Religious studies scholar Lee Gilmore’s book and dvd about spirituality at Burning Man, published by University of California Press, is now available. This book should appeal to those generally interested in Burning Man, as well as academics and students in ritual studies, religious studies, anthropology, sociology, art, and American Studies. Click here and here to find more links about her work.
Lee Gilmore’s Theater in a Crowded Fire: Ritual and Spirituality at Burning Man now available
July 10th, 2010The spread of interactive art to Governors Island, NYC
June 29th, 2010Two weekends ago, I biked to the free ferry that runs between Manhattan and Governors Island, the latter of which is open during the summer through early fall. My purpose: participate in FIGMENT, an interactive art exhibit organized by local artists and inspired by Burning Man principles. After stuffing my bike onto one of four bike racks lined up in the carport part of the ferry, I pedaled my way around the island, stopping at art exhibits (plus a distant view of the Statue of Liberty) and performances along the way. Even though FIGMENT is now gone, the mini-golf course and other installations remain through Oct. 2010. A bike isn’t necessary to explore Governors Island (you can rent a bike or a multi-person bike); you can also easily walk the island by foot.
Here are two examples of the 2010 FIGMENT art installations:
Cradle made from an oil drum and military attire (like Rosemary's Baby cradle)
Stryofoam packing material recycled - a totem to consumer goods?
Burning Man’s PRECOMPRESSION Sat., June 19th in San Francisco
June 14th, 2010For those of you in the Bay area, this is a chance to participate in a pre-Burning Man event in San Francisco. Bring your art, volunteer, and meet new friends!
“Burning Man presents a Mega-PRECOMPRESSION…
Launching our 25th BURNING MAN Season!!!
Saturday, June 19, 2010
8pm to 4am; Come early to avoid the line and not miss the fire performances!
At The Concourse Exhibition Center and parking lot next door
635 8th St (enter at 7th St & Brannan), SF, CA 94103
$25 Advanced sale here. $30 Door in costume/playa finery; $35 street clothes; 21+ over; Outside Fire Art & Sculpture Garden; Inside Art & Artifacts
Art • Music • Performance * Fire Artistry * Theme Camps * Art Cars * You!
A historic & spectacular night! Celebrate on the original Summer Solstice weekend it all began in 1986 with a fiery and festive Precompression event in the heart of San Francisco! Ramp up your Radical Self-Expression because tonight marks the launch of the 25th Burning Man season and we want YOU to pARTicipate!
Join MANY longstanding playa favorites! Look back at where we’ve come from and get a sneak preview of Metropolis 2010 projects and where burners are going as a global community and culture.
Music & Performances: Mutaytor; Copper Lantern Fire Theater; Soul in the Machine; Vau de Vire Society; Capacitor; MoPo; Nocturnal Sunshine; Space Cowboys (8ball, Deckard, Zach Moore, EricHz, Kapt’n Kirk); UBUV; Afrolicious; Pyronauts; Scot Jenerik; Hookahdome; Gooferman; Smoove; Fou Fou Ha!; Dex Stakker; Hybridz ‘R Us; Mancub; Bad Unkl Sista; ICON; Tom Jonesing; EO; The Fossettes; Hobo Gobbelins; Shredder Hoops; Metamorphosis Ballet; Imps of Sneth; Firish; Kiss & Tell; Dark Sparkle Burlesque; CaroLuna; Isopop; Monkey Chant; DJ Dragonfly; Vulcan Crew; Neon Bunny; Ian Michael Smith & Bliss Butterfly; Mo Corleone; Shovelman; Alt Tal; Justin Credible; Spiral; Magician Brad Barton; beatbox by One Mouth Band; Matt Jalbert; SatsiSonik; Whiskey Devil; Nancy Asiya Belly Dance; a Kidnap Fashion Show “curated” by Animal Control; and MEGA-many more!
Art & Artifacts: Jennybird Alcantara; Dana Albany; Maricela Alvarez; David Best; Bruce Beeley; Joegh Bullock; James Cole; Karen Cusolito; Dan DasMann; Tony Deifell; Chris De Monterey; Wally Glenn; Emma Hardy; Justin Gray; Flaming Lotus Girls; Flux Foundation; Al Honig; Laura Kimpton; Kinetic Cab Company; Lasers&Lights.com; Danny Macchiarini; Nightshade; Playaflies; Kitty Gordon; Jess Hobbs and Rebecca Anders; $teven Ra$pa; Pierre Riche; Mini Man & The Mini Man Crew; Brad Templeton; Todd Williams; Ben Zero; and more!
Art Cars & Camps: Playapus Corralus; Bed Rock Hot Rod Taxi; PhotoBoof; Tundra Bunny; Nautilus X; The UNIMOG; Black Rock Indie Fest; Peoples Spa; Workshop Corner; Earth Guardians; Little Shop of Horrors, Excellent Adventure Display, etc and HOORAY!
