Burners who don't go to Burning Man?

[Simon of the Playa]

wait,

is your last name bobbitt?

[lucky420]

Lorina, champion wood chopper

[maladroit]

I thought this was still about a goat.

[gaminwench]

I'm looking to hire a goat to mow the back forty.
Am I in the right place??

[Simon of the Playa]

I thought this was still about a goat.

it's ALWAYS about a goat.


goat figure.

[ygmir]

I thought this was still about a goat.

it's ALWAYS about a goat.


goat figure.

capricious, at best.

[sparr]

Now we seem to have drifted to "Non-Burners who do go to Burning Man, but shouldn't"

Someone asked me to compare some regionals to each other and to BM and one of the key distinctions I came up with was the spectator/participant ratio (to which I later added a third option, contributor). BM has, by far, the highest (worst) ratio of spectators of the burns I've been to. That group might correlate to your "Non-Burners who do go to Burning Man".

[Captain Goddammit]

It didn't used to be that way... but it is getting progressively worse as time goes on.

[Jackass]

Now we seem to have drifted to "Non-Burners who do go to Burning Man, but shouldn't"

Someone asked me to compare some regionals to each other and to BM and one of the key distinctions I came up with was the spectator/participant ratio (to which I later added a third option, contributor). BM has, by far, the highest (worst) ratio of spectators of the burns I've been to. That group might correlate to your "Non-Burners who do go to Burning Man".

Which of those groups do you fall under??.... I bet I know.

You've only been to one burn, WTF do you know about it?

What does all of your painstakingly meticulous data (useful information LOL) indicate?

[Sham]

As a rule, the sophomore year can many times produce a more excruciating expert on Burning Man.

[sparr]

spectator/participant ratio (to which I later added a third option, contributor). BM has, by far, the highest (worst) ratio of spectators of the burns I've been to. That group might correlate to your "Non-Burners who do go to Burning Man".

Which of those groups do you fall under??.... I bet I know.

Depending on where you draw the line, effort/investment-wise, between participant and contributor, one of those. I like to think the latter.

You've only been to one burn, WTF do you know about it?

That's an interesting corollary to my original point. The person who asked the question about different events explicitly wanted the perspective provided by attending many different events. I'm intrigued at the ways that two different people, one who has been to Burning Man ten times and one who has been to ten different burns once each, can both say to each other "You've only been to one burn, WTF do you know about it?".

What does all of your painstakingly meticulous data (useful information LOL) indicate?

That's a longer question to answer, and depends a lot more on the priorities of the person asking than on the data itself. Overall, if I had to generalize, it would say "go to five regionals instead of one Burning Man, if they cost the same $$ and time for you".

[Captain Goddammit]

Regionals aren't really comparable to BRC.
Regionals can have burns and art, but they aren't Black Rock City. That's the difference, and it's a huge one.

[gaminwench]

Yes.

That first moment of 'WhawhoanotwhathefuckseriouslyIdon't,ahyes ...??!'

Cannot be duplicated.

[Ann_Vader]

Regionals aren't really comparable to BRC.
Regionals can have burns and art, but they aren't Black Rock City. That's the difference, and it's a huge one.

That is absolutely correct, which is why I am very much looking forward to going to BRC.

As someone who attends 4 to 5 regional burns a year, from Vermont to Georgia, and is heavily involved in her local burner social scene, and lives in a burner household, I feel like I am better prepared for what we fondly refer to as "the big burn," physically, culturally and socially.

The smallest burn I get to is Frostburn in West Virginia in February. The biggest burn I've been to is Alchemy in Georgia. 300-400 for Frostburn, and Alchemy is around 3000.

The regionals I regularly attend (I have dropped a couple because they weren't my thing), don't have celebrities, PNP camps, or a high proportion of non-participant attendees. Most have amazing art, some of which will make its way out to the playa. Volunteerism and organizational involvement is a cultural norm. The music is incredible! People do fun things with their theme camps to share with other attendees. Lots of fun, random, silly performance art. Flaming sousaphones, wandering Shakespeare and acroyoga. Y

es, there are douchebag assholes, but not all that many, and no one douchebag has ever personally affected my day. Besides, Noodlebar loves to mock people, and I pity the douchebag that is on the wrong side of the bar.

So - a question to the group: How does this NOT make people who actively participate in regional burns, burners?

[Skuzzy61]

Yes.

That first moment of 'WhawhoanotwhathefuckseriouslyIdon't,ahyes ...??!'

Cannot be duplicated.

I do not know why, but this just made me smile. It's like BRC's version of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

[Captain Goddammit]

That all makes you very well prepped and a natural for it... but you can't tell your grandkids - or anyone - "I went to Burning Man" if you were never at the actual event.
And if you can't say "I went to Burning Man", It's just a slang term and is open to interpretation but it does usually mean "a person who goes to Burning Man".

[sparr]

Regionals can have burns

This jumped out at me. To clarify, are you referring to the man-shaped bonfire at Burning Man as the "burn", which regional events can have facsimiles of?

[Captain Goddammit]

It doesn't matter what they burn. Black Rock City is so much more than the actual burning of the man.
You can find tons of people, myself included, who don't give a flying fuck about the actual burning of the man. It's all about Black Rock City.
That's why regionals just aren't Burning Man. They are really great in their own way, but they aren't BRC.

[mudpuppy000]

I agree there's nothing that really compares to the spectacle of BRC nowdays, but it wasn't always like that. You'd technically be a "burner" if you just went to the burns on baker beach and never to BRC. That's what the regionals feel like to me, small intimate groups vs a giant city of 70k people that you can't possibly interact with.

[sparr]

It doesn't matter what they burn.

I wasn't asking if it matters what they burn. I was asking what you meant by "Regionals can have burns". It sounds like you're referring to the bonfire as the "burn".

[GreyCoyote]

I'm forming a new camp. Its called Minutia and we specialize in performance art that involves burning insufferable pricks at the stake.

You should come by, Clarence. Then you can definitely, and officially, know what a "burner" is.

See our website: regionalburndifferences.meh

[Captain Goddammit]

It doesn't matter what they burn.

I wasn't asking if it matters what they burn. I was asking what you meant by "Regionals can have burns". It sounds like you're referring to the bonfire as the "burn".

What I meant was people at regionals can have sideburns because they don't shave. I was just calling them "burns"' cuz it sounded cooler. But that's not important right now...

[Ratty]

Greycoyote, You know GiggsVille has a 'Car-B-Q'. Consider a 'Bus-Bon-Fire'. It would be spectacular.

[sparr]

What I meant was people at regionals can have sideburns because they don't shave. I was just calling them "burns"' cuz it sounded cooler. But that's not important right now...

Liar.

[Captain Goddammit]

What I meant was people at regionals can have sideburns because they don't shave. I was just calling them "burns"' cuz it sounded cooler. But that's not important right now...

Liar.

Spazz, Google "sarcasm". You need to know about it, because virtually every reply you get, whether you realize it or not, is exactly that.
See a psychiatrist about why you get sarcasm from so many people.

Then go camping in the woods with hamburger smeared all over your sleeping bag.

[Eric]

It doesn't matter what they burn.

I wasn't asking if it matters what they burn. I was asking what you meant by "Regionals can have burns". It sounds like you're referring to the bonfire as the "burn".

1) In Burner culture, "burn" is both a noun and a verb. It can both be used to describe an event ("Toast is the Arizona Regional burn") or an action ("they're burning the Temple early tonight"). Anything that goes up in flames at any affiliated event "burns", including the effigy used by a regional - each regional has their own. It's a catch-all term, it does not just mean the Man Burn. Regional's not only can have "burns", they do have them, and they have been having them for years.

2) If you go up to someone in BRC on any day other than Saturday and ask if they're going to "the burn", they'll either ask you "which one" or they'll have some knowledge of what multiple of things are burning on any given evening. The big burn on Saturday night is usually called "the Man Burn" for clarity, because so many things do burn.

3) What is this "bonfire" you mention? I've been going since 2003 and I've never heard of anything called that, other than fire pits in camps.

Note: not sarcasm.

[FIGJAM]

FYI: The AZ, regional is no longer "Toast".

It is now called Saguaro Man.

After me.

[sparr]

Regional's not only can have "burns", they do have them

Thanks for the clarification. You two are the first I've heard use "burn" as a noun to describe the burning of the effigy/man/art/whatever. That's what I was trying to figure out about what Captain Goddammit said.

[Jackass]

Wow, where have you been? Are you dense or something?


Oh, that's right you've only been to one "burn" and it wasn't to your liking...

Better luck next year, it's a damn shame you won't be joining us this time around...

There always the live stream, if they don't bar you after chatting a bit.

[Ann_Vader]

That all makes you very well prepped and a natural for it... but you can't tell your grandkids - or anyone - "I went to Burning Man" if you were never at the actual event.

True that!

'Course I wouldn't be reading and posting here if I wasn't planning on going to the playa It'll make a nice close to a summer of regional burns.

I'm feeling pretty lucky to have all this fun ahead!