NOTE: Email and home addresses have been removed from this newsletter - if you need to paypal/send anything please refer to the original copy (should have been mailed to all members) or ask around in the Facebook group
Welcome to July everybody! As we enter the proverbial “dog days” of summer, I am reminded of a quote from Ada Louise Huxtable: “Summer is the time when one sheds one’s tensions and one’s clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all’s right with the world.” Let’s see: shed one’s clothes, become drunk. If that doesn’t just scream Burning Man then I don’t know what does! As always we like to start these riveting newsletters off with something Barbie Death Camp related. This shot of our camp at night from some website known as Nude Nite caught my attention. Or maybe it was just the name. Enjoy!
https://twitter.com/nudenite/status/641803749875417088
I want to start off with something rather serious. We have always been good stewards of the playa, and we have Wildman and Felony to thank for much of that. They have in the years past remained long after most of you have fled the dusty confines of Black Rock City and have done a fantastic job of not only cleaning up after everyone but making sure we are green on the MOOP Map. But as the years take their toll on us, we find we need more help in the name of manpower. We need people to remain until Monday after the Temple Burn to police the Village and clean up the MOOP that invariably trashes the playa. This is particularly true for those of you who received Directed Group Tickets and posted the $100 deposit with the promise and assumption that, in order to get it back, you help clean up Barbie Death Village. Well, now’s your chance. You can sign up on the Volunteer Spot for post-burn clean-up duties or contact Felony directly to be on the clean-up crew. We want to thank you in advance for your help. This goes doubly true for those coming in from overseas who often ask “What can we do to help?” Well, now you have your answer. And if you can hang around until Tuesday, so much the better.
Let talk tickets, shall we? It’s now that time of year when people realize they can or cannot make it to TTITD, and either start panicking that they don’t have tickets or are burdened with having one they need to securely sell. We still have a long list of people needing tickets from our in-house Barbie Death Village ticket exchange which Chris is in charge of. If you have a ticket for sale please let Chris know right away. Remember, if you buy your ticket and it’s held at Will Call, you will be able to buy a vehicle pass when you pick up your ticket. (You may well be able to buy a vehicle pass at Will Call in any event if the last three years are any indication.) If you need a ticket and haven’t been hooked up yet, make sure you check out the ePlaya on the main Burning Man website for tickets available and prepare to be in the OMG sale (registration opens Wednesday, July 26). For further info check out http://tickets.burningman.org.
One other thing regarding tickets. Keeping in mind we live in an imperfect world, snafus sometimes occur. If you are paired up with a fellow Barbiebarianfor a ticket and the two of you have not yet worked out the arrangements on who’s getting what, please let both me and Felony know. Our list of who-gets-what has been hit with a problem and we don’t know everyone who necessarily has been promised a ticket. If you know who is your ticket buddy, please let us know ASAP. This is more work than you can imagine.
Everyone who is part of Barbie Death Village is expected to pitch in and help during the week. That should go without saying. But Vulture Chow has informed us that many of you who, once your dues are paid and are then sent a link for the Volunteer Spot, have neglected to even sign in, much less volunteer to do anything. This is unacceptable. She will be sending out links again within a few days to those of you who have yet to step up to the plate. And since most people start at the beginning and pick something right away, those events later in the week, especially on Saturday, tend to be ignored. So I am going to list again things that need to be done, but will start with Saturday and move backwards.
SATURDAY: Pancake Pork-Out. We need electric griddles (0 of 4 currently signed up), gas grills (2 of 12), bartenders/servers (1 of 7), chefs (4 of 10), clean-up crew (1 of 8); also trash burn/trailer loaders (1 of 10), and MOOP Patrol (1 of 10).
FRIDAY: MOOP Patrol (0 of 10)
THURSDAY: Sacramental Wine Alter Boys (0 of 10)
WEDNESDAY: Naked Bike Ride & Pub Crawl: Clean-up (1 of 6), snacks (0 of 10), servers (12 of 20); MOOP Patrol (0 of 10)
TUESDAY: MOOP Patrol (1 of 10); Greeters (13 of 42); various jobs for the Tuesday Night Taco Feed
MONDAY: Chili chefs (5 of 20). Make no mistake about it, we really do need chili chefs for the Chili Cook-Off!
SUNDAY: Art car decorating (1 of 10)
Please keep in mind the Saturday Sunset Red Memorial Annual Pancake Pork-Out is the largest single annual event we hold. More people show up for the Naked Bike Ride & Pub Crawl, but we’re the stars of the show for the pancake feed. So please, please volunteer.
We need to discuss placement within the Village. Our Village has been placed on the other side of the playa from what we’ve grown accustomed to these past three years. We’re at 4:00 and Eulogy stretching to Genuflect. Julia is in charge of placing everybody and since we’re going to be on over 3.6 acres of prime playa real estate, this is a serious matter. Everyone needs to be placed within a sub-camp. It is perfectly fine if you’re coming in with a group of friends, even if they’re all newbies, to have your own sub-camp. There will be maps available so you can be found. Since we cannot place 220 individual people, if you don’t group yourselves Julia will do it for you. Contact Julia if you have any questions. Anyone not formally placed will be swept into Loose Nutz or worse.
