The Burn- Will you take this Sitting Down (so we can see)?

bruce508 · Post by **bruce508** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 12:47 pm

I saw the fire dancers for the [b]first time[/b] this year in BRC. [i]This is my 5th burn, however.[/i] You see, I am only 5'8", and anyone my height or shorter will understand this immediately I think. When tall people wearing hats push their way to the front of the burn (or any event), shorter people behind them can't see. My big whine and flame for the summer of 2006 was people standing up at the burn. THIS POST IS NOT A FLAME HOWEVER. Quite the opposite.

This year I and my camp (*) were very roughly 3:30 at the burn. As far as I could see to left or right, there was EXACTLY one person (**) standing, not one single other person, for the first 15 rows or so from the fire circle. EVERYONE else was seated. I'm not exaggerating. I saw all the fire dancers for the first time in 5 years, and they were wonderful.

How can people possibly be SOOOOO great! All 10,000 or however many of you people near me, you are all GREAT. Super-fantastic. I remain speechless, I am so blown away by the goodness of you Burners.

I have heard that the rangers were asking people to do this before I arrived. THANKS THANKS THANKS to your rangers - however you did it, it worked and you are AWESOME.

And thank you fire dancers! We ALL love you.

-BruceThePirate

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(**)Here's the story: The ONE guy who wouldn't sit down had people yelling at him. For a while we tried to shine lights, lasers, etc. at him, no effect. A beautiful mostly naked woman got up to talk to him. She took a long time, obviously approached him in the kindest, gentlest, most positive way, [b]hugged him[/b]. [u]He still didn't sit down[/u], but when she left him she got a *huge* ovation, like 500 people at least clapping. Someone asked, "Was there a circumstance?" "He claimed to be one of The First burners, and complained that everyone is making to many rules, they're all ruining it."

Whatever.

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THE FLAME: I swear to TheMan there is a personality correlation with height or something. I am absolutely sure that taller people and people with hats will tend to go to the front of crowds, more so than short people. (The result being that only the tallest people can see any given event.) I swear, I'm going to try and see if I can find photos in directions across the line of sight to try and verify this .... Anyone who has such a photo at previous burns is welcome to send them to me.

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[b](*) THREE CHEERS FOR CHUCK BUDDY PIRATE SPA CAMP !!![/b]

phil · Post by **phil** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 1:03 pm

It really is anarchy, and people do whatever they like at the Burn. It's all part of the show. The guy who stood was wrong to stand, but he was right about too many rules.

Louise and I have stopped going to the Burn because of all the aggravation. The last time we went, everyone was standing so we couldn't see the front of the crowd. When it was time to sit, people in front wouldn't sit - it turns out the very first row was a group of people in lawn chairs, and the row or two behind them wouldn't sit because they couldn't see over the people in chairs. So there was a big angry shouting match. C'est la vie.

We bring chairs and sit way off and hope art cars don't drive up and block our view. We don't see the fire dancers, but we get to sit and hold hands and have a conversation. We can see the Man on his pedestal, so we see the Burn from a distance. We've got our cameras on tripods without blocking anyone's view (same with sitting on chairs). I guess age is a relevant factor in our decision. :-)

So my suggestion is to find a way to accept it or another way to deal with it. Accept the anarchy. There _are_ too many rules.

Post by **Eric** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 1:24 pm

I'm with Phil- I've completely given up on being anywhere near the Burn (hell, this year we left the playa hours before it even happened)

I stay back on Esplanade with a couple of friends, sit in some chairs & have lovely conversations while watching the show at a distance- other than the endless fire dancing bit, which I'm not to excited about anyway, I don't miss anything.

After the Burn, while everyone else is still trying to get out of the traffic jam around the Burn, we're already in camp fixing cocktails for the evening festivities......

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 4:45 pm

I'll be sitting. In a chair. Not a lot of choice.

The CO · Post by **The CO** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 6:33 pm

Oh, I saw that coming as soon as Fishy posted...

MikeVDS · Post by **MikeVDS** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 7:29 pm

The man burning is not worth worrying about any of that IMO. There are too many people around there for an ideal burn so there will be these problems. If someone had an answer, we wouldn't have these issues.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:23 pm

Harumph! No respect for my jokes. Careful I don't go all Zsu Zsu on you!

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 9:12 am

The Man is 50-60 feet tall, the flames rise a hundred feet in the air. You can't block my view of that by standing up unless you are Godzilla.

