Podcasts about Cacophony Society

Thunderdome has been part of Black Rock City for 25 years. Marisa Winter has led it for most of that time. One need not experience it to benefit from the wisdom of a high-profile, high-intensity theme camp's insights.Hear Marisa and Stuart talk through the leadership structure and community practices that result in the Thunderdome's chaotic harmony of performance, showmanship, and cathartic “consensual violence.” Marisa shares insights gleaned from decades of theme camp operation. Such insights include: · Letting people make non-permanent mistakes allows them to own the lessons· Prioritizing community is never the wrong answer· Making hard decisions ASAP attracts quality people· How to schedule your crying day!Listen in on the laughter, and tolerate the cringe stories that prove Thunderdome is not cosplay, and you will be rewarded with the inspiration and institutional knowledge of the infamous Death Guild Thunderdome.www.divamarisa.comwww.deathguildthunderdome.comjournal.burningman.org/author/diva-marisaplayaevents.burningman.org/2024/playa_event/48007https://burningman.org/programs/philosophical-center LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Most people in Black Rock City live together in placed camps, aka theme camps, the most unique aspect of this unique event. There are 1200 camps in BRC. Somewhere at the intersection of Communal Effort, Self-Expression, and Immediacy, theme camps provide a uniquely decommodified ‘third place' of goods and services, and ambiance, offered as a gift. The annual Camp Symposium brings together staff and volunteers to share how they gift their interactive camps to participants. There's an art and a science to it. This is an episode of highlights about the art of it.Bryant Tan (aka Level Placerman): head of PlacementAndie Grace: Producer in the Philosophical CenterCharlie Dolman: Director of Event OperationsDA (aka Dominic Tinio): Environmental Restoration ManagerHarley K Dubois: Founder & Chief Cultural OfficerStuart Mangrum: Director of the Philosophical Centerand a keen crew of Placement Team volunteers BravoCosmicGovernessHepkittenHuntressKGBRazzmatazzListen to how it started, how it's going, and how Burners create these unique and interactive passion projects. Camps and Placement | Burning ManPlacement: About Us & VolunteeringCamp Support Team | Burning ManDe-bureaucratizing Your Burn (Burning Man LIVE 2025)Charlie Dolman · The Dust is in the Details (Burning Man LIVE 2022)Dark Angel of Black Rock & Restoration Destiny (Burning Man LIVE 2020) LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Explore the magic monuments of Black Rock City 2025.Katie Hazard, Director of Art, leads the selection, placement, and installation of artwork,  and she leads Burning Man's art grant selection committees. The ARTery is in the center of Black Rock City, slightly offset like the human heart. It's the epicenter of art support for nearly 400 art pieces, from towering sculptures to immersive environments.Before these art projects are sourced, crafted, and assembled with everything from hot glue to heavy equipment, they are first conceptualized by artists and engineers. Burning Man's Honoraria project grants 76 of these art projects about half of the funding they need, a total of $1.3 million.  Katie and Stuart explore how to foster accessibility and agency in artist groups. They describe some of the installations coming this summer, from interactive Sphinxes to a sphere of sinks, from a lost troll of sustainability to a fire-spinning pigeon. Some of the experiences include:an inflatable black cloud from Ukrainean Indigenous deer destined for ceremonial landan Afrofuturist pillar with an ancient modern secreta screaming booth that displays visual reactions to sounda woman with a merry-go-round crown, jump rope dreadlocks, and swing earringsListen in on this sonic journey of how Burner art is co-created and curated, and how BRC's surreal skyline is taking shape.Introducing 2025 BRC Honoraria Art (Burning Man Journal)Black Rock City Honoraria ProgramARTery (Art Services)The ARTery Volunteer TeamsKatie Hazard (Burning Man Journal)2025 Art Theme: Tomorrow TodayBurning Man Art Installation Archive LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Legend whispers of a time when Burning Man was a lawless Eden, a fiery playground of unbridled do-ocracy; no rules, just pure creative chaos. But as Black Rock City has grown into a thriving metropolis, so has the need for structure. We've gone from jokey forms for an ‘artistic license' to complex permit obligations. We've gone from giving ourselves permission to taking on a system that can feel overwhelming.How can we better balance radical self-expression with the necessities of a city? How can we purge bureaucracy, or are all those old rules essential for safety and sustainability?This episode delves into the "agonizing reappraisal" within the Burning Man Project, a movement to streamline processes and discard red tape.Stuart explores the dusty trail from Black Rock City's anarchic origins to the sign marked 2025. He talks with Louder Charlie, the Operations Director of the whole place. He also talks with Chef Juke of the DMV Council, and Level Placerman, Manager of the Placement team.Here's a sneak peek behind the scenesters who are preserving the unique magic while navigating the complexities of growth, and how they ensure that the spirit of creation remains accessible to all.Is it possible to balance the wild heart of Burner culture and the grown-up practices of a city? We're about to find out.The Camp Symposium - March 22, 2025Camps and PlacementThe Department of Mutant Vehicles2025 Ticket Info The 10 PrinciplesBureaucracy (Burning Man Journal) LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Mutant vehicles! Theme camps! Art experiences! It all emanates from the community… overlapping circles of people who are everywhere between being newcomers and seasoned, local and global, young and old.Andie Grace talks with dynamic 20-somethings Taylor Andrews, Kat Ebert, Mani Senthil, and Whitney Wilhelmy about how to find your crew like you never thought possible.They break down barriers and clear pathways through an initiative called “Rising Sparks” which demystifies BRC and Regional events, and guides next-gen Burners to get more from the magic.They explore the art of participation: seeing the sweet spot between being unmoored and overdoing itbalancing of survival and self-expressionfinding fresh takes on mentorshipHear how they claim their place and shape the future. "Rising Sparks is a grassroots collective fostering intergenerational collaboration, connection, and cultural continuity within Burning Man.We cultivate community-driven spaces where emerging leaders, newcomers, and seasoned Burners can connect, dream big, and contribute to the future of Burning Man—both within Black Rock City and globally.Our mission is to inspire participation, address barriers to entry, and cultivate leadership across generations by providing mentorship, community-driven tools, and creative collaboration opportunities.We are igniting the next generation of artists, leaders, and changemakers by stewarding an accessible, culturally diverse, and evolving Burning Man culture." https://linktr.ee/therisingsparks LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Hundreds of people build the temple in Black Rock City. It's a community intent on creating a work of art that is a space for people to grieve and revive. We didn't have a temple in the early versions of Black Rock City. Now, people can't imagine living without it. Each year, participants create messages, tributes, and altars for who and what they want to release. The event culminates with the burning of the temple in what organically evolved to be a silent Burn.Listen to Stuart talk with Miguel Arraiz García, the team lead for this year's “Temple of the Deep.”Hear the stories of how a temple is built, from crew selection to fundraising, from chances taken to lessons learned. This poetic and playful conversation exemplifies how this year's temple is already healing. Miguel says, “We are always looking the answers above us. I was trying to make something just to look for the answer between us or among us. So it was not that much building a temple, it was more building like a shelter for emotions, a safe space where you can be with people.”Burning Man Journal: Introducing the 2025 Templewww.2025temple.comwww.miguelarraiz.comTempleGuardians.burningman.orgRenaixement: Burning Man 2016Burning Man Journal: Tomorrow Today  LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Disasters happen. Communities come together to recover and rebuild. Governments and NGOs help however they know how.  Will Heegaard sees every disaster as a chance to build back greener. His non-profit provides power and water from nature. · power from the sun - instead of gas generators· water from the air - instead of plastic water bottlesHe helped with disaster relief from hurricanes in Florida, North Carolina, and Puerto Rico.He helped in West Africa, in the Philippines, and with the Maui Fires.He's helping with the LA Fires.And he taught himself to create power and water from nature while serving as a paramedic in Black Rock City.These are stories about truths, ideas, and levity in learning. FootprintProject.orgBurnersWithoutBorders.orgBurning Man Project: Philosophical Center LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

