I’m at Burning Man…or on my way!
Will post as I can from Center Camp in Black Rock City!
This is no ordinary wine tasting–and these are no ordinary wines!
I asked several wineries, most of which I got to know from the Wine Bloggers Conference, wineries which offer extra-ordinary wines, wines that would be exceptionally Playa-Licious, if they wanted to participate in an unusual tasting event–a Wine Tasting on Wine Wednesday at Burning Man! I asked them for some of my favorites–and these forward thinking wineries said YES!
If we can’t get to the playa, they said, we can still play with ya!
Has it ever been done–a serious wine tasting at Burning Man? I mean, there’s is Spanky’s Wine Bar, but I suspect they are more into the spankings than the wine…
So what wines will we be tasting Read more…
September What’s Up :: August Wrap-Up &
This may be the most abbreviated September What’s Up :: August Wrap-Up ever…because I am going to BURNING MAN (just in case you hadn’t guessed that yet)…
What’s the big deal? What is Burning Man anyway?
Burning Man started in the late 1980s with a ceremonial burn on Baker Beach in San Francisco by Larry Harvey and some friends. They has such a good time, they decided to do it again. And again. And again. More people joined in, some of them from the Cacophony Society. Too many people had too good of a time so the Police told them to go somewhere else. And they did. They went to the Black Rock Desert northeast of Reno, a huge vacant-feeling place, surrounded by stunning mountains, sharp-edged mountains, and dotted along the edge with hot springs.
The Burn had only been out there a few years when I first went in 1992. I had friends who were Cacophonists or friends with Cacophonists, and since I was in grad school in Reno, it was a quick jump over there to join friends from Santa Cruz. Friends from Reno came along also to see what was up. It was $25 if you had a Nevada ID. There were about 600 of us. We all drove to the rave. We all drove out to Black Rock Hot Springs. There was a few pieces of art. But there was an energy there that I’d never felt before. In 1993 and 1994, I did other activities over Labor Day, but yearned for that big bang in the desert.
By 1995, I had a studio at Art City in Ventura. Talking about the event captured the imagination of resident artists Paul Lindhard, Steve Knauff, Matt Harvey (no relation to Larry), and Russell Erickson, so we proposed to build a pier out there, and maybe a mini-ArtCity with a board walk. The challenge and expense of getting material out there, then the recklessness of burning it all down, kept that vision from becoming reality. But it didn’t keep Matt, Steve, Russell and MB from all becoming Burners in the next few years. I wrote about it for the Ojai and Ventura Voice in 1995 and 1996, then published an essay in the Ventura County Star. More and more people discovered Burning Man and made the trek out to the desert: from 600 in 1992 to 6,000 in 1995 when I started up spoken word entertainment, with Larry Harvey’s blessing, in the small cafe in center camp with a reading of Nevada inspired poetry I’d written for my Masters thesis at the University of Nevada. “Nobody’s gonna listen,” he said, “but I’m not going to stop you.” Little did he know that it would be so successful and continue to this day!
The event continued to grow exponentially from 1995-2002. I took off 2003 and 2004 to have a baby; in 2005 and 2007 we took him. After that first year, he would say randomly:
“The Man must fall. The Man burns. The Man must fall.” Read more…
What’s the Weather Like at Burning Man? See the Current Conditions in Gerlach and Watch Your Friends Drive To Burning Man!
Watch the traffic crawl through Gerlach; you just might see us drive by in our 90 Westfalia VW van Baby Beluga with bikes on the back, a carpet with PVC pipe inside rolled on the roof, and a black box filed with other fun camp goodies including our banners, some body paintings, and a polka dot parachute! See what the weather’s like too! Blackrockdesert.org. Be sure to click “animate.”
Also from that site, the weather forecast for the week indicates it’s going to be a bit warmer than average with the temps increasing during the week. Here’s the details: Read more…
Poetry from the 3:15 Experiment: August 31, 2009 –trials by fire
3:15am August 31, 2009
Another year of 3:15 Experiment complete
Another month of August
come and now gone.
Summer’s heat is coming
on strong but the days
are shorter & the sycamore
is going brown & losing
its leaves already
This time next week we’ll be
driving home from Burning Man
exhausted, a week’s worth
of sweat, sunscreen & dust
caked on our skin & in our hair,
intense days & nights packed with
art & bike rides, new friends, music
firing our lives
transforming us as the glaze
on clay
Trials by fire–both
3:15 experiment
Burning Man Festival
marathons to push us to do more
with our lives, to be more
in our lives
c. Gwendolyn Alley aka Art Predator August 31, 2009
For more poetry from the 3:15 experiment, where a bunch of crazy poets just completed another August of getting up at 3:15am to write in a hypnogogic/hypnopompic state, check out the 3:15 website. For poetry written in a typical state of mind, catch a ride on the Monday Poetry Train.
Please do come by Kidsville and visit the Art Predator and family! I will gift you with a sticker or possibly a nifty bandana! We’d especially love to see you:
No Whining on Wine Wednesday–come by from 5:15-7:15 for a wine tasting featuring sustainably farmed Michel-Schlumberger, biodynamic Bonny Doon, the always twisted offerings from Twisted Oak and more! Bring wine to share, wine friendly appetizers, and a glass! More d
etails on wine and food for Burning Man here.