Rev. Trigger · Post by **Rev. Trigger** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:07 am

This year was my second burn. In 2005, I was far back and couldn't see any of the fire dancers (I'm 5'3). It bummed me out bigtime considering it was my first burn. This year however, I made my way out to the 2:30 side- a straight shot to Crude Awakening so I could bolt to that after the man fell. Not only was I much closer this year, everyone at least 10 rows in front were sitting and I saw everything this year! It was so much better then 2005 for me. People (the tall guys in front of me) seemed to be a bit nicer and respectfull of my shortness.

I agree that people should be able to stand if they want to, however, my 2 cents is, there should be a unoffical spot for newbies, so they can actually see the burn in all of it's glory for their first time. It would be nice gift for them.

Zhust · Post by **Zhust** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 5:24 am

It's hard to see the fire dancers as a spectator. You see them very well if you participate in the Fire Conclave.

Figure it out.

Post by **AntiM** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 6:05 am

The year the Machine burned, I was standing behind some tall fellows, one of them heard say, "I'm too short to ever see anything" (waaah poor me) and they immediately grabbed me and stuffed me between all the people until I was right up at the safety fence. Huh. Interesting. Made it hard to find mylarry later, but kinda fun. Kinda scary too, I'd never been manhandled to the front of a crowd before. But mostly fun.

phil · Post by **phil** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 10:29 am

jaycerochester wrote:It's hard to see the fire dancers as a spectator. You see them very well if you participate in the Fire Conclave.

That's a comment the original poster and others should take to heart. There are many more ways to skin a cat than any one person can think of. My solution was to back off and get out of the crowd. This solution is to go _in_ and get out of the crowd - probably a better suggestion for the poster than mine.

Either way, if you have a problem, it's up to you to solve it. I encourage coming to ePlaya (maybe tips and tricks is better for most problems), identify your problem, but come with a proposed solution and run it by the crowd. See what other answers crop up.

I think far and away the majority of Burners are like the guys standing in front of AntiM - she voiced her problem, and they solved it for her. :-> Maybe she would have wanted them to sit down, but they had another solution for her.

It really is anarchy - if I have a problem, it's up to me to fix it. It's _probable_ that passersby will jump in to help (I've had that happen to me when I needed help, and I've jumped in to help others), but in the end, it's up to me. I think Jayce is an excellent example of people proposing alternate answers, and his is an excellent proposal. Jump in and help.

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 10:47 am

I figured it out.

pinemom · Post by **pinemom** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 11:35 am

well...I guess I'll post...funny shit...
Last yr my first....I came w/ my camp we sat back way beyond the seaters...before the art cars....I went through the crowd to take a couple pix of my fire spinnin buddy's up front. Came with a price, me stupid newbie w/ open cup in hand, got dosed.
This year I got more activily involved in my fire conclave and spun fire in the inner circle. yup, closed lidded cup and actaully pretty sober to tell you the truth.
I enjoyed it emensly.
Last year, even though I saw the man burn, took the pictures of the man burn...I have not a inch of recolection of the whole event.
this year was better!

Timezone LaFontaine · Post by **Timezone LaFontaine** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 5:46 pm

I was at about 6:00, up pretty close, and there was a lot of tension between people who wanted everybody to sit and people who wanted to stand. Actually I ended up getting a bit spooked out by the people angrily chanting in unison "sit down!" I was seated because I could see that it was what the majority of the people wanted and I chose to respect that, but it can be a bit painful to be seated in somewhat cramped quarters for over an hour waiting for the burn. In retrospect I should have just gotten up and moved further back where there were more people standing, it wasn't worth being in the midst of all the indignation and tension.

The thing is, I'm 6'6" and if I'm taller than you while standing, I'm still gonna be taller than you while seated. I don't get all the way up to the front, but I like to be up fairly close. If you want to be in front of me, that's fine, just make sure you get there sooner than I do.

Personally I like the idea in the poll of half the space for people who want to be seated and half who want to stand. I like the crazy energy of the burn and want to be able to dance a little bit. It's pretty uncomfortable for me to be seated on the playa for over an hour.

The temple burn is a different story for me. It seems quite natural to be seated for that. But it seems a bit stifling to be seated while the man is burning.

Post by **mdmf007** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 7:17 pm

Timezone -

Tell people to get overthemselves. You were there first, and its not like your waving those big foam fingers in their face.

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 8:57 am

It's not the Standers that aggravate me- It's that so many choose to flagrantly ignore the dress code for the obviously FORMAL burns...Hello? What part of "After Six" don't you understand? God, it steams my monocle just thinking about it. Harumph!
*disdainfully shaking my jowls*

The Burn- Will you take this Sitting Down (so we can see)?

Should People Sit Down in first 10 rows only for duration of burns?

The Burn- Will you take this Sitting Down (so we can see)?