Month: January 2014

Web Site Administrata

by

Side ImageSo, while working on the site and getting it all hammered back out to there it is today (which was a lot of hours of work), the site still gets hit with a lot of spam that I try not to let you all see.

I am very open to anyone who wishes to help out with the maintenance of the site – or even other general administration.

ALL members can submit articles right from the site! All you have to do is log in and add a new Post. It will be held for moderation and might get some visual editing. Please make it a complete story and all is good.

Why Burning Man?

by
Photos by Dot

Going on 27 years, the Burning Man spirit has evolved so much over the years and grew from something quite intimate to a space where one gets lost in a sea of nearly 70,000 people. Yet we Why we do it....still manage to find one another and discover relationships /  friendships that maintenance on social media for 50 weeks a year but shine bright at our annual reunion. In the time we reconnect on the playa it is always fresh and like we were always there.

Why do we do it?

If this is your first year of Burning Man and the culture you are likely that person who is drunk on the kool-aide and carrying the shield of the 10 principles for all 4975816313_2b15a74de8they represent. Many newbs tend to loose some perspective in their early years depending on their adaptation to the culture. We tend to forget there are gray areas around those lines.

Why do we do it? Well, it could be all those sexy people? It could be that kinetic creative force out there that is intoxicating. Is it the drugs? The booze? The hugs? naked people… or maybe a little bit of everything.

All we know that by Labor Day all of us come away from TTITD changed.

History

While we will soon have a whole section on queer-story on QB [dot] Com it is important to reflect on where it came from to where it is in the modern day. There are some great articles out there on the

Larry Harvey - 1986
Larry Harvey – 1986

origin of Burning Man on Baker Beach, San Francisco 27 years ago. What started out with 20 people is hovering around 70,000 people. According to Burning Man’s census now almost a full third of those people are LGBTQ++ (lots of blurry lines out there).

Not bad for an event started by three heterosexual white males brooding over a lost girlfriends and decided to burn a ‘wicker man’ in effigy to drown their woes. What does that have to do with us queers?

sexually-attracted-toAll the Radical this-and-that are something we homos have been doing since the edge of time. It naturally appeals to our basic instincts while hetero men are snicker over putting on their mom’s skirt, we are looking for the right accessories and eye makeup – hunty.

Burning Queers

So when and how did so many queers get involved in this little shin-dig in the desert over all these years? While BMorg (Burning Man’s head quarters) has a lot of utopian ideals when it comes to

Photos by Dot
Photo by Dot

population all fitting together  like some kind of tapestry that tells a profitable story, the reality is that its not all puppies and unicorn farts. Homophobia does exist out there. There are dangers and that brings us to the Gayborhood.

The Gayborhood first evolved as queer camp started coalescing and it created an oasis that became a safety zone for LGBTQ++ members of the community. Safety and familiarity are the corner stones of the Gayborhood.

Do you remember?

There are some famous moment in Burning Man history and some of those have been featured in various video produced over time.

Only the last three were specific to the Queer population. Although some things some people might want to forget they were important growing points in the community.

Impact

The LGBTQ++ part of Burning Man is growing but our impact is sometimes glossed over, but we still take a lot of pride in what our community brings to the event and the culture.

Queer Burner Leadership: Announcement

by

Today we announced the 2014 Queer Burner Leadership Summit and Community Building Conference to be held at the Center for Sex and Culture in San Francisco March 30th, 2014.

This is the 3rd annual event and will celebrate 5 years of Queer Burners [dot] Com as a service working to network the LGBTQ++ (LGBTQS and more) members of the Burning Man community that identity as Queer Burners. We are also greatly focused on the health and well being of the Gayborhood as an important presence at Burning Man.

The Leadership Summit is:

QBLS: The Queer Burner Leadership Network linking leaders / project managers / do’ers to others of the same ilk to network and supportive. Talking to each other in an open forum and carrying that connection away is invaluable.

Community Building Conference: Team building and inspiring people to carry the health, well-being and success of the camp / project /  community (Gayborhood) / city (BRC).

Join us March 30th in San Francisco. Tickets on sale soon, sliding scale, NOTAFLOF*.

————————————-

*NOTAFLOF: No one turned away for lack of funds is a philosophy inspired by the Radical Faery community to assure that all people in our community have a chance to participate.

Low Income Ticket Sales: FAIL

by

space hippiesTicket Sales are starting soon! We talked about it recently here with a quick breakdown showing how 61,000 tickets are planned to be distributed PLUS a limited 35,000 vehicle passes that we have to hope people do not horde.

Out of the 61,000 tickets announced Jan 8th/2014 only 4,000 are being provided to people of low or limited income. That means 7% of the tickets available are set aside for low income. According to representatives from Burning Man that is considered generous. (Harley in 2012 in a meeting that focused on the 2012 ticketing disaster and BM HQ when low income ticket available went from 1000 to 4000).

imagesOf course artists have money to burn! The $380 price tag is chump change to people who spin fire and do creative stuff… right? Because all that free art brought out there and put on display, theme camps and activities paid for by the community is no big deal.

