Dicky Has a Posse

[Mr. Mellow]

Just thought you should know...

Dicky Has a Posse

[dj big E]

I don't know much about dickies posse but i would like to say that dicky has alot of balls. To put himself on display like that people staring at you 24 hours a day i would have snapped. You're a strong person dicky. BIG E

[thotkrime]

haha before the burn on saturday i definitely heard people yelling "burn dicky!!" in jest i'm sure :twisted:

[HappyCJ]

Early on, our chant at Happy Camp became "Burn Dicky! Save the Man!"

All in good spirit, of course...

- CJ Happy

[unjonharley]

That was funded art. I didn't even look at it. I did look at some funded that needed help getting some thing that large to the playa.

[Chai Guy]

I have the utmost respect for Dicky. I had a brief but insightful conversation with him late in the week. Most men would have cracked early on, but Dicky maintained his composure and good nature through out the expeirence. I predicted that he would not last the week before the event started, and Dicky made me eat those words. Kudos to Dicky and his posse.

[HappyCJ]

You had an interesting opportunity in getting to speak with Dicky directly. I did not have such an advantage.

However, his intent and message confused me.

As I understand it, he felt isolated and uninvolved at the Burn last year. So this year he took that emotional state and constructed it in the real world as physical manifestation of that emotional state. To what end he was doing this, I do not know.

o me, that means that he is maintaining the same

[HappyCJ]

You had an interesting opportunity in getting to speak with Dicky directly. I did not have such an advantage.

However, his intent and message confused me.

As I understand it, he felt isolated and uninvolved at the Burn last year. So this year he took that emotional state and constructed it in the real world as physical manifestation of that emotional state. To what end he was doing this, I do not know.

So to me, that means that he is maintaining the same separation between him and the event.

Early on I had wished that he had put caster wheels on his box, and that he allowed people to write on the outside of it.

If his box had wheels, then people could have "adopted" him, and taken him wherever they wanted to. He would still be isolated from the actual event, but his participation would be based solely on the good will of the other Burners.

I would have dragged him over to the Happy Camp mimosa bar for a while. Somebody else might have tied him to a leash on an art car, and he could get a tour. Others might have taken him to hear Soul In The Machine play, etc, etc, etc.

He would have remained isolated, but he would have seen what others wanted him to see and experience. Some of that would be good, and some of that would have been bad, but he would have had a new and different experience instead of the same isolated experience he had last year.


I also was quite shocked when he got upset that I wanted to write a message on the outside of the box. What an opportunity he missed there! Image all the amazing things people might write about his artistic statement... messages of support, messages of analysis, messages telling him he's a dick, dumb jokes, graphical art... after the burn he could have sat on the playa and read all these messages and seen what his art meant to other people, and what they had to say to him.

It seems to me that those messages (just like the ones on the temple) could have had the most meaning for him, and could have helped him find his stride again.


So all in all, I think the Dicky box was a poorly thought out stunt that could have been a genuinely soulful and mind opening experience, which would help him get through whatever he is working through.

It is a shame.

- CJ Happy

[Mr. Mellow]

However, his intent and message confused me...all in all, I think the Dicky box was a poorly thought out stunt that could have been a genuinely soulful and mind opening experience....

Good post. You'll have to admit that if something like the Dicky Box can inspire such insightful posts, it must be worth something. I'm of the mind that the value of some art isn't in its inherent expression, but in the debate it evokes.

[Kinetic IV]

The Dicky box was simply a playa space occupier to me. I stopped by 3 times. One time the crowd was sparse and I tried to say something to him and was ignored. The other two times he had a gaggle of female friends around showing him various body parts. I turned around and left to go check out the guy in the bus who put out all sorts of parts and stuff to make things with. It was more interesting than the Dicky box, IMHO.

[Chai Guy]

While I agree that the addition of wheels would have added an additional and fascinating element to the project, I just found it interesting as a stationary piece.

I'm sorry you were dissapointed that you weren't allowed to write on the box, but honestly, you wouldn't be welcome to write on my tent or chai cart either.

[Mr. Mellow]

I'm sorry you were dissapointed that you weren't allowed to write on the box, but honestly, you wouldn't be welcome to write on my tent or chai cart either.

MMMmmmmm.....chai. Chai Guy has a posse, too.

[Kinetic IV]

Damn...this makes the second year I missed meeting Chai Guy or sampling some of his famous chai. Damn, damn, damn. Oh well, there's always next year, I hope.

