An arson charge too harsh? I don't think you get it. Let's set aside the fact that this guy tried to spoil the event. He started a fire in an uncontrolled situation - people could have easily been harmed, and property was certainly damaged. Wreckless. Dangerous. Flat out irresponsible. He deserves what he gets. I suppose you'll next defend someone who detonates a condemned building early just for his/her kicks.

Burningman is a festival of Arsonist.

It was suggested that to the revive the event. The man had to be burnt early in the week so there was the excitement of the rebuilding.

If Rich is right then why have a party that kills 10 people every year ?

During the Neolithic era, the great festivals of Avebury, Stonehenge, and Newgrange were centered round the movements of the stars, planets, and eclipses of the moon. Addis knew the true time to light the Man on fire! May the Goddess bless the Brave Man who understands Gaia’s shadow.

My story about Burning Man never made it passed the intellectual gate keepers of the Burning Man web site into where it belonged: in the section on stories by participants.
For a real hot tale, read about the parallels of Burning Man and the Nevada Test Site:

http://www.lovolution.net/MainPages/essays/TwinFlames/TwinFlamesTitle.htm

this guys is my new hero!!!! thank god some people around here still have some balls.

Addis richly deserves the felony charge. His pathetic stunt could have killed dozens of people. Regardless of what you think about Burning Man or Burners, this guy pulled a very, very dangerous stunt. At the time of the fire, there were dozens of people on, in and under the burn platform. There were several art cars loaded with people close by watching the eclipse. Rich has it exactly right when he wrote that setting off the charges to demolish a building a few days before safety precautions are in place is serious crime and burning a gigantic pile of wood while hundreds of people are on or nearby the structure is no different. Regardless of what anyone may think of Burning Man or Burners, Addis could easily be sitting in the Pershing County jail charged with MURDERING scores of people instead of felony arson charges. Addis is a pathetic poser and should have played the role of one of the lizard people in any play about Thompson.

If you talk to people who went to BM in the early years, there was no infrastructure, no law, no police, no rules about when things burned... And when the Man did burn there was no safety perimeter and people would rush in close to it after collapse. People die at this event, it is a dangerous place. When you enter the front gates at Burning Man there is the understanding that your life will be at risk the duration of your stay. People are expected to use their instincts. The arrest of this "arsonist" is just another sign of the increasing control the *real* "man" has over the event.

"Regardless of what you think about Burning Man or Burners, this guy pulled a very, very dangerous stunt. At the time of the fire, there were dozens of people on, in and under the burn platform."

You have got to be kidding me. If people are too stupid to get out of a fire, well, maybe the gene pool needs a good cleaning. It was hardly an explosion and people weren't trapped.

Get over it. BM is not about some totem. Addis may be a douchebag, but Burning Man really needs to get over itself. If some other piece of art had been vandalized/destroyed I might be pissed, but this is the same stick figure that is built year after year.

This Addis guy deserves some serious jail time.
He was absolutely criminally irresponsible and reckless - following his own private
plan like most people who should be
locked up. He could have easily
killed someone - either directly or indirectly. by his
truly short sighted stupid action

i think that anyone who thinks this guy should be charged with a felony should also consider the legality of their own actions...

that's right, if you want to throw the law around at an event like burning man, then you should be prepared to submit to the dea.

i'm sick of all the whiney bitches on here who are complaining because their "club med for drugs" failed to deliver the exact same predictable and familiar product that they've come to know.

this is supposed counter culture, people. not "food, folks and fun."

This Bush guy deserves some serious jail time. He was absolutly criminally irresponsible and reckless - following his own private plan like most people who should be locked up. He could have easily killed someone - either directly or indirectly by his truly short sighted stupid action.

Hi, folks. This is the *alleged* arsonist/douchebag/attention whore himself, writing you from Fernley, NV, where I have been chilling out for a couple of days.

Having read your various comments, a few things should be addressed. First, this operation was extensively planned well in advance, and the number one thing to Black Rock Intelligence was that NO ONE be hurt. If you people actually knew us, you'd know that we have an extensive background in doing things exactly like this. In fact, we were on the ground for some thirty minutes before ascent, scoping the scene and clearing people in order to minimize any possiblity of injury to others. We were aided by several people who were recruited on the playa the night of this burn (BRI has no idea who they are, so don't bother asking).

