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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)

Interesting article about the founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Burning Man, and Black Rock City:

Talent Hunting in the Counter Culture

“Page and Brin are just two of the approximately 30,000 Burning Man devotees – burners, as they’re known – who gather every year to help build and enjoy the art-filled collective on an ancient, dried-out lake bed known as Black Rock City (which, for the week it exists, is the third most populous burg in the state)…”

CNN Money article excerpt

Bad Ass 4 Wheel Bicycle/Electric Art Car-For Sale

• Seats 4 below and has a futon canopy above.
• Full Lighting.
• Extra long distance batteries.
• Fur Upholstery.
• Powerful Onboard Lightweight Battery Charger.
• Dual Bank Battery Monitor.
• Needs some work.

Selling Cheap.
$1,000 FIRM-Including Registered Trailer

Click here to see Pictures and the Full Description

Burning Man Sued by former partner…

Some say that after the trial and tribulations of the 1996 Burning Man event in the Black Rock Desert that John Law got a raw deal.

The 1996 Burning Man event had seen exponential growth in population, and with that growth there had been some problems. The infrastructure was taxed and there had been injuries and a death. It was after the 1996 event that John Law, one of the founding creators of Burning Man, left the organization. What is not known is whether he left of his own accord or was ousted. And somehow blame was passed on to him for the trials that the event underwent in that pivotal year.

Some say that John Law had been scapegoated. Today I spoke with a dear friend who has been deeply involved with Burning Man since the early 1990′s, who told me that he was present when John Law had agreed to leave the organization of his own free will. However, he also pointed out that John had said something which had personally offended Larry Harvey, to the point of that a vengeful Larry found a way arrange John’s “willing” ouster within a few months of the 1996 event.

Now, after a decade has passed, and Black Rock City LLC (the corporation that hosts the Burning Man festival) is an $8-10 million per year operation, John Law has resurfaced. On January 9th, 2007 in San Francisco, Mr. Law has filed suit against his former partners.

John Law has created a blog to document his thoughts on the matters at hand. This should be fascinating…

For further reading, please visit the following sites:

• John Law’s new Blog
• Lawsuit info on the Laughing Squid website
• Burning Man article in Reason Magazine from 2000
• A PDF court document with all the details of the case

Interesting times for the Burning Man Org.

Here are a couple of photo galleries by DJ Wolfie. The lad gets around, what can I say.

Island of Lost Toys Party, Los Angeles:

NYC Burning Man Decompression Party, NYC, NY:

Better late than never! Feel free to enjoy this photo gallery from the Los Angeles Burning Man Decompression Street Faire, provided by Paynie:

Paynie’s L.A. Decom Pix

A friend just sent me a link to an article in the New York Times about Burning Man, the BM regional network and the spreading of the culture.

The article gives nice mention of the Los Angeles BM Decompression Street Fair.

Also mentioned by name is one of L.A.’s newly installed regional director’s Patrick Shearn.

Give it a read if you’re into such things…

So…. when has the threat of rain ever kept you from living a rich, full, extreme life? Bring it on! Wet or dry, I wouldn’t miss the L.A. Decom for anything! Well, maybe if lovely “Miss Burning Man” and her naughty little helpers made some delicious carnal promises that they intended to follow thru on, I might consider missing the event… but that ain’t gonna happen. Bone dry or dripping sky, this is going to be amazing!

Twan

Los Angeles Burning Man Decompression 2006

Saturday, Oct 14th
Noon to midnight

$10 in Playa outfits (that means costume), $20 without

Enter at 1st Street and Vignes in “lovely” downtown L.A.

mapquest 901 e. 1st street, la, ca 90012

www.la-burningman.com

WELCOME HOME! The thrill of the playa rises again, this time on the streets of Los Angeles. This is an annual event to bring the spirit of Burning Man alive in our community.

Curious about Burning Man? Then this is the perfect way to get a taste of radical self expression, without having to drive 12 hours.

THIS IS AN ART FESTIVAL FEATURING:
THEME CAMPS
ART CARS
FIRE SCULPTURES
ART INSTALLATIONS
PAINTINGS
PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITS

7 STAGES PRESENTING:
VISUAL PERFORMERS
SPOKEN WORD POETRY
FIRE TROUPES
LIVE BANDS
DJ’S
PERFORMANCE ART
AERIALISTS
VJ’S

THIS IS A FAMILY FRIENDLY EVENT.

THIS YEAR WE WILL HAVE SEVERAL FOOD OPTIONS, INCLUDING VEGETARIAN AND NON VEGETARIAN MEALS FROM MULTIPLE BURNER FRIENDLY VENDORS.

WE NEED YOU! So bring your good energy, costumes, art, music, and performances to the streets of downtown LA. Help us spread the word far and wide, feel free to forward this email to all your lists. Invite your friends that have never been to burning man. Stop telling them about the magic- instead show them the magic!

This year we are adding an extra block to the festival, so we have room for all the new theme camps, artists and art cars. We will be lowering the noise level of sound stages by doing 4 corner sound. We will have far more performer space this year, for diverse acts such as break dancers, stilt shows, fire troupes, and belly dancers.

We will be hosting a “green area” – a place where those interested in sustainability, permaculture and environmentalism will be able to see first hand new technology and listen to speakers in this earth friendly movement.

We will have more food and beverage vendors this year, so you can come early and stay all day.
We’ll make sure there will be food for all tastes – organic to carnivore.

Expect incredible art work, beautiful art cars, and delightful music – with as much diversity as burners can provide.

Decompression is an opportunity to dust off and share again playa art, performances, theme camps, photos, videos and stories from the playa; to re-connect with family and friends; and collaborate to create new art. It is, at its simplest, a reunion. But more significantly, it is a thoroughly participatory celebration of Burning Man art and community within our larger communities. And it is one of the more powerful ways many of us bring some of what is so inspiring about Burning Man to our cities and the public eye.

The street fair is also a fund raiser for the Black Rock Arts Foundation (BRAF) whose mission is to support and promote community-based interactive art through grants and exhibitions.

This year marks the 4th year for the street fair in Los Angeles and expects 5,000+ patrons joining costumed artists and participants with multiple stages, performances, theme camps and art installations.

Added to this year’s event will be an art gallery exhibit: “Burning Man, Awakening Inspiration” that will preview at the Gallery Row Art Walk Oct 12th.

For parking, may we suggest several options:

• There are several public parking lots located at 1st and Alameda. Then walk east down 1st Street to reach our event.
• On Central Ave. and 1st, there is the Japanese parking structure.
• There is ample street parking on Santa Fe St. south of 3rd and also N. Vignes St (north of Banning) and surrounding streets.
• We are not affiliated with these parking structures. We are simply listing them for your convienience.

FOR CURRENT UPDATES, FULL DETAILS, PHOTOS FROM LAST YEAR, AND TO JOIN THE L.A. REGIONAL BURNING MAN MAILING LIST, PLEASE VISIT
HTTP://WWW.LA-BURNINGMAN.COM