He is a celebrated author, entrepreneur, leadership maven, and a founding Board Member of Burning Man Project. He's a serial contributor to the culture and the cause.In this episode, Chip and Stuart explore how to use the 10 Principles to make conversations interesting and how a description of Black Rock City always becomes a riddle.They resist the urge to quiz newbies on the 10 Principles, while they also say that Burners should not take themselves too seriously. They try on the notion that nothing matters and everything's humorous.They make sense of big ideas like collective effervescence, emotional equations, and the need for aesthetics and beauty.They talk about a deep diversity of ritual gatherings around the world, and the influence of the global community emanating from Regional Burns.They talk about all this and more, and somehow it all make sense. wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Conleychipconley.comwww.meawisdom.com LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Burners often speak about the work it takes to prepare their art, art car, or camp for Black Rock City, but for many, it doesn't end there. A project sparked in the desert or at Regional Events can take on a life of its own, continuing year-round in surprising ways.What happens when a camp or mutant vehicle takes a break from Black Rock City? After all the Communal Effort devoted to their playa project, do they even know how to stop? Apparently not... and the world benefits.kbot and Stuart speak with people who pressed pause on producing in Black Rock City, only to put their time, imagination, and heart into projects that build a better world.Leon & Patrizia of New York Dangerous discuss how their resource rescue nonprofit fosters a ‘pay it forward' form of altruism.Leo & Catarina of Jaguara share how their mutant vehicle has become a vehicle for education and expression in Columbia.Zoe (aka “Jeff”) of Camp Starbarf tells how a year off for her camp spawned a voter support initiative and a punk rock band!Their stories share a theme: the 10 Principles (and playa-born fortitude) inspire their year-round endeavors.https://nyd.nychttps://jaguara.coStarBarf (instagram) LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Tom Price co-founded Burners Without Borders, Black Rock Solar, and a company that gifts clean-burning kitchens to people in Kenya.Tom and Stuart talk about the weather, specifically hurricanes, and how Burners Without Borders started and persists in the face of extreme circumstances because Burners are extreme!Tom's tales of adventure include paperwork pranks and ad hoc Cajun catharsis. If Burning Man is a permission engine, giving people agency in their lives, he says that part of the lesson of Burning Man is finding out what is too much permission, then stepping back, and building aptitude to have agency, and responsibility for it. Note: The sponsor names joked about here are NOT sponsors of Burning Man, because Decommodification!Burners Without BordersBlack Rock SolarTom Price: Burning Man JournalBurning Man LIVE: Tom Price and the Benefactor's Dilemma (2022)Burning Man LIVE: Creative Solutions to Mass Destruction (2020)TEDx Black Rock City: Tom Price: Beyond Burning Man (2011)ecosafi.com LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Academics from everywhere experiment, collaborate, and even interpret our stories of "This one time at Burning Man."In this episode, Stuart talks with people from Burning Nerds, an annual gathering of academics in Black Rock City. They keep it light, though; not too many unnecessarily fancy words. Dr Jukka-Pekka Heikkilä shares about the Open Strategy management technique used by Burning Man Project that gives more power to the people. Bryan Yazell and Patricia Wolf of University of Southern Denmark report on using Flash Fiction in BRC to develop a new subgenre of sci-fi called climate fiction (‘cli-fi'), stories that are less dystopian, even less utopian, more protopian (fancy word) about society that improves over time, rather than transcending all it's problems or descending into dysfunction.Professor Matt Zook of University of Kentucky extols the unique aspects of Black Rock City, from materiality to temporality, to being a place apart. He and Stuart explore the interplay between digital and physical spaces, and what about community actually makes it good.Then Jukka-Pekka Heikkilä returns to reveal how the Burning Stories project, now in its 6th year of tracking tales, is now a cultural repository, and is training a gifted AI on how Burners be Burning.jukkapekka.comsdu.dk/en/persons/yazellsdu.dk/en/persons/pawogeography.as.uky.edu/users/zookburningman.org/programs/philosophical-center/academicsregionals.burningman.org/european-leadership-summitburning-stories.comkk.org/thetechnium/protopiasdu.dk/en/paca-at-burning-man-festival-2024 LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Everywhere? Regional events actively align with Burning Man's 10 Principles. 85 official events happen in 30 countries, with collectively more participants and more art grants than the original Nevada event.After 25 years, the combined regional presence is huge, diverse, and evolving, and it all started in one place: Black Rock City. Whether you're Burning in New York or New Zealand, all backroads lead back to BRC.We called a bunch of the Regional leaders to see how things are going out in their other homes away from home. We heard from Argentina, China, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand, and even the far-flung realms of Texas and Kentucky.Play this mixtape of people sharing stories from everywhere in the world.regionals.burningman.orgAnd here's a related episode from 2022: burningman.org/podcast/burning-man-is-not-a-place LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Thousands and thousands of people volunteer each year at Black Rock City, for days, weeks, or months. Add to that the volunteers at the many Regional events around the world and it's more than can be counted on fingers and toes.Why do we volunteer?Is it because we feel we received a gift and we want to pay it back or pay it forward?Is it a meditation of hard work (in a hard place to work) to add dimension to our experience?Is it the chance to be something different, for a pixel pusher to build something with bare hands, an engineer to cook for artists, a project manager to be a… manager of a different kind of project?Yes.We interviewed a few longtime citizens of BRC about why they volunteer with the Greeters, with DPW, and the Man Base. Here are some stories from Topless Deb, Tamsin, Ruin, Terra, and a guy named Fuckyeah.https://burningman.org/event/participate/volunteering/teams LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Burning Man doesn't make itself. The people who share their time and treasure, they create this weird wonder. Each of these people have stories about how Burning Man influenced their lives and how their lives influenced Burning Man. The Flaming Tuba Guy is one of these people. His name is David Silverman aka Tubatron. Andie Grace talked with him about how his animation career started, how his musical career started, how the Mansonian Institute started, how his career with The Simpsons started, and how that influenced his involvement with Burning Man and vice versa. He also volunteers at BRC with the DPW at the Man Pavilion. They recorded this at Burning Man and you can hear in their voices the phonic patina of the playa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Silverman_(animator)https://x.com/tubatronDavid shares more of his story in Episode 27 from 2020: https://burningman.org/podcast/holiday-special-santacon-from-home LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Allow us to introduce you to the people who called the Black Rock Desert “home” way before we did. This is your backstage pass to the original Burners of the Great Basin: The Pyramid Lake Paiute. Strap in for a road trip that's part history lesson, part cultural exchange, and essential listening for when you wonder, "Who lived here before we showed up in tutus?"We're not just passing through, we're digging deep with…Billie Jean Guerrero: Director of the Pyramid Lake Museum Mervin Wright: Environmental Manager James Phoenix: Former Chairman Steven Wadsworth: Current ChairmanDean Barlese: Elder and Spiritual Leader"Double D": A tribal member at at the Golden Spike CeremonyHelpful links:Donate your leftover, non-perishable food to the Pyramid Lake Paiute. Drop it off at Bunny's Tacos in Nixon! Here are Google Map Directions from playa to Bunny's. Camp or recreate at Pyramid Lake. Buy a permit here.Volunteer at the Pyramid Lake Visitor Center and Museum. Help build out the new medicine garden or improve the museum's new haba (traditional Paiute shade structure). Contact Billie Jean Guerrero at bjguerrero@plpt.nsn.usDonate to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe. Stop by the Pyramid Lake Museum and Visitor Center. You can donate in person! Gifting! You can also write to the Tribal Secretary at tribalsecretary@plpt.nsn.us with which program, department, or tribal office you'd like to direct your donation. LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Take a trip through the puzzle of porta-potties at a free-range event, highway happenings, and the new news about prep. This is deeper than “What is MOOP?” This is the ART of Leaving No Trace.It's part of the Burning Man ethos, and it's why Black Rock City is the world's largest Leave No Trace event. Now nearly 100 other Burning Man events around the globe adhere to this attitude, this mindset. It's an ongoing quest to leave less and less of a trace. As the principle is written, it invites us to leave spaces in better shape than we found them.The 75,000 citizens of BRC pick up after themselves. It's miraculous. And we can do more.Those of us who take on the challenge, we see it as a process, a practice, a stretch goal. We look at ways to get closer to that zero point. Each of us is at a different point on the LNT learning curve. The next level is to develop techniques to do it collectively. It is a set of behaviors to be cultivated.In this episode, we talk with some of the unsung heroes: blue: DPW Logistics & Project Manager of Recycle CampBarbarella: Resto's Highway Clean-Up ManagerDA: Playa Restoration ManagerHazmatt: Associate Director of BRC Business OperationsWe look at what gets left behind, so we can grok our cumulative impact, and make a better choice, a better cascade of choices, to teach good citizenship. Plus, eh, there may be a few poop jokes.There's an old saying in Black Rock City: “It was better next year.” Let's leave no trace so that there will be a next year.burningman.org/about/10-principlesRecycle Camp2023 MOOP MapDA on Restoration Destiny (Burning Man LIVE) LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Burning Man culture brings people together across all kinds of divides. Yet, we're seeing an uptick of intolerance around art and experiences in our community. The default world is often divided by ideology, religion, and politics. Could that division seep into this culture that aspires to welcome everyone and rise above social schisms?As a community, how can we navigate the turbulent waters between, say, Radical Self-expression and Radical Inclusion? How do we walk the line between free speech and hate speech? How do we keep our global community together in times of outright war?Tune into a roundtable discussion about concerns that don't have easy solutions. Four thinkers in the Burning Man global cultural movement explore how the act of conversation changes what might otherwise seem controversial or divisive:• Stuart Mangrum is Burning Man Project's Director of the Philosophical Center so he directed some philosophers to center around a microphone to discuss.• Caveat Magister debated and discussed Burning Man philosophy, then wrote books about it.• Kay Morrison is a veteran Black Rock City artist, active in the Global Network, and a Burning Man Project board member.• Steven Raspa is Associate Director of Community Events for Burning Man Project, and a co-founder of the Regional Network Committee.This conversation concerns art, yes, and behavior — as participants, as people. It's about being open-minded and open-hearted, even when it's difficult to do. What is a safe space? What is a brave space? How can jackassery be respectful? What's with all the questions? Tune in for the answers that lead to more questions.burningman.org/about/10-principlesTurn Your Life Into Art with Caveat Magister (Burning Man LIVE)Kay Morrison and the Overall Wonderment Quotient (Burning Man LIVE)Remember How to Burning Man with Steven Raspa (Burning Man LIVE)Stuart Mangrum's Serious Philosophy of Shenanigans (Burning Man LIVE) LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

