Help is needed getting the cloud car in shape for this years burn. Contact Capn Joe at capnjoesmarine(at)yahoo.com

Welcome to May everybody and this month’s enlightening Barbie Death
Village newsletter. I am reminded of the quote from Edwin Way Teale:
"The world’s favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible
in May." Ain’t that the truth? I was considering quoting Tom
Lehrer, but that may have been too deep for some of you. As is our
wont, we like to start off these newsletters with something Barbie
Death Camp related. Here is the third, and final, installment in a
series of videos of life in and around our camp and the playa. They
cover everything from Critical Titts to Burn Night. Suffice it to
say some of them remain Not Safe For Work. Enjoy!

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/6161e97f6dbabedc87951cd7bb0abd6b/video/159228501

We would like to begin with trying to help one of our camps within
the Village. Dye With Dignity has launched their Indiegogo project,
which is a fundraising technique in order to supply the scarves and
dyes which they so generously give to the burners who drop by their
camp. Their goal is $3500 and as of this writing are about half way
there. They are also awarding some nice prizes for those who donate.
Please click on the link below and try to help your fellow Barbiebarians.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dye-with-dignity

Staying on the general theme of camps within the Village, we have
a few modest changes. First off, Eden has reinvented itself and will
from this point forward be known as Meerkats. You know, like the Kalahari
Desert weasel. I learned all I know about them from the show Meercat
Manor on Animal Planet, but I digress. Mel has formed a brand new
theme camp called Camp P6. I suspect it will be something like an
Australian ghetto with art. We shall see soon enough.

Many of you will recall we had the Lithuanian CORE Group in our Village
last year. This year we’re going one better! Misa is having the Czech
CORE Group staying in Barbie Death Village and they will be making
a 15-foot tall beer stein which will be incinerated along with the
other CORE projects on the open playa Thursday night. There will be
about 10 members of the group in all. Their motto ought to be, "We’re
the Czech CORE Group: Better Beer, Fewer Terrorists." It’s nice
to see we are keeping our international presence within the Village.

Felony and I wanted to take a moment and go over what your dues
cover. The veterans certainly already know, and those newbies who
received the January newsletter also have a clue. We will not go over
everything, space won’t allow it, but we do want to touch upon a few
things that may not just jump right out at you. The Village supplies
glowstix every night, or as we like to say, Individual Darkwad Prevention
Stix. We hate to see you getting run over in the dark. Well, at least
most of you. We will be supplying 200 gallons of gasoline, though
some of that will be donated. Thank you Chris. Plus around 300 gallons
or more of propane for the fire cannons. We had to buy another piano
and foosball table, and the piano needed to be tuned. Every night
at midnight we have a lumpia feed. They just don’t give away Fizzball
beer, we tend to supply some champagne for parties during the week,
our BRC ovals that we hand out are expensive, art truck insurance/registration/decoration
is a huge expense, Barbie storage runs $1300 a year, even the pizza
supplied to those who have Early Arrival and set up the Village is
a tidy expense. And on it goes. What most people take for granted
has been paid for by somebody, and that somebody is you. We appreciate
all the support we get; we cannot thank you enough.

With so many people coming in not only from the USA but all over the
world, occasionally the idea of sharing storage space comes up. Vulture
Chow, who hails from New Jersey, is looking for campmates to share
a storage unit in Newcastle next to where we keep all the Barbie stuff.
If you pay for a year in advance they give a 10% discount. Rather
than hauling out tents, sleeping bags, ice chests, etc. year after
year, it might just be easier to haul it back to Newcastle and store
it there. You would need to arrange retrieving it the following August.
A small unit rents for around $600, or split three ways somewhere
around $200 apiece. If you have an interest contact Vulture Chow.

We have a winning design in our tee shirt competition! One of our
newbies from Belgium, Mischa, has done a wonderful job. I’m not able
to cut and paste the design here, but the design can be seen on our
website. We had a tie for runner up: Big Dane and Carrie will each
be awarded a free shirt as well. If you want to order a shirt the
links are up and running on our website www.barbiedeathcamp.com .
Sizes are from S to XXXL, men’s or women’s styles, regular tee or
tank top, and in either pink or gray. Proceeds from the sale of hats
and shirts helps defray the cost of the wine we so generously pour
for the dusty denizens of Black Rock City. Hats are $17 and shirts
are $22.

We have added another Tour de Franzia event onto the playa calendar.
Tuesday afternoon, as well as Thursday, from 4 until 6 we will be
inflicting cheap wine on the unwashed masses of BRC. This is a new
event and surely will become a favorite every year. Please go to our
Volunteer Spot link http://vols.pt/7gDcSz
to add your name to the festivities. We can accommodate another 25
riders! Speaking of the Tour de Franzia, Felony and I would like to
thank Just Henk (yet another newbie from Belgium) for designing and
gifting to our camp jerseys that will be worn by all who ride in the
event! We’re keeping a lid on the final design, but our absurd
corporate sponsors will surely be proud. If you can somehow assist
with the shirts, contact Henk.

We still have some items on our Wish List. We are in need of a few
more My Size Barbies, you know, the ones that stand about 3 feet tall.
Between being dropped 4000 feet while skydiving to getting run over
by mutant vehicles, they seem to get trashed every year. If you have
one or see one at a garage sale, please snag it. Since they retail
for about $200 apiece, there’s no room in the budget just to run out
and buy them. We also still need a piano tuner for on playa tuning
of our new piano. If any of you know someone coming to Burning Man
who is also a piano tuner, and they would be a good fit for our modest
little village, please extend the invitation. They and you will be
guaranteed early arrival passes. We also are now looking for wine
and champagne to give out for the Naked Bike Ride & Pub Crawl.
We need three cases each of white, red, and champagne. If you can
donate please contact Vulture Chow or Sharen or link it to our Volunteer
Spot.

This would be a good spot to remind people about our Barbie Death
Village Reno hotel deal for 2013. If you need a cheap place to crash
before, during, or after TTITD (and it is an excellent place to meet
up with people who are looking for rides) consider the Sands Regency.
Sure it’s a dump, but it’s our kind of dump. They have taken down
several floors just for us! Here are the dates and rates, not including
taxes: Friday August 23 and Saturday the 24th: $57; Sunday August
25 through the 29th: $27; Friday August 30 to Sunday, September 1:
$57; and Monday September 2 to Thursday the 5th: $27. They have free
shuttles to and from the airport, a free Jacuzzi, sauna, steam bath,
large swimming pool, and ice machines on every floor. The rooms are
mostly double queens (there are a few kings available) and hold up
to four people, 12 if you’re sponsoring the orgy. You will need to
call (866) FUNSTAY [(866) 386-7829] and ask for BURN13. Also, for
those of you staying after the burn, Kevin and Jonathan from Belgium
will be hosting a party, so get ready to keep your groove on! Membership
has its privileges. Holy moly, is everyone from Belgium?

Dues are due. We have already received money from about 50 of you
and for that we thank you. Dues are currently $75 but go up to $100
a month from today, so don’t procrastinate! If you are coming from
outside of the USA you may simply pay $75 cash once you hit the playa.
The rest of you can either send them in by mail to Jim Jacoby or via
PayPal . If you use PayPal please add $3 for their outrageous fees.

Before I close this newsletter out, there’s something my good friend
and fellow Barbiebarian Dyna-Lite (many of you just know him as Chuck)
once told me: "Barbie Death Camp is the closest thing that Black
Rock City has to royalty." And you want to know something? He’s
right. We have been called everything from royalty to rock stars,
and perhaps a few unmentionable things in between. We are the lap
of luxury but we do not take our status lightly. Probably not the
best idea to start believing our own press releases, even if they’re
true! All I can say is that it is good to be us.

