Twan’s List

The 2nd annual southwestern Burning Man regional event is underway as of today Thursday May 17. The arts and music festival runs through Sunday night May 20th.

At last year’s Dark Skies Singularity event, somewhere in the vicinity of 700 participants showed up for the four day festival. I was one of the producers, being at that time the L.A. Burning Man regional director. I had hooked up with Cameron Grant the Las Vegas BM regional director and his team, and the rest is, as they say, history.

Though I’ve retired my role as a BM regional head and am not involved with the production and organization of this event any longer, I can attest to the amazing hard work of all involved, in particular the Las Vegas crew. It’s their baby. Everyone really puts their asses on the line. It’s a labor of love, and it shows. It became a multi regional effort last year, as Cameron and I had been talking about “connecting the dots” in regards to pooling our resources as heads of the regions. Once our alliance was set, the Las Vegas crew picked up the ball and ran with it. That’s not to diminish the efforts of the L.A. contingent, without whose influence and committed efforts and immeasurable passion the event could not have become what it is!

Here are some shots from last year’s event: The Boogie Man doing what he does best! Just to entice you. I hope it helps!

Directions with photos on the DarkSkies Website.

This event is exceptional in its diversity. Come on out. It’s high time for a road trip! Last year we had participants from Salt Lake City, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, NYC, Vancouver… and probably a few others

It’s about a 3 hour drive to the Roach dry lake-bed from Los Angeles. With some friends and/or satellite radio to keep you company, that’ll fly by. You’ll be on the mini-Playa in no time!

There are hotel accommodations nearby if camping isn’t on your agenda this time around! Showers, rooms, casinos, restaurants… Brush up on your poker! Check the Primm Valley Resorts Website for accommodation information (though turn off your speakers to avoid the stupidly horrible music that begins playing immediately).

You can be a proactive communicator by joining the Dark Skies Tribe on Tribe.net

Creative Vandalism : Burning Man Art in the City

This might be old news to some, but it’s new news to me: Have a look at what an enterprising vandal (with big balls!) did to the large scale sculpture made by married artists Dan das Mann and Karen Cusolito.

Dan and Karen had constructed the large sculpture to be displayed at the Burning Man Festival in 2005, where it was very well received, as their excellent works of art always are.

Through the efforts of the non-profit arm of Black Rock City, LLC (the corporation that produces Burning Man), The Black Rock Arts Foundation (BRAF), this work of art, known as “Passage”, has found a home within the city, which is one of the functions of BRAF:

The mission of the Black Rock Arts Foundation is to support and promote community-based interactive art. For our purposes, interactive art means art that generates social participation. The process whereby this art is created, the means by which it is displayed and the character of the work itself should inspire immediate actions that connect people to one another in a larger communal context.

BRAF Mission Statement

So, last year while the many thousands of Burning Man participants were out at Black Rock City enjoying themselves in whatever manner they saw fit, some folks stayed behind and welded some additions to Passage in the city. Here’s an image to give you a little idea of what went down:

Please go to the San Francisco Metroblog, which is where I found this story, for more images and some very enlightening and hilarious commentary by the person who posted it, Violet Blue.

In particular, the comments are insightful as they are hilarious:

“Knowing Dan and Karen, who have a pretty good sense of humor, they would probably not be too upset about this, since it appears that there was no major damage done to the sculpture and the alterations can be easily removed.”

Scott Beale from Laughing Squid

“the bong has been stolen.
THE BONG HAS BEEN STOLEN!”

Violet Blue

“What’s a bong?”

James Barff

Artist Dan das Mann left a comment in very good spirits, as can be expected. The prank was a good one, in this prankster’s opinion…

“Thanks for the interesting addition to the sculpture. Karen and I found it humorous. We appreciate the careful fabrication work required to create and install mom’s pipe and are touched that someone felt so compelled to be a part of the sculpture making process in our absence. We could definitely use your fabrication skills on future projects. Give us a call and keep up the good work!”

Dan das Mann

Southwestern Burning Man Regional Event

Dark Skies / Singularity Calling for Art

CALLING ALL ARTISTS!!!

Art Curator Dale Youngman says:

Yes, it’s time for the art wrangling to begin!

