CRUDE AWAKENING ON COVER OF SIERRA MAGAZINE

[Dustdevil]

Interesting perspective and nice photos.

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200807/

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200807/burningman.asp

[gyre]

It's very easy to lower the carbon footprint.
Stay home.

My share of the Crude Awakening burn pales in comparison to the fuel burned getting there.

They are advocating a rainbow gathering.
This year's is in Wyoming, about the same driving distance for me as burning man.
If I wanted to kid myself about my environmental impact, I could stay home and be silly in the ac.



http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/site ... -site.html

[TomServo]

SOLUTION: Nuclear powered cars

We'd all be better drivers..Or Else!

[madmatt]

Interesting perspective and nice photos.

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200807/

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200807/burningman.asp

Wow, that is just about like the least timely article I have ever seen. Interesting? Yes! It would have been in August 2007, not August 2008. Sheesh.

(But thanks for posting)

[**burn**]

I, too, found it strange that they considered this news one year later.

And the tree did make it off the truck. Technically.

burnbaby

[theCryptofishist]

Well, they might have waited until the Sept/Oct issue, but they did get it out right before the burn this year. So it's topical, if not timely.

[alt12]

I met the author of this article at Lightning in a bottle this year. Camped next to him as a matter of fact. He was a real smug schmuck I have to tell you. His attitude was "can you believe that burning man is not a green event?!? How dare they have a green theme and then burn all that fuel!" He was in a word humorless.

The only thing I agree with him on is that BM should not have a green theme (or any theme at all)...Its a fossil fuel extravaganza...Always has been, always will be...Lets not pretend its not. It would be like having a theme for one year be sobriety....And this article would be like having the Office of Drug Control Policy scream bloody murder that there is drug use on the playa....With themes like this, how is it possible not be hypocritical?


Anyway, who cares? Is that really the great environmental problem of our century, too many firebugs in the desert blowing shit up? come-on... This guy needs to lighten-up...

[Captain Goddammit]

I, too, found it strange that they considered this news one year later.

And the tree did make it off the truck. Technically.

burnbaby

The black rock rangers claimed the tree never made it past the gate, and I read from others that it never went up.
But I happened to take these photos:

[ZaphodBurner]

The only thing I agree with him on is that BM should not have a green theme (or any theme at all)...Its a fossil fuel extravaganza...Always has been, always will be...Lets not pretend its not. It would be like having a theme for one year be sobriety....And this article would be like having the Office of Drug Control Policy scream bloody murder that there is drug use on the playa....With themes like this, how is it possible not be hypocritical?

Anyway, who cares? Is that really the great environmental problem of our century, too many firebugs in the desert blowing shit up? come-on... This guy needs to lighten-up...

The BMorg earned criticism for pretending to be "green," but, fuck the Sierra Club otherwise. Those self-righteous jackasses do more to annoy America than they're worth.

In 2005, the LNT people kept trying to get us to enter the LNT contest for free BM tickets and although we were on the LNT camp tour for various things about our camp, we respectfully declined; we didn't load a bunch of wood and plastic into a bunch of RVs and cars and drive out into the desert to declare ourselves "green." I have more respect for the LNT concept than that.

What people should do is try to reduce their impact the other 34odd days a year, and acknowledge Burning Man for what it is; a vacation from the World. If Burners wanted to be "green" they'd arrive in buses and airplanes; vehicles with substantially better mileage-per-passenger than the average car. We don't, we're not, it's not. It's Burning Man. We build art CARS, and art, and we burn stuff and try to make sure it all goes straight up in the air instead of back on the ground, so we don't get fined for littering. It's not an environmentalist event, but you don't have to be an environmentalist to know better than to trash the place.

(The other thing we ought to do is capture and skullfuck the people who throw their trash on the side of the highway AFTER the burn. It would take one or two dead ravers impaled on the side of the road to make the point, but, then you have a bunch of people hollering about that, too.)

-cx

[Barbie]

Wow great photos - I saw the tree drive by on the truck and lots and lots of people were riding along with it touching it.

[Ron]

Love the pictures, Capt'n. :)

Ron

[thirt33n]

I met the author of this article at Lightning in a bottle this year. Camped next to him as a matter of fact. He was a real smug schmuck I have to tell you. His attitude was "can you believe that burning man is not a green event?!? How dare they have a green theme and then burn all that fuel!" He was in a word humorless.

The only thing I agree with him on is that BM should not have a green theme (or any theme at all)...Its a fossil fuel extravaganza...Always has been, always will be...Lets not pretend its not. It would be like having a theme for one year be sobriety....And this article would be like having the Office of Drug Control Policy scream bloody murder that there is drug use on the playa....With themes like this, how is it possible not be hypocritical?


Anyway, who cares? Is that really the great environmental problem of our century, too many firebugs in the desert blowing shit up? come-on... This guy needs to lighten-up...

...i love eplaya. in one thread I think you're a schmuck, and then I read this post and you're right up my alley. my turn to kiss your ass....