Now to our introduction of newbies. Steve and Carrie would like us
to welcome Ruben and Katharyn ; locally I would like to introduce
Mike , from Arkansas Lolly and Amy , and from Mississippi Brittney
; joining Dye With Dignity is an old friend and wily veteran Elorrum
; Mel is bringing into the fold yet another Australian James who in
turn will be bringing in four Brits: Helia , Bleddyn , Dan , and Dilly
. Welcome to BDC and Dye With Dignity, a long-time playa and ePlaya
veteran CfM who also is known as as well as Emma Berry who is I am
assured "…made of awesome…"; Felony would like
to say howdy to Meghan and Ross, who go by the playa handles of Megatron
m and Magician .

The Man burns in 122 days. )’(

Respectfully submitted,

Doc Pyro and Felony Arson

NOTE! – For safety all personal contact information has been removed
before posting this.

I am working on getting our web site up to date and having some trouble
with the photo page. All the photo links prior to 2009 are broken
and I assume the yahoo account they were hosted on has been closed.
Anyone who has info about that please contact me. Furthermore no links
have been added since 2009 so basically all we have are photos from
2009 at this time.

Meanwhile if you have a photo collection from any year and would like
to have it linked from our web site please pm
me or post a link here. Please include the year of the collection
(if known) and the name of the photographer.

Bobbin

Welcome to April everybody. Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it all before: April
showers bring May flowers which in turn bring allergies. Well here’s
nothing to sneeze at: This month’s engrossing Barbie Death Village newsletter!
As always we try and start out with something Barbie Death Camp related,
and this month we have the second in a set of three video montage groups
of life in and around our wonderful camp. Some of these are very not
safe for work, so let the viewer beware. They cover the events from
the Naked Bike Ride & Pub Crawl through the ePlaya Meet & Greet.
Enjoy!

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/ff1a7b94b80d9493cf80623c285f5dd0/video/159226031

Let’s begin on a happy note and talk about tickets. So far it seems
that most everybody who needed tickets have gotten them. Our inside
"tickets wanted-tickets for sale" method seems to be working.
We started out having four extra tickets, all of which have found a
nice home. I’m sure Robert, Angela, James, and Crash’s friend Jim are
delighted. If you have an extra ticket for sale let me, Felony, and
Mel know and we will find a home for it with a Barbiebarian (or friend
of BDC&WB) having the first crack. We do look out for one another.

It’s never too early to start planning the heavy logistics for TTITD.
It looks like we have our water situation handled. We will be (hopefully)
receiving upwards to 500 gallons of water on the playa from one of our
circle of friends, and Tinkermom will be bringing up another 100 gallons
or so. That, along with some conscious recycling, should keep our shower
running for the duration of the week. Wildman has been working on a
new power system, using a generator rather than batteries, to power
the sprayer and it should be up and running the moment we hit the playa.
Though here some compromises have been made, and these decisions were
made with your feedback over the winter. Last year people took entirely
too long in the shower, mainly because we had the vanity screens up.
This year there will be modesty curtains, but likely only from the knees
to just above the waist. Hay, it’s Burning Man, if nudity offends you,
go to Disneyland. Also we are going to implement a "gentleman’s
agreement" that showers last no longer than four minutes, six if
you’re "showering with a friend". And please try to keep the
water usage under three gallons. Last year the line at times was five
people deep and that is unreasonable. If you want a longer shower, bring
your own. And to be on the safe side, you should probably also plan
on bringing in water of your own. To quote Robert Burns: "The best
laid plans of mice and men oft times go awry."

The other heavy logistic is the transportation of gasoline. We will
be needing, if last year is any indication, 200 gallons of gas. This
is to run the various generators and mutant vehicles. We do have barrels
that can carry at least half of that, but they will need to be towed.
The balance will be brought up in 5 gallon plastic containers unless
somebody has a better idea. They will be filled at the mini-mart at
the USA Parkway exit in Nevada, shortly after Sparks. If you can haul
out our gasoline, please let us know as soon as possible. Anyone hauling
out the gas (and other camp-related items) will be at the top of the
list for Early Arrival passes.

Which segues nicely into the subject of EA passes. Last year we had
117 of them, all of which were taken. There is no guarantee how many
the BMOrg will award us this year, but we cannot assume we’ll be receiving
any more than that and could end up with fewer. A lot fewer. That’s
a problem you can encounter going from solid green to yellow on the
MOOP map. If you want to be on the Early Arrival list you must sign
up. We will not just take for granted you need a pass. Email me and
I will put you on the list. There are criteria on who gets a pass; simply
because you request one doesn’t mean you will necessarily receive one.
There five are levels: 1) Anyone hauling out the Village infrastructure
and those mapping out the Village get first priority; 2) Those with
seniority who have been dues-paying members of the Village get the next
tier; 3) Those driving the furthest or those flying in from outside
of the western United States catching a ride with someone who needs
to arrive early are next in line; 4) How much do Felony and I like you;
and 5) Lottery. It will not get to five. And remember, you must also
volunteer for a work detail to obtain an EA pass. Please use our Volunteer
Spot link to sign up: http://vols.pt/7gDcSz .

We have begun organizing ride shares. If you can offer a ride, please
let me know from where you’re coming from, which day you can give the
ride, and how many you can take. If you need a ride please be as specific
as possible with when you are available and where you can be picked
up. And may I strongly suggest you also list rides offered on the Volunteer
Spot. It’s always good to have an extra layer of bureaucracy when it
comes to logistical considerations.

I have excellent news for the art vehicle. We have a place to work on
The Cloud Car! And in a further bit of serendipity, it will be at the
same place Kara and Steve’s creation Gunther the Six-Legged Bison is
being worked on. I want to say thank you to Mary for putting her place
up for our use in Citrus Heights. Come May we will begin mutating the
vehicles again and we really need all the help we can get. If you can
help please contact Cap’n Joe . And should things change (they seem
to do with an annoying degree of regularity) keep your eyes and ears
open for other places to work on our crafts. You can’t be too careful.

It is time to begin to seriously think about space and placement within
the Village. Like last year, we will map out the entire area in 10′
X 10′ sections and you may have as much space as you reasonably need.
For example, an RV might ask for 20′ X 40′, a set of yurts 30′ X 30′,
or a theme camp like Dread Pirate Barbie may well request 70′ X 70′
with frontage along the "numbered road". Be as specific as
you can. If you need street frontage, or are fine being inside the Village
perhaps along an access road, we need to know that. We will be on 3+
acres (last year we had over 190,000 square feet of prime playa real
estate) so we can accommodate almost any request. Please send all space
requests to Rob . The earlier you put in your request the greater your
chances of having the wish granted.

One of our very popular sub-camps, Dye With Dignity, is looking for
pictures from 2012. If any of you have taken any shots of DWD, especially
earlier in the week when the line was around the block awaiting to get
some personal dying done, please send them to Tamara.

Being the most popular theme camp and village on the playa takes a certain
toll. But what it does promise is a planned activity every day of the
week. For the benefit of our newbies and to refresh the nostalgic memories
of our veterans, here is what we currently have planned: MONDAY: Annual
chili cook-off and corn bread bake; TUESDAY: Greeters Shift from 8 p.m.
until midnight; WEDNESDAY: Naked Bike Ride & Pub Crawl, Annual ePlaya
Meet & Greet; THURSDAY: Tour de Franzia, Black Rock Yearbook picture,
Village breakfast time crunk-pagne social; FRIDAY: Black Rock City Body
& Paint hosts Critical Titts; SATURDAY: Annual Village Pancake Porkout,
on playa weenie roast after The Man burns. And remember, every day we
will host Fizzball (we are still looking for somebody sober enough to
be in charge of this) and every night at midnight we have a lumpia feed.
And of course within the Village there are plenty of other activities:
the aforementioned Dye With Dignity dye shop, Barbie Day Spa will be
offering massages and facials, BDC&WB will be pouring wine all day
long, and plenty of other decadent and intoxicating events to kill even
the most steadfast of brain cells. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Camp dues are due. They are currently $75 but in two short months increase
to $100 unless you’re coming in from outside of the USA. They can be
paid either by PayPal using the email address (if you use PayPal, please
add $3 to cover their usurious fees) or by mail to: Jim Jacoby. Now
is also the time to buy shirts and hats. They can be purchased right
now (see the link at the top of this page) and run $17 for hats and
$22 for shirts. Shirts are from S to XXXL, men’s or women’s style, tank
top or regular tee, and come in either pink or gray. Remember, this
is our only fund raiser to supply the wine we so generously gift to
our fellow burners. We thank you for your support. We also have closed
the t-shirt design contest. We will be announcing the winning design
in May.

