Mexican music van--was that a mutant vehicle?

[bacardi]

I assume alot of people saw this thing--we were on the 3 oclock plaza and saw it more than a dozen times throughout the week. Just a regular van, with straps holding the side and back doors open, with loud Mexican?(some sort of spanish) music playing.
Sure it was cool, as a social/political statement about the homogeneity of burning man. It could be called performance art for sure. And it played good music. But it definitely didnt look like anything else besides a van, thus was not 'mutant' at all. At the start i doubted it was a licensed artcar, but I saw it so many times, it made me think it must have been, or it would have been pulled over.

Does anyone have the story on this one? if it was licensed, that would open up the door for a much wider range of moving vehicles on the playa in the future...

Burn on...

[gyre]

Did it have a dmv tag?
If you have the number it can be looked up.

[pinemom]

No...I dont think it was a mv, it started doing it annoying rounds the first time I heard it was round thursday b4 opening......
Im sure it was there even earlier...I might have even seen/heard it on Monday the 18th?

[ZaphodBurner]

I saw it too, on Saturday after the burn over at 9 o'clock. Just sitting there with the doors open blasting Mexican music.

[Groovezilla!]

i believe it was dpw

[Dato]

Yup, I believe it was indeed DPW. I saw them before the gates opened as well as throughout the week doing work. We were on the 9:00 plaza, and they would come by ice camp/ ranger station quite often. Cracked me up! It would pull up blasting mariachi music, a bunch of guys would jump out, load/unload a bunch of shit, jump back in and go. Classic.

[DoriumLux]

Yes, DPW or Perimeter. I've meet the guy at Juplaya many years ago. He wasn't registered as an Art Car.

[Toolmaker]

DPW doesn't have to comply with mutant vehicle rules.. or any rules for that matter. They build the city so they get to do whatever they want including but not limited to shakedowns/robberies of participants and reckless unlicensed driving on the playa.

[Dr. Pyro]

And, if I may add, act like assholes. Assholes who couldn't hold a job in the real world and are drunken bastards during the whole week of Burning Man. They should get over themselves, but they can't, and you know why? Because they're basicly assholes.

[oneeyeddick]

And that opinion comes from you personally knowing dozens of them by name...right Doc ???

[Kinetik V]

Doc, don't you think you were a little bit harsh there?

Considering what DPW does for the event...basically without them we wouldn't have Burning Man in it's current form, I'm more than willing to put up with the occasional attitude if I run into any of them. In other words, let them do their thing, respect them for what they do, and get on about your business.

[Toolmaker]

Doc, don't you think you were a little bit harsh there?

Considering what DPW does for the event...basically without them we wouldn't have Burning Man in it's current form, I'm more than willing to put up with the occasional attitude if I run into any of them. In other words, let them do their thing, respect them for what they do, and get on about your business.

Fuck that..

They have NO right to pull the shit they were pulling this past year. Robbing participants at the gate, throughout the city during the week and generally acting like bigger assholes than they ever have.

I am not willing to be robbed of my food and water while sleeping with a sharpie tag claiming "Coyote wuz here" and "DPW owns yer ass". This is felony theft due to the value of what was in my duffel. Lets not forget the folks who brought thousands of dollars of LED lights only to have them stolen by DPW working the Gate who refused them entrance unless they gave up their shit. We need professionals to handle what DPW does, I would gladly pay an extra 100 bucks ticket to make sure I don't get robbed by some prick from DPW while sleeping.

I was all cool with em acting up from time to time and having an attitude but DPW has gotten out of hand with all the robberies last year. All I know is that I plan on getting even for what they did to me last year one way or another.

[AntiM]

Wouldn't DPW feel stupid of they built a city and no one showed up?

(yeah, yeah, I know)

[Simon of the Playa]

DONT PHUCKING WHINE!

[Kinetik V]

In the 6 years I've attended I've had more trouble with the Gate staff than I ever did with DPW. Gate...as I have documented in posts here bitching about it ransacked my truck and did hundreds of dollars in damage to communications gear that I used at the time to do my real life work. On the other hand other than getting a hearty FUCK YOU from a couple of DPW people for one reason or another, I've had no trouble with them at all. And a couple have been pretty damn nice to us.

As for the security thing, that's a failure on your part to plan out a camp that puts security as a high or top priority. I fully expect to have my camp raided like a horde of Vikings were coming through it on burn night...so I just extended the mindset to secure things from the minute I pick my camp spot. Lock it, secure it, and make sure it's safe from thugs, dust, and the wind which has taken more from me through stupidity over the years than any human hands ever did out there. After my sister had her bike stolen a couple of years back I made security a priority...and now it means I have one less thing to worry about and I can focus on why I haul my ass 1000 miles out there to begin with....Participation.

And one more thing...I switched to clear containers, left gaps so Gate could see into spaces, I even installed LED lighting in storage spaces so that the Gate staff as well as myself could easily check for stowaways and I could find my stuff. As a result...a little bit of planning means no more bull in a china closet type damage from Gate, less hassle for all involved, and one less thing I can sit here bitching about on the eplaya! </soapbox>

[Captain Goddammit]

I can't imagine the gate staff demanding I give them my stuff, and having them be able to walk away with it. Or be able to walk away at all.

[Simon of the Playa]

um, i did'nt want to spill the beaners, but those were our maids and groundskeepers.

Manual, Menial, and their sisters Day, and Forced, the Labor family.

cheaper than the DPW and half as drunk.

[oneeyeddick]

The only problem was , you could'nt get them to do diddlyshit between 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM.