A Crude Awakening and the plant ban

spectabillis · Post by **spectabillis** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 4:20 pm

i have just heard that A Crude Awakening brought out a tree to plant in place of the burned oil derrick platform. they were originally contracted to bring a metal tree, but instead brought a pine.

i was one of the biggest advocates against the plant ban and how it was handled. it involved disagreeing with the gate crew who were treating it like some self-rightous nazi enforcement policy. there were so many arguments, discussions on why people shouldnt be treated like children and given the option of being responsible for themselves. these discussions included the dangers of moop and how to deal with it in good faith that people didnt need the ban.

yet somehow A Crude Awakening brought a tree out anyways, and i have yet to confirm but it sounds like it started to die and shed its needles. if it was being transported that means there was the worst possible moop spread in the worst place, roads where the needles are now hidden and embedded within the playa dust and dirt.

i am now taking a long and hard look on what i fight for. i feel partially responsible because i fought for these people's freedom to do it.. and they abused that. not only does this wreck my credibility, which in all honesty i dont think has really interested me that much, but it makes me question the faith i have in others still involved with burningman. maybe i am over-reacting, i hope so and that i will redevelop my faith.

right now its more important to be honest in my intentions and motivations. as an example: with the burningpaul debate i still think its not justified to make someone serve twenty years in prison because some enjoy a communal beating. but now i have a better understanding of how they can feel that way.

bigbluedoggy · Post by **bigbluedoggy** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 4:29 pm

Saw the pine tree on a flatbed in the yard by the gate when I was leaving Monday. Wondered what the hell a full grown tree was doing out there. Also came across a picture on Flickr of it being set in place where the derrick was. Not sure of the timeline on the photo... if the tree was already on its way out again when I saw it Monday. But there it was. I can't find the Flickr photo now.

spectabillis · Post by **spectabillis** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 4:43 pm

was it covered? and do you know if they put a tarp around it while out at the derrick?

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 5:05 pm

As far as I know it never made it past the Gate after one of the camp members had an altercation with one of the lead gate persons. Actually threatened to 'beat his ass' as I remember the call coming across the radio.

We saw it heading out of BRC on Sunday. It was indeed a full grown conifer complete with a framed root ball and though we didn't get close enough to actually identify it the tree appeared to be either a redwood or ceder. The thing was ~50 tall laying sideways on a flatbed and no, it wasn't covered in any way.

Because the root ball seemed intact I'm suspect of the claims that the tree was dead or dying although I imagine it may have been traumatized from the trip. That being said I imagine that if the tree is hauled away in time that it might actually be able to be replanted

Captain Goddammit · Post by **Captain Goddammit** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 5:14 pm

The tree did make it past the gate, and was erected at the derrick site. I have pictures.

sputnik · Post by **sputnik** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 5:15 pm

Pines are hard to transplant successfully, especially a fully grown tree like that. Why in hell anyone would do this is beyond me.

As to the plants on the playa issue. I found myself in a camp next to Porn and Eggs on saturday morning helping setup a breakfast. The man who's camp it was not only had a large array of fresh herbs in pots, but he also had a poodle that he claimed was a service animal. That was probably the moopiest camp I have ever been in. I really wonder what happened with him post event. He said he was from New York and that he had rented the moving van and bought everything he brought with him from yard sales along the way. He had a lot of shit.

barnz · Post by **barnz** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 5:27 pm

I would really like to hear the straight dope on this.

The rumor that I picked up somewhere was

[unsubstantiated rumor spreading]
due to time & budget issues the original spec'd metal tree couldn't be fabricated so a live tree was substituted
[/unsubstantiated rumor spreading]

I understand someone getting deep down the rabbit hole on achieving the artistic vision of their labors, come what may, but my first thought was dubya-tee-eff?

spectabillis · Post by **spectabillis** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 5:51 pm

moving past the rumors into facts with burningman is about as easy as fighting creationism.

actually, i am starting to think those two are more related than i thought.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:43 pm

Why do you care, spec? Assuming you paid for a ticket, the cleanup issues should be none of your concern.

spectabillis · Post by **spectabillis** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 11:07 pm

i doubt thats a serious question.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 11:43 pm

Why would you worry about such things if you weren't involved in cleanup? You're home now. You don't have to worry about anything on the playa. And the Crude burn was so popular, I hear.

spectabillis · Post by **spectabillis** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 11:49 pm

nope, still doubt thats a serious question, definately reads more like a loaded statement.

