Each principle is represented by a different body part, and is meant to be read left to right, with the b&w left-hand portion representing the default world and the colorful right side showing an ideal world as transformed by that principle. I think they're pretty gorgeous.

They're packed with references to Burning Man art from the past, and you can have fun finding Larry's hat in each one. ​Enjoy!

As regular readers of this blog know, I'm a big proponent for keeping the weird, quirky, and subversive in Burning Man. Last year, a group of us in my camp started Weirdout Wednesday as a day for people to let their freak flags fly and escape the bonds of Instagram coolness. Granted, it's hard to be truly weird at Burning Man, but think of it as a call to embrace your quirky side rather than DJ chase or pose for Instagram shots on big art or whatnot!

So, here's how some of us from our camp - Friendgasm - celebrated Weirdout Wednesday this year. My hope is that others feel inspired by these kinds of antics and are moved to shenanigans themselves!

Do you ever look around while at Burning Man and wonder why so many people are so intent on being ‘cool?’ I mean, sure, everybody likes looking good sometimes, but this isn’t Coachella. Burning Man is meant to be weird! It’s meant to be a place where we can embrace the eccentric and let our freak flags fly instead of trying to climb some sort of social validation ladder that plays out on Instagram.

In aid of fighting against this, last year, a subset of us from my camp – Friendgasm – implemented an idea a campmate had. More of a dream of his, really. (Thanks Ginger!) We’d put on adult diapers, some of those hats that hold a couple of cans of beer/soda, and we’d go rock out at day dance camps and elsewhere while trying to photobomb suspiciously-clean Instamodels. We dubbed it Weirdout Wednesday and it went hilariously well! Weirdout Wednesday’s origin story is here if you want to read more.

A line-by-line explanation of the lyrics follows afterwards!

Lyrics:
Baker Beach, Zone Trip 4, Cacophony, pissed off law
Black Rock Desert, Larry Harvey, Jerry James and TAZ.

Kevin Evans, Burn the Man, Danger Ranger’s Peter Pan
Crimson Rose, Marian, Seventy-Eight Olds.

Electronic music’s here, Turbo Ted’s spinning near,
Java Cow, Christmas Camp, Burning Man goes glamp. 

Will Roger, Center Camp, Harley DuBois, Lit lamps
Shooting range, trash fence downrange, everything is now changed!

We started all the fires!
We weren’t always burning 
but now we're returning
We did start the fire!
Yeah we tried to light it
And we never fight it.

Michael Furey, Papa Satan, Inferno and Hellco,
Techno Ghetto, regulation, John Law leaves the nation 

Fly ranch, Hualapai, Rod Garrett, Sheriff’s eye
New Earth Guardians, LNT is hard.

Sergey, Larry Page, drama on the back stage, 
X-Force, DMV, First Regional will now be

Piss clear, Best is here, Wheel of Time, Temple Mind
Banksy’s art, Jiffy Lube, camels on the playa!

We started all the fires!
We're forever burning
and the Conclave's whirling
We did start the fire!
Yeah we tried to light it
And we never fight it.

Theme camps proliferate, Contessa sails straight
Principles, Thunderdome, weather makes it hard to roam

Angels of Apocalypse, Passage and Colossus
Belgian waffle, first moop map, children of the dust clap

Addis’s Early Burn, Man Burn, Temple Burn
TV Free Burning Man, Big Rig’s no minivan. 

Bliss Dance, Temple Flux, Dr. Yes’s epochs
South Park, Mantfarm, we don’t need no fire alarms!

We started all the fires
Now the world's learning
that we're out there Burning
We did start the fire!
Yeah we tried to light it
And we never fight it.

Tickets sellout, Rites of Passage, Temple of Transition
Trojan Horse, Pier bestows, Oh the places you’ll go

Bank of Un-America, playa dubstep mania,
Space saucer, Cargo Cult, DPW catapult!

Truth is Beauty, Church Trap, plug n’ plays are bullcrap
Embrace hey, rain to play, what else do I have say? 

We started all the fires
Now it's concerning
and the community's churning
We did start the fire!
Yeah we tried to light it
And we never fight it.

Bug invasion, brutal cold, masturbating nun – bold,
Promise Temple, Revolution, Sextant does electrocution

White Ocean vandalized, Da Vinci’s work prized, 
Space Whale, Light House nailed, Catacombs are unveiled  

Fly Ranch purchase, hot as hell, leftover bikes bombshell
Tenere, Hatted man, Aaron’s cut lifespan. 

Robots I saw bringing awe, Nixon’s under martial law
Larry passes, Hexatron, diaper squad, the plane's not gone!

We started all the fires
We weren’t always burning
Now the BLM’s turning
We did start the fire!
And when we are gone
It’ll still burn on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on

We started all the fires
Turns out we were yearning
Now we're always burning
We did start the fire!
Yeah we tried to light it
And we never fight it.

We started all the fires
We're all still learning
we're forever burning
We did start the fire!
Yeah we tried to light it
And we never fight it.

While many of the references in We Started The Fire are obvious, others are perhaps less so, especially for those new or newer to Burning Man. Here's your reference guide! You can always learn more about Burning Man's history here.