For those of you who crave creature comforts, we have a bed available
for one person in a nice trailer. It will run you $750 for the week
and will be available for early entry. Currently there are two men and
a woman in the rig, so there will be no more than four people. If you’re
interested email Jewellee.

We have our Black Rock Year Book 2012 picture! Check out page 64!

http://www.blackrockyearbook.com/2012/2012_files/BRY%202012%20v1.pdf

For those of you in the general Northern California area, Barbie Death
Camp will be a sanctioned camp at the Digital Renaissance Faire, May
23-27 in Pioneer, CA. You can purchase your ticket until they sell out
at the DRF website (just Google it). Though this is not a Burning Man-sponsored
event, the place will be loaded with burners and should be a lot of
fun. I know a bunch of our fellow Barbiebarians, including yours truly,
will be in attendance. So if you have nothing else to do over Memorial
Day weekend, like running the Calgary Marathon, come join us in Pioneer.
A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

Now on to the introduction of newbies. From Hawaii, please welcome Sigmund
; from Australia with Suzy please say ‘ello mate to Daniel ; Rob and
Yvonne are bringing along Ralph ; Alon and Kris have invited Dusty Ducky
; Big Dane has invited Dave ; from The Netherlands Wen is bringing along
Just Henk as well as Mischa ; Jewellee is being chaperoned by her father
Randy and his friend James ; I would like to welcome Mary and Brian
; and Crash is bringing in Jim and DeAnna .

The Man burns in 152 days. )’(

Respectfully submitted,

Doc Pyro and Felony Arson

Edit Note: I am getting the site caught up
with back newsletters. Any personal information such as street addresses,
phone numbers, or email addresses have been deleted for safety.

Welcome to March everybody! In like a lion, out like a lamb; beware
the Ides of March, and all that nonsense. Here we are on the Burnal
Equinox which means we’re half way home. So before we get into this
riveting issue of the Barbie Death Village newsletter, we like to
do something related to our wonderful Village. So for this and the
following two newsletters, we will have a dozen or so videos each
month which chronicle the week in and around BDC&WB. Not all of
them are safe for work (this is Burning Man after all), but enjoy!

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/b167d2bd44225ab6460c5c133b79283c/video/159221381

The first order of business has to do with one of our mutant vehicles.
Many of you who joined us last year will recall Cap’n Joe’s huge vehicle
"Hay You Get Onna Our Cloud", AKA The Cloud Car. For those
of you who haven’t seen it, visit the Barbie Death Camp Facebook page
and our camp’s picture was taken aboard and around The Cloud Car.
It can hold 30-40 people in comfort while tooling around the playa.
The problem is that it needs a lot of work. We had a large storm in
December that beat it up pretty well and it needs regular maintenance.
Right now it is sitting in Placerville and needs to be moved to Sacramento
and housed so it can be worked on. Everybody wants to ride on it,
but nobody really is interested in doing the hard labor necessary
to get it playa-ready. Unless we can find a home for it in the general
Sacramento region (preferably in a barn so it can be worked on out
of the blazing sun; we don’t need electricity, we have a generator)
it will be moved to Nevada and lost forever. Please, if you can see
your way clear to house The Cloud Car for a few months this summer,
and if you can spare a couple of days over the summer to work on it,
we really need your help. And I’m not kidding either. We could even
throw in a financial incentive if that helps. Pretty please?

Now on to other matters at hand. We have a change in one of the heads
of the Annual Naked Bike Ride & Pub Crawl. The lovely Rellie looks
like she will miss TTITD this year but gave us the head’s up well
ahead of time so we could find another person to, along with Sharen,
spearhead the arrival of the naked cyclists. I would like to thank
Vulture Chow for stepping up and heading this very important annual
event. I think it’s safe to say the arrival (and subsequent shenanigans)
of the inebriated hoards have been a highlight for many of us for
the past six years. Hay, you have your demented traditions and we
have ours.

We have arranged another stupendous deal with the Sands Regency in
Reno for burners travelling to and from the playa. Naturally Barbiebarians
get first crack at the rooms. For those arriving before the event
begins, from Friday August 23 to Saturday August 24 the rate is $57.
From Sunday August 25 until Thursday August 29 the rate is $27. From
Friday August 30 through Sunday September 1 the rate is $57. From
Monday September 2 until Thursday September 5 the rate is $27. In
order to reserve your room call (866) FUNSTAY [386-7829] and use discount
code BURN13. Each room can hold up to four people in two queen beds
(12 if you’re sponsoring the orgy) and there are ice machines on every
floor, free use of the spa which includes Jacuzzi, steam room, and
sauna, as well as tons of free parking. They even have a huge pool
for our enjoyment. And after the event Kevin from Belgium is going
to hold a post-Burning Man party which you certainly won’t want to
miss. As you can see, membership has its privileges.

Now another word about volunteering. As you may recall, Reece has
set up a Volunteer Spot site for us to use. In order to obtain an
early arrival pass, unless you are hauling out the camp’s infrastructure,
you must sign up to volunteer for a work detail. Setting up and tearing
down the Village are the most important, but working the Pancake Porkout,
working Greeter’s Shift Tuesday evening, organizing the Tour de Franzia,
heading up the daily Fizzball game, or being MOOP Patrol Nazis are
all important duties and must be headed up and manned by someone.
Someone like you. We have decided the simplest way to do this is to
have you, our fellow Barbiebarians, follow these three easy steps:
1) Click on this link to go to our BDV 2013 Volunteer Opportunities
invitation page on Volunteer Spot:
http://vols.pt/7gDcSz; 2) Enter your email address (you will not
need to register an account on Volunteer Spot); 3) Sign up! Choose
your spots, then Volunteer Spot will send you an automated confirmation
and reminders. If you can’t manage to do this simple task, then you
really didn’t want early entry in the first place.

Since I just mentioned the Tour De Franzia, maybe I should explain
what this brand new activity is all about. We are looking at Thursday
from 4 until 6 in the afternoon, but if we have enough interest it
can be expanded to several other days, perhaps Tuesday and Saturday.
We need as many people as we can get to place a box of the cheapest
Franzia wine imaginable on their handlebars in a fashion that allows
the wine to be poured without having to be removed. We anticipate
every participant to have either a BDV shirt or "Tour de Franzia
Participant" shirt, and the group of riders pedal together very
fast (well, fast by our otherwise sloth-like standards) from camp
to camp dispensing wine from their handlebar box. Doesn’t that sound
like a hoot? You can sign up on the Volunteer Spot right now for Thursday
and we’ll expand it from there if there is enough interest.

