<~thought collage~>
Black Rock City is still black and not GREEN - Rant # 4,321 by Algae Girl
Tue, September 25, 2007 - 1:43 PMCheck out this short journalistic documentary he did on the pavilion's expo of green tech:
www.current.tv/pods/tvfre...man/PD07192
The pavilion under the man-base, aka the sort-of "world's fair of green technology", was closed almost the entire week.
Watch this time-lapsed movie and you can see when the man was torched, and when the pavilion was open and when it was closed.
youtube.com/watch
Here's a message to the folks who efficiently stomped out the Green-Expo at the man-base in exchange for a big show-off of "You can't stop Burning Man, Paul Addis! We're going to rebuild the man and show you who's ____(let them fill in the blank)_____!" Maybe you don't realize it, yet, but it wasn't just the organizers, the artists and non-profit organizations (and the one or two fully-benign, unnamed corporate exhibitors of green-tech) who got totally screwed by the disorganized and unprioritized closure of the man-base for the rebuilding of the man.
The Burning Man Org had dumped tons of money, time and effort into making this expo of green tech a brilliant showcase for the 40k + participants that could have been buzzing all around it all week. But something happened, something that REEKS of bureaucracy and testosterone and nepotism! After the arson on the first day of the event, the pavilion remained closed ALL WEEK and NO ONE, not even people having everything to do with the expo (organizers or exhibitors) were allowed access to the pavilion OR the exhibits! Why? Because they decided to make the pavilion (formerly designated as an expo of green technology) into a workshop space where they could publicly build the new man. This became TOP priority for the few people triggered by the pre-burn of the man, and no one bothered to get consensus from everyone involved in the use of the pavilion during the event. Nope. No one asked me anything, OR even bothered to tell me where they moved our algae exhibit to when they displaced it with a makeshift carpentry studio.
Day after day during the event I tried to get access to my living installation under the man-base, and was told that NO ONE was allowed in there except for the work crew who was rebuilding the man. And, when asked who to take it up with, they said that no one was available to talk to. They were all too busy.
Schyeah.
A bunch of our algae went dormant and yellow.... no good to use for exhaust capture anymore.
Barely anyone got to see our installation.
We kept our part of the contract they made us sign, and lost the right to even visit our installation. What rights did we have? None.
How much of a waste was that?
Does BM even realize it fully?
I don't think so.
How the hell can we change this?
I've been pretty ticked off about this. And I've felt really bad for all the people who's work got stomped out by the man rebuild and the decision (by whom???) to close the man-base all week. I understand that the cripsy man atop the structure was unsafe! But why didn't they just take him down on Tuesday and re-open the pavilion while they built man #2 somewhere else???
Okay, stepping down off my soap box.
Your turn.
Tue, September 25, 2007 - 1:43 PM -
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10 Comments
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Tue, September 25, 2007 - 2:00 PM
First-way to go Thumper!
Second-You go Alge Girl. I would be pissed off too. To take your space and all the others so They could rebilled a man that was pretty much already built, it just had to be regurgitated out again. How rude! Knowing there are extra man parts laying around seems wastefull to me and uninspiring. Three-who wants the soap box next? |
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Unsu...
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Tue, September 25, 2007 - 3:27 PM
They gotta know now that they seriously fucked that up. Thing is this event is run by chaos and committee and no one person will be put out to hang for that mistake.
I'm sure they would never put anything that important under the man base again. And hopefully now in retrospect they realize their fucking man wasn't that important. It's funny how we get programmed by tradition and habit. No man to burn Saturday.... oh disaster!! Would the event have been ruined? No. Losing the pavilion was the bigger disaster, frankly. |
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Tue, September 25, 2007 - 5:45 PM
That sucks
I thought it was pretty stupid to rebuild the man and really stupid to rebuild a completely brand new one. Why not use the half-charred man and add some prosthetics? And shutting down the Pavilion is just idiotic. It shows where B.M.'s priorities are. Green seems like it was just another theme. An example from the art side of things, B.M. not allowing the tree to be put up in the place of the burnt Crude Awakening oil rig. That would have made the piece so much more powerful. As it turned out all people talk about is the size of the fireball. It's just stupid, and I'm glad they are following up this "green" theme with a much more appropriate American Dream and Patriotism motif, 'cause the freedom tom run around like a maniac, playing loud music and blowing shit up seems perfectly American to me.
