August 28, 2007
Burning Man's Premature Ignition
During last night's total lunar eclipse in Black Rock City, Nevada, someone set the Burning Man figure ablaze prematurely. Chortle.
Hey, maybe that was their art? Their statement? Their message? Or their coke pipe exploded? Still, not cool according to Black Rock City firefighters, eclipse fans, and festival organizers. Police swiftly arrested the arson suspect.
No reports of any injuries, serious or otherwise. Except, of course, the apparently indescribable vibe on the Playa, which was almost killed.
UPDATE: it seems that the alleged arsonist, Paul Addis, 
had a moonbean to grind with Burning Man, is a Hunter S. Thompson's fan (oh, good Lord), and wrote a play called Gonzo. Read more about it here or here.
Burning Man burning image credit: Carlos Avila Gonzalez; Addis' image: RGJ; Addis' makeup: Chanel
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Good, now maybe they can go back to their regular jobs/lives and stop pretending that they're cool.
FYI: The 80's are over!!!
Seriously. Forget the 80s, Burning Man is so over.
stop being bitter, just don't go. I encourage everyone in San Francisco to attend so I can enjoy the empty city.
What's it to you if people are into Burning Man? Do you feel uncool next to them or something?
Really, Burning Man was so so over as soon as Larry Harvey thought of it. No, scratch that. It was over when Larry Harvey was conceived. Actually, let's go back further. When proto-humans first scratched art on cave walls, that's when Burning Man jumped the shark.
Personally, I love how empty the Mission and Lower Haight bars are during BM week.
in the Tenderloin, every week is BM week.
ievans: You diss the people dissing Burning Man and then you diss Burning Man.
Sounds like somebody is a grumpy old turd with split personalities.
I am strongly of three beliefs:
-People who find Burning Man "no longer cool" are typically "no longer able to afford it".
-The population size of this town is never appreciably different whilst Burning Man is in session.
-Whomever committed this arson is my Person Of The Year.
Umm, I don't see my enjoyment of the relatively less crowded bars as a diss. Burning Man isn't my thing, but I don't see a reason to categorically hate it or the people that go to it.
Unless you mean the "over it" comment, which was more to make fun of people that forever long for the good old days. That part was more sarcastic than grumpy. Internet nuance is hard!
Paul Addis, 35 of San Francisco arrested for Burning Man blaze. He looks pretty cheerful in that mug shot.
http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070828/NEWS18/70828023
i agree with you, ievans. i love how the city's bars and clubs fees roomier, which isn't a swipe at BM (heh).
The city may "feel" roomier, but it isn't. Even if 90% of the 45,000 BM attendees were from San Francisco, that's only about 5% of the population. So where there were 20 people before, now there are only 19. You don't notice the difference.
And I love how much nicer the city smells during Burning Man.
The city may "feel" roomier, but it isn't. Even if 90% of the 45,000 BM attendees were from San Francisco, that's only about 5% of the population. So where there were 20 people before, now there are only 19.
Oh, right, because 100% of the population of San Francisco divides itself equally into the cities bars each night. You must work developing business plans for a Web 2.0 company.
all I know is that when I go out for beers before heading to the hardware store to re-stock my dust mask and duct tape collection, I find that the lines are much shorter and the elbow room much greater.
The guy who they arrested on suspicion of doing it apparently went to the Tom Delay School of Mugshots. Never has someone facing 1-4 years in the Nevada pen looked so pleased.
All this unexpected hating on BM when we really should be doing everything we can for them. It's been nearly two years, and although their problems have largely fallen from the public eye, remember that BM's image may NEVER recover from 2005's unfortunate juxtaposition of its self-indulgent 20th anniversary hoopla against the loss of an entire US City that same week.
Back then, too many people said, "New Orleans is SO over." And they are still right. Don't let this happen to BM!
Wait, burning man was this week??
Who is this burning man?
And this happens the year I go up late...
That mug shot is hot. Anyone out there got some nudie pics of him?
how dare he be an individual! burning man is no place for free thought or expression!
seriously, i'm willing to pitch in for his legal defense.
-g
Fact: Lower Haight is a much better place to park and drink, or drink whilst parking, during BM (hehe) week. Not a judgment call, just an observation that has been repeated yearly and therefore is scientific.
Personally I'm not one to attend said music and art festival, but I'm very pleased that so many folks in my hood choose to take the 10+ hour drive to bfe-Nevada to binge on drugs and shirt-cocking.
Btw, #14 Crow Soup had me in stitches, wonderful imagery.
This is just like Christmas every year in our house when we were growing up. My younger bother (twat) always got up at 5am, went downstairs and opened all the presents before anyone else got up. Not just his presents, every bastard gift under the tree. Every f**cking year. Twat. I used to get my own back by breaking his shit and eating all his chocolate, but Chrimbo was well past ruined by then. Now we're all grown up I've heard his missus complaining about other things he's now premature at. Ha, ha, serves him f**king right.
I'd have to think that a year in the pokey (yeah, as if he'll get that) and paying a fine is well worth the free beers forever from anyone else who thinks the BM "culture" is done and really hates the people who are all into the free expression of spending a few hundred bucks to roam around naked in the desert on drugs for a few days. I mean art. Definitely art.
Seriously, you just ruined the fun of 50,000+ people. That's priceless stuff you just can't do anywhere else as easily as this was just pulled off, and it's the most awesome thing ever.
It's just a pile of sticks. If you're really into the "idea" of burning man, surely this fits right into the entire idea even if it is like someone pissing on your cheerios. (ironic how these things work when it's turned around isn't it?)
just a follow up. i think the sfgate blog had a comment to the effect of:
"terrorism never solves anything"
to quote john hodgman's "the areas of my expertise":
----
“Working in the mall is a little nerve-wracking,” she confides, “because as the largest mall in the United States, we are a prime target for terrorism.”
