Principles and Blurry Lines

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Chuck-WeirdAmericaHelcoAtBurningMan1996905

With a recent discussion of monetization on the site and this author possible getting a gift from someone who wanted to post an ad on the site I thought it important to expand on at least one of 10 points in the ideology we opted in to when we joined the Burning Man community and decided to participate.

Let me start by saying that I will be receiving nothing from the person who wanted to advertise here. The policy will remain the same unless the community (you guys) say differently. That is: Create a New Post from the Dashboard menu at the top of the screen after you login. Only verified members can do this. Email me if there is a question on what that is.

10 Principles

Of the 10 Principles the one that came under fire here is about monetary gain under the entity that is Burning Man or by using any logos or representations of the organization. Gay Burners is not in any way an officially sanctioned or official part of the organization. This amounts to being a fan-site supporting a sub-culture of Burning Man itself. And yes, I can say they appreciate what this site is and who we are catering to.

Decommodification: In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience. [source]

On a recent trip to gather with Burners one of the topics of discussion was about money. Certainly we all see that Burning Man could not exist unless they raised money and paid salaries. I hear people jabbing their fingers at coffee and ice at Burning Man, but that money goes to some important causes. Have you seen the financial reports Burning Man posts publicly on how much it costs to put the whole thing on?

Things cost money. People make money and that money goes into their tickets, camping equipment, gas to get to Burning Man so reality is that money is more often turning around and going right back into the machine anyway.

There are some seriously blurry lines in this space because the cost of local events beside our individual journeys is getting more and more expensive.

Gay Burners Site

It costs me almost nothing to have this site and manage it. I paid for hosting and I paid for the domain name and annually that is about 20$. Yes, you see AdSence on the bottom of the pages, but there has been no revenue from that in all the time I had the account. And this is actually on a few of the sites I manage. I want people to have resources and options but not some namby-pamby corporate hoo-hah wanting to come on here to take advantage our audience.

We have about 150 members right now on this site plus 162 on the Facebook as of this posting.

The same person who criticized me in email made a dismissing remark about the population of this site and whatever anger or frustration that came from it was hurtful. What you guys don’t see are the analytics of the site. We actually are getting more than a thousand people a month looking at this site! Wanna see some of that? Look at the link in the left column in the section that says “Who’s On Line”.

[source of cover image featuring Hellco]

Playmates: Wearable Art

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Hey Guys! I’m Booka, the mastermind and lone workhorse for “PlayaMates.

I’ve been a Artist all my life. Recently, I really needed to find a new outlet for my talents, AND find a way to fund my Burn. I got the idea to create outfits (mostly from faux fur, which is sorta traditional) that were really finely crafted, luxurious, and original Art pieces on their own. For the past 8 months I have done little other than sew! Mind you, the majority of what I have been doing is entirely stitched by hand (I do the linings by machine). It takes a number of weeks with each piece to work out the design, and all those little details that make them something special and unique.

Hand sheared fur, inlaid differant furs, “Horse hoof cuffs”, satin linings, alot of pockets, a little military styling all go towards makeing sure that each piece can stand on it’s own as a original little work of Art. I don’t do duplicates, who would want what anyone else is wearing anyway? Alot of love and attention has gone into this collection, and I’m proud of it. The feedback from the pieces I have sold has been really encouraging; mostly how luxurious they feel, and how cool they make people look. So please check it out, see if something has your name on it. I try to be as flexible as I can, so don’t be shy. Enjoy.

Love, Booka

Check out the site at: playamates.com/

I am also on facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/PlayaMates/198701076830348?ref=ts

King’s Royal Robes

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Hello I am called King. The King of faux fur! I make custom, made to order Royal Robes and Light Up Coats. This will be my 8th burn this year and after my experience last year as the Nookie Monster (Cookies older brother). I decided the playa needs more Monster/ Animals. So I have come up with my new line “Scary Monsters & Super Freaks” . Available at www.lightupcoats.etsy.com and my website is:
Proceeds from lightupcoats go to funding  my Mutant Vehicle , Theme Camp and every thing it takes to get the King back to the desert he calls home. Thank You King

Decommodification on GB

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I got some rather harsh feedback on the last email from a particular member that gave me some food for thought. There was some issue with the question I put on there about the request to place an ad and some remuneration to me for doing so. There is a reason I put the question out there.

Although the reaction was a bit over the top I understand the point of view and am willing to concede. I did not create this site with expectation of personal gain. Not a penny. Not a singe thing. So were all good on those notes I am stating it clearly.

