Burning Man selling out to Spike TV

Kaze · Post by **Kaze** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 6:57 am

Spike TV is touting its new broadband channel that's apparently going to include a show called Burning at the Thunderdome, which was shot at Burning Man. I find this crass commercialization of Burning Man to be in direct conflict with the principles of the community. It should be stopped immediately. News stations covering Burning Man is one thing; but to have an actual commercial show filmed at Burning Man means that the festival is being used for commercial gain. How could the Burning Man organizers have ever agreed to allow such a thing to be done?

primate · Post by **primate** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 10:55 pm

The BORG made it very clear that they had no problem with commercialism when they chose not to be a not-for-profit and chose to incorporate as an LLC.

MayorOfFrance · Post by **MayorOfFrance** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:06 am

I say let the yahoos come and gawk, based on this SpikeTV web special. We all already know how to deal with specticipants and its not like not having this show magically kept tourists and weekenders away.

ZaphodBurner · Post by **ZaphodBurner** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 11:49 am

MayorOfFrance wrote:I say let the yahoos come and gawk, based on this SpikeTV web special.

Nobody "gets it" until they've been to the playa anyway.

-c

MrMullen · Post by **MrMullen** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 4:06 pm

ZaphodBurner wrote:
MayorOfFrance wrote:I say let the yahoos come and gawk, based on this SpikeTV web special.

Nobody "gets it" until they've been to the playa anyway.

-c

We should really have a great show, then get these yahoos to the Playa and then kill them. That is the only way to get rid of them.

skybluelucid · Post by **skybluelucid** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 6:21 am

I have google alerts set up for burning man...heard about this and then google'd it and ended up here.

I'm curious how disdain for outsiders who go to BM because they saw a TV show jives with "Radical Inclusion."

?

What if "they" embrace the other principles? (http://www.burningman.com/whatisburning ... iples.html)

jizzelle · Post by **jizzelle** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 6:46 am

good point, sky...not that i want the media all over the place, but when i hear this kind of whining i am just yawn, yawn...yawn.

joel the ornery · Post by **joel the ornery** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 7:01 am

jizzelle... ahh, the jiggle is killing me.. what a way to go.

what was the question?

Archantael · Post by **Archantael** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 7:10 am

The ORG sold out on it's principles long before now...in fact based on my opinion of John Law's lawsuit the whole thing stinks and the corruption starts right at the very top.

Judging by the way they let Current TV come in to film things awhile back, I'm just waiting for the deal to be announced where Girls Gone Wild will shoot on the playa! After all...if you look at that lawsuit it looks like it's all about the money for the hat anyway....but that's just my observation and nothing more than that.

RIP: Anti-commercialism at BRC. We hardly got to know ya!

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 10:05 am

If they mention Thunderdome, then Mel Gibson will sue Spike TV.

The circle is complete.

The CO · Post by **The CO** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 2:10 pm

As I recall, girls gone wild did come to the playa, and got sued as result... Anyone else remember this?

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 3:27 pm

The CO wrote:As I recall, girls gone wild did come to the playa, and got sued as result... Anyone else remember this?

Let's all $ue each other.

ZaphodBurner · Post by **ZaphodBurner** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 4:13 pm

Ugly Dougly wrote:
The CO wrote:As I recall, girls gone wild did come to the playa, and got sued as result... Anyone else remember this?
Let's all $ue each other.

I think they might have just been kicked out. I swear, though. I'm about to get laid off. If so, I'm inclined to start a porn site. That fucker just got busted for making millions of dollars off of drunk minors getting naked and laughed his way all the way to his private island. Here in the real world, we call that child porn among other things. If the BMORG fed him his ass, good for them.

Meanwhile, our bass player's kid went to his friend's house. He immediately noticed two Ferraris in the driveway. Tony asked what the kid's father did for a living and the kid replied "They're my mom's. She runs a porn site." (kinda wonder if the PTA knows) She's mid-30s, has some hotwives dot com, and she's friggin' rich.

There -was- a subscription voyeur-porn site featuring photos from BM05. According to hackers who shall remain anonymous, shortly after it was mentioned here, they changed the category to "Desert Fest."

zb

madmatt · Post by **madmatt** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 5:26 pm

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/art ... 2007-1.htm

Well folks, check this link - it's almost too ironic to believe. Also that it's on CNN Money!

These words say it all I think. Guess me and mine will not be visiting Thunderdome this year, to avoid being on national TV.

"LAS VEGAS, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Beautiful babes and lots of action -- can you handle it? With the launch of eight new original broadband series', SPIKETV.COM is giving guys all the action they want, where they want it and as much as they can handle, it was announced today by Steve Farrell, vice president, digital media, SPIKE. The new broadband series to include freestyle motocross, sexy bartenders, smokin' hot co-eds/cheerleaders, demolition, stick fighting and much more.

...

"Burning at the Thunderdome:" The Death Guild, a motley crew of Silicon Valley misfits, build, run and maintain the Thunderdome at the Annual Burning Man Festival in Nevada. Members will enter the outdoor arena, attached to bungee cords, with heavy padded pipes and battle it out until only one is left standing. "Two men enter -- one man leaves."

