A look at how Black Rock City rises from the dust

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/11/a-look-at-how-black-rock-city.html

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[Cue the music]

I was expecting a Song of Fire and Ice, or the Expanse opening.

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Each and every year I visit, Black Rock City it is younger and younger.

Yea, same as the kids around here. They look younger every year.

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Holy fucksocks that video was annoying. I made it about 60seconds in and gave up.

Also; git offa mah lawn!

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The video has hints that the videographers and editors know what they are doing, but utterly fail to educate us on the process. It’s mostly random shots of cool burning man volunteers wandering around on the playa.

I like the superimposed, match-moved grid lines that help give some context. But other than that I found the video to be frustratingly un-informative. The video didn’t educate me on the actual how of the layout process. All I know is that a bunch of people go out and somehow use binoculars. The actual theodolite used for the survey was shown only fleetingly, without comment or explanation towards the end. I’d love to see a more focused documentary on the construction of BM from the very start.

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Should be like an 1980ies montage. You know, the A-Team converting a pickup truck into a tank, that sort of thing. With yakkety sax.

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There’d better be a cabbage-cannon too. You know, for the vegans…

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I blame oliver stone and all the liquor i had consumed, but the shakey camera had me nope-ing almost immediately.

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If I were creating the world Black Rock City I wouldn’t mess about with butterflies and daffodils. I would have started with lasers, eight o’clock, Day One!

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well you take a line… and then you square it
but it requires lining with the far horizon as in landmarks
hergest ridge

Looks like fun.

Are there any non-white burners in the crew?

Also, does Black Rock City LLC compensate them or are they purely volunteers?

Like Boing Boing, I think BM is multifaceted and progressive yet still largely fits into the category of “stuff white people do”.

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I should perhaps clarify. According to WP (which might be erroneous) 13% of Burners do not identify as white. Now while one would hope an ethos of radial inclusion to be be less white, I get the reality that not everyone can drop upwards of a couple grand on a vacation or have the disposable time to come up with an idea that would ingratiate them to the established community. However, even at 13%, one would think some of the Black Rock City LLC’s volunteers and/or employees would not be white, which is why I ask.

Also, yes, it’s something mainly white people do. But that merely begs the question as to why it’s something mainly white people do. I’m deeply skeptical that it’s because of a dearth of non-white makers with an interest in semi-anarchistic community-driven fairs.

Dunno, but it is the same for Renaissance faire performers. They are often filled with progressive people, but mostly white.

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