Burning Man is NOT a Spectator Sport: How to PARTICIPATE
I recently posted HOW TO GET READY for BURNING MAN encouraging YOU to get going on your bike, your camp, and your costumes.
There’s a lot of advice out there on the subject of how to prep and what to wear, but let me warn you, some of it is BOGUS! For example, Squidoo‘s Burning Man costumes site is full of ads for clothes that aren’t appropriate–some are downright dangerous and others–like anything feathery–produce MOOP (Matter Out Of Place).
Because Burning Man is NOT a Spectator sport, footwear is your key accessory–after your bike! This is how you’re going to get around–by foot and by bike. You’re going to walk and walk and ride your bike, and, if lucky, grab the occasional Mutant Vehicle.
So what’s on your feet really matters. If you look through any of the Burning Man Photo galleries linked to on this site, or watch the VIDEO OF BURNING MAN 2008 BY JASON MONGUE http://www.vimeo.com/1959559, you won’t see anyone wearing stiletto heels. Think walking outside. Think sinking into dirt. Think covered in dust.
If you wear stilettos anywhere outside your RV, you’re going to sink and join the evolutionary accidents of our collective past.
Instead, think boots: my main Burner boots include motorcycle boots, purple cowboy boots, knee high zebra fur rave boots, and converse all-stars. As hot as it may be, you don’t want to bare your feet outside of camp. Not only will your feet become disgustingly dirty, you subject yourself to the dreaded playa foot–deep, painful cracks which may take weeks to heal.
And if you’ve ever wondered why so many women wear fur leggings at Burning Man, now you know why: to look cool, sure, but to protect legs from getting so dirty and banged up during fun adventures.
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No you can’t participate by burning what you want where you want.
While this used to be true, because of burn damage to the Playa, people are no longer allowed to just burn what and where they want. It’s also a harmful waste of resources.
Fire is still a huge part of the Burning Man experience. Here are links to a few of of many fire troups who will be performing this year:
• Cinder Circus – Eugene, OR
http://myspace.com/cindercircus Read more…
How To Do The 3:15 Poetry Experiment
HOW TO DO THE 3:15 EXPERIMENT:
Register here. Join our facebook group.
* Begin at 3:15 AM on August 1st (so set your alarms on JULY 31) . Continue each day until August 31.
* You may write any length, style, form, content, voice, rhythm, etc.
* DO NOT EDIT your work. This is raw stuff, baby. That’s part of the experiment. You are welcome to edit, collage, break apart the poems later for whatever purpose you choose, but please SHARE THE RAW STUFF with the rest of the group here or on the website once the experiment is over.
* (Optional) Do not read what you have written until the month is over, except to skim the work to make sure everything is legible.
TIPS: Use an easy writing pen. If you use a felt tip pen beware ink stains on your bed as many a poet has fallen asleep in the middle of writing. If you can help it, don’t even get out of bed! The point is to ride that dream state, that precarious point between sleeping and waking and sleeping.
More tips and examples:
How To Write at 3:15 (a YouTube video)
Jasmine and Jaguar (a 3:15 poem made into a YouTube)
For this week’s Poetry Train, here’sa 315 Experiment Poem from August 6, 2006:
How to Write at 3:15am
Seems like a simple process
you wake up you write
Instead
you set the alarm for 315 you sleep
you wake up–you find your notebook–your pen
you write
But really there’s more to it.
You have to have some light
but not too much.
If you have
moonlight, no
trees, windows, the
angle of light
well then Read more…
Tunnel of Time: Ventucky Burning Man Art Installation
Last night we went over to the Red Barn for John’s Big Birthday Bash and a preview of the Ventucky Burners art installation, a Darwinian Time Tunnel starting with the Big Bang and ending with a slide into the future! 
Each epoch of time was coordinated by small groups of volunteers, mostly locals, with one section by a group in SF. A newbie Burner composed music to correspond with each section creating an audio experience to go along with the visual one, and to transition you from one time to the next. I really enjoyed the beauty, calm and simplicity of the cave art from around the world set on sparkling black velour; the room with the jelly fish and other sea creatures is also a giddy black light experience. The small boy like the bouncing Furbies set amongst blinking LED’s best tied with walking the plank and riding down the slide. 