Dark Skies / The Singularity Event is taking place near Primm, Nevada on Roach Lake May 17-20. This is the second annual South West Regional Burning Man event jointly organized by two regional teams in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. This year is shaping up to be spectacular, but we need your participation for it to be all that it can be!

This year, in addition to mutant vehicles, art sculptures and large scale installations, we are also featuring a real gallery-style fine art and photography show inside an amazing structure called “Innermind”, by Gary Stadler. Some of you may remember the beautiful 85′ x 40′ conical structure from Burning Man a couple of years ago - it has a beacon of light that shoots out of the top, and is a very impressive art piece all on its own. This year it will function as the center camp, and will house white flats upon which we will hang artwork from both regions, as well as smaller sculptures and installations.

As our hanging space inside is somewhat limited, the space will be curated, and regrettably not every submission can be hung (but there is room for plenty!). We are asking for jpegs and sizes of all art submissions to be sent to

art@la-burningman.com

where they will be reviewed and coordinated by myself and other team members. (Since I also have a gallery I run downtown, I am always looking for new art anyway -so please send me your info!) Decisions regarding content will not be made until the first of May, when we know the actual sq. footage of interior space and see the quantity of art work submitted.

This year, in order to facilitate the many sculptural artists living here, we will have transportation for larger pieces leaving from L.A. We are hopeful that this will allow many more of you wonderful LA artists to be represented out on the near-playa . If requesting transport of large installations (or any artwork for that matter ), please include size, weight, and any special info necessary for us to assist you in your art’s appearance at the event. Let’s show Vegas what we can do!

Any questions, please write me:

I am daleydale, and I am here to serve !

Link to project online: http://www.heartmagic.com/inner_mind.html

Singularity Tickets

Dale Youngman

daleydale100@yahoo.com

New Orleans Photos by Paynie

Have a look at Paynie’s excellent photographs from his visits to New Orleans, documenting the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Any purchase will result in a donation being made to the Burners Without Borders organization.

Sez Paynie:

As you fly into New Orleans, it looks normal.

As you drive away from the airport, it looks strange.

When you stop and get out of your car, it’s devastating.

50% of any funds will be donated to Burners Without Borders.

Please help by passing this link around.

Paynie

The Hawaii Burning Man Regional Presents

Rebirth 2007
The Hawaii Interactive Arts Festival

April 26th-29th

At the Shire, near Pahoa, Hawaii

The Phoenix will burn in a little over 3 weeks get your tickets today!

Rebirth 2007, is a 4 day Burning Man Regional event and interactive arts festival near Pahoa, Hawaii, including a 20′ phoenix, fire spinners, a luau, performance, music (DJs, bands, acoustic), art installations, themecamps, and more. This event is based on the Burning Man 10 Principles and is a nonprofit gathering of artists, no one is making money, advertising and vending is banned inside, and you interact through gifting. Come prepared to camp, express your creativity, and make connections, tickets are $35 (still a few left) and $45, see www.kapilina.org for more information.

April 15th - Deadline Day. This is the last day before Rebirth 2007 to:

• submit an Art Grant
• Low Income ticket application
• register a themecamp
• submit an event to the what/where/when section of the Event Guide
• or have your tickets you bought online mailed to you
  • (pick up at Will Call after 4/15).
• For all the information you need about any of these things please check Ka Pilina Web site.

Ticket Information:

There are still a few of the $35 tickets left online and in ticket outlets on the Big Island, get yours today before they are sold out and there are only $45 tickets left.

Help us fund this project, we need funds early, buy your ticket today. Buy a ticket online right now or go to one of the following ticket outlets:

• CD Wizard (Pohaku Street, Hilo) on the Big Island
• DevOcean (59-059 Pupukea Road, Haleiwa) on Oahu
• BC Burrito (3607 Wailae Avenue, Honolulu) on Oahu
• Papaya’s Hanalei on Kauai
• Papaya’s Kapa’a on Kauai
• The Natural Food Store (in Kaeuhou) in Kona
• CD Exchange (old industrial area) in Kona

The Ka Pilina Interactive Arts Society, Inc. (501c3)
hawaii@burningman.com
http://kapilina.tribe.net/

Singularity
2nd Annual Desert Arts Festival
Las Vegas / Los Angeles Burning Man Regional Event

Roach Dry Lake : Primm, Nevada : May 17 - 20

CALLING ALL ARTISTS!!!

