Recently I’ve heard a lot of people use the word “authentic” about burners and the Burning Man community. We are an extremely authentic people doing an extremely authentic thing.
I’m not so sure. Burning Man has a profound psychological, even spiritual, impact on people – but are we really more authentic than anybody else?
I’d be a lot more convinced if so many people at Burning Man didn’t dress so much alike: as if strapping on a leather harness and glow sticks because it makes you fit in at the sound camp really makes you more authentic than someone who dresses in a gray flannel suit for his job at the accounting firm.
I’d be a lot more convinced if all the music wasn’t so similar – surely all our inner selves can’t be DJs?
I’d be more convinced by claims to authenticity if more people’s “authentic” selves didn’t fit so neatly with ideals that other people thought up. Nobody gets authenticity points for following the 10 commandments: why should they get them for following the 10 principles?
While there’s certainly a lot of iconoclasm and personal eccentricity at Burning Man … there’s also a hell of a lot of conformity. Given the chance to go out in the desert and do anything, it’s obvious that many of us decide to imitate each other. But the rhetoric of authenticity persists. What causes so many of us to feel authentic while we’re keeping up with the Sparkles? Read more »
Larry Harvey announced the 2012 Theme at Artumnal on Nov 19. 2011. BurningMan.com posted it on Jan. 22, 2012. Welcome, “Fertility 2.0″
It may not be official, yet.
But while you are brainstorming how to create your 50 foot phallus, here’s some silly theme thoughts:
Recorded live during Hug Nation, Nov 22, 2012. **NOTE: I AM NOT AN OFFICIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF BURNING MAN. I am merely a Participant with a passion for the event, people, and principles of Burning Man. Half-baked ideas & views expressed aren’t necessarily those of the Burning Man organization.” **
We had a little outing to Los Angeles just after New Year’s, and we were down there in time for the Christmas tree burn on the beach last Sunday.
Zach Fromson organized the outing, and there were maybe a hundred or so people at the height of things. Zach and his crew had spent the weekend gathering trees; they had gone all over the Southland in a rented truck picking them up, and then they hauled them all to the beach.
When we showed up, we saw a big truck loaded with trees, so of course we walked over to help unload them. But the guy in the back of the truck looked at me kind of funny and asked, “Are you part of the family?” and I said, “uhhhh … Burning Man?” Then the guy said no, this was a private thing, a family thing, and “the other people are over there.”
The “other people” would be the Burners, of course. But it was a smaller group than you’d think for all of L.A., but although it’s a big, big place, the Burner community seems to be spread hither thither and yon.
Here’s a great story we’d like to pass along … as our global community has grown, we’ve heard about more and more “Orphan Burns”, where Burners who can’t make it to the playa for Burning Man get together to celebrate on Burn night.
And while we’d rather use a term like “Alterna-Burn”, since “Orphan Burn” implies one is without family, which clearly isn’t the case here, to each their own! It’s quite possible that down the line, as this phenomenon grows, this natural extension of Burning Man will simply be called “The [insert your locale here] Burn”. Time will tell. Stevil of the Border Burners writes:
Spinning Poi at The Burn
“Representing one of the world’s smallest communities of Burners, the Border Burners from El Paso, TX, Las Cruces, NM, and Juarez Mexico, held their first “Orphan Burn” on Saturday, September 3, 2011; while over 1200 miles away, The Man was burning in Black Rock City. While not a sanctioned/official Burning Man event, it was a time for the few Burners from this area to get together and keep the Burning Man flame lit, even though we couldn’t make it to the Playa this summer.
Representing the far other end of the statistics spectrum, there were about 20 people in attendance … 6 of whom had been to Burning Man before. Our effigy was built out of scrap lumber on the day of the Burn by Border Burners Gordon Howell and Fernie Fernandez.
Fire!
In general, the Border Burners try to keep our tiny community of a handful of Burners (and Burners at heart) connected while we’re waiting for the next Man to burn on the playa. We have a monthly poi/fire arts workshop in Las Cruces, NM. We have a few slide shows and documentary screenings throughout the year. We are starting to have a presence at many local civic art events, and have an active announce list with over 300 subscribers. We also try to establish a Border Burner’s presence when on the playa (semi-famous for our tamales); and we usually have a small group who attend the local regional Burns closer to home, such as Saguaro Man and the Arizona Decompression.
For any more information about the Border Burners, please contact Stevil at : elpaso [Email address: elpaso #AT# burningman.com - replace #AT# with @ ]”
We’ve gone viral! Teddy Saunder’s beautiful Dr. Seuss video is the first Burning Man media to truly catch fire. With 800,000 views in just over 3 days, it has been on BoingBoing, The Huffington Post, and the front page of Reddit. It is gorgeous, well done, and makes Burning Man look AWESOME. So…are we screwed? With ticket fears rampant, will our community be able to handle the flood of virgins drawn in by a dust-free depiction of whimsy, smiles and sunshine? I was asked directly in my podcast this week and share my rambling answer (plus my plan to sell tickets for $1,000,000) here:
**NOTE: I AM NOT AN OFFICIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF BURNING MAN. I am merely a Participant with a passion for the event, people, and principles of Burning Man. Half-baked ideas & views expressed aren’t necessarily those of the Burning Man organization.” ** What did you think about “Oh the Places They’ll Go?” What do you think this surge of awareness means for the future of Burning Man?