Post by **AntiM** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 12:12 am

This tree? I wondered about it. People were riding after it on bikes, grabbing the branches.

Toolmaker · Post by **Toolmaker** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 12:45 am

A tree seems pretty big for a LNT event. Especially out in the open as pictured. Shady Asylum took many steps to keep everything contained. Sad they couldn't make the metal tree.. I liked the flaming trees that were there this year. I guess if someone had the ability and inclination there would still be moop zombie work. Aren't there folks onsite for weeks afterwards?

spectabillis · Post by **spectabillis** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 12:49 am

thanks antim, that confirms that it wasnt covered.

jesus.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 7:17 am

Let me put it another way.

How did you actually demonstrate that you cared about the issue? Did you work at Gate, or with the art department, or on cleanup?

Ron · Post by **Ron** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 8:12 am

Toolmaker wrote:.... Shady Asylum took many steps to keep everything contained. ....

We we also very thankful to be grandfathered in and allowed to bring our gift of grassy goodness to the playa again. :)

Ron

spectabillis · Post by **spectabillis** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 9:19 am

nope, try again bob.

Teo del Fuego · Post by **Teo del Fuego** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 9:28 am

Bob wrote:Let me put it another way.

Let me put it another way: What the f*ck do you care that Spectabilis cares? What does any of this have to do with you? Just itchin' for another fight big boy?

Lassen Forge · Post by **Lassen Forge** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 9:37 am

Hey Spec, ya gotta give him credit, he is trying. Not very successfully, it seems, but he is trying.

Always makes me laugh when people pick fights for no apparent reason just to pick a fight. So much wasted time, energy, and karma.

Of course, forgiveness and care about someone is way the fuck outta the question. Far better to antagonize and stir up shit than to shake hands and be an adult, eh? I mean, yeah, what the fuck would you do if you stopped trying to start a fight and found out your supposed adversary isn't a bad sort of person. Oh no, could NEVER do that.

Then again, that - this whole hate and stir shit scene - seems endemic on this board, more than others. Maybe it's because we love each otherlike a family or something. Maybe it's one of those macho things - gotta have someone to beat up? I dunno... canna understand that stuff...

Hell, remember when Cabana Springs and I used to go rounds? Sparks? Nyet - Nuclear detonations. Then I realized there was a pretty smart, pretty kewl person behind the avatar. But it took my deciding to NOT fight and whine and bitch, and CS's taking a good poke at me in fun and not as an antagonist that I found funny, before I found that out.

So there ya go. And Bob's yer uncle. Oh shit. There it is. It's a Kiwi thing. Bob's yer uncle! Yiiii!!!

Happy 9-1-1...
bb

spectabillis · Post by **spectabillis** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 10:02 am

Bay Bridge Sue wrote:]Hey Spec, ya gotta give him credit, he is trying. Not very successfully, it seems, but he is trying.

nah, i know bobs modus operendi enough to understand when he is trying to make a point with loaded questions and veiled judgements. he will either ignore it and move on, or finally make his point.

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 11:02 am

sputnik wrote:Pines are hard to transplant successfully, especially a fully grown tree like that. Why in hell anyone would do this is beyond me.

I sorta hope that all environmentalists are all trained ecologists, but I am afraid that many of them are lacking a clue.

skygod · Post by **skygod** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 1:07 pm

Bay Bridge Sue wrote:
Then again, that - this whole hate and stir shit scene - seems endemic on this board, more than others. Maybe it's because we love each otherlike a family or something.
bb

It's like sibling rivalry. Brothers and sisters always fight more than normal people. The noob camp across from me for instance: One veteran brought two noobs and abandoned em on sunday, just drove back to new orleans without 'em! When I was commiserating with one of the stranded noob and said "How could he do that to you guys" she said" That's her brother." then I understood.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 8:01 pm

Spec, you don't express at all what stake you had in the issue you brought up, and you sound absolutely vague about what your actual involvement was. Are you referring to blathering in BBSs, emailing people artists or theme camps or org people, or actually working with the art department, or DPW, or what?

As to my involvement, I worked with the site crew & DPW from 1997 to 2004, helped develop burn scar & moop prevention methods starting back in 1999, and was involved in trying to deal gracefully with all sorts of art fuckups all during that period.