Baker Beach - The beach in San Francisco where the first burn happened.
Zone Trip 4 - The Cacophony Society's name for the first Burn out in the northern Nevada desert: "Zone Trip 4 - A Bad Day In Black Rock."
Cacophony - The Cacophony Society in San Francisco, whose Kevin Evans and John Law were a big part of Burning Man's founding.
Pissed off law - In '90, the cops kicked the crew off Baker Beach, forcing them to the playa and creating history. Also a side-reference to John Law, a key Cacophonist and one of Burning Man's founder.
Black Rock Desert - The site of Burning Man, in northern Nevada.
Larry Harvey - One of Burning Man's founders (to some who don't know better, "the" founder). 
Jerry James - One of Burning Man's founders.
T.AZ. - Temporary Autonomous Zone - the original intention of Burning Man, arguably.

Kevin Evans - one of Burning Man's founders.
Burn the Man - Torch the effigy.
Danger Ranger’s Peter Pan - Michael Mikel, aka Danger Ranger, is a Burning Man founder.
Crimson Rose - She led the first fire Conclave and has been a core part of the Burning Man leadership team since the early 90s.
Marian - Marian Goodell. The CEO and leader of Burning Man, having taken charge of the event in the mid 90s and having shepherded it for 20+ years.
Seventy-Eight Olds - The first art car, owned by Danger Ranger. A '78 Olds that had been damanged during the '89 Earthquake, and had the exact time of the quake on its license plate.

Electronic music's here - In '93, electronic music made its first real appearance on playa.
Terbo Ted's spinning near - Terbo Ted, aka Craig Ellenwood, spun the very first set on the playa, in '93. I did an interview with him here.
Java Cow - In the early 90s, someone dressed up as a kind of freaky cow would go around pouring coffee for people. Java cow!
Christmas Camp - The very first theme camp, in 1993, complete with fake snow and decorated Xmas trees, started the grand tradition of annoying your neighbors with music on loop.
Burning Man goes glamp - Refers to '93 and '94, which was when things started getting elaborate on the camping front. Fancy food, champagne in crystal goblets, people wearing heinous formal jackets, outrageous drag queens dressed to the 9s, etc. 

Will Roger - Cultural co-founder of Burning Man.
Center Camp - A large structure in the 'center' of Black Rock City. It started quite humbly, but is anything but now.
Harley DuBois - Along with Marian Goodell arguably rescued the event in the 90s. Effectively a co-founder.
Lit lamps - In '94, lamps in front of the Man were elevated above the playa floor, led by Steve Mobia, leading to the creation of the Lamplighters.
Shooting range - There used to be a shooting range out there. Guns were banned starting in '97, however.
Trash fence downrange - The first trash fence was in '96.
Everything is now changed - Refers to (and is an overstatement of) the changes that happened after '96.

Michael Furey - A burner who died/committed suicide by playing chicken with a van outside of Gerlach in '96. Larry Harvey's reaction to this death initiated a split with John Law that led this to be Law's last year.
Papa Satan - the '96 Burn had a strong theme and story running through it, involving Papa Satan, CEO of the evil Helco, trying to execute a hostile takeover of Burning Man. The Cacophonists put on plays and sublots in a series of pre-Burning Man events in San Francisco relating to this too.
Inferno - The '96 theme.
Helco - The evil company Papa Satan ran. One of the big art pieces that year was the Helco tower, which John Law famously climbed as it was lit, and then rode a zip line to the ground from the top as the fire began to get close to him. One of my favorite ever images of Burning Man.
Techno ghetto - After friction between electronic music fans and everyone else, a "techno ghetto" was organized in '96 about a mile north of the city to keep the large sound camps away from everybody else. Unfortunately, people were injured when a vehicle driving at high speed across the playa - this was the last year that was allowed - ran over their tent out in the techno ghetto. 
Regulation - After '96, regulation started to creep in by necessity. No guns and no high-speed driving were big ones.
John Law leaves the nation - '96 was John Law's last year, as he quit over severe disagreements over the direction of the event.

Fly Ranch, Hualapai - Burning Man was held on Fly Ranch and the next door Hualapai playa in '97 in an attempt to escape the hassles of the BLM and law enforcement. The event nearly fell apart that year.
Rod Garrett - The man recruited to create plans and documents for creating Black Rock City in compliance with county regulations. Rod's Road is named after him. 
Sheriff's eye - Even though '97 was on private property, the Washoe County sheriff was able to seize all the ticket sales at gate (back then you could just buy tickets at the gate), causing Larry Harvey to offer lifetime tickets to anyone who could chip in $500.
New Earth Guardians - A group formed in '97 by Harley DuBois to teach people  about Leave No Trace.
LNT is hard - LNT in '97 was notoriously hard because Fly Ranch and the Hualapai are not barren. There are grasses, etc, and they had some tension with the Fly Ranch landlord.

Sergey, Larry Page - Sergey Brin and Larry Page (the Google founders) started going to Burning Man, famously, in the late 90s.
Drama on the back stage - This refers to the trouble BM was having with the local community in the late '90s. It was quite a contentious relationship.
X-Force - Marvel comics referenced Burning Man in '98 in their X-force #75 comic, with people at the "Exploding Colossal Man Shindig and Hullabaloo", with a sculpture that is unmistakably the Man from Burning Man.
DMV - The first organized DMV out there was in '99.
First Regional will now be - '98 saw the first regional. "Burning Man Texas" had 30 people and a straw man built on site. The picture is of AfrikaBurn, however, which is the largest regional. I couldn't find any pics from the first Burning Man Texas.

