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Long time Burner,
Bret Tyler

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A few observations;

1) ART. Tons of art = GREAT Experience! WOW! AMAZING!!! It would be nice if the art wasn’t so packed together in the Playa radius from the man to the Temple. How ’bout distributing it somewhat evenly all the way to the trash fence? There seems to be no draw to go into deep Playa. It was hard not to stumble on art in the Eslplanade adjacent Playa, but once out in deep Playa it was difficult to find art.

2) BLM RANGERS. The BLM Rangers were frigging EPIC! Fantastic! Someone apparently read the memo… what a 180 from previous year’s angry policing bodies! Every time I saw a BLM Ranger, they were engaging with the BR Citizens in a friendly non-confrontational way! They smiled and encouraged photo’s with them and put out an amazing energy… kinda like we were all there to have fun and in good spirit! Go think! What a world of difference! Way to go BLM Rangers!!

3) DWP. Get of your high horses. You are here to help out, not spit on!

4) BRC STREETS. The City size was comfortable despite it’s increased area. Not sure how the extra 16 quarter-hour streets worked out, though they did seem to throw a lot of people for a loop… getting lost as they turned on the wrong street. Clearly the citizens of BRC didn’t particularly like the choice of street names this year as most signs were removed and replaced with more pleasant (or fun) names early in the week (if not just completely removed). It was nice to have the smaller posts on the corners to identify the streets when the signs disappear!

5) RADIAL STREETS. Most of the radial streets (half-hour streets) were jammed with traffic! Clogged and hard to make it out to the Playa. Rutted to no end and always difficult to maneuver due to the traffic load. One turning mid-sized art car brings traffic to a hault and causes accidents. Simple solution – Widen radial streets by 20-30 feet. That would avoid serious accidents and headaches.

6) IMMIGRATION. I always look forward to a Greeter’s warm smile and hug. But after experiencing the immigration B.S., even the wonderful Greeter’s hugs couldn’t shake the shit! What an extraordinarily angry bunch of pissed off people. WTF happened? Angry, confrontational and plain hostile. I heard countless stories of how poorly behaved they were. Not sure what’s happened here but these F’s need to take the same pill the BLM Rangers took and realize, no matter how long the line, or how long the shift, one of THEIR PRIMARY duties is to WELCOME BR citizens HOME! Not set a tone of anger and confrontation! I feel like I was greeted with a fist instead of a smile. WTF?? If they don’t like being there, then get the F out! If you can’t smile at EVERYONE, quit your job! YOU don’t belong! Most people have been working months and traveling days in anticipation of arriving home, only to be confronted with bitter-faced HOSTILE Natzis! They did a superior job of setting a negative tone to a bunch of excited burners’ burn! THIS NEEDS TO CHANGE! (if that means shorter shifts, then so be it!) Feel the Love, People! Feel the LOVE! and learn from the BLM Rangers!

7) ICE. More Arctica Ice Stations. Always long lines. Servers as always were fun and friendly. Though they completely ran out and closed. Then rationed when they had ice. Oops! People need ice. Let’s make it easy . . . especially as the City population will increase dramatically next year . . . More Arctica Stores distributed throughout the city. Or just more reliable ice where they are.

8) POTTIES. More Deep Playa Porta Potties. Though I thankfully didn’t run across another steaming pile of shit on Deep Playa again this year, there were an unusually large number of piss puddles out on the Playa, with not a Porta Pottie in sight. The porta potties overall were clean and well kept as usual.. as always, many thanks to those who make it there job to purge our city of our nasty stinking shit!

9) PLAZAS. It would be nice if the 3:00 & 9:00 Plazas were located closer to the major population of the city, (ie. “C” or “D”) away from the Esplanade. Most of Black Rock Citizens live well beyond “D”. The Plazas (with Arcticas) are located adjacent to the Esplanade. It would make sense if these Plazas moved out a couple of streets (to “C” or “D”) to more evenly distribute their fabulous services to our fair City.

10) SOUND CAMPS. LOVED the concentration of sound camps on the 10:00 Avenue! Surprising and cool that they bordered the Playa-side of 10:00! Didn’t expect that, but it was very cool… loved the energy over there! Would be nice to keep all sound camps focused to the Esplanade and Deep Playa instead of in the middle of the residential neighborhoods.

11) MOTORIZED VEHICLES. Segways? Really? The last thing this city needs is personal motorized vehicles. Stop the madness! Art cars, HC vehicles and Official city workers/security should be the ONLY motorized vehicles in our fair city! All others, use your feet! Walk or bike. Period.

12) ENTRY/EXODUS. It all works perfectly… not everything can be easy out in BRC, nor should it! If you don’t like lines, arrive and leave when there aren’t any.

13) SERVICES. It’s always fun to hear and read about people/camps complain need all their services while at “Home”. Hmmm…. if it’s a problem, practice one of the 10 principles… RADICAL SELF-RELIANCE! Just sayin’.

Overall, once again thanks to all those who made it happen and to yet another spectacular year!

