Burning Man has jumped the shark?

tristessa · Post by **tristessa** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 5:21 pm

I've just gotta rant; BM probably hasn't entirely jumped, but this encounter I had at work today has me wondering ... well, that, the suicide that some Burners thought was performance art, and the whole Premature Burnination of the Man the Thursday before it started. (Despite the guy they arrested for that, I blame Trogdor)

I had this customer today, typical Portland hipster/trustifarian type, talking about how he'd just gotten back from his first time, how he'd had this vision for an art car that he built and drove down to BRC and that it makes this wonderful statement on consumerism and blah blah blah .. so of course I just had to go out to the parking lot to look at this thing.

Give me a farking break dude. I'm sorry, but gluing a bunch of Barbie-doll heads to the hood of your rusty Subaru before you go to Burning Man doesn't make you a brilliant artist behind the wheel of an art car. It just doesn't. It makes you a pretentious fool driving a piece of crap, and your blathering on and trying to compare yourself the twisted-genius mad-scientist folks who build awesomely artistic pieces for BM makes you come across as an egomaniacal ass. Put down the bong, stop hanging out with "friends" who are really just sycophantic idiots, and get some skills.

Make something that involves more than a tube of epoxy and a trip to Goodwill.

Sorry for the rant, but it's just been bugging me the last few hours and I just had to get it off my chest.

DjEep · Post by **DjEep** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 7:57 pm

What's Burning Man?

Post by **Amskeptic** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 9:57 pm

tristessa wrote:I've just gotta rant; BM probably hasn't entirely jumped, but this encounter I had at work today has me wondering ... well, that, the suicide that some Burners thought was performance art, and the whole Premature Burnination of the Man the Thursday before it started. (Despite the guy they arrested for that, I blame Trogdor)

I had this customer today, typical Portland hipster/trustifarian type, talking about how he'd just gotten back from his first time, how he'd had this vision for an art car that he built and drove down to BRC and that it makes this wonderful statement on consumerism and blah blah blah .. so of course I just had to go out to the parking lot to look at this thing.

Give me a farking break dude. I'm sorry, but gluing a bunch of Barbie-doll heads to the hood of your rusty Subaru before you go to Burning Man doesn't make you a brilliant artist behind the wheel of an art car. It just doesn't. It makes you a pretentious fool driving a piece of crap, and your blathering on and trying to compare yourself the twisted-genius mad-scientist folks who build awesomely artistic pieces for BM makes you come across as an egomaniacal ass. Put down the bong, stop hanging out with "friends" who are really just sycophantic idiots, and get some skills.

Make something that involves more than a tube of epoxy and a trip to Goodwill.

Sorry for the rant, but it's just been bugging me the last few hours and I just had to get it off my chest.

Nice rant!

covelo · Post by **covelo** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 10:12 pm

Best week of the year in San Francisco!

Birdibus · Post by **Birdibus** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 5:31 am

covelo wrote:Best week of the year in San Francisco!

too funny!

dj~ burningman is a big... make that HUGE, art party in the desert that costs a couple hundred for a ticket for a week of gawking and debauchery. Some of my friends are in the poor house because of their addiction to the event. They are useless for a month afterwards, unable to reenter society. One good friend almost lost his leg last year because he didn't want to leave to have a sore tended at a hospital and it blossomed into a life threatening flesh eating bacteria. He spent 2 weeks in the hospital when he finally returned, and will be paying the bill for the rest of his life. Only poverty kept him away this year. sheesh Might be worth seeing once, but don't devote your life to it, I say.

jumped the shark? what's that mean?

hambone · Post by **hambone** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 7:29 am

People tend to HERD and then it all falls ta pieces...
"Look! I'm doing my own thing!" (x 20,000 +)
The only good artists I've ever met have been completely insane. Mebbe the socio-barometer needs adjustin'.

Sylvester · Post by **Sylvester** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:33 am

hambone wrote:People tend to HERD and then it all falls ta pieces...
"Look! I'm doing my own thing!" (x 20,000 +)
The only good artists I've ever met have been completely insane. Mebbe the socio-barometer needs adjustin'.