[Zulegoona]

I wonder if Burning Man LLC got their cut for the use of the picture in the article.

[Dustdevil]

The picture in the article (not the cover) was taken by a friend of one of the pyro crew members. He took some of the best shots of the show I have seen. Truly outstanding work.

[mrmatthew]

Hi,

I wrote the Sierra story, and I'd like to respond to a few points that have been raised....

I can't speak for Sierra's editorial staff, but my sense is that the Green Man story was interesting even a year later because it wasn't an attempt at breaking news (which isn't possible with a magazine with a long lead time in any case), but instead because it was a philosophical and thus somewhat timeless exploration... With life on the planet in peril, how do we relate to celebration and art? What can we "get away with" given our moral obligations to the environment? And keep in mind that likely a very small percentage of Sierra's national audience knows jack squat about Burning Man, so while "how green was green man" is old for the eplaya crowd, it's not necessarily so crusty for the average Sierra reader.

As for alt12's representation about me:

"His attitude was "can you believe that burning man is not a green event?!? How dare they have a green theme and then burn all that fuel!"

My attitude is more accurately: By embracing a green theme, BM opened itself up to scrutiny by the community and the media. In other words, "how green is Burning Man?" wasn't a compelling question until Burning Man unfurled that banner.

Can a festival in a lifeless desert organized around burning stuff be "green"? That's a legitimate question, and one I sought to answer in the story from multiple perspectives. Given word count constraints, much was left unsaid... some of which you can find in less evolved, but lengthier versions of the piece posted to my website, http://matthewtaylor.net.

Finally, as for alt12's claim: "The only thing I agree with him on is that BM should not have a green theme (or any theme at all)." In fact, I am not anti-theme. I usually like art themes at Burning Man, and in the past they've added a lot to my experience.

Matthew

[chiefdanfox]

To say the festival opened itself to deconstruction because it chose the moniker of "green" supplants the intelligence of the examination with slavish reaction, which is sort of a FNS response, if you will. I believe the first time the effigy was hoisted and set afire it was a public event, so the public relevance of this symbol and festival predates the assignment of a thematic structure. The theme is merely a lens capturing some of the festival’s energy, and not the full intent of the participants. After all, there are a fair number of folks that just like to attend because it is a fricasseed and insalubrious hootenanny.

[magicmarty]

Cheif DanFox expressed it with eloquence and precision. Burning Man is not a cause for various social and or environmental issues.

It is a place of relief from the default world for 6 or 7 days.

It is for fun and enjoying art that is seen nowhere else.

For experiencing human relationships in ways that are otherwise impossible to do.

It is a place for fun and games and costumes and no costumes and strange and wonderful happenings and people.

Just let it be and enjoy it. Come with no expectations, check your inhibitions at the greeters gate or before and have a ball!

Next week we can go back to being responsible citizens, and we all should!

[betrdanevr]

So in the end, I suppose it's a damned good thing that somebody constructed the rules that BM has to pick up after itself!

[Captain Goddammit]

I'd like to step right up and say fuck the Sierra Club!
Theoretically their intent is good but they tend to be full of shit.
Fortunately, virtually no one reads their magazine and few people pay them any attention at all.

[ZaphodBurner]

I'd like to step right up and say fuck the Sierra Club!
Theoretically their intent is good but they tend to be full of shit.

In my earlier comment I said "Fuck the Sierra Club" too. More precisely, my issue is about the people who write a check to some environmental organization and then go along with their daily lives just like everybody else. Sort of fire-and-forget environmentalism of which I'm occasionally guilty. Fuck Me too, when that happens.

In one of the blogs there's a woman ranting about "death machines" in terms of the streets being named after cars, as if we all didn't ride in motor vehicles down asphalt highways onto the otherwise pristine playa in order to marvel at giant works of art made from timber hauled out from the woods on trucks, to mills, to retail centers, and then onto the playa each and every year. Bitching about vehicles at Burning Man is like bitching about drugs at a Grateful Dead show. Fuck that. Fuck her.

Meanwhile a red-meat-eating friend of mine from redneck Estacada, Oregon just came up to me the other day and said "Hey, I read an article in the Sierra Club magazine about..." So, SOMEBODY reads it! He's going to try to go this year.

-c

[gyre]

She gets to complain since she's coming on foot.

I quit riding a bike for transport to prevent my death.

I may try an electric, but carefully.
You won't see me in the street if I can avoid it.
We have some 'I have the right of way on a bike' assholes here.

Right of way doesn't matter much under thousands of pounds of steel.

[ZaphodBurner]

She gets to complain since she's coming on foot.

The Man's materials and builders, the shitter maintenance, the trash fence, the greeters, Center Camp, and the people preventing crimes on the playa arrive in Death Mobiles. Perhaps she should measure her contribution to Burning Man against theirs.

If she agrees to pack out her own human waste and doesn't watch the Man or temple burns or any of the other things that make it Burning Man, she would have a valid reason to complain. But, then it wouldn't be Burning Man. So why come at all? Why not just walk out to the Playa in September or October?