Second, the operation was planned in conjunction with the lunar eclipse because Black Rock Intelligence knew that another event at the trash fence would draw the bulk of lunatics to it, rather than to the Man. In fact, one of our peripheral operatives aided in getting as many people to the fence event as possible to help BRI achieve its goal of zero injuries.

Third, word went out across the playa days in advance that Black Rock Intelligence was pulling this op. This word continued to go out right up to the moment that our chief operator began the arduous climb up the guide wire. As you can all see from the results, BRI performed flawlessly in this regard.

We could give a fuck less what you all think of us for doing this. Most of you are newbies who have been drawn in by the semi-religious nature of the event, or maybe just the easy drugs and easier sex. You have nothing to offer the event other than your fucking money and obedience. You spend the rest of your lives in mortal fear of everything that insurance companies tell you to fear, and pretend that you're free and clear because you spend four days at a desert bacchanal where spinelessness is not only encouraged but genetically replicated for implementation in successive generations. In short, you are the swine of which Thompson spoke. Get over yourselves.

Some of us live quite well without fear. Doing so requires the ultimate in what Burning Man used to represent: personal responsibility and individual liberty. That's all been lost in the last decade of Burning Man's history. Consider this operation a history lesson that was desperately needed.

One final note: Black Rock Intelligence has been permanently disbanded. All other operatives have made the ultimate sacrifice by swallowing their L-pills to avoid being captured alive. I am the sole surviving member of BRI and ask that you respect my mourning period for those who gave their lives so that this operation was a complete success.

Paul D. Addis
Fernley, NV

Whatever....
What a load of crap.

If this is indeed you... you just wanted the attention.
You are a selfish bastard who thought of only himself instead of the 45000 other people that are at that event.
What you did was selfish, dangerous to others, and much like a little child throwing a temper tantrum because he doesnt always get what he wants.

fuck you, Paul Addis. Try coming up with original ideas for attention/expression that dont involve risking other peoples lives non consensually.

Well, if that's really you, Paul Addis, thanks for coming here and posting your explanation.

I still think it's harsh that the perp here is facing prison time for arson for burning something that exists to be burned. And I was thinking last night: If Burning Man is an alternative , counter-culture community, perhaps the community should collectively seek to have the criminal charges dropped and handle it internally, with some sort of community-based reconciliation process.

On the other hand, if you put the poor guy in a Burning Man Court, some people would probably want him burned at the stake.

What, and the dude standing next you in a spandex thong and fur boots isn't vying for everybody's attention? The Chron quoted revelers yelling "Save the man! Save the man!" Doesn't anyone else find that profoundly ironic and self-defeating?

Great...you are a self described enemy of the people. You did pay your $200 whatever to go to Burning Man and you like destroying shit. Do you get off on ruining others people's fun? Beat yourself with a stick.

Paul: thank you for helping to reclaim days of yore, when blinking lights and funfur didn't reign the playa--but mayhem and chaos and pranksters were kings.

wish i could have seen it and shared in a big belly laugh with my fellow playa-cynics. i sat this year out because the predictability of the burn has just burnt me out. but your courage to stand-up has restored my faith--there still exist fabulous pranksters who want to shake up the paradigm and remind us to not take ANYTHING too seriously.

if the BM bureaucracy buys into society's alarmist attitude by formally pressing legal charges, then it will be clear that everything The Man used to stand for is dead. i pray they get the joke.

So, Paul, thanks for the belly laugh and thanks for the history lesson in personal freedom! You have alot of support on and off the playa. We're all giddy with the wake-up call. Far from "ruining other people's fun," you have given us cause for celebration!

And, to those of you who believe that Paul acted selfishly & irresponsibly: I hope that you choose to step left for a moment, to breathe deep, to try to get the joke--not only will you enjoy your time on the playa, but you're shift will enable your neighbors to step left as well. And, in the end, everyone will be celebrating in unity the beauty of personal freedom. And, the true meaning of Burning Man will be reborn.

Write us from prison, too, Paul. For serious. Congratulations and please enjoy the adventure of making incarceration lemonade. Fun.

Some people are acting harsh. Addis has not been found guilty of anything and people are ready to throw the book at him. There is no evidence to say Addis did it. No one was hurt or killed. No harm no foul. It's too bad these persecutors don't have as much conviction about the people who get raped and beat up out there every year. Get some perspective. I say thank you to all the heroes who made this premature burn possible, because it was definitely a group effort. Plus they are going to burn the man again on Saturday. That means the attendees get twice the burn for their money this year! Besides, the man burning is about the least exciting event at Burning Man anyhow. Who gives a darn? If Larry Harvey can laugh about this, and he is, why can't these other few objectors?

