Burning Man, Bergdorf's and Maslow

The wind is blowing me in the direction of Burning Man again, even though there are dramatic inconsistencies in the literature from burningman.com.  For example, BM dot com lists the ten core principles developed by Burning Man founder Larry somebody, and the first principle is Radical Inclusion.  It might interest Larry to know that whoever is in charge of the email list for NYC makes no apologies or explanations for settings that automatically reject subscribers.

Very likely, there's some command embedded in the software so that people are only accepted or rejected instead of put into social media purgatory - but the administrators could write a sentence or two welcoming people and thanking them for their interest instead of saying that after we prove we aren't spambots or spybots, we need to say why we're interested in Burning Man.  You would think that an organization that lists Radical Inclusion as the first core principle would do something so that a new person's first contact with the group wasn't a message saying that s/he had been REJECTED.  Even in cyberspace, Rejection is not Inclusion.

More from BM dot com:
Radical Self-reliance
Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.

Sounds reasonable.  We should all stretch to discover abilities we never knew we had.  The literature also includes a list of what every good, self-reliant individual needs to bring to Black Rock City so s/he can be healthy in a desert environment.  They recommend a 1 1/2 gallons of water a day which is roughly 12 pounds of water per day.  So an individual going for the full experience would need nearly 100 pounds of water.  Add food, camping gear, shoes whatever to that, and unless you can carry 200 lbs of shit by yourself, you're going to need a car because the busses limit the amount of luggage you can carry.  If you're going to get there, you're going to have to ask for help.  How can an individual ask for help if the individual supposed to be Radically Self Reliant in order to comply with the Ten Principles?

Pinko says nobody pays attention to that shit, except for Leave No Trace.  I already know all about Leave No Trace - not only because of what Velvet learned from NOLS but also because we learned it when I was a girl scout.  We always recited this verse:

Never let it be said,

and said unto your shame,

that all was beauty here 

until YOU came.

Worldwide Hippies Joe and I both have issues with the BS the BM organization spreads about the use of video footage.  We enjoyed a rousing rant about the Burning Man Organization this morning when I was considering filming a segment on the cool, peaceful shore of Lake Tahoe calling Bull Shit on Burning Man.  Then Pinko manifested a way to get me through the velvet rope and into the VIP room, so to speak.

It really does seem like the deck is stacked against new people coming to Burning, unless they have cars and resources.  I have resources, sort of, but no car and I still can't figure out where the hell The Playa bus stop is.  I refuse to stand in the parking lot looking for a Red Cap to tote 150 pounds of provisions through some temporary installation of theme camps designed to evoke Post-Apocolyptic experience that resembles (1) Mad Max or (2) that bar on Tatooine.

Pinko seems to have resolved all my personal issues and stress - although I still say that Burning Man's Public Relations people are full of shit and there's absolutely no fucking way that 60,000 people can live together in the desert without Radical Interdependence.

I know about Interdependence from Farm & Wilderness, the hippy dippy Quaker camp Velvet attended as a child and that employs him now that he's mostly grown.  I know all about interdependence from living in New York City, too.  More to the Burning point, however, is the reality that you have to be Radically Self-Reliant on the subway at rush hour in New York City, or you're fucking fucked.

I'm not sure what's happening with Pinko's lover from last year, but I'm not going to give that any attention right now.  If my understanding of Pinko's romantic history is correct, he might benefit from breaking a pattern of being the Rescuer in a relationship.   For the moment, though, Pinko's romances are not on my agenda.

The Burning issue at the moment is shoes.
I understand that Burning Man is not Bergdorf's and Maslow's hierarchy of needs reigns supreme.  But now that I can coordinate the provisions issue with the Sideshow camp - specifically with two individuals code-named Doktur Morbius and Oscillation Overthruster - I can turn my attention to personal gear, and comfortable desert footwear is at the top of my list.  I also need a couple of scarves to wrap around my face and head when the dust starts blowing.

At the moment, I need to focus on the Pride Parade tomorrow.  Gigi is going to be a marshal for the Sirens, too.  We're going to shoot some video that will become the first segment of Greetings from the Triciasphere on Worldwide Hippies News & Stuff.

Fearless Summer, here we come!