Celebrity knocks Burning Man on Jay Leno

[blyslv]

dfa,

I'm less comfortable with people deciding what are the "right" reasons and who are the "right" people then somebody like hg presenting a skewed opinion of the event.

"Group think" is dangerous and will water down the event more then anything, seems to me.

I'd give her props for the nipples though.

[Dr. Pyro]

Look on the bright side: At least she didn't go on The Daily Show and say it; that really would have ruined our image!

[calicowboy925]

First, who cares what some Hollywood type thinks, they live in dreamland and are the most disingenuous people on the planet, hell, they marry people for flippin good PR! Imagine if she said BM was the greatest thing, THEN, we'd get the really lamesters coming!

[DVD Burner]

uhmmmm,

This is probally a really dumb question that has been already asked but..... who's Heather Graham?

[Sensei]

I've seen plenty of clue-tards in my day, but in my 5+ years of reading this board the following post absofuckinglutely takes the cake:

if burningman is something deeper and more significant than a big party in the desert where people get drunk and fucked-up and have sex and get dirty and trip their balls off - then i want my money back.

i didn't pay to show up to some kind of hippie spiritual love fest church thing, mixed with mad max wannabes and fire freaks.

i don't go to burningman to cry into the light - I GO TO PARTY PARTY PARTY! and that means taxing the infrastructure and leaving little things on the ground. it means P-A-R-T-Y in the D-E-S-E-R-T with a buch of weird ass montherfuckers.

i want to see more big-ass RVs, more tourists, more frat-boys - MORE GEEKS with cameras freaking out the freaks.

i want to see the whole damn thing toned down so far that no one will ever be able to say burningman is anything more than a party party in the desert.

burningman needs all the heather grahams of the world... they are the life-blood.

Way to go bronco! Takes alot to stand out, but you managed it. Jesus H. Christ! This goes in Sensei's personal dictionary as an example under the term 'fuckwit'. You, sir, are a goddammed disgrace; not only to us, but probably to most New Zealanders as well.

P-A-R-T-Y! What a fuckin' moron.

[unjonharley]

Sensel<snip>

Note to self, Don't ever piss in senel's breakfast food again.

[zoeyburn]

BURNINGMAN SUCKS - DON'T GO!!!!!!!!

(It's just like us Pacific NorthWesterners saying "It rains ALL the time here" to the Californians so they won't want to move here and we can have all this beautiful country to ourselves - ha!)

I'm makin' T-shirts!

[Rabbi Dali Rick]

Where are all these fucking naked drunk with people with the good drugs?


highly,
the rebbi

[stuart]

I'm bummed becuase people I work for, who know where I go in August, would have watched her and given creedence to what she said.

personally, I have talked with her in a club and found that
A: she aint quite so hot in person
B: she is sharp as a cue ball

[ronski]

BURNINGMAN SUCKS - DON'T GO!!!!!!!!

(It's just like us Pacific NorthWesterners saying "It rains ALL the time here" to the Californians so they won't want to move here and we can have all this beautiful country to ourselves - ha!)

I'm makin' T-shirts!

"Rains all the time" - ha!. Right you are dear. Emmett Watson and his Lesser Seattle Society would be proud. Back in the late 80's & 90's we tried to start the meme about the 'California Killer', a serial killer that only targeted people with California license plates. "Don't you KNOW about him? Oh, well, yeah, the state government has been covering it up..."

Personally I think it rains less up here than it did a couple of decades ago. But when it rains it really rains, not the two weeks of grey skies and drizzle that used to be common.

As to the "Burningman SUCKS" thing-- when Brian Doherty was up here last week promoting his book this came up in discussion. I asked him if this attitude wasn't at least partially a smokescreen for trying to keep people away. He seemed to think no, that these are really people that hate the event. Uh, well... after coming back from my first burn in '03 I was sitting in a bar on the Ave in the U District, all glittery eyed as a devirgin normally is. A few feet away I noticed someone wearing a T shirt with the man logo on it. I approached him with something like "Oh, so you like Burning Man, huh?". He looked at me with daggers in his eyes and spat out "No, I fucking HATE Burning Man...."

I mean, he was wearing a SHIRT... go figure.

[dragonflyannie]

dfa,

I'm less comfortable with people deciding what are the "right" reasons and who are the "right" people then somebody like hg presenting a skewed opinion of the event.

"Group think" is dangerous and will water down the event more then anything, seems to me.

I'd give her props for the nipples though.

So me expressing my discontent on the eplaya to other burners is more dangerous than her giving a skewed opinion of the event to hundreds of thousands of non burners? Yeah, with Burning Man going down the road it is, that's JUST what it needed!

Somebody please pinch me....

[AntiM]

Damn it, this H.G. thing is now running around my head like a bad elevator tune I can't quite identify ... so now I have to share my random pointless stream of consciousness ramble with y'all:

I bet Ms. Graham was badly disappointed with her gift bag. Not at all up to Oscar or Golden Globe standards. After all, if it is a "gift economy" one should receive a kick-ass gift bag at the gate, yes?

I bet she read her Survival Guide thoroughly. Or at least her personal assistant did. Okay, that was mean, she probably is just lovely in person.