“While there are many beloved mutant vehicles out there, El Pulpo, in both of its incarnations, is the most beloved.” ~Chef Juke, Communications lead for the Department of Mutant VehiclesEl Pulpo is a 28-foot tall giant octopus, a demented windup toy, a mobile kinetic sculpture with articulating legs, eyes and mouths. It spews fire from its extremities and it has been stealing the limelight for a decade now, first at Black Rock City, then everywhere from LoveBurn to EDC to fire festivals and engineering events.It's merely the newest and largest expression of artist Duane Flatmo and his team of kinetic engineer artists. Many years ago, he gave up music to pursue art, which he has pursued from New York to London to China. He's a hardworking, paperwork-doing, idea person. Duane shares how his influences inspired his innovations and got him to perform on The Tonight Show, open for Carlos Santana, and compete in Junkyard Wars and the Kinetic Sculpture Race. His curiosity and his resourceful team create surprises for people all around the world. Hear the stories of El Pulpo's predecessors, origins, and worldly adventures!www.elpulpomecanico.comkineticgrandchampionship.comBurning Man LIVE: Chef Juke's Wild Art Car R.I.D.E. LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Back by popular demand, more stories! This collection is from Burning Man's oral history project, an ambitious endeavor to track down and talk with people who helped shape the culture as we now know it.Stuart and Andie remember to remember the most memorable parts. Here's a fresh batch: Chris Radcliffe, artist, con artist, prankster, and shadow founder of Burning Man (perhaps), shares stories of how the Cacophony Society would prank the media and how the Black Rock Desert drove up his fears, then dispelled them. He also hints at the larger-than-life impact of the Billboard Liberation Front.Candace Locklear, aka Evil Pippi, a perturber and social experimenteer (new word) shares how she helped Burning Man manage the mainstream media in the late ‘90s. She also talks about cutesy culture jamming as a scary clown.Summer Burkes is a Southern belle punk who was a nightlife columnist and the media liaison for the DPW. She sees the early days of Black Rock City as the love child of comically aggressive punk rockers and air-kissy techno industrialists and embraces their uneasy peace.Steve Heck brought 88 pianos to Burning Man in 1996, stacked them in a tall circular “piano bell.” People beat it into a cacophonous soundscape until he burned it. That was after he almost died wandering the desert. Then he cleaned it up, and did it the next year, and the next year, and taught the BRC teams the art of packing and moving big stuff.Dr Hal Robins is a beloved Renaissance Man of stage and story, a Cacophonist, an Uber Pope of the Church of the Subgenius, and mellifluous philosopher of sesquipedalians. He shares about the inventiveness and serendipity of Burning Man and why it matters in the world.Part 1 of this series: burningman.org/podcast/a-peoples-history-of-burning-manjournal.burningman.org/category/philosophical-centerburningman.org/programs/philosophical-centerwww.cacophony.orgThe What Where When Guide is here.The 1996 Helco commercial is here. LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Burners from around Europe gather to teach and learn and to conjure ideas for the future. Burning Man's 7th European Leadership Summit just happened, and we recorded some conversations for you.Passionate people from the corners of Europe share with Stuart and kbot what they get from Burning Man culture and what they gift back to it. Hear a cultural spice drawer of stories about how they persevere through politics and pandemics to bring their flavor of Burning Man to their homeland. Baroch - IsraelErin Kiez - GermanyGabriel Muscalu - RomaniaLinus Höök, Caroline Bergmann, and Britta Kronacher - SwedenPille Hedo - EstoniaVinegar Joe - Portugal“Burning Man started with the fire. For me, that is a strong ritual. And it's a harmonious ritual. And it's true. And then you have the gifting, because someone built that fire, someone made it with no expectations. Someone made that fire only to warm up other people. From this idea, everything grew exponentially, but that's the essence. Creating something for you and for others and expressing yourself through your creation. And that can be in all the directions magnified. It's something that creates you. It's a thing that you create and creates you. It's like this beautiful spin.”~Gabriel Muscalu - Romaniahttps://regionals.burningman.org/european-leadership-summithttps://regionals.burningman.org/regionals LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Robot Heart started with a simple sound system on an old double-decker bus at Black Rock City. Over the years, it has evolved into a bespoke sound system, light arrays, iconic art, and an all-star lineup of musical talent performing to massive crowds at sunrise on Playa.… all on that same old double-decker bus. Robot Heart also expanded its support of arts and artists beyond the playa, including New York's Central Park, Miami's Art Basel, and their residency program in Oakland, California. For the 2nd year in a row, the team brings together various Burning Man camps, artists, and musicians April 25th to May 18th.A few years ago, Robot Heart created a 501c3 Foundation to make all this happen. Stuart talks with President, Gary Mueller, and Board Members Clare Laverty and Justin Shaffer. They trade tales about developing a foundation, collaborating with creatives, and taking pleasure from other people's pleasure. robotheart.orgrobotheartfoundation.orgwww.theloomoakland.comfareforward.comwww.artbasel.com/miami-beachhttps://brandtbrauerfrick.dewikipedia.org/wiki/MuditaLee Burridge - Robot Heart - Burning ManRodriguez Jr. (Live) Featuring Liset Alea  - Robot Heart - Burning Man LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Moshe Kasher has lived many lives as a subculture vulture - a hearing child of deaf parents, an addict at 15, in recovery at 16, a raver, a culturally Jewish standup comedian, an old school Burner and a longtime Gate volunteer. With Andie Grace and Stuart Mangrum he explores how Burning Man is a waterboard of wonder where weirdos go to feel normal, and norms go to feel weird, and that the sweet spot is when you experience something that makes you say “Wait, What?!?”They talk through how Black Rock City has evolved, from subcultures like the rave scene and AA meetings, to the transitional realm from the default world, the infamous Gate. Listen in on their playful tales of culture-jamming and utopia-tizing. It's horribly hilarious, and you might just guffaw at words like gavage. Moshe Kasher (wikipedia)Gate, Perimeter & Exodus (burningman.org)Subculture Vulture: Penguin Random HouseSubculture Vulture: New York Times Book Reviewwww.cacophony.orgThe Endless Honeymoon Podcast LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

This is one of those full-circle stories that makes our dusty hearts glow a little brighter. It's the tale of big art that emerged from a fossil-filled trash heap, came to life in Black Rock City, then returned to its source as a proud symbol of what a community can accomplish together.Tahoe Mack, a Las Vegas artist, tells the story of the Black Rock City Honoraria art piece she started when she was 15 years old. Her final Girl Scouts project became, oh, so much more. Over a few years, she learned to weld, fundraise, and work with acclaimed artists Dana Albany and Luis Varelo-Rico.Her vision drew attention to an urban park with a rich archaeological history. Built from metal detritus that had accumulated there, “The Monumental Mammoth” dazzled Burners in Black Rock City 2019, and is now a permanent installation at a trailhead near the fossil field that inspired it all, and forged new connections between dozens of people.https://www.tahoemariemack.com/themounumentalmammothhttps://protectorsoftulesprings.org/monumental-mammoth-projecthttps://www.danaalbanyart.com/mammothhttps://burningman.org/podcast/dana-albany-dreaming-in-metal-and-glass LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

The Tip of the Iceberg is a 30-foot tall clitoris of stone, steel and cement, fabricated to be monumental like Stonehenge, thus the nickname Clit-Henge. It aroused a lot of conversation at Black Rock City 2023. It's the phallic symbol's sister. It's highly sensitive, and highly talked about, and according to the artist, the more we discover what it does for any of us and all of us, and the more we can celebrate the birthright of pleasure.Melissa Barron a.k.a. Syn has traveled to many places around the world that informed her lens of creativity, sustainability, gender equality. With her family and friends, she co-creates art, from the 2013 Temple of Whollyness to her decade-long regeneration project Art for Trees, to this new intimate inquiry, the Tip of the Iceberg. And what about the aerialist performance involving the Burning Man and wombs and birth, sanctioned by none other than Burning Man founder Larry Harvey?Journey with Syn, Andie Grace and Stuart Mangrum through the Clit Renaissance, the re-thinking of pleasure inequities, the teachings of cancer, the wisdom of aging, and the intuition of radical reciprocity. They explore these complexities, and they keep it light and bright.Tip of the Iceberg (Burning Man 2023 Art Installations)Tip of the Iceberg (Burning Man Gallery)The Temple of Whollyness (Burning Man Journal)Art for Trees (Burning Man Journal)Syn on Social Media (Crone of Arc)  LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Black Rock City is a temporary metropolis of  80,000 people who inhabit 1,600 theme camps and support camps. That means nine out of 10 participants' plans are coordinated by the Placement team — a handful of dedicated staff who decide which camps go where, and why. This year-round process is an art and a science that takes many factors into consideration — from city dynamics, to campers' Radical Self-expressions.As Burning Man Project's Associate Director of City Planning, Bryant Tan manages the Placement team, and oversees the city's annual planning and placement process. Naturally, questions about Burning Man lead to more questions.How do we place like-minded folks together for harmony, not monotony?How are resources shared between camps in this new era?Can you tell me how to get to Center Camp Plaza?What rules cultivate a spirit of lawlessness?Is bigger actually better?Let's go behind the scenes, under the clipboard, and beyond the map, exploring opportunities and obligations to iterate in this experimental city. It's a unique test case for urban planners and any humans who live in semi-civilized situations.“We don't want this just to be an Instagrammable bucket list thing. It's an experiment in community. We want people to show up a certain way, and so I try to just have reasonable conversations with people to help them learn what Burning Man is, and learn how to distribute leadership and responsibility, how to empower people to be their most creative selves.”BurningMan.org: Placement Team: LevelBurningMan.org: Placement ProcessHUBS: Humans Uniting for Better SustainabilityPEERS: Placement's Exploration and Engagement Research Squad LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

