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 Keep posting stories. I love the little bizarre moments. Also holy gently caress at the 2nd degree burns. This is a timehop I have from this time last year on my Twitter. 
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Sep 6, 2014 18:27
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heffray posted:I'm with Playasophy at 3:00 Plaza (& B, at about 1:00 on the plaza if Man-ward is 12). If you ever needed bike work during the week, there is a good chance that we met: I was at Hammer and Cyclery. Rookie post-Burn trip report:           There's more too (also pictures) but I'm still sorting it all out.
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Sep 7, 2014 20:57
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Ninja Pangolin posted:Hammer and Cyclery. I didn't need help, but rode by on Sunday and noticed hundreds of bikes, and a couple of empty shipping containers. Were the bikes getting stored, or did you guys have that many bikes to work on??
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Sep 7, 2014 21:25
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Alfajor posted:I didn't need help, but rode by on Sunday and noticed hundreds of bikes, and a couple of empty shipping containers. Were the bikes getting stored, or did you guys have that many bikes to work on?? We also rent bikes in order to fund the camp; we store them in Gerlach during the year. This year we rented out 650, and repaired something like 2k. (All the money changes hands online before the event obviously).
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Sep 7, 2014 22:10
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Way cool. Thanks for explaining. How's everyone's decompression thus far? Hating life? Swallowed the urge to make eye contact and say hi to everyone by now?
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Sep 7, 2014 22:16
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Alfajor posted:Way cool. Thanks for explaining. Yes! I went to a club last night and was shocked when everyone didn't want to give me a giant bear hug! In all seriousness, I am coming down a little bit. I've started sharing my pictures and stories with friends and family, and I'm finding that helps quite a bit. I'm also looking into a regional decomp event. I think I really need to meet up with some local burners, especially first timers, because I feel like they're in the same boat I am. My friend (who hasn't been to BM) sent me this article that's been helping: http://burnerlove.com/2012/09/14/5-ways-to-make-life-more-like-burning-man/
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Sep 7, 2014 23:21
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Remember everyone; wait at least three weeks before breaking up with your goldfish.
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Sep 7, 2014 23:55
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Alfajor posted:How's everyone's decompression thus far? Hating life? Swallowed the urge to make eye contact and say hi to everyone by now? You don't do that anyway?
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Sep 8, 2014 02:29
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Have some pictures. Also a few bonus shots of our bike rehab in a magical junkyard in Gerlach.
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Sep 8, 2014 06:16
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Ninja Pangolin posted:Have some pictures. Also a few bonus shots of our bike rehab in a magical junkyard in Gerlach. Nice schedule one drugs there.
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Sep 8, 2014 06:22
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gadgethugs posted:Nice schedule one drugs there.
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Sep 8, 2014 07:32
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FRINGE posted:Maybe they live in Colorado. When did they outlaw oregano?
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Sep 8, 2014 07:37
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gadgethugs posted:Nice schedule one drugs there. I dunno what makes you think it's drugs, the package is clearly marked "Food Saver." You have to get the special "Drug Saver" plastic wrap for drugs.
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Sep 8, 2014 08:30
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GOON BREWSKI! 
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Sep 8, 2014 15:16
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FRINGE posted:Maybe they live in Colorado. Living in Colorado's not much of a defense when the picture's clearly taken in Nevada.  Rule One of Having Fun is not admitting to felonies on public boards.
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Sep 8, 2014 15:23
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Liquid Communism posted:Living in Colorado's not much of a defense when the picture's clearly taken in Nevada. Have you ever been in TCC, or even facebook/tumblr/instagram, etc.?
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Sep 8, 2014 19:22
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Liquid Communism posted:Living in Colorado's not much of a defense when the picture's clearly taken in Nevada. Shh! Maybe that was the lunch they packed for the road trip leaving Colorado (or Washington)! 
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Sep 8, 2014 22:56
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goodness posted:Have you ever been in TCC, or even facebook/tumblr/instagram, etc.? TCC's behind the paywall. A/T isn't. Just looking out for someone who should know better.
