Burning Man just got more expensive

[some seeing eye]

I think Sham os onto something. Maybe we should ban entertainment and get back to participation? No audiences.

[lucky420]

[quote="Simon of the Playa"]hey maybe bringing in BIG NAME DJ's and ADVERTISING THE LINEUP has nothing to do with making BM a Live Venue...but it probably incvreased it's visibility ( i know, riiiight, how is that possible) by causing every EDM blog from here to Podunk to Reprint the Incredible Fucking Line-up from hell.

no...not at all..

you know, i'm 100% wrong....

of course, i said this a year ago, on that thread that's "not relevant" and dead..i won't post the link, something about line-ups.....


and yes, predicting the future is as easy as predicting the weather.

any schmuck can do that. [/quote

Yep! I remember the thread and you are totally right! and didnt the bmorg ask that camp to take down their advertised line up? yep

[Simon of the Playa]

Yep! I remember the thread and you are totally right! and didnt the bmorg ask that camp to take down their advertised line up? yep

well, they must be 100% wrong too.

[Bless]

hey maybe bringing in BIG NAME DJ's and ADVERTISING THE LINEUP has nothing to do with making BM a Live Venue...but it probably incvreased it's visibility ( i know, riiiight, how is that possible) by causing every EDM blog from here to Podunk to Reprint the Incredible Fucking Line-up from hell.

Yeah, cause state legislators in Carson City stay up all night reading the THUMP blog.

[lucky420]

No they have staff who do that

[Lonesomebri]

At the risk of sounding like a Debbie Downer...
Paying taxes is a civil duty that should be celebrated. I thought some of the self-professed communists around here might support that sentiment...
...Or, what if...

Oh, I like paying my taxes, for my community, sure. Paying others fees for their choice to hire professional entertainment at a participatory event, though, gives pause to my celebration.
As a capitalist there should be pride in paying your own ticket fees for hiring those types. Just make up the money by charging a "sharing economy" admission fee to the sound camps.

Sure, it's a government money grab, but to claim that all those folks encouraging-
*advertised and promoted big money professional entertainment*
at the event has nothing at all to do with the government then seeing the Burn as an event with
*big money promoted and advertised professional entertainment*...
well...

Remember all those articles about the Burn, including the hyped perception of it, in all those publications and websites this past year? I know I didn't imagine it all.
Even here some of us suggest that it IS that form of pro-entertainment being hyped that is making a difference in whether the event is taxed as providing entertainment or not.

I suppose they have to make up the difference in funding for once the pot legalization kicks in. Ha, remember how many people seemed to champion that tax ?!

[Simon of the Playa]

Just an aside.

I ran for attorney general in NY in 19 fucking 98 on the marijuana reform party.






I play the long game.

[Bless]

I ran for attorney general in NY in 19 fucking 98.

And you let Eliot Spitzer beat you... what a disgrace.

[Simon of the Playa]

i know...i was robbed....


it was like palm beach county circa 2000....hanging chads, jews voting for buchanan by mistake, the whole nine...

[ygmir]

I ran for attorney general in NY in 19 fucking 98.

And you let Eliot Spitzer beat you... what a disgrace.

I bet he could have beat Mr. Wiener, though..........Anthony, that is.

[some seeing eye]

Predict 2018 that NY will stop clogging its justice system with this. So Simon was only 20 years early! Seeing things early is a bitch, even in relation to the festival in the desert. https://www.mainstreet.com/article/thes ... galization

Nevada extends the tax all the visitors philosophy to the extreme, and why they can give massive tax advantages to battery factories, as Alaska has tax all the resource extraction down. Every state is different, and it is not unexpected that Nevada would be interested in taxing BM. Odd that they are not all for nuclear fuel storage they could tax for the next 50,000 years.

BM ticket revenues from the event are about 30M. Someone should look up or FOIA the BLM 3%? tax on vendors, who also pay state taxes. Maybe NV should lodging tax the PnP? The economic value that is ticket revenue, vendor revenue, camp expenditures, and the value of a week of vacation for 70K attendees is easily North of 500mil.

[Simon of the Playa]

Meh.

Talk amongst yourselves.

Im too busy pondering 2036.