If "they" only stayed for two days, was anyone in their group disappointed at the early departure?

"Gee, those aren't papparazzi, they're cluetard yahoos who're going to post topless pics of you online. Geee, maybe they ARE papparazzi ..."

"Heather who?" ... better still, "Hey, weren't you the chick who played Batgirl?"

All burner girls are beautiful, Not Just You. No one can concentrate long enough once they have playa brain in order to pay you any special attention anyway.

I wouldn't recognize a celebrity in the flesh if one bit me.

The only Survivor celeb I'd be interested in meeting is Rupert, he seems nice. And he was willing to wear a dress on tv.

DVD, the only thing I knowingly could recognize her from would be one of the Austin Powers movies ... and all I could think was "couldn't they find a more sultry spy type?"

"Shit Happens When You Party Naked" (Ah, bad santa, I want a t-shirt for christmas toooo)

All the drunken naked people with the good drugs are always in the art car disappearing over the horizon.

C'mon, bronco was funny. That had to be sarcasm. If it wasn't, hey bronco, send me $300 plus airfare and a supply fee, I'll set up a grand party just for you in Utah's West Desert. But you have to wear a blindford on the ride out to build suspense ...

Obviously, I've stopped thinking now ...

[Alpha]

Thanks AntiM, I had one other thought on the matter:

Burning Man is a counter-culture event. We shouldn't really expect someone who's gotten rich on mainstream media, to find much resonance in our little festival.

And as others have pointed out, THANK GOD she didn't get on Leno and say what a fun party it is!

[DVD Burner]

Heather Graham doesn't stick by her word!


Washington | September 26, 2004 5:01:48 PM IST

Heather Graham's co-stars are realy having a hard time with her for the Austin Powers star keeps changing her lines.

According to Star magazine, some of her co-stars on the hit NBC sitcom Scrubs have complained about having difficulty following their word cues with her.

"Heather says each line differently every time. It's hard to execute comedic timing when she repeatedly changes the word you're supposed to move on," an insider was quoted as saying. (ANI)

http://www.webindia123.com/news/showdet ... ertainment

[blyslv]

My concern M-files is that her description of Burning Man will draw the wrong crowd... she just told a ton of viewers about an event where you can go naked and do drugs. Think about the people who have never heard of it and now all of a sudden are curious about this place where they can go look at naked people and do drugs. Aren't those the people we are all pissed off about in all these rants on the eplaya? (the looky loos, the frat boys, etc.)
And what about the people who were curious about Burning Man for the right reasons and now hear on national tv that it's just a big dust bowl that's nothing but a big party. Hope her lovely report of the event doesn't deter the right people from attending for their first time.

I didn't take her opinion personally, I could care less what she thinks... but what I do care about is how she spoke of the event as a whole, giving it a bad image.

<pinch>

Please describe the "wrong crowd".

Please describe the "right reasons."

Please give me your description of "the right people attending for the first time."

I contend that people who love the event have the potential to do it more harm then a few thoughtless comments thrown out by a starlet.

[dragonflyannie]

wrong crowd = careless folks who don't give a damn about the festival or all the hard work that goes into it and leave their crap all over the place and disrespect the land and don't take responsibility for themselves out there. the people who steal bikes and piss on the playa 10 feet away from a porta pottie in front of a camp of people eating breakfast. the one's who bring the mardi gras atmosphere to an event that was never suppose to be that way. it's fine if people party (drink, drugs, whatever), but it's the people that trash the event that the bm org along with many others consider bad news.

right reasons = those who want to contribute to the community in a positive way and DON'T DO all those things listed above.

i don't think i should have to explain "the right people attending for the first time" because my above descriptions are enough.

i'm done ranting now.

[DVD Burner]

[PetsUntilEaten]

I contend that people who love the event have the potential to do it more harm then a few thoughtless comments thrown out by a starlet.

I disagree.

Granted I've been suffering for allergies since last night & am generally disgruntled & exhausted at the moment. I'm getting less annoyed through the process of discussion, but I still disagree.

The lesser evils seems to be having a discussion about not wanting nasty people to show up. Even in the extreme, discussing & deciding on a "right person" if such a thing could be done would hardly hurt the event that much. (And I really don't think we've even tip toed near the edge of that one.) I mean isn't that what the "no spectators" rant is a part of?

The greater evil seems to be the likely attendance of the unacclimated masses that could be draw by just a few comments like a "party place for nudity & drugs" from this starlet. (I think it safe to say its good that the next one is so far away - but you could be talking about a few hundred unsavory types.)

No. Its not shocking. I did manage to not be bothered too much by it in general at the event. But I still don't like it.

I like to think that even in the so called "yahoo's" are lovely people that see something more & come back to contibute & join us. But there is a very taxing group of people that need to be dealt with - did we not have enough to do?

Welcome home. Now git to work!

[blyslv]

It's not a rant.

I guess (hope) that more then a few of the yahoos you've described eventually "git it." (See thread by Sobretta Franjipan, btw). Who can say? I can't.

Thanks for paying atention to my posts. If you go to decom on the 9th, look for the big guy in the wedding dress.