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Sep 9, 2014 02:31
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Liquid Communism posted:TCC's behind the paywall. A/T isn't. Just looking out for someone who should know better. People post pictures all the time. And if you think a paywall or 10$ will stop the government or someone that cared, LOL
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Sep 9, 2014 04:50
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Alfajor posted:GOON BREWSKI! The Goonmeet totally DOUBLED the size of last year. And an excellent venue too. Thanks Alfajor.
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Sep 9, 2014 13:41
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Do any of y'all have experience with playa love? I fell in love with a lady this year who lives far from me and I was curious to hear others' experiences with that happening. Specifically, what you did about it once off playa? I'm planning on visiting her in about a month to see what she is like somewhere other than the most magical place on earth.
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Sep 9, 2014 19:00
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I'm reading about BM because my girlfriend heard about it and wants to go. Judging from the thread it's great fun, but I couldn't help and did some math. There were 70k attendees last year. With $380 admission price, that's 26.6 Million Dollars. Not counting vehicle permits and other sources of income that probably exist. So what they do with all that money? They don't give you food or electricity or showers or pick the trash after you, they don't pay people since so many want to volunteer, they don't pay for art because I see people raising money to create and bring their art projects. How does that comply with the Principles? You pay a lot of money to be able to express your self, be self-reliant, and to clean after yourself! It sounds like the most ingenious and cynical money factory ever.
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Sep 9, 2014 19:28
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Doctor Malaver posted:I'm reading about BM because my girlfriend heard about it and wants to go. Judging from the thread it's great fun, but I couldn't help and did some math. don't think about the principles too much, they unravel really easily upon examination
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Sep 9, 2014 19:31
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Doctor Malaver posted:26.6 Million Dollars We have to pay to rent the land from the federal government. Rental, transportation, and servicing of port-a-johns for seventy thousand people. Robust fire and emergency medical services-even if the people who staff these things are volunteers, they require extensive facilities and logistics support in order to operate. I saw an ambulance roll through the 3:00 plaza a couple times for example. Some people have to get paid; while there are a lot of volunteers for the Rangers, setup and cleanup crews, and the aforementioned public services, the amount of paperwork and administration that's necessary throughout the year requires some number of full-time staff. Legal counsel, contract negotiations, accounting, that sort of thing. BMIR and the traffic info station. Grants to artists. The Man and the Temple, and their respective burns. The Department of Public Works, which gives camps access to machinery that would otherwise be extremely difficult and expensive to get to the playa. (For example, they helped us move our semi trailers when the initial delivery couldn't find the camp because nothing was set up yet-without DPW this would have been virtually impossible). It seems expensive, and you're correct that it's not "radically inclusive" in any way whatsoever, but you do actually get a lot for your $380. edit: slogsdon posted:don't think about the principles too much, they unravel really easily upon examination Yeah the rhetoric is almost entirely bullshit, but it's still awesome.
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Sep 9, 2014 19:46
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slogsdon posted:don't think about the principles too much, they unravel really easily upon examination yeah especially leave no trace, civic responsibility, and radical inclusion radical self entitlement seems to hold up year round tho
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Sep 9, 2014 20:42
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Turtle Blogger posted:Do any of y'all have experience with playa love? I fell in love with a lady this year who lives far from me and I was curious to hear others' experiences with that happening. Specifically, what you did about it once off playa? I'm planning on visiting her in about a month to see what she is like somewhere other than the most magical place on earth.  I had the most loving life changingly beautiful affair of all time with this guy I met from the Duck Pond, met him at like 4am, a few hours after I arrived, and it ended so badly and shockingly a few months later. I still think about him all the time. We were insanely love-lettery blissed out happy for three months (me london, him berlin ) but basically he turned out to be a bit too mentally unstable to have a girlfriend. Or something (stopped talking to me over night while I was visiting him, I had to buy a new flight home that left in a couple of hours and he never really spoke to me again.) YEAH that really sucked. And actually contributed a lot to my decision not to go back this year. Love, eh! That said, I know people who've met out there and made it work, even got married. There's no hard and fast rule. Just remember people at Burning Man are not what they're like in real life, they can be so different, and it's always risky falling in love with someone that fast that you don't really know. That break up is definitely among the worst experiences of my life. BUT that said I'm pretty sure i would have swapped it for anything else too, because it's definitely the happiest I've ever felt. The playa + love, loving hell, it was epic. Jump in with both feet. Good luck to you man.
