The Oil Derrick Burn Thing

Honkyjiveass · Post by **Honkyjiveass** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 4:34 pm

I was interested in responses to the oil derrick burn event, what with the major label band concert (the Mutators, was it?) and the production assistants with the headsets running around telling people to move their bicycles because the video director didn't want them in the shot.

I personally felt the thing was like a big Hollywood turd that somebody decided to shit in the middle of the scene and was completely inappropriate, a sell-out and an insult. I also think I actually may have met the concert promoter who was there to manage the event earlier that evening -- some English prick from L.A.

I'm curious to hear what some of the others of you thought about that experience.

Isotopia · Post by **Isotopia** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 5:27 pm

I think they should have stoked the fires with pompous art critics.

Toolmaker · Post by **Toolmaker** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 7:10 pm

Sitting atop the Sandcrawler watching the whole city come toward Crude Awakening was amazing. Having a front row seat was an excellent gift and I was glad to meet Buck and Hambone along with everyone else on the Sandcrawler. The show, fireworks, and fire were fucking amazing. Crude awakening was the best show I have seen in my entire life.

THANK YOU CHEESY BOB, MIKEVDS, JP AND THE SANDCRAWLER CREW AND EVERYONE ELSE THAT MADE MY BURN THE BEST!

PS I saw Tiahaar riding his trike past the Sandcrawler. Thats a great ride he made.

skygod · Post by **skygod** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 8:28 pm

That big orange cloud hovering over my head and singeing my hair will keep me sane for another year.

ecosutra · Post by **ecosutra** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:37 am

1- The fire represented the end of the fossil fuel age, an explosion that came after a war siren that threw shockwaves into my fear and sadness of war. The catastrophic times are coming to cleanse what the timeline of fossil fuels created.

Or,
2- the disco geek squad of shallow DJs and their selfish "Go fuckyourself) camps decided to let the green movement know just what they thought of the greeners.

Either way, the Playa was full of fear turned into egos of festering ambivalence from not getting the solutions.

ecosutra · Post by **ecosutra** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:38 am

The fire was either 2 things
1- The fire represented the end of the fossil fuel age, an explosion that came after a war siren that threw shockwaves into my fear and sadness of war. The catastrophic times are coming to cleanse what the timeline of fossil fuels created.

Or,
2- the disco geek squad of shallow DJs and their selfish "Go fuckyourself) camps decided to let the green movement know just what they thought of the greeners.

Either way, the Playa was full of fear turned into egos of festering ambivalence from not getting the solutions.

bleurose51 · Post by **bleurose51** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 7:43 am

The appropriate response to the PA jerks was "fuck you, I paid for my ticket." Do you think they could actually MAKE you move? Let THEM move and get a different shot.

I agree, the commercialization of that was one of the reasons we decided to NOT go see that burn. However, I have to say, we were watching from our camp at 2:30 and Intertidal (not TOO far away) and the fireball was AWESOME!!! 8)

trypical · Post by **trypical** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 9:27 am

saw the splosion from open playa surrounded by best friends.

Only way to go. What I saw was cool.

Apollonaris Zeus · Post by **Apollonaris Zeus** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 10:02 am

Honkyjiveass wrote:Iwith the major label band concert (the Mutators, was it?)

and the production assistants with the headsets running around telling people to move their bicycles because the video director didn't want them in the shot.

I never fucking heard of the Mutators on either coast only on eplaya have I heard of them! Thought they were just a wanabee playa band!

And put a camera in someone's hand and they think they're GOD!

skygod · Post by **skygod** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 10:18 am

Anyone post a You Tube video of the explosion yet?

krozall · Post by **krozall** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:10 am

[/quote]

I never fucking heard of the Mutators on either coast only on eplaya have I heard of them! Thought they were just a wanabee playa band!

And put a camera in someone's hand and they think they're GOD![/quote]

Mutator is a well known band that started off doing Burningman every year, then signed to a major label. I liked the Derrick Burn, it was spectacular. Mutator is ok, but once they hit the mainstream I lost interest.

