Alright, this is going to be long. First off, I will order the truck today, under Andrew's name for pick-up on Thursday, August 26th, in San Francisco, and drop-off on Tuesday, September 7th. In reality, we can keep the truck until September 9th, because we're getting a 2 week rate.
Secondly, we have a few more clarifications on the people who are going to be joining us this year. Motya and Anya are coming from Pasadena, but only starting on Wednesday. In addition, their friend Reid from college, (I've met him and can say that he's a good guy) is coming as well. It seems like Helen's (Alyona's) boyfriend Justin will be joining us too. A few more people are likely to come. After a rough count, I can say that we'll probably have around 20 people in our camp, give or take a few. This will defray our costs, and we shouldn't have problems with space, since the parachute will have about 3000 square feet underneath it.
Thirdly, el-wire can be bought for pretty cheap at El Wire Cheap.com. I don't know how much we need, but I think it would be a good way to illuminate our tortoise at night, and since we won't have tiki torches under the parachute, it could be a cheap source of lighting.
Lastly, following Claudia's forwards regarding theme camp registration, I think that our clean-up plan was not clear, and propose to send them the following plan. Don't worry these are not my ideas, just pooled from various sources:
1) We will have 3 40-gallon plastic trash cans with sealable lids around our camp. We will also bring 30 extra heavy duty garbage bags for the trash cans. We are going to distribute small zip-lock bags to all members of our camp to store their trash as they wander around the city.
2) We will bring sealable ashtrays for our visiting and fellow smokers to enjoy while they're chillaxing on in the chill-space. These ashtrays will be used altoid's boxes.
3) We will have a daily 30 minutes of clean-up duty assigned to a different group of people every day.
4) We will leave all excessl and unneccessary packaging at home and use recycleable materials, such as biodegradeable dish soap, non-aromatic cleaning supplies.
5) We will allot extra space in every vehicle to bring back trash.
6) We will bring string and rope to tie things down in order to prevent them from flying away.
7) We will not be burning anything at our camp, except for tiki torches. They come with personal fire-extinguishers. In addition, we'll be bringing 2 ABC-type 5-pound fire extinguishers.
8) We will have a a 6x6 foot evaporation pond for gray water removal.
9) We will bring gloves, sponges and a plastic bin for washing dishes.
10) We will bring 2 sledgehammers to package the trash and drive the rebar into the ground.
11) We will bring 3 pairs of vice grips to remove stakes and rebar from the playa.
Claudia, can you send this to themecamps@burningman.com with the name of our camp in the subject line. Can you also designate Bill to by the contact person, as he will definitely be there on the day that we arrive to claim our space with Andrew, and give them Bill's e-mail address. Can you also re-iterate that we want to be close to the Beach Camp and about a block and a half from the bathrooms, but not so close as to live in the stench by Thursday. If Beach Camp does not legally exist, we want to be around 8:30 pm on the clock.
That is all for now.
I am hoping to buy my plane tickets soon..and I'm wondering if I should fly out from Reno on Sunday or Monday. Are any of you planning on staying til Monday? And if so, do you have a car? And the goodwill to drop me in Reno (preferably at the airport) on your way back to California? I'll chip in for gas for the lift out. I'd need to be in Reno by around 2pm on Monday if that's the day... Gracias.
Claudia and I talked about this a while ago, but i've only gotten around to doing this now...
camelbaks: the ones for cycling look the coolest, and are pretty much the smallest, lightweight, and cheapest
But i'll be willing to bet that just about no one out there will have a military spec camelbak.
Military style
They are kinda cool, and generally more epxensive, but also have more storage space in the same sleek design.
Bill out.
so my first question is whether anyone has (and can bring) a stove, preferrably one with at least 2 burners?
my second question: i was thinking of communal meals. right now, i'm thinking 2 communal dinners, but would be down for preparing for 3 or 4. what do y'all wanr to do? for those two meals, i decided on burritos and rice for one (black bean) and veggie stew for another.
i think the night of the burn shouldn't be a night for a communal dinner because someone will wind up getting stuck with a huge clean up on a night designed for care-free trouble-less fun.
also, i plan to make up some kind of schedule where we can sign up for a duty for these meals, so that everyone contributes something and no one gets all the work.
ready for opinions...
I just bought a parachute, which will be at my house in California on Monday. It is 62 feet in diameter, olive green (think of combinations of colors to make it look like a atral turtle), and it has attached lines. It is still in it's original packaging, the whole nine yards. It weighs about 120 pounds, so I hope the scaffolding can support that.
I got it down to $150 for the parachute, and the shipping was $70, which is just within our budget. The truck is on the way. It looks like we'll be renting a 15 foot Budget truck, that will run us about $1200 (within our budget), which includes the gas expense. Ok, that's about it.
S.
Hi All,
Not many of you were aware of this, but for a bit of time it looked like my boss was going to be ridiculous and not let me take two days off to go to Burning Man - unpaid days mind you --but all is not lost, today I found out that I can come! So I'll be arriving Wednesday night and staying until Sunday or Monday - depends on who wants to drop me off in Reno.
So I'm excited! just wanted to share.