Yes, it’s time for the art wrangling to begin!

Dark Skies – The Singularity Event is taking place near Prim Nevada on Roach Lake May 17-20. This is the second annual South West Regional Burning Man event jointly organized by two regional teams in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. This year is shaping up to be spectacular, but we need your participation for it to be all that it can be!

This year, in addition to mutant vehicles, art sculptures and large scale installations, we are also featuring a real gallery-style fine art and photography show inside an amazing structure called “Innermind”, by Gary Stadler. Some of you may remember the beautiful 85′ x 40′ conical structure from Burning Man a couple of years ago - it has a beacon of light that shoots out of the top, and is a very impressive art piece all on its own.

This year it will function as the center camp, and will house white flats upon which we will hang artwork from both regions, as well as smaller sculptures and installations.

As our hanging space inside is somewhat limited, the space will be curated, and regrettably not every submission can be hung (but there is room for plenty !)

We are asking for jpegs and sizes of all art submissions to be sent to:

• art@la-burningman.com

…where they will be reviewed and coordinated by myself and other team members. (Since I also have a gallery I run downtown, I am always looking for new art anyway - so please send me your info!) Decisions regarding content will not be made until the first of May, when we know the actual sq. footage of interior space and see the quantity of art work submitted.

This year, in order to facilitate the many sculptural artists living here, we will have transportation for larger pieces leaving from LA . We are hopeful that this will allow many more of you wonderful LA artists to be represented out on the near-playa .

If requesting transport of large installations, please include:

• size,
• weight
• any special info necessary for us to assist you in your art’s appearance at the event.

Let’s show LV what we can do (again..!)
Any questions, please write me - I am daleydale, and I am here to serve !

Fire, Art, Ambition, and Success!

Last year, a group of 82 fire artists gathered at Black Rock City during the Burning Man festival with the intention of setting a world record. After what must have felt like a very long wait, they have finally received word from the Guinness Book of World Records that they had achieved their goal!

Organized by local Los Angeles fire artist and super freak Tedward (pictured below on one knee in center of photo) the group gathered and breathed a collective breath of big fire into the crisp night sky of the lovely northern Nevada desert… It was a beautiful sight. A unique function of community. More please!

Excerpt from “Ocean of Fire” organizer Tedward:

31 August 2006, just outside Thunderdome, shortly after dusk:

82 firebreathers gathered together with the intent of breaking the existing record of 70 firebreathers all engaged in a single act of fire breathing.

They spent 6 months gathering evidence: video footage, photographs, news articles, etc. On 29 January 2007, the package was sent to Guinness and the long wait began. Now, they wait no more. It’s official, the Ocean of Fire project is the current world record holder for most number of fire breathers in one location.

The certificate has been sent from Guinness and will be auspiciously posted on the website upon arrival.

Tedward

30 August 2007, at the Shiva Vista Project, shortly after dusk we will be gathering once more. A group in Denmark is gathering evidence to make a claim of 115 breathers, and we may have to defend our title, so, grab a partner and a fire breather and join us Thrusday night.

Please support NAFAA

DARK SKIES - THE SINGULARITY EVENT

PRESS RELEASE FOR MARCH 6, 2007

Hello Dark Skies - Singularity community. Got a few minutes?

Here is the latest news in regards to our permits and the BLM. Feel free to forward this public press release wherever you’d like.

THE NUMBERS.

• DS/Sing is going to cost between $25 and $29K to produce.
• The initial draft of the accounting (pre-event) is posted here http://darkskies.vegasartists.com/about/accounting.php
• It’s still pretty rough and is lacking a bunch of stuff, but you’ll see the nexus of what this takes.
• We post this in advance of the event because we want YOU the community to buy into this thing and see what it takes to produce it.
• Realize that nobody is getting rich here. And we want you to buy tickets, too!
• How’s that for blatant honesty?
• It’s an extremely risky venture at best producing these events.
• Our ONLY source of income comes from YOU buying tickets to the event.

Anyway…

• BLM Law Enforcement (LE) is asking for $34,600 in LE fees for the May event.
• Event budget - <>$27K, LE fees - $34k. See a problem here?

After being approved for the upcoming May event this past December, we have received a “Cost Recovery Estimate” in February from BLM that is far in excess of the entire event’s gross budget.

