed the Burning Man Wikipedia chart and relisted the themes for '95, '96, '97 and '98 as "unofficial". '97 was also changed from Fertility to Mysteria. LOL!

sweet.

The themes they had up weren't listed as official on the Bman website.

The word "theme" doesn't even show up in the timeline until '98.

*shrug*

Whatever. For someone who ignores the theme every year I'm spending too much time rutting around in the minutia of past events. For all the impact it has on the world I might as well be studying cryptozoology.

[thisisthatwhichis]

For all the impact it has on the world I might as well be studying cryptozoology.

And what does Fishy say about all that "studying" going on...................

[Eric]

Ooh, look. It took all fucking day, but I have solid proof, and regardless of what the website says we have "Fertility" as the 1997 theme. I was wrong. Of all people I should know better than to trust Pravda. I can't believe the heavy footwork it took to get one printed piece of confirmation.

[trilobyte]

Sorry Eric, didn't realize you were struggling for confirmation. Pani was there (her 2nd year) and remembered it well.

[Bob]

See, I'm not as think as I stoned I am.