Towards Evolution
Mar/10/09 | getting
ready
I've got my magic Willy
Wonka-meets-Charles Darwin golden ticket that will allow me passage
through the portal at the end of August. We are poised somewhere
right around the Burnal
Equinox, which
means that we are sitting at the other end of the Gregorian
calendar in relation to The Burn. Balanced, if you will. And
I know you will. That means that all the
Burners in all the different corners of the world have exactly six
months to prepare for the journey and the gathering.
Six months doesn't seem like a lot of time to reach readiness status, depending on how you look at it, or more accurately, depending on how big your dreams and schemes are for 2009.
It also seems like a fucklong time to have to wait. Granted, I need plenty of time to physically, mentally and spiritually prepare for my trip to Burning Man -- this will be my third pilgrimage in six years -- but late August seems impossibly far away right now. Just last week, I woke up to a couple inches of snow on the ground. Nothing is blooming, the Skagit flats are dull and muddy. Nights are cold. Big, dark clouds full of rain blow in off the Salish Sea. It is very difficult to daydream myself to a place of desert sun, dry winds and warm nights. Visualize sunburns -- it’s harder than you might think.
I have no choice but to patiently wait, and to savor the wait, the build-up, the gathering of energy.
As for how much time I need to get my project together, that is as undetermined as the project itself.
I haven’t had a chance to dig in to dreaming up a new experiment with Ramona Mayhem or Hekter McElliot -- haven’t seen much of either this past year as both have taken up temporary residences far away from Bellingham -- but with Edub, who lives just down the road in Seattle, I’ve had several chances to brainstorm, blowing on the embers, bringing up a little flame.
Six months doesn't seem like a lot of time to reach readiness status, depending on how you look at it, or more accurately, depending on how big your dreams and schemes are for 2009.
It also seems like a fucklong time to have to wait. Granted, I need plenty of time to physically, mentally and spiritually prepare for my trip to Burning Man -- this will be my third pilgrimage in six years -- but late August seems impossibly far away right now. Just last week, I woke up to a couple inches of snow on the ground. Nothing is blooming, the Skagit flats are dull and muddy. Nights are cold. Big, dark clouds full of rain blow in off the Salish Sea. It is very difficult to daydream myself to a place of desert sun, dry winds and warm nights. Visualize sunburns -- it’s harder than you might think.
I have no choice but to patiently wait, and to savor the wait, the build-up, the gathering of energy.
As for how much time I need to get my project together, that is as undetermined as the project itself.
I haven’t had a chance to dig in to dreaming up a new experiment with Ramona Mayhem or Hekter McElliot -- haven’t seen much of either this past year as both have taken up temporary residences far away from Bellingham -- but with Edub, who lives just down the road in Seattle, I’ve had several chances to brainstorm, blowing on the embers, bringing up a little flame.
We’re not interested, at this point, in
another large-scale endeavor like 2007’s Boogie Universal Pyramid
Project, excellent as it most certainly was. The creation and
installation of the pyramid -- a 2,000 square foot, 40 foot-tall
pyramidal performance space equipped with a DJ booth, mega-wattage
soundsystem, light show and stage, flanked by a dome-lounge and
dome-bar -- took many months to accomplish. Simultaneously, Boogie
Universa was meeting almost every Monday night as a group to plan,
coordinate and execute everything needed to support the pyramid
plan, including the establishment of a Leave No Trace camp for
30-40 people spending 10 days and 10 nights in the harsh desert: we
needed a meal plan, shelter, furniture, lots of water, generators
and fuel, a booze plan, a party plan, shower, large-scale kitchen,
entertainment and we had to haul all of this shit 1000 miles to
Nevada and back again. And, let’s not forget, we had to figure out
how to pay for it all.
The process featured an endless array of logistics, and I ended up taking notes at most meetings and posting them on the Boogie listserv for those who lived too far away to be at the meetings.
Sound like drudgery? It was the opposite: pure joy! It was both life-affirming and life-changing. It fired up my sense of community, reinvigorated my creativity and taught me about the pure power of potential. There was a lot of special magic in that camp and I consider my fellow Boogiers to be like family. I just funked-out with many of them on a good-vibes dancefloor a few nights ago and the hugs were electric.
But that was the experience we created in 2007; what will we manifest in 2009?
The first realization Edub and I came to is that we really don’t know what the hell were going to do. I mean, we could start sketching out a blueprint, but we both know it is inevitably going to morph and evolve and get flipped inside-out between now and then. We could say we’re going to seek a small, intimate camping scenario with a handful of tribe and end up in a camp double the size of the Boogie by the time we roll on the playa. We wouldn’t close ourselves off to any possibilities this early in the game. I mean, why would we?
Still, we can start think-speaking out general shapes of the Burning Man experience we seek to create:
*Let’s look in to a smallish camp, with a dozen or so friendly freakers pulling together to create some comfort and fun, and let’s set up shop well off the Esplanade, back in the ‘hood where some chill can be found.
*Let’s build an inviting space for impromptu performances, stand-up comedy, acoustic music and talent shows from the passing denizens of Black Rock City -- a stage with a painted backdrop, a few lights and very simple soundsystem with mikes. I see this as a gift that gives both ways: the inspired get a intentional space for performance and sharing, and our camp gets a week’s worth of entertainment and hilarity.