Wow. I've never been to Burning Man, but this guy Addis sounds like a classic self-righteous prick who gets off on tormenting people who aren't as on it as he is.

What a trivial wretch.

"Some people are acting harsh. Addis has not been found guilty of anything and people are ready to throw the book at him. There is no evidence to say Addis did it. No one was hurt or killed."

If it is him that posted comments here earlier, he admitted to doing it.

I dont think its too harsh. If I were to go to a 4th of July fireworks demonstration and light the fire works off during the day... in the middle of the daylight festivities do you not believe that:

On a legal level, someone would charge me with something?
On a safety level, I would be risking peoples lives because I am not a pyrotechnic?
On a personal "wow thats fucked" level, i wouldnt be blowing it for something that people were really looking forward to all year long?

This is a similiar thing. While the fireworks dont MAKE the 4th of july,... people look forward to them. I am very pleased that nobody was harmed. And even with this fact in mind, I dont believe that he should get away with it. It wasnt his man to burn. There were 45000+ other people indirectly and directly effected.

fuck him and his legal fund.

Fund it yourself. Im too busy saving my money for next years BM ticket. Which I personally find to be worth every penny... regardless of how the BMORG spends the money.

In The Lord of the Rings (the first movie), the Shire throws a celebration in honor of Bilbo Baggins. Gandalf is the only one who knows he holds the ring, and his mission is to get Bilbo to surrender it to a party is he assembling that will return the ring to Mount Doom and ensure its destruction.

On the night of these festivities, Gandalf regales the Shire with a magical and mystical fireworks display that magnifies the intensity of the event. Gandalf is a bit of a trickster, but also a master sorcerer and his fireworks are but a token expression of the works he is capable of. Burners would do well to recall the archetypically adolescent antics of Merry and Pippin, who, after discovering the location of Gandalf's arsenal, proceed to set off the very one that had been intended as the event's finale. Does anyone remember the result?

The entire Shire was entitled to the shock and awe of a flaming dragon who descended upon the unsuspecting revelers. They were scared out of their wits when the sky dragon suddenly descended upon them and sent the entire party scattering for cover.

Merry and Pippin escaped with minor burns, but when Gandalf found them, he grabbed them both by the ears and scolded them for being the pranksters they were, and for playing with fire that was more powerful than they could have possibly known how to manage.

Gandalf plays the patriarch as he admonishes them for transgressing the order of unspoken rules. But Gandalf also recognizes something of value in the immature antics of these saboteurs. He recognizes a certain kind of courage required to break with the Shire's comfortably bourgeois order of established traditions and rituals. He wisely understands that in spite of the danger they visited upon themselves and the threat they posed to their community, they also added a certain element of the unexpected to the event. It catalyzed a state of erotic chaos that caused everyone there to suddenly become more immediately present.

Did Gandalf intuit (consciously or unconsciously) that these budding tricksters might have some role to play in the party that helped Frodo in his escape from the Shire? Did he recognize something of value in their daring?

I ask everyone who is reading this thread to consider simply laying for a while longer with your valuable questions, and override your automatic tendency to react from a place of judgment. The question of what happened to our sacred Burning Man on Monday during the Full Lunar Eclipse is surely worthy of careful consideration.

Why? Here is my only argument. Our culture has become blatantly bureaucratic. Our upper and lower echelons suffer from a zealously self-righteous drive to scapegoat and accuse, assign blame with scientific certainty, punish the guilty severely, and execute them if necessary. As a collective, what we have done to Hussein and Noriega has been done more quietly to millions of innocents who just happened to live in the same countries and suffered the strafing of our stealth bombers. We have burned men and women alive again and again. Before we dare to stand on ceremony and take a stance to criminalize the burning of a man in effigy, we need to Google Earth ourselves, zoom out, get the big picture, if only to reconvene with reality. Gandalf, why didn't you burn Merry and Pippin at the stake? You had your chance. Their ears were in your giant hands, and you could have torn them off. You also could have got yourself a good lawyer, and sued them for theft of personal property, arson, and unlawful endangerment of the community. Why did you stop and let some larger window of destiny open and let in its winds to tickle your great beard?