Piss Clear - The name of a venerable publication full of info and snark, published on the playa.
Best is here - David Best and Jack Haye built the first Temple, in 2000.
Wheel of Time - The 99' theme.
Temple Mind - The Temple of the Mind was the first Temple.
Banksy’s art - Banksy came to Burning Man in 2001 and left some art behind.
Jiffy Lube - A camp at whose art display resulted in the Org, under pressure from law enforcement, ordering said art display (of two men having anal sex) taken down. 
Camels on the playa - There were real camels on the playa in the late 90s. Because people brought them, to be clear. 


And the Conclave's whirling - a reference to the Fire Conclave that performs before the Man burns.


Theme camps proliferate - They started breeding like rabbits in the early 00s. 
Contessa sails straight - an awesome art car that was a big rigged ship. First appearance was in 2002. Sadly, it has since burned down.
Principles - Larry Harvey wrote down ten principles in 2004 as descriptive of what the community at that time valued, in his opinion.
Thunderdome - They've been coming since the late 90s!
Weather makes it hard to roam - 2004 had terrible weather, with 40 registered art projects not making it because the weather stopped them from setting up. White-out dust storms to rain to very high temps and back again.

Angels of Apocalypse - An art piece in 2005 from Flaming Lotus Girls.
Passage - A large art piece in 2005 of a woman and her child, by Dan DasMann and Karen Cusolito.
Colossus - Another very large art piece from 2005, of hanging boulders that could be spun around a large center spire. By Zachary Coffin. 
Belgian waffle - A group of Belgians came out in 2006 and built Uchronia, otherwise known as the Waffle, which was the largest art piece ever built on the playa at that time. There was some controversy later when it turned out that it had some kind of corporate sponsorship.
First moop map - the first Moop Map was in 2006....
Children of the dust clap - ....and we're all excited about it! Who doesn't look forward to the Moop Map every year?

Addis’s Early Burn - Paul Addis burned the Man early in '07 as a (dangerous) prank.
Man Burn, Temple Burn - So much fire.
TV Free Burning Man - There was a tv station broadcasting back to the default world via the internet in '06.
Big Rig’s no minivan - Big Rig Jig was an epic piece of art in '07 involving a pair of semitrucks, by Mike Ross.

Bliss Dance - A 2010 art piece - first in an eventual series of 3 by Marco Cochrane - that was the talk of the playa. A large woman posing gracefully.
Temple Flux - The Temple of Flux was in 2010, which was very different from most Temples, shaped like a series of canyons instead of a building.
Dr. Yes’s epochs - I'm Dr. Yes, and I started going in 2010. I later created a Burning Man history that divides Burning Man into "epochs." https://www.burn.life/history-of-burning-man.html
South Park - Cthulhu destroyed Burning Man in a South Park episode in 2010.
Mantfarm - a large art piece from 2010 that was like a big ant farm, but for people.
We don’t need no fire alarms! - A filler line, frankly.


Now the world's learning, that we're out there Burning - A reference to the increased attention Burning Man was getting in wider culture around 2010, leading to the first ticket sellout the next year.


Tickets sellout - First time tickets sold out was 2011, and it's happened every year since.
Rites of Passage - The 2011 theme.
Temple of Transition - The 2011 temple. Still my favorite of all-time.
Trojan Horse - A giant Trojan horse was built, wheeled out onto the playa, and burned in 2011.
Pier bestows - The Pier was a giant installation that was a long pier across the playa in 2011, and then in 2012 it was back, this time with a half-sunken wrecked sailing ship at the end of it. By Matt Schultz and the Pier Group.
Oh the places you’ll go - One of the most famous videos in Burning Man's history, set to Dr. Suess's book of the same name, released in 2011.

Bank of Un-America - 2012 saw a massive installation called Burn Wall Street out on the playa. One of the five buildings was the Bank of Un-America. Others included Merrill Lynched and Goldman Sucks.
Playa dubstep mania - Dubstep was huge for awhile in the late 00s and early 10s, and then suddenly everyone decided they'd just had enough and it all-but-disappeared. Skrillex wasn't really playing the playa during that time, but as he started out in dubstep and is recognizable, I used him.
Space Saucer - The 2013 Man base was huge, shaped like a space saucer, and burned like an inferno.
Cargo Cult - The 2013 theme.
DPW Catapult - in 2015, the DPW (Department of Public Works) launched a flaming piano from a giant trebuchet. 

Truth is Beauty - 2013. The second installation of Marco Cochrane's series of giant metal women on the playa. 
Church Trap - An installation I enjoyed in 2013 of a church tilted up on its side and propped up, like a mousetrap. By Rebekah Waites
Plug n’ plays are bullcrap - Fuck plug n' plays like Caravansicle, Humano Tribe, and Lost Hotel.
Embrace hey - Embrace was a large and beautiful art installation in 2014 of two human figures half-buried in the sand, embracing. By Matt Schultz and the Pier Group
Rain to play - it rained hard Monday morning in 2014, causing the gates to close and leaving some people trapped in line for 24 hours.
What else do I have to say? - Filler line!


Now it's concerning, and the community's churning - A reference to the fact that it became harder to keep communities at BM together in the post ticket-sellout period as demand for tickets keeps rising.


Bug invasion - In 2015 bugs invaded the playa pre-gate opening.
Brutal cold - It was really cold in 2015. I remember wearing faux-fur at 4 pm.
Masturbating nun in bold - Inside the huge Totem of Confessions in 2015 was a box with a nun masturbating with a cross in a box. The Burning Man Org made them lock the box, reportedly under pressure from law enforcement.
Promise Temple - The Temple of Promise was built in 2015. 
Revolution - The third of Marco Cochrane's series of women on the playa, in 2015.
Sextant does electrocution - Sextant camp started building giant tesla coils in the mid 2010s.