Counting the days until the next burn! Thank you for all your hard work!!!

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First off everyone suggesting more rules is insane. The last thing to do is indoctrinate everyone with more law. (art cars must be 500 yards from temple on night of burn… etc) I mean come on people this is about cooperation. If you can’t encourage someone to stop ruining your burn you might want to consider why you are focused on controlling your experience. Being a virgin I didn’t know there was a drum circle. I’ll look for it next year and I’ll be there and help move out noisy art cars ;)

BMIR I did tune out mostly because the chatter was uninteresting and generally negative. I didn’t have a radio other than during exodus but that is when I would expect more information, more music, Anyhow I did notice other stations set up around the city and will probably try to tune in more next year.

Segways and scooters, well a good friend of mine broke herself falling off a scooter the 2nd day. That was a drag for her all week and almost ruined her burn but even she still managed to be awesome. I saw a guy on a Segway completely eat shit. When Segways fail they fail big. So as far as banning them, I don’t really care but you won’t see me riding one.

Ice stations!!! I was so stoked to have ice available. Met some cool women who split a 6 pack of ice with me. People asking for more ice stations need to get a grip and remember nothing about this experience is supposed to be 100% comfortable 100% of the time. Yes the lines are long and people who have a bike while in line makes them look longer. But waiting 10 minutes with the coolest people in the world for ice in the middle of the dessert at a reasonable price….not the worst situation in the world buddy.

Okay people asking for trash and water services…. um pretty much the same situation as above. I didn’t get a real shower all week. I used baby wipes every night and was generally very impressed with how clean I was afterwards. So people when you say it should be easier to get your water pumped. I don’t care. If you filled up your tank in the middle of the week and need to sit around and miss out on your burn cause you have to hang out at camp… well maybe your camp should be more awesome to hang out at. or use less water. I wish I had built an evaporation pond but will next year. However I kept my grey water down to 2 gallons for the week.

Recycling services in Reno were awesome!!!!! We were low on gas for exodus and took 3 bags of beer bottles from a camp who gave us a couple gallons that saved our ass on our 9 hour exodus. (Who brings beer in glass bottles??)

The weather was awesome!!!! I will bring warmer clothes next year! One night I was unable to play on the playa because I was just too damn cold.

Temple – Thank you soooooo much. I have no words for how beautiful everyday was seeing the temple on bike rides and sitting in the gameltron. Wow.

DPW – Generally you guys were the burners I least enjoyed connecting with. I was completely put off with your overall superiority complex. Thanks for all you do to make BRC functional.

Steam-punk Octopus – you were my god for the week!!! and still! I can’t wait to see you again.

Trojan Burn – EPIC!!!!! I’ve never seen fire like that before and maybe never will.

Porta potties – Were generally very clean. I was very surprised how pleasant my shits were throughout the week. Ran out of TP the last 2 days or so but I wasn’t expecting them to be stocked anyway so I used what I brought. There really should be better ways to navigate them the nights of the burns. I had problems finding them when I needed them. It was a constant struggle to not pee of the playa. I saw many people do this and was told by a vet that it was okay on burn nights.???!?!!!!

Darktards/Darkwads/Ninjas – So yes I almost hit a ton of people. Not really fun but they were always apologetic. I really can’t believe these people didn’t come with a glow stick. I bought a ton of lights to the point I thought I had too many and would look stupid. When I put them on the bike the first night I realized I wanted more!!! And when you are a brightly visible bike the darkwads avoid you. I heard some burners claiming they preferred being invisible at night like a ninja. So to each his own.

Music – Not a fan of dub step, but there are drug induced moments when it’s really neat to hear 2 art cars blasting their music at a sound camp and standing in the middle listening to the cacophony. Wish there was more variety. As a musician I will bring some of that variety next year.

Entrance – Okay so it took about a day longer to get to Black Rock than we had originally planned so we missed the Entrance party. My friends were in line for 6 hours or so and said they had a good time with their neighbors. We rolled in on Tuesday morning and didn’t have to wait more than 15 minutes. I really wish I would have been there earlier but next year I will plan on a long gate wait.

Exodus – I didn’t expect this to take as long as it did. 9 hours!!!! but our camp was slow in packing up on Monday and didn’t leave camp until 3pm so we left during peak times. The camp next to us left 3 hours later and somehow passed us in the left lane during exodus. I didn’t expect to need anymore food for exodus so we were stuck eating rolls and random food that wasn’t satisfying. During exodus I was gifted an awesome metal key chain from a little boy. :) Next year I will have better food for exodus and plan on the long wait and/or leave at a different time. Instead of trying to get out faster we should all relax and find ways to make exodus just as enjoyable as the rest of the week. Embrace this as your last opportunity to meet and gift.

So all in all. No new rules. Change your attitude toward the situation and use these negative experiences to learn more about yourself. That’s why we’re all here right?

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Will we do it again? You betcha. Will we drive there? No fucking way. This is where my Logistics Manager talents will come in handy.
Till we burn again…

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