This article goes out directly to the party people & Burners who think they can party like rockstar gods. While the measure of any varsity party person is the ability to handle multiple types of substances concurrently, that game has become intensely more dangerous in the last 5 years. In case you missed it, the coroner’s reports on Tom Petty & Dolores O’Riordan’s deaths came back. The lead singer of The Cranberries & one of the most distinctive voices of a generation is suspected of killing herself via fentanyl poisoning. And Tom Petty’s toxicology is so startling, I’ll just quote TMZ (yes, it’s beencorroboratedelsewhere put the pitchforks down) directly:
Tom’s autopsy report shows the singer was on several pain meds, including Fentanyl patches, oxycodone (Oxycontin), temazepam (Restoril), alprazolam (Xanax), citalopram (Celexa), acetyl fentanyl and despropionyl fentanyl. The reason doctors prescribed the meds was because of a number of medical problems, including emphysema, knee problems and a fractured hip. ~Tom Petty Died From Massive Accidental Drug OD. TMZ.com 1.19.18
In the immortal words of Alex Shulgin, that is a “heroic” cocktail. For all my psychonauts and chem nerds out there, Kevin Shanks has an exceptional review of the chemicals here. For people out there that might not be too familiar with pharmacology, I’d like to explain why this combination of drugs is terrifying and a perfect example of the crisis currently afflicting all 50 states. While many have seen that pile of substances and flagged it as an “opiate overdose,” in a lot of toxicology reports, autopsies revealing multiple drugs are categorized in similarly incorrect ways. Some counties would flag it as a synthetic opiate overdose, while others only bucket many different types of opiates under the umbrella term “drug overdose.” Still others might even classify it as a benzo or Xanax overdose. While New York City differentiates between fentanyl and heroin in its reporting, this is not the norm. And that is a huge problem. Especially now that it’s easier than ever to be on half a dozen different drugs.
The New York Times has a fascinating article about the new breed of SF tech millionaires, one of whom wears a lucky charm bracelet given to him as part of his Burning Man camp, and a magical necklace increased his wealth six times since somebody gifted it to him (on the Playa, perhaps?)
About eight people live in the Crypto Castle on any given night, and some of Mr. Gardner’s tenants brought out snacks (Cheez-Its and a jar of Nutella). One of the bedrooms has a stripper pole. Mr. Gardner leaned back into the sofa and rested his feet on the table. He recently did an I.C.O. for a start-up after-party. “You can I.C.O. anything,” he said. He runs Distributed, a 180-page magazine about cryptocurrency that comes out about once a year. He is now raising $75 million for his hedge fund, Ausum Ventures (pronounced “awesome”). He said his closest friends are moving to Puerto Rico to get around paying taxes.
“They’re going to build a modern-day Atlantis out there,” he said. “But for me, it’s too early in my career to check out.”
He wears a bracelet from his Burning Man camp (Mayan Warrior) and a necklace that is a key on a chain. “I was given this necklace and was told my net worth would go up, and it’s gone up six x since then,” he said.
He drew a chart to explain the crypto community: 20 percent for ideology, 60 percent for the tech and 100 percent for the money, he said, drawing a circle around it all.
A roommate on the sofa perked up and asked if he’d ever invest in his lucid dreams start-up (the idea is a headpiece that induces them). Mr. Gardner did not seem impressed: “Probably not,” he said. A reality show wants to follow him around, but he’s skeptical that it can add to his life.
“I literally have a date with Bella Hadid not having a reality show,” he said
Burning Man is all about the freedom to be who you want and do who you want and meet who you want. These libertarian values are at the heart of the blockchain as well. It is not just about money, it is like the Internet – a new tool which is going to take humanity to the next level.
I was recently blown away by the Alpha version of GEMS, a decentralized version of Amazon’s “Mechnical Turk” business unit. There are still plenty of things that humans can do better than robots, and I believe this is a disruptive new economic model just like the Sharing Economy was. Check out my post about it on Steemit
A world of infinite love and abundance is the ultimate realization of the Gifting and Civic Responsibility principles, not to mention Radical Self Expression and Reliance…as I explored in my latest episode of CryptoBeast (please subscribe to my new channel).
revenues up to almost $46.2 million, up from $36.9 million in 2015.