*How about Edub and I team up to build/borrow, haul and erect a smallish-medium dome and create the “dBM Dome"?Let's create an outgrowth of this here destinationburningman.com collaborative website, a physical presence of all that we seek to share online, a place to spin our music and favorite mixes, offer a stylish multi-use environment good for mellow chill seshs and off-the-hook dance parties alike. We hope to perhaps borrow the dome that was the Boogie Lounge -- it is about 10 feet tall -- and deck it out so that it is a pleasing, comfortable, grounding and memorable environment. We’d need a decent sound system and a thought-out lighting system too, both of which we’d have to run off either a generator or marine battery -- neither of us are especially skilled in questions of power needs and generation.
*Finally, for now, we thought about the camp scenario and necessary and/or desired life-support systems. We chewed on it for a while, discussing the pros and cons of co-habitating with large and small groups, and eventually sketched out these interesting drawings while talking about “nodes” and “pods.”
Seems like it could be a cool model to have several, maybe 6 or 8, semi-autonomous pods of people that were down there doing their own thing with their own talents -- spinning music and hosting sessions, giving hula hoop lessons, MC’ing the stage, offering kundalini yoga or guided meditation or sex tips workshops, um, anything really -- running a snowcone stand, reading palms, making pancakes, tap dancing, teaching, giving it up in some original way, for the people -- and each of these different creative pods of people (2-4 people?) are connected to a larger tribe (or troupe) that is bound by intentionality as well as by the building and sharing of a few public works: a kitchen with a very simple meal plan, a comfortable group hangout space, a system to manage fresh and grey water and hosting a few planned family-party theme nights when we bring it hard and righteous.
Folks would camp on their own, build or bring what they need to facilitate their gift-giving contribution, bring most of your own necessities, but still work together on a common purpose: our low-maintenance, funky little creativity-and-performance village! Infused with lots of heart and soul. Inhabited by freestylers, prophets, truthseekers and soothsayers.
Well, that’s it for now. We’ll see what happens next...
~ moontroll
The process featured an endless array of logistics, and I ended up taking notes at most meetings and posting them on the Boogie listserv for those who lived too far away to be at the meetings.
Sound like drudgery? It was the opposite: pure joy! It was both life-affirming and life-changing. It fired up my sense of community, reinvigorated my creativity and taught me about the pure power of potential. There was a lot of special magic in that camp and I consider my fellow Boogiers to be like family. I just funked-out with many of them on a good-vibes dancefloor a few nights ago and the hugs were electric.
But that was the experience we created in 2007; what will we manifest in 2009?
The first realization Edub and I came to is that we really don’t know what the hell were going to do. I mean, we could start sketching out a blueprint, but we both know it is inevitably going to morph and evolve and get flipped inside-out between now and then. We could say we’re going to seek a small, intimate camping scenario with a handful of tribe and end up in a camp double the size of the Boogie by the time we roll on the playa. We wouldn’t close ourselves off to any possibilities this early in the game. I mean, why would we?
Still, we can start think-speaking out general shapes of the Burning Man experience we seek to create:
*Let’s look in to a smallish camp, with a dozen or so friendly freakers pulling together to create some comfort and fun, and let’s set up shop well off the Esplanade, back in the ‘hood where some chill can be found.
*Let’s build an inviting space for impromptu performances, stand-up comedy, acoustic music and talent shows from the passing denizens of Black Rock City -- a stage with a painted backdrop, a few lights and very simple soundsystem with mikes. I see this as a gift that gives both ways: the inspired get a intentional space for performance and sharing, and our camp gets a week’s worth of entertainment and hilarity.
*How about Edub and I team up to build/borrow, haul and erect a smallish-medium dome and create the “dBM Dome"?Let's create an outgrowth of this here destinationburningman.com collaborative website, a physical presence of all that we seek to share online, a place to spin our music and favorite mixes, offer a stylish multi-use environment good for mellow chill seshs and off-the-hook dance parties alike. We hope to perhaps borrow the dome that was the Boogie Lounge -- it is about 10 feet tall -- and deck it out so that it is a pleasing, comfortable, grounding and memorable environment. We’d need a decent sound system and a thought-out lighting system too, both of which we’d have to run off either a generator or marine battery -- neither of us are especially skilled in questions of power needs and generation.
*Finally, for now, we thought about the camp scenario and necessary and/or desired life-support systems. We chewed on it for a while, discussing the pros and cons of co-habitating with large and small groups, and eventually sketched out these interesting drawings while talking about “nodes” and “pods.”
Seems like it could be a cool model to have several, maybe 6 or 8, semi-autonomous pods of people that were down there doing their own thing with their own talents -- spinning music and hosting sessions, giving hula hoop lessons, MC’ing the stage, offering kundalini yoga or guided meditation or sex tips workshops, um, anything really -- running a snowcone stand, reading palms, making pancakes, tap dancing, teaching, giving it up in some original way, for the people -- and each of these different creative pods of people (2-4 people?) are connected to a larger tribe (or troupe) that is bound by intentionality as well as by the building and sharing of a few public works: a kitchen with a very simple meal plan, a comfortable group hangout space, a system to manage fresh and grey water and hosting a few planned family-party theme nights when we bring it hard and righteous.
Folks would camp on their own, build or bring what they need to facilitate their gift-giving contribution, bring most of your own necessities, but still work together on a common purpose: our low-maintenance, funky little creativity-and-performance village! Infused with lots of heart and soul. Inhabited by freestylers, prophets, truthseekers and soothsayers.
Well, that’s it for now. We’ll see what happens next...
~ moontroll
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