"The Man" victim of (early) Arson.

[Miss Anthrope]

Someone torched "the man" early at Burning Man. I thought in their perfect little world such a thing would never happen. Was it performance art, like...how they burn it anyway? Don't worry, save your body paint...they'll rebuild it in time to burn it again.

Those tears you see on my face...........yep. Laughter.

Linky (http://www.tmz.com/2007/08/28/arsonist-lights-up-burning-man-early/)

[Ziggurat]

How often do you get to hear about smelly hippies chanting "save the man!"? Priceless.

[Miss Anthrope]

It's so enviro-friendly, too!

Bet the Microsoft "tiger yuppies" like my ex are crying into their $50 camping mugs they bought at REI.

[Travis]

I loved the mug shot I saw on the evening news. The blue and red body paint combined with the ehh........ not entirely all there stare was just hilarious.

Turns out not everyone likes Burning Man. Big surprise! Here's a site (now a bit dated) dedicated to.... well stopping it. http://stopburningman.org/

[billydkid]

How often do you get to hear about smelly hippies chanting "save the man!"? Priceless.
Wow, you really are stuck in a time warp. "Smelly hippies" was the language used back when I was 14 or 15 (a long, long time ago) by the anti-long hairs. Personally, I think if people want to get together and cut lose and have fun - I'm kind of approving of that. I was a long hair aspiring hippie way back when, but I have been pretty hard on the "hippie" thing since then - mostly having to do with the self-righteousness and supposed enlightened attitude thing. However, the belief in personal liberty and free expression and having fun and getting naked and crazy and painting yourself stuff - I'm way all for that. I will never get to do any of it, but I would rather live in a world where we all do get to go to Burning Man or Mardi Gras or Fantasy Fest. I believe if all of us got to participate in these sorts of rites we would all be a lot happier. Many societies have these sort of events or rituals integrated into their lives and I think there is a reason for that. The fact that I live a completely conservative and dull life does not mean that I in anyway advocate or approve of conformity. People who hate or condemn other people for having fun and trying to be happy - I'm not down with that at all.

[Ziggurat]

Wow, you really are stuck in a time warp. "Smelly hippies" was the language used back when I was 14 or 15 (a long, long time ago) by the anti-long hairs. Personally, I think if people want to get together and cut lose and have fun - I'm kind of approving of that.

Geeze, don't take it so seriously. I went through all of college with my hair halfway down my back (and I'm a guy).

People who hate or condemn other people for having fun and trying to be happy - I'm not down with that at all.

I don't hate them. I just like to poke fun at them. It's my way of having a little fun of my own... and you wouldn't want to condemn me for having fun and trying to be happy, would you? ;)

[Miss Anthrope]

Wow, you really are stuck in a time warp. "Smelly hippies" was the language used back when I was 14 or 15 (a long, long time ago) by the anti-long hairs. Personally, I think if people want to get together and cut lose and have fun - I'm kind of approving of that. I was a long hair aspiring hippie way back when, but I have been pretty hard on the "hippie" thing since then - mostly having to do with the self-righteousness and supposed enlightened attitude thing. However, the belief in personal liberty and free expression and having fun and getting naked and crazy and painting yourself stuff - I'm way all for that. I will never get to do any of it, but I would rather live in a world where we all do get to go to Burning Man or Mardi Gras or Fantasy Fest. I believe if all of us got to participate in these sorts of rites we would all be a lot happier. Many societies have these sort of events or rituals integrated into their lives and I think there is a reason for that. The fact that I live a completely conservative and dull life does not mean that I in anyway advocate or approve of conformity. People who hate or condemn other people for having fun and trying to be happy - I'm not down with that at all.

I don't live a boring or conservative life. What I mock is the fact that most of the attendees aren't non-comformists at all. I know quite seriously dozens of people that go there every year. They drive their in their mini-vans...they work for Microsoft. They spend close to a thousand bucks on their camping gear and have absinthe delivered beforehand from a mail order service at $70 per bottle. They then drop a little E and run around in nothing but body paint and put up pictures in their cubes. They use the latest software to design this year's "art" vehicles, while hauling materials form their suburban Home Depot at the cost of quite a pretty penny or two.

Non-conformity is the new conformity. Just look at the the BM coverage on Boing Boing, the bible of a blog to all the "cool and hip" tekkies. If you go to these events almost exclusively to see free boobies and have bragging rights to your officemates, that's pretty funny. At the end they "burn the man" that they basically worship, live and breath 24/7.

[Checkmite]

Non-conformity is the new conformity.

I've always had that opinion, even as far back as high school. I wore jeans and simple t-shirts or collared shirts, which some of the other kids decried as "conformist". It was funny, because I was really the only one who dressed the way I did. The rest, who made such a big deal harping about "individuality", may as well have been wearing uniforms - they all looked exactly like each other.

[Miss Anthrope]

I've always had that opinion, even as far back as high school. I wore jeans and simple t-shirts or collared shirts, which some of the other kids decried as "conformist". It was funny, because I was really the only one who dressed the way I did. The rest, who made such a big deal harping about "individuality", may as well have been wearing uniforms - they all looked exactly like each other.

Yes! You look how you like and if it isn't conforming to their little clique, you're a conformist. Brilliant, isn't it?

I still feel the same way when I see all the women in an office dressing in whatever the stores are dictating is "in", no matter how silly it is or how positively "dated" it will be in about a month or so. Meanwhile, the men are in a sea of Khaki and polo shirts.......

Completely like school, with a bigger budget.

