Apr 12 2015

BurnerCon – #glc2015 Report [Update]

BMOrg’s Global Leadership Conference just happened, at the Kabuki Hotel in Japantown. Why there, you ask? Well, perhaps this is just a coincidence, but it’s a Joie De Vivre boutique hotel, part of the empire built by BMP Director Chip Conley. Hope they got a good discount on the space.

BMOrg had promised us that we would be able to watch the sessions on video, even if we weren’t lucky enough to be invited to the conference. Unfortunately, Friday’s sessions were plagued with technical difficulties, so all we at home got to see was the warm-up. @motorbikematt from the Mars Rover Art Car team (and NASA) was in charge of the streaming; it appears sending live video from the Mission to Mars, is not as technically challenging as streaming it from the Mission in San Francisco. The stream was working slightly better on Saturday. Not all of the sessions have been uploaded to YouTube, I hope they will be soon.

BMOrg are “side by side with us, collaborating, co-creating”…

Of course, they’re still camped in a private Commodification Camp which is not shared with the public. And they’re making this statement at an event that regular Burners can’t attend, only insiders.

Marian made the point that if we want change in the Org, we should just be patient because it’s a hundred year plan. She revealed that the size of the business now is $34 million in revenues.

They are going to cut the wait times at Will Crawl by a third to a half – so it might drop to 4 or 5 hours. They are negotiating to increase the population cap, too – a team of 5 are going to Washington in 2 weeks, meeting high level people in the Department of the Interior and Law Enforcement.

You can see Marian’s presentation in this video, you will need to fast-forward to 18:49. The recording is a little patchy.

Handheld lasers are now banned; fixed lasers are still permitted.

As much as I love lasers, this is probably a good thing. Idiots scanning the crowd led to blindness for a BRC Ranger. Another safety concern is people pointing lasers at the Man and the Temple on burn night. Both structures get packed with highly inflammable materials – it’s not just wood – so that they burn brightly and in a controlled fashion. Right up to the Burn, there are people inside the structures preparing them. If some of this combustible material was hit by a powerful enough laser, the whole thing would go up before it’s ready – maybe before the people can get out.

nice things catIt is interesting to note that in this case, which I would see as a workplace injury, it was Burners who provided the financial compensation to the injured worker. BMOrg just made up a new rule to restrict the behavior of Burners. I kind of think it sucks that Burners pay for this and get punished; all BMOrg has to do is come up with a new rule. Lasers could have been managed with licenses, regulations, and fines – like how they are handling drones – instead of an outright ban. This seems like a knee-jerk reaction. What’s next, someone OD’s, so they make drugs illegal? All have to pay the price for the idiocy of a few, while BMOrg has to pay $0. Burners carry the cost, BMOrg get all the benefits. They don’t even have to worry about their workers comp insurance premiums going up! Since they’re side-by-side with Burners, perhaps they could at least match the funds raised by Burners.

BM founder Harley Dubois is determined to change corporate America.

Larry Harvey expressed similar sentiments recently, when he told Bloomberg “my mission is to reform the 1 percent“.

This reminds me of the Timothy Leary days, when all politicians and CEOs needed to do was drop acid and then they would “get it”, so the world could be saved.

BM founder Crimson Rose is fresh back from Ireland, where she was sent to watch David Best’s Temple burn.

In Crimson’s session, she revealed the combined power of Burning Man Arts (basically, The Burning Man Project acquired Black Rock Arts Foundation as well as Black Rock City LLC). Her numbers also include art grants within the Regional Network. Art grants for 2015 are up to $1.2 million, and a further $100k has been granted to off-Playa art projects. Of course, we don’t know what the official figures for Burning Man Project are for 2014 or 2015, that information is years away – we’ll just have to take Crimson’s word for it. Was any of the $1.2 $1.3 million “in kind” contributions, or was it all cash? Again, we won’t know until we see the 2015 IRS Form, some time in 2017. This new multi-year lag in transparency makes it easier for BMOrg to make claims that can’t be verified, which in turn makes the Minister of Propaganda’s job easier.