I really can't come up with an opinion to this and justify it since I have never been. Watching a video of the BM going up in lights and flames cannot replace actually being there. But I doubt even living near there would entice me to attend. Maybe if I was 20 again, maybe. I would like to see if the original creators of this event still feel the same about it now. Like, you can't go back to Woodstock man, but why would you want to?

covelo · Post by **covelo** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:37 am

Birdibus wrote:jumped the shark? what's that mean?

It's an obscure hipster reference to the Brady Bunch:

http://www.jumptheshark.com

covelo · Post by **covelo** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:43 am

Actually, the people I have talked to who have been there say it's a pretty cool event. Sometimes, we think we will go the next year, but it has not happened yet.

Sylvester · Post by **Sylvester** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:46 am

covelo wrote:
Birdibus wrote:jumped the shark? what's that mean?
It's an obscure hipster reference to the Brady Bunch:

http://www.jumptheshark.com

Aeeeeee. You are so uncool. It is a reference to Fonzie on Happy Days. From the FAQ:
"The aforementioned expression refers to the telltale sign of the demise of Happy Days, our favorite example, when Fonzie actually "jumped the shark." The rest is history."

Sit on it Potsie!

Birdibus · Post by **Birdibus** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:48 am

I shouldn't ask such questions in these days of computers... could just go figger it out for myself... Wiki to the rescue... didn't watch Happy Days... barely know who Fonzie is... yes, who started burningman and how do they feel about it now?... what about the money? what's 'hip' about big buck tickets? Rainbow scoffs. Diggers scoff.

wiki: "The term Jumping the shark alludes to a scene in the TV series, Happy Days, when the popular character, Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli, on water skis, literally jumps over a shark. The scene was so preposterous that many believed it to be an ill-advised attempt at reviving the declining ratings of the flagging show.

Since then, it has become a metaphor that has been used by U.S. TV critics and fans to denote the point at which the characters or plot of a TV series veer into a ridiculous, out-of-the-ordinary storyline. Typically, such a show is deemed to have passed its peak."

Sylvester · Post by **Sylvester** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:57 am

Birdibus wrote:yes, who started burningman and how do they feel about it now?... what about the money? what's 'hip' about big buck tickets? Rainbow scoffs. Diggers scoff.

I had read a year ago that the autor had descibed the original Burning Man on the beaches years ago, then compared it to the capitolistic free for all (Or insert your own pre-read description here, I read it a year ago, I can barely rememeber what I ate yesterday) it is today. However, this individual was on the outside looking in. He was not a founding member.

Velokid1 · Post by **Velokid1** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 11:28 am

I'd happily attend. Sounds interesting to me and we're not too far. Every gathering succumbs to a similar fate... Bonnaroo, SXSW, the Rainbow Gathering, Dead tours, European cycling once Texas Armstrong got involved... the list goes on and on.

Generally speaking, I think that the more humans that are involved with something, the more likely that something is to go to shit.

There's a very cool, genuine, completely underground and undiscoverd festival going on right now, actually. It's perfect and the attendees all have their heads on straight. It's yet to be exploited by The Masses.

What's the festival, you ask?

That's just it! It's underground, undiscovered, so I have no idea what it is or where it is... but you can always bet that somewhere out there is a burgeoning, flourishing, as yet unadulterated version of the Burning Rainbow Grateful Festival!

hambone · Post by **hambone** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 11:57 am

Ahhhhhh shoot it's all in our heads anyway. Everything.

Birdibus · Post by **Birdibus** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 2:24 pm

Velokid1 wrote:you can always bet that somewhere out there is a burgeoning, flourishing, as yet unadulterated version of the Burning Rainbow Grateful Festival!

well said! Sure, I'd love to go to BM. I have some reasons why I can't go, so I pretend sour grapes, but sure I'd love to experience it. My friends and I have long created our own little events and we know that large is not necessarily desirable, but if someone else wants to tackle BIG, then more power to them. Our bunch is scattering now, some of them lured north by their BM contacts of 10 years ago.

Last weekend was a Summer of Love anniversary event in Golden Gate Park. That would have been fun to attend.

Itinerant Air-Cooled

Itinerant Air-Cooled

Burning Man has jumped the shark?

Burning Man has jumped the shark?

Re: Burning Man has jumped the shark?