When we look at the 10 principles even the people running Burning Man admit there are some seriously blurry lines on those principles and for everyone they blur on different levels.

So, we will just continue to put links as they are provided. Any member that wants to shout out on a favorite vendor or their own product you can have one posting page for it. Myself or any other Admins on the site can help post links as well.

Thanks for your understanding.

 

What? Who? Where? WTF?

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I will not presume through this page to ass-u-me I know everything there is to know about all of you. The mission of this site and it’s members are: ‘LGBT plus all the blurry lines in-between‘. What is gay or queer or lesbian or trans or whatever is less important than the ties that bind us is that we are just who we are.

staywithfamilydotcom

Radical Self-expression is something a lot of queers have known for years. Besides being a gay male, a burner, and a self described artist I am often identified as: “off”  or  “quirky”  or  “artsy”. I got to Walmart in my kilt and boots that have metal plates on them up to my knees. And I am very comfortable doing so… in fact going anywhere.

We, the queers and off-beat, are radical self-expression and more for years long before the 10 principles.

When I see the things some Burner Queers are doing I have to sit back cheer them on! Of course most people are familiar with Comfort & Joy as well as the Camp Beaverton camps what really put on quite a production every year. in fact a lot of our queer camps do some amazing stuff and it is very worthy to watch the Queer Camp List.

The Queer Camp List will be updated in July when BMorg releases the official list of theme camps and villages. Involve yourself with these camps if you can and help support their infrastructure. Participate in the making of something very special.

In a blog I wrote in 2009 I was really blown away by what I witnessed in my first year at Burning Man. It was the only year I went and just stepped back and observed, tried learning about the people of the Burner culture, and came away with some really interesting observations.

I felt, while watching a lot of people given permission to be outside the box (possible the first time in their lives), sorta spiral into a short circuit frenzy. There is an insurmountable amount of men inspired to dress as women or wearing women’s clothing and a lot of expression of sexuality.

There is nothing wrong with any of it, with any healthy expression, hopefully making the journey back into the default world a new journey, too.

It took me back to the 70’s and 80’s (yes, I am that old) where gay and lesbians were finally stepping out the shadows in droves and were demanding more and more recognition which has been growing consistently.

We are all not “gay” or “lesbian” on this thing called ‘gay burners’. We are the blurry lines and make no apologies for it. We support your right to explore your own identity/orientation/none-of-the-above. Feel free to share your stories below.

Comfort & Joy Announce Repost

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I hesitate to put this in the Events Calendar. This is actually pretty huge and something I was hoping I could participate in this year. Comfort & Joy posted this today.
_______________________________________
From Facebook:

Kd Calfee April 4 at 9:55pm Reply • Report
Dear Comfort & Joy friends –

Making a pilgrimage to the faerie sanctuary of your choice for Beltane is a popular tradition for many Comfort & Joy folks.
Travel plans are brewing!

What is this thing, Beltane? It’s a traditional May Day celebration of fertility, renewal, awakening & new beginnings that heralds the arrival of summer. Way older than Easter. (More fun, too) Learn more here: http://playajoy.org/?p=1449

This year, many San Francisco faeries are celebrating Beltane at Short Mountain. Lucky bitches.

In New Mexico, the Zuni Mountain Faerie Sanctuary works to create an earth-oriented rural permaculture which supports both our individual & collective spiritual creative growth. Word on the street is that their Beltane Celebration just keeps getting better:
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=210849355595393

There will also be a special San Francisco celebration (stay tuned for an exciting announcement soon). And of course, up in Oregon the Wolf Creek Faerie Sanctuary is going to turn Beltane out like a “subterranean rumble.” Can you feel it?

There’s a certain vibration, coming up through the bare soles of your feet on damp and warm soil. The subtly felt roar of a warming world, the roots extending, the seeds bursting up, and the eggshells breaking open. That’s the magic of spring life growing. Very worth celebrating!

And that’s what happening at Wolf Creek from April 27th – May 3rd. The caretaker team just send out a Beltane call & registration info, which excerpted below. Is this the year you dance the Maypole at Wolf Creek? If so, here’s what to do.

First of all, read the Good Gathering Guide, or get slapped by Miss Manners! (see link below). Also, it’s fabulous faerie etiquette to Register Early, which is an excellent way to show your love. (the kitchen crew is always thankful)

Bring your bright drag, your bright intentions, and your bright-fucking-attitude! After a winter like this, there’s no reason at all to hold back. It’s time to be magical. It’s time to love & give.