For 2015, Burning Man Arts received 510 Letters of Intent for art projects. Of these, 222 were invited to submit a grant proposal. 210 were submitted, plus 34 from the regionals. In total 123 grants were awarded in 2015, for $1.3 million – an average of $10,569 per artist – substantially down from previous years. The amount of Art Grants as a percentage of revenues has stayed about the same, even as revenues have grown massively.

I have updated my previous table with the new information, and to list BRAF and Art Honoraria grants together.

Screenshot 2015-04-12 10.46.34

The 2014 and 2015 figures have been distorted further by including art grants from the Regionals network. It’s not clear to me if these are now funded by BMOrg, or by the Regionals from their own ticket sales. So far, I have no information that BMOrg ever sends money to the Regionals for any type of grants; rather, the Regionals are required to put some of their own ticket money into funding art projects. If BMOrg are going to count all these art grants in their public figures, then they should count them the same way in their tax filings. Right?

There seem to be four types of Art Grants now:

  1. Honoraria Grants – partial funding of on-Playa artworks
  2. Global Art Grants, continuation of BRAF’s Grants to Artists program. 12 years starting in 2003, awarded $450,000+ to 112 projects – an average of $4000 each. These were in 23 US states and 18 foreign countries.
  3. Civic Arts – formerly a BRAF program. 10 years, starting in 2005. 45 projects to date. $216,800 to 8 projects in 2014 (average $27,100 each).
  4. Community Innovation Grants: collaboration and partnerships with like-minded people.

Crimson stated that since 2001, Burning Man has funded more than $8 million in art. Let’s drill into that a bit.

That’s over 14 years; in the last 5 years, they’ve made more than $122 million in ticket sales to their Art Festival, and spent just under $5 million on art. We will probably never know how much they spent on lawyers and accountants since 2013, the last year when they made their financial chart available to Burners. Now it is secret, while they boast about being more transparent. Ah, such irony! What we do know that in the 5 year period of 2009-2013, they spent more than $6.6 million on lawyers and accountants, and $3.6 million on art.

Screenshot 2015-04-12 09.14.50

Interestingly, BMOrg are no longer sharing the 2010 Afterburn financials on their web site. They’re still available at the Wayback Machine.

Dennis Kucinich spoke about Quantum Physics, manifesting your ideal destiny, the nature of reality, and being a Fox News analyst.

We got a report from Detroit, about what Burners are doing in the city where houses cost less than Burning Man tickets:

And we got an update from the International Regionals:

It sounds like the most important issue will be addressed…”coming soon”.

Finally, here is the Dear Leader of this cultural movement:

The next few days are going to be long and exhausting, challenging GLC participants to pack as much information and ideas and conversation into their brains as possible before heading back to their region to bring the seed home. One thing’s for sure, they’ll leave as tired as they are inspired.

Oh and here’s Larry Harvey in a worm costume:

DW5A0031
Larry “Bookworm” Harvey is judging you (Photo by Sidney Erthal)

[Update 4/13/15 1:13pm]

There has been some confusion in the comments about the funding of the Regionals.

Here are the relevant slides from Crimson Rose’s presentation.

Screenshot 2015-04-13 13.11.17Screenshot 2015-04-13 13.12.45

Screenshot 2015-04-13 13.13.16

So it looks like for 2015, there were 78 Burning Man projects, as well as 27 art projects funded by the regionals. This makes 105 projects, and $1.2 million. It appears to me that the funding for the regional art projects is being included in the total. However, maybe there has been some sort of policy change now, and money will be flowing from the non-profit out to all the Regionals to spread Burner art through the world. We can only hope…

Everything might be within the $1.2 million, including the $100,000 Global Arts Grants. And what of the Civic Arts grants? $216,800 cash handed out in 2014, is this part of 2015’s $1.2 million budget, or on top of it?