[diane o'thirst]

Personally, I think she'd have had a better time if she came like the rest of us: in an old truck or SUV, a cargo van, tent and camping equipment, bicycle tricked out and hand-decorated by herself, inverter, more batteries than you could shake a stick at, and an exploratory yen.

She missed out. She didn't have an experience. She didn't <i>come</i> to Burning Man, she had her entourage haul her out to the desert and pay about forty-eleventeen hundred dollars for the $400 tickets for all of them. I said in another thread, yahoos don't like to work.

Hey, M_Files, glad to see ya here!

As for the RV = yahoo equation, I rather think your math is off. My neighbour/shade canopy co-author this year had an RV — technically. He had an old VW bus with a lift-up bed penthouse, built-in honey bucket, generator and a small pantry. I have a few friends who brought a similar setup, including the good folks over at Stranjbrew Hoop-Dee-Doo. Conversely, every fratboy I've ever seen or heard of came in a shiny new pickup truck without so much as a canopy on it.

[blyslv]

Pets,

<swoon>

I don't know the answer to many of the questions posed here. "Radical inclusivity" was one, but only one of the things that piqued my interest and drew me here. so when I hear ... er ... read talk about about "right " and "wrong" people I get nervous. When I'm feeling hippie and full of PLUR, I say give everybody a change and they will come around. But then I get my Abraham bush burning ("a just and vengeful god") and I say smite the yahoos and close the gate on Monday. So i Don't know.


But I do think the questions need to be asked.

[Ivy]

I do not think there can ever be a simple, straightforward, black and white line drawn between who the "right" people are and who the "wrong" people are.

[DVD Burner]

I dont know about you guys but she does'nt look or seem like burner girl material to me.

All the burner girls I know kinda blow her away.

[d6]

It's a shame.
a slack-jawed-yokel shame.
i suppose i must re-think my "ode to HG" set i was never going to compose.
shame, that.

I agree with pets and M and A, but really, what can be done when the % are no longer in favor of the BRC citizens versus 100% party people who give not a singular, limpd!cked, dry-rotted f!ck about BRC as an artisitic entity, and only see it as a party ground?

d6,
space command botonist and musical nightmare culturist

[PetsUntilEaten]

Mr. Slave -

<returning swoon>

Radical inclusivity - I'm with you.

Maybe my personal sore point is I wish I had more energy to give this problem (other than small actions I can take as I see them on the playa). Its early but I've already picked my major project for next year - yahoo education isn't it. I've picked my battle - so this one won't get my major attention & that makes me nervous & a tad guilty. Frankly, I dunno that I should put myself in a position where I might feel the urge to fucking beat someone to death.

My normal personal strategy about people on the playa has to do with new arrivals & not singling them out as one kind or the next. I greet & help every new neighbor and arrival as soon as I see them. It seems to have added that special something to my experience & hopefully theirs. I believe first impression lasts. I never feel like killing anyone. Even if they are truely assholes I'd never know because they're always lovely around me.

I don't need another job on the playa.

Don't we have enough to do?

[sparkletarte]

dfa-

Fuck you if you EVER tell me I'm the 'wrong crowd' to attend whatever fucking event I want to. You can give me advice, yes, suggestions, yes, a warning or word of caution, yes, but don't EVER say I can't go somewhere or do something I want to. I'll make that decision for myself.

Have you thought about being on the receiving end of what you are saying about the 'right' and 'wrong' people, or are you too caught up in your elitist, protectionist ideals to do that? It sounds like it came right out of some Bush government propaganda machine.

[blyslv]

AN OPEN LETTER TO MS. GRAHAM

========================================

Heather Graham c/o Creative Artists Agency
9830 Wilshire Boulevard
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
USA

Ms. Graham,

It was with dismay that I heard about your appearance on the Jay Leno show and how you characterized you 2 day experience at Burningman. As an accomplished actress I’m sure you realize the value of hard work. Maybe you know that you get out of things exactly what you put into it. Many of us who participate at the event put in a lot of work, before, during and after. It is hurtful to us to hear it described on national television as just a bunch of naked people partying in the desert. We who participate know it is so much more than that.

I challenge you to step out of your role of Hollywood star, a role you have worked for long and hard, and to return to BM as a newbie, with no expectations, alone or with one or two close friends or a loved one. Put in some work with no thought of a return. You might be pleasantly surprised.

When I got back from last year’s Burn, I was inspired to try something, so I auditioned for a play in a local theater group here. I got a few small parts in Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle. I learned that acting is extremely difficult work! But the important part is the inspiration, and that comes with effort.

I liked your work in Boogie Nights.

==========================================

I just stamped the envelope and will mail it on the way home. Nothing will come of it, but I feel a little better, so it's worth it.

[dragonflyannie]

how was this a personal attack on you?

[blyslv]

I think many of us who are attracted to BM are skittish about being labeled "wrong", whatsoever the context. Nor do we trust anybody to make that determination.

with appy-polly-woggies to sparkletarte for putting words in the mouth.

[Hell]

~sparkletarte~
GO FUCK YOURSELF AND DIE YOU FUCKIN FUCK!!!