Now let’s talk about money. We are coming up short for donations for
the box truck we wanted to buy for the good and welfare of the Village.
If you can see your way clear to toss in a few dollars into the kitty
for this very important purchase, please do so. This is particularly
important if you’re coming in from outside of Northern California
and, because of the logistical considerations that come with dealing
with great distances, wish to (as an example) contribute to the box
truck or to making the art vehicles properly playafied so you yourself
can ride around the playa in comfort, then damn it show us the love!
We have also stepped up, screaming and kicking, right into 2009. You
can now pay your dues and added donations to us via PayPal. We do
ask that if you use PayPal to add $3 onto your dues for their processing
fees. Or you can always simply write a check. Dues are $75 until June
1, except for those of you coming in from outside of the United States.
Make checks payable to Jim Jacoby

We are still looking for designs for the 2013 version of the Barbie
Death Village t-shirts. As of this writing we’ve had a total of no
submissions. If you would like to design this year’s shirt, please
email your creation to Frank the Vintner. Please single color only
(and that color should be black). The winning t-shirt design will
receive a free shirt (as well the first runner-up if in fact we have
a first runner-up). T-shirts and hats are now for sale on the main
Barbie Death Camp website www.barbiedeathcamp.com. Shirts are $22
and come in either gray or pink, men’s or women’s styles, tank top
or regular tee, from S to XXXL. Hats are $17 and are pretty much one
size fits all. This is the only fundraiser we have to pay for the
wine we so generously serve to our fellow citizens of Black Rock City,
so please everyone, buy a shirt, m’kay?

On our wish list is still the need for a piano tuner for our camp.
If you happen to know of somebody who would be a good fit to our Village
and can tune an upright piano, please invite them along. We will secure
for them (and for you) early arrival passes. Otherwise we have to
get the piano tuned off playa and run the risk of maybe finding a
tuner once we’re there to have it re-tuned, and I am not a big believer
that "…the playa provides…" because I have seen
plenty of occasions where it doesn’t. Oh, the playa is great at providing
us with Sparkle Ponies, but piano tuners? Not so much.

If you were wondering where our Village’s picture is in this year’s
Black Rock Yearbook, the answer is: I don’t know. It was due out six
weeks ago, but since the BRYB people hit the hookah more often than
Larry Harvey and his brain-dead stoned sycophants, it’s anybody’s
guess when it will arrive. But believe me, when it does (and if they
had their act together enough to actually include us) it will be linked
to that month’s newsletter. But for now, they’re still MIA.

I was recently asked if most of our members come from California.
The answer is no. Looking over last year’s data, out of 234 people
in Barbie Death Village, 86 were from California, or 37%. (None of
these numbers include the Burn Wall Street crew.) What was astonishing
is that 68 people, or 29%, came from outside of the country with Canada,
Australia, and Lithuania having 15 people each. 45 were west of the
Mississippi excluding California (19%) and 35 came from east of the
Mississippi (15%). What that says about our Village is simply this:
We are very inclusive and diverse and welcome people from all walks
of life. We do not care where you are from, your sexual orientation,
or your politics. What we care about is that you are a contributing
member to TTITD and show some self-reliance and aren’t a useless pain
in the ass Sparkle Pony. You all should be proud being part of the
best theme camp at Burning Man.

We do have a couple of lovely newbies looking to share an RV. Su from
London and her friend Suzy currently residing in China (nothing confusing
there) are looking to share an RV with somebody who has already secured
one. They will be flying into Reno and are happy to travel nearby
to meet up if necessary. They’re more than willing to share in rental,
gas, and clean up. So if you’d like to have two newbie ladies from
overseas gracing your presence, then please contact Su directly if
you have space.

And finally, let’s welcome the latest additions to our wonderful Village.
From Australia, Mel has invited along Jane and Andrew; from The Netherlands,
say hello to a real Dutch treat ; keeping it on the continent across
the pond from England please welcome Masterkyte and Finus Maximus
; Kevin from Belgium has invited a number of people, some of whom
are veterans, please welcome from Mexico Marko , Carola from Madrid
, Ryan and Lilli from Sydney , Hasan from L.A. , Kris and Alon from
the UK; Lucky420 and Dye With Dignity have brought into the fold Hentjie
Apag ; Felony has invited Mike ; and Amanda and Jake have invited
from Southern California Alise and another Mike .

The Man burns in 183 days. )’(

Respectfully submitted,

Doc Pyro and Felony Arson

Edit Note: I am getting the site caught
up with back newsletters. Any personal information such as street
addresses, phone numbers, or email addresses have been deleted for
safety.

Welcome to February everybody! I am on my way at this very moment to the Super Bowl in New Orleans to watch the San Francisco 49ers hopefully beat the Baltimore Ravens. For those of you who have been to Nawlens, either with me or on your own, rest assured I will have a hurricane at Pat O’Brien’s in your honor. Hurricanes and beignets: The breakfast of champions. Or something. But that has little to do with this month’s newsletter, so let’s move this along, shall we?

As always, we try and start this off with something Barbie Death Camp related, and this is what we have. A little something from the Urban Travel Blog. Enjoy!

http://www.urbantravelblog.com/feature/burning-man-festival

First off, let’s go over tickets. Two days ago the first-come, first-served Directed Group Sale began. They set aside 10,000 tickets for those of us lucky enough to be part of that program. As I had so correctly prophesized in last month’s newsletter, if there were any way for Larry Harvey and his stoned dreadlocked minions to screw up the process, they would figure it out. And they did. Instead of giving us an allotted number, in our case 72 tickets, they made everybody sign up for something called a Burner Profile and if you didn’t fill one out, you didn’t get in. End of story. I know not everyone of you did that because both Felony and I have received enough grief from many of you to last us all year. It was out of our hands, sorry. So if you did not get in on the original 10,000 please go to the main Burning Man website, fill out a Burner Profile, and at noon PST on Wednesday, February 6 you can sign up for registration for the next 40,000. Then on Wednesday, February 13 beginning at noon PST those tickets will go on sale on a first-come, first-served basis. But you must have filled out your own Burner Profile! If you haven’t done that or are unable to do that, well, no dust for you. Also, if you happen to have an extra ticket, please offer it to your fellow Barbiebarians and Village mates first. We look after one another because damn it, we care. Felony is the go-to person for ticket redistribution.

Next on the agenda is our Volunteer Spot. We encourage every one of you to check out our site at www.volunteerspot.com. Reece is heading this up and has done a wonderful job. If you have a question on logistics, contact Reece directly. Everyone who is awarded an Early Arrival pass must have signed up for a job on the Volunteer Spot site. There are no exceptions. We absolutely need to step up and get a MOOP team together for daily MOOP sweeps. Last year our camp got, shall we say, trashed and we want to avoid that unseemly happenstance this year. MOOP patrol will operate Monday through the following Monday, 9:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. We also need a coordinator for the Tour de Franzia and Fizzball, art car decoration upon reaching the playa (volunteers not coordinators), hot dog cookout and lumpia chefs. We also need people to sign up to drive the art cars, etc. If you want to contact the heads of some of our more pressing issues, for the Monday night chili cook-off and corn bread feed contact either Teri or Christine the Tuesday evening Greeter’s Shift contact Burny the Wednesday Naked Bike Ride & Pub Crawl is headed up by Rellie and Sharen the Wednesday night ePlaya Meet & Greet will be led by Mel the Thursday morning Black Rock Yearbook picture head cat-herder is Doc Friday’s Black Rock City Body & Paint for the lovely sirens for Critical Titts is led by (who else?) Luis the huge Saturday morning Pancake Porkout is headed up by none other than the man himself Reece; and the on-playa hot dog feed is still looking for a leader. Maybe that should be you? Set-up and tear-down will be led by Julia and Graidawg and our Trash Nazi is Wildman Rob and Tracy are heading up plotting out the village again. Rob will actually assign physical space, so make all requests through him and Tracy will map out the village once the BMOrg gives us our allotted acreage.

Now on to our wish list. We have procured a new piano, a nice upright. But what we have lost are our piano tuners. Freesponge and Fufa will not be making it back to the playa this year, so we are in the market for a piano tuner to join our camp. If any of you know a piano tuner that would like to go to Burning Man, feel free to invite him or her to join us. That would be their “volunteer” job and we will assign them an early entry pass for their efforts.