They haven’t heard yet where they will be on the map but somewhere on the grid to power the blacklights–I’ll be sure to let you know where so you can see it if you’re one fo the 50,000 going out there this year!
Seeing this very cool almost complete collaborative art project inspires me even more to get going with my Burning Man preparations!
Thanks, John, for a great party last night, and for providing the space for folks to meet regularly to plan and build this wonderful addition to everyone’s Playa time! (And thanks also for giving my nephew a much needed bicycle!) Happy Birthday!
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Burning Man starts in 30 days. Are you ready? What should you be doing NOW in preparation?
ONE: Get bike ready.
Beg, borrow, buy a bike. A bike is an absolute necessity in order to get around that big old playa. It’s not like there are bus stops and you never know when an art car might come by that will stop and make room for you. Make sure NOW your bike runs well, and that you have extra tubes. Make sure it’s well lit: blinking rear lights, front headlight, side reflectors. Spend some time getting around by bike so you’ll be in shape and won’t get too saddle sore.
Then start fixing it up! Our Monkey Lectric lights came in the mail and we’re busy attaching them; mine went on last night so I could show it off to friends gathered for a planning party for the Animal Fair Ride Friday August 7 and Ventura County Fair Parade Saturday Aug 8 (that’s right–the Ventura ArtRiders Bicycle and Social Club is an official entry!! We’ll be riding bikes in our animal suits playing kazoos! Great practice for Burning Man!) Please tell MonkeyLectric the Art Predator aka Gwendolyn Alley (Sheridan) sent you!
Being well lit is super important out on the playa both so you can see where you’re going and so others can see you. There are lots of great ways to do it and I’ll add another post on this topic soon with some DIY solutions. This year we’re lucky that it’s a full moon on Friday night which will be beautiful but also make getting around a lot easier.
Give your bike a funky paint job! Source some spray paint and go wild! This makes your bike more fun and more distinct–harder for someone to accidentally grab it. Hot glue fur onto it. Deck your bike out so it matches what you’re wearing so your bike is part of your ensemble–no clashing costumes with bikes!
TWO: Get your lights in order. Avoid glowsticks.
This is kind of a corollary to getting lights on your bike. For years, people on the playa consumed thousands and thousands of glow sticks. They made you findable for your friends, but they create a lot of trash from the packaging to the one use only glowsticks themselves (although they can work for two nights out there if when you get back to camp you put them in a cooler…)
EL wire is the bomb.
And there’s lots of ways to adapt it and use it, especially if you’re somewhat engineering minded and comfortable with a soldering iron. Far better to go to blinkylight.com or elsewhere to find battery operated led lights. Order a bunch to give out on the playa!
Solar lights are easy to source these days, but you want to set them up and get them ready NOW, not on the playa. There are lots of great ones out there or you can modify them like our friend Alan Sailer does and make something really cool. Figuring out something lit to put high at your camp makes it easier to find it at night. Flying flags does the same for you during day. Both make Black Rock City more festive. At the very least, pick up a solar powered lantern. Watch for batteries to go on sale.
THREE: Get your camp on. How you gonna stay cool, fool?
This is something else we’re working on this weekend. We just got a new to us 90 westy van, Baby Beluga, and we’re getting it all rigged up for BMan 09, testing the awning, figuring out shade and other keeping cool strategies. We use rolls of lightweight, thin, insulating material which we move around blocking the windows to keep out the heat and the light. We’re also going to tie dye our new hemp tent for the pop-up on our van, and maybe some flags and bandanas too.
What will you put down on the ground under your shade structure? In case you haven’t heard, it gets dusty out there. Real dusty. People say they’re afraid to go to Burning Man because of the heat; I say, be afraid of the blinding dust storms! Lots of people haul scrap carpet out there; tarps work well also but if someone spills a drink or it rains (and it can big time!) you have a sloppy mess, and it’s certainly not as nice to sit around on a tarp as it is on carpet. Or combine with a lighter, washable drop cloth. Here’s a post about how to get free tarps: Burning Man by Bike plus TARP for the Playa Bound & for the Do Lab
That’s part of what you want to do with your camp–make it enticing, a place you want to hang out in during the heat of the day, to chill, to process what you’ve experienced, a place to eat and drink and stretch your body also. Back in the day, camps used to open to the streets. It was wonderfully like a small town where people hung out on their front porches to watch the world go by.