It's winter where we are. What are the coldest, most teeth-chattering, brrrr-iest of all the 100 sanctioned Burning Man events around the world?FrostBurn is one, and its participants make it happen in the dead of winter on purpose, annually since 2008. Subzero temperatures, rain, sleet, snow and sometimes sunshine. Why? Because they can.It kinda makes the media look silly for making a big deal out of a little rain at Black Rock City.When the costumes are nothing less than comfy snow pants, when everyone is on the buddy system to ensure they survive the weather, no energy is wasted on facades and FOMO. At FrostBurn people collaborate on Radical Self-reliance, Communal Effort, and all those cultural practices that got us where we are today. Bexx is an event lead at FrostBurn, and still finds time to play music in the Black Rock Philharmonic Orchestra and write academic papers about Black Rock City. She tells tales to kbot and Stuart of a winter wonderland happily crafted by hearty Burners. Share the warmth.www.frostburn.orgBurningMan.org: Programs: Philosophical Center: AcademicsAural Substance: An Ethnographic Exploration of Regional Burn Soundscapes (ACADEMIA) LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Stories. This collection is from Burning Man's oral history project, an ambitious endeavor to track down and record interviews with people who helped shape the culture as we now know it. Stuart and Andie “Actiongrl” Grace share some of the most memorable stories for your gratification and edification. Lamplighters founder Steve Mobia talks about the San Francisco Suicide Club, the even-stranger start to the legendary Cacophony Society.Denzil Meyers recounts the earliest days of the Cacophony event now known as Santa Con.Lexie Tillotson remembers what it was like driving to Burning Man in the wayback days when you needed luck and a compass.Kimric Smythe recalls the year that the Man Burn into a hot mess.Stewart Harvey shares about traveling to Northern Ireland with artist David Best to build a Temple for “The Troubles.”dispatch2022.burningman.org/the-philosophical-centerjournal.burningman.org/category/philosophical-centerburningman.org/programs/philosophical-centerwww.cacophony.org LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Many people are surprised to learn that Black Rock City is home to not just two full orchestras, also a Playa Choir complete with a secular Sunday sermon. Since 2012 Madi has been organizing and arranging the choir's harmonies and happenings, each year with more and more help. In this installment, kbot and Stuart talk with Madi (Choir Director) Tori (Director of Dusty Productions) Leut (Preacher Man)They have stories and more stories of inspiration and elevation. We get to hear many voices resonate with music, recorded live at Burning Man 2023 in the Black Rock Desert. Hallelujah!https://playachoir.com LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Some people are surprised to learn that Black Rock City is home to not just one but two full-fledged symphony orchestras. While the Black Rock Philharmonic kicks out the classical jams, the Playa Pops brings the big-ensemble sound to popular music. Both are composed (ahem) of passionate volunteer musicians – classically trained, self-trained, and otherwise – who come together once a year to perform in the dust (or mud) the songs they have practiced all year at home.In this installment, kbot and Stuart talk to members of the Playa Pops and the Black Rock Philharmonic about their process, their performances, and how the desert hates their instruments. And we get to hear some amazing live music performed by actual humans, recorded live at Burning Man 2023 in the Black Rock Desert.https://www.playapops.comhttps://blackrockphilharmonic.orghttps://www.temple2023.comhttps://www.michaelgarlington.com/chapel-of-babel LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Have you stumbled upon Midnight Poutine in Black Rock City? Maybe you listened to Québecois rock as you waited for some of that crispy, cheesy goodness? As with many camps on playa, Midnight Poutine is the cultural tip of the iceberg of a vast community of creativity and goings-on; this one in Montréal, Québec. Arno Robin, one of Montréal's cultural instigators, spoke with Stuart and kbot about his nine-year journey from Midnight Poutine, to co-creating Montréal's Burning Man Regional Event, to developing a bustling makerspace. It's one of those stories we love — one that travels through Black Rock City and then keeps on going — carrying the Burning Man ethos back home to take root and sprout local mutations.Plus… Stuart learns to swear in Québecois!https://www.linkedin.com/in/arno-robin-9b903936https://losstidburn.org/en/home/https://www.lespacemaker.com/en/ LIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Dana Albany has come a long way since her first art project in the Black Rock Desert, a scrap-wood camel that got her started making things out of found materials, from discarded metal and broken glass to sun-bleached cattle bones and deer antlers. She has built flammable targets for the notorious machine-art group Survival Research Labs, worked as the artist-in-residence at a San Francisco dump, and had her large scale metal and mixed-media sculptures exhibited around the world, most recently at the “Radical Horizons” show at England's Chatsworth House. She talks with Stuart about her path to becoming an artist, which began with a spur-of-the-moment trip to Burning Man in 1996, about her mentors and mentees along the way, and about the joys of working with children to create high-impact interactive art.DanaAlbanyArt.comchatsworth.org/news-media/news-blogs-press-releases/burning-man-about-the-sculpturesburningman.org/programs/civic-initiatives/youth-education-spaceship

We committed to be carbon-negative by 2030. How will we do it? Can we even do it? We have “Burning” right in our name.When it comes to solar, biofuels, and energy banks, we have many irons in the fire, or rather, we are planting many seeds. Hear how Black Rock City is a hotbed, or rather, a garden bed, for the innovation of clean energy.Stuart talks with George B Reed III, Associate Director of Burning Man Project's Off Fossil Fuels program about the progress we're making for a brighter future, or rather... yeah, a brighter future.George shares what Burning Man's leadership has been developing to be in integrity with our principles and goals, from composting organic waste for food cultivation, to making renewable diesel from captured carbon. He shares stories of the community preventing and reversing damage to the climate. Hear how we're collectively rewiring reality, showing our work, and sharing what we know. Here's how you can do it for your camp, your cohort, your city.Burning Man Project: 2030 Environmental Sustainability Roadmapburningman.org: About Us / Sustainability (updated Oct 2023) The Renewables for Artists TeamThe Green Theme Camp Community & BLASTBurning Man Journal: Your Checklist for LNT in BRC (2023)Burning Man Journal: Waking Dreams: Evoking Greener Burns (2022)Burning Man Journal: Sustainability Initiatives on the Road to Black Rock City (2022)

An insightful, wide-ranging and frankly rather zen talk with one of America's most raw, transgressive, and pot-stirring artists, Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk. While discussing his new novel, Not Forever, But For Now, we covered finding vitality and cartharsis in extreme behavior, the fate of the famed Cacophony Society, and the need to love your characters if you want your reader to love them, too. All episodes of The Thoughtful Bro aired live originally on A Mighty Blaze. The Thoughtful Bro is proudly sponsored by Libro.fm.

The desert is home to bugs, birds and a whole lifecycle of animals from bunnies to foxes, from lions to wild horses to - most dangerous of all - COWS! Hear about the hidden lives of all that's alive around Black Rock City.Stuart talks with biologist Dr Lisa Beers aka Sciprus. When she's not teaching in remote villages on the other side of the planet, she's Burning Man's land fellow studying the Fly Hot Springs territory. In the face of mystery, she has surprising answers, or at least more questions, and aren't questions as good as answers? Aren't they?How do butterflies know to ride the jet stream from Canada to Mexico and back? What do sea monkeys have to do with Fairy Shrimp Scampi?How do feral Burners adapt from arid & dusty to moist & muddy?journal.burningman.org/author/scirpusBurning Man Live: Ep 25: Scirpus and the Majestic Fly RanchThe Black Rock Desert of Nevada (wikipedia)

How would you overcome shyness at BRC?How would you break people's brains at SantaCon?How would you acculturate museum docents to Burner culture?Brody Scotland shares how she did it, and how she went from hating Black Rock City to working year round in the Burning Man Art department.Brody and Stuart delve into the uncommon common sense of self-care and “feelings” in the emo roller coaster of BRC. They explore a style of pranking where no one is the butt of the joke. And they celebrate “Shit Dave X Says.”From hand-crafting iconic costumes, to logistics-crafting “weird little odd art,” this is a string of lively stories about Brody's bespoke approach to increasing happiness.Brody Scotland (Burning Man Journal)Brody Scotland (Burning Man Staff) No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man (Smithsonian Institution)Dave X (Burning Man Journal) & Shit Dave X Says 

Stuart and Burning Man's Community Services head honcho Terry “Retro” Schoop riff on the streets of our fair city and the naming thereof, from the controversial to the miraculous to the misunderstood. Black Rock City has elaborate art themes, each with street names, each with curious conditions. Why does our recreational refugee camp even need street names? Were they always alphabetical around an imaginary clock face? And what's a clock anyway? Hear this year's art theme (ANIMALIA) express itself through cryptids (animals that no one can prove are real). Folklore and fandom brought us our new ABC street names: Afanc, Bigfoot, Chupacabra, Dingbat… and NOT the Easter Bunny, thanks to Encantados, which are were-dolphins that shape-shift into dapper dancers in search of a party.  This is an episode with literature, lore, and laughter — and a pile of BRC trivia for street cred.Streets of BRC 2023: Cavalcade of Cryptids | Burning Man JournalBurning Man 2023: ANIMALIATerry “Retro” Schoop | Burning Man JournalBurning Man Staff: Terry Schoop

Yes, Burning Man has a Chief Technology Officer, and his name is Steven Blumenfeld. In this episode Stuart chats with “Bloom” about art, innovation, immediacy, and the power of the unexpected, with trippy side trips into AR, VR, and AI (and TLA).Yes, we have a CTO. We have all the enterprise tech needs of any not-small non-profit, with the added complications of ridiculously challenging work sites, a staff that's mostly seasonal volunteers, and an ethos rooted in Ten Principles that don't always line up with ideals of Big Tech or engineering efficiency. You don't build a city of 80,000 in the desert — or a global community of dreamers and doers — without bending a few bits and bytes. Or stepping on a few tech-bro toes.Bloom shares stories from his colorful career at the intersection of art and technology, from working with Al Gore at Current Media to pioneering the “always two years away” world of virtual reality. And he does his best to reassure Stuart that AI will not be taking his job… yet.

