Back again for our fifth year on the Playa, the Black Rock Beacon is gearing up for Black Rock City 2009, bringing you a unique mix of news, opinions, photography and smoked-pork-product trivia.

Fueled by ridiculous amounts of non-vegan-friendly, high-protein, chemically preserved porcine goodness, we keep tabs on what's going up and down on the Playa. We're planning five issues (six if somebody burns the Man early), and we have some new equipment that should sharpen up our photo quality.

So you're wondering, where do YOU fit it? Well, we hope you'll enjoy reading us as you explore the city, and maybe drop by during the 23 3/4 hours we're frying up our namesake . But if you want MORE, we can dish it out. We need a few good Burners to help us write, edit, produce, and distribute the paper, and to give us a hand with the preparation and consumption of tasty breakfast meats. Beginners welcome, except in the kitchen. And, um, well, if you like our paper and want to give us a hand via PayPal, we're up for that too.

Contact information and copies of all our past issues are available on our website at www.blackrockbeacon.org. There's news to work on now -- for the web and the paper -- so if you want to be part of the longest-running daily on the Playa, drop by and say hi.

Lux. Veritas. Lardum.

Is the annual plea for my friends to pitch in a little something to make the Black Rock Beacon a reality at Burning Man this year.

So, it's that time again.

I was kind of sick last year, and, as a result, we were very slow in getting started with planning. We need a few people who could pitch in and write articles for us, both now and on the Playa.

For those of you who can't or don't write, there's option B: your small, yet heartfelt donations to the Beacon. Really, even $5 or $10 helps, it mostly goes to paper and ink, and the gasoline that gets them to the Playa. It's easy to donate via PayPal or credit card on our website at www.blackrockbeacon.org

I hope the Burners in the crowd enjoy our effort this year.

Announcing, the Black Rock Beacon, Volume III.

Yes, Burners, we’re coming back for our third year, bringing news, views and pork-related trivia to Black Rock City. The Black Rock Beacon is an independent daily newspaper and an associated website ( www. blackrockbeacon.org ) written by and for the Burning Man community.

Our 2006 (and 2005) archives are on-line, check them out at

bitethe.com/brb/archive.htm

We’re planning five or six issues for this year, with several thousand copies of each. What will determine how many days and how many copies is YOU, fellow Burners.

If you like the Beacon and want to help keep us going, we could use your small but heartfelt donations. To make it interesting -- and Playa-y -- we’re raffling off a one-year membership in the Bacon of the Month club. Each month, starting in October, the winner will get a pound of bacon from a different artisanal producer. There’s also a t-shirt, a pen (it’s a pig-pen), and an adorable little pig eraser. We’ll hold a drawing on the Playa, if the response is overwhelming before the start of August, we’ll add a second prize so that your odds of winning will never be less than 1.5%. Bacon of the Month Club will only ship to the United States, but it makes a great gift to your American friends if you live overseas (or are a vegan).

Donations must be in multiples of $10. The raffle runs through August 22. See our web page at

bitethe.com/brb/donate.htm

for details. All money raised will go to increasing the number of copies we print each day and possibly publishing on additional days.

Thanks for your support! We look forward to serving Black Rock City in 2007 and for many years to come.

Lux. Veritas. Lardum.

The voucher for the Bacon of the Month Club arrived Friday. It's cute -- I might end up ordering this for a Christmas present, except that you pay as much for the shipping as for the BOM.

But if you're reading this, you can win a chance at winning it for a mere $10 a month. Also, it's a little known fact that odds will never be anything worse than 75-1, 'cause if we raise $750, we'll add another one.

We're a little far away from that now, but, hey, that makes the odds significantly better than 75-1.

Not that I'm dropping hints or anything...but if I WAS dropping hints, I'd remind you to visit bitethe.com/brb/donate.htm

Hey...Burners and Non-Burners alike, this is a good cause for that $10 you didn't really want:

The Black Rock Beacon is gearing up for its sophomore year on the Playa, and we need your help to make it happen. We're raffling off a one-year membership to the Bacon of the Month club, the gift that keeps on giving calories. Starting in September, our lucky winner will receive a different artisanal bacon every month for the next year, a tasty reminder of the best Black Rock City has to offer. There's also a free Bacon t-shirt, a pig (ballpoint) pen and monthly comic strip.

We're raffling off chances to win this fabulous prize for $10 a pop. We'll hold a drawing first thing on Monday and announce the winner in the Beacon on Tuesday. If you can't come by the pick up the voucher, we'll mail it to you right after the event.

Bacon of the Month club only delivers in the United States, but the voucher is transferable so if you're outside America you can gift it to somebody else.

The best way to donate is to use the PayPal link on our website, www.blackrockbeacon.org -- you can pay by credit card if you don't have a PayPal account, but we'll also take cash, checks or money orders by mail at Black Rock Beacon, 31811 Pacific Highway South B-123, Federal Way, WA, 98003.

We're also looking to fill a few key positions on our staff, including an opening for a provocative columnist, and we always need writers, photographers, editors and delivery people to join us on the Playa. So come visit our website or join us on Tribe.net at theblackrockbeacon.tribe.net.

Lux. Veritas. Lardum.