White Ocean vandalized - White Ocean camp was famously vandalized in 2016 by what turned out to be disgruntled contractors. I dove into this story and discovered the truth of the situation was not what the media wanted it to be. 
Da Vinci’s work prized - DaVinci's Workshop was the 2016 theme.
Space Whale - The Space Whale was an epic large stained glass whale in 2016, by Matt Schultz and the Pier Group.
Light House nailed - One of my favorite all-time art pieces out there, in 2016. A set of giant, crooked wooden light houses. The project was led by father-son team Max & Jonny Poynton.
Catacombs are unveiled - Also 2016, the Veil of Catacombs, led by Dan Sullivan, was a huge pair of pyramids that never got quite finished, but made for one hell of a fire.

Fly Ranch purchase - In 2016, Burning Man bought Fly Ranch with $6.5 million donated by wealthy Burners. 
Hot as hell - 2017 was legendarily hot on the playa.
Leftover bikes bombshell - Thousands of bikes - something like twice as many as usual - were left behind by people in 2017.
Tenere - the Tree of Tenere, by Symmetry Labs, was an incredible art installation of a large tree lit up by 10s of thousands of sequenced LEDs for leaves. 
Hatted man - the 2017 burn featured a Man inside a hut, and he looked a like he had a hat on.
Aaron’s cut lifespan - Aaron Mitchell died in 2017 after running into the fire intentionally during the 2017 Man burn. I wrote an article on having empathy for him here.

Robots I saw bringing awe - 2018's theme was I, Robot, which, being a nice and tangible theme, resulted in a lot of robot art on the playa. 
Nixon’s under martial law - The BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) set up squads on tribal lands on the way to Burning Man to arbitrarily pull over Burners in Nixon and surrounding communities in 2018. They used nonsense reasons to search their cars, sometimes for hours, and almost all of the charges were later dropped. 
Larry passes - Larry Harvey died in 2018.  
Hexatron - A huge art piece by Mark Lottor originally built for the Electric Daisy Carnival, that was hundreds of giant LED-lit and sequenced poles, making a kind of LED forest. 
Diaper squad - My campmates and I came up with Weirdout Wednesday in 2018 and put on adult diapers to go troll people. Read about it here. 
The plane's not gone - The 747 was famously left on the playa for quite awhile after the 2018 burn. 


Now the BLM’s turning - The recent proposals from the BLM are shitty and while the Org has had trouble with the BLM before, these new proposed restrictions could wreck Burning Man.
<end>

If you're interested in more Burning Man history, check out my year-by-year history of Burning Man. If you enjoyed the video, you might like my other videos. 

I couldn't have made this video without the photos and footage of a lot of other people. The only photos and video that I took myself are from 2010 onwards, but by no means is all the media covering 2010+ mine. Thanks to:

Jamen Percy - Some of the drone footage, including the opening shot.
Roy Two Thousand - Some time lapses and burn footage.
Mark Day - Various pieces of footage of burns. 
Terry An - Video of the Galaxia burn.
Infinit Studios - Footage of the mostly topless woman with a mustache riding a bike. 
SevenClouds - Some drone footage from 2013.
Alex Freeman - Some burn footage.
Guy Jackson - Some burn footage.
Pete LaMoia - Video of 2013 Man burn.
Rick Parker - Video of Veil of Catacombs burn.
Afonso Salcedo - Some drone footage of the Temple of Promise.
Ahmed Elhusseiny - Some burn footage, and footage of fire dancers.
Brad Templeton - Some photos from the late 90s and early 00s. 
Stewart Harvey - Some photos from the very early years.
Duncan Rawlinson - Many photos from the 2010s. 
Scott Beale - A couple photos from the 00s.
​David Gee - A couple photos from the early 00s.
Nick Lynch -Photos from the early years.
The Burning Man Project - A number of photos.
Danger Ranger - Photos from the early years. 
Kevin Evans - Several shots of early years.
Carvermom - The photo of Java Cow.
Malderor - Shooting range photo.
Jim Provenzano - A photo of the early Temple.
Thomas K. Pendergast - A couple art shots.
Andrew Miller - DPW Catapult. 
Jim Urquhart- Tea ceremony photo.
Dustin Mosher - Photo of the 747.


​Probably others I forgot to thank, for which I deeply apologize! Feel free to email me at yes@burn.life and I'll be happy to rectify any error I made. 

They also want to mandate that Burning Man increase the number of people who take buses in or fly in (most of whom can't bring sufficient supplies for themselves that way) and go onto say that this may necessitate the need for more plug n' plays to accommodate those people.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a draft proposal yesterday in response to the Burning Man Project's ("the Org") request for a 10 year Special Recreation Permit (SRP) for Burning Man. For those unaware, the Burning Man event is held on federal land that is managed by the BLM. Every year,  the Org has to get an SRP to hold the event, which comes with a maximum population for the event, but they have now requested a 10 year permit that would allow the population to grow to 100,000 people by 2022. 

The draft proposal is technically called an "environmental impact statement" (EIS), which the environment in this case referring to everything that surrounds Burning Man, from the actual environment to the impact on local communities to the roads to protecting burners themselves. It's really long! 372 pages across two documents, which makes sense considering that Burning Man is the largest event in the country that receives an SRP.

I've read the interesting parts and skimmed the rest so you don't have to! Much of this is pretty dry but a couple parts really stand out.

