Ok here is a place for you're Dear Larry letters. just make sure it is in "letter" format. What do you want, not want, personal feelings, kudos, and any other stuff you would like to tell Larry in a personal letter.
postly,
mr smith
p.s. I heard the hatted one lurks on occasion.
Dear Larry Harvey,
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Last Real Burner
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DVD Burner
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Lilly Flower
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Last Real Burner
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Eric
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Dear Larry,
ditto.stuart wrote:dear larry,
thanks!
It's a camping trip in the desert, not the redemption of the fallen world - Cryptofishist
Eric ShutterSlut
Former Ass't Editor & columnist, BRC Weekly
Eric ShutterSlut
Former Ass't Editor & columnist, BRC Weekly
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Rob the Wop
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I apologize.Last Real Burner wrote:Please use a form letter style to post in this thread.
Dear Mr. Harvey,
would you please run for president this year?
Thanks.
https://www.facebook.com/NeXTCODER
-
Guest
Dear Larry
Dear Larry; I feel as if I know you, having listened in on conversations in the bar at Bruno's among the rummies. Larry with the hats, the spicy girlfriend with the short skirts,, something about a Cadillac? Well at any rate, I wanted to ask you; first of all round up your attendees and alumnae,, all the tens of thousands of them and create a sub section dedicated to stopping the coal fired plant planned for Gerlach. Since if you fail a pall of coal smoke will eventually hang over Burning Man you may want to consider......:
My second request, would you do me a great favor and move Burning man. I have come up with a few locations that would serve better... Forty Mile Desert,, handy ot I80... flat... Frenchman Flat near Las Vegas, it too is flat, has some cool man made dimples,, you would not have to burn the man.. he (and every one) would naturally glow..... The interior of Yucca Mountain, you would not believe what the Department of Energy has created there,, Makes the Burning Man operation look like a kids carnival.. They could use the positive press... And there is my favorite spot... South Central Los Angeles, centered upon the Watts towers you could combine a party with socially constructive energies, and even leave the structures in place to serve as a tourist draw to this under utilyzed area... Sort of a SoCalExpo. Your security costs may be a bit higher here, but supply deliveries will be cheaper..
Sincerely,
Black Rock Ric,
My second request, would you do me a great favor and move Burning man. I have come up with a few locations that would serve better... Forty Mile Desert,, handy ot I80... flat... Frenchman Flat near Las Vegas, it too is flat, has some cool man made dimples,, you would not have to burn the man.. he (and every one) would naturally glow..... The interior of Yucca Mountain, you would not believe what the Department of Energy has created there,, Makes the Burning Man operation look like a kids carnival.. They could use the positive press... And there is my favorite spot... South Central Los Angeles, centered upon the Watts towers you could combine a party with socially constructive energies, and even leave the structures in place to serve as a tourist draw to this under utilyzed area... Sort of a SoCalExpo. Your security costs may be a bit higher here, but supply deliveries will be cheaper..
Sincerely,
Black Rock Ric,
Dear Larry,
First of all, thanks for the great party, I've really enjoyed and I hope to continue to enjoy it in the future. I think you are a great public speaker and I believe that's a real talent and something you should be proud of. I have a few suggestions however on ways to make the event better, and here they are:
1. STOP SELLING CHAI! They don't call me the "Chai Guy" for nothing Larry, and I really don't appreciate the competition, OK? It's time to get all Mel Gibson like and kick the money changers out of the temple. It's incredibly difficult to pull the dogmatic line of "No Commerce" when you guys are the biggest offenders.
2. BRING THE MAN BACK TO EARTH - There was something magical in going out to the Man your first evening in BRC , walking up and actually being able to touch him. There was a physical connection there, it was powerful (or maybe I was just receiving a mild shock from an improperly grounded neon tube?). In any case, the Man doesn’t belong on a pedestal.
3. CHANGE BRC's DESIGN- What's the point of creating a temporary city in the desert if you build it exactly the same way every single year? Some theme camps have are even becoming geographically stagnant, stuck in the same place every year. There were lot's of great ideas for design change discussed right here on the eplaya so I won't get into all that, just promise me to look into it, OK?