The energy we raise is what will be given back to us and the world. We want you to be aware that this is an awakening like no other, and there’s no room to let others wake up for you.
Bring it! Do it! Live it!

Put on the pageant drama, strike up a band in the field, plan that unbelievable dinner (with chocolate mousse, please), work up your spells for the spring ceremony – and every moment is a ceremony, if you make it so. So what are you serving this spring? Volunteerism is always in season honey. See a list of opportunities in the Good Gathering Guide

If you want to help the caretakers at Wolf Creek turn it out, contact the Sanctuary via nomenus@nomenus.org or Phone: (541) 866-2678. The Caretakers are having a focus meeting for organizers and other contributors on Thursday, April 7th, 7:30 pm. Contact them to find out how to be a part of that meeting; conference call realness is available.

Naturally, a Maypole decorated with long brightly colored ribbons and flowers is an important element of most Beltane festivities. As dancers revolve around the base of the pole, interweaving the ribbons, a colorful pattern emerges that symbolizes union in community. We are those colors, woven in a interlocking web of amazing diversity, more fabulous together than apart.

It’s our confluence – the people, the spirits, the land – that creates our shared awareness of the holy, so please, plan on serving the community in your own special way. This isn’t a disposable party. It’s time to come together to fertilize your dreams with action, and make a fresh start.

Beltane is a time to create new connections and renew familiar ones. It’s about community: civics is chic, honey!

WOLF CREEK REGISTRATION INFO:

A sliding scale donation of $5-$35 / day per person is requested. It’s extremely stylish to Register & Donate Early. It’s what the beautiful people do, and you’re awful pretty honey. Plus the kitchen team loves having an attendance count.

To Register:

(1) Read the Good Gathering Guide (!) & pick a volunteer proj& download the registration form here:
http://www.nomenus.org/downloads.html

(2) Fill out your form & email it to nomenus@nomenus.org. If you can’t edit/type on the PDF, just write the same info in a regular email. You can also leave a message at 541-866-2678.

(3) Make your Registration Donation here:
http://www.nomenus.org/donate.html

Analog faeries can mail the form + a check to:

Wolf Creek Sanctuary
P.O. Box 312
Wolf Creek, OR 97497

For more info about the Wolf Creek Sanctuary, visit:
http://www.nomenus.org/wcsanc.html

See you in the garden!

Burning Man Leadership Summit

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This is a trip report: March 31st-April 3rd saw the 5th Annual Regional Conference and Leadership Summit held in San Francisco at a couple locations. It started with the Bentley Reserve in downtown near the Financial District. Then over to the Kabuki Hotel for the rest of the time in Japan Town. Turns out the owner of the Kabuki is a Burner!!!!

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Although I did not get a lot of pictures, hopefully what I am sharing tells a good story.

Terry at the Kabuki LoungeThursday we were hosted at the Kabuki in their Lounge with a lovely cocktail party. Right away I started connecting with amazing people from all over the world. Early on I connected with Dave Umlas and Marrrilee Ratcliffe from Austin, Texas who have this amazing dynamic and it seems they are building the Temple this year with their team.

I also met Terry who was visiting from the Western Colorado Region who I have now adoption as my Burner Mom. If only my Burner Dad knew!!!

Early the next morning we convened at the Bentley Reserve where PODS began in the form of classes. There were a lot of options and the schedule was so well orchestrated that it seemed like no matter what your Mes in Regionals 101role in the community was there was something for you. This turned out to be a long day and a lot happened:

  • Morning Classes like Regional 101
  • Lunch Mixer and then participation with $tephen Ra$pa in the St. Stoopid Day Parade
  • Afternoon meet and greet with offices at Burning Man; like technology, H.R., Burning Man Earth, and camps like Comfort&Joy; Flux Foundation and so much more…
  • Then evening welcoming ceremony that featured a speech by Larry who talked extensively about the new future of Burning Man and becoming a Non-Profit

On Saturday we were back to the Kabuki Hotel for more PODS and team building that was what a lot of us needed. One of which was Conflict Resolution. Real situations that were submitted to Burning Man from a variety of communities including my own region. Should I mention I was the only being complained about in the letter?

The result was interesting feedback for one and all in the 12 situations that were presented. It forced a lot of people to share and add a input of strangers with no prior knowledge not to effect the position of the argument and to explore potential solutions effectively. It shows the groups can mediate, but it also showed that something in the mix was still missing which I will blog about later on.

Burning Man hosted a great mixer late that night that involved Dj’s, Scrabble Letters, and karaoke. I neglected to mention the open bar. The beat, the vibe, the energy was immense and a lot of us got to bond even further.

