Friends, I'm likely to be going in an unusual way, via Seattle, so for any of you who have been thinking THIS would be the year, be advised that I'm probably not doing the normal Rent-an-RV routine. There's still ways to go, and we could use some journalists at the Black Rock Beacon, so let me know if you think you might like to come. Sooner is better. (Yes, you have to plan now, and yes, it takes about 2 weeks out of your life. No, I'm not in a position to bring you with me for free, but that doesn't mean you can't come).

Rather than thinking about it, I'll just vote for whichever of you DIDN'T ROBOCALL MY UNLISTED, DO-NOT-CALL-REGISTERED CELL PHONE.

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.