So, dust off that playa spirit and dress to express! This night is the focal point of a full month of celebrations and events leading up to our 25th Burning Man event and the year beyond. You won’t want to miss it! More info and schedules: www.burningman.com/special_events
Artists, art cars, non-sound theme camps, and acoustic performers still interested in participating, email: flambelounge@burningman.com. Especially string musicians to play unamplified in the sculpture garden after our sound permit ends outside.
To volunteer: SEvolunteers@burningman.com
www.burningman.com”
The Great Metropolis Face-off, Burning Man vs. the Big Apple, round 8: disorientation
June 4th, 2010Black Rock City denizens quickly learn not to take their city for granted. A theme camp, art project, or landmark might be here one day and gone the next, disorienting those who rely upon such markers to return to their home camp. (A few may give up and choose to snooze elsewhere for the night.)
During a construction boom, cities like New York City also are characterized by transience. An empty lot or new construction often generates some head-scratching about what existed in that spot weeks or months before. Sometimes the changes are inexplicable, like the addition of a store devoted to plastic shoes to a historic townhouse. Preservationists still mourn the replacement of buildings like Penn Station.
For more changes in Manhattan, such as the conversion of Fifth Ave. from stately residential homes to stores/office buildings, see Max Page’s The Creative Destruction of Manhattan, 1900-1940 (1999, University of Chicago Press). For perspective on more recent changes, see Sharon Zukin’s Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places (2010, Oxford University Press).
Burning Man film festival in San Francisco, June 12-13, 2010
May 27th, 2010For those of you in San Francisco, you have the chance to celebrate Burning Man’s history via film. Films include a documentary about the artist David Best, who constructed the temple that appears on the cover of my book!
Please read the official press release below:
“Burning Man Film Festival-San Francisco: A Unique Two-Day Film Retrospective to Commemorate 25 Years of Burning
(San Francisco, May 26th, 2010)—The Official Burning Man Film Festival will showcase 20 short and feature length films when it takes place on June 12-13, 2010 in San Francisco. The Film Festival will offer theatergoers a unique look at Burning Man through the eyes of filmmakers who’ve documented various aspects of the Burning Man event and culture throughout the years. Saturday’s “Then” line-up will feature films shot between 1991 and 2004 and Sunday’s “Now” queue boasts an array of films shot from 2002 to 2010. The festival will be held at the Red Vic Movie House at 1727 Haight Street, SF, CA 94117.
“This festival is a rare and unique opportunity to see Burning Man from the beginning,” said festival co-producer David Marr. “[The Film Festival] is a chance to see how [Burning Man] was created and what effect it has on us today.”
Program highlights include a Midnight screening of Juicy Danger Meets Burning Man by David Vaisbord on Saturday evening with a cocktail party, roving performers, and a grand raffle. On Sunday, David Best, known for his elaborate temple structures at Burning Man will be available for a Q & A before the screening of The Temple Builder, a film by Dearbhla Glynn and April Blake that looks closely at David Best’s life and work.
To view the Burning Man Film Festival-San Francisco program, visit www.burningman-filmfest.com.
The Burning Man Film Festival-San Francisco is one of several special events coming up in June to kickoff a year-long celebration of 25 years of Burning Man. For more information on upcoming events, please visit www.burningman.com.”
The Great Metropolis Face-off, Burning Man vs. the Big Apple, round 7: living the dream
May 19th, 2010The Big Apple, thanks to a rehabbed image (i.e., I heart NY), now inspires visitors and denizens to live the dream. Visitors avidly pursue a checklist of the hot restaurants, coffee shops, clubs, museums, shows, and parks that they should patronize, lest they miss out. Others imagine that their social and cultural lives will improve with a move to the big city. For those of us who live and work here, enjoying NYC’s amenities requires effort, particularly when coping with a demanding career and other responsibilities.
Recently, two Burner friends and their 1.5 year-old baby visited NYC. Normally, we only get to visit while living and volunteering at Black Rock City, so it was interesting to duplicate some activities with them in the Big Apple.
Getting together with a bunch of people in…
…the Big Apple: everyone arrived between 20 to 40 minutes late due to public transportation, work, etc.
…Black Rock City: everyone rolls in on playa time.
Enjoying participatory art in…
…the Big Apple: We visited the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) where the baby’s presence triggered interactions and reactions that even the notoriously “odd” sociologist Erving Goffman or performance artist Marina Abramovic’s participatory art could not provoke. One person immediately bestowed upon my friends an extra, free ticket that they couldn’t use. Several patrons smiled at the baby, including two young women who turned away from watching Abramovic at work to interact with the baby. Two different security guards, a man and woman, both cooed at the baby. However, a few patrons displayed or verbalized their displeasure within earshot of my friends when the baby let out a few complaining noises. To soothe the baby, my friend pushed her stroller around me and Abramovic’s vehicle; she counted off the circles, in homage to one of Abramovic’s performances.