That's all. Just lay with the question. Stay open to Eros, invite the Trickster in, soit vigilante in your Jonezen for more.

-J

Two Flames: The Story of Green Man 2007

by Doctress Neutopia
www.lovolution.net

Burning Man’s founder, Larry Harvey, picked the theme for the annual 2007 festival as “Green Man,” which meant the ecological man. Artwork on the playa was designed to reflect the theme, building a world which lives in harmony with nature.

Actor and retired lawyer, Paul Addis, has been charged with a felony for lighting Burning Man’s “Green Man” effigy on fire before the official scheduled time of its burn, September 1st. Instead, he chose to light it to coincide with a rare total lunar eclipse August 28th at 3:00 am.

Lighting the fire to coincide with the lunar eclipse, defied patriarchal time, and moved us toward recovering our sacred alignment with the cosmos.

So, what were the reasons why Addis torched the Man? According at Wired interview he said, “The celebration of individual expression and community-building at the core of Burning Man has been lost in recent years as the event has become too "suburban." A spontaneous act like prematurely burning the Man was an attempt to recapture some of the original spirit of the event.”

By lighting the fire, Addis became the personification of Green Man. Burning the effigy during the eclipse took our collective memory back in time to the Neolithic era when the great festivals at architectural monuments such as Avebury, Stonehenge, and Newgrange were held in celebration of cosmic events such as lunar eclipses.

The defiant premature burning of the Green Man reminds me of the story of Saint Patrick. He realized that he would not be able to change the chiefdom system of Ireland by converting one person at a time to Christianity. He needed to make a big statement that would broadcast news about his Christian god, an action that would be talked about around the country long after his action occurred.

During the great annual festival on the Hill of Tara, Ireland’s spiritual and political center, the custom was for the king to light the paschal fire. Everyone in the valley was informed not to light a fire for the night until the king lit the festival’s bonfire. The fire symbolized his power and chiefdom.

Patrick went to the Hill of Slane, a hilltop in view of Tara, and gathered wood to light a huge bonfire. Before the king could light the huge paschal fire, which could be seen for miles around, Patrick lit his fire defying the king’s authority.

Immediately, the king ordered his army to ride with him to the Hill of Slane to fight the army that was responsible for disobeying his word. When he arrived, he found one man, Patrick, who said he lit the fire to tell the world about the light of the love of God within him. The king was so impressed by his bravery, that instead of killing Patrick, he converted to Christianity.

So, you can see that I am in support of Addis’ brave action. Setting the effigy on fire before Larry Harvey lit the match challenged his authority. Addis torch was the shamanic art of shifting energies. Perhaps Addis’ performance has stirred up the Burning Man ashes so much so that something new and more meaningful has a chance to grow.

Responding to his unscheduled burn, bloggers voiced complaints similar to Addis in that the annual celebration has lost touch with radical self-expression and its spontaneous, subversive roots.

I can testify to the above sentiments because I was suppressed by the Burning Man establishment. In 2001, after attending Burning Man, I wrote a short story about my journey through the Nevada Test Site to Burning Man which ended on September 11, 2001. The theme of Burning Man that year was “The Ages of Man,” so my piece was an ecofeminist look at the Burning Man project.

After posting the story to my web site, I sent the link to the Burning Man editor, so that she could add it on the Burning Man web site page designed especially for stories that participants had written. But my link never appeared on their site. After sending numerous emails to the editor, it became apparent that my story was being actively ignored or censored by the Burning Man establishment.

My essay, and now, my campaign, is about moving the Burning Man festival from northern Nevada’s Black Rock desert south to the Nevada Test Site. The move is not only a symbolic protest against the immortal and stupid war in Iraq, and the commercial culture that supports it, but a protest for changing the direction and funding of the military industrial establishment away from war and armament production toward building a prototype arcology, an architectural theory developed by architect Paolo Soleri, one of the experts in Leonardo DiCaprio’s 11th Hour.

In a world that is heating up because of global warming, our only defense is to restructure civilization by building a network of car-free, toxic free, organic, high-tech/high touch, cradle to cradle industrial arcologies. If artists don’t demand our money to be redirected so that we can build a truly creative, awe-inspiring society, who will?

Artists of the world need to come together to protest for the right to use our money and our state land to build 21st century arcologies. To begin this process, what better place to start than by “Burning the Man” across from the Nevada Test Site where the biggest and baddest burns have been conducted? Isn’t it time to Burn the Man at a place where the US government has wasted billions of dollars developing weapons of mass destruction, money that could have gone to assure our species’ long-term survival by building sustainable arcologies on Earth and in Outer Space? What greater symbol of peace and love could there be than to take Black Rock City with its population of 40,000 people, to the Gates of Hell—the Nevada Test Site—and demand our money be re-channeled in a way that funds building a new world in an image of paradise?

So, it is time for the Burning Man organization to evolve to the next level of development. To do this takes the superpower of the people under the guidance of the “creative minority.” By overthrowing the US corporate military regime and replacing it with a vision of development that builds a model that fuses together sustainable city design (arcology) and radical creativity (Burning Man culture) there is a chance that artists could liberate the world.

Bringing Burning Man back to its subversive roots could cause shock waves throughout the world media. Burning Man could truly become a social movement that Harvey dreams about fusing art and politics for the transformation and salvation of humanity. To go up against the global corporate military regime, we need to fight fire with fire, symbol with symbol, religion with religion.

But, alas, as in the real world, the Burning Man staff didn’t take time out to reflect and understand the significance of Addis’ wise action. Instead, they called it a selfish publicity stunt. They rebuilt the Man so that the Saturday night’s “Burn” could go on as scheduled. It seems their Green Man effigy was only “green washing.”

Rebuilding it to re-burn it only caused more CO2 to be cast into our dying atmosphere and more forests were destroyed to provide more wood for the “Green Man.” Addis writes, “Burning Man should stop the disingenuous Green Man immediately. It's all a lie. If you want to know how much a of a total lie it is, run a Google satellite photo of Burning Man right now and count the number of RVs there. And they're telling me it's an environmental movement? Bullshit. There are people sucking gas up there faster than they are passing it.”

Had Harvey, Burning Man’s prophet, actually given up on community building and conflict resolution, and gone for profits as Addis claims? Unlike the tale of St. Patrick, I’m not suggesting that Harvey convert to Christianity, but instead, I’m asking him to find reverence for the sacred Earth, Gaia. Christianity devised the unnatural time system that is not aligned to stellar events which enslaves the world now. It is the Christian judicial system that puts Gaia loving, green environmental activists in prison for acting to save the global ecology. It is the system that arrested Addis and charged him with a 3,000 dollar bail.

What I am asking of Harvey is to rekindle his spontaneous, revolutionary, evolutionary, or lovolutionary roots within him, and rebel with all his heart and soul against the nuclear fire that could cause all of us to become burning people. I’m asking him to embrace the green Goddess within him and move on with the next phase of Black Rock City’s development, making it a sustainable model of a utopian arcology on Earth.

It’s time for Harvey to follow the themes of the past two Burning Man festivals: the Green Man and the Utopian Man by finding the way to actualize them. If art can’t be manifested into daily life, then the festival is phony. If Burning Man doesn’t have a great social purpose for the good of the planet, it is nothing more than a hedonistic, nihilist week of superficial pleasure for the few who can afford the price of the ticket. For the Burning Man staff, the festival then becomes a ten million dollar a year money-making machine for them to live on for the rest of the year as Earth slowly suffocates.

We can transform Burning Man if we allow the royal art of city making to be liberated. By allowing the best and most noble ideas to lead the event, we can find a way to bring an end to nuclear terrorism by rebuilding the world using designs that unite sacred arcologies and radical self-expression.

Can you imagine the mass ecstasy and profound celebration of 40,000 people Burning the Man—the Nuclear Man—across from the Nevada Test Site? What a massgasm! The thought makes my mind radiate with supreme joy! It’s fighting the ignorance of poison fire with the intelligence of sacred fire!

Addis stated that he torched the Man as a “reality check.” It’s time for a Larry Harvey to cash that reality check, not bounce it.

who cares-it was going to be burned any way--oh it might have ruined the VIBE-what VIBE--------dirty x and meth heads-take a shower--not just in the desert-but where you live-----in your crapy rv down bayshore---------------get a grip
f@#%----burning man

d

i was there. thanks for the early burn paul! and i for one will definitely be pitching in for your legal defense.

About douchebag's statement. Didn't the American brass justify their war on the Vietnamese people with, "we have to burn the village to save the village."

Self-righteous, pathetic poser, you're no HST nor will ever be. HST never was deluded enough to believe that he was saving anyone or anything.

if BRC does not drop the charges, then burning man and all its future participants will be nothing but the most pathetic posers in the world. (if you are not already that)

if you are all so mean-spirited and small-minded that you can't see the humor in this and laugh at yourselves, then you deserve to have burning man come to an end. by allowing paul addis to go to jail for burning something that would have been burnt anyway, for burning it early as you yourselves discussed for over 10 years, then you richly deserve what is about to happen.

the end of your cash cow. the end of your business *you have revealed it to the world now as nothing but a business - there is no *community* in BRC decision-making, is there. total loss of respect. losers.

I once attended a ceremony where a group of buddhist monks had spent days drawing the Kalachakra Mandala with colored sand under an outdoor pavillion. The tediousness and percison of their work unreal.

As they neared completion, a small toddler broke free of his mother's grasp and ran right towards the mandala. people started to yell but it was too late to stop him. When he hit the sand he slipped and fell, scattering the images of hundreds of tiny buddahs into random swirls of color. Most of those in attendance gasped in horror!

The monks who had worked on the mandala for many days Exploded with laughter. One of them picked up the child (who by now was crying its eyes out) carried him back to his mother, kiseed him on the top of the head and they all blessed the child and thanked him for playing 'his part' in the ceremony.

I haven't been to L.A. in 10 years. There were some cool things when I was last there but I'm fairly certain that all the good things are now dead and gone. What I've heard from other people who still go there is that it is a horrible, humorless, vile, and un-spontaneous place. In light of these facts, I've decided I must burn LA in order to inject something good back into the wasteland it has become.

Anyone who complains about my performance art is either silly and/or just not smart enough to get it. Or, they're furry-pants wearing, drug-taking, sex-havers. Or, they're new to LA and therefore don't matter and aren't allowed an opinion because it is, in fact, their fault that I must burn LA.

Understand that when I do burn LA, it will be an act of love, not hate. I will be using fire as a way to remind LA of how cool it used to be. I will be burning it as a way of encouraging people to welcome chaos. There simply IS NOT ENOUGH CHAOS in the world.

Every boring asshole that is an American has a really easy, lovely, conflict-free, chaos-free life and they should suffer for that. You pussies are too soft...life is not crazy enough. You all NEED me to save you from your selves. You are too pathetic to even realize you need saving. That's fine, I'll do it. Like Jesus Christ before me, I am willing to bear this burden for you. Have no fear. I will make it all right when you are being predictable, sleeping in the middle of the night. Yes, that's when I will renew the place I used to love, the place I haven't been in 10 years.

But, I will put my makeup on first!

Just call me Arse-O-Nist!,
Oh, and you can thank me later.

http://www.cafepress.com/arse_o_nist

"Arse-O-Nist", Sounds good!
Wanna borrow my lighter?
(Cafepress! great way to turn out "outrage" into cash")

Whatever accountability the actual arsonist incurs is a matter of law, and personal choice.

As for his impact on the festival - I don't care. Whatever anyone does to the man-sculpture will generate a collective human response. I think that is a good thing, it gives us a choice to respond in some way - a bonding exercise.

If life and limb had been lost, then I would have a more visceral response. If anything, I'm pissed off that he got his point across at the risk of life and limb. Someone could have been passed out in the complex beneath the man.

I want to hear the man's story, and that of his accomplices.

It is hard to believe that he would torch the man without checking the space beneath it...but he might have.

I agree with Roberta! This event was pretty much quickly a non event at Burning Man. I have no problem with the idea of someone wanting to burn the MAN early other than he put other lives at risk. I don't care how good he says his plan was it could have seriously gone awry. When I watch the burn I can choose how close or far I want to be. In most things at BM I can choose my level of risk. When someone else makes the choice for me I have a problem with it.
Plus the pavilion under the Man was full of displays and other things that many had put lots of work and energy into that was not his right to destroy.

My first BM was in 1998. One of the most astounding things to me back then was the fact that there were people ("artists") that created beautiful or simply great pieces on the playa for us all to enjoy - and then burned them in the end.

The idea that art was created and - before it got abused by rich people as personal collectors' items - destroyed again, was radical and freeing to me.

When I learned in later years that some art pieces were burned prematurely by uninvolved BM attendents, I was upset about their ignorance of the artist's efforts and rights.

This year, however, when I learned about the premature burn of the Man, I did not feel the same way about it. The Man was not a personal art piece but just a big bunch of always-the-same-looking wood, filled with fireworks, made to satisfy a spectating crowd.

Destroying it feels to me like a prank done to 45000 people, not like a criminal act.

Sure, it upset a lot of people, but IMO it deserves no federal "arson" trial as many demand. We've all been fooled (or awakened, depending on your understanding of the event), and there's hopefully no law against that.

The only regret I have is that I did not see the burn (I was at the fence), and only came back when I saw the firefighter extinguishing it.

I have dreamed of this for years. Paul did a GREAT thing and didn't spoil a thing. He may have of put lives at risk, but you need to read the back of your ticket. You assume the responsibility of death attending the event. Paul put the thrill of "whats going to happen next" back into Burning Man. Maybe next year they can paint it and sell it to the highest bidder. Hearing BM advertised on satellite radio made me realize BM died. Paul put a rebirth back into BM. The event should start with the man burning 12 AM Monday! The start of the festival. Then change the following year and the year after that. Besides the BMORG can use that surplus of money to rebuild it with no problem.

Stick figure? The Man? Wooden Effigy? Fucking waste? Pollutant? Central authority? Key navigation landmark in a polar coordinate system?

Back in 1999, my second year, I was standing in the freezing cold, waiting for the big guy to be lit. I asked my friends what they thought the man stood for?

My answer was a bit sophomoric: I thought that the Man represented "The Man" and that we burned him down each year as a statement of "breaking down the establishment", but then I had to account for how they just rebuilt him each year. Somehow I factored in his height and how we were slowly wearing him down. ha ha.

My companions gave some pretty good answers, but only the answer of my girl sticks in my head. She proposed that we burn the "one right way" when we burn the Man.

"One right way" sums up a lot about what is shitty about our civilization. "One right way" is a justification for religious wars by both sides.

"One right way" is a practical definition of bureaucracy.

"One right way" defined the Nazis.

"One right way" is used to justify persecution worldwide, by everyone who is powerful enough to persecute.

"One right way" finds its way onto the playa, and I have found myself to be its promoter, merely as a Mayor of a smallish theme camp. I have heard myself go beyond giving a suggestion to actually *requiring* certain safety and building codes within our little theme camp. Why? I justify that I require caps on any protruding stakes because I broke my toe on such a stake on the playa in 1998. I suggest that the "one right way" to attach tarps to structures is with shock cords, because ropes only rip tarps and flatten structures.

Add to these the "one right way" to handle sunscreen, hydration, shade, and the Burning Man event is one big ball of the "one right way" to do just about everything. This is also a feature of being a Burning Dad and bringing our 4 year old for her 5th burn this year (first in utero)

One experience a few years ago highlights this: a new campmate was crashed out in the sun. He had been drinking kinda heavy and was now passed out, lying in the midday sun. My sense of how "wrong" this scene was overwhelmed me. As Mayor, I marched right over to this guy and woke him up, made him drink some water and made him move into the shade. Had I become "the Man" of our portion of the community?

So, don't we need to burn the "one right way"? Don't we all need an injection of the unknown? As a 10 year burner, I was mildly amused when I saw the Man on fire from my camp. It was exciting! The planned coincidence with the Lunar Eclipse was thrilling! This was the first Man Burn I had been excited about for like 4 years!

Thank you!

However, being a balanced Gemini, I cannot help but see another angle: That is somebody's project. Whether you like it or not, whether you think it is beautiful art or an entrenched Sacred Cow, it is still a project which has a creator, which has workers devoting their time and effort. Having built my own art works on the playa since 1998, I can feel for some people. Even if you HATE the Man, you can still have consideration for the PEOPLE who devoted themselves to this project.

So while part of me is happy for the CHAOS, another part feels as an artist. I built the Elegant Hammock in 1999, next to a adult-sized tether ball court. The Elegant Hammock was simply two beams sunk way deep in to the playa to provide support for a single hammock.

I think my friends didn't see it as art, but I still put a lot of effort in (including digging two 4 foot deep diagonal holes by hand.) But my friends were cold and burned it without me there.

I felt betrayed.

Art is a personal thing. You may judge something as crap, or as a Sacred Cow, but to someone, on some level, it is their art. They put their hearts into it. When it is disrespected, burned without ceremony, considered to be expendable, someone, one or more of your fellow citizens will feel pain and will suffer.

I do not think that Mr. Addis should be prosecuted by outside authorities. Why should they have so much legal power in a place where we redefine many rules? Also, as an appreciator of the CHAOS caused, and considering that nobody was hurt, I do not think that prison time is healthy for Mr. Addis or for the rest of Black Rock City. Do we really want one of our own to be sitting in a jail cell?

I agree that we should probably deal with Mr. Addis locally, as in playa justice. Perhaps instead of jail, we would sentence him to Black Rock City community service and put him on the Temple construction next year or as a worker for some other art piece. This sentence may give him the chance to see how Burning Man inspires art, or what it feels like to pour yourself into some part of a project and the joy in seeing it finished and the joy of being part of its burning.

Also, working on such projects usually produces more artists. There are many ways to create CHAOS and unique experience on the playa.

Mr. Addis came up with and executed a destructive prank to mix it up. What if instead he and his intelligence officers had constructed another larger Man just off to the side of the official one?

Constructive CHAOS could actually be more effective. Competing burns? Confused navigation? An Effigy to an Effigy?

CReative subversion is way cooler than destructive. Look at your hero Hunter S. Thompson: a Creative Master of Chaos.

burn on!

I am the other artist so disgraced at burning man along with the world’s most ready symbol of freedom (of course, that really does depend on, like Ranger Sasquatch said, “what side of the pistol u stand on”). To me the war on terror is really a war on freedom.
For that reason, I spent weeks and months carving a huge, futuristic statue of liberty out of a cedar log and i brought it to share…
Besides the man, the Liberty burn was the first arson since 1999, along with my trailer she stood on and my vital tools and equipment I was using sharing the “process of art” with grateful people who loved my version of liberty and theirs too.
Should we watch people do nasty things to get attention; then use it as a platform to blather; who attack a culture at its most passionate nexus and should we not call them terrorists?
Do they need to burn center-camp next to make their point?
The first defense against any cultural disorder, i think is community awareness so let’s call it what it is. The next is to catch the sick punk and see him fry in a federal penitentiary along with Addis. Let’s see if they like the flames in there.
Burning Man is in danger as long as people use terror to make political statements, especially in light of the ‘08, politically-charged Bman theme…
Watch for the article I’m just completing, soon to be published: Liberty Torched (The story of the other arson at Burning Man) By Matthew (Timeless) Welter, September, 2007
Any of your insights, images, footage or whiteness to the Liberty arson is needed; I’m preparing to call it terrorism when i hand it over to the F. ucking B.I.
Timeless
timeless.sculptures@gmail.com
Thanks to the remarkable photography and good will of Ryan Hayes, I have some stunning images to share: arson photos --> http://www.oneflameinthefire.com/timeless-arson/

Liberty was surrounded by a had-full of my finest works, which thankfully attracted Ryan’s camera:
http://www.oneflameinthefire.com/timeless-art/)

Kisskill hit the nail on the head. Paul didn't accomplish much more than chaos and if that was his intention then hats off. I really think he believes himself to be much more important than he really is. Or maybe he's just that stupid. But he also succeded in dividing a community as well. Not since pro-choice/pro-life have I seen people so opinionated with such extreme polarity.

Anyone know yet what the court outcome was?

Wow, after reading all this, I think I have made some good decisions in the past. It was as Ocean Beach, many years ago, and I, as a native San Franciscan fire-breather, felt compelled to attend one of the very first "burning man events". It was blasted about on the radio all day. The promoters were selling t-shirts. Then the S.F. fire dept. showed up and told the crowd that they knew who the promoter was, and if the thing was lit, he would go to jail. Well, I stayed late, and the man was never lit, at least while I was there. The crowd had all gone... It was then and there that I said to myself, I will NEVER attend a burning man event, as the promoter has no balls. Now after reading about all the people who should be going to Disney instead, I'm so glad I've never gone. Hop in line and pony-up, you lemmings....

This man is a genius.. and because of this I might actually come to Burning Man one of these days.. It would seem so much more fun to have random unplanned things happening over and over again.. rather then some scheduled events of avant garde.

Naked Bicycle rides, yawn
Fire people, yawn
Being a hippy, yawn..

People gotta stop bitching about this guy and start thinking about a way to top him!