Something else on our wish list is a new foosball table. There was a huge storm the first weekend in December and our table got completely trashed. It was fun to mutate it and have Barbies as the foosmen, and we see no reason why we can’t do it again. The foosball table got a ton of use and should be replaced. If any of you have an in on a foosball table, the camp would be willing to purchase it, within our budgetary limits. Please let Felony know if you happen to know of one.

It’s time to start thinking about your 2013 Barbie Death Village swag! I’m specifically referring to shirts and hats. We are having another design contest this year, and the winning entry and first runner-up will receive a free BDC&WB tee shirt! Isn’t that exciting? Shirts are $22 and hats are $17, and may be purchased via PayPal on our website www.barbiedeathcamp.com once Frank gets it up and running. All proceeds will be used to help defray the cost of the wine we gift to the dusty denizens of Black Rock City. Shirts can be either gray or pink, tank top or regular tee, men’s and women’s cuts, from S to XXXL. For the design, please make it one color and email your creation to Frank at. All entries must be received by March 1.

We are still in the market for a box truck for our Village. We are taking donations to help defray the cost, which we anticipate will be between $4000 and $6000. This should be a one-time expenditure, less on-going DMV and maintenance fees. If you would like to help out, please donate what you can afford. Speaking of vehicles, if you joined us in 2012 you’ll remember the Hay You Get Onna Our Cloud art car that Cap’n Joe built. It was a large mutant vehicle that could easily hold 30 revelers in a double-decker configuration. If you ever wanted to run point with this mutant vehicle (decoration and design) and be the envy of Black Rock City (I mean, more so than we already are), here’s your chance. Contact Cap’n Joe at if you’re interested.

Now on to dues. We are already beginning to run up some expenses and a handful of you have already chipped in. We appreciate it. For the rest of you, the time is now. Until June 1 dues are $75, at which time they will increase to $100. Anybody coming in from outside of the United States, you can simply pay $75 on the playa. These are the only exceptions. Please send your dues checks and donations to: Jim Jacoby. Also, by next month I intend to have a link for dues to be paid by PayPal as well. Stay tuned.

I would like to introduce our Village newbies, or perhaps newbie wannabees. You might recall we are not actively pursuing new campmates this year, at least not until the early summer when we have a better handle on how many people will be gracing our modest Village. But there are a few folks that have been extended invitations by our fellow Barbiebarians. Allow me to introduce to you Winebuff, who was supposed to join us in 2011 and her friend Trena . Coming in from Belgium and a recent acquaintance of Jonathan and Kevin please welcome Hille . Felony has invited Karen and Jimmy . Frank has invited his son Isaac to join us . Kara has extended an Eden-like invitation to Robin . With Dye With Dignity please welcome Emma . Yaqui, who has been missed for several years, has invited Jessica , Melissa , Angie , Luis , Carisa , Mike and Cheri

The Man burns in 211 days. )’(

Respectfully submitted,

Doc Pyro and Felony Arson

Note: I am getting the site caught up with back newsletters. Any personal information such as street addresses, phone numbers, or email addresses have been deleted for safety.

The page for ordering your BDC tees and hats has been updated for 2013. Aside from being awesome shirts, the funds raised go to a worthy cause – supplying wine to Black Rock City. So be sure to dig deep and get a few, such as one for each family member and your dog. (Just a word of caution here – I can tell you from experience that they do not make a good 26th wedding anniversary gift).

Equally important are donations for camp infrastructure. If your finances permit, please consider making a Paypal donation for important camp needs such as mutant vehicles, box truck, trailer, repairs, purchases, gas, propane, etc…

The link is BDC Gear And Donations There is also a permanent link in the top nav bar of any page here for your convenience.

Bobbin

It’s a brand new year and we welcome back all of our fellow Barbiebarians, wannabees, hanger-oners, friends, acquaintances, playamates, and all you “burners with benefits”!   There ought to be more of those, but I digress.  Welcome to the first official Barbie Death Village newsletter for TTITD 2013.  This should indeed be another memorable year, but then, aren’t they all?  Since our Village has grown so large (hard to believe as recently as 2004 there were only 13 of us!) and our fellow campmates come from no fewer than five continents, organization is a must.  First off, as your outgoing Mayor, it has been my privilege serving the multitudes lo these many years, and I am looking forward as being your secretary-treasurer for 2013-2014.  Felony and I are sharing the mayoral duties until August.  We do these newsletters to keep you informed as well as get people psyched up for Burning Man.  But first, as is our wont, we like to start these newsletters with something Barbie Death Camp related, and this year is no different.  These two related articles mention us in a very favorable light, so enjoy!

http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/08/16/30-days-of-burning-man-day-20-theme-camps/
http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/30-days-of-burning-man-day-23-the-art/

Now on to the business at hand.  Obviously the very first question we ask every year around this time is:  Who’s coming back in 2013?  If you are receiving this newsletter, rest assured, you are welcome back!  Not everybody made the cut.  Also there is some confusion on newbies for this year.  Whether you have camped with us or not, if you’re on the newsletter list you’re “pre-approved”!  Also, any of your friends who you would like to invite to stay with us are also welcome.  As long as they’re sponsored by a fellow Barbiebarian, they meet our rigorous Seal of Approval.  Obviously every year we add and subtract people.  Some people stupidly change camps, others take a year’s hiatus, some even outgrow TTITD, and some are expelled.  So in order to make a budget, plan logistics, request space and early arrival passes, we would like to get an handle on how many people will be gracing our modest Village.  The number is always larger than first anticipated because so many people invite friends as the summer progresses, which is fine and understandable.  So if you’re sure you will be making it, and furthermore if you need special assistance in the form of early arrival passes, we need to know well ahead of time.  We are embracing the same procedure as last year for handing out EA passes:  With the exception of those hauling out the Village infrastructure, everyone who is awarded early entry will be required to do a specific function:  Either set up the Village if you arrive before sundown Saturday or, if you arrive after that, stay until Monday or Tuesday and help tear down and clean up BDV.  There are also various other tasks which will need to be handled as well.  Reece has established a website that will be the go-to spot for volunteering. Please contact Reece if you have any logistical questions.  The website is www.volunteerspot.com. We do have new committee heads for several of our pet projects, which will be touched upon in upcoming newsletters.

Next on the agenda is dues.  We are having a modest dues increase this year (fifteen bucks), which barely keeps up with inflation since we haven’t raised dues for a couple of years.  Dues are $75 if paid before June 1st, $100 after that.  Anybody coming in from outside of the USA, and this includes Canada, will only have to pay the $75 when you hit the playa.  Every year we are asked, “Where does the money go?”  The biggest single bill we have is Barbie storage.  This can include storage of the decorations for the art vehicles, water barrels, piano, generators, paints, burn barrel, 1400 dusty Barbies, gallows, gas containers, and anything else we can cram in.  Keep in mind most camps have a dues structure that begins around $150 and many are as high as $400 and up.  That is a shameful rip-off.  Here is a partial list of many of the things your dues provide for you:

1. Storage for 1400 Barbies and camp-related items
2. Access to our various generators
3. No less than 1200 square feet of shade
4. Four large sofas to lounge around on in comfort
5. Body paint for Black Rock City Body & Paint
6. A camp shower along with water (we are working on the logistics as spring progresses)
7. Art truck insurance, registration, maintenance, and decoration
8. Gasoline to power the generators and light up the camp
9. Lumpia every night at midnight
10. Glowstix for every night on the playa so darkwads don’t get run over
11. Pizza for the pre-event feed for those who set up camp
12. Use of our large trash bin for camp-related garbage
13. Wine
14. Guaranteed location on a corner so you can find your way home after partying all night on the playa
15. Specified space, as much as you reasonably need, for your personal campsite
16. Access to the Early Arrival passes
17. Piano repair and maintenance
18. Use of all tables and chairs
19. Use of all burn barrels and trash receptacles
20. Automatic invite and participation in the Annual Naked Bike Ride & Pub Crawl
21. Ringside seat for the ePlaya Meet & Greet
22. Access to the art vehicles so you can tool around the playa in comfort
23. Margaritas on the art vehicles
24. Participation in the Pancake Porkout and After Burn Weenie Roast
25. Constant (at least monthly) updates throughout the year up until TTITD
26. And finally, membership in one of the most revered and well-established camps/villages on the playa.

