Last night I completed my Low-Income Ticket Application for Burning Man 2008, themed “the American Dream”.
Excitement shot through me, I knew this was one of my better pieces and would likely be my ticket through the gates into Black Rock City.
A common misconception of those out of the loop is that Burning Man is just a giant party in the desert. There are so many more qualities to Burning Man than its musically potent energy exchange commonly referred to as ‘partying’.
First and foremost BRC is constructed and maintained for six days in the desert of Nevada. Burners come from all over the world to participate in a self-sustaining community of art, love, and radical self reliance.
Radical self reliance means exactly what it sounds like. Every individual participant is expected to be able to nourish, shelter, and provide for themselves anything they will need for their six day stay in the desert. The city is set up like a sun dial, with ‘the man’ (a wooden constructed structure of the Burning Man symbol, scheduled to burn Saturday night) in the center, arms outstretched representing two and ten o’clock. All navigation through BRC is based on time references.
The most exciting aspect of the Burning Man experience is the gifting economy. Money is of no value in BRC. “Gifting” is the act of giving gifts with no expectations of a reciprocation of a gift. It is a selfless act intended to spread love and friendship.
Participation is highly encouraged in BRC. In fact, those who go for the ‘party in the desert’ and the ‘free drugs’ are often referred to as the ‘tourists’ of BRC, because they’re not getting the true Burning Man experience. Burning Man is about building a community and functioning in a self-sustaining way. Everyone has to pull their own weight.
Burning Man is a LEAVE NO TRACE EVENT. The only festivals I have ever been to have been Leave No Trace. What goes up will come down and you are expected as a participant to be aware of your surroundings at all times and understand the impact that you have on the environment around you. MOOP (Matter Out Of Place) is highly discouraged. It’s not so much about cleaning up after yourself as it is about not making a mess to begin with.
I had felt as the New Year came upon us that this was my year to go to Burning Man. Having my first English Assignment themed the same as this year’s burn? That just validated my suspicion that I am meant to be amongst some of the most brilliant minds of our world today.
BRC, I hope you’re ready for me!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Explanation of blog title
The future of our past is my personal slogan for 2008. I remember in 1995 thinking about what the “future” would look like, and in my future the year was 2000 and cars didn’t require steering wheels (I thought technology was going to move much faster in certain directions than it actually did.)
2000 came and went and we still manually steer our vehicles. Here we are in the year that I feel will make or break our country. What will this election show us about our government? That it’s for the people by the people, or that it’s for the corporations by the corporations?
I wonder how many people in 2008 will take personal responsibility for their buying power. How many people will choose to buy the $90 sweater that was handmade by an avid stich ‘n’ bitcher over the $10 sweater put together by the over-worked, under paid labor of an over-seas (likely minor) sweatshop worker? Will we see a change in our actions? Our beliefs? Will we demand action from our government? (cease of action in some cases)
Will someone PLEASE inform the war mongers that killing insures more killing?!
It burns my soul to hear peers of mine—people whom I still consider children—justifying the actions of our government. I look around my classrooms and I wonder how many of them have lost loved ones to this remarkably ridiculous war effort. How many of them have friends in Iraq…
It’s hard to be angry about something you know so little about. I’m not a hugely political person. I’m modest in my involvement with the government. I know, however, when something is incorrect… I should not be living in fear of my government and its actions.
Freeinternetpress.com is a pretty cool website. Basically, users can post news articles from any reputable news network along with their comments on the presentation of the subject at hand. I remember early ’07 reading an article about refurbishing inactive military bases around the country to make more jails; we don’t have enough jails.
Thus began the fear. Why do we need more jails? Multiple jails…throughout the country…with 50,000 person capacities? That sounds extreme (thinking about it, I wonder if the actual figure was 5,000 but, regardless) who will fill those jails? My guess…the little people…the poor people…the minorities…the activists that touch a little too close to the problems at hand. It makes me think of Hitler and internment camps.
I’ve gotten grossly off point, or neglected to ever get on point…
We have to look at what has happened and reflect on what is happening. So, in 2008 I want to learn as much as I can about our History as humans as a whole and thus get a better understanding of where we are and how we define where we are headed.
2000 came and went and we still manually steer our vehicles. Here we are in the year that I feel will make or break our country. What will this election show us about our government? That it’s for the people by the people, or that it’s for the corporations by the corporations?
I wonder how many people in 2008 will take personal responsibility for their buying power. How many people will choose to buy the $90 sweater that was handmade by an avid stich ‘n’ bitcher over the $10 sweater put together by the over-worked, under paid labor of an over-seas (likely minor) sweatshop worker? Will we see a change in our actions? Our beliefs? Will we demand action from our government? (cease of action in some cases)
Will someone PLEASE inform the war mongers that killing insures more killing?!
It burns my soul to hear peers of mine—people whom I still consider children—justifying the actions of our government. I look around my classrooms and I wonder how many of them have lost loved ones to this remarkably ridiculous war effort. How many of them have friends in Iraq…
It’s hard to be angry about something you know so little about. I’m not a hugely political person. I’m modest in my involvement with the government. I know, however, when something is incorrect… I should not be living in fear of my government and its actions.
Freeinternetpress.com is a pretty cool website. Basically, users can post news articles from any reputable news network along with their comments on the presentation of the subject at hand. I remember early ’07 reading an article about refurbishing inactive military bases around the country to make more jails; we don’t have enough jails.
Thus began the fear. Why do we need more jails? Multiple jails…throughout the country…with 50,000 person capacities? That sounds extreme (thinking about it, I wonder if the actual figure was 5,000 but, regardless) who will fill those jails? My guess…the little people…the poor people…the minorities…the activists that touch a little too close to the problems at hand. It makes me think of Hitler and internment camps.
I’ve gotten grossly off point, or neglected to ever get on point…
We have to look at what has happened and reflect on what is happening. So, in 2008 I want to learn as much as I can about our History as humans as a whole and thus get a better understanding of where we are and how we define where we are headed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)