Tag Archives: fashion

Apr 30 2014

The Stand of No Stand

As we enter the 5th month of the year, BMOrg are managing to be strangely silent, while at the same time being all over the news. The “Burning Man Organizer Throws Bundy Fest” story has been picked up by mainstream organizations like  Washington Times, Fox News, Reno Gazette Journal, Las Vegas Sun, Daily Kos, topix, Raw Story, The Blaze, Spin; as well as “alternative media” sites like Godlike Productions, BeforeItsNews, DiscloseTV,  FARK, the Daily Paul, and even Datehookup.com.

Burning Man’s response to the confusion has been tepid. Communications director Jim Graham said in an email to the RGJ: “The person is not a Burning Man organizer and we actually have no information on him”. On their Facebook page, they said “For the record, the Burning Man organization has absolutely no involvement whatsoever with the so-called #BundyFest or its supposed organizer Sean Shealy.” This information may be useful to Burning Man’s community, but how many Fox News reporters are reading their Facebook page? As far as we can tell, no press release has been issued. So this is the total extent of their denial.

american_man_pin-155x300Instead, BMorg wrote a blog post entitled “why doesn’t Burning Man take a stand?” They published this with a new logo, mixing the Burning Man symbol with the American flag. This blog post  and logo was put on the front page of their site. The post doesn’t explicitly say “we have nothing to do with Bundy Fest”, but it does try to throw them into the political mix.

In answering their own question “why don’t we take a stand”, they are, in fact, taking a stand. The stance they take is “we try to stay out of it, because radical inclusion means everyone is welcome; and immediacy means we can resolve political problems with face to face discourse”.

Certainly, the Feds are welcome. BLM special agent Dan Love, who led the machine gun brandishing, cow and tortoise killing, woman-tasering Federal team at the Bundy stand-off…also leads the SWAT team-like BLM forces at Burning Man, looking to bust Burners with their night vision goggles, drug sniffer dogs, and fully automatic weapons.

Supposedly, the cowboys are welcome, as long as they don’t bring their horses. The militias are welcome, as long as they don’t bring their guns. The Second Amendment is suspended at the largest event on Federal Land.

Here’s what BMOrg say:

Now and again somebody tries to tempt (or badger) the Burning Man organization into taking stand on a political issue – most recently the dust-up at the Bundy Ranch in Nevada.

Why doesn’t Burning Man take a stand? The answer is simple: our principle of Radical Inclusion. “Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.”

We believe the best way for people to develop and evolve their political positions toward a better future is through interpersonal connection, sharing ideas, and engaging in informed dialog with people representing a diversity of perspectives.While many of our staff are politically active (across the entire political spectrum, actually), we pride ourselves on facilitating and cultivating a community that welcomes all political stripes. And religious stripes. And genders. And races. And creeds. And sexual preferences. And … you get the idea.

Face-to-face interaction is key in this equation … which reflects another of our 10 Principles: Immediacy. “Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers standing between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience…

…We want to better the world. We ALL want to better the world — and people have vastly different visions of what that actually looks like. We’re not going to tell you what that looks like, but we can provide the space to find out for yourself.”

Does Burning Man really think that everything would be fine, if these good ‘ole boys and patriot militias showed up en masse?

unicorn cowboyThere is nothing in the Ten Principles, or anywhere else in the ticket rules, that specifies a dress code for the party. And yet – can you wear jeans, shirt and a cowboy hat (if you’re not Larry Harvey)? Can you wear camo pants and Ron Paul t-shirts? An LA Clippers jersey? Perhaps you might answer “yes”, but come on – that’s theory, not practice. In practice you would be attacked by mobs of burnier-than-thous. You would be booed and jeered. There is an expectation to conform to Burner culture, as we explored in this earlier post “everyone’s unique except me”.

“Participation in society” and “dressing half naked in costumes, taking drugs and dancing on an art car” are not the same thing. Going far, far into the desert, and partying with other like minded people, is more like participating in a commune, than society.