As for Global Art Grants, it seems the 4 international projects are part of the 18 total; but, are the 18 counted in the 105? Are the 8 Civic Arts Project part of it? Or is it actually 131 art projects funded in 2015?

Confusing, isn’t it.

57 comments on “BurnerCon – #glc2015 Report [Update]”

  1. The presentation in regards the temple in Ireland, constructed by David Best and his mates, the Artichoke Foundation, and the people in Ireland, was awesome. David Best should have presented the slides, might he not be so humble. This is of what most awesome art should be, have a purpose towards stating a point of view, all the while bringing people together to create art that is most spectacular.

    Reply

  2. From their tweets, the GLC had a seminar upon holacracy, in the manner of Zappos and Tony Hsieh. But, the the GLC seminar was purposed towards stating, in despite of Burning Man being a bottoms up crowd sourced event and community, holacracy is most inappropriate for Burning Man, the BMOrg must have most firm top down control, in due of, because. There are openings on the Project board, my belief is it might be awesome might Tony Hsieh, or, perchance, a person selected by Tony Hsieh, be nominated to the Project board.

    ‘What Is Holacracy? According to Holacracy.org, Holacracy is a comprehensive practice for structuring, governing, and running an organization. It replaces today’s top-down predict-and-control paradigm with a new way of achieving control by distributing power. It is a new “operating system” that instills rapid evolution in the core processes of an organization.’

    In addendum, might you have viewed the new Game of Thrones, Season 5, Episode 1: Burning Man?

    Reply

    • Holocracy is an interesting system for a typical startup, where a lot is happening every day and change is a constant. The focus is shipping the best possible product by a deadline, or getting new customers, or both.

      BMOrg is kind of the opposite of that, it is the same thing every year and takes place over only 1 week. The other 51 weeks are either:
      a) positively contributing to that 1 week,
      b) chasing donor revenues with SalesForce
      c) dicking around.

      Holocracy would very much enable massive amounts of dicking around, as would most other consensus-based management systems. It definitely explains a lot. Is this organization geared towards a), and sending any spare energy to b) and striving to never do c)? Or is it geared towards c), and gets away with not focusing on a) because Burners make the party?

      I have not yet seen the GoT and didn’t realize it was called Burning Man. Everyone is ca$hing in, merrily leaping over the carcass of the shark.

      Reply

  3. How the hell are art grants within regionals counted for 2015? We haven’t awarded all our grants yet, much less provided any information on them to BMORG.

    It doesn’t help that burnersxxx is confused about where the grants are going. The 34 grants I see for 2015 would fall under Global Art Grants and Civic Grants. These are not grants to regionals. These projects will not be appearing at regional events. The closest thing I see to a grant to a regional was an award to Ignition NW (the entity behind the Seattle regional) in 2006 to build a park in the city.

    I’m too lazy to watch the whole video, so if you could tell me where Crimson mentions regionals, that would be great.

    Regionals aren’t required to have art grants for their events (but many do, including some regionals that aren’t officially recognized). Regionals are “encouraged” to donate some of their proceeds to Black Rock Arts. Maybe the donations FROM regionals is what is being counted? Either way, it’s too early in the year for final counts of grants awarded by regional grant givers or donations to Black Rock Arts. $1,200,000 is a little too round a number to be a total from a several different regional entities contributions.

    Put simply, I don’t believe these numbers actually included grants awarded by regionals. And regional grant giving puts Black Rock Arts to shame. I know of several regionals where arts grants approach 50% of the event budget.

    Reply

    • The video is most confusing in this manner. From the video, the 34 arts grants proposals from the regionals within 2015, of which, 27 were awarded, are the art contributions, from the regionals, to the playa, in the manner of the prior CORE projects and the prior Souk projects, and within 2015, the Midway projects. The statements within the video are most confusing, of the $1.2 million dollars of cash number, of whether the regionals funding of their planned Midway arts projects is within the $1.2 million number.