Dork · Post by **Dork** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 12:47 pm

Where I sat, well to the right of the Mutaytor stage, they were asking people to move bikes back but not because of anything to do with cameras. There are always idiots who try to line up for a burn early with the bike. They get in the way of everyone, create a hazard, and very often get lost. I tripped over one as I was leaving after the burn, probably bent the spokes.

Why the show was linked to the burn I don't quite understand, but the people dancing on the rope were cool and so was the fireball so that's all I care about.

Telling pricks with cameras to fuck off is easy enough.

DAISY PLAYA DUCK · Post by **DAISY PLAYA DUCK** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:19 pm

It was awesome, the biggest controlled burn ever and if you were close enough you saw fire dancers dangling above the mutator stage from a crane! They are not a major label band, I never heard of them....who are they signed with?
Hooray and thanks to Dan and Karen and Pyrokinetics and everybody!!

Ms Mutaytor · Post by **Ms Mutaytor** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 2:07 pm

Wow! When did we get signed??? Why didn't I get a check??? I'd love it if heresay paid my mortgage...but alas, this is simply not true. We've never been signed. We're an independent band that toils it, records it, hauls it and plays it all ourselves. We weren't paid to be there, we hauled all our own gear, and friends of DPW helped us with the cranes that night to do our aerial (thank you!!!).

Our collaboration with Dan Das Man was to be a musical segment leading up to the Crude Awakening. He digs our band - we dig he and his crew's incredible art and vision. When the dust storm hit on Friday we had to bump the night to Saturday as the delicate pyro plans just weren't ready to go off, and safety was paramount when you're dealing with the kinds of fuels and cannons that were in that project.

The perimiter was huge - 500 ft, and the idea was to use the art cars to spread music to the crowd while all the charges were set (the repeater wasn't working well), all of which was an incredible ordeal of time and sweat. Our set was to be exactly 1 hour before the siren, but I kept getting asked over the radio to continue playing until the iginition was given a proper OK from the experts. There was great concern for safety up until the "go" signal finally came.

We played on a stage powered by solar and only needed a generator as backup for the lights. Dan wanted footage of our show with the derrick in the background framed by the solar stage. I was truly sorry to hear that people got hassled by the video guys. But at the same time, I hope that if you ever undertake an art project of the scale as this one, you'd have a crowd that would respect your wish to capture it on film they way you envisioned it. Personally I thought he deserved that knowing how hard it was to pull this project off.

I do hope everyone enjoyed it - we were deeply honored to be a part of it.

--Crunchy of the still unsigned band known as the Mutilator...um...the Mutaytors?....or is the Mutant Squad?

Toolmaker · Post by **Toolmaker** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 5:31 pm

Thanks for dropping by Ms Mutaytor to claer up the falsehoods spread by some of our more ignorant newbies here on eplaya. It was great to meet Buck, Hambone, etc and camp in Gigsville. You all put on a hell of a show for us and MOST of us enjoyed it. I think some of these folks may not have even been at Burningman and no very little about the gift Mutaytor gave us all. It was nice to see a band born at BM to take part in something so big and wonderful.

somekind · Post by **somekind** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 7:59 pm

heres a video | shot:

stuart · Post by **stuart** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 5:49 pm

I thought CAA picked you guys up a while ago.

or did that deal sour with bad publicity?

Player · Post by **Player** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 1:34 am

Hey Ms Mutaytor!

We had to leave BRC on Thursday this year, but fortunately we caught you on Wednesday night at 4:30&Esp. We have many fond memories of you at Xara Dulzura and Pinky's 2003!

The nuclear lookin' fireball was freakin' amazing (although we only saw it online). I'm sure it was quite the spectacle.

You guys put on fun interactive shows that are incredibly entertaining. Welcome back to BRC and hope to see you next year!

