Hey there sports fans, MOOP maniacs and line sweepers extraordinaire! The Hun here, reporting from Gerlach where the weather has just dealt us a swift kick in the you-know-what. A cold, wet storm front has descended upon us, dusting the mountains with snow and deluging the desert with rain. The BLM inspection is planned for tomorrow! Will we make it, or will we be rained out again? The atmosphere is tense, and cold, and windy.

Denise Nuts keeps warm in the arms of a friendly dinosaur.

Luckily, I’ve got good news for you. In Day 8 of line sweeps, our DPW Playa Restoration team covered the final blocks of the city grid, leaving only Center Camp, the Man Base and the Temple of Transition to be MOOPed. Working from opposite ends, the two Line Sweeps teams met at 6:00 between Graduation and Hajj for a celebratory shade break. Then they turned their sights to the open playa, while the Scribes inspected Center Camp to carefully document visible hot spots.

We’ll have the results from Center Camp soon, but for now, here’s your big green city:

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Hey there sports fans, MOOP maniacs and line sweepers extraordinaire! The Hun here, reporting from Gerlach where morale is high and the DPW Playa Restoration team is on track for a BIG WIN. Yes, it’s mighty MOOP-free out there folks. All of you at home who cleaned up your camps, pat yourselves on the back for helping your home team secure what looks to be a smashing victory.

Drink Water and Easygoin with 2011's biggest piece of MOOP: A length of wire cabling from beneath the Man. To be fair, it was left there on purpose, not abandoned.

In Day Seven of Line Sweeps, the front line picked up its pace. Lean and hungry for MOOP, they marched across 44 blocks — the entire area from 10:00 to 2:00 between Engagement, Funeral and Graduation, and part of Hajj!

44 blocks is a lot, almost as many as the lines covered in the early days of the season. But how did those blocks fare? Was the quick pace due to a lack of MOOP, or to a highly skilled group of MOOPers? Well, it looks like a little of both:

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Hey there sports fans, MOOP maniacs and line sweepers extraordinaire! The Hun here, reporting from Gerlach where time is running out for your Black Rock City home team. As I type this, the DPW Playa Restoration crew is pulling up all the last T-stakes and cones, our final points of reference in an increasingly featureless desert. There’s a storm coming, see, and whether we’re ready or not, our time on the playa is almost up.

Joey Jello and Booyah pull up the T-stake marking the corner of 9:00 and D.

But let’s look back to Day 6, when our intrepid Restoration MOOPers swept through 22 blocks — from 4:30 to 10:00 between Coming Out, Divorce and Engagement. How did the C-D-E camps fare? Here’s the report:

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Hey there sports fans, MOOP maniacs and line sweepers extraordinaire! The Hun here, reporting from Gerlach where, with just a few days left in the game, the DPW Playa Restoration team seems headed for a clear win. Tomorrow I’ll have new reports on the 2011 MOOP Map scores, but today we’re talking about art installations and how we clean ‘em up.

Charon by Peter Hudson. Photo by Arin Fishkin.

Almost all of the art you see in the open playa is placed precisely according to GPS coordinates. When the artist gets their placement, they agree to make sure their spot is MOOP-free when they leave. According to Playa Restoration’s ARTery representative Awesomesauce, the ARTery inspects each site before the artist leaves.

During Playa Restoration, special agent Bustin Dustin has the unique job of finding each art site and trying to figure out what happened there. Each site is different: The art may have burned, or used fuel or fireworks. It may have been made of metal, or plastic, or wood. It may have had a huge number of visitors throughout the week, and they can have interacted with the art in countless ways.

The Temple of Transition. Photo by Jim Hammer.

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Line Sweep panorama, by Vaughn Solo. Click to enlarge!

Hey there sports fans, MOOP maniacs and line sweepers extraordinaire! The Hun here, reporting from Gerlach where the DPW Playa Restoration team is steadily returning the Black Rock Desert to its stark and dusty glory.

Le Wrench and Feralina, lovin' their work.

After a couple of weeks doing Restoration work, we’ve got a pretty good idea of 2011′s most common MOOP. You might be surprised to hear that the worst offenders change from year to year. That’s because of YOU, and the efforts you make.

For example, we used to have a lot of trouble with feathers, plant matter and Astroturf. We spread the word to the community and asked you not to bring your feather boas, tree branches, straw bales and imitation lawns. And it worked! When we tell the community about our MOOP problems, those problems tend to go away, and for that we are endlessly grateful.

Yet, as we eradicate one type of MOOP, another rears its head. And so I present to you this year’s most common MOOP, and what you can do to prevent it next year!

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Hey there sports fans, MOOP maniacs and line sweepers extraordinaire! The Hun here, reporting from Gerlach where the DPW Playa Restoration team is steadily marching across the Black Rock City grid.

Drop Dead Ding Dong Darius on the front lines

If you’re just tuning in, it’s been an exciting week. We’ve been talking about theme camps, dance parties and what we the participants leave behind. Yes, there were some big messes in the front part of the city — but there were also many, many green blocks along Esplanade. All in all, it’s an impressive feat of Leaving No Trace.

Today, the Line Sweeps moved inward, off the Esplanade and into the residential blocks. Now the focus is off theme camps, and back to the community at large.

Can the residential camps match up to Esplanade’s performance? Did we, the people of Black Rock City, manage to clean up our own backyards? See for yourself:

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Hey there sports fans, MOOP maniacs and line sweepers extraordinaire! The Hun here, reporting from Gerlach where our brave DPW Playa Restoration team is really starting to feel the burn. Burning sun, that is — over 100 degrees of it, beating down on the barren desert.

Samazon catches a moment's rest

Yes, Day Four was a tough one for your Black Rock City home team. The sun rose all red and yellow, and so did the city blocks. Our MOOP line was held up by huge messes in the 2:00 zone — and when they prayed for a cool breeze, they only got biting flies. The insects were so thick that the Restoration team could barely stop to rest — and so they pressed on, making their way through 21 blocks. A very respectable gain by what may be the strongest team this playa has ever known.

Darth Yoda is ready for any challenge.

Despite the many challenges our team faced, today’s score isn’t so bad. Take a look:
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Hey there sports fans, MOOP maniacs and line sweepers extraordinaire! The Hun here, interrupting our ongoing coverage of the 2011 MOOP Map with a special report on THEME CAMPS.

Disorient's geodesic temple. Photo (c) James Addison.

Theme camps are a huge and central part of what makes Black Rock City a participatory community. And, it can be argued, theme camp members are the most dedicated Burners of all. Often working throughout the year to build and fund their camps, theme camp members continue working through the event itself, serving hundreds and even thousands of participants with music, food and other gifts.

Art cars like the Dust City Diner function as mobile theme camps, creating parties wherever they go. Dust City is a great example of a roving party that picks up after itself and Leaves No Trace. Photo (c) Mer Keen.

The result: an excellent experience, tens of thousands of happy Burners… and a whole lot of MOOP. Of the thousands who come to dance and play, how many leave tiny bits of themselves behind? How many glowsticks, cigarette butts and earrings fall unnoticed in the midst of an epic rave? Theme camps must then clean up after their guests, or risk being marked Red on the MOOP Map. Red comes with consequences, including a possible change in camp placement for the next year.

This year, the DPW Playa Restoration team performed a “MOOP Audit” of two major sound camps: Rites of Zion and Disorient, which occupied the 10:00 and 2:00 corners of the Esplanade respectively. Here’s what we found:

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