One cool thing about America is that everybody "gets to complain" about everything. They also get to be totally clueless stark-raving hypocrites, parasites and fools.

[thisisthatwhichis]

hehehe.... yea, one of the messy-est after-events that I saw, was after an "Earth-Day" event............

[Captain Goddammit]

I love the fact that there was an anti-Sierra club called the Sahara Club... I wonder if they still exist? I should look them up if they do.

[capjbadger]

Right of way doesn't matter much under thousands of pounds of steel.

We call it the "Rule of Lugnuts" around here. The object with the most lugnuts wins.

Badger

[betrdanevr]

Right of way doesn't matter much under thousands of pounds of steel.

Exactly! -- which is what I tell my son when he says to me, "Mom, but *I* have the right of way."

"Right, sonny-boy. And you can be right all the way to the morgue, which is where I do NOT want to see you."


Seems to me, though, there should be a compromise available here instead of trying to make the Sierra Club into evil-doers -- not that I'm a member. I guess I'm too lazy. LOL

[pinemom]

heheee

all I know is that I wasnt even stage side, I was a mile away from "Crude awakening" I savored the fireworks like none Ive ever seen in MY life time. and I felt the heat of the mushroom explosion!(to the point that I thought at any minute that the ambulances would start coming in from everywhere cause everyone I knew and loved were fried dead by the heat I COULD feel that far away!!!!!)nope...didnt happen!

Really if you think about it, with any of the "THEMES" that BM comes up with...its like art....everyone will take it in, in a completely different way, a different opinion is what we are all allowed in life!

Sure I think the majority of peeps thought about the Green man in a enviromental way and the possiblilties of impact. I bet everyone took away a piece of an idea and probly has done at least one thing in their day to day lives that is GREENER.

So, given that I went in with just the faintest idea of the COLOR GREEN! hahaaaa, costumes, sharpies, material for my shade structure...hahaa

But when I came back to defaultia~ I built a compost box...a VERY large one, I bought 5 chickens and 2 ducks, I planted a garden that is almost 1/4 of my half acre back yard.
We made the addition to the booby bar domes, but with the help of stargeezer, we were able to waste less....make every piece count, and make a bunch of windchimes to boot!



If everyone came back from BM and did one, even smaller thing greener in their lives...LOOK! It worked!

There will always be left wing confrontationalist and tree huggers and rights of the less fortunate or discriminated against...
There will always be someone bitching about how we do things or not do things...
There will always be a wrong for every right.

Its just up to each and every individual to do even the smallest thing to counteract the distruction that has already taken place...

But folks ...really....in the end...Mother Earth will one day wake up, and not feel so well, morning sickness so to speak, and she will throw up all over us and expel us off the face of the Earth! She will then be preganant for 9 thousand years and then she will give forth labor pains that will knock the whole solor system off its axis...and then....it will begin again.

Children of the Earth...respect thy mother...but who are we kidding really, all children make bad decissions, its what we do....were ONLY HUMAN!

[ZaphodBurner]

But folks ...really....in the end...Mother Earth will one day wake up, and not feel so well, morning sickness so to speak, and she will throw up all over us and expel us off the face of the Earth! She will then be preganant for 9 thousand years and then she will give forth labor pains that will knock the whole solor system off its axis...and then....it will begin again.

What indication is there that Mother Earth is asleep? To suggest that Mother Earth could somehow knock the whole solar system off its "axis" is to underestimate the magnitude and emptiness of the solar system itself, but, if you're looking for some thematic pre-Burn reading, I strongly recommend "Waiting for the Morning Train" by Bruce Catton. He won Pulitzers for explaining the Civil War to 1950s and 1960s America, but in 1972 he wrote "Morning Train" and sort of explained America itself:

He said that civilization--Detroit, New York, Seattle--is what happened in the period between ice ages. Some day the glaciers would come down and grind it all into gravel and sand. Also:

"It is fairly easy for man to assert his mastery over his earthly environment, but once he has asserted that mastery he has to go on exercising it no matter where the exercise takes him. Invent a simple device like the automobile, to get you from here to there more quickly than you could go without it; before long you are in bondage to it, so that you build your cities and shape your countryside and reorder your entire life in the light of what will be good for the machine instead of what will be good for you."

I'm going to start a discussion just to see if anybody else is familiar with his works.

Have a good week!

-chris
"There was a hint, at times, when the dead winter wind blew at midnight, that the age of ice might some day return, sliding down the country like a felt eraser over a grade school blackboard, rubbing out all of the sums and sentences that had been so carefully written down; leaving, barely legible, a mocking quod erat demonstrandum."

[gyre]

The fireworks were wonderful choices, weren't they?
The best show I've ever seen.


Nature won't be fazed much by the changes that come next.
Our ability to adapt may be in question though.

Man may be the thin gray line on the canyon wall.

[Box Burner]

I suspect that we have been blasted back to the stone age more than once.