"You know what", I say. "Fuck you".
----
-g
"Seriously, you just ruined the fun of 50,000+ people."
wait, did he also burn all of the drugs?
Am I the only one annoyed about the huge amounts of water that were wasted in a DESERT to put out a structure built to be burned?
Meanwhile, the West is in drought conditions and forest fires have been raging nearby in California.
Burning Man - for the eco friendly!
Elizabeth
omg, this is fracking hilarious.
I imagine a concerto of laughs from Nelson of the Simpsons and Cartman of South Park right about now.
STOP Global Warming....BAN Burning Man!,/A>
We inadvertently interviewed the arsonsist - and then Larry Harvey - within 8 weeks of each other!
I dust my car with powdered gypsum and cruise around town the week after BM. It makes me look ever so cool and it costs nothing.
I refuse to comment on the Chanel credit. For shame!
Reading these comments reminds me of the blind men trying to describe the elephant.
I wonder how many commenters have actually been to the event?
me
I'm in the school of I'm glad these damn trustafarians are out of town. I'm also happy the bridge is closed so they can't come back.
But if burning crap and heavy handed anarchy is what this stupid event is about -- they certainly deserved this. Way to go wacky creepy guy.
I had stupid burning man people as neighbors for a year. For some reason they liked lighting fires in their earthquake damaged fireplace all the damn time -- even on spare the air days. Plus they drove the least fuel efficient smog machines.
Bunch of selfish belly button worshipers.
All I want to know is, where can I donate to this dude's defense fund?
'Frisco sidewalks, weedy sidewalks
Dressed in Trustafar-style
In the air
There's a smelling
Of reefer
NIMBYs sassing
Patchouli gassing
Meeting toke after toke
And on every street corner you'll hear
Burning man, Burning Man
It's that great time in the city
Hippie freaks, smell them reek
Soon it will be Burning Day!
the corporation finally learned that trust isn't worth the price of a ticket, and now 40,000 people can all lie and say they were there, since only a few thousand had shown up by then...
Brock is on target. The trueist comment made yet. I don't see how you can ruin the fun for the 40 plus thousand people. I could careless about that aspect. Its about getting out and having a good time with people. If you want to stay in a Un-crowded bar in the Mission. Enjoy the skanks who stayed home.
Tad Overdue says:
A Miracle…St Patrick lives. the Reverend Hunter Thompon lives. LORD ADDIS LIVES!!
One of the Druids’ great feasts was the spring festival, celebrated the same night as the Easter Vigil. The day before the feast, people all over the land were ordered to put out their fires. No fire could be lit until the sacred fire blazed up on the Hill of Tara, where all the pagan leaders met to honor their gods.
Patrick had heard the order, but that evening, as soon as it was dark enough, and before the Druids could light their fires, Patrick and his companions began the great Easter Vigil celebration. They had gathered on the Hill of Slane, directly opposite the Hill of Tara. Patrick knew that the Druids would be angry when they saw the Easter fire. He was right! When the Druids saw the fire, they told their king, “Unless we put out that fire at once, this very night, it will blaze forever in this land.” The pagans rushed toward Patrick’s Easter fire and tried to put it out and to kill Patrick. But nothing they did could extinguish the flame, and Patrick was kept from harm.
Here's my question: How many tons of hydrocarbons are consumed just getting the people to this thing each year. You can't exactly ride a bicycle to it. So you figure there's thousands of people coming from around the country and most of them (at least the ones here in NY that I knew that were going) have to get on an airplane to fly to somewhere in Nevada, then break out some kind of automobile to drive out to the middle of nowhere in the desert.
Doesn't sound very eco-friendly to me.
Although, I will say, I've been fascinated to go to this thing, if for nothing else than the drug binge. I'm a realist though when it comes to my hedonism, I don't try to dress it in some kind of high strung 'cosmic experience' coat.
I guess the sad part is how much trash and filth they leave out in and around the Black Rock area. They truly create more pollution and destruction then would be allowed anywhere else. Maybe BLM will finally agree to not have it after this year.
I am the other artist so disgraced at burning man along with the world’s most ready symbol of freedom (of course, that really does depend on, like Ranger Sasquatch said, “what side of the pistol u stand on”). To me the war on terror is really a war on freedom.
For that reason, I spent weeks and months carving a huge, futuristic statue of liberty out of a cedar log and i brought it to share…
Besides the man, the Liberty burn was the first arson since 1999, along with my trailer she stood on and my vital tools and equipment I was using sharing the “process of art” with grateful people who loved my version of liberty and theirs too.
Should we watch people do nasty things to get attention; then use it as a platform to blather; who attack a culture at its most passionate nexus and should we not call them terrorists?
Do they need to burn center-camp next to make their point?
The first defense against any cultural disorder, i think is community awareness so let’s call it what it is. The next is to catch the sick punk and see him fry in a federal penitentiary along with Addis. Let’s see if they like the flames in there.
Burning Man is in danger as long as people use terror to make political statements, especially in light of the ‘08, politically-charged Bman theme…
Watch for the article I’m just completing, soon to be published: Liberty Torched (The story of the other arson at Burning Man) By Matthew (Timeless) Welter, September, 2007
Any of your insights, images, footage or whiteness to the Liberty arson is needed; I’m preparing to call it terrorism when i hand it over to the F. ucking B.I.
Timeless
timeless.sculptures@gmail.com
Thanks to the remarkable photography and good will of Ryan Hayes, I have some stunning images to share: arson photos --> http://www.oneflameinthefire.com/timeless-arson/
Liberty was surrounded by a had-full of my finest works, which thankfully attracted Ryan’s camera:
http://www.oneflameinthefire.com/timeless-art/)