Bikes at Burning Man Part Two: Let’s go ride at night!
If you’ve read this blog with any regularity, you’ve figured out that Art Predator is way pro-bike. So it stands to reason that Art Predator would push bikes for Burning Man.
But having a bike at Burning Man isn’t a choice–it’s a requirement to fully appreciate the Burning Man experience.
Black Rock City is BIG. Like really BIG. Heck, it’s got a population of 50,000 people! To house that many people takes a space so big that unless you have a bike, you don’t stand a chance of getting around and seeing much of the art or making it across the playa to check out some giant flashing thing or to figure out what’s burning or just to get from the rave at 2 o’clock and the Esplanade back to your camp at 5:50 and Genome so you can stock up on liquids or get more batteries for your headlight.
Lights. That’s another topic I’ve been blathering about here for months. On the streets of a regular city, it might be illegal, adn it might be dangerous but you will probably make it home wthout a light on your bike.
At Burning Man, unless you have your own art car, having a bike and having it lit well is absolutely a matter of having a good time and a bad one.
To that end, get out your bike, get it in shape and you too! Take it out for a spin a time or two every day and night from now until Burning Man! Make sure the lights work–and you do too.
To light us up, we’ve got rechargeable headlights on our bikes, Monkeylectric LED lights on the spokes of a tire, and “sparks” on our valves. Last night, on the Animal Fair Ride, I left my headlight charging at home (I know, duh!) With these lights and riding close to the Big Monkey with his charged headlight I was able to ride home fine since my wheels gave off lots of light (and looked really cool too!)
At Burning Man, lights on your bike take on a whole new meaning. If you can’t see, you just might run into that couple making out under the moon and the stars. Or an art project. Or just about anything you can imagine.
And you’ll lose track of your friends which is really tricky under the best of circumstances. If your lights on your bike (and YOU!) are distinct, unique, it will be a lot easier for your friends to keep track of you and vice versa.
On the Burning Moms list, a big question is about babes and bikes. Yes, you can bring kids to Burning Man and your kids can ride! Read more…
Every City Needs Black Rock City’s Loaner Bike Program
Burning Man’s Yellow Bike Program Returns!
Burning Man’s Yellow Bikes (photo credit: Danger Ranger)The Burning Man blog reports:
Thanks to a generous donation from an anonymous benefactor, the Burning Man Project is able to offer a Yellow Community Bike program during Burning Man. Yep, a fleet of over 1,000 bikes are made available for participants to borrow for one-time, one-way, no-guarantees use.
The system works if and only if everybody adheres to the guidelines for Community Bike use. Which are:
- Community Bikes are for temporary use by anyone without immediate access to their own bike. This is not YOUR loaner bike for the week. Bike rides are only a one-way, temporary guarantee.
- If a Community Bike breaks while you’re using it, use Radical Self-Reliance to get it repaired for the next person. Check with Playa Info at Center Camp for a repair camp if you can’t Do-It-Yourself (DIY).
- NEVER LOCK A COMMUNITY BIKE. The bike camp team will cut any locks from community bikes. Don’t bring a Community Bike into your tent or RV, and don’t take it home when you leave the playa.
- Community Bikes are meant for short trips. Grab a community bike, make your trek, and then drop it off where you found it, or leave it in an obvious public place. Do not keep a community bike in your camp.
- Community Bikes should be treated with respect, as if it was your own. Be nice to the bike. Don’t trash it, vandalize it or part it out! It’s a shared community resource. And don’t forget personal hygiene … pants are required while riding a community bike.
It requires community cooperation to keep this resource alive for all to enjoy. So spread the word! For more information about bikes at Burning Man, see the Bikes page in our Survival Guide.
I am so jealous! One more reason why Burning Man offers so many of us a vision of how we can create a different way of living. How can we make a bike loaner program like this a reality in our communities off the playa?
More on bikes for Burning Man in an upcoming post!
PS I’m having a summer subscription drive. Please subscribe to my blog! I will be asking this daily as long as KCRW is having their summer subscription drive. Mercifully, it will be over soon.