      Priorly, the BMOrg funded $1,000, of each project, towards the CORE and towards the Souk projects, the regionals, and donors, paid the other costs of the projects, and, by appearances, the BMOrg plans to fund the Midway projects in a most similar manner. The $1.2 million number is upon the slide ‘BRC City Honoraria + Regional Network’, it is most confusing of might the amount of cash, planned by the Regional Network towards their 27 or 34 Midway projects, of might this be included within the $1.2 million number. My belief is the answer to this query is it is within the $1.2 million number. What is most certain, is the $1.2 million number is not solely in due of ticket sales, the BMOrg Black Rock Arts is taking the credit of cash from donors purposed towards the arts, within the $1.2 million number.

      Within 2015, some of the regionals representatives ‘encouraged’, in a most strong manner, of the art grants from many of the regionals for their events, to place prime consideration towards the awards of the grants upon the query of whether the art was to be placed upon the playa, in addendum to placed upon their regional event.

      burnersxxx states this confusion in a most appropriate manner within the post, with this addendum of the 34, or 27 arts projects, from the regionals are the Midway arts projects. What is not confusing, is the artists are most awesome.

      Reply

        • Kudos on an awesome post. The point to be gained from this artists discussion, is the usual BMOrg rubbish, they desire people to be of the belief of they raised artist grants, from their ticket sales, from near $800,000 to $1.2 million. But, they are taking the credit for donations from other people, we will find out the real numbers in 2017 in due of their lack of transparency.

          Reply

        • The BMOrg, by appearances, must be raising much cash by donations. Within the GLC, Marian stated they are hiring 3 fund raisers, in addendum to 2 at present. Burners might expect fund raising calls, in a manner near to the same as of fund raising calls of a university, most especially any person camping within a Concierge Camp, or within a plug and play camp, whom have their arses licked by Site Services.

          Might the BMOrg provide transparency in regards of their utilization of cash, in place of hiding it from donors, donors might be of the ability to due diligence in a proper manner.

          Reply

          • I am encouraged by the outside comment on the Professor’s article in praise of the BMP financials, saying she would not consider giving to them with their present “transparency.” Time will tell if those outside the cult influence will fork over their money, and if the State of California will put up with this opaque facade.

          • Here is the article with the comment by Liz:
            https://philanthropy.com/article/Opinion-Burning-Man-Becomes/227895

            “Liz • 2 months ago

            As a planned giving and major gifts officer for a mid-level nonprofit (budget of $25 million), I have some serious issues with the numbers on the BM Form 990 and won’t be making any donations to *the section of their business* that they turned into a 501c3. There is significant for-profit money being made by those working closest with the event, you can take that to the bank.”

          • Would be interesting if CA or the IRS challenged these “donations to a non-profit.” That could provide good entertainment.

        • OK, makes sense now. I forgot about CORE/Souk stuff. And I was more confused then burnersxxx (due to the coincidence of 34 regional proposals submitted and 34 funded Civic-type projects being listed on the Black Rock Arts website)

          So there are small grants to regionals to do something on the playa. Regionals still have to come up with most of the money for these projects themselves (same as most other grant receivers), but they have a better chance than other proposals of getting an award from the Org.

          Reply

          • How I read it: Regionals have to come up with most of the money for these projects, they don’t get any award from the Org, and the Org counts their art budget within their own.

          • So this is like Enron accounting. You know… if you rotate your tires you accrue that as the value of four new ones.

            Imagine the value they can accrue when they start counting all the Burners and what they do to create theme camps and art cars. Then count all the labor to create a basic camp – tent and such. After all, the CCamps pay for that. And take 70,000 people and all the water they bring to drink in a week. Why should that value not be included?!