4.NO MORE THEMES- I know this is your baby, and it probably sounded great on paper, but is it really necessary?
That's all I really wanted to say. Hope you are doing well. See ya' on the playa Larry!
Love, Chai Guy
First of all, thanks for the great party, I've really enjoyed and I hope to continue to enjoy it in the future. I think you are a great public speaker and I believe that's a real talent and something you should be proud of. I have a few suggestions however on ways to make the event better, and here they are:
1. STOP SELLING CHAI! They don't call me the "Chai Guy" for nothing Larry, and I really don't appreciate the competition, OK? It's time to get all Mel Gibson like and kick the money changers out of the temple. It's incredibly difficult to pull the dogmatic line of "No Commerce" when you guys are the biggest offenders.
2. BRING THE MAN BACK TO EARTH - There was something magical in going out to the Man your first evening in BRC , walking up and actually being able to touch him. There was a physical connection there, it was powerful (or maybe I was just receiving a mild shock from an improperly grounded neon tube?). In any case, the Man doesn’t belong on a pedestal.
3. CHANGE BRC's DESIGN- What's the point of creating a temporary city in the desert if you build it exactly the same way every single year? Some theme camps have are even becoming geographically stagnant, stuck in the same place every year. There were lot's of great ideas for design change discussed right here on the eplaya so I won't get into all that, just promise me to look into it, OK?
4.NO MORE THEMES- I know this is your baby, and it probably sounded great on paper, but is it really necessary?
That's all I really wanted to say. Hope you are doing well. See ya' on the playa Larry!
Love, Chai Guy
it's neat when people do art projects, large or small. The theme is Larry's art project. Doesn't he deserve to do his own art project. I don't drink chai, but I aint tellin you not to be the Chai Guy.
Ok, scratch number 4 .
Stuart what do you like to drink? I'll be sure to be bring some extra to Xara's for you.
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Dear Larry,
Thanks for a place to come play.
confidintaly,
mr smith
confidintaly,
mr smith
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Dear Mr. Harvey,
would you please run for president this year and have Ms. Marion as your running mate?
would you please run for president this year and have Ms. Marion as your running mate?
https://www.facebook.com/NeXTCODER
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Last Real Burner
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Mr. Harvey says, and I Quote...
A message from Larry Harvey:
Hello Everyone,
I'm writing all of you to introduce our art theme for 2004, Vault of
Heaven. Please allow me to begin this letter with a little history.
Since the year 2001, the platform that supports the Burning Man has
been a kind of stage set. Our theme in that year was called the Seven
Ages, and the platform we constructed took the form of what I'm forced
to call a quadrapedal pylon. More popularly, of course, most folks
simply referred to it as a giant "A". This great pedestal was designed
to raise Burning Man high overhead. The greater elevation allowed
increasing numbers of participants to witness the Burn. This platform
was only modestly interactive. It functioned as a monumental gateway
to other attractions arranged on axis behind it. People could also
congregate at the top of its base to gain a higher vantage point from
which to enjoy a better view of the surrounding playa. A system
ladders within it led upward into a windowed chamber immediately
beneath the Man, but access to this passageway was limited. It formed
a very narrow aperture when matched against the thousands of people who
wanted to gain access to the topmost level. Safety and logistical
concerns restricted the actual flow of participants to a trickle. In
the following year, Rod Garret and I designed a lighthouse as a
platform for the Burning Man. Although this was better integrated into
the theme of 2002 – The Floating World – it was still subject to the
same basic limitations.
In that year, as I was rummaging around in the base of the Lighthouse
looking for some mislaid props, I could hear participants on the
platform overhead. They were jumping up and down in unison (for lack,
I couldn't help feeling, of anything better to do). Rod and I had
carefully designed the Lighthouse as a giant compass. Theoretically,
participants could find their way around the playa by aligning marks
along the railing of the platform - they registered a full 360 degrees
to corresponding lines of latitude printed on our city's map. Even the
triangular benches at the base of this structure were designed to serve
and look like compass pointers. It was a clever scheme, we thought,
turning the Man's platform into a giant navigational instrument. But
now I realized it possessed a fatal flaw. It didn't immediately invite
people to participate. I'd guess that only one person in a hundred, at
best, ever used it as we'd intended.