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Sep 9, 2014 20:57
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gadgethugs posted:yeah especially leave no trace, civic responsibility, and radical inclusion Decommodification kind of gets undermined by the amount of money changing hands outside of burns as well
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Sep 9, 2014 21:15
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Whenever I hear people complain about the ticket prices, I think they are absurd. It is arguably the best event on the planet and it's only 380 dollars for an entire week. If you assume that you're there for exactly a week, that's about 2.25 per hour. Compare that to the cost of seeing just about any notable musical group or any large-scale music festival and its really cheap for what you get. Again, I think it's likely the best event on the planet so I am biased, but come on. I've switched to just going to burns, regional burns, and flow festivals instead of music festivals because of how much value you get for the price. Yeah, you have to put more work in, but that's better than being a passive consumer.
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Sep 9, 2014 21:46
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You guys should see the arguing over principles, money, decommodification, commerce and so on that happens at Nowhere. It's mental, and a rabbit hole. Once you start arguing whether or not photography is self-expression as art or INFRINGEMENT of self-expression by removing radical self-expression you're basically a goner. I actually hate the '10 principles', at least when they're listed and set out. And adds to the slightly "we are not cult promise" thing we got goin on.
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Sep 9, 2014 23:29
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Ninja Pangolin posted:We have to pay to rent the land from the federal government. Rental, transportation, and servicing of port-a-johns for seventy thousand people. Robust fire and emergency medical services-even if the people who staff these things are volunteers, they require extensive facilities and logistics support in order to operate. I saw an ambulance roll through the 3:00 plaza a couple times for example. Some people have to get paid; while there are a lot of volunteers for the Rangers, setup and cleanup crews, and the aforementioned public services, the amount of paperwork and administration that's necessary throughout the year requires some number of full-time staff. Legal counsel, contract negotiations, accounting, that sort of thing. BMIR and the traffic info station. Grants to artists. The Man and the Temple, and their respective burns. The Department of Public Works, which gives camps access to machinery that would otherwise be extremely difficult and expensive to get to the playa. (For example, they helped us move our semi trailers when the initial delivery couldn't find the camp because nothing was set up yet-without DPW this would have been virtually impossible). Turtle Blogger posted:Whenever I hear people complain about the ticket prices, I think they are absurd. It is arguably the best event on the planet and it's only 380 dollars for an entire week. If you assume that you're there for exactly a week, that's about 2.25 per hour. Compare that to the cost of seeing just about any notable musical group or any large-scale music festival and its really cheap for what you get. Again, I think it's likely the best event on the planet so I am biased, but come on. I've switched to just going to burns, regional burns, and flow festivals instead of music festivals because of how much value you get for the price. Yeah, you have to put more work in, but that's better than being a passive consumer. I'm sure that your memories and experiences are worth the admission price, and that aspect of the story would be pointless to discuss. I just don't believe they have to charge that much for the actual service they provide. A staff of 50, paid $50k year round would cost $2.5M. Port a potties... let's say you need 5k of them and you get them for $20 a day, that's $0.7M. I'm generous with numbers. Renting a stretch of barren land for two weeks - how much can that cost before it gets cheaper to simply buy it? What else, renting machinery, logistics... How can all this put together cost even remotely close to $26.6M? For comparison, EXIT festival in Serbia has a similar number of attendees which means roughly a similar amount of port a potties, accounting, medical services, etc. It costs $5-6M to organize. It does last a little shorter but they actually pay the artists. The $5-6M number comes from 2009 when some of the artists were Moby, Patti Smith, Lily Allen, Madness, The Prodigy, Arctic Monkeys, Manic Street Preachers, Kraftwerk, Korn, Carl Cox...
