B u r n l o g

Whole Life Times has this interesting article by Charles Shaw about Burners Without Borders and the unusual act of going to a place of need and just getting important work done sans red tape. Offshoots are abounding in other regional burner groups around the country and in the Green Man ’07 pavilion project this year:

Whole Life Times: The Revolution Will Not Be Invoiced

Burners Without Borders is led only by an idea: that of a boundless, leaderless movement, based on gifting and community, that seeks no publicity, recognition, money or power. All it seeks to do, like its progenitor, is to build community through addressing social needs, creating art and healing the deep wounds of a disconnected culture in the throes of anomie.

“My personal philosophy,” Burners Without Borders co-founder Carmen Mauk intones, “is that this community is ready to do something more than just party. People are ready to make meaning of their Burning Man experience in their everyday lives. Whenever you bring that ethos off the Playa, that’s Burners Without Borders. And that’s precisely what happened in Mississippi.”

As a movement med by an idea, not ideology, Mauk and Price and the rest of the co-creators of Burners Without Borders are now watching their creation spread organically across the nation. In San Francisco, Mauk and fellow Burners worked with the National Park Service to rebuild the North Beach fire pits. In Detroit, Burners are building a Temple out of wrecked cars in order to spur economic development to blighted neighborhoods. Chicago Burners have performed in parades, taught art and recycling at high schools, and helped South Side neighborhoods deal with seasonal flooding by showing residents how to collect storm water by disconnecting their downspouts. Chicago’s Burning Man community also stepped up last April to provide the art and entertainment for the city’s inaugural Green Festival, bridging for the first time in any organized sense these two vanguard cultures. In New York, this July, Burners cleaned up Governor’s Island and staged an interactive public art show. During this year’s Cinco de Mayo, Burners in twenty-five cities got out and cleaned their public parks and beaches.

Burning Man Grows Up, an article at CNNMoney by Chris Taylor, tells of Green tech companies coming to the burn 2007 in a sort of “world’s fair” exposition context.

This, no doubt, will cause some waves. Here are some interesting quotes from the article:

America’s biggest counterculture jamboree is also a $10 million business. Now, Business 2.0 reports, it’s trying to leverage its brand — and save the planet — by (gasp!) inviting corporate participants.

So the organization decided that the companies that come this summer will have to play by Burning Man’s rules. The first letter inviting corporate participants was pulled off the website after only a few days; Harvey says it made the event sound too much like a trade fair. The revision stated explicitly that no marketing whatsoever would be allowed at the event.

Clean-tech companies can exhibit their technologies, but their products can’t display a logo. No marketing material will be allowed. Company reps can’t even demonstrate their wares in the pavilion; they have to turn them over to Burning Man, which will demonstrate the technologies in whatever artistic form it chooses.

Still, some attendees fear that the arrival of corporations – even without business cards – is the death knell for Burning Man. ‘I’m sure the corporations are thinking, OK, this year those are the terms,’ says one prominent Burning Man artist involved in building the Man itself. ‘But now the door’s open. In the end, the money wins.’

It’s great to be chatting up Burning Man now past the half-way mark. Things are really warming up! Or rather, they’re greening up.

I’ve just noticed the Burning Man Enviroblog (first post on March 30th, 2007). Recently, they published the 2006 Moop Map with Red, Yellow, and Green ratings of moop left behind at BM 06.

What color was your camp…?

Hey wait a minute… it kinda looks like 3:20 and Destiny is Red! No Way! We totally mopped that place clean. Maybe it’s more yellow, but still! Must have been the neighbors… Yeah… Skinny Kitty Tea House people…

;-} Just kidding, Skinny Kitty were our saviors more than a few times as we tottered in shivering past 4 am in the frigid morn with nothing available save for the wonderfully nourishing and warm teas always served up with a bleary smile by the nice folks at Skinny Kitty. We love you guys!