Psychedelics advocate and amateur Burning Man scholar John Turner's two passions come together in one interdimensional rabbit-hole of a website: Trippingly.net. In compiling the ultimate fan site of Burning Man history, John has captured a lot of great playa stories, and he shares some of the best in this conversation with Stuart.He explores the subjective unknowns of Burning Man events and psychedelics as same-same-but-different. Bring your neural nets to be plasticized. Bring your ego to be dissolved. It's a trip through the past, and a trip through presence.But when an interviewer interviews another interviewer, things can get weird. Together they explore the power of story (good and bad), who remembers what, who takes credit, and the subjective nature of consciousness. It's a reflection on memory, serendipity, and the power of not knowing.“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” ~Mark Twain (as quoted by Larry Harvey)trippingly.netJohn B Turner (LinkedIn)shulginresearch.netcacophony.orgCacophony Society (Wikipedia)Burning Man 2023 art theme: ANIMALIA

Jejune Institute, The Institute, Dispatches from Elsewhere, the Latitude Society, In Bright Axiom, Jeff Hull, alternate reality games (ARGs), immersive art, Rosicrucianism, the Whitechapel Club, the Fortean Society, the Cacophony Society, Suicide Clubs, press clubs, social upheaval, humor as a teaching tool and path of enlightenment, Western forms of Taoism and Sufism, New Thought, The Secret, actions vs thoughts, group encounters, magical realism, the magic of place, manifesting the incredible, the encroachment of capital on open places, the closing of the weird commons, genre fiction, tropes, Museum of Jurassic Technology, David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, The X-Files, fiction as a means of transformation, nonfiction metanarrative, changing the narrative, magical nonfiction, the breakdown of society and what comes nextNote: I confused two separate X-Files episodes, season 2's "Firewalker" and season 6's "Field Trip." The former dropped in 1994 while the later appeared in 1999. The Museum of Jurassic Technologies was founded in 1988, but it wasn't originally based in Culver City. Lawrence Weschler's acclaimed account of the museum, Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonders, appeared in 1995. By the time Weschler began exploring the museum, it was based out of Culver. An early display recounting a genus of fungus dubbed Tomentellawas alleged to leave West African ants known as Megaloponera foetens dead with spores protruding from their bodies. Death came after the fungus consumed the ant's brain and nervous system, leaving only a spike-like protrusion out of the creature's head. "Firewalker" most closely resembles this exhibit and the timeframe seems to allow for the X-Files writing staff to explore the museum during this era. After first musical break (4: 10): an epic rundown of the influences behind immersive art and ARGs: Rosicrucianism, the Whitechapel Club, Suicide Clubs, the Fortean Society, Discordianism, Operation Mindfuck, the Cacophony Society. Also, the magic of place and the encroachment of capital: Can magical spots be preserved for the curious? After second musical break (40: 45): The Secret vs actions; magical mystery tours; death and rebirth of personality; manifesting the incredible; Jeff's "the Warp Zone experience" After the third break (1:03: 00): Magical realism, subverting genre fiction a la Lynch & Kubrick; art and self-discovery; human potential, self-help & group encounters; the Museum of Jurassic Technology; the projection of magical spots throughout; the metaphysics of The X-FilesAfter the fourth break (1: 32: 16): The breakdown of consensus reality: When the weird turn pro, what does everyone else do? Plus, the Non-fiction metanarrative; or magical nonfiction? Music by: Keith Allen Dennishttps://keithallendennis.bandcamp.com/Additional music taken from Daniel Dutton's The Faunhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BC5PQ7GB/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3PNRMC4O8GV21&keywords=dan+dutton+the+faun&qid=1680225166&s=music&sprefix=%2Cpopular%2C71&sr=1-2 Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Theresa Duncan, Jeremy Blake, "Theremy," Golden Suicides, Scientology, Alternate reality games, ARGs, Franklin scandal, Johnny Gosch, Paul Thomas Anderson, Beck, Tom Cruise, "Alice Underground," the Duncan Blake Rumor Mill, Brett Easton Ellis, LA, Hollywood, Venice, Chateau Marmont, Chateau d'Amboise, Knights Templar, Leonardo da Vinci, Catherine Di Medici, Black Masses, Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, Courtney Love, Quentin Tarantino, Hunter S. Thompson, Rodney Alcala, Museum of Jurassic Technology, Center for Land Use Interpretation, Bunny Museum, Ray Johnson, Andy Warhol, pop art, Ray Johnson's suicide, Johnson's suicide as art, Mount Lowe, Salvation Mountain, the Salton Sea, Urban exploration, Cacophony Society, Suicide Club, Leonard Knight, Burning Man, Sean Penn, Into the Wild, Noah Purifoy, Joshua Tree, Graham Parsons, Llano del Rio, Job Herriman, utopian communities, faked suicides/deaths, Aztec Motel, Route 66, Wright family, Mayan revival style, Isaac Kappy, Tuesday's Child, Tuesday Weld, Tuesday Weld as Illuminati priestess, Discordianism, neo-Dadaism, underground art currentsFor those interested, Taylor's most recent short film and other work can be found here:https://vimeo.com/686522265Music by: Keith Allen Dennishttps://keithallendennis.bandcamp.com/ Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Katie Hazard leads Art Management for Burning Man and the committee that grants more than a million dollars to artists each year to create art that's first stop (and sometimes only stop) is Black Rock City.She shares about some of the grant recipients that align with this year's Black Rock City art theme (ANIMALIA). She and Stuart Mangrum discuss Burning Man's art movement in relation to, and sometimes in opposition to, “capital-A art,” and the default art world's manufactured scarcity and opaqueness. They explore how to grant accessibility and agency to artists, professional and amateur, personally and collectively.“Many people come for the art, and they stay for the community.” ~Larry HarveySlides of the Art Projects Mentioned (in the order discussed) Introducing the 2023 Black Rock City Honoraria (Burning Man Journal)Katie Hazard (Burning Man Journal)2023 Art Theme: ANIMALIAThe ARTery at Black Rock CityDesert Arts Preview: Artists of Waking Dreams (2022 podcast)

As a founder and co-producer of one of the largest and oldest Burning Man events, Monique Shiess has a lot going on. AfrikaBurn does too. Started in 2007, it averages 10,000 participants annually in recent years. Monique shares its origins with Stuart and Andie. From the EDM scene, gallery spaces, queer community, and producers of “weird gatherings,” they birthed AfrikaBurn with roots in anarchy, trickster energy and hippie-dom. They explore how to be welcoming, not just radically inclusive, in the aftermath of Apartheid, and the context of global trends, on the land of indigenous people.Then there's the fun part. Monique says that play is the vector for changing the world by accessing aspects of yourself that go dormant in the default world, and that all Burn movements have paradigm shifting potential while also having a ton of fun with “the best humans that exist.”www.afrikaburn.orgAfrikaBurn (Wikipedia)Practising Imagining (TEDx Cape Town)Events Change Lives: AfrikaBurn Legacy Case Study

Athena is a wanderer, an adventurer, a muse. She is Regional Contact emerita from Los Angeles, founder of their nonprofit The LA League of Arts, and a founder of BRCvr — a crown jewel in the tiara of our multiversal experiences online.Athena talks with Stuart about how Radical Inclusion and Immediacy foster human connection, and about how a balance of decommodified spaces and commercial spaces can lead to true Gifting. She says that BRCvr conjured a tight-knit community of creators who love helping each other. See for yourself while you still can. BRCvr co-creates events (like RE-BURN-23) on AltspaceVR, the social VR platform that's about to have its plug pulled. Hear her adventures from Black Rock City to South Central LA, and heed the call to infuse Burning Man's Principles into the fabric of gatherings IRL and in VR.BRCvrRE-BURN-23The 10 Principles of Burning ManLos Angeles League of Arts (LALA)Burning Man LIVE: The 10 Principles in Modern Times IRL and in VRBurning Man LIVE: Mike Zuckerman: Culture Hacking and Gonzo HumanitarianismThe MutaytorNiNo's ATABEY

With three 10-foot Doggie Diner heads appearing on John F. Kennedy Promenade in Golden Gate Park, historian, maker and Doggie Diner collector John Law joins hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight to talk about the phenomenon. The history of Doggie Diner includes detours into Dan White and Jefferson Airplane, with more recent stories about the preservation of the heads. And Law also talks about the Suicide Club and Cacophony Society, two local urban exploration and pranking groups that influenced everything from Burning Man to SantaCon. Produced by Peter Hartlaub. Music from the Sunset Shipwrecks off their album "Community," Castro Theatre organist David Hegarty and cable car bell-ringing by 8-time champion Byron Cobb. Follow Total SF adventures at www.sfchronicle.com/totalsf  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Candace found Burning Man in 1996, she jumped right in to help the media tell the whole story of Black Rock City, not just the sensationalism. She also jumped right into culture jamming, twisting iconic characters, from Cacophony Society's santas to public pranking as porn clowns, and playfully pushing people in immediate theater. She also brings the transformative power of interactive art to public spaces around the world, as part of a non-profit We Are From Dust, and she's working to have all people feel welcome at Black Rock City. Hear the old and the new, the sacred and the profane, and the fat beats of EDM DJs spinning Playa Tech.https://www.blackburnerproject.comhttps://www.instagram.com/blackburnerprojecthttps://www.instagram.com/blackasearthttps://www.villagevoice.com/2001/09/11/burning-mans-dotcom-hangoverhttps://journal.burningman.org/2012/05/philosophical-center/tenprinciples/how-not-to-burn-commodifying-burning-manhttps://burningman.org/podcast/yomi-ayeni-and-the-stories-of-we-are-from-dust

