Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

We finally lost ACE Junkyard to the ravages of an unreasonable San Francisco landlord. She won only on a technicality, after a long expensive battle by Bill Kennedy, proprietor extraordinaire of ACE Junkyard.

I hope many of you know the wonders of San Francisco’s ACE Junkyard.  If not let me clue you in to the significance of what we are losing.  Bill who is also known to some of as Billy the Junkman, Junkman or even Belinda, has been the purveyor of fine junk in San Francisco for over 25 years and ACE has been THE resource for playa artmaking in Bay Area for over 15 years.  Let it be known Bill has provided an incalculable about amount of funding for playa art in the last 15 years, in the form of JUNK – wondrous, glorious, re-usable, transformable, JUNK!

Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

Over the years this junk has evolved into many ground-breaking forms of art.   Junk from ACE has been transformed into SRL’s machines, SEEMEN’s interactive work and Cyclecide’s pedal-powered carnival.  The list of artists doesn’t stop there. The following incomplete list of artists can all thank Bill for his uncanny ability to find that essential widget or for donating his  Junkyard venue to events like the famous Power Tool Drag Races: Flaming Lotus Girls, Rich Humphrey, Jarico Reese, Laird Rickard, Paul the Plumber, Big Daddy, John Law, Jim Mason, Michael Michael, Simone Davalos, Kimric Smythe, Shannon O’Hare, Sue Glover, Dan Das Man, Karen Cusolito, Scott Gasparian, Charles Gadeken, Kal Spelletich, Mark Perez, and Chicken John.

Come celebrate and say Goodbye to our favorite Junkyard on Saturday October 31st, Halloween at Cellspace 5020 Bryant Street. The Junkyard will be gone, but Bill remains and I’m sure he will figure out other ways to enrich us.

“The other side of it is…. well it was and is worth ever penny of it. The people, events, art, and most importantly to me the parts of myself that I found, and the person that I have become. A large part of who am now is because of the love and support on my family of friends I have made from this place.” -Bill The Junkman

Do you have a favorite ACE or Bill memory?

2009 MOOP Map (click to enlarge)

We’re happy and proud to share this glowing report, received from Black Rock City Superintendent Tony “Coyote” Perez:

“The vanishing of Black Rock City ‘09 was complete today with the passing of our annual October BLM playa surface inspection.  Roger Farshon was the BLM agent presiding and was deeply pleased to inform us that we passed well under the limits set by us and the BLM (those limits being less that one square foot of debris per acre of BRC city site).  Judging by his initial observations, Mr. Farshon was of the opinion that MOOP levels were lower than last year’s.

The MOOP map, which will be on display at Decom, was over all greener that last year as well. Especially Center Camp…!!  There were not as many red areas, but the ones that were the worst ever.  Fewer offenders are offending worse.  Don’t they know that they are surrounded?!

This marks the eleventh passed inspection in a row with a steady overall improvement as our event matures.

Special thanks, and all my love and respect to an amazing crew that toward the end had been enduring sub-freezing temperatures and snow, picking up litter for days on end, and kept their cheer and good spirits to the last.

Special thanks to my fellow Ops team members that kept the project on track and worked tirelessly, flying the ship through mine fields with just a few dings in the paint job. To DA the Playa Restoration Manager – he has become an expert in his field. To Logan, our volunteer coordinator for orchestrating and taking care of this amazing crew. And to the super staff of managers that each owned their tasks to the highest levels of professionalism.

I am not a person with shit-loads of money – but I am extremely wealthy in family, friends, and a community that truly is changing our world.  We are succeeding in getting an entire city to pick up after themselves – there’s hope for us yet!

Coyote
City Superintendent
BRC-DPW”

We’d like to add our heartfelt thanks to this hardy crew!!  If you agree, let ‘em hear it in the comments.

Brian dances in the street during the DPW parade

The wind blew most of the day and night on Saturday, and the Burn was put on hold for hours. But in an eerie replay to last year, the dust storms stopped just in time for Burning Man 2009 to reach its appropriately fire-y conclusion.

The day of the Burn was packed with people and activities. The city’s population reached its peak somewhere north of 42,000, and you have to be impressed that the number stayed so strong in such an economically challenging year.