The EIS considers five scenarios:

1. What the Org wants: A 10 year SRP that sees the population cap (including staff but not including gov representatives and vendors) go to 85,000 for 2019 and then steps up by 5,000 each year until it hits 100,000 in 2022. At 100,000 population, 2000 theme camps would be permitted.
   
   
2. Reducing the population cap to 50,000, and limiting the number of theme camps to 1000.
   
   
3. The location of BRC would be shifted north, but otherwise no change from scenario #1. Primary access would still be via Eight Mile Road, but now it'd be about 8 miles to the event site.
   
   
4. The SRP would be issued at the same population cap (80,000) as in 2018, with no other changes.
   ​
5. No SRP at all would be issued, and Burning Man would not be permitted to be held there.

I think so, yes. I'll explain, but you also don't have to take my word for it. Jim Graham, spokesmen for the Burning Man Project, told the Reno Gazette, "Our staff is reviewing the document and accompanying 11 special studies, and our initial review revealed serious concerns with parts of the proposed stipulations. At this time it is premature to provide an assessment until we have completed a thorough review. We will then provide a more detailed response."

I don't know which parts he's speaking of, but there are four areas of concern that stuck out to me when going through the documents. I've read through the stipulations for Burning Man in previous BLM EIS/SRP reports, and there is nothing like these requirements in there as far as I can tell. These are new provisions.

1. They want to require the Org to contract with third-party, independent private security forces to screen vehicles and participants for contraband. I wish this was a joke, because it ought to be. Here's the quote from the document: 
   
   "At all portals of entry into the Event, beginning 14 days before Labor Day, BRC will be required to contract a BLM-approved, independent, third-party, private security to screen vehicles and participants, vendors and contractors, and staff and volunteers entering the Event. Third party, private security will report Closure Order violations, to include weapons and illegal drugs, directly to law enforcement as violations are observed so that law enforcement can respond."
   
   What the ever-loving fuck? I don't know what specifically "screening" would entail, but for everyone who has ever complained about Gate can we at least acknowledge that we'd much rather have them running entrance "security" than some private contracted security force? ​I think we can also depend on the fact that this would make entry even more of a wait than it already is.
   
   I think it's likely that the motivation here is that law enforcement doesn't like the fact that gate only checks for stowaways, and wants to bust people coming in with contraband. They know law enforcement can't demand to screen every vehicle, but private security at a private event can, and in this case said private security is required to turn over offenders to law enforcement.
   
   This is an awful idea that needs squashing.
   
   
2. ​​The option to issue a permit with a cap of 50,000 people. The option to issue no permit doesn't really concern me, because other parts of the document make clear that the BLM is well-aware that thousands of us would show up anyway, necessitating increased law enforcement presence and increasing the possibility of civil disobedience or unrest and confrontation with law enforcement. I don't think Mark Hall, the BLM officer responsible for issuing (or not) the SRP, is looking to throw a match onto several thousand metaphorical burn barrels full of highly flammable community resentment and anger.
   
   The reason I find it concerning is that I think it would seem, to many outside observers, like a good compromise between the event and the many legitimate concerns the event raises in the surrounding local communities. It'd be a bit of a nightmare of a compromise for the event this year though, as with 32,000 DGS tickets already sold, there'd only be room for another 18,000 tickets (of all kinds....low income, artist tickets, main sale, FOMO, etc). In future years, I think reducing the population to 50k is worth considering, insofar as bigger doesn't mean better.
   
   
3. It mandates that the Org increase the % of people taking the bus and planes to get in and goes onto say that this might mean more plug n' plays. "With increased Event size, there may be increased potential for changes to the values and setting of the Event. Increasing the number of participants arriving via bus or plane due to limitations on vehicle passes may result in the need for additional turnkey camps to support burners who cannot transport supplies​."
   
   I'm not hearing that noise. Down with plug n' plays, full-stop. If growing the population means accepting more plug n' plays, then let's not grow it, because they're right: putting more and more people on bus and plane transportation where they're unable to be self-reliant is going to lead to more turnkey/plug n' play camps. Yes, in theory those people can all find campmates who are driving in to carry their gear, or they can join container coops (if they live in one of the places that has one going, which many burners, particularly international ones, do not), but while some will go that route, it just increases the pressure to join a camp because of amenities, like it's a goddam hotel or something.
   
   
4. The Org would be required to construct a physical security barrier around the playa. We're not talking the trash fence here. The document specifically mentions Jersey barriers and K-rail fencing.
   
   Why? To protect against....what? The handful of people that try to sneak in over via the trash fence? Jersey barriers are to protect against vehicles. What vehicles need protecting against? Has there been a rash of Mad Max-style maniacs just saying fuck it and driving in from deep playa? I don't think so.
   
   This is just absurd and a complete waste of money, not to mention aesthetically awful. Here's what those look like:

I doubt any of you reading this like the idea of concrete barriers and k-rail fencing, and private security forces screening cars on the way in unless you're just trolling. I can see some people liking a 50k population cap scenario, and in future years I might even agree, but it'd be a terrible thing to implement this year with ticket sales already well under way. And if you think Burning Man needs more plug n ' plays, you're probably reading the wrong blog.

Mark Hall is the BLM officer who issues the SRP, and the EIS specifically asks that feedback be sent to him. ​

We like to say that Burning Man is a do-ocracy. That's true, but I believe that's the case for life generally. If you want something to happen, or oppose something from happening, do something about it, don't just complain. You may not be able to dictate the reality you want, but you can do your best to nudge it in the direction you wish. 

