Good morning campers! Welcome to this month’s riveting Barbie Death Village newsletter. Let me start off with some disappointing news. For those of you who might be unaware, we had our camp photographed for the Black Rock City Yearbook 2010. Well, the yearbook came out yesterday and guess what? We are nowhere to be seen. And who would have thought that a bunch of stoned hippies would screw this up? Well, better luck next year I guess.
Before we get into the meat of this newsletter, we always like to have something special that shines a positive light on our camp. Check out this video (safe for work). No wonder we love Burning Man. There is a nice shot of our camp at the 4:55 mark. Seems to me I remember these guys coming by.
We have ordered oval stickers again for our camp this year. They will be slightly larger than 2010 with a more orderly font around the edge. We ordered them through our friends at Boosh Camp and they should be here sometime mid-February. All dues paying members will have one mailed to them. If you are not a dues paying member of BDC&WB, send me a SASE and I will be happy to shoot you off one. Or even two. Our generosity knows no bounds.
Piano update. Well, we still don’t have one. But they are always available on Craig’s List, so I’m not going to worry about it until summer. If anyone happens to have one they want to get trashed, uh, I mean one to donate to the Village, that would be great. Also we still need to figure out how to get it to the playa. I talked with my friend Bay Bridge Sue and she knew of a piano tuner out there last year, but that lead for 2011 looks like it has fallen through. So if anyone knows of a piano tuner on the playa, let me know. We will be happy to pay to have the piano tuned if need be.
It is time to start planning our annual activities on the playa. There are four main ones: Our Pancake Pork Out, the Black Rock City Naked Bike Ride & Pub Crawl, the ePlaya/3playa Meet & Greet, and of course Critical Titts day at Black Rock City Body & Paint. Certain things are out of our control. Critical Titts will be on Friday, the Meet & Greet will be at 6 p.m. on Thursday evening, and the Naked Bike Ride & Pub Crawl will be whenever they decide to have it. We have to assume it will be on Wednesday around noon once again. This year I am going to request that our camp be the first stop rather than the next-to-last stop. The reason for that is simple: Last year with so many drunken people, all naked and, well, let’s just say in an advanced state of amorous behavior, we really don’t want to be offended again in our own camp. Obviously there is no guarantee our request will be granted, but I think they would heed our wishes.
Which brings us to the Pancake Pork Out. This year I am not going to make the mistake and put it in the What-When-Where guide. Having 450 hungry, stoned, and unsanitary hippies descend upon our camp was too much to bear. This year it will be absolutely closed to our Villagemates and their friends. The real question is which day do we want to have it? Usually we have it on Wednesday, but if the naked cyclists are coming that day, having both events back-to-back is pretty taxing. Clearly we cannot have it on Friday as we will start painting the lovely sirens of Black Rock City between 9 and 10 a.m. My vote, I think, would be either Thursday or Saturday. If we have it on Saturday that would be four fun events on four different, albeit consecutive, days. If you have a strong opinion either way, let either me, Felony Arson, or CJ know and we will make a decision sometime this summer.
As a reminder to our newbies, we do not have a central kitchen in our camp. Everyone is pretty much on their own when it comes to cooking and eating. If you need some pointers on what to do, let me know and I will try to hook you up with some of our people who tent camped last year and you can ask them how they do it.
We have something else on our calendar for this year. It seems Terminal Village has challenged Barbie Death Village to a 3-3-3 war. What that means is on the third day (Wednesday) at 3 p.m. at the 3:00 Plaza some kind of a test of wills. Either a nice game of Fizzball, a water fight, or some such nonsense will take place. Pinemom over at the Booby Bar is heading up the logistics, and I will pass them along as they become clearer. No matter what we do, I suspect heavy drinking will be involved with a smattering of nudity thrown in somehow. Just call it a hunch.
I want to make a clarification on the dues structure. Not all camps pay dues to BDC&WB. Preserved In Time, Boosh: The Canadian Splinter Squad, Burning Man Button Camp, Camp Wet Dreams, and Alaska have their own dues structure which may be more or less than those charged by the camps within our sphere of influence: Barbie Death Camp & Wine Bistro, Eden, Clan O’Crash, Black Rock City Body & Paint, and Loose Nutz. For those of you in the latter group, dues are due. We have received several already and for that we thank you. The dues are $60 until June 1st. They can be paid to: Jim Jacoby.
We will have shirts and hats for sale this year. The lovely and gracious Barb Traub made an update from her design from last year and unless somebody comes up with a better idea, we will run with that. We won’t start taking orders for either shirts or hats until June.
And finally, time to welcome the newbies to our camp. Some of these people are wily veterans while others are clueless sparkle ponies. And there are a bunch of you! From Ohio, four veterans will be joining us: Endo, 255, Scorpion, and Butterfly. Next two vets from Southern California: Jella and Doug. Blowfish and I met a newbie on the train to Reno, Dani. CJ has two newbies under her wing: Hanna B. and Hen W. Our old friend who busted up his ankle several years ago falling off the art truck, from New York welcome back. Two vets and a newb are also gracing us with their presence: Amanda and Jacob and their newb Katie. Laura and Stu have invited a veteran burner to join us: Shawn N. and finally, on the international front from Toronto, welcome Cezanne. Please make all of our new additions to our little slice of paradise on the playa feel welcome.
The Man burns in 214 days.
Doc Pyro, MOBDV
February 16th, 2012 at 3:10 am
Hello Doc, this will be my third year, maybe (this years ticket issues). Do I need to pay dues now to make sure I can still get tickets and be part of the camp again. Not sure on the process. Hope you remember me and look forward seeing you again. Let me know what i need to do. I am on the list too.