Center Camp was mobbed all day, with folks seeking shelter from the blowing dust. … But it wasn’t the kind of dust storm that blanketed the city last year and turned daytime into evening. The sun was still shining, and it was a really really pretty day on the playa.

We had a fairly representative Burn day. It started with maybe the most perfect iced mocha ever served in Center Camp. No, really. It was spectacular. Just perfect. … When you’ve come to kind of depend on the camp coffee situation to take care of itself, and then it doesn’t, well, you get a little desperate. But in this case our desperation was happily resolved at the cafe.

Then we were off for a last look around before things began to burn up.

We headed out to the Depot and the start of the DPW parade. Even though the wind and dust was howling, we could hear them coming from blocks away. “F– your day!” they’d shout. “F– what you know!” we’d shout back.  “No pictures!” they’d yell. “F– your day!” we’d shout back.

It sounds nasty and hard core, but you know what? I’ll tell you a secret. It’s an act. Oh, they won’t admit it, of course. And yeah, they’ll act like they would bite your head off most of the time. And they actually might, at least some of the time. But nobody comes out and volunteers to build a city in the dirt and heat who doesn’t have a lot of heart. And that’s your average DPW crew member right there. Dirty and crusty and loud on the outside, kinda squishy and real on the inside. But don’t tell them I told you.

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Larry Harvey at Fly Hot Springs

It was a gorgeous evening to be leaving the playa.

There hadn’t been much wind all day, and the dust was barely noticeable. The moon was a day away from full, and there was real excitement and anticipation in the evening air.

A smallish group of very well-turned-out people gathered near the Bone Tree in First Camp on Thursday  to be taken by bus to Fly Hot Springs, an oasis maybe 10 miles down the road from the hot and dusty Black Rock City. We drove away from the camps and the lights and the art, back out the way we had come in, and traveled a little further out Route 447, beyond the boundaries of present day Burning Man.

The bus we were on was taking us where Burning Man would like to go.

There’s a plot of land not far from the Black Rock Desert that the organization wants to buy. It’s owned by a family that would be willing to sell. The family has always been pretty sympathetic to the Burners, and now the economy has helped bring all parties closer to a deal.

So off we went to get a look at the land, leaving the present to get a glimpse of the future. All six founding directors of Burning Man were  part of the expedition — Larry and Marian and Crimson Rose and Harley and Will Rogers and Michael Michael — and also the people who keep the engine running so that the event takes place smoothly every year, the tech people and the legal people and the legislative people (it takes a lot to assure nervous politicians that yes, there is actually more going on at Burning Man than a bunch of naked people dancing around fires, although of course that DOES happen, but so does a whole lot more).

All of them, but especially Jackrabbit, had tugged on coatsleeves and cashed in chips to bring together some people who might be able to help make Burning Man’s dream come true. To be blunt: Burning Man was putting the arm on them, letting them know that they needed their help in getting this thing done.  So they were treating them to dinner at the place  where they’d like to go.

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This picture is a little deceiving, and I apologize. It shows the "Carbeque" in the foreground and the "Slug" in the background.

You really want to climb aboard some kind of vehicle if you are going to make an evening of traveling around Black Rock City.  Last night we got on The Slug, the skankiest, nastiest, Mad Max-ing-est art car out here. It started life in the mid-60s as some kind of truck, and now it’s smelly and dusty and LOUD. And unbelieveably cool. It’s pretty much the only car I would want to be seen on, and that’s really saying something.

This beast has been totally redone for 2009 (like the ads say). There’s a new second deck/dance area, a very cool visual system that throws green and red laser lights on the floor of the desert and makes things seem like we are floating on a green and red sea of jewels.This drives most Burners wild, of course, because they are attracted by all things sparkly.

Also, the sound system seems improved too, but I can’t confirm that. There were three DJs on board Tuesday, including the famous KidHack.People were streaming out of their camps as we came rolling by.

Not everything is new and improved, though. We broke down a lot, just like we did last year.

That's the early DJ on the right. He always seemed to be the last one to get on board when the Slug was starting back up. "You can't leave the DJ on the playa!" he'd say.

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