We have already started racking up several bills, not least of which is truck insurance, so you can feel free to pay your dues beginning now.  They should be sent to:  Jim Jacoby (address removed).

In order to simplify our lives, we are looking into purchasing for the good and welfare of the Village a large box truck, maybe 24′ or larger.  This will be a huge expense and it will be used to haul out the Barbies, generators, shade structures, sofas, and shower.  If you would like to make a separate donation for the box truck, we would sincerely appreciate it.  We also are looking for somebody to drive it to the playa and haul our 16′ flatbed trailer.  We will waive your camp dues, guarantee early arrival, and pay for the gas if you’re willing to drive the truck and trailer to and from the playa.  But first we need to buy it!  So if you’re looking for something to contribute to Barbie Death Village, and you live say in the Midwest, East Coast, or perhaps Alaska or even Hawaii, this would be an excellent way to give back some of the love!  We recognize that those of you with geographical constraints are unable to help during the spring and summer, well here’s your chance!  Thank you for your support.

Let’s talk about tickets for a second.  We all know what a mess it was last year, or at least it was perceived to be a mess.  As a Village we were awarded 72 additional tickets (plus some extras from the DMV, Greeters, and Gate).  Who knows what will happen in 2013. We do know that, as of this writing, they are due to go on sale or an announcement will be made on January 4.  One thing you can count on is that as long as Larry Harvey and his stoned brain-dead minions are in charge of ticket distribution, something will go wrong.  But we will end up being fine.  Get into the lottery, early sale, or however else they will mishandle this, and we will help those who did not get tickets to somehow find a way to the desert.  There were hundreds of tickets available as August approached last year and this year will be no different.  Membership has its privileges.

Some of you may remember Ansgar Dierkes, he’s from Germany and camped with us in 2011.  He’s looking to fly back for TTITD 2013 and is looking for interested Barbiebarians to share his motor home he plans on renting.  Right now he’s looking at renting out of Las Vegas, but is flexible enough to look at Los Angeles, Sacramento, or Portland.  It’s a 30-foot RV and for eight days rents for around $2500.  Include gas and generator time, if there are five in the rig you’re looking at around $600/person.

We do have several mutant vehicles for our Village and every year they need to be worked on, parts replaced, and redecorated to qualify as a mutant vehicle by TTITD standards.  The storm we had a month ago damaged The Cloud Car and to a lesser extent Barbie’s Mobile Wh0reh0use (it also trashed our foosball table).  We will need to work on these as we progress into summer but the task is so overwhelming that one or two people cannot do it alone.  We need your help.  If you think you can help with The Cloud Car, and that includes someplace in the general Sacramento area to keep it during the summer, please contact Cap’n Joe.

We have no more than four spaces left on our Amtrak Party Train to Reno on January 26.  If you want the details, contact me ASAP.

For those of you who might not know, Barbie Death Village has a website www.barbiedeathcamp.com.  You can also “Friend” us on Facebook.  Please feel free to use this new-fangled technology stuff to do whatever it is it does.

The Man burns in 241 days. )’(

Respectfully submitted,

Doc Pyro, Secretary-Treasurer/Outgoing Mayor
Felony Arson, Incoming Mayor

Welcome to August everybody! Where did the year go? Where did my sanity disappear to? What are all these damn Barbies doing in my backyard? Oh, that’s right, Burning Man begins in 26 days! So here we go with the last (scheduled) newsletter before we all head out to TTITD. There will be a lot to cover here, including some suggestions from our fellow campmates and friends, which I will get to shortly. But first off I have several things Barbie Death Camp related. One is from our placer Hep Kitten and she asked that it be sent out to everyone in our Village. It’s some kind of Facebook link about the 3:00 Sector. The second on is a series of videos that I included in the Newbie Primer that were so well received I thought I would share them with everyone. Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/BM12300Sector

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/e98f9c0ed9770d815feb8ef91730b25d/video/148381451 Unfortunately two of the last three videos did not migrate, but oh well.

First thing I would like to do is to simply go over the theme camps within Barbie Death Village because apparently some people didn’t realize last year that the Barbie Day Spa was an entirely separate theme camp from Barbie Death Camp & Wine Bistro. Our newest camp is Blukis 2.0, made up of some 15 Lithuanians over here with Misa helping with the CORE project. Then we have Eden, Dye With Dignity, Dread Pirate Barbie that Julia and Graidawg are overseeing, AntiM’s Home For Wayward Art, Camp Wet Dreams, The Shangri-Playans, Loose Nutz, and Clan O’Crash. If you include Black Rock City Body & Paint that makes for a dozen separate theme camps, even if some are in existence for only a fleeting moment. That should be enough to confuse even the most stoned hippie.

We have had a few tickets become available. Jewella has two. Also Sandy has a ticket available. I told you that as we got closer to the event there would be tickets becoming available. Early arrival passes? Not so much.

Texas Joe has suggested I add a few housekeeping items here today. First, when the time comes to leave Black Rock City, exodus can take up to eight hours if you leave Sunday or Monday. Even with “pulsing” which is the BMOrg’s inefficient way to move people out of the city, you will be burning a lot of gas and there’s no guarantee it will be available in Gerlach. Please have your tank full prior to entering Black Rock City. Otherwise disaster could strike. Texas Joe also wanted me to remind everyone, especially the burgins in the group, that communication on the playa is hopeless. You cannot call or text anyone out there because there is no cell service. You need to make plans and stick to your arrangements otherwise you will get hopelessly lost. Especially if you see something shiny.

All of our Early Arrival passes were awarded! Everyone who requested a pass prior to July 15 will be awarded one unless you were delinquent on your dues. If you’re coming in from outside of the USA that does not pertain to you. As soon as they arrive Felony and I will begin emailing them out individually. You must print up your pass yourself and have it with you when you reach the gate. I suggest stapling your ticket to it. No pass, no entry, no exceptions. We have a short wait list of people who would like a pass. If you are not going to be needing yours or would like to be placed on the wait list, let me know ASAP. Everybody coming in from outside of the country will need to bring their pass with them and have $60 cash on hand as they enter the playa. If you do not have your camp dues you will not be placed.

There are a few things we are going to need periodically throughout the week. First off, we could use a propane torch, a small hand-held device for setting off fireworks. For The Punjabi Dating Game the fireworks will be ignited by hand, so a propane torch is a must. Secondly, we could use several power strips, you know, the kind that have four or five outlets in them. The reason is that we can run the generators and use the power strips to plug the crock pots into for the Monday night Chili Cook-off that Maryanimal is heading up. It’s nice to have hot chili! And finally we’re going to need extra drinking water for both the coffee and the pancake batter for the Pancake Pork-out. I should think 10 gallons should be sufficient. So come Saturday if you have extra water laying around, plan on using it that morning.

Speaking of The Punjabi Dating Game we are still looking for gentlemen from India or Indian decent for our game. Come game time on Friday we might have to widen our parameters a bit. Ron Bishop has stepped up to volunteer to design the set, my friend Jack has secured the fireworks and documentation, and Felony will be overseeing safety. Hay, quit laughing. We will be done in plenty of time to tear down the set and head over for the Wall Street Burn. It will be quite a night indeed.

Since we will be taking the mutant vehicles out to all of the various parties around Black Rock City, we are still in the hunt for drivers, especially for the second shift. We generally head back to camp just before midnight and fire up lumpia (we will even have vegetarian this year for those of you who eschew meat) and afterwards head back out to the playa. We are short drivers for the second shift. If any of you would like to volunteer for this duty, please let Chris know.