The CO · Post by **The CO** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 8:31 pm

My mistake, it was Voyeur Video.

"When Burning Man found out about Voyeur's videos in 1999, it threatened to sue if the selling did not stop. Instead of stopping the sale, Voyeur changed the festival's name on its Web site, the suit alleges, to "Rainbow Fire Festival," but kept the description. ("Rainbow Fire Festival is all running around naked and exposing yourself in front of your peers," the Web site now reads.) When the tapes were delivered, however, the "Burning Man" name was still labeled on the cassette and in the opening credits, according to the suit."

Full details here:

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/LAW/08/26/ctv.burning.man/

unjonharley · Post by **unjonharley** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 9:31 am

How about? If you see a porfilming you start getting other burners to mob the set..Just fill the place with people milling around..

madmatt · Post by **madmatt** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 10:36 am

unjonharley wrote:How about? If you see a porfilming you start getting other burners to mob the set..Just fill the place with people milling around..

Unjon - dude, that is a GREAT idea! We (people who think this shit is bullshit) should organize a commercial media interferrence team. Get like a shitload of people to do this interferrence. But make like a performance almost! Have everyone dress up, maybe with fake celebrity masks or something ironic, and have a really loud portable sound system blasting something filthy and obnoxious, or like mashups.

Toolmaker · Post by **Toolmaker** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:00 pm

i got dibs on the john law mask. now if we all run around in view of the camera NUDE would they be forced to avoid using the footage? i would certainly like to aid in the sabotage of the corporate invasion of BM. and yes i have no problem jerking off like a zoo monkey wearing a john law mask!

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:38 pm

Maybe Spike TV and GGW and Hugh Hefner can help pay off the BLM. I wonder if they accept boobies as payment:?

Das Bus · Post by **Das Bus** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 7:22 pm

Two things:

One: Current TV (which I've never seen), is not the first to webcast the Burn. I remember one year there was a horrible woman who (the reporter) who kept yelling, "This is what we've been waiting for!". After about an hour of watching this - fuck burning the man - Burn Her! : )

Two: I forgot. Sorry - I'm drinking so my memory isn't as good as it used to be.

But ANYWAYS: The BORG has been a FOR profit corporation for a long time. It always cracks me up when people think the BORG is doing all of this out of the goodness of their hearts. I don't begrudge them for making money off of something they love to do - but please people - wake up! This IS a money making machine. (just read between the lines of the 'afterburn' report)

BTW: THEY don't like to be referred to as the BORG. A couple of months ago, our Kidville list was 'asked' not to use that term anymore! Guess the BORG has lost their sense of humor! BAWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

BORG BORG BORG

metric · Post by **metric** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 6:57 pm

As I recall, girls gone wild did come to the playa, and got sued as result... Anyone else remember this?

That was Voyeur Video. They were sued.

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/LAW/08/26/ctv.burning.man/

But, finding naked pictures and video from Burning Man is getting easier and easier. More reason to wear nothing but a mask I guess.

Neutrality · Post by **Neutrality** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 10:37 am

madmatt wrote:
unjonharley wrote:How about? If you see a porfilming you start getting other burners to mob the set..Just fill the place with people milling around..
Unjon - dude, that is a GREAT idea! We (people who think this shit is bullshit) should organize a commercial media interferrence team. Get like a shitload of people to do this interferrence. But make like a performance almost! Have everyone dress up, maybe with fake celebrity masks or something ironic, and have a really loud portable sound system blasting something filthy and obnoxious, or like mashups.

Perhaps, but a key point I think you may be missing - this is Spike TV we're talking about, aka the Frat Boy Channel, the channel that self-consciously affirms its viewers' masculinity 24 hours per day, seven days per week, with maybe the most homophobic demographic of any channel on basic cable. In other words, minds ready to be played with.

Mob the camera, all right. Mob it with nothing but men, preferably crossdressing men with beards and exposed genitalia. If you can get a few locals from the Castro who wouldn't mind including a few public displays of affection ... why not? Be sure to play up the San Francisco connection at Burning Man a lot. Their audience will love that.

Picture some guy at home, beer gut hanging out his high school jersey, popping a tab on his Olympia as another guy's blurred hairy wang comes onscreen, and somebody starts rapping about his love of mangina to the theme from "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert". Maybe somebody can talk about his favorite James Bond movies, and why they get him aroused. Picture our jock wannabee watching this, jaw starting to drop, going "what the HELL is this", while his wife/girlfriend/pickup from the bar comes in and asks "honey, what are you watching". "NOTHING!", he blurts out, "just channel surfing", grabbing for the remote so quickly that he gives himself wind burns. Multiply that guy by a few million, and you'll give Spike TV something to think about, the next time they decide to come out to the Playa.

Just a thought.

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 11:21 am

Give them some tranny action. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

HughMungus · Post by **HughMungus** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 12:14 pm

ZaphodBurner wrote:
MayorOfFrance wrote:I say let the yahoos come and gawk, based on this SpikeTV web special.

Nobody "gets it" until they've been to the playa anyway.

-c

Or a regional.

Burning Man selling out to Spike TV

Burning Man selling out to Spike TV

!

Not GGW, Voyeur Video