When dynamite is aged the wrong way it gets sweaty with little crystals that can cause spontaneous explosions.Dave X. Man of fire, bacon, and “the ponytail of approachability.” An enigmatic shaman of fireworks, flame effects, and deep thoughts, his stripper name is Sweaty Dynamite. His spiritual calling is to bring joyful, fiery experiences to the masses. His secret weapon: a thick binder. Huh? More on that later. Could one man be a hippie and a redneck, and in charge of Fire Art Safety in Black Rock City, and also fill the role of Cake Marshal for Burning Man Project? Yes, yes he could. A pyrotechnician, a peaceful perturber, and a Burner from days of yore, he bestows his teachings upon Stuart Mangrum. Pro tip: Each of our episodes ends with a bang, especially this one. Burning Man Staff: Dave XBurning Man Journal: Dave XShitDaveXSays.com

SpaceMan Sam, a proud advocate and expert on Space Tourism, talks with Dave and John about Adventure Tourism and book writing. He provides a lot of good information both historical and looking forward about upcoming travel opportunities, and explains the need for a Good Zero Gravity Cocktail glass. His book writing advice is surprisingly simple. … Continue...Episode 150 – Space Tourism with Sam

Tyson Yunkaporta is an artist and scholar of the Apalech Clan in Australia. Caveat Magister is a Burning Man philosopher. They explore ceremony, circumstance, and how art is not about the object. They talk through the power of play, mining the margins, and what indigenous peoples have known that modern people are rediscovering. They discuss Black Rock City, Regional events, and the impact of Gifting, Radical Inclusion, and the ‘wrong' white people. They explore ideas that are uncommon and uncomfortable: · the ethics of creating spaces where magic is more likely to happen· taking art back from the priestly class to restore balance to the world· how Burning Man has maintained integrity, if it even has... Deakin.edu.au: Dr Tyson YunkaportaSand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World (Harper Collins Publishing)Beer with Bella: Tyson Yunkaporta (New York Times)Turn Your Life Into Art by Caveat Magister (Burning Man Journal)Excerpts from “Turn Your Life Into Art” by Caveat Magister (medium)The Scene That Became Cities (Penguin Random House Publishing)Burning Man Journal: Caveat MagisterFascinating Stranger

JULIAN LANGER GUEST-STARS ON THIS WEEK'S EPISODE OF THE EPISODES THAT I DO!+ Eco-Revolt: An outlet for paneroticism, involution and guerrilla ontology: https://ecorevoltblog.wordpress.com/+ Fredy Perlman's Against His-story, Against Leviathan: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/fredy-perlman-against-his-story-against-leviathan+ John Moore's Anarchy and Ecstasy: Visions of Halcyon Days: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/john-moore-anarchy-and-ecstasy-visions-of-halcyon-days+ The Temporary Autonomous Zone: Influential Book for the Cacophony Society and Burning Man: https://www.trippingly.net/burning-man-musings/the-temporary-autonomous-zone+ Anarcho-Punk.net - Crust Punk Community & Music Download Ⓐ/Ⓔ: https://www.anarcho-punk.net/+ Liberal Punk Rock from the early-00's: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/mar/2/20040302-094859-7367r/+ Giorgio Agamben's The Open: Man and Animal: https://www.amazon.com/Open-Man-Animal-Giorgio-Agamben/dp/0804747385+ Nick Totton's Wild Therapy: Rewilding our inner and outer worlds: https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Therapy-second-Rewilding-worlds/dp/1910919942/*LIKE* and *SUBSCRIBE* and *SHARE*Become a Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/cyberdandy

Director of Burning Man Project's Philosophical Center, longtime co-conspirator of founder Larry Harvey, Cacophonist, playa newspaper publisher, billboard liberator, art theme writer, and suspicious character (according to paranoid people), his most realistic alias is Stuart Mangrum.He holds our legacy, and helps guide our story, while occasionally philosophizing. A Communications Strategist named kBot gets Stuart talking despite his anti-interrogation training. This is a story of pranks and participation, of 90s Burning Man and modern day miracles. Note: Funny can be deep. This is both.Burning Man Project's Philosophical CenterBurning Man Journal: Stuart MangrumBurningman.org: Black Rock GazetteTalesofcacophony.com: Twisted TimesLIVE@BURNINGMAN.ORGLIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

We open with the segment called Indian Magic with Piyu in which she teaches us a powerful send-back technique, then BT and Joe Zabinski interview Megan Song, founder of The Open Source Order of the Rainbow Serpent Phoenix (ORSPH), and author of Love Is Not A Thought-Crime, regarding Tarot, The Rites of Eleusis, Golden Dawn, Thelema, Stone and Crystal Magick, Trauma, Healing, Cacophony Society, Chthonic workings, Jodorowskian Psychomagic, Ayahuasca, and a lot of other things.

Founder. Catalyst. Mythic character in the Burning Man world. Also known as Michael Mikel, Danger Ranger shares some of his stories of pranks and potential in the wild west (rural and urban) - this time with twists that tie together his other tales. Stuart talks with him about what happened, what's happening, and what might happen next  - from difficult topics to revelatory contexts. It starts with "stuff no one has ever heard."Some of the topics explored:Prank activism / Coyote teachingFrom PaperMan to a non-profit CorporationBeach pagans and “Satanists with guns”The harshness and opportunities of the high desertThe BRC mono-story of “naked white people”Anti-consumerism (in a spendy way)“Smiley” the Man's balls and “Burn the Man Early”Cacophony Society's Santas, Brides & BillboardsA divided society and “the one click dopamine kick”The rest of M2's stories will be told at some point in the future or the past.BurningMan.org FoundersDangerRanger.orgMichael Mikel

If you appreciate Parallax Views and the work of J.G. Michael please consider supporting the show through Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews The Parallax Views holiday series concludes with an exploration of Santa Claus's dark counterpart, Krampus. Although the figure of Krampus has become embedded in the popular consciousness in the last decade, especially since the release of the Hollywood horror-comedy Krampus, the folklore of the Krampus reaches much farther back and into the most isolated part of the European Alps. Joining us to unravel this history, and explain how remote parts of Europe still celebrate the winter season with rituals related to St. Nicholas and his dark companion Krampus, is Al Ridenour, a former member of the avant-provocateur Cacophony Society and author of The Krampus and the Old Dark Christmas: Roots and Rebirth of the Folkloric Devil (Feral House; 2016). We begin by discussing Al's involvement in the Cacophony Society, which once boasted the involvement of transgressive author extraordinaire Chuck Palahniuk, and it's most famous avant-garde provocation: SantaCon. From there we delve into how the winter season has always had a dark side within the popular imagination and discuss the popularity of Christmas horror movies with Al recommending 1980's unusual Christmas Evil and discussing Michael Dougherty's Krampus and whether it is true to the folklore. We then take a deep dive into the history of the lore around Krampus and how the figure is used in festive rituals during the month of December in the Alps of Europe like Gastein in Austria. What is the function of the Krampus? His relationship to St. Nicholas? Do these rituals have an erotic and courtship element? Is there subversive, anarchic element beyond to the Krampus beyond his being used to scare children into following social norms and rules? Who are the people behind the Krampus troupes and how do they approach these events? What's the connection the the gore theatre of the Grand Guignol and these Krampus events (known as a Krampus Run or Krampuslauf)? And what can we learn from it all? All that and more on this edition of Parallax Views.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! (And boy has it been a year!) Following in the footsteps of show-biz luminaries like Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, and the cast of Star Wars, we hosted a (non-denominational) holiday show in front of a live online pseudo-studio audience. Broadcasting from their snowed-in virtual holiday cabins, Stuart and Andie entertained guests:Santa Zero - originator of the now-infamous SantaCon phenomenonMrs. Claus - founder of Burning Man’s first-ever theme camp, Christmas CampTubatron and his Flaming Tuba performing a Hanukkah songReverend Billy and Savitri D of the Church of Stop ShoppingAnd it wouldn’t be the holiday season without Caveat Magister selling us on Decommodification. Join us for how Krampus cramps us, how COVID is an 8-foot-tall dominatrix, how “Gifting” is so close to “Grifting,” and how the Cacophony Society is sooo Kumbaya, in our final episode of 2020… a Holiday Special that is indeed SPECIAL. Reminisce with us, and celebrate and speculate.Portland SantaCon 1996 / “You’d Better Watch Out”Cacophony Society: Santasm, Santacon, Santarchy, ad nauseumReverend Billy and the Church of Stop ShoppingLIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

Welcome to the first episode of Keep It Curious! Join Kelsey and Meredith as Kelsey gives us the run down on San Francisco's Suicide Club. It's a wild ride of chaos and cacophony, nude stunts, pie fights, and somewhat disturbing clown pranks, not to mention the birth of Burning Man and the still-operational Cacophony Society. Give us a follow wherever you listen to podcasts, check out our website at http://keepitcurious.wixsite.com/podcast and find us on Instagram @keepitcuriouspodcast. Introduction music modified by Keep It Curious from Happy Boy Theme by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3855-happy-boy-theme License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ad music modified by Keep It Curious from Carefree by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3476-carefree License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/keepitcurious/support

Stuart talks with one of the Founders Harley K. Dubois about how Burning Man evolved since the 1990s... and what now… Power, money, and consumer substitutions for real experiences. Rain and rave camps at Black Rock City, and living under a lucky star. Maker Culture, social capital, and seeing ourselves through the coming changes.Coyote tells of the time a woman in white emerged from the mud to face off with a post-apocalyptic flame thrower on wheels. Caveat asserts that Radical Inclusion transforms cat memes, game night, and society.https://burningman.org/network/about-us/people/founders/#HarleyKDuboisLIVE.BURNINGMAN.ORG