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Sep 10, 2014 00:32
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They have a detailed breakdown of where the money goes here: http://afterburn.burningman.com/13/financial_chart.html Edit: They go into some explanation here: http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/about_burningman/ticketprices.html e.g. pointing out that they don't have any other revenue sources, unlike other events which can sell merchandise and lease space to vendors. And when taking into account the large payroll, remember that in the USA at least, an employee often costs the company around double that employee's salary due to things like contributions to health insurance, 401k, and training. So an employee earning $50K gross may actually cost the company $100K. minato fucked around with this message at 00:49 on Sep 10, 2014 |
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Sep 10, 2014 00:44
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Thanks. My first estimate for port a potties was $0.9M, right on the mark! Well if they say it costs this much then I guess it does. I'd be interested to see further breakdown of $7M in salaries.
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Sep 10, 2014 08:31
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Been home for about a week now and drat I miss the playa already. It was my first time going early entry and it was really interesting to see behind the scenes so to speak. I arrived Tuesday on build week so I spent about 13 days on playa. Rough on the body and mind as I expected, and ended up not going out as much as I usually do as I was just too tired mentally and physically. Still had a ton of fun, and actually it was interesting to see how Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on build week were already crazy party days on the playa. I remember going out on Friday night to do some more building and hearing music playing, art cars driving, fire, blinky lights, costumes, all that you would see during the actual event. Could have been because weather was super nice and small to mid sized projects finished ahead of schedule. Saw the Man without a head, and Embrace without the body. For a while from a distance Embrace looked just like two balls in the air, and you could have a hearty giggle by walking so that the piece would be positioned directly between the legs of the Man. Anyone see the Toilet Bowl, our bowling alley at the 9.00 Promenade toilets? Was on the crew for it this year. Some of the electronics ended up not working and we had a lot of generator troubles, but I think all in all it was a success.
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Sep 10, 2014 09:48
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Doctor Malaver posted:Thanks. My first estimate for port a potties was $0.9M, right on the mark! Also don't forget that a lot of tickets don't sell at face price. The Org comps a good number of performers for fire conclave and other volunteers, as well as the low income ticket program, and what they give to the locals.
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Sep 10, 2014 11:06
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Liquid Communism posted:Also don't forget that a lot of tickets don't sell at face price. The Org comps a good number of performers for fire conclave and other volunteers, as well as the low income ticket program, and what they give to the locals. And then there are the "exception" tickets that may or may not be a thing at the box office for extraordinary circumstances. I heard of prices ranging from $650 to $800. Also pretty sure the "early bird" tickets tend to go for more than the normal face value as well.
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Sep 10, 2014 16:52
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Click for full  http://i.imgur.com/yLyM7d0.jpg
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Sep 10, 2014 17:03
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Honestly, I'd kinda like to see the Org start selling separate weekend only and week long tickets... with a large price increase on the weekend only ones. If you're going to be checking in monday through wednesday, you get a discount compared to the folks who pull up Friday morning. It'd be an interesting social experiment at any rate.
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Sep 10, 2014 17:26
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JOHN SKELETON posted:Anyone see the Toilet Bowl, our bowling alley at the 9.00 Promenade toilets? Was on the crew for it this year. Some of the electronics ended up not working and we had a lot of generator troubles, but I think all in all it was a success. Yes! We were on our way somewhere else or I think we were riding on an art car and needed to hop off for a bit but I do remember the "Toilet Bowl." There was a long line for bowling since it was like 11pm on Friday or something but I tried to take a (excuse the pun) crappy picture of it because I thought it was hilarious.
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Sep 10, 2014 19:37
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JOHN SKELETON posted:
I saw it only from a distance this year. I've seen it in the past, and even thrown a couple balls. 
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Sep 10, 2014 22:44
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JOHN SKELETON posted:Anyone see the Toilet Bowl, our bowling alley at the 9.00 Promenade toilets? Was on the crew for it this year. Some of the electronics ended up not working and we had a lot of generator troubles, but I think all in all it was a success. I actually had to do a double-take when I saw it, being like "Is that a loving bowling alley in the middle of the desert?!" I threw a gutter ball, and then had to resist the urge to ride my bike down the lane and knock the pins down. I loved this piece. Thank you to you and everyone who helped bring it to fruition
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Sep 11, 2014 06:17
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