FOUR: Figure out where you’re going to camp.
If you intend to join an established village, you need to connect with them, the sooner the better. Locations for theme camps are set and you can see who’s going to be where here: If you’re joining a group of people, it’s good to have a plan about where you’re going to be.
Here’s the link for the BLACK ROCK CITY MAP FOR 2009
http://www.burningman.com/preparation/maps/09_maps
This year the theme is evolution so the street names follow suit: Esplanade, Adapt, Biology, Chaos, DNA, Extinct, Fossil, Genome, Hominid, Inherit, Jurassic, Kinship, Lineage with the Center Camp ring road going by Evolution.
FIVE: Get going on gifts. And art projects! And creative clothing!
We have some ideas in this department to encourage people to ride their bikes when they get home. We hear from a lot of people that the only time they ride their bikes is when they’re on playa. Bike riding is fun off playa too!
This the list for what we’re doing this weekend to get ready. Plus we’re going to a party at the Red Barn to check out the Time Tunnel that local Burners are producing. What are you doing to get ready?
For more preparation details Read more…
July Wrap-Up : : August What’s Up
July was a blur!
And not just because of lots of wine at last weekend’s 2009 Wine Bloggers Conference in Sonoma County, California! During July I wrote 41 posts, posting something every day but two.
August What’s Up first including astronomy, astrology, cultural, environmental, and literary events then the July Wrap-Up…
In the night sky for August, a full moon rises eclipses on the East Coast with the greatest effect at 8:39pm local time. According to my 2009 TideLog, it’s not much, just some coloring; here on the west coast, we won’t see anything at all.
Next sky excitement is the annual August meteor show. This year, the waning moon will impact how many shooting stars we’ll see. The height of the shower is Wednesday early evening before the moon gets too high and bright and drowns them out.
A new moon on August 20 means that Burning Man this year over Labor Day weekend will have a full moon!
With regards to the astrological lookout this month, the big news continues to be the pair of eclipses. Think back 19 years and you’ll have a clue about what’s going on right now, because that’s the last time we had a solar eclipse like the one we had two weeks ago–the longest of our lifetime which passed over Asia. Astrology.com ‘s guide for the significant movements of the planets says:
August starts off astrologically with very favorable Mercury aspects. First, Mercury trines powerful Pluto on August 3 making this an excellent time to sign contracts, sell ideas, confirm agreements and, to deepen your understanding of what is workable and what needs to be let go. Then, Mercury sextiles Venus on August 7, which keeps conversations from getting overly intense.
August 5 brings about a dramatic full Moon lunar eclipse in Aquarius.
The full Moon is always an emotional high-tide time, and with the eclipse, feelings will be extra heightened — expect drama! On August 10, Read more…
It’s that time once again, time to set the alarm for 3:15am in order to write “between sleeps”–not awake, and not asleep. The spoken word video above “How to Write at 3:15am” uses one of my 3:15 poems to describe how to write at 3:15.
I’ve been doing the experiment since 2001, getting up every night during the month of August since 2001, and writing something. Many of my 3:15am poems are here on this site under the category 315 Experiment as well as published on the 3:15 Experiment site and in an anthology of 3:15am Experiment poems, between sleeps.
Here’s another example of a 3:15 poem and video, Jasmine and Jaguar. This was the first video I made; “How to Write at 3:15am” was my second excursion into video.
“See” you at 3:15am tonight and every night this month!
PS Any wineries want me to do the experiment at your site? Invite me to spend the night and we’ll see what conspires!
WBC 09 Day 3: Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County
I already posted about Hardy and company’s inspiring presentation on Sunday about using video to promote your brand, no matter what it may be, and I promise to write about the Washington wines used to entice us up that way for next year’s conference.