First Friday ArtRide & Afterparty–Friday meet 5pm at AP’s camp to ride to the Man or meet us out there at 5:30 for a quick tour of some of the hot artspots before returning to Kidsville for Helloween Trick or Treating with wine treats for the adults plus a Burning Moms meet-up! (can you say MILF?) More details here.
Soccer Saturday Brunch–830-1130am Bring your bacon, your sparkling wine, your bouncing balls for a rousing game of unsantioned soccer! More details here.
If you miss us, leave us a note! If you can’t make it at all, send us a letter and an SASE and we’ll send you a sticker:
Art Predator
Kidsville
515 DNA
C/O BRCPO
Burning Man
Gerlach, NV 89412
Better get it in the mail soon!
PS Thanks to our friends over at Def-Star Screen Printing (http://def-star. blogspot. com/) for doing the silkscreening!
Lame Excuse #1004: I Can’t Do Burning Man without an RV
Lame excuse why you can’t go to Burning Man #1004: I don’t have an RV and can’t afford to rent one/they’re all rented.
Personally? Honestly? I wish they’d ban all RVs/trailers/etc over say 18′. Seriously.
You will have a totally different, more primal and wild experience if you’re NOT in an RV, if you’re out there in the elements, going for a week without a shower.
Yes, an RV protects you, but it also shields you from the full impact, the full brunt of the event. Inside an RV, you can’t Read more…
Art Predator Presents: FFArtRide Celebrates Lord Ganesha’s Birthday at Burning Man & in Ventucky!
Since we’re going to be in Black Rock City for the Burning Man Festival for the next First Friday Sept. 4 (which is also the day of the climax for Lord Ganesha’s Birthday Celebration), we will be leading a First Friday ArtRide there while others will lead a ride in Ventucky! Join us SOMEWHERE for a Full Moon/Fool Moon Ride!
BLACK ROCK CITY ARTRIDE 5:15pm Meet at 515 & DNA. 5:30pm Meet at the Man. Ride with us to various art spaces. 6:30pm afterparty at 5:15 & DNA plus Burning Moms List Meet-up, Helloween and wine trick or treat tasting.
Wear full moon white or red to celebrate Lord Ganesha’s Birthday. The first 50 ArtRiders will get a tie-dyed bandana silkscreened with Lord Ganesha riding a bicycle; we will have stickers also. The ArtRide follows the Critical Tits Ride which meets at the Man at 4pm.
VENTUCKY ARTRIDE 5:30pm Meet at the Artists Union Gallery at California street and the sea. Ride leaves by 6pm to travel to various galleries including Bell Arts, SeaBreeze, V2, and Sylvia White for the 5×5 performances at 8pm.
Thanks to our friends at Def-Star.com for doing the silkscreening for us!
From the previous post, How to Recreate the Burning Man experience at home, you’d think, if you haven’t been to Burning Man, that it’s just like a big wild party with trash strewn everywhere.
Well, you’d be thinking wrong. Burning Man is a Leave No Trace event. Every individual is responsible for every scrap of MOOP–Matter Out of Place–that they create or come across. Everyone is also required to spend two hours of more on the open playa picking up MOOP.
Every village at Burning Man is required to develop and maintain a Leave No Trace Plan as Burning Man is a Leave No Trace Event. A key element in a windswept wild environment like the Black Rock Desert is to stay on top of MOOP–Matter Out Of Place–at all times, and to make sure everyone knows, follows, and is committed to leaving no trace.
Here are two posts about how to LEAVE NO TRACE:
8.5.09 Green Your Burn, Leave No Trace: Top 10 Tips for Burning Man 2009
8.5.09 Green Your Burn, Protect the Playa: Some History, Some Basic Principles
plus an example of how a large village like Kidsville organizes itself to avoid Read more…
A version of this made it into my inbox in 2003 when I stayed home because I was WAY too preggo to ride a bike and get around at Burning Man. This latest version showed up on facebook; it’s grown too!
How to enjoy the magic of Burning Man from your own home:
Pay an escort of your affectional preference subset to not bathe for five days, cover themselves in glitter, dust, and sunscreen, wear a skanky neon wig, dance close naked, then say they have a lover back home at the end of the night.
Tear down your house. Put it in a truck. Drive 10 hours in any direction. Put the house back together. Invite everyone you meet to come over and party. When they leave, follow them back to their homes, drink all their booze, and break things.
Stack all your fans in one corner of the living room. Put on your most fabulous outfit. Turn the fans on full blast. Dump a vacuum cleaner bag in front of them. Dance for six hours. Sleep in your clothes.
Buy a new set of expensive camping gear. Break it.
Lean back in a chair until that point where you’re just about to fall over, but you catch yourself at the last moment. Hold that position for 9 hours.
Only use the toilet in a house that is at least 3 blocks away. Drain all the water from the toilet. Only flush it every 3 days. Hide all the toilet paper.
Set your house thermostat so it’s 50 degrees for the first hour of sleep and 100 degrees the rest of the night.
Cut, burn, electrocute, bruise, and sunburn various parts of your body. Forget how you did it. Don’t go to a doctor. Read more…
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