B u r n l o g

Sunday, September 28, 2008 — Santa Rosa, CA

Erasmus P. Kitty Presents: The Great West End and Railroad Square Handcar Regatta and Exposition of Mechanical Wonders!

A SPLENDID CELEBRATION OF ART, SCIENCE AND INGENUITY, FOR THE DELIGHT AND EDIFICATION OF ALL WHO ATTEND.

A SPECTACLE FOR BOTH YOUNG AND OLD!

The Handcar Regatta invites Builders, Tinkerers and Artists to create and then race a Human Powered Rail Bound Vehicle for the adoring public.

The Handcar Regatta brings Art and Science out of the galleries, studios, and smokey laboratories, out among the People, where everyone can enjoy it and participate!

The Handcar Regatta will delight the senses with Melodious Music, Daring Diversions, Rollicking Games, Delectable Comestibles, and all manner of Adventurous Entertainments!

THE HANDCAR REGATTA IS NOT TO BE MISSED!

Lightning in a Bottle

Music and Live Entertainment

The stages will be live and in effect starting on Friday from 3pm till midnight, and from around 10am to midnight on Saturday and Sunday. Three whole days! After midnight expect special surprises, acoustic jam sessions and other fun stuff to carry the festival through the night. And there’s no need to dash out on Monday. The gates close Tuesday at noon, so you’re free to stick around ’til then and enjoy the forest!

The gate schedule is as follows:

Thursday May 22 - Gate opens at 4pm and closes at 4am

Friday May 23 - Gate opens at 7am and closes at 2am

Saturday May 24 - Gate opens at 7am and closes at 2am

Sunday May 25 - Gate opens at 7am and closes at 8pm

Monday May 26 - No Entry.

Upon entry, all guests will be required to register and receive a wristband, which must be worn AT ALL TIMES throughout the duration of the event.

In and outs are strongly discouraged, except in the case of emergency. You don’t want to miss anything anyways, right?

Good ol’ Laughing Squid reports on a brand shiny new online radio station based on Burning Man Information Radio with an eclectic mix of programming:

Shouting Fire

Listen now by grabbing the streaming address file that should activate in any streaming player like iTunes.

Their mission in the default world:

1. A commitment to purposeful self expression unrestricted by commercial dictates or social norms.
2. A radical sense of participation and self-reliance that recognizes we must catalyze the change we seek.
3. An acknowledgment that principles can also be questions. To start just with one: What might be possible when this community’s collective energy is translated into the world beyond Black Rock City?

Uh oh, now I can pretend I’m in BRC all day everyday. All I have to do is play really bad psytrance on multiple conflicting-beat stereos in other parts of my house on high volume with too much muddy bass to replicate that zesty sonic flavor of the Playa chaos!

Apparently, the organizers of the Secret Garden Party 2007 in the U.K. went to Burning Man in 2006 and have taken much of the burner spirit across the pond including theme camps, participation and community art, and a brand-free environment to play in. One advantage is a deeper focus on performance stages and live music acts.

Looks mighty fun! Is there a tube across the Atlantic yet?

Glide Magazine has a not terribly interesting article for noobs about Burning Man except that its focus is on music at the festival.

It makes me wonder if more diverse and live forms of music might actually be crawling toward the burn. I’m encouraged that many people have commented that our Ice-Flø project to bring a mobile live music stage in the shape of an iceberg might be exemplary of a shift interest toward more preformance-based music.

See what the Flo-Go camp is up to at the Ice-Flø site.

The Coachella Festival in Indeo, CA, looks to be an amazing show filled with plenty of new music and burner-happy art installations.

Boing Boing has extensive coverage from the midst of the fun and experimentation:

Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

Choklit and I went to a rather orgiastic debauch at a S.F. club with The Extra Action Marching Band. They reminded me of Crash Worship if you’ve ever heard of them. The Wiki claims members of Extra Action played with them.

See some insane Extra Action vids.

In short, Extra Action are pretty off their heads. Think 20+ marching musicians blaring away like mad on anything from Black Sabbath to Sousa marches.

Then add two female and two male go-go dancer/flag twirlers wearing beads and little else but trashy blond wigs.

Then add “Extreme Elvis” who is a pot belly elvis lookin’ guy who stripped down to absolutely nothing (kept the glasses on though) with a penchant for peeing on the crowd and other naughty vices having to do with his willie.

And finally add a jam-packed hedonistic crowd of crazed burners in bizarre Halloween garb dancing like lunatics sans meds!

The whole band and dancers are so huge they had to play among us and shoved their way through the throng with abandon. I was being pushed on the left by dancing hoards, slammed on the right by trombones and bass drums, and punched in the head by gold and black pom-poms from crazy go-go boys. Also, got my feet grabbed a few times as I’d suddenly look down to find them writhing on the floor in a blur of arms, legs, torso, beads, and pom-poms.

I don’t know what was going on ’cause I was just flinging my body around right along with them. Who could have known marching band music could kick such ass!? I was unhinged for a while there in roaring waves of hideous pounding flesh and tunes.

In the end, I was pleading with one of the go-go-girls to come back to the Playa. As fun as it was, Extra Action belongs outside in the open air where any marching band should be. I want to take a dip in their waves under the stars and by the Man!

Please let the poor maligned La Contessa rest, bury your grudge, and march the Playa once more!