        • You think so? It’s just a new arrangement of last year’s Souk, which allowed people to put what amounted to snarky theme camp ideas into a place with way more pedestrian traffic. (Along with a bunch of less-snarky, but still very nice international cultural exchange thingamabobs.)

          It’s way better than having a man base containing little more than a staircase or two.

          Reply

          • How does doing a Night Market in the middle of the high desert improve it? Minute for minute experience, Night Market is better than Burning Man. Is the BOrg trying to ripoff Kevin Balktick? …Or maybe just trying to make the point that the theme camps and artists are interchangeable and replaceable. The only thing important to the NV burn is the BOrg and their world-class patting themselves on the back.

          • Or you may have a point, in that the BOrg expect the theme camps and art cars to dwindle as they exclude the veterans and hand-miss-pick those who get invited to their private party. And if you are not looking to participate, you may not find much in BRC, and get bored by just the stairs at the man. The BOrg need to concentrate and commodify the “entertainment” so the safari spectators from the CCamps can have a place to go, like the ACY Boardwalk; the spectators cannot be expected to explore and discover the experiences in BRC and on the playa.

  4. So much factually incorrect repetition and commentary I don’t know where to start – maybe with the part where “the org pays $0”?

    The org pays quite a bit to insure every volunteer against workplace injury. This started with DPW in the 1990s and everyone is covered today as a volunteer.

    If the mission of this blog is to be a playa rumor mill for the other 357 days of the year, it may be well advised to note that Daft Punk is definitely playing at the trash fence this year.

    Nice red herring with the BS about lasers starting fires. The #1 hazard is blinding volunteers and participants. Every loser that hits the man can also go beyond the man to blind participants on the other side of the circle.

    I don’t know who actually write this stuff but it is right up there with the chemtrails people.

    Reply

      • That’s an industrial laser, apparently 1,200 milliwatts (1.2W). Licensed laser pointers are supposed to be less than 5 milliwatts unless you have eye protection. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser) Note that this one “focuses” so efficacy at a distance might not be the same.

        From the YouTube comments:
        http://lazerer.com/lzsk-stick-445nm-1200w-focusable-blue-laser-pointer
        (Note that they can’t keep power and wavelenght straight:
        http://lazerer.com/what-can-certain-mw-of-laser-do)

        Also note that it is not red (650nm) or green (6532nm), the only ones I ever saw at a burn. If people are using these, they can burn your skin and catch clothing on fire.

        Reply

        • I have one of these and have brought it to BM, I’ve seen several others there. I have lit things that I smoke with green lasers also. Not sure it would be possible with red.

          Reply

          • Balloons are one thing (which will depend on the albedo of the balloon), actual ignition is quite another. Can you use your laser weapon to light a match or cigarette at a distance of several hundred feet? For that matter, can you use it to ignite clothing on people in the street, or in shop windows?

          • One previous laser I had, yes I could light a cigarette at several hundred feet. It was definitely not hand-held though, and probably shouldn’t have been in civilian hands.

          • So it was NOT hand-held. …I guess that means that you CAN use it at the NV burn. You should bring back the shooting range from the early years!

          • Back in the day I had a small laser business , renting them to events. Raves and corporates too…in Australia the suits go to raves. We bought a 60w green argon laser that was the main laser at Disneyworld. Most handheld lasers are measured in mW, this was watts. The beam went at least 5 miles, and it could light a spliff across a lake. It was the size of a small refrigerator and required a large amount of water for cooling. A very high maintenance beast like an exotic sports car, and would probably last less than an house on the Playa. Today’s laser technology is much, much better, but nowhere near as powerful. Unless you’re the U.S. navy…

          • Even 12 watts is a lot to hold in your hand! …At least Q-switching has not reached that scale.

            Interestingly enough, apparently NYS has made sale of any lasers, even the <5mw red pointers, illegal. (Just tried to buy a case of the <5mw reds on DollarTree.com.) Regulation is coming, apparently without regard to risk. What is needed is a field device to measure laser power, or we might lose that technology at the civilian level.

            http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/13/nyregion/powerful-lasers-easy-to-buy-experts-say.html?_r=0

    • Idiot Patrol states

      ‘So much factually incorrect repetition and commentary I don’t know where to start – maybe with the part where “the org pays $0″?