So what’s left? Lunch at Dry Creek along with a variety of Dry Creek Valley wines (what a petit sirah from Gustafson!), followed by a vineyard walk at Michel-Schlumberger.
Here are a few pictures from the day, taken with my iPhone, just enough to whet your whistle and get you to come back again tomorrow when I will have a chance to develop this post further!
WBC 09: Sex and the Sauterne
an amazing race
By this time on Saturday night at the 2009 Wine Bloggers Conference, you’d imagine I’d be topped out. But no. Sommelier Doug Cook of Able Grape, who poured so many phenomenal wines at last year’s WBC, was at it again: telling stories, pouring, and tasting as fast as live blogging. Instead of taking notes, I grabbed finished bottles to write about later.
There was an unfortunate snafu:
The hotel insisted they needed to close down the conference room. So off we went to a hotel room, about a dozen of us and two cases of wine. Hotel staff wasn’t thrilled with that either, so back we tromped to the conference room provided we vacate by 1am.
sex and the sauterne
Near the end of Doug’s tasting, he presented us with a sauterne. I want to say it was from 1978, because I remember thinking the wine was probably older than Doug. The nose blew my mind–sweet honeysuckle, pear? more! When I took a mouthful and tasted it, tears formed and rolled down my face. I wanted little else than to abandon myself to the swirl of emotions.
I was self-conscious, but there was little I could do: I was caught in public having sex with a sauterne, an orgasm even. I didn’t understand what was going on. It wasn’t that I was drunk. Well okay, by then certainly I was drunk. But that wasn’t what was making me cry, making me feel that way, that ecstasy of emotion.
The wine released every feeling in my heart all at once–all the joy, the sadness, the beauty that this life has to offer–it was all there, almost as if every emotion and everything I’d ever done and that I’d ever experienced was somehow, somehow in that golden glowing liquid.
That sauterne was orgasmic.
I felt connected to myself, to all life, to the universe.
Confused, I was. I couldn’t abandon myself to my emotions or walk away. We had to pack up. I had responsibilities.
So I did the next best thing: I put the box I’d collected, empties, open and closed bottles, including the empty sauterne, and set the box right outside the conference door, along with most of my sample of the sauterne still in the glass. I would finish cleaning up, then retrieve my treasures, retire, and at my leisure later let myself let go and go deep into its golden glow.
Picking up took time, and then I was engaged in conversations, and finally, I headed off to collect the sauterne and the bottles.
The box of wine was gone. All gone. Someone else scored my finds. Drank my sauterne.
So Doug, if you’re reading this, please tell me: what was that sauterne? and how can I possibly replicate that experience?
And readers, please tell me: am I crazy? Have you ever experienced anything like that in a wine?
WBC 09 Day 2: Napa Napa Here We Come!
Napa, Napa, here we come!
Right back where we started from!
Where bowers of flowers
bloom in the sun!
Each morning at dawning
birdies sing and everything!
A sun-kissed miss says don’t late!
That’s why I can hardly wait!
So open up that white bus door
Napa here we come!
OK, so we didn’t really sing this on Day 2 of the 2009 Wine Bloggers Conference. But by 9:15am we were on various buses headed over the hill from Santa Rosa in Sonoma County to Napa. Some of us, like me, were a little green in the gills by the time we arrived at CIA, the Culinary Institute of America. What’s up with that? I used to have an iron stomach! It’s not just all the wine I had on Friday, really. Someone asked if my ability to handle “winedy” roads had changed since I had a child….yes, yes, there’s the truth.
The wifi at CIA worked like a charm and I wrote three posts while there:
Keynote address by Jim Gordon: Wine Trends Worth Blogging About
Keynote Address by Barry Schuler: “The Future of Blogging and Social Media”
Then we were off again, each bus of eight with a different itinerary and me in charge of herding my busload of wine bloggers from here to there on time.
Our first stop was Chandon, the American arm of the veritable Moet-Chandon, producers of the house favorite and perenially popular “White Star.” Unfortunately, I left my iPhone in the bus so no pictures to share from that stop. We were to get a talk about how Napa has gone green–as soon as we each had our small plastic bottles of water. (I asked for–and eventually received– water in a glass: I have to be dang desperate to accept water in plastic and the trash that is produced for me to enjoy that convenience).