…Black Rock City: lots and lots of art, small and large, that don’t involve climate control, guards, or a bag check.
Finding a bathroom in:
…Black Rock City: relatively easy, just look for the colorful banks of portable toilets and bring your own hand sanitizer.
…the Big Apple: not-so-easy, after a fruitless stop at a fast food restaurant, we had to go to a friend’s apartment.
Learning about art-making in:
…Black Rock City: easy, just walk up to the artist and ask. Maybe s/he will give you a lesson.
…the Big Apple: possible if friend whose apartment you need to visit for the bathroom happens to be a working artist.
Commuting in:
…Black Rock City: easy to walk, bike, or hitch a ride with an art car. Bicycling is a lot of fun under the starry sky.
…the Big Apple: involves lugging a baby carriage up and down the stairs because some subway stations don’t have working elevators, triggering a group effort. No stars, unless you pass by a movie set on the way.
Our friends have returned home after a whirlwind visit; hopefully, we will get to repeat our activities in Black Rock City.
The Great Metropolis Face-off, Burning Man vs. the Big Apple, round 6: pests
May 9th, 2010As mentioned by a comment to a previous post, the Black Rock Desert’s environment is so arid and alkaline that it doesn’t support insect or wildlife. For visitors who normally attract mosquitoes or are squeamish about pests and vermin, the absence of such critters can be a temporary, welcome relief. On occasion, however, insects inadvertently hitch a ride in vehicles headed to Burning Man, leading to unexpected encounters. One visit to a portable toilet ended with a monstrous, dust-encrusted grasshopper clinging determinedly to my pants leg, leading to a frantic, impromptu dance on my part to shoo it off, much to the amusement of bystanders.
New York City is a different matter. Cockroaches, mice, and rats are never far away; pest control products are displayed prominently in hardware stores and prompt feverish discussion about “effective” methods among strangers. Lately, bedbugs are on the rise, as explained in overwhelmingly graphic detail by this article (warning: very high in the squick factor). Tip: never pick up furniture or wood materials from the streets – if you do decide to take something home, do a thorough inspection for unwanted guests.
Black Rock City: virtually no pests, unless you count the large sound system or the person shouting on the megaphone near-by when you’re trying to sleep.
Big Apple: many, many pests.
Urban planning and community at Burning Man
May 8th, 2010The Burning Man website now features blog entries by the builders and planners of Burning Man. Urban planners and residents, what elements from Burning Man would work well in everyday life?
The Great Metropolis Face-off, Burning Man vs. the Big Apple, round 5: this piggy goes through the market
May 4th, 2010During a stroll through Black Rock City, the flaneur encounters a mind-boggling variety of experiences, drenching the senses of sight, sound, and touch. However, the senses of smell and taste can feel diminished by the alkaline dust. The heat makes it more difficult to taste subtle flavors, so people crave more salt and spice. Pungent and refined smells are rare, save for the portable toilets or an occasional whiff of massage oil.
When walking through the Big Apple, the flaneur has unlimited opportunities to smell and taste. An intrepid gourmand can march through an alphabet of local and global cuisines, or assemble ingredients for a memorable meal. A phalanx of food carts and trucks, stalls at flea markets, farmers’ markets, and odd nooks, and restaurants offer the following wares:
- Apples, sold at the local park from a New York farm
- Bagels, the real boiled kind, not the faux, fluffy ones, and Banh mi
- Custard, frozen, in odd flavors
- Doughnuts, coated with a seasonal glaze
- Egg cream
- Falafel
- Girly cocktails and green-tea cake roll
- Hamburgers and hot dogs
- Ice cream, in exotic flavors like green tea, sesame, and wasabi
- Jerk chicken
- Knish
- Lox
- Mozzarella, smoked
- Nuggets, fake chicken
- Organic [insert your fave fruit/veg here]
- Pizza bianca
- Quirky cuisine combos, such as Jamaican-Japanese sushi; see also Shopsins
- Ramen noodles
- Steamed pork buns
- Tea, with bubbles
- Ukrainian borsht and U-Bet
- Vendy-award-winning foods
- Wagyu beef
- Xi’an cuisine: lamb burgers
- Yakitori
- Zabar’s
Funding for art in the Big Apple and Beantown: proposals due May 1, 2010
April 29th, 2010Have an art project in mind? Like NYC’s Governors Island? Or, are you located in the Boston/Cambridge area?
FIGMENT is accepting art proposals – click here for more info.
“Submissions are now open for the FIGMENT 2010 events in New York City (6/11-13) and Boston (6/5)! All submissions must be received by May 1 to be considered.”