It seems to me that BMOrg are quite content for the media blitz about BundyFest to continue, spreading their name to new audiences. They are even trying to capitalize on it by positioning themselves as an appropriate venue for political discourse – between us Burners, with BMorg staying neutral and providing “the crucible”.

The move may backfire, as Burners realize that they are losing freedoms at TTITD, not celebrating them. On the official blog, Burner Silvio says:

I’ve camped with Clan Destino since 2002. We had a meeting last night, and decided for the first time they we’re going to pass on BM this year, and put all our effort into BundyFest. We’ve always wanted to extend our time on the playa, we have more resources to offer than can be delivered in just 1 week. So we’re going to spend the whole month at BundyFest and offer the same entertainment and services we’ve offered for over a decade at BM. This decision was made for this reason, plus the fact that LEOs raided our camp last year because someone rolled a tobacco cigarette. The dogs were called in, and every tent and vehicle was searched. They found nothing, and even Black Rock Rangers helped to turn our camp upside down.

It’s just the evolution of Burning Man. It was just a matter of time before something like BundyFest would take over. I hope to see all of you out there.

As for the strange silence, we are still waiting for the announcement of 2014 Art Honoraria winners, the new web site, and the restoration of the marketplace.

What do you think, Burners? Should you have to dress like you’re at Burning Man, to be part of it? Or should people come in their everyday clothes, because everyone is welcome and we want to evolve their political ideas?

Mar 31 2014

Looking At Utopia With Stars In Our Eyes

If you’ve wondered why this blog appears to have gone quiet in the last week, it’s because I’m travelling on a trip that has taken me from the White House to Miami’s Winter Electronic Music Conference to West Point. Meanwhile, nothing much seems to have happened in the Burning Man world during this time. That may be about to change, with a rival civilization springing up to challenge Burning Man’s supremacy as a temporary city.

utopiaFox TV has begun casting for a new reality show, called Utopia. The show is being produced by Dutch TV maestro John de Mol, who has won 25 Emmy awards for his contribution to the medium. He created the Big Brother show where people live together in a house with cameras on them 24/7. There they perform all manner of bizarre antics and entertainment for the home viewers, trying to avoid being voted out. What kind of antics? Well, the show’s most famous and controversial moment in Australia was a “teabagging incident”.

If you think you have what it takes for reality TV, then you might enjoy dedicating a year of your life to this new show, Utopia. It has debuted on Dutch TV already – so strongly that it triggered a bidding war amongst American networks looking for “the next big thing”.

The debut exceeded expectations, ranking as SBS 6′s highest-rated nonscripted premiere in six years. It won its time slot and pulled a 25.2% share in adults 18-49, improving the network’s market share in the time period by 500%, and drew almost 1.6 million overall viewers compared to SBS’ average viewership in the slot of 300,000…and nearly 100,000 people downloaded the app after the first episode

John de Mol also created Deal Or No Deal, Fear Factor, and The Voice – but he says “this is the purest form of reality that I have ever produced in my career”. The Hollywood Reporter called it “the most ambitious social experiment on television”

The premise of the show is “start your own civilization”, and see what you can achieve in a year. The location of where in the United States this will be remains a secret; it is unlikely to be the Black Rock Desert. Still, radical Burner skills of self-expression, self-reliance, participation, communal effort, civic responsibility, and immediacy could all be useful in this new civilization. Some creativity would be required to demonstrate how a society could be built entirely from Gifting: surely someone would have to have access to more resources than others, in order to have more gifts to distribute over the course of an entire year. Decommodification also seems like a challenge, when you are a wannabe star in a mainstream reality TV show broadcast around the world. Something tells me Fox will find some sponsors for this. I find it hard to believe how a TV production crew on  a set they construct from nothing over a year is going to “Leave No Trace”. Still, Burners are nothing if not ingenious, so this could be a fantastic opportunity for The Burning Man Project to test how their principles work away from a rocket testing site in the Wild West – perhaps a useful exercise before they start their own brand-licensed colonies.

