Hooligans Attack! White Ocean Sabotaged, Camp Collapses

2016 white ocean lineup

It seems the Occupy Burning Man Class War long promoted on eplaya.burningman.com (while being simultaneously dismissed as irrelevant at the BJ) has finally come to fruition.

White Ocean was sabotaged by hooligans, who trashed their camp and glued doors shut on their trailers. Rather than sympathy from the Org, they were told they deserved it.

Screenshot 2016-09-02 14.25.33

Some Burners might laugh at this, thinking it’s a throwback to the glory hole days of the Cacophony Society, but it’s not cool. This is way more than a prank. Pranks should be funny. Like this:

zos billboard

It goes against the whole point of Burning Man, which is radical inclusion. The vandals are MOOPing all over the Playa, “in the name of the Ten Principles!” What dicks. Not to mention that it might not be the smartest thing to mess with these people.

White Ocean put on a huge stage, bring some of the best musical talent in the world, give it away for free – so they deserve to be punished by Burnier-Than-Thous? For what, not gifting enough? Having people in their camp from other countries? First Camp is where people should be protesting.

The result of this attack is more likely to be “raise prices further so poor people can’t come”, rather than “all the rich people will now leave”. Camps will now be forced to have security staff, velvet ropes, members-only areas, all the things the vandals presumably hate. Generators will be closely guarded, strangers will be looked at with suspicion.

Sadly, this is symptomatic of the huge rift in the community caused by the BMorg 2.0 attitude, as exemplified by the “Man upside down” theme of this year. The message from Larry Harvey on the official Burning Man blog is that art comes from rich people sponsoring poor artists, instead of a communal effort by all of us where anyone can be an artist so everybody’s got to try.

These days, some people have $190 tickets and others have $1300 tickets. Burners don’t think “that’s so awesome that they paid more for tickets, they’re funding art” – because the extra money quite clearly is not funding more art. Instead many think “most of my friends couldn’t get tickets and these sparkle ponies don’t even care about our values or appreciate how  lucky they are to be here”.

Instead of Da Vinci tickets funding more art, the annual Art Grants budget was adjusted to include the Man, Man base, and Temple, as well as grants to Burner artists. Of course, all the same old names who’ve been getting grants for decades get rewarded each year, whether they need the money or not.

What about Vehicle Passes? Did this money go to art? Vehicles? To making Burning Man or the world a  better place? Or did it go to flying the 100+ full time, year-round Org staff around the world to a bunch of festivals on recon for Fest300 while courting wealthy patrons to finance off-Playa real estate deals?

Screenshot 2016-09-02 15.19.30

When vehicle passes came out, we were told it was for the environment and improving local roads. Were the roads any better this year? All we have heard about is Police stings at the Gerlach crosswalk.

Perhaps related to this attack, or perhaps a total coincidence, but a structure in an unnamed camp collapsed, injuring 6 people. 1 had to be airlifted out, BMOrg aren’t saying where. From SFist:

A Burning Man theme camp collapsed earlier this week, injuring six and requiring that one festival attendee be airlifted out of the desert for medical treatment. The Reno Gazette-Journal reports that this all went down Monday, and that festival organizers are keeping a tight lid on the details.

According to the paper, the structure was part of a theme camp — not one of the giant art projects that cover the Playa — but officials are not saying at this time which camp. Five of the injured six, whose names have not been released, were treated by medical personnel onsite and one needed x-rays from medical contractor CrowdRx. The sixth was sent elsewhere for treatment, although Burning Man spokesman Jim Graham did not confirm to the paper to where or for what injuries.

We can safely assume, however, that Paris Hilton was not one of the injured as she was still Instagraming away as of yesterday.

The 70,000-person festival is no stranger to accidents, and has serious medical care facilities on site as a safety measure. And while most years are free of accidental deaths, it was just two years ago that a woman died after she was tragically run over by a bus.

The collapsed structure was officially closed off Tuesday morning, and we assume the five injured and released attendees are, at present, dancing to some deep house.

[Source]

Meanwhile, back in SF, the Chronicle reports that the 3% drop in city population due to Burning Man has been quickly filled up with tourists. Probably taking advantage of the glut of week-long AirBnB rentals.

 

Burning Man Punked Itself

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It seems the upside down, headless Man – first spotted by yours truly on our Facebook page in the wee hours of Monday morning…

Screenshot 2016-08-29 02.57.09

… was not intentional. But it was news-worthy, for USA Today at least.

Image: Andy Barron, Reno Gazette-Journal

Image: Andy Barron, Reno Gazette-Journal

 

Jenny Kane reports that Burning Man wasn’t quite ready for opening, people were still working on the workshop and not in the workshop:

The main attraction at Burning Man is stuck — upside-down…

Crews raised the man above the Renaissance-style piazza Sunday but discovered that the gear designed to rotate the man like a Ferris wheel was broken. He still is without a wooden head as well.

The “man” site, including the piazza, is planned to open Tuesday morning since crews are expected to work through the night on a project.

Usually the man is hoisted upright by Sunday, the opening day of the event, but various large-scale projects on the playa have been delayed and are behind after sporadic dust storms and rainfall before the event. The Catacomb of Veils and the Temple also have yet to open.

The “man” is expected to burn Sept. 3, and the temple is set to burn Sept. 4. Other art installations will burn throughout the week beginning as early as Thursday night.