Early arrival passes/Worker Access Passes. We have not been allotted how many we can expect to receive, but we are going in with the presumption it will be the same as last year, which was 120. We currently have requests for 92, so there’s quite a bit of wiggle room for anyone who needs a pass. We can offer WAPs for Friday and Saturday arrival. Make no mistake about it, if you get a WAP through Barbie Death Village you will be put to work. Earlier I reported on the need to have people stay until Monday to help clean up. If you would like a WAP and agree to stay until Monday you will be assured a pass. For those of you international travelers this might be just the ticket. And what better way to experience Burning Man than to watch it grow into a real city and then disappear again, right? You can request your WAP through me.
We have been working throughout the spring and into the summer on the art vehicles. Every year it seems the BMOrg becomes more stringent on their acceptance policies and fewer and fewer art cars are given the go-ahead to tool around the playa. We ourselves have had art cars vetoed as recently as 2008. “So what does any of this have to do with me?” I hear you cry. Felony has asked me to please remind everyone that we need a more “permanent” Art Car crew for year-round upkeep on lighting and sound, etc. Kudos to Drew, Wildman, Matt, Sean, and the entire crew who have been diligent and unwavering in their work. But now we need more of you to step up. Although we have people who can do the mechanical work, what we really need is a dedicated artist crew to work on the lighting, sound, and overall decoration. You must be local to the general Carson City-Dayton area or be able to travel. Let Felony know if you’re available.
Dues. Everyone who camps and is placed within Barbie Death Village needs to have their dues paid in advance. We just had our final dues increase (dues will no longer be collected on the playa), and for veterans to BDCthey run $150, newbies are $200, and everyone coming in from overseas will be assessed an additional $50. You can use our preferred method PayPal to Doc Pyro.
There is plenty to do at Burning Man, that’s for sure. And for those of you who suffer from F.O.M.O I have some good news for you: The BRC What? When? Where? Guide is up and running. If you have an event that you would like to be widely publicized (for example Fizzball or Body Painting at Black Rock City Body & Paint) all you have to do is enter it in the WWWG! You have to keep the description down to something like 140 characters, much like the President’s idiotic tweets, and simply add the event using this link: http://playaevents.burningman.com.
The last day to order your Barbie Death Camp shirts and hats is this Tuesday, the Fourth of July. This is the only fundraiser we have for the camp and we use the proceeds to purchase our “I Won Burning Man!” shirts and other miscellaneous items. Shirts and hats will be shipped to your home address in the United States in about a month. So use the link below to buy a shirt, m’kay?
Our good friend the lovely Lucy has a top-notch generator for sale. It has less than 100 hours on it. It’s a Yamaha EF3000iSEB-3000 Watt Inverter Series generator. It has been on the playa a few times and runs like a champ. If you want a great generator at a reasonable price, contact Lucy directly.
And since we're all wired via the interwebs, check us out at our websites at http://barbiedeathcamp.com or like us on Faceplant https://facebook.com/barbiedeathvillage.
A few housekeeping notes. We are having our annual Barbie Death Village work party and BBQ on Saturday, August 19. This party is open to all burners, not just Barbiebarians. It will begin at 3 p.m. when we will load up the flat-bed trailer with the piano, water barrels, shade structures, miscellaneous Barbie“art”, and so on. Then we will have a BBQ complete with beer and burgers. The pool will be open but since this is a family event, suits must remain on until, oh I don’t know, 8 p.m. or thereabouts. A splendid time is guaranteed for all. Also on July 6 is the Sacramento Regional Burner Meet Up at Bennie’s Grille, 20th and Q Street in midtown. This kicks off at 6:30. And a final note, we will have our Northern California caravan to Black Rock City for everyone with a Saturday Work Access Pass (you know, early arrival pass). We will be leaving from Newcastle/Auburn at 8 a.m. Saturday, August 26. We will rendezvous at the Boreal Ridge Rest Stop, exit 176 on I-80 at 9:15 a.m. At 9:30 we’ll depart and from there it’s on to the USA Parkway (NV exit 32) for gas, Nixon for Indian Tacos, and on to Black Rock City!
I want to introduce our newbies from no fewer than eight different countries to Barbie Death Village. Joining Nikita from UCSB say hello to Pigpen; with Schultzy we have Alley; joining Bobbin with Hookers and Makers from New York is Jolanta; from Amsterdam via Romania welcome Oana and Daniel; with BarbieDay Spa is Joshua; from the Ukraine there’s Olena and from Russia Sergey; from The Netherlands with Cantina Vida welcome Michiel, Robin, Roald, and Alvaro who is originally from the Yucatan; from Germany by way of Jordan Flash is bringing along Mo, from Belarus Andrei, and Russia Tanya; from Berkeley welcome JB and her friend from Miami Maddawg; with Danger we have Amber Wench; with Coco Locos welcome Alejandro; from Belarus say “salud” to Olga; from Mexico with Cantina Vida we shout “hola” to Dee and Esteban; from Connecticut, meet Hayley’s friend Evan; with Ben and The **** Guys there’s Grace ; and finally, can you believe it, two more ladies from Amsterdam, let’s welcome Linda and Christina
The Man burns in 63 days )’(
Respectfully submitted,
Doc Pyro & Felony Arson