Gretchen Miller is doing the casting, and she says they have already received applications from some Burners. You can contact her here.

UTOPIA is a bold new unscripted series that moves 15 everyday Americans to an isolated, undeveloped location – for an entire year – and challenges them to create their own civilization.

With cameras following the pioneers 24/7, viewers can watch their society unfold, both weekly on FOX and also online. As they observe the inhabitants living together, and building their new existence, viewers themselves will have the chance to become a valuable and powerful asset to the community, and ultimately to question whether Utopia remains an elusive but alluring fantasy, or whether the pioneers have truly realized their dream

We are looking for those strong individuals who will create this new world on live television to see if they have what it takes to work together and create a new society from scratch.

We need people from all walks of life and skill sets to contribute to this new community being founded.  I am familiar with Burning Man and have attended in the past. Attendees have such a great sense of community and ideals which I think will be a great asset on the show. We are looking for artists, tradespeople, activists, contractors, doctors. lawyers,inventors, chefs, firefighters etc.

Please check out the show’s website at http://www.fox.com/utopia/.  For anyone interested in applying they can go to http://www.utopiatv.com  and fill out the questionnaire or contact me directly.  The show’s trailer can be found here: http://youtu.be/xfnaDbmFpP4.

John de Mol says:

“Utopia is a positive and constructive program that gives people the opportunity, if you can start all over again, start from scratch and create laws and make decisions, will you be able to build a society that is better than the one we have; will it be chaos or happiness…Big Brotheris a competition among 12 people who don’t have the worry about money, their fridge is always full, it’s a totally different setup.” He also noted that the cast members on Utopia, which requires a lot of skills, tend to be more upscale

Pro tip for budding social engineers: wear a Stetson.

 

Feb 6 2014

Burning Man Costume Designers Debut at Fashion Week

“Fashion Week is nothing after using a porta potty in the desert for a week”

DNA Info brings us this story about two young Burners whose clothing collection has made it all the way to New York for Fashion Week.

vaunt and sol extralargeFLATIRON — They went from Burning Man to the tents of Fashion Week.

Nicole Vaunt and Najva Sol — the women behind fashion label Vaunt & Sol — are debuting their first runway-ready collection at Fashion Week Fall 2014, capping off more than a decade of collaborating on everything from designing costumes for the annual Nevada desert festival Burning Man, to cutting fabric together on their living room floor as high schoolers in Mississippi, to traveling across the globe to gather fashion inspiration from around the world.

“Fashion Week is nothing after using a porta potty in the desert for a week,” said Sol, 26, who lives in Crown Heights.

The duo’s line is dedicated to “urbane attire and shapes that are inspired by the old world, but created for the new,” she said.

vaunt and sol“You should never have to choose between function and beauty,” Sol added, saying each look is created with a strict standard.

“You have to be able to do the splits in it,” she said.

Because of a pop-up runway provided by Manufacture New York — a support company for emerging designers — the young fashionistas have the opportunity to send their designs down a New York City runway during Fashion Week Fall 2014.

“This is an amazing opportunity for us,” Sol said. “This collection is high quality, dreamy, and luxurious. It is ready to be seen.”

Sol — who prides herself a “former nightlife maven” — worked as a bartender, hostess, event planner, go-go dancer and “basically anything that had to do with New York City nightlife” before dedicating herself to design. Her experiences — coupled with her Persian background — inspired the drapey, colorful, urban, oversized look of the collection.

While Sol dreams up big visions for Vaunt & Sol designs, Vaunt — a couture latex designer for her own company VAUNTD — makes them a reality.

“Nicole’s terminology in the world of textiles is immense,” Sol said. “She is amazing at taking my ideas, curating them, and making them happen.”

Vaunt & Sol will be showing their collection on Wednesday Feb. 5 at MNY 55 located at 55 West 17th St. at 2 p.m.