WHAT WE ARE GOING TO DO NOW?

We are prepared to file an appeal with the BLM in Sacramento and Washington to contest these fees, and concurrently file an application for a ’stay’ to keep our permitting process moving forward during the appeal process, which could take up to two years. We intend to show that BLM is in error in its cost estimate for our little event, and further, that bias, prejudice, and unfair treatment has occurred numerous times at our events. Those of you who’ve receive citations know what we’re talking about here. They simply “don’t like” us (yes, that is a quote!), but that has no bearing on the facts unfortunately.

We have a meeting scheduled with BLM for this Thursday here in the Las Vegas office to begin this process and attempt to talk some sense into these guys. I/E: How can you charge more than the event brings in for LE alone? Maybe we’ll just hire cops and not have any potties? For that matter, maybe the cops will let us s**t in their armored Chevy Suburban cruisers out on Roach Lake? Dunno. We’re pretty sure that we will prevail in this effort, and it’s a very challenging and productive time right now and a lot of work is going on behind the scenes on many levels to make the May event happen. This letter is keeping you all in the loop. This letter is pulling back that curtain. Many of you just want to come to the event, set up and have fun, and we love that and we love you, but many of you also want to know what’s going on behind the scenes, too. Many of you find this process fascinating, you nerds. That’s what this letter is about.

What does this situation mean? Is Dark Skies - The Singularity Event getting canceled? Moved? Turned into a Pentecostal Snake show? Are we going full on commercial and hiring the Chilli Peppers to pay for the cops? NO WAY! That will never happen. The May event is ON and we’re doing it on Roach Lake, May 17-20, just like we always have. What this means quite frankly is that we have to jump through yet more hoops in order to use the land that we own and pay for, from the Bureaucracy that we pay for, too. We know our rights, we have the facts, and we have YOUR support in producing one of the best events on the west coast. And that feels pretty damn good guys. We also have some of Burning Man’s resources now being brought to bear on this situation as well and we are extremely grateful for that. Additional resources are coming on line even as we speak. The reason is, that we are ethical and responsible; the facts are that we are in the right, and that BLM is simply wrong in trying to over regulate us and regulate us out of existence. BLM’s Cost Recovery Estimate is simply in error.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

• What do we need from you guys now?
• What can you do to help? Well for starters, we are NOT going to start a letter writing campaign.
• And, we are not going start calling BLM and whining about this situation.
• Also, no picket lines or clown, bunny, or santa rampages at their offices either; it will do no good at this point, trust us.

We need to work collectively as a group within the letter of the law and BLM’s regulations to find a solution to this problem. This is not the time for emotions, this is the time for clear rational action and we are about to do just that. Again, we’re not asking you to DO anything at this point except buy tickets; we just really want everyone reading this to more fully understand what goes into events of this type. One can only imagine the pain the Burningman has gone through in figuring this out over the past 20+ years. Anyone who thinks this is easy should give it a try sometime. G’head, we dare you.

THE APPEALS PROCESS

Want some more info? Ok then, in the spirit of both community and true open source here is the basis for our complaint and for what will become the appeal should that unfortunate action become necessary. And we really hope it can be avoided at our meeting in two days. This is our rationale for appealing fees in excess of the event’s total budget. We allege the following:

1. That BLM is over-charging us for Law Enforcement for our event far in excess of that called for in other events of this type. BLM standards for “all ages family events” are one law enforcement officer per 1000 participants. Our current ratio is 1/90. (see #7 below)
2. That a history of abuse, bias, and discrimination exists and that our event is being treated differently than any other events of this type. This affects us adversely and therefore a stay should be granted to allow the permitting to proceed.
3. That arbitrary and capricious standard?s are being applied to us on many levels.
4. That we have a history of just one stipulation violation in four previous events on the same site, which was minor and promptly corrected (fireworks). Therefore there is no reason to have three observers as part of our cost recovery estimate or stipulations. (see #7 below)
5. That though we have complained in writing to BLM about abuse and dereliction of duties by LE on two different occasions, those complaints went unanswered and ignored and instead we find ourselves in the current situation.
6. That BLM is attempting to charge us an amount, greater than the total gross budget of our event. This precludes the event from ever happening. This not only violates our civil rights, but that it negates BLM’s mandate to preserve our public lands for public use. In short, we believe BLM is attempting to regulate us out of existence and exclude us while allowing other events of this type to occur. This affects us adversely and therefore a stay should be granted to allow the permitting to proceed.
7. That in our four events held on this site, and contrary to BLM’s own internal regulations, no After Action Reports have been filed for any of our events, and that therefore, this shows neither precedent nor reason for our user fees being increased for event number 5 by a factor of over 1600%. This affects us adversely and therefore a stay should be granted to allow the permitting to proceed.
8. That the closure area that BLM is requiring us to adhere to is 350 times larger than Burningman’s per capita. This huge closure area is completely unworkable for an event of this size. We wish to be held to the same standard as Burningman in this regard. Precedent has been set for these types of events. This affects us adversely and therefore a stay should be granted to allow the permitting to proceed.

