Welcome to June everybody!  For those of us here in Northern California it felt like we just exited February.  This will be a rather lengthy and informative newsletter, so grab a cup of coffee, kick back, and enjoy.

As I always try to do, I want to start off with something Barbie related.  One of our new campmates, Summer, sent me this and I think you will agree it certainly captures the proper spirit.

http://www.adventures2006.blogspot.com/

We have another design for the camp t-shirt.  Barb made the design and frankly I for one like it.  If you are still working on a shirt design feel free to submit it.  Frank, CJ, Felony Arson and I will make the final decision in July.  But for now check out Barb’s design:

I had  mentioned that the camp was in need of a large coffee maker.  I am happy to report that problem has been solved.  Lee has one of those large 20 pot machines which should do the trick to keep the Village properly caffeinated.  Thank you Lee for your contribution.

A group of us met a few weeks back and cleaned out the trailer, hauled the old God-awful sofas to the dump, and began the arduous task of getting the shower fixed and rugs cleaned so you people can have fun in the desert.  We also discussed the design for this year’s art truck, which is an expansion of last year’s Barbie Mobile Wh0reh0use.  CJ has come up with a most ingenious, and dare I say uber-sexy design, for the vehicle.  Everything is off to the BMOrg DMV and we are confident we will get approval for our mutant vehicle.  We are going to have the roof on the truck again, which will have a removable canopy with cotter pins which will be inserted into holes drilled through the PVC pipe.  Tracy is heading up the architectural design for that.

Since June is here it is now time to begin ordering shirts and hats.  Our shirt colors will remain burgundy and gray and the hats will be burgundy and tan.  The pricing for this year’s hats is a remarkably low $15 and the shirts are a virtual give-away for $20.  Any “modest profit” derived from the sale of the shirts and hats goes to defray the cost of the wine, so quit your complaining.  Shirts can be S, M, L, XL to XXXL and come in either regular T or tank top.  And free of charge (because we seem always to just give away the store) you can have your playa name/nick name/own name on the front of the shirt.  Or not, it’s your choice.  This is a purely voluntary and if you don’t want either a shirt or a hat, that is fine too.  Of course you might have to put up with the wrath of Frank (which is why I order three or four) if you don’t.  Just let me know what size and type of shirt and whether or not you want a hat, and we will collect come August.

We have requested for our Village 87 early arrival passes.  We are hoping that the BMOrg gives us what we have asked for.  I am now beginning to allocate said EA passes.  I know some of you have already requested some, but if you could be so kind as to do it again because my list vanished somehow.  There is a pecking order on who gets the passes, and it goes like this:  1)  Those who haul the trailers, art vehicles, and material to set up the Village beginning Thursday; 2) Seniority; 3) Distance traveled (by car):  The further you drive to get to Black Rock City the greater your probability of receiving a pass; 4) Whether or not I like you; and finally 5)  Lottery for everyone else.  We do not think we will need all 87 passes, but there is a chance.  Last year we had 65 requests for our 60 passes.  You must also (unless you are traveling internationally) have paid your camp dues (where applicable).

Which segues  nicely to camp dues.  This is directed to those of you in Barbie Death Camp & Wine Bistro, Eden, Clan O’Crash, and Black Rock City Body & Paint.  Until the end of this month they remain at $50 per person.  On July 1st they increase to $75 and, unless you are coming from overseas, raise to $100 if paid on the playa.  We do not want to collect any money on the playa if possible. Personal checks are fine.  And hay, remember, just because you might not be going to TTITD this year or perhaps are staying in a different camp, you can still pay your dues.  You think supporting our absinthe habit is cheap?   I am happy to report we have collected from 41 of you so far.  In case you are wondering what your dues have gone towards, we are allocating $600 to the decoration of the art truck, have purchased 300 glowstix for everyone’s use, and I went out and had a beer.

We still have some things on our Wish List.  We are still in need of two or three My Size Barbies (the 3′ tall kind) because as reported in March, some yahoo decapitated our Barbies and they need to be replaced.  New on the list from Frank the Vintner:  some black lights and plastic grapes.  He is making an art vehicle capable of carrying six to eight passengers and it will be a mobile Italian wine bistro.  Because the BMOrg won’t allow real grapes (MOOP is their gripe) a vintner has to make do with ersatz grapes.  So if you happen to have either of those items, Frank would be pleased if you could help him out.

We are beginning to plan the annual Wednesday morning All Village Pancake Porkout.  We probably will have enough pancake mix, but we will need:  syrup, paper plates along with forks and knives, butter, Bloody Mary fixins (both vodka and mix), and mimosa fixins (champagne and OJ).  What we really need are gas griddles to cook the pancakes and bacon.  We have electricity, but last year the strain on the generators was so great that they tripped off several times, rendering our electric griddles pretty much useless.  And when you are cooking for well over 100 people, you can see where problems can arise.  If you are not helping with donations or cooking, we do respectfully request you set aside half an hour afterwards to help clean up.  Remember, right after the Porkout we will be visited by the Annual Black Rock City Naked Bike Ride and Pub Crawl.  And we certainly don’t want over 200 naked and drunk cyclists seeing a messy camp, right?

Still on our calendar for this year is our birthday party for December 30 babies.  We have three of us (me, Felony Arson, and Stacie). The party will be held Monday evening, August 30.  So if any of the rest of you share the same birthday as the three of us we want to know about it.  We’re not getting older, we’re getting better.

We are still needing someone to hopefully tow the art truck to the playa in August.  Anyone who can do this not only gets an early arrival pass for themselves and their passengers, but we will pay your gas expense to and from the playa.  But if you say you are going to do this we will hold you to it.  And towing a truck is not as easy as towing a trailer, unless you have a flatbed trailer, so let that be a word of caution.

Now to the welcoming of new campmates.  This is going to be a lengthy list and I hope I don’t forget anyone, though I am sure I will.  Goddess Rebecca has joined BDV and is bringing along her friend Luciano.  They are from the L.A. area.  Drew and Mindy are bringing a newbie with them from New England.  Please welcome Steve.  We have some international newbies (at least to BDC&WB), beginning with MisaBlue from the Czech Republic.  And from Germany welcome veteran burner Ansgar. His friend from Oregon Eric will be there as well.  Closer to home please welcome Summer.  We have  foursome from Colorado, please welcome Nick, his girlfriend Smashy, Panda and Julie.  Finally Hottie has two newbs as well, Heather and Tommy. Please make everyone feel welcome to our little slice of paradise on the playa.

As the summer progresses be prepared to receive more newsletters.  If you want off of this mailing list (yeah, good luck with that) let me know so I can ignore your request.  The Man burns in 95 days.

Doc Pyro, MOBDV

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