As is our wont every year, we try and scour the AAA websites to determine where the least expensive gas (unleaded) is prior to hitting 447 at Wadsworth. If you need to fill up before turning off of I-80, here are your best bets. Coming from the west (California/Reno): Take Exit 32 in Nevada, USA Parkway. Turn right, go 1 mile to the USA Parkway Mini Mart. They also have a nice deli and fairly inexpensive selection of beer. Unleaded regular (as of this writing) is $3.44/gallon. Coming from the East (Winnemucca/Utah) or south up US 95, the Quikstop in Fernley on Hwy 95A (Veteran’s Memorial Highway) just south of I-80 is $3.45/gallon. If you wait until you reach Wadsworth you will pay $3.64/gallon. Coming from the north via US 395, by far your best bet is to avoid Alturas and take CA 299 into Cedarville. Regular is $3.71 at Rabbit Traxx.

This is especially important to you newbies who have just signed on within the past six weeks. Many of you were not on the last newsletter list. We are placing everyone within the Village. (NOTE: If you are part of Dread Pirate Barbie, Eden, Dye With Dignity, Clan O’Crash, AntiM, Shangri-Playans, or Camp Wet Dreams, the head of each theme camp will be placing you within their sphere of influence on the playa.) If you are with anybody else, including Barbie Death Camp & Wine Bistro and Loose Nutz you must contact Tracy at tracy.scarborough@hp.com immediately. We may be on three acres of prime playa real estate (we are located at 4:00 and Edelweiss, stretching to 3:40 west-to-east and up to Geranium to the north) but space is still getting precious. If you do not get placed ahead of time, there will be some areas within Loose Nutz but we cannot guarantee frontage road or access road availability. Nor will you show up on the Village map. Please do not wait until the last minute to make your space request. Also please be conservative on how much space you really need. Also note, contacting me does not get you placed. Only Tracy can do that.

Mindy wanted me to pass along that this is going to be a very dusty year. If last year was your first year at Burning Man, you’ve never really been. We will not be blessed with perfect weather again. Make sure your tent or hexayurt is dust-proof (as if that’s a possibility) and you might want to try a tent within a tent under a shade structure. This will keep off the hot morning sun and insulate you to a certain degree from the omnipresent dust. Prepare yourselves and do not forget your facemasks and goggles.

This is the last week to order hats and shirts. All orders must be in to Frank by Saturday, August 4. Hats are $15 and shirts are $20. We can now only accept PayPal. Go to our website www.barbiedeathcamp.com and click on the Order Gear tab. Shirts come in sizes S to XXXL, men’s or women’s cuts, tank top or regular tee, and either in gray or pink. We hope to have them available at the pre-party.

Speaking of the pre-party, now would be a good time to dive into that. The party will be held on Saturday, August 18 beginning at 4 p.m. at my home. You can email me for directions. (This is the same address to send your camp dues.) We will be serving up hotdogs and hamburgers, soda, beer, and frozen margaritas. If you want a vegetarian option I suggest you plan accordingly. We have a swimming pool if you need to cool off. At the party we intend to: 1) hand out as many Early Arrival passes as possible; 2) hand out as many shirts and hats as possible; 3) divide out the planks of Barbies (we have 47 of them, each measuring 15″ X 33″) to have them hauled out to the desert; 4) figure out how to get rest of the Barbie-related crap out there as well; 5) load the piano onto the flatbed trailer along with everything else we can fit; 6) discuss set-up logistics for the Village itself; and 7) frankly get excited about TTITD. This is a kid-friendly event so the swimsuits will stay on until, oh I don’t know, sunset or thereabouts. And please refrain from bringing your dog.

We intend to have a caravan to the playa again this year for those of you coming in from California on Saturday. There will be several stops and we can also pick up people needing ride share as well. We will leave Newcastle/Auburn at 8:30 a.m. and stop at the Donnor Lake Rest Stop (exit 176) at 9:45. We’re back on the road at 10:00 arriving at the Sands Regency in Reno at 11:10. From there it’s on to Nixon for Indian tacos and we should be in Gerlach around 2 p.m. The best place to meet up is the rest stop. If you intend to be part of the caravan we need to know. Also if you need a room at the Sands Friday or Saturday night, now would be an excellent time to reserve your room as they are down to the last few. (866) FUNSTAY. Be sure to ask for promotion code BURN12 to get your Barbie Death Camp discount. We did have an ePlayan who booked at the Sands and has to back out. He is offering his room free of charge for Saturday the 25th and Monday September 3rd to anybody within Barbie Death Village. First come, first served. Email me if you’re interested. (This is why we say “Membership has its privileges.”) Also if you need a ride to Black Rock City on Saturday and are in the Sacramento-Auburn region, or can be picked up in Reno that morning, Blowphish and I have room in our RV for three more people. (You will need Early Arrival passes.) We cannot, however, offer a ride back home. We already have six people and that’s about as many as we can safely take.

Now on to the introduction of newbies. I think it’s safe to say the complexion of our Village will be a little different this year. First let me introduce two Burner veteran friends of mine, Twist and Red. With Barbie Day Spa please welcome Nyla, Sandy, Seraphini, Jamie, Christine, Jennifer (AKA “Ed”), Lauren and Jonathan. Joining Kim is Mike. Luis is bringing along Maria. Fresh off the ePlaya meet Squirrelhead. With Huck from Northern Ireland please welcome Chris. CJ has invited a few more Edenites and her lovely aunt Carolyn. Joining the Ohio Boyz please welcome Paul. I would like to personally welcome Shannon. We have a whole bunch of Brits invading us. Let’s welcome Rebecca, Sophie, Joe, Chris, and George. With the Burn Wall Street crew, Drew has invited Tom, Fran, and Richard. Cat has invited Kirsten and Steve. Mark and Diana would like us to welcome Andrew, Lynn, Rob, and Ev. Joining Cristine please welcome veteran burner Scott. Steve is bringing his friends Jeremy and Bethany. And finally with Jovan welcome Andy and The Comet.

The Man burns in 31 days. )’(

Doc Pyro, MOBDV

Welcome to March everybody.  In like a lion and all that claptrap.  We are sort of in the calm before the proverbial storm phase, what with the Burnal Equinox two days away and winter still hanging on.  But there is, naturally, plenty to report.  However, as always we like to try to find something Barbie Death Camp related to start things off with.  This is a pretty nice article about TTITD and a lot about our camp.  Seems the author finds us entertaining year after year.  One thing, we did not have someone  “…(pilfer) the entire ensemble after it had been packed…”  Sure, we’re short between five and eight planks, and we’re pretty sure we know where they are.  We will be back bigger than ever.  So, enjoy!

http://vashonloop.com/article/valley-dolls

Let’s get right to it and start off with what is on everybody’s mind:  Tickets. Not being clairvoyant I hesitate to make a prediction on what the BMOrg will be allocating to our camp.  There were roughly 500 registered theme camps last year.  Of that number it’s unclear how many are vying for tickets, but if we were to say 75% of them need help that would equate to 26 tickets per camp, and that’s before taking into consideration what will be given to mutant vehicles and the actual muscle that puts the city together.  I would strongly urge you to try to get tickets through STEP, but if all else fails we have a time-tested back-up plan.  Come early summer the Tickets thread will open up on the ePlaya.  Last year, after the event sold out in mid-July, hundreds of tickets became available.  Many of our camp mates picked up their tickets that way.  Say what you will about burners but one nice thing about them not having their collective act together is that they are, in the aggregate, flaky people.  So when it comes to pass they can’t go due to lack of funds, being arrested, dying, getting too stoned to negotiate a ride to the playa, finally getting into college, general lethargy, their karma is has become out of sync with their celestial aura, or any combination of the above, trust me, they will become available particularly if you’re rather adroit with the computer.  Here is last year’s link so you can see what I mean:

http://eplaya.burningman.com/viewforum.php?f=190

I’m happy to announce that we have a piano tuner for our camp!  Freesponge, along with the lovely Fufa, hail from Edmonton, Canada and have stepped up and taken on the responsibility of making our wonderful piano playa-ready.  Considering how popular it was last year, and candidly from what I heard from other pianos on the playa ours was great and theirs pretty much sucked, this is indeed a good thing.  Thank you Freesponge and Fufa.