We all know the the journey to get to Burning Man really is also part of experience. It is never easy and the escalated ticket prices set to match the escalating cost of setting the event (court fees permits) might eat into the millions of dollars of revenue.

NOT to echo the complacency of other blogs noted on our site, but the imbalance of ticket prices is simply leveraging out the people that made this event what it was. If it was possible, let’s see 10,000 more of those tickets made available at a lower rate. The last two years have seen a huge leap in the cost of attending. Who is left in a sea of plug and play camps and glamping?

 

RuPaul and Burning Man

by

Seeing Queer Burners (meaning the population/membership not the web site) in the media these days has become a common thing. In 2013 we saw 2 movies, tons of art and more. Biggest items out there was Meet the GlamCocks and Meet the Beavers that were both seen at Film Festivals all over the world featuring camps by the same names.

Ru Paul’s Drag Race Premiering Season 6 Jan 14th

172642__santino_lThe web site on logotv.com features the usual stunning goddesses includes the gorgeous Courtney Act (@courtneyact) who has in the past camped with GlamCocks at Burning Man and appears in their movie.

indexIt’s not clear if she was there in 2013 when RuPaul Drag Race and judge on the show Santino Rice made his maiden trip to TTITD. Santino seems to have loved his journey to the flames as noted on his Twitter page (@santinorice).

Do these two have a past together and is it something he would need to recuse himself for this coming season? In just a couple days we are set to find out.

It is exciting to know Santino has set himself to come back for 2014 and maybe he will come and party with in the Gayborhood. Meanwhile. in just a couple days.

Celebrities at Burning Man

There are no shortage of famous people at Burning Man every year. Some have been very open about their participation.

  • Adam Lambert and his fun group….
  • Rosario Dawson and her giant vagina tent
  • Michelle Rodriguez and her fun crew

So many more…. that was just to name a few. Yet, we respect their journey and in the BRC they are just another citizen of the city…

(Note: I did reach out to Courtney and Santino hoping to talk to them and expand on this story more, but with the upcoming show I am sure they were very busy. We wish them the best in the coming year and look forward to their success.)

2014 TTITD Ticket Sales

by

According to the JRS (Jack Rabbit Speaks) ticket sales are starting soon. They will virtually be the same as last year except they will come through a different provider. YOU MUST HAVE REGISTERED A BURNER PROFILE in order to participate with this sale… period.

  • PreSale : 3,000 Tickets :  $650./ea : Weds. 1/22 12pm PST
  • Group Sale : 15,000 Tickets : $380./ea : Weds. 2/12 12pm PST
  • Individual Sale : 38,000 Tickets : $380./ea : Weds 2/26 12pm PST
  • Last Chance : 1,000 Tickets : $380./ea : Thu 7/31 12pm PST

STEP: where you can buy and sell previously purchased tickets safely dates have not yet been set.

Property of Burning Man
Property of Burning Man

It is the Secure Ticket Exchange Program which is Burning Man’s answer to the scum out there that tries profiting off these tickets and selling fakes.

Low Income Tickets

These tickets must be purchased via an application that shows a need for this special pricing. The dates have yet to be announced.

  • Low Income : 4,000 Tickets : $190./ea

Plan on driving?

YOU MUST be aware that there is a big change this year! In order to drive into Black Rock City you will need a $40./ea car pass. You can add this when you purchase your ticket.

Ticket Delivery

With the exception of Low Income Tickets, all tickets purchased will be delivered in June. LI tickets are picked up via Will Call and paid for by cash at the gate.

NOTE: All this information is extrapolated from the January 8th, 2014 edition of the JRS. All additional details can be found by reading the post.This is a link to the archive: Click Here. It is highly recommended you get this newsletter by clicking here.

*TTITD: That Thing In The Desert

2014 Burning Man Theme Announced TODAY!

by

2014 Theme is: Caravansary
For countless centuries, travelers along the Silk Route crossed paths in caravansaries, a network of oases and sanctuaries that dotted the 4,000-mile road from Europe to East Asia. These bustling caravan stops offered more than just shelter from the desert wilderness; they were vital centers of cultural exchange, bringing together traders, pilgrims, monks, nomads, traveling entertainers, and wild-eyed adventurers from all points of the compass to share their stories around a common fire. Though fueled by mercantilism, their legacy to us is a grand commerce of ideas — a swirling exchange of languages, legends, technologies, philosophies and art that helped shape nearly every aspect of our modern world.

– Source Burning Man [dot] Com

WordPress Nightmare

by

QueerBurners [dot] Com is running wordpress to make this whole thing work and for 4 months now it has been a big headache. As often as I have screamed, cried and moaned for help on the site no one has stepped up.

The plugins have eaten the site. The theme managing the site has gone skitzoid. I keep making changes and updates and restores… but please rest assured that your information is still safe. This is also why we don’t post much personal info on here anyway.

This is just to let people know that even after 5 years this is a work in progress and any help would be appreciated. The site does not generate income at this time and it costs me to keep it running, so those who would like to get paid for their help …thanks anyway. This site has to be community driven to exist.