Instead, as I stood there in the semi-darkness of the platform's
basement, all I could hear was a continuous Thud… Thud… Thud. The deck
overhead was vibrating like the tympanum of a drum. I knew the
structure could withstand this, and I knew, of course, that folks were
simply having fun with what we'd given them. But, quite frankly, I
must confess this seemed to me, in that moment, a little like the
behavior of animals pent up in a zoo. The words of the famous song by
Peggy Lee popped into my mind: " Is that all there is? Is that all
there is? Because, if that's all there is, let's go on dancing, bring
on the booze…". I was aware that our event is the largest interactive
art environment in the world, and I knew that the platform of the Man
was its geographic and symbolic center. I decided, then and there,
that we could do better.
Last year, as part of a theme I titled Beyond Belief, Rod and I
designed an enormous Pre-Columbian pyramid. A very hardworking army of
highly skilled workers led by Andrew Sano constructed this edifice.
The pyramid allowed participants to mount a monumental stairway that
took them directly to the chamber beneath the Burning Man, and the
building now featured a much higher viewing platform. But, more
importantly, arranged around its base, we had created eight ceremonial
niches – shrines within which any participant could sit contemplatively
– our theme related to the immediacy of spiritual experience -- and
thus self-sanctify themselves. We put the word out in advance that
folks should be ready to assume an "otherworldly" appearance in order
to make their separation from the outside world dramatically
compelling. Nambla the Clown, our friend Ggreg Taylor, heroically
stepped in at the last moment to serve as a stage manager, and he and
his assistants managed to cosmetically transform many people right on
the spot.
I kept flitting out to the Great Temple, as it was called, to see just
how this process was unfolding. By day and night, I witnessed dozens
of people sitting cross-legged in these cubicles, staring out into
space as if they inhabited some sort of Nirvana. Perhaps even more
interestingly, I witnessed many more participants gathered before each
shrine. Encouraged in advance, they came with gifts to offer these
mendicant holy ones, leaving them in special begging bowls placed in
front of each shrine. Later, I talked to a friend who had
participated. Following the simple premise we'd created, he installed
himself within a niche with no other purpose than to exhibit himself,
to quietly possess his being, enshrined by a frame of sacred
architecture. After a while, he told me, one particular person, an
utter stranger, materialized before him. For several minutes – he told
me he'd lost track of time – they silently stared into one another's
eyes without a single word being exchanged. Then this person
disappeared.
Afterwards, having completed his turn, my friend decided to stroll
about the base of the Great Temple to see how other holy ones were
faring. He saw what I had also seen. Very typically, some of the
witnessing participants would become so engrossed by the illusion
framed in front of them that they would actually begin to lean forward
against the slanted base of the pyramid, drawn closer and closer by the
prospect of an entity, an "other", who appeared to effortlessly radiate
spirit. Finally, when he stepped before a certain cubicle, he
encountered the very person who had witnessed him a few moments
earlier. There this person squatted, staring, with perfect equanimity,
out into space. Within an instant, their eyes met. Then there
occurred, my friend said, a startling and very intense frission of
recognition – the ritual cycle was now made complete.
He lingered there in this way, silently gazing into the eyes of this
stranger. Finally, after some indeterminate lapse of time, he quietly
walked away and never looked back. Neither party knew the other's name
– but they had connected in a certain and very immediate way that many
of us, even with our friends and lovers, might never quite achieve in
so conscious a fashion. This story helped to make my day, maybe even
my entire year, for I, along with hundreds of other creative
collaborators, had worked for many months in order to produce such
moments as this. We had succeeded in affecting many people; we had
designed an interactive context with the power to transform experience.