As you can see, we’ve done quite a bit of work on this matter and we’re fairly confidant that we will prevail once the facts supporting these claims have been presented, and rest assured that we do have the documentation to back this stuff up.

If any of YOU have anything to add to this please contact us OFF LIST and get involved. This is going out to too many lists (worldwide) to have public dialogs on all of them, though we would be happy to discuss it on the main Dark Skies/Singularity list.

And remember that BLM and LE is already on most of our lists anyway in case you hadn’t guessed. (Hi guys)
We’re not looking for emotional or hostile responses. This is not “fight the man” time, but your ideas are certainly welcome and encouraged.

What are we missing here?

That’s pretty much it. Fun reading, huh?

GOOD NEWS

• Now for some good news!
• We have over a dozen theme camps signed on.
• We have a truck load of art on the way from L.A.
• We’re going to have a massive art gallery in center camp, (whoo hoo!).
• We also have major pyro and fire art coming in from all over the west coast,
• Tickets sold in 8 states so far.

YOUR SUPPORT is the key to making this all happen. Thank you all! To be quite honest, what we need is to sell tickets and we have been selling pretty well so far so thank you for that, too. The current count is somewhere around 180 tickets sold in advance, which puts us farther ahead than any other event we’ve done and well on the way to reaching our cap, which will be somewhere around 600 or 700 people. Please visit the Dark Skies / Vegas Artists website to learn more about Dark Skies / The Singularity Event and to sign up to help out on site. Volunteers are the key to making this work so please get involved.

Thank you again for your continued support of YOUR southwest regional burn. Thank you for buying tickets. Thank you for helping. And thank you for daring to dream big with us and make this happen, in this wonderful venue, and on this level of both complexity and content. With your love and support, this is going to completely and totally rock. Because as we’ve always said since May of ‘05: “we just found the site, it is YOU who make the event so special”.
And you do.

Much dusty love,
The Singularity Core

Cameron Grant: Las Vegas BM Regional Director

More trouble for the Burning Man org. Or just a minor irritation…. You decide:

Watch the video

It’s a little bit disturbing… I hate to say it, but the people that came out of the Burning Man offices to “counter” the protesters (who seem to be expressing legitimate concerns), those people come across as complete kooks. I wonder if they had been put up to the task by their higher-ups…

Have a look and share your thoughts here.

LOS ANGELES BURNING MAN COMMUNITY TOWN HALL MEETING

2/11/7

2pm - 6pm

This is what we hope to make the first of many meetings - come and share your hope, vision, ideas (but not yer flyers).

Interested in info about Singularity?
* Want to volunteer?
* Want volunteers?
* Feel like making your voice heard?
* Well, use our soapbox.

We’ll also be announcing our first LA-specific art grant, for an Icon at Singularity. Thinking caps on, please.

Here’re some links to the Burning Man’s mission statement

And the 10 principles

So bring your bad self, your bad-ass friends and your bad-ass dreams of what we can truly be.

peace,

Patrick (aka “Eleven”) Shearn
Los Angeles Burning Man Co-regional Director

Los Angeles Burning Man Town Hall Meeting

Sunday, February 11th, 2007

2 - 6pm

Abundant Sugar
618#A Moulton Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90031

PLEASE oh please park on Moulton, Main, or the lot just in front of Abundant Sugar, and leave the main Brewery Lot to our patient and kind neighbors (that they might remain that way)