      The org pays quite a bit to insure every volunteer against workplace injury. This started with DPW in the 1990s and everyone is covered today as a volunteer. ;
      .
      .
      In response towards his comment

      Within 2013, the BMOrg paid $532,672 for Insurance (property, liability, workers comp, vehicle). this is near to $8 of each ticket. The workers comp insurance of this number, perchance, might be near to $2 of each ticket.

      Perchance, in due of his comment,I might raise the number of the amount of cash paid towards the DPW from $10 of each ticket, to $11 of each ticket, and increase the payments towards the other volunteers by near to $1 of each ticket in due of adding the workers comp payments, despite, in actuality, it is not paid towards the labourers. My belief is of the BMOrg needs to pay all DPW a very fair wage for their labours, in the place of hiding the BRC LLC, Burning Man event, financials, and stating of ‘we do not have the cash to pay you in a fair manner’.

      One other manner of which the BMOrg might support the awesome artists, and others, is to arrange their insurance, and pay their insurance, in due of the most horrible hidden contract the BMOrg requires of the artists to sign.
      .
      .
      The original post, discussing of the rubbish claims of transparency of the BMOrg, of which Idiot Patrol refers

      j) Prof. Mittendorf misses how little cash is paid, from the $30.5 million of ticket sales, towards the crowd whom sources the Burning Man event. My belief is the BMOrg owes transparency, and cash, in support of their efforts and labours. Of the $390, or $450, or $800 of the cash paid towards each ticket, solely the following amounts of cash are paid, from each ticket, towards

      – EDM sound camps and DJs – $0 in addendum, they must buy their own tickets. It might be most fair might the BMOrg gift several thousand free tickets, towards them, towards the camps whom provide entertainment, and towards mutant vehicle owners, in support of their efforts and labours.
      – Esplanade camps, and other camps whom provide entertainment – $0 in addendum, they must buy their own tickets
      – Mutant Vehicle owners – $0 in addendum, they must buy their own tickets
      – Artists – $13 within 2014, lower within 2015. Art grants are for solely near to one third of their costs, $0 for labour, and are solely for a small number of artists whom sign a most horrible hidden contract (Update, the BMOrg is paying near to $15 of each ticket towards the artists within 2015. Newbies, you must donate your cash towards the artists, and towards the temple. The art, and the temple, will not occur without your donations of cash in due of the BMOrg does not desire to pay for it from the $30.5 million of tickets sales)
      – DPW labourers, whom construct the city – near to $10, many, if not most, are not paid (update to $11 for workers comp)
      – Gate labourers – near to $3 for food, their tickets, might they have laboured for numerous hours the prior year, are not counted within the paid population cap of near to 70,000 of Black Rock City, thus are not paid from ticket sales.(update to $3.50 for workers comp)
      – BRC Rangers – near to $3 for food, their tickets, might they have laboured for numerous hours the prior year, are not counted within the paid population cap of near to 70,000 of Black Rock City (update to $3.50 for workers comp)
      .
      .
      Idiot Patrol, might there be any number, within here, of which you might dispute?

      Reply

  5. Today’s handheld lasers starting fires? That certainly is a quantum universe I don’t live in.

    …Maybe they are referring to PHasers, or disruptors. OK, when are those people with the time machine going to provide some DAMN TRANSPARENCY!! …Oh, crap, I guess they brought a cloak back too.

    I am SO out of the loop. 🙁

    Reply

    • OK. Good news! The K-man just tipped me off to a connection for some phasers and disruptors, and since they are NOT against the BOrg rules, let me know if you need one. They have some residual subspace tetryon radiation from the trip, but should be safe as long as you don’t hold them near your body for very long. You might think storage would be a problem – all that lead – but just pop them into a ziplock bag and keep them in a cooler full of water. Heavy water works best, but you can’t have everything.