I relate all of this because it leads up to our theme this year, Vault
of Heaven, and an opportunity – available to everyone -- to
collaboratively participate in the creation of the most ambitious
interactive art context that we have yet attempted. This year the
so-called platform of the Man will be more than a platform – it will
become a pavilion. It will be designed and built in the form of a
classic observatory, with Burning Man atop the apex of its dome.
However, the name of this impressive structure is almost a misnomer:
within it and without, we will do more than observe. We’ll encounter
ourselves engaged in a truly remarkable variety of connective and
creative activities. The colorfully illustrated text that portrays
this year's art theme is listed on the front page of our website
(http://www.burningman.com), or you can go directly to it
(http://www.burningman.com/themecamps_in ... theme.html).
We hope this theme will elicit many different kinds of creative ideas
and projects; costumes, theme camps, performances, art works. Look,
especially, for opportunities to take part in the creation of our
city's central landmark. This year, more than any other, offers up new
ways in which you can participate.
Thank you in advance for helping to recreate the universe,
Larry Harvey
***\<>/**\<>/**\<>/**\<>/**\<>/**\<>/**\<>/***\<>/**\<>/**\<>/**\<>/**
Hello Everyone,
I'm writing all of you to introduce our art theme for 2004, Vault of
Heaven. Please allow me to begin this letter with a little history.
Since the year 2001, the platform that supports the Burning Man has
been a kind of stage set. Our theme in that year was called the Seven
Ages, and the platform we constructed took the form of what I'm forced
to call a quadrapedal pylon. More popularly, of course, most folks
simply referred to it as a giant "A". This great pedestal was designed
to raise Burning Man high overhead. The greater elevation allowed
increasing numbers of participants to witness the Burn. This platform
was only modestly interactive. It functioned as a monumental gateway
to other attractions arranged on axis behind it. People could also
congregate at the top of its base to gain a higher vantage point from
which to enjoy a better view of the surrounding playa. A system
ladders within it led upward into a windowed chamber immediately
beneath the Man, but access to this passageway was limited. It formed
a very narrow aperture when matched against the thousands of people who
wanted to gain access to the topmost level. Safety and logistical
concerns restricted the actual flow of participants to a trickle. In
the following year, Rod Garret and I designed a lighthouse as a
platform for the Burning Man. Although this was better integrated into
the theme of 2002 – The Floating World – it was still subject to the
same basic limitations.
In that year, as I was rummaging around in the base of the Lighthouse
looking for some mislaid props, I could hear participants on the
platform overhead. They were jumping up and down in unison (for lack,
I couldn't help feeling, of anything better to do). Rod and I had
carefully designed the Lighthouse as a giant compass. Theoretically,
participants could find their way around the playa by aligning marks
along the railing of the platform - they registered a full 360 degrees
to corresponding lines of latitude printed on our city's map. Even the
triangular benches at the base of this structure were designed to serve
and look like compass pointers. It was a clever scheme, we thought,
turning the Man's platform into a giant navigational instrument. But
now I realized it possessed a fatal flaw. It didn't immediately invite
people to participate. I'd guess that only one person in a hundred, at
best, ever used it as we'd intended.
Instead, as I stood there in the semi-darkness of the platform's
basement, all I could hear was a continuous Thud… Thud… Thud. The deck
overhead was vibrating like the tympanum of a drum. I knew the
structure could withstand this, and I knew, of course, that folks were
simply having fun with what we'd given them. But, quite frankly, I
must confess this seemed to me, in that moment, a little like the
behavior of animals pent up in a zoo. The words of the famous song by
Peggy Lee popped into my mind: " Is that all there is? Is that all
there is? Because, if that's all there is, let's go on dancing, bring
on the booze…". I was aware that our event is the largest interactive
art environment in the world, and I knew that the platform of the Man
was its geographic and symbolic center. I decided, then and there,
that we could do better.
Last year, as part of a theme I titled Beyond Belief, Rod and I
designed an enormous Pre-Columbian pyramid. A very hardworking army of
highly skilled workers led by Andrew Sano constructed this edifice.