 His contact info is:

Dr. Mark Hall, PhD
EIS Project Manager
Black Rock Field Office
5100 East Winnemucca Blvd.
Winnemucca, Nevada 86445
(775) 623-1500


Mr. Hall's boss appears to be Ester McCullough, the district manager of the Winnemucca District Office. She can be reached at:
​
Ester McCullough
775-623-1500
wfoweb@blm.gov

The public comment period goes until April 29th, so make yourself heard! Mr. Hall told the Reno Gazette that, "Right now I have an open mind and I'm very curious to see what the public has to offer in terms of our analysis."

I urge you to contact Mr. Hall and potentially Ms. McCullough if you share my concerns, but to do so in a calm and informed manner. Let's paint a positive picture of Burners for Mark and Ester and not deluge them with the equivalent of all-caps emails. 

There are also going to be public hearings for comment on the EIS in Reno on April 8 and in Lovelock on April 9th. Details on them are still forthcoming as of this writing (I'll update this when I have them.)

I'm tentatively planning on being at the Reno meeting to see if I can give the reality I want to see a boost. I hope you'll consider joining me.

If you're coming, please get in touch at yes@burn.life and I'll put together a mailing list to coordinate as many Burners that will be at the Reno meeting as possible. I think it's important we have a tight and organized response to the items in here that need to go. 

There are some other interesting tidbits in here that I thought some of you might be interested in.

• ​The Org would be required to place trash dumpsters in the city and on gate road leading to route 34 by Friday of burn week. Presumably this is to counter the fact that as a group Burners leave a large amount of trash alongside the highway.
  
  I know some people will get worked up about this, but ultimately as a group Burners leave a load of trash by the side of the road leading out of BM and in local communities. Yes, most of us don't do that (I encourage you to get rid of your trash at $5/bag with the locals that run trash services that week for Burners) but enough people that go to Burning Man do, and it's supremely unfair to the locals.
  
  If the culture of Burning Man has to bend a bit in order to mitigate some of the shit we collectively rain down on the locals, then it should. Their lives and lifestyle are more important than the event.
  
  
• The Org has explored alternate locations both with the BLM and with private landowners, but has failed to locate a suitable one, and so a different location isn't even considered as an alternative scenario.
  
  I don't think that's surprising. The event has been shaped by the playa and at there are just so many strands now that tie it to that location that it's hard to move.
  
  
• They recommend that gate road be moved to the north of the city in order to reduce the dust, since the prevailing winds out there are from the SSW-ish and the vehicles on gate kick up a ton of dust. I don't know what the practical implications are other than the dust, but I think that'd be potentially great.
  
  
• The Org has to post a large reclamation bond to pay for any large-scale art installations or theme camps that aren't removed from the playa by participants. Direct response to the 747 team's failure to remove their art promptly? 
  
  
• A sexual assault response team would be established in Gerlach to make it easier to comfort victims on the way to/from examination (which has to take place for purposes of rape in certain facilities which aren't, as I understand them, very easy to establish on-playa) and do it with the option of ground transport vs helicopter (the latter being enormously more expensive). It says this will also increase the rate of successful prosecutions against sexual assault offenders out there. This seems like a great thing all-around to me.

Hello Burners, Happy New Year, and welcome to Burning Man season, 2019 edition! To kick off the year, I've got an interview with Eggchairsteve, who is a very long-time burner and the head of Eggs Bar, the best bar on the playa that's never open.  

​But here's a word to the wise: a lesson I learned the hard way that year was about variety, be it musically, or thematically. No matter what your theme or schtick is, it's going to get really old, really fast on 24/7 repeat. Maddening even. One year I was camped directly across from Black Rock Roller Disco (and please do not get me wrong, I fucking LOVE them, I actually LOVE the music) and the constant 24/7 repeat, often the same playlist played on repeat, was literally annoying.

​2005-6 I took off from planning any theme camps, and just camped in the back streets. I found it profoundly boring and passive to just go out into the city as a spectator. So we returned in 2007 with a bar-themed camp, still with the old-world facade out front, but much more variety in music and experiences and events, sometimes live bands would play, having variety and not being pigeonholed into one schtick, is everything. For years we would riff off of the years them for our bar name; Metropolis became EGGchtroplos, Rites of Passage became Left of PassEGGch....so when 2012 rolled around with Fertility 2.0 being the theme for the year (at the same time a good friend of mine humorously proclaimed that he was tired of calling me Eggchairsteve, and from henceforth I would be known as simply EGGS) It seemed like a perfect opportunity to shorten the the bar's name to just EGGS, especially since we initially brought the eggchair out for Fertility1.0 and now we would be simply EGGS for Fertility 2.0!
​

Dr. Yes: How big is your camp population-wise now?

Eggchair: I personally feel that anything over 30 members starts to fall apart, so we try to keep the camp population around 30.


Dr. Yes: Same here.  So what’s the leadership structure of the camp like? How many formal or quasi-formal positions do you have and what are they?

Eggchair: With our big jump in camp presence in 2016, it required a lot more leadership structure. I am the first to admit that I suck at leadership, and I have been blessed to somehow be surrounded with people who support my vision of having one of the best bar experiences on playa. I had to learn to let go of doing everything myself, because it is simply impossible for one person. So we now have several formal positions, Camp Lead, Financial Lead, Build Lead, Bar Lead, LNT Lead, but again, everyone is expected to pull their own weight.


Dr. Yes: How often is EGGS open during the week…even though we all know it’s never open?