"Pinky, are you thinking what i'm thinking?"

[ranger magnum]

Ticket pice now $425?

Meh....

I do that in Molly during the week....

Whatever.

Here's my money.

[Captain Goddammit]

Between time off work, fuel, vehicle maintenance, camp supplies, booze, and other BM prep, the ticket price isn't much of a factor anyway.

[FlyingMonkey]

It's all about the money.

i agree wholeheartedly.

Wait, wait, wait!

I thought this was all about the Simon.

[Simon of the Playa]

thats a different thread.

[GreyCoyote]

If Larry would just finally admit he wants to be a religious figure, we could wrap this whole thing up. We can call BM a "religion", and our tickets are "donations for the church" and BM itself is just a "retreat" for the "faithful". Bingo. Done.

You seriouslythink the repubs would move to tax THAT and piss-off their power base? Not a chance.

Just sayin...

[BoyScoutGirl]

GC, your idea amuses me a lot.

Now I am imagining a possible future Great Schism of the Church of the Hat.

[some seeing eye]

I hope no one on this thread is suggesting that BM is any kind of a CULT? That would make you an outee!

(There are more expensive cults. Is BM trying to catch up on cult joining-sustaining fee$?)

[Elderberry]

If Larry would just finally admit he wants to be a religious figure, we could wrap this whole thing up. We can call BM a "religion", and our tickets are "donations for the church" and BM itself is just a "retreat" for the "faithful". Bingo. Done.

You seriouslythink the repubs would move to tax THAT and piss-off their power base? Not a chance.

Just sayin...

I'd rather see BM get that tax deduction than most of the organized religions. At least most burners practice what they preach.

[Aurelia]

Good one !

xoA.

[wraith]

So the fun question is how much noise you could get the congresscritters in Reno to make if BM decided to suspend the Burn for a year and start courting other BLM sites to bring it back.

It works for the capitalist corps, why not use the threat of re-locating to assist a nonprofit, eh?

[GreyCoyote]

They need to build Yucca Mountain. Get it escavated and everything, right up to the point where its just a bunch of big, sturdy caverns with dirt floors. Then we strike the death-blow via the environmental lobby and bring it to a screeching halt. The project gets mothballed and sits there while the lawyers file crossing motions for 50 years.

Now you have a place to stick 75,000 burners every year. No wind. No rain. No bullshit taxes. And the feds can NOT argue about our "environmental impacts". ("...So you are telling me that a hole in a mountain that was designed to house nuclear waste for 5,000 years wont contain a bunch of Burners for a week? Oh puhleese...")

Pump in air. Pump out sewage and greywater. Its ALWAYS night time, and the party never stops. No condition alphas. Perimeter becomes non-existant and Gate doesnt even get sunburned. Lasers on the ceiling. Hushville becomes a separate cavern. Of course the Black Rock Solar guys are gonna be pissed.

Yeah. I know. I'll shut up now and take my meds...

[Captain Goddammit]

I like it... except the "pump in air" part. The volume of air needed would mean a wind storm at all times. Other than that, it's entirely without fault of any kind...

[FlyingMonkey]

I like it... except the "pump in air" part. The volume of air needed would mean a wind storm at all times. Other than that, it's entirely without fault of any kind...

I was Ok with 2 gal of water per day but if I have to pack in my own O2 then I may have to breath less. Being LNT would we have to pack out all our CO2?

[GreyCoyote]

Capt: just because I'm nerdy that way, I wanted to see what it would take to ventilate 75,000 people.

For breathing purposes, just one 10 foot fan at 250,000 cfm would do it gloriously giving 3.33 cfm per person. Thats better than ASHRAE specs for airflow needed to prevent elevated CO2 levels. Just for fun, lets double that number out of caution. So two big-assed propeller fans. No problemo.

Of course all those flame effects and generators and BBQ's and stoves would need a bunch more. And may Dog have mercy if you threw a few hippies in there....

Back to hurricanes I guess! LOL!!!

[Lonesomebri]

They need to......

Now THIS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ is the kind of cult I can get behind!

Threat3.jpg

[melodiousdirge]

We can call BM a "religion", and our tickets are "donations for the church" and BM itself is just a "retreat" for the "faithful". Bingo. Done.