~ Player
http://blackrocktribe.com

Valkyrie · Post by **Valkyrie** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 5:52 pm

Yeah, the video guys weren't exactly nice, but I realized when they hassled us that they were there just to do a job. To me, that was one of the most striking contrasts between "burner" and "not burner". I watched them completely chew someone (who had provided an immense contribution) a new one for something that was pretty trivial and a result of their own arrogance.

But that really seemed to me as a counterpoint to a lot that I'd experienced. After you're around such wonderful and open people as burners, sometimes a reality check like that makes you appreciate them all the more.

Ms Mutaytor · Post by **Ms Mutaytor** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 6:13 pm

I don't want to sabotage the thread - it was about Crude Awakening - but to answer your question, we were repped by CAA for several months. They got us a few gigs then dropped us as the publicity got bad. Most of the shows during that time we ones we had lined up on our own, so it wasn't that hard to continue doing it ourselves. We've never been signed to a record label, which is the traditional phrase for a music act being "signed."

C'est la Vie.

I do want to echo Buck's comments that it was such an amazing thing to witness the Crude Awakening team and their project. Many thanks to them for allowing us to be a part of their art.

Valkyrie · Post by **Valkyrie** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 8:43 pm

Hey. Every one of us out there on the playa was a part of their art, right? You were just a bigger part than most. ;)

Kinetik V · Post by **Kinetik V** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 9:58 pm

Having watched and felt the heat from Uchronia last year I wondered if anyone would be able to top that burn in sheer spectacle.

It took one year and the Crude Awakening team did it. And boy did they do it. I had no idea Mutaytor was playing, I was with I Will, You Will on the East side standing about 10 feet from Captain Goddammit's boat and about 20 feet from the burn perimeter. Both of us commented on the flow of people heading out to see it, we felt like the entire city shifted towards it.

The fireworks display ranks as one of the best I've ever watched anywhere and I enjoy fireworks displays. Beyond that...the siren set the stage and was a very cool effect but the fireball was nothing short of incredible. Having studied Nevada nuclear testing and watching hours upon hours of video clips that blast immediately reminded me of some of the nuke fireballs I had seen on video. The flash, the heat, and the pressure blast....just fucking incredible and like what people had described but on a much smaller scale. I almost forgot for a second that the NTS was 300+ miles South....and above ground testing is banned.

To the team that pulled together this awesome spectacle.....we salute you! Thank you!

(I also liked the fact that while the theme was "green", that explosion was anything but! It offered a nice counterpoint to some of the other crap I was seeing and hearing.)

Tiahaar · Post by **Tiahaar** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 12:24 am

Damn. That was an amazing night with both ManII and the Crude Awakening fireshows!! The most chilling suspensful siren ever... The fireballs were beyond amazing (friends at home here will not believe me) and that towering flame that went on and on under the derrick...wow! A year to remember, glad to be part of it. Happy to have my DragTrike out and flaming, loved interacting with so many folks and their creations. You all are great!

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 8:39 am

The most chilling suspensful siren ever...

I heard that the siren used is one of only a handful of originals from WWII left in existence. Wasn't able to actually confirm it though.

Dustdevil · Post by **Dustdevil** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:07 am

Badger,

Close but no cookie. I personally rescued that siren from the Woodminster Theatre in the Oakland Hills. It is a 1953 Chrysler Victory Siren. Cold War Era. Those who are old enough will remember Duck and Cover. If it were to be used for real, it would mark the end of the world as we knew it. We considered using it on at 12:01 am Monday when the event opened, but it is too unique and the first time the masses heard it had to be special. When I outlined the "Tower Burn", the smoke generator and the siren seemed like a fitting start. The smoke was a military smoke generator used to obscure our ships from U boats before radar.
PS: I never did see Disco this year and I really wanted to find you on the Playa. I spent almost all of my time preparing to burn Crude Awakening. Glad you enjoyed it.

http://www.victorysiren.com/x/index.htm
Jack

ibdave · Post by **ibdave** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:18 am