Eggchair: Always Closed! Yes, that actually has a funny origin. I made that sign years ago, one side saying Closed, the other saying Open, and for some reason one year it just stayed on the Closed side. It never ceases to amuse me that we can be in the midst of a raging party, and you can point up to the Closed sign, and a patron will be "oh, I'm sorry" and actually walk away! And you have to say, "no, of course you can have a drink!" and it really breaks the ice, and you can begin to have a conversation with a stranger.

​Conversely if they are being rude (you can sort of always tell the type that just want to get a drink and continue on their way) and they loudly bang their cup on the bartop, you can always point up to the Closed sign, and they will leave. EGGS Bar strives to be friendly and welcoming to everyone, but we are NOT there to just serve the masses. We truly want patrons to sit down and talk with us, that is the whole point.
To answer your question, we are technically "open" whenever we feel like it, which seems to be all day every day. I really I would like to see it as more of a late afternoon in to evening sort of space, but the last few years have become more of a round the clock bar.


Dr. Yes: You guys have been at 6 in the Center Camp ring for a bit now – when were you first placed there?

Eggs: Actually we have only been placed at that spot 2017 and 2018, and I kind of enjoy having slightly different spots every year. Before that we were in various spots within the Center Camp Plaza, and even earlier in various spots on Rod's Road. We have been part of Center Camp proper since 2007.


Dr. Yes: How much booze do you guys go through during the week and how many people do you estimate you serve?

Eggchair: This is a question that a lot of people ask, and it is hard to accurately answer. We fundraise throughout the year to buy booze, but we also get bottle and mixer donations (PLEASE DO!!) The truth is, no matter how much or how little booze you ever bring, you will always go through it all. We've got a pretty good system going now, of two premixed drinks in 5-gallon containers that we restock as needed, as well as beers, but we also have a stock of special or unusual shots going too.  As for many estimated served, I really couldn't even guess, but it is quite a few. But again, encouraging patrons to sit down and talk with us, fills the stools, and discourages the masses of folks that just want a drink and run.

And as a bit of advice to every Burner out there, if you get a drink at ANY bar in Black Rock City, and you DON'T stay and hang out with the bartenders or camp experience, you're being fucking rude!


Dr. Yes: What's the craziest thing you’ve seen happen in your own bar?

Eggchair: That's a hard one to answer, I just love everything about it. Spontaneous things happen all the time. Bands show up to play, etc.

I guess having Bryan Cranston as a patron was pretty cool....
​

Like the title says! You can check out the history section here, or in the menu above. 

I've spent quite a bit of time working on it over the last few years, so if you have any interest in how Burning Man has evolved, I hope you'll check it out!

Last year (2017), a campmate - Ran - and I spontaneously decided Wednesday morning that we'd play the Hamilton soundtrack later that day. Because we're also big fans of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and because the mighty Rum Ham is an object of desire and worship to all of Friendgasm, serving rum and calling the event Rum-Hamilton seemed appropriate. ​ He wrote some shit on a whiteboard advertising it, and put it by Arctica, and 15-20 people showed up for what proved to be a really good time. 

This year, we put the event in the event guide, and a lot more people showed up! Not too shabby for a backstreet camp. The below video is about 20 minutes long, and if you're not either a big Hamilton fan or someone who was there, it's probably waaaay too long to hold your interest. That said, multiple people told me after or later that it was their favorite thing they did at Burning Man all week, which made me pretty happy!

Couldn't host it on YouTube, Facebook, or other usual suspects because the rights holder for the Hamilton music is quite strict, and upon trying, I was blocked from using those, so I'm just sharing it from my google drive.

You're also going to have to trust that I'm linking you to a video here, and not something that will give your device a virus. I may be Dr. Yes, but I say no to viruses!

Link to Rum-Hamilton video.

It'll play in 720p. You might want to switch it to 1080p. If you want to view it in all its 4k glory, you'll have to download all 6.6 gigs of it and watch that way.

​Favorite moments:
​5:22 – Hamilton’s duel against Lee.
 
5:46 – Hercules Mulligan incoming!
 
7:36 – Crowd starts going crazy in Battle of Yorktown.
 
14:57 – Washington dies, crowdsurfs.
 
19:42 – Hamilton’s son dies – big group circle with arms around each other.
 
22:16 – people start eating dead Hamilton’s red vine entrails.

We're going to do this again next year, so if you loved it or missed it, don't throw away your shot and you'll be back. You will be helpless before its sonic glory, and you will be satisfied, because, wait for it.... we just happen to be in the greatest city in the motherfucking world. You'll be in the dome where it happens, right in the eye of the hurricane, and while it may be quiet uptown, it sure as shit isn't going to be quiet at Rum-Hamilton 2019!

Rum Ham!

Your obedient servant,
--Dr. Yes

Burning Man is many things to many people, but one of the aspects of it that I personally enjoy quite a bit are things that challenge convention or are just unexpected. Of course, the beautiful and epic, like last year's Tree of Ténéré, or this year's Hexatron (the forest of 20' tall LED poles), are mind-blowing, but I really love the weird, personal shit out there.

​Whether it's watching an inestimable gentleman suck his own dick at Eggs bar while we cheered him on, or watching two guys in a tricked-out golf cart dressed like law enforcement roll up to people with headdresses and write out a citation, or the even more innocuous like Camp Sharkcage, devoted to the decidedly excellent combination of Nicholas Cage and sharks ("You can cage the shark, but can you shark the Cage?"), I love it!