This week we explore the cacophony of suburban life when we review Coffee & Kareem as well as Vivarium. We dive deep into Vivarium, so we recommend seeing it before checking this review out. We also talk briefly about Terrace House, Breaking Bad, and The Beach Bum. All while drinking Cacophony Society. A triple barrel-aged imperial stout from City Built Brewing Company out of Grand Rapids, Michigan.Like us on Facebook! www.facebook.com/SudsandcinemapodcastFollow us on iTunes! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sudsandcinema-podcast/id1494990925Follow us on Spotify! https://open.spotify.com/show/3Ludeu2hrTDuBfSGc9y7tOFollow us on PodBean! https://sudsandcinema.podbean.com/Follow us on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/sudsandcinemapodcast/Send your questions and comments to sudsandcinemapodcast@gmail.comLogo and art by: @djmikeholiday

What do Burning Man, Fight Club and the San Francisco Salmon Run have in common? Mango Dogwood joins The Good Timeline to converse on the fundamental importance of play, expression and how to ride in the cultural edge - hopefully without getting arrested. Shownotes available at thegoodtimeline.com/podcast  

P. Segal wants San Francisco to be a city full of culture again. In this episode, P. charts her return to the city after college and a trip to Europe. She ran in art and intellectual circles in North Beach until her eviction from a place she lived there. She found an enormous house in the Western Addition and soon joined the Cacophony Society. Later, she opened Cafe Proust down the street. These days, P. is working to establish a non-profit called Art House that would secure affordable housing for artists in San Francisco. ​ We recorded this podcast at P.'s home in the Western Addition in February 2020. Film photography by Michelle Kilfeather

This week we welcome John Law to the show to talk about his fascinating life. John was a founding member of Burning man, The Cacophony Society, The Suicide Club, And the Billboard Liberation Front. We discuss Urban Exploration, Hacking Billboard signs, Culture Jamming and a whole slew of other topics and adventures that have happened through Johns Crazy life.  Closing Music for the show: Swiftool- We are never ever getting Stinkfist. 

Today is a rare episode because we have the cofounder of Big Imagination, Ken Feldman, joining us. The Big Imagination Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that aims to incubate bold, visionary projects that inspire the world to dream big. As their 747 Project for Burning Man proves, their artistic pursuits are literally and figuratively larger-than-life and out of the box and to accomplish these groundbreaking projects, they rely on radical collaboration and community support while also providing opportunities for education and participation. On today’s show, Ken answers all the questions we have about this magnificent creation, including how he came up with the idea, how hundreds of people collaborated to make it happen, what the experience is like for Burning Man visitors and why it entails so much more than self-expression on a grand scale. We also talk more generally about the misconceptions about Burning Man and why this event is really about community and celebrating the diversity of art. We get into the details of how and where they managed to acquire the plane, how they went about taking it apart and reassembling it and what the future has in store for him personally and for The 747 Project. This is undoubtedly a spectacular episode, so be sure to join us!   Key Points from This Episode:  Ken’s first Burning Man project and how it led to him and Jon becoming friends and partners. How Ken came up with the concept of turning a 747 into a giant art car. Building the Charlie the Unicorn car with very little resources and why it was so successful. How their 747 project was a team effort for with over 1000 volunteers. Burning Man as a great art experiment that engages with the question of what art is. The significance of the size of the 747 and why it appealed to the imaginations of people. What getting into the plane looks like and the emotional experience visitors go through. A true story of how building a pink unicorn saved a guy’s life. A few interesting analogies for describing Burning Man to someone who hasn’t been. Some of the criticisms against Burning Man; lack of racial diversity and the high cost. How Black Rock City started as a joke that got massively out of control. Acquiring the plane from a bone yard and how Boeing responded to the project. How Ken’s background in airspace and his love for building things culminated in this project. The new plans in store for The 747 Project and how it is going to reach millions of people. The complicated process of taking apart and reassembling the 747 and moving it 500 miles. A hopeful projection of Ken’s next couple of months following the 747 Project. When Ken would consider being part of another project of this scope. A vision for honoring The 747 Project by making a film documentary about it. And much more!  Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Ken Feldman on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenfeldman Big Imagination — http://www.bigimagination.org/ Burning Man — https://burningman.org/event/ Jonathan Teo on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanteo/ Charlie the Unicorn Car at Burning Man — http://www.laburningman.com/mutant-vehicles/charlie-the-unicorn-art-car/ Opulent Temple — https://www.opulenttemple.org/ Robot Heart — https://www.robotheart.org/ Charlie the Unicorn video — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsGYh8AacgY Doug Pray — https://dougpray.com/ Salvador Dali — https://www.dalipaintings.com/ P.T. Barnum — https://www.britannica.com/biography/P-T-Barnum Pink Floyd — http://www.pinkfloyd.com/ Merry Pranksters — http://furthurdowntheroad.org/index.php/history/merry-pranksters/ The Cacophony Society — http://www.cacophony.org/ Larry Harvey — https://burningman.org/culture/philosophical-center/founders-voices/larry-harvey/ Space Center Houston — https://spacecenter.org/ Boeing — https://www.boeing.com/ Hans Fjellestad — https://www.hansfjellestad.com/ Man One —...

Chuck Palahniuk had me over to his Portland writing office to tell me about the heyday of the Portland Cacophony Society. It's this crazy group that pulled large scale pranks on the minds of normal people. I mean I am full on in love with these guys! You gotta hear the great stuff they pulled. 

Crossing borders is often considered as a metaphor. But it can be both physical and metaphorical too. John Law explains the idea of crossing over to the zone as a way to stretch your imagination and see the world (especially the familiar world) with new eyes. Next to it, John discusses the meaning of anarchy in today's world, tells the stories behind some of the neons to be shown at his upcoming exhibition and once more takes us once more to the world of immersive events. Important links Oakland Pro Arts Gallery & Commons – Be Pro Art! Improvement of Joe Camel billboard by the Billboard Liberation Front City Lights Booksellers and Publishers An article about the 100th anniversary of Dada celebrated in San Francisco Ringolevio: A Life Played for Keeps by Emmett Grogan The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart Apocalypse Culture by Adam Parfrey (Editor) The Suicide Club by Robert Louis Stevenson Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky

The event's roots go back to 1994, when a counterculture group called the Cacophony Society hosted "Cheap Suit Santas."

A conversation with writer, editor, and performer Mitch Mignano—aka Raven—about existential humor, the Cacophony Society and the origins of Burning Man, pranking your fears, nihilism, and the sacred clowns of the Sun Dance ceremony.  

Greeting Listeners! Welcome to the first official episode of the Thesaurus Is Not A Dinosaur Podcast! Sit in and Listen as hosts Shay and Todd Tackle the real issues.....Never mind, this is just a bunch of drunken ramblings. But in this episode we do cover introductions, and our plans to for our own chapter of the Cacophony Society. Shay tells some personal stories of her own coming out as Transgender. Plans for upcoming parties and we also touch a little on the local music scene. Whatever, just listen.....or not!

Passport Podcast host Keith Breitbach talks with Author John W. Law about his book chronicling the exploits and adventures of San Francisco's avant-guard Cacophony Society and Suicide Club. One of the original creators and producers of Burning Man, SantaCon, and the Billboard Liberation Front among others, John Law shares his story.             A runaway at 17, Law hitchhiked to the City and immersed himself in the subterranean world of urban exploration, culture jamming, and public performance in the spirit of the Dada movement to bend reality ever so slightly and introduce thought-provoking humor into an absurd world. Please like, Comment, subscribe and share the Passport Podcast. Listen and enjoy as John Law shares his exciting tales of being a bona fide urban adventurer in and around the City by the Bay. Visit JohnWLaw.com and Follow on Facebook to discover more. Urban Exploration is often shortened as urbex, UE, bexing, urbexing and sometimes known as roof-and-tunnel hacking  Photo © by George Post 2017                      

Out of the cacophony of the universe came forty five minutes of cracking conversation with Burning Man co-founder, author, culture-jammer, DADAist, performer, urban explorer and a co-founder of the amazing Suicide Club and Cacophony Society — John Law! John Law is one of the co-founders of the Cacophony Society, a Culture jamming group with open membership, … Continue reading "John Law: DADA, Burning Man, Cacophony Society & Suicide Club!"