Dustdevil wrote:Badger,

Close but no cookie. I personally rescued that siren from the Woodminster Theatre in the Oakland Hills. It is a 1953 Chrysler Victory Siren. Cold War Era. Those who are old enough will remember Duck and Cover. If it were to be used for real, it would mark the end of the world as we knew it. We considered using it on at 12:01 am Monday when the event opened, but it is too unique and the first time the masses heard it had to be special. When I outlined the "Tower Burn", the smoke generator and the siren seemed like a fitting start. The smoke was a military smoke generator used to obscure our ships from U boats before radar.
PS: I never did see Disco this year and I really wanted to find you on the Playa. I spent almost all of my time preparing to burn Crude Awakening. Glad you enjoyed it.

http://www.victorysiren.com/x/index.htm
Jack

Jack, Thanks to you and all involved in Crude Awakening... It was by far the best on the Playa this year.... Thanks again to you and the crew..

polykarmatic · Post by **polykarmatic** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:24 am

Was it all in my head?

I was on the top deck of an amazing Vessel of an Art Car. It was a beautiful two level red Chinese sailing vessel (a Junk I think is what she would be called?) We were parked with the perfect playa perspective. I was with two other beautiful people, we were sipping Gray Goose and Pineapple juice, It was a perfect evening to say the least.

Faintly and in the distance I hear The Star Spangled Banner begin playing. It opened as we all expect. I was almost shocked to hear it on the Playa, strangely out of place I thought to myself, then It struck me. "this is going to end badly" after a few bars of the familiar music, it began faltering, going all wrong, sick and failing, badly out of tune.

Then "I saw" all the incoming rockets and our answer to those rockets with more rockets. Our Anti- Ballistic missile system working to protect our soil, our rockets meeting each of the in bound and exploding them mid air before they could harm us...... but then, the in bound missiles kept coming, our launches begin to diminish, overwhelmed by the barrage, the inbound rockets start landing on our soil. Hundreds of incoming missiles, each one landing and exploding. All of this with the oil derrick as the back drop......The fireworks were amazing....

I'll never forget the message "I" saw while watching Crude Awakening... Thank you for Crude Awakening...

I also need to thank the Artists who created and hosted us on there Art Car...they offered all of us cheese, crackers and refreshments. Best of all they also let me borrow a warm "coat of many colors" to keep warm with as I saw wide eyed at this amazing display...

I've searched the Video clips of the Crude Awakening burn for the version that's in my head, (no luck so far) was any of what I saw and heard real... or just a projection of what I wanted to see?

Dustdevil · Post by **Dustdevil** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:41 am

Poly,

As they like to say on Eplaya, "You got it". That was the exact message that Dan and Karen were trying to convey.

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 10:40 am

Dustdevil,

Unfortunately Disko wasn't able to make it this year. He's currently in Bejing, China getting his IT consulting business off the ground. He passes on his hello's with a schmear of Big Love frosting to all the people he wasn't able to see this year. In his stead Mike Powell (aka Ranger Atomic) took over coordinating the fire perimeter. For a first timer I/we think he did a damn fine job in spite of those people in the audience who insisted on trying to break the perimeter or who felt that the issue of safety and the safety of others didn't apply to them.

It was a challenge for all the Rangers involved. Also, I'd be remiss to not mention the very cool, very competent and incredibly helpful assistance of those DPW folk who on their own volunteered their time and resources to help insure that the burning went without a hitch and without injury. The DPW folk were absolute rock stars this year.

Dustdevil · Post by **Dustdevil** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 10:47 am

Ranger Atomic is first class. He stepped up to the plate and performed flawlessly. He has the ability to control a situation without being over-bearing or hostile. Working with him was one of the high points of my week.

Jack

The Oil Derrick Burn Thing

The Oil Derrick Burn Thing

The fire was either 2 things

The fire was either 2 things

Re: The Oil Derrick Burn Thing

Re: The Oil Derrick Burn Thing

We're signed???!!! COOL!!!!

was it all just in "my" head?