MonkeyBoy is off to the Desert this Morning

MonkeyBoy is off to the Desert this morning and he won't be back until Wednesday September 3rd

Black Forest Bar 2008 -

We love us some eggchairsteve, so this year we are camping with his crew at the Black Forest Bar. Eggchair is a graphic artist and we met because when I was making tshirt transfers and silkscreening he generously let me use his art. So through the years we have become good friends. So this year we got invited to camp with he and his friends Several of his campmates are neighbors from other camps that have joined his along the way and I think that bodes well for the fun factor in camp.

We will be at "The Wheel and 10" That is the outside of Center Camp. I think we will be across the street from the Explanade and 6:15. I will post a map as we get closer.

So come on by and have a drink.

Burners Without Borders Fundraiser Tonight

Hi Gang, Come out to the BWB fundraiser tonight night at House of Sheilds!

WHAT: Fundraiser benefiting the Pisco, Peru Reconstruction Project

WHERE: The House of Shields Saloon 39 New Montgomery St. San Francisco

WHEN: July 31, 8pm-Midnight Closing out with da FUNK!

COST: $15-20 Donation at the door

Thank you to Sellers Market and the House of Shields for donating finger foods.

BWB T-shirts and Hoodies will be available.

Come out and help us celebrate the successes of the Burners without Borders community this past year with San Francisco artists, Alorahset, Vow3l Movement, Megs and dr. booty (see bios below) who are generously donating their musical talents to this evening.

This is a great opportunity to show your support for this relentlessly creative community. And if you can't make it, please consider making a donation online at http://www.burnerswithoutborders.org/ under the Donate link.

What are we celebrating? August 15, 2008 marks the one year anniversary of the 8.0 earthquake that devastated the Pisco region of Peru and the final day of Burners Without Borders' incredibly successful nine month reconstruction program in Peru. The schools that are being built, the opportunities BWB has created for Peruvians to build permanent homes, and the hundreds of other projects volunteers have spearheaded have been realized by over 300 selfless volunteers who have graciously donated their time and energy to this amazing reconstruction effort.

But, none of this would have been possible without the support of YOU, the larger community, who has contributed over $80,000 thus far to BWB's reconstruction efforts in Peru. Visit http://www.burnerswithoutborders.org/ to see what we've been up to and how your hard earned money has been put to use.

Be sure to check out the BWB Blog to read about the projects through the words of the volunteers.

Band and DJ Bios

***Alorahset Alorahset is an experimental/indie/hip hop/idm project produced by Bay Area native, Matthew Miller. Alorahset has played with such acts as Flying Lotus, Machine Drum, Anasia, Flight Orchestra, and The Mess. Alorahset's eclectic sound ranges from danceable to moments of crescendos that push one to drift away in an ambient daze. Look for his first CD release, 'Good Morning Sunrise To You' coming soon. In the meantime, check him out at www.myspace.com/alorahset. When not working with Alorahset, can be found drumming for the bay area based alt post rock band Cloud Archive, and guitar and laptop for the dance-oriented electronic rock band, Newblue (www.myspace.com/thebandknownasnublue), as well as supporting non-profits doing important work like Burners without Borders.

***Vow3l Movement Bryan Von Reuter has been composing on and developing free opensource music software for about as long as the concept has existed. His music is rooted in the Amiga / Commodore64 chiptune scene of the mid 1990's. He is currently exploring the relationships of (and the space between) meticulously programmed sequences and spontaneous improvisational freakouts.

***dr booty doctor booty is a remix artist/dj on a mission of healing using the power of the Funk. through a combination of old school Funk tracks, newfangled mixing techniques, and live improvised keyboard parts, the doctor creates a sonic elixir designed to free the hearts, minds, and asses of soul seekers everywhere.

****Megs Meghan Rutigliano is an actress, comedienne and chanteuse and also a member of the Burners Without Borders community. She will deck the House of Shields out with her jazzy vocal stylings. Meg is a fabulous gorgeous girl and I can only hope I can stay up late enough to see her perform....

Bent - The movie

It is always interesting at our house, sometimes neither of us know how a movie gets on our Netflix list, but I assume I put it there. I have always had a compelling interest in homosexuality, tried it, not for me, but I have always been interested in "the closet" how one gets there, how one stays there, how it feels. But this closet is Berlin in 1934.

Beautifully acted, physically dark in spots and thus hard to make out the visuals at times (one of my 2 chronic complaints, tooo long, tooo dark). On the other hand, some scenes are very bright and obviously creating a contrast. The movie is engaging, thought provoking, not as painful as one might expect, and has one of the most sensual sex scenes I have ever seen.

Clive Owen is gorgeous, and did I forget to mention that Mick Jagger plays a drag queen.

Burning Man - New layout for 2008

So a few weeks ago I posted a copy of the 2008 Burning Man map with the Street Names. And most of you are aware that there has been a new design of the city. The Esplanade is further from the Man and thus bigger, and the camping space is thinner so there is more street frontage to camp on and those boring spots in the middle of each block have disappeared.

They say it better here:

2008 Black Rock City Plan Changes

Did you feel the squeeze in 2007? Well there are some BIG changes to our city this year! Remove 2007's three inner blocks -- Esplanade through "C" -- and you have our new Esplanade for 2008. After the Esplanade, the streets for 2008 run A-K. Since we've taken the three shortest concentric streets from the inside, we added two longer concentric roads at the back of the city. The distance from the Man to the Esplanade road is increasing from 2200 to 2700 feet, which also means the length of the Esplanade grows over 2500 feet longer than last year. See below to see a comparison against last year's plan. See you inBlack Rock City!

But I think that a picture is worth a thousand words and this representationreally shows you how different Black Rock City is going to be.

The comparison is set up two different ways:The Left side compares Center Camp 2007 and 2008, you can really see the size difference.

The Right side compares the distant from the Man to the Esplanade 2007 to 2008.

http://www.tribe.net/template/pub,PopPic.vm?picURL=http://images.tribe.net/tribe/upload/photo/cdd/ca2/cddca21d-43c0-4ec6-8a2b-2096b6468f17&altText=2607625123_eb84941382_o.png

So bring your bikes. It is ALL bigger and further apart.

The Man Build - June 2008

DSC03832, originally uploaded by visvadas.

MonkeyBoy was part of the Man Krew this year. They built the Man at the Ranch and then put him to sleep until mid-August.

THE MAN BURNS IN 35 DAYS!!

design: eggchairsteve

Stickers ordered...gettin' ready