Summer Subscription Pledge Drives: KCRW & Art Predator
On Friday, KCRW, my favorite radio station at 89.9 in the greater LA region and on the web at KCRW.com, launched their summer subscription pledge drive.It will last until next Monday, August 17.
They do this to me every year just when I need them most. When do I need them most? When I’m working on my syllabus for fall classes which typically start immediately after the pledge drive.
So I decided this year that I would have Read more…
What do Superman, Mardi Gras and Omar Faruk Tekbelik have in common? They’re all at LA’s Skirball Center this August!
Thursday, August 6, at 8pm enjoy the Mardi Gras music of The Wild Magnolias See New Orleans’s acclaimed Wild Magnolias in action, showcasing irresistible, upbeat music and stunningly ornate costumes. More…
Listen to Sample All Skirball galleries except Noah’s Ark are free and open during Sunset Concerts until 10:00 p.m. Be sure to catch the final weeks of the exhibition ZAP! POW! BAM! The Superhero: The Golden Age of Comic Books, 1938–1950, on view through August 9–a great way to prepare for the Super Hero Bike Ride the First Friday in November!
The following week features Omar Faruk Tekbilek Ensemble Thursday, August 13, 8:00 p.m. I remember clearly the first time I heard this music many years ago on KCRW’s Cafe LA hosted by Tom Schnabel. I was reading student papers on the couch on a sunny afternoon. The music came on and electrified me. I stopped what I was doing and listened, then tracked down who it was and found the cd. It’s been a favorite ever since. Please do take a minute to listen to the video of “I Love You” before you move on with your day.
All concerts begin at 8:00 p.m. Free admission; no reservations. Plentiful on-site parking: only $5 per car. No street parking permitted. Limited seating available on a first-come, first-served basis
Dine Al Fresco—Savor Zeidler’s Café’s delicious dinner buffet starting at 6:00 p.m. Reservations required and accepted beginning two weeks prior to the Thursday evening of your choice: (310) 440-4575. Reserved concert seating is available to Zeidler’s Cafe dinner buffet patrons. Or pick up grab-and-go light fare at Zeidler’s Cart. Note: No outside alcoholic beverages or chairs permitted.
Bring the Kids—Music lovers of all ages are invited to the family-friendly lounge. Art projects, toys, and games will be available. Note: Children must be accompanied by an adult at all times.
Can it get any better? How about free to all on Thursdays?? Here’s more about the Skirball Center and its programs.
Full Moon Tonight & Lunar Eclipse: astronomy & astrology
As I mentioned in my post July Wrap-Up : : August What’s Up, there’s a penumbral or partial lunar eclipse tonight–the third eclipse in six weeks!
What’s an eclipse? Lunar eclipse: earth comes between sun and moon and the earth shadow lands on the moon. Solar eclipse: moon between sun and earth; moon blocks sun from earth.
The moon is full today August 5 at 5:55pm Pacific coast time; it rises at 7:43pm and the sunset’s at 7:40pm. When is the eclipse? Unfortunately for most of us in north America, the eclipse is going on when it is sunlight for us, so we won’t see any of the action, even if we might feel it. But for those more east, like in Africa, Europe and South America, there won’t be much of a show, either, because it’s only a partial eclipse. For more astronomy about this particular eclipse, check out the wikipedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_2009_lunar_eclipse
What does it mean astrologically? CHANGE! Read more…
Ventura County Fair Opens TODAY! Join us for the Animal Fair Ride Aug 7 & Fair Parade Ride Aug. 8! Get wild & bring a kazoo!
We went to the animal fair
the birds and the beasts were there
Yep, and those animals were riding bikes! And playing kazoos! And visiting art galleries! And drinking cheap win
e! Then they rode to the fairgrounds and danced to Huey Lewis and the News! Finally, those crazy kazoo playing animals rode their bikes to the beach where they watched the fireworks go off at 10pm!
If this crazy animal sounds like you, put on your animal best and join us at 530pm on the Promenade by the fountain at the beach end of California Street. We’ll ride by 6pm to various art galleries, including Bell Arts to see longtime Burner artist, local muralist, and painter MB Hanrahan’s sho
w at Vita Art Center, C. Lynn Tegenfeldt’s show at Bell Arts, and to Seabreeze Gallery to see Lisa D. Moore’s Waiving PETE. To see her photo album, click here or visit: www.facebook.com/artbeam then we’ll roar back through town to the fairgrounds!