If you ever worked cleanup for more than half a day, I might believe you were being serious in bringing this thing up. Dan Das Mann is a multiple offender as far as organic moop goes, so I'm not surprised a metal tree was in his contract. But since you've been creaming your pants over Paul Addis (puke!), I have no fucking idea what your point really is about Dan Das Mann. I would have thought you'd go all woo! & shit over his fucking with the system & sticking a huge fucking redwood up the org's ass.

spectabillis · Post by **spectabillis** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 9:28 pm

well there ya go bob.

my involvement: first time was discussions late last year here on the board, then followup email discussions with info@ to make sure they were in the loop on what could avoid a controversy. then sporadic pm's and tribe notes with some who mentioned using or bringing plants for various things. biggest involvement was getting into it with three members of the gate crew who proceeded to throw down the fuckoff attitude, i brought others into the arguments while tracking down what went wrong with the info@ discussion. other than that i just do moop sweeps.

of course i am sure this doesnt measure up to your expectation of involvement as i have become quite the obsession for you. really, i'm flattered, you love me. BIG GROUP HUG BOB!

Das Bus · Post by **Das Bus** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 10:14 pm

I brought a plant, pistachio nuts and bottled beer. : )

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 10:45 pm

Spec, I'm still trying to find a reason to care about your vague assertions. I've cleaned up after Dan before, on the playa in 30 degree weather a couple months after the burn, just like friends of mine cleaned up after Addis this year, when they should have been drinking & shit.

By contrast, you say you engaged in email.

Lassen Forge · Post by **Lassen Forge** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 11:11 pm

Das Bus wrote:I brought a plant, pistachio nuts and bottled beer. : )

Counts only if you broke the bottles with the hammer you brought, which was left on the playa to rust... And... no boa? Damn!

I saw, for the first time, some truly disgusting moop on the playa. People who had left rotted food peels, nut shells, and what looked like wet paper crap in the middle of big wet uck-holes in the middle of a theme camp area. I mean BIG fucking muck holes, like they were using the playa as their personal evap pond for shitty kitchen water. Tried to walk into it to try to do something about the rotting peels and crap, but left scars from mudclog syndrome, and had to walk away to (hopefully) let it dry out, because I couldn't get near the worst of the shit without causing more fucking damage. THAT was FUCKED.

Yeah, I dunno, but if what I saw is any indication we won't have to worry about the theme next year because LM will say f*** you and shut us down.

Serious. THis was the worst year for moop I've seen. Also the worst for people making excuses why they couldn;t spend 2 hours mooping - how many people said "Oh gee, I feel so bad, but..."

Hey, when they shut us down, then you still gonna say "Yeah, it was my lazy ass non-mooping person who fucked this up for everyone".

You think Paul Addis was bad? Fuck. Paul didn't do 1/100 of the ficked up shit to the event this year. It was "Burners like Hugh" (not to be confused with Viewers like Hugh) who couldn't be bothered to do what all of us have been doing, eg the 2 hour moop walk, and instead feel it was somehow ok to go onto this (or other0 boards sayong "Oh, gee, I'm sorry, but I didn't..."

Why not dump boxes of baby wipes into the portapotties while you're fucking at it? Take a dump on the open playa? Naw, pour your fucking used motor oil - a few dozen 55 gallon drums of the shit - on the playa too. Spray paint your message on the ground with Krylon? Jeez...

LNT? If nothing else LNT died this year. I oonly hope someone can resurrect it next year. If there IS a next year.

bb

Das Bus · Post by **Das Bus** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 11:43 pm

I draw the line at feather boas! : ) Which btw, Sue, did you run into as many feathers as I did while MOOPing? And syntheic hair from wigs! Crikey!

Trying to get all the tiny bits out of the little sand dunes was a nighmare. I don't know how the DPW does it. Is there an address where we can send care packages to those fuckers?
I don't know if this was the worst year for MOOP or not, but DPW sure has a LOT of work ahead of them.

spectabillis · Post by **spectabillis** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 3:45 am

Bob wrote:By contrast, you say you engaged in email.

that would be the "doesnt measure up to your expectation of involvement" part and you are absolutely right, it entitles you to judge others by what you contribute.

but this was about crude awakening and you chose to bring in paul addis, again, so obviously you are biased and its become personal with you.

so once again, i am sorry that paul addis molested your girlfriend and hope she has been able to put that behind her. but you need to quit acting out on it asshole - thats no one elses issue but yours and you are trying to make it mine and others.