redistribution of left over tickets.

[ZaphodBurner]

By the way, people need to cut the "radical self reliance" bullshit. Radical self-reliance is what the emigrants used to cross the desert on foot along the Applegate/Lassen trail. We rely on Ford, Honda, the highway department, Exxon, Duracell, the DPW and off the volunteers who build the city for us so that when we leave we can tell everybody how radically self-reliant we are. The fucking Donner Party was radically self-reliant.

I have to disagree with this. Self Relicance doesn't mean you get by with no resources, it means you take reponsibility and accomplish things in the face of adversity with the resources you have.

I get what you're saying. It can mean many different things. But, I fail to find adversity in, for example, an air conditioned rental RV. There's so much non-radical about camping with tens of thousands of people who will take care of you if you have a problem that for me it radically dilutes the experience. The radical part for us is the road trip; trying to make a fan belt out of a flannel shirt sleeve, scraping deer guts out of the grill and swapping a radiator in Lakeview, having the tools and knowledge to fix what breaks, or do the best we can.

Children and pregnant women walked across the desert on their way to Oregon. They didn't have helicopters to medevac them if they drank too much vodka dancing around the buffalo chips the previous night, and then couldn't walk into Gerlach if they ran out of beer or ammo. I had relatives in Gulfport while I was partying my ass off, unbeknownst, during Hurricane Katrina. I'm uncomfortable with what they would think if I had gone down there a few months later and spoke to them about radical self-reliance at Burning Man. I still get you, though.

The emigrants and explorers had resources, but, we have seemingly unlimited resources. When that asshole whom I won't glorify by naming set fire the man, they built another one in time for the Saturday burn. (yay!) We can do stupid shit on the playa because somebody will help us if we fail What you're describing, in the context of where we do it, is just camping.

Unless it rains really hard. All bets are off.

Thanks for the discussion, I have a habit of sounding angry when I'm not so I hope I haven't offended you, and I hope to meet you on the playa!

[unjonharley]

I'm just waiting for mother nature to turn the playa inside out..

I've watch people bail on the second day.. Tents and shelters were in the wind.. There was no camp cooking.. I learned to like the taste of dust in every bite..
The raves were way over and I was loving every second of it

[pink]

I'm just waiting for mother nature to turn the playa inside out..

I've watch people bail on the second day.. Tents and shelters were in the wind.. There was no camp cooking.. I learned to like the taste of dust in every bite..
The raves were way over and I was loving every second of it

Yup! Was the big one 2008? I was working a cafe shift when the Monday storm hit, heard the whole playa was shut down. After shift just hunkered down in my van for hours, sweating like crazy, adding 'small fan' to my next year list, and watching the dust seep in through every crack. All the camps were behind a day because nothing could get done on Monday.

I heard about people leaving Tuesday. Which sucked for them, since Tues. Wed, & Thu, were pretty damn good days. Well comparatively. You couldn't bike anywhere, and 'pretty damn good' means 'no gale force winds and playa wide dust storms'.

That year the weekend warriors shouldn't have even bothered, since the gale force winds hit again Friday.

Could this have been more of a reason for the downward population tick in 2009 than the economy?

[SageV]

Radical self-reliance means showing up to the Burn with more than just a six pack of PBR, a box of power bars, and a few cans of beans, hoping the playa will provide everything else. This lesson was not learned by other virgins last years. I predict this year's real theme will be "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs."