New author Jess Bruder hooked up with the Flaming Lotus Girls on the playa in 2005 as they were building Angel of the Apocalypse, featuring the group prominently in her just-released "Burning Book."
Photo by Caroline Miller, aka Mills
By Steven T. Jones
With only a few more weeks until thousands of Bay Area residents head out to Burning Man, the anticipation is palpable. Impossibly ambitious art projects are being pushed toward completion at a frenzied pace in myriad local warehouses and work spaces, people's bicycles and hair are taking on a sassy and colorful flair, fencesitters are making the decision to attend or not, and burners can be seen buying googles, costumes, and dozens of gallons of waters at stores around town.
Into this excitement now comes "Burning Book: A Visual History of Burning Man" by Jessica Bruder, an engaging collection of words and images from everyone's favorite countercultural blowout. The book will hit the streets Aug. 7, but you can catch Bruder -- who logged time with lots on local burners, from Extra Action Marching Band to the Flaming Lotus Girls -- tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Booksmith in SF or Aug. 6 at 7 p.m. at Cody's Books in Berkeley.
Or out on the playa at the end of the month. See you there.

By Scribe
These are frantic days for many Burning Man artists, a stressful race to the finish line that is next week's departure for Black Rock City. I got the call from my old camp, Opulent Temple, that they needed some extra minions so I agreed to help out with their impossibly ambitious project: a massive 10-foot tall steel "star" stage (which is actually five stages, all cut and welded from scratch) and a huge open air bamboo dome. I'd already put in a few recent work days on the stage at the Box Shop on Hunter's Point (where I'd spent more than nine months reporting this story a couple years ago), so I opted to head out to the West Oakland Warehouse (WOW) to do some dome work and peak in on some other projects, particularly "Crude Awakening" by Dan Das Mann and Karen Cusolito, who are most widely known around SF as the sculptors of Passage, which now resides near the Ferry Building.
It was like stepping into another world.

The Summer of Love event scheduled for Speedway Meadows this Sunday August 19th has been postponed due to scheduling conflicts. It is being rescheduled for late October. For more information on this event in October call (415) 845-5011.

There is a separate Summer of Love event hosted by Council of Light and 2b1 Multimedia inc. that is scheduled in Speedway Meadows for September 2nd that will go on as planned. Click on the continued reading link below to read the current press release about a pre- Summer of Love "Witness to the Human Be-In, Forum" happening next Friday, August 24th.

By Steven T. Jones
The San Francisco Chronicle leads the Sunday paper with a hit piece on Burning Man, wrapping several disparate points under the implied thesis that there is financial corruption in the organization. But the journalism and logic employed by writer Justin Berton and his editor is so bad and misleading that it says more about the Chronicle than Burning Man.
The most egregious example is the pull quote that leads the full-page jump: "This is not a financially healthy organization. If I were a donor, I'd think long and hard before I sent money their way," Sandra Muniutti, Charity Navigator analyst.
It sounds as if she's talking about Black Rock City LLC, which stages the event, rather than the event's nonprofit wing, Black Rock Arts Foundation, which she analyzed. (Full disclosure: my girlfriend Alix Rosenthal is on the BRAF advisory board, although most of my knowledge on this issue comes from years of reporting work I did for the Guardian and my own attendance at Burning Man).
It's classic bait-and-switch journalism, conflating two organizations to make a point. It's also bad journalism because it lacks context on why BRAF gave just 27 percent of their revenue to artists. Here's the context: most of BRAF's work has been to place artwork that already been built -- in most cases with art grants from BRC -- around San Francisco, a task at which BRAF has been more successful in recent years than any group in town.
But the Chronicle, by dishonest implication, would have you believe just the opposite is true.

Be human
We live in no less confusing times than our counter-culture progenitors of the '60s did. Last Sunday, August 18th the commemorative Summer of Love event that was scheduled was postponed due to complicated permitting procedures. The postponed event is not to be mixed up with the September 2nd, blockbuster event, which is still on. There is a pre-love event this Friday, a revival of the "Human Be-in" event that took place on the foggy Golden Gate polo field on January 14, 1967 and eventually went down in history as a defining moment of the decade. Folks who were actually there (though might not actually remember it) will be in attendance: folkie Country Joe McDonald, Grateful Dead manager Rock Scully, pro-pot former District Attorney Terence Hallinan, pirate radio DJ and Buddhist thinker Scoop Nisker, our very own editor and publisher of the Bay Guardian Bruce Brugmann and many more will participate in the "be-in." Several hundred of the Council of Light members, who have been organizing the September 2nd 40th anniversary event, will be there too. Eric Christensen, a former KGO TV producer, moderates. The Eye Witness Blues Band performs.
8 p.m., free
2b1 Multimedia
3075 17 St., SF
www.2b1records.com/summeroflove40th

Yahoo! Free poems! Outside! Under a half dome of car hoods! Local hero Diamond Dave Whitaker is hosting a poetry open-mic this evening at the Panhandle Bandshell. It starts at 5 pm and should go until about 8. If you've never seen Whitaker or any of his associates perform poems, you really should. It's iconic.