Then Sunday was going to be the last day of events. They did something called World Cafe that brought all of us together in small groups exploring more situation effecting the health and structure of the community as a whole. In bits and pieces, shifting around to new ideas, we each were able to add input into these circumstances and saw potentially new resolutions for future experiences.

More PODS concluded the day including Events Planning with $tephen Ras$pa (this is how his name appeared everywhere) and Social Networking with WillPants. All were so highly informative and teaching/mentoring that it was all just this amazing blessing to be a part of.

There is talk of opening this up in the future for any interested party. I was able to go because I was nominated after a request because of the things I have been doing in Vegas and with Gay Burners [dot] com for the last couple years.

Gay Burners

I had a chance to pose the question: Should we as members of the LBGT+ (and all the blurry lines) have our own Regional representation? I can only give you my opinion, but turned out someone else posed the question before me from another ‘sub-culture’ of the Burner world. We all do have such strong geographical Regional representation that one based on an interest, lifestyle, orientation or other might be redundant.

A web site like gay burners is a network and linked into the BMHQ (especially now after introducing it presently) and networking with a force like WillPants. This site is growing and exploding. We are a gateway.

Day 1 Leadership Summit

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The day started off with registration and a chance to reconnect with friends new and old. Last night’s reception was a great warm up.

This morning my first class was Regional 101 where it went over what a Regional Contact is and does.

I posed the question… what kind of leadership is supposed to come from a regional? There answers are many and the solution is all of them as long as it supports the growth of the communiy.

The second class I took was informative but not really applicable to me in m.y roll today. It was on the Mailman software used by R.C.s.

After lunch the venders, camps and a lot of other entities took the floor. There was a lot of cool showcasing going on.

More to come soon!

Burning Man Leadership Summit

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Next week starting April 1st will be the annual Leadership Summit and Regional Conference in San Francisco. Many issues will be discussed as well as tools provided that will help some of us with the things we do with our communities. I discovered this last year while it was underway and was determined to go the next time it was on!

Stephen RaspaWhy was I invited? Well, at first you might say I impressed myself because I wanted to meet and learn from Stephen Raspa. If you do not know who he is then… well, then you don’t know Burning Man. It is not unlike saying who is Marian Goodell and who is Larry Harvey.

Well, another reason I was invited is because I am a candidate for a Regional Contact position in Vegas which has been a process for a few months now following an extensive interview process. That is a story for another day.

The Question

So I ask you; Do we as the queer burners have any special needs/considerations/positions that needs addressing? I would love to bring anything from OUR sub-community… is that even the right word? Are we really integrated with the Burner community as a whole or are we that politely acknowledged presence of the would be super-liberals…? HA HA HA… not so much a serious question as cankerous nudge in the ribs of anyone wondering about social dilemmas. (No, I don’t really know either).

We the People

There is a full schedule of classes ranging from event setup to dealing with social and political issues in the community. Some classes I would take are layered on top of each other which means I had to choose one or the other.  For example, Fridays classes are “Mailman Training” v. “CORE Project Leaders” which was a simple choice in my case with the CORE project off my grid at the moment (Mailman refers to keepers of community lists and how much should be throttled and moderated).

Classes range from Public Relations, Event Planning, and Ranger resources… a lot of arms to this thing we call Burning Man and how to hopefully strengthen the community and the resources of same. The community is Black Rock City, all the Regions beyond that, then the pods/cells/fractures within. I know one question being asked is how do we deal with the fractures within communities and should we?

Conclusion

So, I will be posting about this as I go and be on my cell at all times. Feel free to text me or email.

Gay Camp Placement

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Gay Village MapsA couple people mentioned in posts and email that they did not really know where the gay camps were concentrated… or more-so where or what the Gayborhood/Gay Ghetto were. The map attached to this piece from the 2010 Metropolis is a rough estimate of just those.

MalMart is loosely marked there as well as Pink Heart. This does not mean 2011 will see the same exact placement, but it seems to reflect 2009. Having spent a lot of time in both regions I can say I had a lot of fun and met a lot of amazing people.

The map is just generally informational and I will look to post something a little more comprehensive after July 1st when the theme camp list is published and we get a list of the gay camps projected for 2011 Rites of Passage.

The reality is that gay camps are all over the place, but these small concentrations of familiars feels like a pool of water in the middle of the desert when we are seeking to make connections.

I personally pledge to visit and spend time in every camp posting here to some degree and be there to support whatever I can. We are a single part of a whole and I look forward to spending time together once again!

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If you feel like adding… I was doing 2010 pics only