Everybody congratulate Claudia and Bill! They submitted the registration for our camp, which was a long and ardous process. They also created an awesome-looking layout of the camp, which can be found here: camp layout, (courtesy of Bill)
I made a crude general layout, which is the first link, and then Bill finished off the job much more elegantly.
Also, I'm picking up 4 sails tomorrow, and I hope that we can get two more. I'm still working out the parachute situation. I was talking to one supplier and he said that if it's a used military cargo parachute, they're required to cut off the ropes prior to selling it to the public. However, Bill found a website where they sell 50 foot parachutes with the ropes. Strange and worth investigating further.
Claudia, you said there's a way to rent a movie truck. If there is, then tell me how to do it, and I'll get on that, otherwise we need to rent a Budget truck and get it over with.
So, we're on our way. We're waiting for confirmation of our camp registration, and working on the parachute and truck rental situation.
Bill has been designated the fire marshal of our camp. We'll need to take a fire extinguisher or two, and bring a good first aid kit. Can somebody investigate where to buy tiki torches and fuel for them?
S.
People, we need to get our shit together and think and act.
First off, we need to register the camp. The deadline is July 1, 2004.
Secondly, we need to finalize what we're offering to the Burning Man community. I know that we're offering lemonade and recess fun, but in what capacity.
Thirdly, do we want to post announcements of events in the "Events Booklet/Playa Calendar" that is handed out to everybody at the entrance to BM? If so, we need to decide what and we need to decide it soon. Once decided, we need to post it at the following address.
That is all for now.
so i was put in charge of the kitchen and of plannin a few group meals (just a few, no worries). now that crunch time is closing in, can everyone please make a head-count of yourselves... i tried and then remembered what a terrible memory i have and gave up around 12-13. i know there's more than that, i'm just too much of a burnout to remember who's friend is coming with his girlfriend, etc....
i think i remember agreeing to include the shower/water-catcher in with the kitchen stuff, so just know that i got that under control too...
Simon, you're my hero! thanks for keeping us updated. it was high time for some good news cuz i don't think i could take anymore bad at the moment. happy times!! time is flyin here in va...only 77 more days!!!!!!
I am happy to report good news in our progress. The following events have taken place on the west coast so far: Yura and Alyona (Yuri and Helen for those who like variations on a theme) found carpeting/rugs that are the size of two big rooms and then some. The carpet/rug is avocado green so we can make it look like grass. They are also looking for a coffee tables. These two items will be stored at Yura's house. Secondly, this coming Friday, the 18th, Yura and Alyona will be delivering about 3 couches to a storage location in San Francisco. Don't worry the storage is free, courtesy of some of my connections. Third, we are vicariously the proud owners of 4 sails. They are about 9 feet at the foot and 15 feet tall. The guy from work who originally said that he'd get the sails finally came through, and we got them. Admittedly they're smaller than I originally thought, but since they'll be used for entrance alley awnings, they'll be the perfect size. We just have to think about how we're going to harness and secure them.
In addition, I will be purchasing a cargo parachute, 60 feet in diameter. I found one for $99, but still am trying to figure out what color it is and whether it comes with attached ropes.
So, the following needs to be done:
Bill: reserve the scaffolding in Reno.
Claudia: register the camp.
Simon: rent truck & buy parachute.
That is all.
Hey Guys! I'm hopping on the Burning Man bandwagon. Let me know what I can help with. My special skills include animal surgery and the ability to extend admantium spikes from my fingers, which comes in handy for the prior.
-Anita
OK so I kinda screwed up. It turns out the week I was home was nowhere near enough time to catch up on the four years of errands I've been putting off. Needless to say, now I'm in Russia and I haven't registered the camp or booked the truck. I didn't think this would be a problem, but the copious internet usage I was expecting didn't turn out quite as I had expected. In any case, I'm not going to be able to help with designing a camp layout from here (this is too urgent to have to wait for me to do). I've checked again with the truck rental agencies and all I can tell without calling them is that several internet fares have been blocked for that week. Unfortunately I'm now 11 hours ahead of your time, so their 9-5 business hours coincide directly with my eating and drinking hours. One fare is still available for the big-ass trucks ($50/day, I think $.79/mile) but I think we can do better and smaller. I also can't find ANYWHERE in San Francisco to put spare couches. Due to some legal issues with my brother's company, is office is also off limits.
For these reasons I think it would be best for me to resign from my current post of truck-getter, camp registerer. This is not to say I can't still do these, but it would be best for the entire camp that we not wait for me to find time and access to. The camp needs to be registered soon, and a truck needs to be had. The best deal I've found for the truck has been a Budget 15-footer, but Ryder and Penske also have phone numbers that I haven't called. Three phone calls is all we need, and I'll gladly use my credit card for the reservation. Is anyone up for it?
Sorry again for the flake, but it's best that I flake out now instead of later. I get back July 20th, at which point I'll be in this thing full-time. I'll do my best to post here as often as I can. Cheers,
Andrew
Andrew, let us know when you are settled in the motherland and can get started on this stuff.
Bill, are you still up for doing the ground plan that is a part of the registration process? If not, we need to know that so it can be assigned to someone so that it will get done and we will be registered.
All, i miss you guys a lot, and i'm gonna see what i can do about visiting before the summer's over. i figure it'll be much cheaper to visit from vb rather than la. ciao for now, people.