Bring a kazoo, animal wildness, $10 to get into the fair (kids free) plus money for food, and lights on your bike to get you safely home afterward.
Saturday is the big Ventura County Fair Parade which rolls and clomps and marches down Main starting at 10am. If you want to join the Ventura ArtRiders Bicycle & Social Club for some Fair Festive Fun, find us by 9am on Main between Ventura High School and Taco Bell. Wear animal attire, bring a kazoo, and face paint if you have it. If you’re watching the parade, we’ll be at the end–just before Big Bad Voodoo Daddy! Nothing like being the opening band for a group which played a Superbowl halftime show! Maybe we’ll open for Bruce Springsteen next!Where can you get a kazoo around here?
Metal Kazoos $3
Pulse Drumming – more info »
2434 E Main St, Ventura, CA – (805) 648-3786
Bring your kazoo to Burning Man. You never know when a kazoo will come in handy. In fact, bring an extra to share. Because at Burning Man, two peeps + kazoos = parade!
“You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you
give of yourself that you truly give.” – Kahlil Gibran
Gifting in a LNT Community: Instead of bringing cheap trinkets for
gifts that become MOOP, consider the gift of one’s self. Look around
and pitch in to help keep things clean: offer a tool, an extra hand, a
gesture of thanks. Try giving a smile, a helping hand or a joke. Help
a neighbor set up camp. You are the best gift.
Speaking of gifts, the Earth Guardians at Burning Man collect and record LNT tips for playa living. Visit their website at: http://www.earthguardians.net And for some eco-friendly burner resources, check out http://www.burningman.com/environment/
Here’s the Earth Guardians Top Ten Leave No Trace and Green Your Burn reminders. Read more…
How green can you really be if you go to Burning Man? some have snickered in front of and behind my back. Isn’t Burning Man just mindless, pointless building and burning?
Point taken. Point considered. And, well, no, I don’t find going to the Black Rock Arts Festival aka Burning Man a huge contradiction to my commitment to living more lightly, more greenly, more sustainably on the planet.
Sure, staying home, growing my garden, riding my bike to the beach, turning off all electronics and not contributing daily to the web, etc would certainly consume fewer resources than going out to that big festival in the desert.
Like any vacation or festival, Burning Man has a huge carbon footprint created by all those folks traveling from wherever on the planet to the Black Rock Desert, home of the Burn.
But staying home wouldn’t be as fun or as rejuvenating or as invigorating as a few days of extreme life on the playa.
And to the credit of Burners everywhere, much has been done to green the Burn since the wild days back in the early 90s of Guns, Granola & Videotape when I first started going to Burning Man. Yep, back in those days, people thought nothing about hauling all kinds of stuff out to the playa to use in camp and then burn after, leaving hulking carcasses of half burned couches scattered here and there. And going postal was a verb with many participants shooting up a post office.
Anyway, enough reminiscing! I’ll take the infrastructure, the streets, the lights, the giant shade structUre at center camp. I’ll willingly pay more for my ticket, and appreciate the efforts of the many to green the Burn and make it safe for all the too high boys and girls.
So how to Green Your Burn and Leave No Trace? Read more…
Is the Black Rock Desert Playa 2009 ready to be a Burning Man Playa? Early August Surface Report & Playa Cam!
Word from the PDX Regional “Porn*” (aka Tzara) on-site (few down Saturday) the playa surface is smooth and crusty. Just like we like it. :-) Golden stake Sunday.
The playa’s surface depends on how much and what kind of moisture the Black Rock Desert received the previous winter.
I’ve been out there trying to ride my bike through what seemed like three feet of flour. No fun. Intermittent patches of flour spaced with firm surface wrreaks havac by day and you can imagine how crazy it can be at night to ride on a surface as unreliable as that!
And wet–that stuff’s slicker than snot, and cakes your tires or shoes so you’re inches off the ground. No kidding.
Here’s more about the playa and the web cam there so you can see the conditions of the playa yourself: https://artpredator.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/burning-man-playacam-video/
art predator 