Chandon produces a LOT of sparkling wine. And I guess we should be grateful they are making an effort to be “green.” But honestly, I am unimpressed. Maybe because they are so big, they don’t think they can do otherwise; that they have to rely on technology rather than following traditional by hand methods. Maybe I don’t know enough. It looked like green washing to me.
I heard lunch at St. Supery was amazing, that new tech guru Rick Bakas let them know it would be worth it to go all out for the wine bloggers. At Chandon, the sandwiches were fine, but many of us gazed longingly at the lovely green salad prepared for one of our party allergic to breads
. There was plenty of sparkling wine and it went down easy under the hot sun, and most of us said yes to a second glass to take into the winery. Their new rose was a hit and all gone before I got a chance to taste it as I started with the blanc de pinot.
It took me awhile to herd everyone back onto our bus, but soon enough and not too far off our schedule we were on our way to Trinchero, formerly known as Sutter Home.
Can you say, “White zinfandel has been very very good to me?”
What a gracious host! We stepped off the bus and walked a short ways to a beautiful reception: a crisp, cold sauv blanc served with two kinds of thin crust pizzas and into a room set up with tables covered with cloths, water pitchers and glasses. Servers offered more wine and pizza as we settled into our seats for a panel discussion on “What is value?” As the wifi wasn’t up yet, I took notes the old fashioned way: using word on my laptop–
What is value: Panel at Trinchero
Scott Becker, global wine partners
Larry Stone, Rubicon Estate, gen mgr
He wrote for Chi Tribune, sommelier, wine maker, involved w/Coppola’s, blogged on Wine Spectator site a while a go for awhile. Says hidden expense in restaurant wine is to have a decent sommelier and other human resources; that’s what’s being cut right now with the down economyDavid Stevens, Acme Fine Wine
His store specializes in high end wines, since 95 been in the valley. He reads blogs but thinks it’s inappropriate (it’s cheesy in his words) to comment on blogs even if he thinks info is wrong. Offers unusual wines, small, local, first dibs; people call and want unusual special different bragging rights. Sounds to me like he should be tweeting and blogging about what’s new and exciting that’s coming in.Barry Wiss, VP, Trinchero
He comes from the hospitality industry, lived in Napa since 91, has a blog.
Sutter Home, family owned and operated–co in the world (not sure what this note means–do you?). The Trincheros kept the name Sutter Home because they had no money for paint to repaint the barn, but after making a fortune off of “pink” wine, they can call watever they want whatever they want! The rooms we’re in have been dedicated to the Trincheros; this winery specializes in Bordeaux blends. He wants the perception of really great value: $10 wine they can sell for $5. Gotta make a great product and sell at a great price; selling more wine right now but selling $10 wines.David Stephens is asked what’s hot: Scarecrow hot wine still, winemakers Luke Morlay (spell?), Mark Harold, Ghost block.
Trends—pinot noir, pinot grigio, new regions
Value—are the wineries being responsible to the environment? That’s marketable, something of value to the consumer
9 consecutive RAP awards
How can we get rid of the score and capture the story? Technology provides the answer—enforces it.
Too soon it was time to go; Trinchero closed the deal by handing us sweet boxes of sweets–a chocolate chip cookie, brownie, and a tin of nuts. Next time, I told Barry, I expect to have wifi! He handed me his card, and invited me back to give it a go another time. (Thanks, Barry! I look forward to my next visit!)
From Trinchero, we raced down the Napa Valley to the biodynamic winery Quintessa. Second to arrive, we enjoyed the view and a decent enough sauv blanc. Prince of Wine Walid Romaya took the opportunity to set up a shot; I of course caught him in action.
We descended into Quintessa, strolling the rubber mats acros the catwalk, then down the stairs to the winery floor. An incredible flower arrangement and an excellent selection of cheeses and breads as well as more Quintessa wine like Faust greeted us. I lobbied for a copy of the book, beautifully bound in leather, but I guess I didn’t rate high enough. Who better deserves it than the Art Predator? Oh, well, maybe the next time I visit.