      Reply

      • That is some dangerous crap, and should be licensed. Most users would blind themselves or others. The green ones are bad enough.

        You can also hook up a Van de Graaff generator to an old rectifier tube and some aluminum foil to make things fluoresce without a UV light. Does not mean it’s a good idea.

        Reply

  6. So Kucinich tweets: “You people here are creating a world that everybody would love to live in.”

    That sounds very nice, but I look at the audience and there isn’t one person who isn’t white. Everybody… really?

    Reply

      • 3? You must be joking. Maybe 1, but it doesn’t help that the pic is from the rear. I looked at the video footage and frontal pics and the only black people I saw were 2 from the 2013 video, and one of them didn’t have a seat. Didn’t see even one possible asian or hispanic or eskimo. It’s time to admit that Burning Man is a sport for white people. Let’s just face it and move on so we can spread this joy to the rest of the world.

        Reply

          • The attendance defines the universe from which it is selected, or the selection process. No Martians were apparent, but pretty sure they aren’t being prohibited to participate. Same is likely true for Republicans.

          • ‘Same is likely true for Republicans.’

            Nomad, within the same manner as the 2014 census numbers in regards of the per cent of virgins, and the chart of Number of Prior Burns, being utter rubbish, of which, it is most desired of the census people to #pleaseexplain, the census in regards of Republicans, in addendum, is most curious. Prior censuses have mostly stated the per cent of Republicans 5% to 10%, except of the censuses of 2012 and 2013, when Larry and Marian desired to attract rich people and plug and plays to Burning Man, stating of all are most welcome to the burn, that the censuses raised the per cent of Republicans to near 20% in 2012 and 2013. #pleaseexplain

            I viewed the 2012 preliminary census, of which, it stated 24% Republicans, I have not viewed the 2013 census to be certain of the number.

          • What I just can’t get past is the preliminary results showed “more Virgins”, they used these results to adjust the main results, and the result was “less Virgins”. How can this be?

          • But they have been utterly ignoring the Martians!! I smell an conspiracy… Maybe the Martians need to get on the Bitcoin system, since they are not part of the ACH. I bet that might get their numbers to show up in the BOrg census!

          • Diversity in business and education and housing and all other necessary aspects of life is important, I believe. Diversity in a weeklong arts festival would be nice, but honestly, I couldn’t care less one way or another. Everyone is welcome, if they don’t come, oh well.

          • Everyone is welcome to the GLC? Did I miss something?… The Martians said they did not get an invite. Did they have to create a “profile” somewhere to get their invitation? …Oh, and same for attending the NB burn.

          • Oh, the GLC. Yeah, mostly white, just like the NV burn. If the GLC demographics don’t match those in the larger burner community, then maybe that’s an issue. Otherwise, so what?

          • The Martians said they thought this was Leadership, not Lagership. They thought this was to expand the story, not look backwards and just patting themselves on the back. Then again, they said the videos are pretty much a pep rally for the status quo and not an inspiration to do more. They said if you want them to come to the NV burn you might have them at the GLC, instead of waiting for the eggs that have not been laid to hatch.

            But what do they know, right? I mean, if they were with the program, they would have been at the GLC! Pass the grape Flavor-Aide, Jimmy.

          • Actually, it’s pretty clear the BOrg cannot handle the challenge of expanding their reach. They are in a defensive, siege mode, not being an incubator for creativity. Then again, they never were, and that’s the sad truth. Oh, and Starbucks is neither the United Nations nor crowd-sourced stone soup, it is a place with restrooms that sells coffee for private profit, like the NV burn.

          • Yes, you are right! Def Comedy Jam should stop representing themselves as some all-inclusive radical non-profit movement that is seeking donations to spread their largely unspecified message.

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