[Elemental666]

Dicky was anything but isolated from the event from what I could see. He had visitors, friends and otherwise, all week long. His isolation put him into the view of a great many people and had you been present for his emergance from the box you would have witnessed the sense of community and participation that he was looking for last year. By making himself art this year he found what he was looking for and more. Plus he go to set the human sized mouse trap into motion... Damn that was a hell of a party... Dicky rulez!

[unjonharley]

Damn...this makes the second year I missed meeting Chai Guy or sampling some of his famous chai. Damn, damn, damn. Oh well, there's always next year, I hope.

~
Found him hiding inside a ranger uniform. Then at his hi tea. One of his lackies tryed to serve me. My megaphone brough him out to serve me in person. He's a tough one, That CHai Guy.

[Kinetic IV]

That's it, I'm buying a megaphone for next year. The playa will never be the same.

[angelgabe]

One of the funniest parts of BM for me this year was walking up to Dicky(not knowing what was up with him), and seeing a bunch of DPW cars in the distance. I was wanting to take some pictures of them, and my friend said "dont worry about it, well catch up to them". As were checking Dicky out, all of the sudden the DPW comes by(about 100 of them), flamethowers and everything. Then they start chanting "FREE DICKY!", and pounding on the glass. Everyone of them had a bottle in hand...it was classic! And I've never seen someone so excited-Dicky was jumping up and down so much I thought the box was going to break!

[HughMungus]

I have the utmost respect for Dicky. I had a brief but insightful conversation with him late in the week. Most men would have cracked early on, but Dicky maintained his composure and good nature through out the expeirence. I predicted that he would not last the week before the event started, and Dicky made me eat those words. Kudos to Dicky and his posse.

You just made me understand what Dickey was about. Earlier I thought, "What's the point?" Now I see the point. I think.

[HughMungus]

So all in all, I think the Dicky box was a poorly thought out stunt that could have been a genuinely soulful and mind opening experience, which would help him get through whatever he is working through.

It is a shame.

- CJ Happy

Not mind opening? Read your own post. You have a ton of interesting ideas in there.

[2_rivers]

At first I felt kinda sorry for dickey, but then by like tues. the titty and ass count were already huge. And I have no doubt that as soon as THE MAN was let out, he got more ass than, well all the porta pottie seats combined. Dickey, if you're reading this: you're my idol. (one of them anyway)
Shiney out

[spritemcb]

I read an article written by Larry Harvey about Dickys' Box before going to the playa. (It made me feel claustrophobic just thinking about it!) Larry used Dicky as an example of how even the most shy & introverted person can find a way to 'participate' in the BM experience. Whether it can or cannot be considered art is not the point, Dicky was an 'active' participant. I went by Dickys' several times & even at 3AM, there was a crowd waiting to talk to him & his windows were covered with writings, phone numbers & someone even drew a pet dog for him!, all written backwards so he could read it. From what I saw, Dicky was far from isolated. I met tons of people but, I never had crowds waiting to talk to me! I admire him for what he did, I couldn't do it unless, as someone suggested, to have wheels on the box so that it could be pulled around to see the awesome sights, especially Soul in the Machine!
I'm sure Dicky had a life changing experience as we all (hopefully) do in BRC. Kudos to Dicky for bravely exposing his fears & insecurities, I bet he won't need the box next year!

[Bitterman]

So all in all, I think the Dicky box was a poorly thought out stunt.

It is a shame.

- CJ Happy

I agree.

I think he was a fake. I think his back story was a fake. I think all the flocks and flocks of absent minded sheep that were SO enamoured by him and were spouting off "dicky this" and "dicky that" were all duped. BLECH!

Before I even knew anything about dicky I was turned off. When we went out to see him he was eating pizza that a citizen gave him and he was critiquing and criticising the pizza and the dude who brought it. What an arrogant ass. My theory is that dicky at Burning Man was an egocentric, self centered graduate student who wrote his thesis on manipulation. Another story about him being some kinda agoraphobic was circulating and people were feeling sorry for him.

He shoulda let you write on his box CJ, other people did, but NOOO he had to control the situation and stop you. It was all about him and how he could control his experience in a city of few controls.

(maybe I'm just jealous I didn't have throngs of people throwing themselves at my feet) And one other thing...(here it comes) that stunt was done much better in the past when the guy was in the chainlink fence cage and was naked and feral. Growling and pooping and charging the cage like a zoo gorilla.

[Kinetic IV]

Bitterman, thank you for that post. I feel the same way.