We were the second bus to arrive, but it didn’t take long for the space to throng with people tasting, socializing, mingling as six more buses and another 180 people joined us to taste some 50 Napa Valley wineries represented there.
I’ve learned from attending industry wine tastings in LA that it’s best to have a strategy otherwise an event like this can be too overwhelming: when it’s all good when and where do you start? So I circled the cavernous room, once, twice, doing my best to ignore the enticing wines on display, scoping out who was there and where I wanted to put my attention and my rapidly dilapidating palate.
Ggrich chardonnay was not to be ignored so that’s where I gave in, and I was not disappointed. So nice, so balanced, just what I want in a chardonnay, a perfect place to start. I could have left right then and been happy. But I didn’t have my marching orders yet so next I headed around the bend to Schramsberg which offered a sparkling wine in a dramatic contrast in many ways to the large production house of Chandon where I’d been just a few hours before. Winemaker Keith Houck was a wealth of information and I stood there chatting for quite a while with Russ Beebe who leads walks through various vineyards and keeps a very popular blog, Winehiker Witiculture. Read more…
I was up and at ’em first thing Friday morning July 24 helping Zephyr Wine Adventures and Open Wine Consortium get registration going for all the excited participants of the 2009 Wine Bloggers Conference.
The Flamingo Hotel lobby was hustle bustle with cases of wines rolling through for set-up in one banquet room for the sponsor reception, and lunch and more wine ready to go in another.
People recognizing each other from twitter and blog handles embraced like the old friends they’ve become via social media–even though many of them had never met in person. Others renewed friendships made at last year’s conference and all the while laptop keys were clicking and iPhones popping.
After the first rush was registered, lunchtime was crazy in a different way: I was being pulled in so many directions!
Getting a Spice Zin tattoo from @insidesonoma…
Tasting Biodynamic wines from Bonny Doon and talking kids with winemaker and President for life Randall Grahm…
Telling the Bottle shock folks how much I enjoyed their movie and appreciated their fine cast…
Collecting a few vinfolio wine tasting books and suggesting they attach a pen to the ribbon bookmark…
Grabbing some mediocre lunch with some exceptional truffles from Sonoma County Winegrape Commission (who needs lunch anyway when there’s truffles and so much wine to enjoy? ummm, me?)…
Checking back in to make sure registration continued to go smoothly…
Looking out for peo
ple who needed to get registered–and people crashing the party! (You know who you are! VinTank’s Asheley Bellville was certainly eyed with suspicion until we knew who she was!)
After lunch, we settled around tables for the Live Wine Blogging, but since most of us were having difficulties getting online, the American Wine Blogging Awards, organized by Tom Wark of Fermentation and sponsored by Mutineer Magazine, came first. Winners received as a trophy beautiful etched decanters by Reidel.
The winners were announced back in March so there were no surprises in who won trophies. Now who received the trophies and how they did it was a bit more fun and listening to them say a few words was well worthwhile–especially since Cellar Rat provided us with some of his stellar syrah to toast the winners with! (One of the best of the weekend, according to Ken Payton on Sunday.)
American Wine Blog Award Winners
According to Tom Wark, on his blog Fermentation,
“The winners in the seven categories each had to be nominated first, then be chosen as finalists by a panel of judges, then be judged both by the public as well as by the same set of judges. There was most certainly some vetting going on.
Best Wine Writing On a Blog
VINOGRAPHY
Best Graphics or Presentation
THE GOOD GRAPE
Best Single Subject Blog
LENNDEVOURS
Best Business/Industry Blog
THE WINE COLLECTOR
Best Winery Blog
MICHEL-SCHLUMBERGER’S “BENCHLAND BLOG”
Best Wine Reviews
BIGGER THAN YOUR HEAD
Best Overall Blog
VINOGRAPHY
Alder Yarrow of Vinography acceptance speech came to us via a video due to show up on YouTube and which I will link to ASAP!
The sponsors of the American Wine Blog Awards are
RIEDEL CRYSTAL
MUTINEER MAGAZINE
OPENWINE CONSORTIUM
Next up: Live Wine Blogging. Unfortunately, the wifi continued to be a challenge Read more…
art predator 