The pyramid allowed participants to mount a monumental stairway that
took them directly to the chamber beneath the Burning Man, and the
building now featured a much higher viewing platform. But, more
importantly, arranged around its base, we had created eight ceremonial
niches – shrines within which any participant could sit contemplatively
– our theme related to the immediacy of spiritual experience -- and
thus self-sanctify themselves. We put the word out in advance that
folks should be ready to assume an "otherworldly" appearance in order
to make their separation from the outside world dramatically
compelling. Nambla the Clown, our friend Ggreg Taylor, heroically
stepped in at the last moment to serve as a stage manager, and he and
his assistants managed to cosmetically transform many people right on
the spot.
I kept flitting out to the Great Temple, as it was called, to see just
how this process was unfolding. By day and night, I witnessed dozens
of people sitting cross-legged in these cubicles, staring out into
space as if they inhabited some sort of Nirvana. Perhaps even more
interestingly, I witnessed many more participants gathered before each
shrine. Encouraged in advance, they came with gifts to offer these
mendicant holy ones, leaving them in special begging bowls placed in
front of each shrine. Later, I talked to a friend who had
participated. Following the simple premise we'd created, he installed
himself within a niche with no other purpose than to exhibit himself,
to quietly possess his being, enshrined by a frame of sacred
architecture. After a while, he told me, one particular person, an
utter stranger, materialized before him. For several minutes – he told
me he'd lost track of time – they silently stared into one another's
eyes without a single word being exchanged. Then this person
disappeared.
Afterwards, having completed his turn, my friend decided to stroll
about the base of the Great Temple to see how other holy ones were
faring. He saw what I had also seen. Very typically, some of the
witnessing participants would become so engrossed by the illusion
framed in front of them that they would actually begin to lean forward
against the slanted base of the pyramid, drawn closer and closer by the
prospect of an entity, an "other", who appeared to effortlessly radiate
spirit. Finally, when he stepped before a certain cubicle, he
encountered the very person who had witnessed him a few moments
earlier. There this person squatted, staring, with perfect equanimity,
out into space. Within an instant, their eyes met. Then there
occurred, my friend said, a startling and very intense frission of
recognition – the ritual cycle was now made complete.
He lingered there in this way, silently gazing into the eyes of this
stranger. Finally, after some indeterminate lapse of time, he quietly
walked away and never looked back. Neither party knew the other's name
– but they had connected in a certain and very immediate way that many
of us, even with our friends and lovers, might never quite achieve in
so conscious a fashion. This story helped to make my day, maybe even
my entire year, for I, along with hundreds of other creative
collaborators, had worked for many months in order to produce such
moments as this. We had succeeded in affecting many people; we had
designed an interactive context with the power to transform experience.
I relate all of this because it leads up to our theme this year, Vault
of Heaven, and an opportunity – available to everyone -- to
collaboratively participate in the creation of the most ambitious
interactive art context that we have yet attempted. This year the
so-called platform of the Man will be more than a platform – it will
become a pavilion. It will be designed and built in the form of a
classic observatory, with Burning Man atop the apex of its dome.
However, the name of this impressive structure is almost a misnomer:
within it and without, we will do more than observe. We’ll encounter
ourselves engaged in a truly remarkable variety of connective and
creative activities. The colorfully illustrated text that portrays
this year's art theme is listed on the front page of our website
(http://www.burningman.com), or you can go directly to it
(http://www.burningman.com/themecamps_in ... theme.html).
We hope this theme will elicit many different kinds of creative ideas
and projects; costumes, theme camps, performances, art works. Look,
especially, for opportunities to take part in the creation of our
city's central landmark. This year, more than any other, offers up new
ways in which you can participate.
Thank you in advance for helping to recreate the universe,
Larry Harvey
***\<>/**\<>/**\<>/**\<>/**\<>/**\<>/**\<>/***\<>/**\<>/**\<>/**\<>/**
Dear Larry,
Do you ever think, "Goddamn, I started this cool party, and now I'll be murdered in my sleep if I pull out of it! I never had a chance at a career! Maybe it would've been kinda nice to have a 9 to 5, wife, kids and a dog to come home to, be respectable. I could've been an architect!"