Luckily or unluckily, many people who may be really bummed out about this news are on their way to Burning Man. Parks and Rec has decided not to extend the Panhandle Bandshell's permit, and the much-feted piece of public sculpture/architecture will be dismantled in September. (The bandshell was constructed and managed by some of the more active Burning Man-related organizations)

A detail from our 2007 Summer of Love reunion photo, taken at the bandshell. (See! We used it!)

Many people love this neato art work, but others claim it was a magnet for homeless people. I rabidly disagree. I live right by there and it's not the bandshell that's the problem -- I'd say the problem is the homelessness. Still, I wouldn't want the fancy residents of the "up-and-coming" Nopa neighborhood to have their idyllic dog walks interrupted by social facts. Many of these same complainers also gripe that the bandshell was hardly ever used (it was intended to provide a space for public entertainment.) But how many of these people put on any puppet shows, or grabbed a guitar or tambourine and contributed?

I have a wonderful memory from when the bandshell first went up. My mother was in town visiting. We encountered the bandshell and she hoisted me up on the stage and we did a little tango for observers nearby. Aplause, applause. Thanks, bandshell!

Somebdoy tried to burn the Burning Man icon, a bit too soon. A San Francisco man was arrested and charged with arson.

OUr man on the scene, Steve Jones, just called in by satellite phone to let us know that the premature inflammation happened during the lunar eclipse, and that the mood on the playa is a bit somber. More details to come.

Mugshot of Paul Addis from the Pershing County Sheriff's Office

See the comments below to read Paul Addis's exclusive statement to the Guardian

Well, according to Laughinsquid and a commenter on sfgate, the alleged arsonist, Paul Addis, recently performed a one-man play about Hunter Thompson called "Gonzo." And apparently he's not too thrilled with the people who run Burning Man.

If that's true, then his fiery act would be a very Gonzo thing to do.

Steve Jones, calling by satellite phone, says there were weird signs at the Burning Man entrance saying "what if they burned him Tuesday?"

I have to say: Charging this guy with arson, which carries a hefty prison sentencce, for burning something that was going to be burned in a few days anyway is kind of harsh.

Paul Addis as HS Thompson (photo: Scott Beale/Laughing Squid)

By Sarah Phelan

If you can't afford to go to Burning Man, how about an overnighter at the Pershing County jail?

The Reno GazetteJournal reports that 35-year-old San Francisco resident Paul Addis was booked into Pershing County Jail on suspicion of arson and possession of illegal fireworks after the 40-ft high Burning Man icon got torched in the wee hours of Tuesday, four days ahead of the scheduled burn.

But did "Burning Man burning" Addis foretell his 2007 self-immolation four years ago in an essay called "Good Cop Karma,"?
And if "Good Cop Karma" Addis is "Burning Man burning" Addis, then Pershing County sheriff better beware: because "Good Cop Karma" Addis describes taunting San Francisco police with,er, a giant black dildo before being let go, after being wrongfully accused--a happy ending he chalked up to "good cop karma," natch.

It's not yet clear what kind of karma "Burning Man burning" Addis has with sheriffs, but when we checked earlier today, visitors to the Pershing County sherrif's department website were being greeted with a reggae riff of "Bad Boyz."

Man Down

By Steven T. Jones, aka Scribe

We were partying in deep playa, watching the lunar
eclipse, when we saw the man burn. I didn’t believe it
at first, thinking that it had to be the Burning Man
folks fucking with us, maybe with some bright lights
to simulate a fake burn. But it was enough for my
Garage Mahal campmates and I to take the party mobile
and cruise our art car back in toward the man, joining
a wave of art cars with the same idea. I still thought
it was a prank or piece of theater until ...

We just received an e-mail from the organizers of the Summer of Love 40th Anniversary event happening this Sunday at Speedway Meadows in Golden Gate Park. According to them, some nasty rumors have been circulating via Internetz and radio that this historic event has been cancelled. NOT TRUE!

Tune in, turn on, drop by

We contacted the organizers, and they assure us that everything is hunky-dory, that the rumors appear to be propagated by unsavory sources ("a disturbed person or one of Nixon's retired dirty tricksters," they say), and that the event -- which is expected to be attended by thousands eager to commemorate the incredible peace-wishing happening of 40 years ago -- will go off just a cosmically as expected, with a stellar line-up including the likes of Canned Heat, Wavy Gravy, Riders of the Purple Sage, Michael McClure, and various former Doors. (A complete lineup of performers and activities can be found here.) See you there!

Resources

Summer of Love 40th Anniversary Web site

Info on the Summer of Love 40th Anniversary

Our 40th Anniversary Summer of Love reunion photo and "Where are they now?" (from Best of the Bay 2007)

Some key Summer of Love players still active in the community (from Best of the Bay 2007)

Summer of Love-related history from the Bruce Blog

The great Human Be-In Caper

Someone claiming to be the man who burnt The Man, Gonzo-enthusiast Paul Addis ("currently chilling out in Fernley NV") has posted a juicy, lengthy comment to our blog in which he presents his side of the "you could have killed people!" case.

Talkin'?

We hope it's him -- because this one's a doozy of a justification (and at this point into my three-martini lunch it makes a teeny bit of sense. One more round!)

The poster identifies himself as "the 'alleged' arsonist/douchebag/attention whore himself." Well, OK then!

We're working on getting some verification. Meanwhile -- there are reports that there's been an apparent suicide on the playa. Is this really Burning Man's Altamont?