It has been suggested that our camp volunteer for a Greeter’s Shift. Having done this once before, it is fun though after about the twelfth beer things began to get rather fuzzy out there.  But I digress.  A shift lasts four hours.  We have lots of choices on which shift we choose to take.  Midnight to 4 a.m. isn’t too bad if you like being out late.  That might be a fun one to do as the gates open.  4 a.m. to 8 a.m.  Getting up that early (unless you never bothered going to bed) can be a real problem but you do get to see the sunrise over the playa.  8 a.m. to noon would be nice:  Not too hot and not too early.  Noon to 4 p.m. can be very hot and let’s face it, we really don’t want to kill ourselves.  4 p.m. to 8 p.m. is popular because it cools off yet there’s plenty of time left in the evening to party on the playa.  And lastly 8 p.m. to midnight.  Not hot and doesn’t destroy the day.  I will be coordinating with Tracy if we choose to do this.  You can ask any questions directly to Tracy at: tracy.scarborough@hp.com.  We will need at least 15 to 20 Barbiebarians and the more the merrier.  Also we could do this as a camp party and bring the art truck out during the 8 p.m. to midnight shift.  So if you have an interest in this, and it’s purely voluntary, please let me or Tracy know.

We have a new project for our Village this year:  The Barbie Foosball Project.  The idea is to have Barbies be the foosmen on the table.  Mel has arranged to have a used foosball table sent to Felony.  She will paint it pink, naturally, and we will then transport it to the playa where the real decorating will be done.  We can remove the metal rods and supplement them with our extra Barbies and if that doesn’t work, Ygmir said he’d make new metal rods.  It has been suggested we use Ken’s head as a foosball. Nothing ventured I suppose.

We have had several complaints about people responding to these newsletters by hitting the Reply To All button.  Please try and refrain from doing that.  Mailboxes get  full and people begin to ignore whatever is being sent.  Either ask your questions to me and Felony directly, ask on the website, or if you are a denizen of the ePlaya you can PM us directly.  This is just common consideration for your fellow camp mates.

It’s never too early to begin our planning for our major events.  There are two that I would like to touch upon.  First is the annual ePlaya/3playa Meet & Greet which will be on Thursday beginning at 6 p.m.  Most of you are not on either the ePlaya or 3playa, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to enjoy the party.  When 200 strangers invade our camp for three or four hours they’re pretty hard to ignore.  So what we’re asking is that if you choose to attend the party, please bring along something to share, preferably food. It doesn’t really matter what; my experience is that a bunch of stoned burners will eat almost anything, whether it was intended to be edible or not.  Now about the Pancake Porkout.  This is a Village-wide event which will be held Saturday morning beginning at 9:30 a.m.  We will be feeding between 200 and 300 burners, most of whom are our camp mates and friends.  We will need, in no particular order, 30 pounds of pancake batter mix; 3 gallons of syrup; 2 pounds of butter/margarine;  30+ pounds of bacon; two gallons of vodka and Bloody Mary mix; six gallons of OJ; four cases of champagne (cheaper the better for mimosas); coffee enough for 150 people; no fewer than eight propane or gas griddles; 250 paper plates; 250 paper cups for coffee and cocktails; six rolls of paper towels/napkins; and at least four tables to cook on.  We also need someone to be the head honcho for this event in order to herd the cats properly and handle logistics.  We realize it’s still early but never early enough to get the planning started.  Let either Felony or me know what you wish to donate.

Dues are now being collected.  We have already collected from many of you and for that we sincerely thank you. Dues are $60 until June 1st when they will increase to $85.  Foreign travelers from overseas can simply pay $60 cash on the playa.  No early arrival passes will be issued to anybody delinquent on their dues.

Speaking of early arrival passes, we have requested 117 of them.  There is no guarantee the BMOrg will give us what we want, so simply because you’ve requested an EA pass does not guarantee by any means you will actually get one.  But if you need a pass please let us know as soon as possible. 50 of the passes have already been requested.  And remember, everyone who is granted a pass must volunteer for an assignment on the playa.  Katie M’Lady will be overseeing that.

Our 2012 BRC oval bumper stickers have arrived!  For those of you who have already paid your dues (with the exception of anyone outside of the U.S.) they are being mailed out this morning.  As your dues checks arrive they will be sent out to you immediately.  If you, or any of your friends, would like one, just ask and we will try to accommodate.  They are a little different this year so we hope everyone enjoys them.

We are making an addition to our website www.barbiedeathcamp.com.  Hopefully by March 10th we will have up and running our PayPal account.  There will be three boxes to check if you wish to buy or donate.  One will be for shirts ($20) and hats ($15), and one to donate to the art cars we are buying and mutating.  Cap’n Joe’s new creation is now accepting donations and from Eden the CJ/Kara/Sarah axis of decadence will soon be looking for donations for their magical vehicle as well.  A third box will be for “other” with a data line so you can tell us what it’s for; i.e. “This donation is for such-and such’s propane cannon”.  Wow, look at Barbie Death Village, we’re being dragged kicking and screaming right into 2008. We do not intend to collect dues via PayPal!

What a surprise:  those stoned hippies from the Black Rock Yearbook still haven’t gotten the 2011yearbook up and running. Shocker.

Also some of us, for camp decorating purposes I would guess, are in need of some My Size Barbies; you know, the ones that stand about 3 feet tall.  We had one ceremoniously trashed last year when Brazildo and Vizoo took her skydiving only to have it plummet 4000 feet to the playa.  “As God as my witness, I thought Barbies could fly!”  At least we didn’t kill anybody, though Barbie had seen better days.  So if you have one or happen across one at a garage sale, grab it.  They normally retail for upwards to $200 which is why we have no money in the budget just to run out and buy one.

We are now accepting designs for the 2012 BDC&WB tee-shirt.  If any of you are artistic enough this is a fun project.  Our shirts have run the gamut from simply the Burning Man logo to the demented (Barbie being hung while drinking wine).  All we ask is that you keep the sexual connotations to a minimum because children also buy these shirts and frankly I’m tired of having to drive to Natomas to have my daughter change her shirt yet again.  Some people have no sense of humor.

Now on to the introduction of newbies.  This is a long list this month and I apologize in advance if I leave anybody off.  Let’s start with our newbs from overseas.  From Belgium please welcome Kevin and Jonathan.  We have several different groups from Australia.  Mel has invited Rob, also welcome Pip and Emma.  Closer to home, from Canada we have already mentioned Freesponge and Fufa.  JR invited a couple from Hawaii, please welcome Candace and David.  From Omaha please welcome Sheila and Amos and they are hoping to have another newbie from Australia in our mix as well!  Kelsey is bringing her friend whom, as I recall, she met at Burning Man last year, please welcome Paul.  The lovely Rellie is bringing a small army, some of whom are ex-pats from Sore Nipple Camp.  Please welcome Kelly and Travis, Dana and Jared.  Many of you haunt the ePlaya and may recognize Drawingablank and his son Water.  From the ashes of the ever imploding Apokiliptika Brian is bringing into our fold mostly from Seattle Josh, Chris and his fiancée, Lena, Dave, Heidi; Vaibhav, Kate, Erin, and Ricardo.  Also from Connecticut please welcome Diana and her sister Michelle.  And finally Felony is bringing in a second-year burner, please welcome Finn.

The Man burns in 184 days.  )’(

Doc Pyro, MOBDV