[UserGoogol]

I wasn't under the impression that burning man was supposed to be actually about nonconformism. Hell, looking at Wikipedia, one of the big things about it is "community" and that's practically the exact opposite of noncomformism. It's just about being all weird in the desert for a few days for the hell of it.

[Miss Anthrope]

I wasn't under the impression that burning man was supposed to be actually about nonconformism. Hell, looking at Wikipedia, one of the big things about it is "community" and that's practically the exact opposite of noncomformism. It's just about being all weird in the desert for a few days for the hell of it.

Excellent summation. It is the people who take themselves far, far too seriously who think it equals some kind of non-conformity.

[Travis]

Excellent summation. It is the people who take themselves far, far too seriously who think it equals some kind of non-conformity.

Surely this is the first time in the history of human kind that this kind of mistake was made.... right?:D ;)

[UserGoogol]

Excellent summation. It is the people who take themselves far, far too seriously who think it equals some kind of non-conformity.

I don't know if I'd put it that way. You can take weirdness seriously and still think it's totally conformist. Weirdness is super-important. It's the very lifeblood of social progress. But it's just that weirdness and noncomformism are different.

[Travis]

I've never really understood rallies and get-togethers like this. Seems like a lot of dancing to music and stuff. I've never understood dancing. Why move and waste so many precious calories and other nutrients accomplishing exactly nothing? Why dedicate time to listening to music? I only listen to music while I work so that I don't feel like I'm wasting time. Movies? Only if they're educational. My brother asked me to a barbecue by a lake this weekend. I asked him if we'd be building something or learning anything. Apparently they won't be so I won't be going........ Now I gotta go make sure my folded socks are still folded.









Man, I can't believe I wrote all that with a straight face.:D

[Checkmite]

CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/31/burning.man.ap/index.html) grabbed it, too.

In the immediate aftermath of this week's unscheduled burn, gleeful expressions of approval for the alleged prank rained down on blogs and Internet forums.

Some comments came from conservative posters ready to mock anything carrying a hint of hippiedom.

But many originated from self-described former attendees complaining that Burning Man has been spoiled by crowds of "yuppies" and "frat boys" mostly interested in doing drugs and ogling naked participants.

:D :D :D

[Miss Anthrope]

CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/31/burning.man.ap/index.html) grabbed it, too.



:D :D :D

It's not often CNN completely validates me like that!!! :D

[shecky]

What I mock is the fact that most of the attendees aren't non-comformists at all. I know quite seriously dozens of people that go there every year. They drive their in their mini-vans...they work for Microsoft. They spend close to a thousand bucks on their camping gear and have absinthe delivered beforehand from a mail order service at $70 per bottle. They then drop a little E and run around in nothing but body paint and put up pictures in their cubes. They use the latest software to design this year's "art" vehicles, while hauling materials form their suburban Home Depot at the cost of quite a pretty penny or two.What part of this behavior is conformist? I don't know anybody who does those things, other than drive a mini van or work for Microsoft. Or can one not be considered non conformist if they do those things?

Is BM even about non conformity? ISTR something about radical self expression, which I would venture to guess isn't quite the same thing.

I always got the impression it was more of a geek pranksters rave more than a hippie love in.

[CFLarsen]

If you go to these events almost exclusively to see free boobies and have bragging rights to your officemates, that's pretty funny.

Isn't that what all events are about?

Well, maybe not the free boobies (http://birding.about.com/od/birdsboobies/Birds_Everything_About_Boobies.htm) *), but certainly bragging rights.

Just think of the bloke who can't stop showing the slideshow of his "hot" weekend in Blackpool...

*) Made ya look!

[UserGoogol]

I always got the impression it was more of a geek pranksters rave more than a hippie love in.

There's kind of a weird overlap between geeks and hippies. The golden age of "hacker" culture was arguably in the 1970s, and if only through that, geek culture managed to absorb a certain amount of hippy-ness.

[LashL]

Hehe. I don't know why but I find this rather humorous.

Charging a guy with arson for burning something that was erected for the sole purpose of being burned, in the location in which it was intended to be burned, all because he did it a few days in advance of its scheduled burning?

Like I said, I don't know why, but this just makes me giggle.

[bigred]

Wow, you really are stuck in a time warp. "Smelly hippies" was the language used back when I was 14 or 15 (a long, long time ago) by the anti-long hairs. Personally, I think if people want to get together and cut lose and have fun - I'm kind of approving of that. I was a long hair aspiring hippie way back when, but I have been pretty hard on the "hippie" thing since then - mostly having to do with the self-righteousness and supposed enlightened attitude thing. However, the belief in personal liberty and free expression and having fun and getting naked and crazy and painting yourself stuff - I'm way all for that. I will never get to do any of it, but I would rather live in a world where we all do get to go to Burning Man or Mardi Gras or Fantasy Fest. I believe if all of us got to participate in these sorts of rites we would all be a lot happier. Many societies have these sort of events or rituals integrated into their lives and I think there is a reason for that. The fact that I live a completely conservative and dull life does not mean that I in anyway advocate or approve of conformity. People who hate or condemn other people for having fun and trying to be happy - I'm not down with that at all.
Did anyone else think this was a really fun post to read for a variety of reasons :cool:

er FYI "smelly hippies" is still used, and it's nearly as accurate as it was in the 60s. No time warp.


It's not often CNN completely validates me like that!!! :DIt's not often CNN validates anything. cmon, CNN's just a watered-down Nat'l Enquirer when you get right down to it.