Sadly, although I have no measurement for it, or even a proxy by which to fake a measure, I feel like the weird factor at Burning Man has slowly been going down, while there's been a commensurate rise in folks for whom looking and feeling 'cool' is a primary drive. You know of whom I speak. You see them dressed in multi-thousand dollar miraculously clean outfits with a photographer with pro-level gear nearby, frequently stopping to preen and pose. Their natural watering holes are places like Robot Heart and Mayan Warrior (both of which are pretty amazing, don't get me wrong) or wherever Diplo (not at all amazing) is playing. 

And, I get it - it's fun to dress up and look sexy, and Burning Man is an awesome background for photos, but goddam people, don't you just want to ditch the fashion show and let your freak flag fly? Black Rock City is a great place for it. Burning Man != Coachella or whatever. Let's get fucking weird! 

In that spirit, about a dozen of us in our camp Friendgasm declared Wednesday daytime would be Weirdout Wednesday going forward.

(You can follow the - as of this writing -  brand new Weirdout Wednesday FB page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/weirdoutwednesday/ )​

For Weirdout Wednesday this year, we did a thing one of my campmates - Ginger - has long dreamed about. We made signs saying things like Can't Stop, Won't Stop or Nvr Stop, got some of those dual beer-can helmet holders, put on adult diapers, wrote some stuff on them, and rolled out.

​First stop, Duck Pond, where we took over the dance floor to lots of stares by pretty, clean people, and a lot of laughs from others. Excitingly, one guy we didn't know also showed up in diapers, saying he'd seen us, and went back to camp to change into diapers. (He happened to have adult diapers in camp? This guy prepares.)

He went even more hardcore than I did. I hadn't worn shoes, feeling that socks-only seemed even more ridiculous, but this guy eschewed even socks, rocking his diaper and only his diaper. I salute you, unknown diaper soldier.

Other shenanigans ensued, including loudly encouraging people to stop supporting the USS corporate pooper monopoly. Stop using the portas, people! Shit where you dance - in your pants!

Finally we headed over to Distrikt, where we rolled up onto the elevated stage and proceeded to irritate a group of women of the aforementioned Instagram type, trying to get a pristine picture of themselves in their pristine outfits without a bunch of idiots in diapers in the way. They kept asking us to move out of the way so they could get pics of just them, but I mean, can't stop won't stop, so obviously that wasn't happening. Nothing wrong with taking pics of yourselves, but if you can't handle a little Burning Man in your Burning Man, you're in the wrong place.

Then, one of their ladies laid a hand on one of our ladies to kind of lightly shove her out of the way, which was a classic mistake. No photos were taken from then on that didn't have a diapered ass in it! The frustrated gnashing of their teeth was music to our ears. 

That was the end of Weirdout Wednesday for us, as it was time to head back to camp for our Rum-Hamilton singalong, because as a camp we do a weird variety of things.

Because it makes me laugh, I have to relate another similar incident from our camp. A group was at Sharkey's - an excellent bar - when an Instamodel was spotted in the wild, out in the street, accompanied by a sole photog.

The prey was cleaning herself carefully of any dust, preparing to display her plumage, presumably in order to attract a mate, when Carmen spotted her.

Carmen is a campmate whom I have compared favorably to my sort of fancy, cuddly, but also rip-your-face-off-fierce chihuahua, Chairman Mao. She hadn't eaten yet that day, and was hungry for prey.

In the distance, a ritual warning call was heard, "Hey, I haven't showered in a week!" 

The prey was as of yet unaware of her danger, and continued to groom herself.
​
​Carmen swung into motion, suddenly dropping down to do frantic face-down dust angels in order to coat herself in playa.

Up she sprung, making straight for the Instamodel, who was still oblivious to the doom rapidly descending upon her.

"You're so pretty! Can I have a hug?!" said Carmen arriving and  baiting the trap. 

"Yes," said the prey tentatively, sealing her fate.

The prey leaned in for the barest possible hug, but Carmen was ready to feed, and went for the full koala (that's a bear hug where you wrap your legs around too). Then it was over, and the prey slumped to the ground, defeated while Carmen roared in triumph (ok, the roar didn't happen, but I like the image, so work with me here.)

Thus, the circle of life was fulfilled. Dust to dust, forever unclean. There was cheering from Sharkeys, and disorder was returned to the streets of Black Rock City once more.

I'll definitely write about this again next summer before the Burn, but I'd love any help anyone interested can lend in promoting this idea. I mean no presumption with this call to action - I just think it'd be cool if a bunch of people devoted Wednesday daytime to letting their freak roam free. Do the unexpected, the weird, especially in places people go to be 'cool'. Mess with people determined to 'be cool.' Set an example and help bring some Cacophony into burners' lives.

I've read of a couple going to Distrikt this year fully nude with markers to let people write stuff on them, just to keep it weird.

I read of another few people that brought a propane grill to Distrikt and were grilling up food in the middle of the dance floor. I love it! (I don't mean to pick on Distrikt here - it's pure coincidence these all involved that camp.)

What are you going to do for Weirdout Wednesday next year? This is an opportunity for a lot more creativity than the more narrowly-defined days out there, like Tutu Tuesday. I've got all sorts of ideas running around in my head, including taking the diaper shenanigans to a new level.

Leave your ideas in the comments, and later I'll collate them and share them to help inspire others to weirdness as well.

Feel free to use the Weirdout Wednesday graphic below I did up (I can copy and paste, mom!) to spread the word too, if you're so inclined.

​(You can join the Weirdout Wednesday FB group here: 
​https://www.facebook.com/groups/weirdoutwednesday/)​