Check out their whole story which has 6 dozen photos from the Playa. Or, check out my screenshots from the video feed, below.

Is this a message from DPW, that Burning Man is now turned upside down with its head up its ass in the sand? Or is it the same message..but from the Rulers, showing us what the event will be like once they all leave for the retirement village hot springs?

Anyway, I thought the whole point was that people would push something and rotate The Man. Another Burning Man dream that fizzled? Or just “coming soon”?


The hilarious Burning Man hate week is back:


In other good news, Paris Hilton has lost her Burginity:

 

https://twitter.com/OnlineHilton/status/770621359353364480/photo/1

View this post on Instagram

I believe I can fly…✨🌠✨ #BurningMan

A post shared by Paris Hilton (@parishilton) on

 

America’s Next Top Model winner Adrianne Curry is staying well away from the smelly and salty event:

adrianne curry burning man


I’ve had the live stream on in the background most of the day. The Man was fine from this morning. It looks like The Temple is open now. Not sure yet about The Piazza, the Workshops of “Da Vinci’s workshop”.

Realism seems to be the order of the day. Whale, gorilla, bear, boar, bull, pyramids, 747, @, #  – all look a lot like larger-than-life imitations of their real-world inspiration.

Australia has a lot of this sort of stuff, Big Banana, Big Sheep, etc. The tourists love it, it’s great for Instagram.

5590932-Big_Banana-0BigMerinoGoulburnbig koalaBig_Prawn_Ballina

[For those who’ve been to Byron Bay, the Big Prawn in a Ballina gas station was saved by a Big Box hardware store, who bought the site and built around the prawn]big prawn bunnings

Perhaps we will see all these “Big Things of Burning Man” trotted out each year now, providing a comforting familiarity like Disneyland and Las Vegas. They can mix it up a bit; maybe one year the 747 has a wing, maybe one year they bring part of the tail section. With enough fundraising from the community, we may even get to see a wheel or an inflatable slide…or a coat of paint.

aboriginal747

Plug-n-Play looks amazing, the Space Whale looks amazing at night. I’m sure it’s incredible up close too. I like the Converse art car, and Icarus.

For every mutant vehicle you see driving around, you see 3-4 non-mutant ones. Vans, trucks, driving all over the Playa. I would say 70-80% of the non-mutant vehicles are speeding.

The Magical Realism certainly applies to the HD video feed as well.

Kudos to @motorbikematt for a major upgrade on what we’ve previously had. GoPro exceeding the capabilities of NASA and JPL?  The resolution, stability, panning speed, and zoom have all greatly improved from last year. I am watching via YouTube and a 4 year old iMac, and I can clearly identify people and read signs. I bet they could read license plates if they want. If this is what us in the public get to see on YouTube, I can only imagine what Google, DARPA and the Sheriffs are looking at, combining drones, low and high orbit satellites, radar, infrared, geospatial and electromagnetic intelligence…I bet they know where all the Pokemons are

Screenshot 2016-08-31 14.34.43Screenshot 2016-08-31 14.34.10Screenshot 2016-08-31 11.41.27 Screenshot 2016-08-31 10.18.04 Screenshot 2016-08-31 10.25.37 Screenshot 2016-08-31 10.25.09 Screenshot 2016-08-31 10.18.52 Screenshot 2016-08-31 11.46.29Screenshot 2016-08-31 11.58.26Screenshot 2016-08-31 14.40.19 Screenshot 2016-08-31 14.39.48 Screenshot 2016-08-31 14.38.27 Screenshot 2016-08-31 14.38.04 Screenshot 2016-08-31 14.37.32 Screenshot 2016-08-31 14.37.11 Screenshot 2016-08-31 14.36.52 Screenshot 2016-08-31 14.36.07 Screenshot 2016-08-31 14.35.49 Screenshot 2016-08-31 14.33.48 Screenshot 2016-08-31 14.32.15

Here’s some Playa video from Mark Day:

We’ll let artist Otto von Danger have the last word:

otto von danger

Video

Rockefeller Rocked By Nose Bombs

one joy logo

A new video from Tex Allen and Mark Day. These clowns took 5000 Noses to NBC’s Red Nose Day 2015 and gave them away for free over a 48 hour period.

Tex says: “in the name of oldskool cacophony, we managed to get escorted out of their Rockefeller Center Store AND the Today Show external set…but not before making sure their opening shots on TV were covered in Burner love :)”

Tex Allen says this type of love bombing is the duty of members of his #onejoy love cult:

Good morning America!

With great humility and honor and JOY!, may I present Project #LoveBomb NYC?

Wherein myself, Mark Day and Andy Devlin (with help via Stefanie Clouse) and the extended-family love and support of Judy Preston Hirsch and Steve Hirsch dropped 5000 WhyTheNose? Noses on New York City during NBC’s Red Nose Day…

This is also a #lovegift to the single source of my unending devotion, the #lovesource that I wake up to daily and the reason I’ve learned to open my heart to the magical NOW, Ms. Cat DuBois heart emoticon

PS: I strongly suggest that you put on some headphones and/or turn this up for maximum butt-shakin’ YEAH!

PLEASE SHARE THIS TO THE WORLD!
…it’s your duty as a #onejoy cult member

Where is the love? Right here, it seems.

red noze camp tex allen

Why The Nose is going to be on the Playa in full strength this year, handing out clown noses to go with the Carnival theme. They really help when it’s Portapotty time!