BTW. I was your algae moved to Entheon? |
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Tue, September 25, 2007 - 6:22 PM
if we had known then what we know now...
On Friday night we were required to move the installation out from under the man, so it would be ready for the regularly scheduled Saturday night burn. The wonderful people at Enthion Village allowed us to move the trailer into the main village, where in two days more people were able to see the installation than had seen it for the whole week that it was under the man.
After the early burning of the man, Meggio and I talked about just moving the trailer to Enthion then. Had we known that the pavilion was going to be closed most of the week, we definitely would have done this. Instead we went along with the other presenters and left our installation at the pavilion. Oh well, live and learn! dreamer |
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Tue, September 25, 2007 - 8:02 PM
yeah that does suck megan! i know that you and your crew worked really hard and by the laws of BM. To be denied your rights to your project even if it was to move it elsewhere, that is a total hypocrasy. Even algae has rights!
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Tue, September 25, 2007 - 8:15 PM
you are not the center of the universe? once again? nobody cares about your algae? honestly, would that piss fed puddle of goo even scrub the volume of c02 you used getting to the event? I highly doubt it...dont get me wrong...I thought the whole idea of having a green man was stupid theme anyway....I felt like they were trying to change the event into another hippy fest....laughed, very satisfied to myself, seeing the sheer volume of fuel spent at crude awakenings...truly impressive....I for one am glad the event didnt get any green on it...as for dpw rebuilding the man...and yes it was from scratch not from spare parts. showed the strength of of community to over come someone trying to fuck up our party...yes it just a party....that is evident from all the crap you people leave behind....if you dont like burningman....dont go...the event will be fine without you...and your algae.
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Tue, September 25, 2007 - 9:48 PM
Wow Fuego!
I love ya man but that's harsh. I know you've put your blood, sweat and tears into many things. Ever put your WHOLE heart?
Meggio, I commend you for showing us what is possible. I commend you for doing something while so many sit idle. I commend you for standing up and raising your voice. Who will if we don't? Stepping down, who's next? |
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Tue, September 25, 2007 - 10:02 PM
I have no idea who this fuego character is. But that is fucked up to say in someone's blog. if you want to be so hostile take it up with Megan via email or something. You are completely infesting your negative energy into a thread where it feels completely inappropriate. I would stay awy from the likes of you.
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Tue, September 25, 2007 - 10:25 PM
Wow. I am smiling about The American Dream.....
Aahhaaaaah! I love you guys. |
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Thu, October 4, 2007 - 9:31 AM
Talk to Paul
I asked about the Pavilion being closed down too:
bm.tribe.net/thread/d8c4...25fd5c0bccb1 Here's the (reasonable) reasons that were given to me: "- For obvious safety reasons, the entire Man base needed to be cordoned off until the (badly damaged) first Man was down, and no longer in danger of falling. - There was a significant de-mooping process that had to take place. DPW (and Earth Guardian?) volunteers spent several days removing (by hand) ash, wood, melted tarp, broken neon glass and other debris created by the fire. Not only was this moop really ugly, much of it was dangerous, and needed to be completely removed before the area could be safely re-opened. - The entire area was also quite wet and muddy as a result of the fire suppression effort. This mud needed a couple of days to dry, a process which was sped up as much as possible by the relentless and creative efforts of yet more DPW volunteers. - During the raising and wiring of the reborn Man, a safe perimeter also needed to be maintained. For all these reasons and more, certain areas of the Man base and the south pavilion were regrettably closed for several days. (The north pavilion actually re-opened sooner than most people realize, and the Man base was also re-opened the night >before< the new Man was raised.) Please know that everyone involved was working as fast and as hard as we could (continuous day and night shifts, for those who didn't notice) to rebuild a new Man, and safely re-open the entire area as quickly as possible. To achieve this, many people essentially gave up their event week, choosing instead to return to work, some for four days straight, and with virtually no sleep. Believe me, we recognize that the Man base and the pavilions were a space for everyone. But there was no way they could have been re-opened any sooner than they were (at least not safely and environmentally responsibly). If that upsets you, the person to speak with is named paul." |
