B u r n l o g

I’m always amused that so many people associate Burning Man with “Hippies”. It’s just some sort of brain-dead cliché certain outsiders are overjoyed to foist on anything counter to anything I suppose.

On the Playa, where are flowers and trees to hug? Who there is wearing organic hemp clothing or, it hurts to even say it, tie-dye? Nobody’s growing their own food in the dust bowl Playa. Drum circles are relatively sparse in actuality. The preciousness associated with the usual vegan-earth-drunken-love-and-peace-please mentality is pretty much ripped apart for fun out there. So, tell me, what’s so “Hippie” about the Burn?

Ah shucks, in gouging a cliché I had to illustrate with a bunch of “hippie” stereotypes…

From Earthday Events:

“YOU WOKE UP on Sunday and saw the rain pouring down and thought ‘Well, I can’t go to Earth Day now.’

Sure, you were all set for the free concerts, like the one on the Mall — and maybe you were even going to wear this old tie-dye shirt you got that one time from your friend who went to Burning Man, and it was gonna be sweet, man. But the rain…”

UPDATE!
Our good pal M~ sent a snarky list of “hippie words and phrases and what they really mean”.

Note also the truly amazing “Astral Chakra Matrix” so you can “magically manifest your ‘prayerformance’ troupe name, playa-name or next CD name with ease.” Finally, thank Goddess!

A few enlightening hippie definitions:

Burningman
A huge art installation in the desert that many hippies have mistaken for a model of Utopian society which they attempt to recreate in their hometowns for the next 51 weeks. Ignoring the fact that everything about it is completely unsustainable.

Festival
A party; usually dressed up to have some kind of socio-political or spiritual significance. This of course has little impact on the number of bad trips, fights, and misuse of the land that takes place. Often doesn’t change anything but gives revelers the impression that it has.

Gifting
The act of dumping your useless crap on other people.

Gift Economy
Two possible meanings:
1) Great until you end up with a bunch of “landfill fodder” from people who missed the point or
2) Rich people giving away free drugs

Tribe
MySpace for hippies.

Wiccan / Pagan
Subscribing to a belief system to prove to everyone that you don’t subscribe to belief systems.