I know you're joking but this actually isn't really any more insane than some of America's other tax free religions. In fact it's considerably more sane than many.

I wonder if anyone has tried to start a church that worships fiat currency. "I can't give you this tax money, it's holy to me!".

[Major Krash]

“How To Start Your Own Religion” offers easy, step-by-step instructions on how to get in on the ground floor of one of the world’s oldest institutions. By following these simple directions, you can be the newest entrepreneur on the world stage of spirituality. No more religion that doesn’t quite fit, no higher authority telling you what to do- now you can have a religion that fits YOU, that’s perfect for YOU, and that you can control from the ground up. All you have to do is relax, be creative, have fun, and read the instructions listed below.

1. Choose a focus . Why are you interested in forming your own religion? Many a faith has been crafted because people were discontented with the status quo. Bobby Henderson, the inventor of Pastafarianism, created his Church with a distinctly anti-Intelligent Design agenda. Buddhism developed initially as a protestant movement within Hinduism, and broke with the caste system as a form of social protest. But obviously, not all religion started as a radical movement. Anton LaVey identified strongly with the carnie community, and consequently he combined a love of flair with Nietzschean philosophy and founded modern Satanism. So look at your own motives for making a religious system. Does it center around a person, an idea, or a physical object? Is it revolutionary or just plain fun? Religion can serve all sorts of purposes, so choose what works best for you. Remember, Ron Hubbard was a science fiction writer before he came up with Scientology. Play to your strengths!

2. Next, create a central belief system . Feel free to start small with this step. You don’t have to decide how your followers feel about everything right now, because as your religion grows so will the doctrines of belief. Leave the nit-picky stuff for later, like medical ethics and child rearing, and choose two or three main dogmas. What’s considered sacred in your religion? Pirates, aliens, and vegetarianism are a few examples. Or you could always go the way of Buddhism and reject the duality of that whole sacred/profane construct. Another article of belief might center around historical events, such as the Exodus from Egypt in the Jewish Bible. The possibilities are endless. Whatever you choose, remember to use your imagination and enjoy yourself!

3. Third, design your rituals . Very few religions survive without a strong ritual component. Especially in fledging religions, ritual can help bind a new community together and instill a sense of loyalty to the new faith. Ritual can also be very psychologically gratifying. Why do you think that Neo-Paganism is so popular? Those guys have some great rituals. Now, its your choice how strict the ritual should be and how it ties in with your belief system, but if you’re all out of ideas try referring back to your focus. Symbolism is a big part of religion, and you can always create a ritual that references your focus, and reminds everyone that that’s why you’re doing this in the first place.

4. Pay attention to aesthetics . This means that you should assemble all of your tools and materials, and get started on the symbols and artwork of your new regime. What clothes should your followers wear? What symbol will easily identify them as your followers? Your religion’s visual appearance will be your calling card in the world. What is your theme? Consider colors, design, and nick-knacks.

5. Now you need to choose your own role within the power structure of your religion. Are you the head priest? The enlightened one? A mystic? An equal community member? Or perhaps the anonymous founder, setting your creation adrift in the world? Christianity and Islam both started with a single prophet. Just remember that whatever your role, timing and social context can make or break a religion. Before declaring yourself the next Messiah, consider if the world is ready for that. Perhaps a guru would be more appropriate.

6. Now get out there and advertise, advertise, advertise! Whatever your medium, a soapbox, the internet, protesting at the U.N., you probably want exposure. Otherwise, how will you attract others to your cause? In order to gain official recognition and get those tax breaks, you’re going to need followers, so let the world know you’re here. Try putting an add on Craig’s list.

Quick recap of the steps:
1. Choose a focus, a central theme, idea, or person.
2. Create a central belief system, consisting of 2 or 3 main dogmas.
3. Design your rituals.
4. Pay attention to aesthetics, in terms of materials, symbols, etc.
5. Choose your own role. Who are you in this religion?
6. Advertise, advertise, advertise!


WARNING: Side effects may include martyrdom, madness, and ostracization from society.

[Aurelia]

What on earth is the problem here...

Of course Burning Man IS a religion !

My religion from the start.

xoA.