Well, thanks for not looking back. Thanks for the sacrifice. It sure makes my 9 to 5 and wife more bearable to have BM to look forward to every year.
Matt.
Do you ever think, "Goddamn, I started this cool party, and now I'll be murdered in my sleep if I pull out of it! I never had a chance at a career! Maybe it would've been kinda nice to have a 9 to 5, wife, kids and a dog to come home to, be respectable. I could've been an architect!"
Well, thanks for not looking back. Thanks for the sacrifice. It sure makes my 9 to 5 and wife more bearable to have BM to look forward to every year.
Matt.
-
Last Real Burner
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- Joined: Mon Sep 01, 2003 9:34 am
- Location: Heaven
- Contact:
Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Clause...
I'm sure this is Larry's biggest fear.
pollywollygoogaly,
mr smith
pollywollygoogaly,
mr smith
"Do you know what happened to the boy who got everything he wished for? - He lived happily ever after".
-
Release Me
- Posts: 82
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Simply Joel
- Posts: 3483
- Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2004 9:08 am
- Location: Land of Lincoln
- Contact:
Dear Larry;
I'm just sitting around in my underwear, eating potato chips, surfing the internet, and have nothing even remotely interesting to say.
Brian
P.S.: do you happen to have about fifty thousand U.S. dollars lying around, gathering dust? I'd be happy to take it off your hands for you! I promise to give it a good home and put it to good use!
I'm just sitting around in my underwear, eating potato chips, surfing the internet, and have nothing even remotely interesting to say.
Brian
P.S.: do you happen to have about fifty thousand U.S. dollars lying around, gathering dust? I'd be happy to take it off your hands for you! I promise to give it a good home and put it to good use!
"Nothing is withheld from us which we have conceived to do.
Do things that have never been done."
--Russell Kirsch
Do things that have never been done."
--Russell Kirsch
Dear Mr. Harvey,
Good job with building a great sub-culture! Impressive. There are some great dynamic things about this society of Burningman, and I'm proud to be a part of it. -- year after ball breaking year. --
Thank you very much for keeping the cacophonist fire smoldering! And keep on writing!
Sincerely,
Shitmouse
p.s. chai guy has some good points. maybe a new city design, and bring the man back to earth! -(nicer cadense with a fast burn. helps the energy for that after-burn eruption/erection).
Good job with building a great sub-culture! Impressive. There are some great dynamic things about this society of Burningman, and I'm proud to be a part of it. -- year after ball breaking year. --
Thank you very much for keeping the cacophonist fire smoldering! And keep on writing!
Sincerely,
Shitmouse
p.s. chai guy has some good points. maybe a new city design, and bring the man back to earth! -(nicer cadense with a fast burn. helps the energy for that after-burn eruption/erection).
=-=-= \<>/ =-=-=
-
cowboyangel
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Last Real Burner
- Posts: 941
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- Location: Heaven
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Hold My Hand...
how do I induce your old friend original burner John Honor to come out to BM this year?
Channeling Harvey Larry <holding envelope to forehead>:
Cold Beer...
dearly,
Rabbi Swami Rick
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Last Real Burner
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~boink...
Hi Nipples....
"Do you know what happened to the boy who got everything he wished for? - He lived happily ever after".
Dear Larry
Dear mr Harvey,
Thanks. Hey I think this year you should have a "Be Larry for a day" give away, where you pick somebody at random and then they run around with you seeing the city through your eyes.
And they should get to wear your hat...OK maybe that is a bit far...maybe a remarkably similar hat
Thanks. Hey I think this year you should have a "Be Larry for a day" give away, where you pick somebody at random and then they run around with you seeing the city through your eyes.
And they should get to wear your hat...OK maybe that is a bit far...maybe a remarkably similar hat
Buddha wasn't a Christian, but Jesus would have made a good Buddhist
Shaman
Shaman