John Law (original member of the Suicide Club and the Cacophony Society ((http://www.cacophony.org)); co-founder of the Billboard Liberation Front and of the Burning Man Festival, USA). Moderated by Marie Lechner (journalist and researcher, FR). How everything started in San Francisco Rumors of pie wielding assassins and a cryptic invitation to explore the miasmal underbelly of the urban landscape seen in a hippy free university calendar in 1977, was enough to enflame the curiosity of seventeen-year old John Law. A subsequent initiation into the secretive Suicide Club propelled Law into a thirty-eight year “career” amidst the hidden world of pranks, urban exploration, counter culture, ‘Culture Jamming' and creative mayhem. Fight Club, Burning Man, SantaCon, media hacking, urban exploration, street art, flash mobs and more - these are some of the cultural phenomena that were initiated or somehow influenced by the Suicide Club, and the subsequent sub-cultures that Law was fortunate to have fallen into as a teenaged juvenile delinquent. This presentation reveals some of the genesis & history of these groups including a brief survey of their precedents and influences on through the present day iterations, spin offs and ‘fellow travellers'. The idea we hope you take away from this presentation is simply this: this strange, obscure world is available to anyone who can appreciate the concept that “you may already be a member”. Source: http://www.disruptionlab.org/stunts/ (http://www.disruptionlab.org/stunts/) Produced by Voice Republic For more podcasts visit http://voicerepublic.com

This week: Duncan, Richard and Amanda talk Nonsense with Jeff Stark! What is Nonsense NYC? Nonsense NYC is a discriminating resource for independent art, weird events, strange happenings, unique parties, and senseless culture in New York City.What does that mean? We send out an email every Friday about unique events occurring the following week. What kind of stuff? Street events, loft parties, puppet shows, bike rallys, costume balls, interactive art shows, movies in unusual places, parades, outlaw dancing, guerilla theater, burlesque and variety shows, loser open mikes, cirkuses, and absurdist pranks. Nonsense covers the stuff that has no name, or a name that you feel really awkward and self-conscious saying out loud, like "underground."Sounds great, how do I sign up?Click here.Um, I'd rather not give you my email address. Can I just read it online? No. The only place you can read Nonsense NYC is your inbox. We like the intimacy of email, thank you, and this Web stuff is too much work. We promise not to sell your email address or give it away. We're not going to spam you with useless information either.OK, I've signed up, and I want to know more about Nonsense. Will you print my event? We'd love to hear about all of your events. The important thing to remember is that Nonsense NYC happens because of you. That means we rely on you to let us know what events you're organizing and what events you're attending. Please keep us up to date and don't assume that we'll find out about it from someone else. Our job is to gather, edit, organize, and filter; your job is to make interesting things happen and let us know about them. Remember to include all the important information, like the address and stuff, and a brief description. When you put it all together, send it to jstark@nonsensenyc.com. Please send a text-only email; flash graphics, links to online fliers, and facebook announcements make our life more difficult. You can find a guide to better email communication here.Also, Nonsense does not list events that cost more than $25 at the door, without door code, RSVPs, or special arrangement. We make some exceptions for obvious extra expenses, like boat rentals. To those of you promoting events: We're sorry. We know it's hard. We know it's risky. We know it's expensive. But nonsense has always skewed toward cheaper events; our readers expect it. But one time I sent you something about my band/my movie/my party/my opening and you didn't print it. What gives? How do you decide what events will be on Nonsense NYC? To start with, almost all the stuff we list is independent. Also, we like rock bands and experimental musicians and arty films and galleries and museums and big street festivals, but we can find information about all of those things in other places. We generally will not list them. We use something called the rule of three. That means that we will generally list your event if there are three different things going on: DJs, bands, dancers, costumes, fire performance, theater, film, art, projections, fashion, an unusual space, or several other intangibles. Your event doesn't have to include all of these in order to be listed, and it certainly doesn't need all this at once. If you're in doubt, send it to us anyway -- we're decent editors.The list is huge sometimes. Where do you find all this stuff? Do you write all of it yourself? We don't really write so much as edit announcements from other people. The bulk of each weekly list is culled from other lists and Web calendars. We monitor a couple dozen of them. You can find a partial listing on the Links page.So, do you go to all of the events that you list on Nonsense? Not even. We can't afford it. We go out a couple of times a week, and we generally write a small editorial note if we have an opinion to share. You can find those comments in each post. They're all marked like this: NOTE.How can I tell the good events from the bad ones? Will I have fun at all the events? No, you won't always have fun. And please don't assume that merely listing this stuff is some sort of implicit endorsement. A lot of these events are strictly amateur hour. We love amateur hour. But the problem with some amateurs is that they're just amateurs. It's hard to distinguish the good stuff from the bad. Some of it, no doubt, will make you wish you'd sat on the couch eating microwave nachos. If you want a safe bet, go to the movies. That said, if you start going to a lot of the events listed here you'll start to recognize some of the names of performers, promoters, venues, and so forth. Let us know if you have a great time at an event. Hell, let us know if you feel like you got scammed out of $5. Send us a sentence or two about the events you've attended -- especially if you went to something that is ongoing -- and we'll run them in the future. You don't have to be a professional writer or do anything fancy. Just tell us what you would tell your friends over a late breakfast. Your fellow subscribers will appreciate it.Why does the new Nonsense come out so late? Can't you get it out earlier? No, we can't. It takes a long time to put this thing together. We have real jobs, and real lives. Both prohibit us from compiling the list earlier in the week. We try to run events for the following Thursday so you can have a heads up, but a lot of the people who do the kind of events that we list don't always have their shit together. We print stuff that's happening on the day we post because sometime the show will happen a few more times throughout the weekend. Sometimes there will be a contact listed and you can use it to reach people and make sure that you don't miss their events in the future. If you check your email before you go out you'll still have time to make a snap decision.What's with the "we?" We don't know. We got used to writing like this several years ago and we kind of like it. It has a lot of antecedents, including the unsigned Talk of the Town section in the old New Yorker. We'd like to think that it alludes to that sort of liveliness and sparkling wit. You may disagree. We will cherish our delusions. Conceptually, we thought that Nonsense NYC would be sort of a group effort, with its subscribers kicking down a lot of the weekly copy. It didn't really turn out that way, but we still like to hold on to the thought that Nonsense is put together by its community. In a way, it is: It would be a mighty boring list if there were no events to compile, and the people who make these events happen are the kind of people who receive it.So who exactly is "we," and why are you doing this? Nonsense NYC is compiled by Jeff Stark. Alita Edgar graciously puts together the Wishlist section. Jennifer Liepin edits the Help section. Juliana Driever is responsible for the Learning section. J. Sinopli is the person behind Spectre Priority. Neille Ilel did all the Web stuff.Why are you doing this? We believe that there is more to life in New York than getting drunk at slick new bars. We were frustrated when we moved here and couldn't find a reliable source of alternatives, even though we knew that there were creative people making cool shit happen. Almost more annoying was the fact that certain groups we knew about weren't always aware of one another. Our solution was to start a weekly list. We did this in September 2000. Our goals are to help make New York a more interesting place to live, to encourage others to do the same, and to have more fun than just about anyone else. We're particularly drawn to participatory culture, amateurism, and urban folk art. To us, that means that things are more rewarding when you invest yourself in them, and that you are responsible for entertaining yourself and your friends. We admire the handmade, the recycled. And we're generally suspicious of commercial entertainment. That doesn't mean we reflexively hate television or going to the movies. It's just that we genuinely believe that everyone has something to contribute, and that life is much richer when people stop treating each other like walking wallets.Wow, this all sounds so lofty. Are these your ideas? Not even. We're stealing ideas from a half dozen places and using the bits that suit us. In particular, we are indebted to Fluxus games, the Cacophony Society, the Suicide Club, the Situationists, American punk rock in the 1980s, the Do-It-Yourself ethic of the early 1990s, the Madagascar Institute, Dark Passage, and the yearly Burning Man festival in Nevada. We do think that we are witnessing a special synthesis of these ideas in New York right now -- this very minute -- and that in a few years we will recognize it as a golden age.OK. So how do you make money off of this? That's not really the point. However Nonsense now accepts donations. The newsletter remains free, but there are real costs that we absorb in its creation. We would love for you to donate money to help offset webhosting, software, and computer expenses. The labor remains free. We aren't asking for much; a yearly subscription would be a tremendous help. Please consider $5 for the year if you use the list to figure out what to do on a Saturday night, or if you just like to keep track of what's going on in New York. Go ahead and donate $20 if you promote events that we list on Nonsense. You know it's worth it. And we would be grateful for more money if you really like what we do. To be clear, these are donations: You are not paying for a service, but rather confirming that what we do is valuable and agreeing that independent artists should support other independent artists. If you've ever paid for a ticket to see your friend's band you know exactly what we mean.But I want to complain about something. Who can I yell at? You're getting this ostensibly for free; you're not allowed to complain. If you have to yell at someone, try a taxi driver: They're used to it.I'm not getting the list. What's up? We don't know. First, you should check your spam folder. Several of the major email providers sometimes think Nonsense is spam; first Yahoo and Hotmail, and eventually AOL and even Gmail blocked some newsletters. We use Dada Mail and Tiger Tech and are always trying to fix this problem. If you don't find Nonsense in your spam folder there are a couple of things that you can do. You can approve messages from us or put us in your address book or on your whitelist. You can sign up with another email account. And if that doesn't work you can use your password to access our archives online. This should be pretty obvious, but please do not flag our messages as spam for any reason. If you want to unsubscribe, please take a minute and follow the link at the bottom of every list or send us an email. Finally, it helps our case if you send an email to your provider to complain that Nonsense is being marked as spam or held. I forgot what I was going to say, but I'll probably remember my question later.email us anytime.

Scott Beale, founder of Laughing Squid joins us to talk about the Web 2.0 days in San Francisco, the scene in NYC, SXSW, Burning Man, The Cacophony Society and much much more. Subscribe to the Grumpy Old Geeks on iTunes and give us a five star rating. You know you want to! Shownotes: Scott Beale In search of the click track Revisiting the click track Hat-tip to David Teter Prince on Twitter Moves GPGTools Zip Drives SyQuest Macintosh Quadra 650 The Random Show Everyday Carry Kershaw Ken Onion knife This Charming Charlie Mammoth Garfield minus Garfield It's A Bad Brains Christmas, Charlie Brown Laughing Squid the blog Laughing Squid Hosting Technorati Top 100 When the Blogger Blogs, Can the Employer Intervene? The beginnings of BarCamp Technorati Users Salon by Scott Beale (Jason is getting a smooch in the last photo) Live Diggnation by Jason DeFillippo Distort betaworks NetNewsWire Burning Man South by Southwest The Cacophony Society Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society Book Soylent The Drab stupidity of Soylent by Greg Stevens. Crowdfunding a trip. To Mars. Like you do.