Revenue less Expenses= $9,242,666
Donations received over $8 million (including Fly Ranch mega-donors).
salaries up $2 million
Cash and receivables: $9.5 million
Total assets: $24.4 million
Ticketing $873,795
Even though it is more than a year and a quarter since Burning Man 2016, they still aren’t able to share with us the actual data in their annual report. A lot of it they just took from 2015.
I can’t make the fancy graphics like them, but I can look on their form and see what “Grants Provided” and “Donations Received” were for 2016, the year this report is supposed to be about.
Grants Provided 2016: $1,518,490
Donations Received 2016: $8,074,456
Note that for the last couple of years at least, “grants” has included all the cost of the Man, base, and the various structures that now surround the Man base. Donations went up nearly $7 million, total revenue went up about $10 million, while grants went up less than a hundred grand.
The image above makes it look like 5% of the budget goes to Burners Without Borders, and Fly Ranch takes up about 10% of their year-round time and money. Neither of these figures matches the actual numbers.
We commented last year that it seemed a little pathetic that Burners Without Borders, an organization that once held so much promise, donated a mere $4000 across 8 projects. They’ve managed to cut those outrageous costs, donating now $3415, or less than 1/13,000th of Burning Man’s revenue.
We’re making the world a better place, with $3,415. They spend way more on their European Leadership Conference. I mean, shouldn’t things like that be self-funding, if not actually raising funds?
The only founders still working full time are Marian Goodell (50 hours) and Larry Harvey (40 hours). Harley Dubois must knock off work early, or maybe she takes a longer lunch break – she only puts in 36 hours per week.
The guy actually running Burning Man, Charlie Dolman, only gets paid slightly more than the many and varied PR and IT staff.
Kudos to the board members who give their time to Burning Man for free.
Legal costs remain astronomical, more than half a million dollars a year. And that’s after Board member Terry Gross gave a generous (for a lawyer) 20% discount on his firm’s fees – although he clawed some of that back with $20k+ in personal payments.
The Artumnal fundraiser appears to have made a loss. They paid $31,904 rent for the use of The Regency Ballroom for an evening.
Burner money paid for a lot of international junketsspeaking engagements, including Marian Goodell sharing the stage with the Vatican…which kind of makes sense given the sort of thing we’ve seen from this Satan-praising Pope
This guy is in charge of culture for the Vatican.
Paul Tighe (born 12 February 1958) is an Irish prelate of the Catholic Church. He has been the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture since his appointment on 28 October 2017. He is the highest-ranking Irishman in the Roman Curia
In her talk, Maid Marian says “cellphones don’t work” and “the Internet is left behind”. Isn’t it a cardinal sin to lie in front of a bishop?
They still seem to have no idea what they are going to do with FlySalen. It’s coming up on 2 years now since they bought it. Is there some secret stuff going on out there, which isn’t being shared with the Burner community? Radical Rituals of some sort?
The biggest individual contributions to Fly Ranch were: $1,750,000 , $1,500,000, $999,965, $500,000. Some big backers there – can we match the name with the money? Elon? Sergey? Guy from Cirque do Soleil? Geomagician Ping Fu got a board seat, so presumably she wrote a pretty big check. Which one of these high rolling Billionaire Burners stiffed them on the $35 wire transfer fee?
They received $171,000 in land and $489,915 in marketable securities – that “donate us your stock options program” looks to have been a lucrative move.
…more than 200,000 killed so far this century, but hey, at least we got a donation.
Congratulations to Marian and team for delivering an excellent financial result. Costs trimmed, sales up. A well oiled and greased machine. How much trickled out into grants, which of course mostly went to the same old same old (shout out to newcomer Plug-n-Play LLC?)
“In 2016, $78,250 was awarded to 17 global projects.”
