Free Republic

The Legislature’s attempt to craft an entertainment tax in 2003 read a little bit like the children’s story of the hen who couldn’t persuade her barnyard animal friends to help her gather and grow grain for the winter. Lawmakers then considered a proposal by the Nevada Taxpayers Association to tax admissions to nearly every form of entertainment and recreation. But when it came time to write the bill, a common refrain was sounded by many targeted for the tax. “Not I!” said the movie theaters. “Not I!” said the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “Not I!” said the baseball parks, bowling...

"...and the county's conservative lawmakers have been passing silly-season unconstitutionalities, like a law prohibiting a man from being naked in the presence of a child..."

Each year, Burning Man draws 60,000 people to the Black Rock Desert north of Reno to participate in a weeklong counterculture art festival. Admittance to the bohemia isn’t free, though. You need to buy a $380 ticket. Now, some Democratic legislative leaders are looking at the ticket proceeds and wondering why the state doesn’t get a cut. “It’s how many people and they pay how much?” Senate Majority Leader Mo Denis, D-Las Vegas, said. “I definitely think we ought to look at that.” Here’s some quick math: 60,000 tickets sold at $380 a pop equals $22.8 million. Apply the state’s...

The Bureau of Land Management has declared the Burning Man “radical self-expression/self-reliance" community “experiment” in northern Nevada’s Black Rock Desert a temporary weapons-free zone, GunLeaders Blog reported today. Citing a Department of the Interior “Notice of Temporary Closure and Temporary Restrictions of Specific Uses on Public Lands in Pershing County, NV” appearing in the Federal Register Volume 77, Number 157 (Tuesday, August 14, 2012), the edict mandates “temporary closures and temporary restrictions will be in effect from August 13, 2012 to September 17, 2012. Proclaiming its authority under 43 CFR 8364.1., and issued by Gene Seidlitz, District Manager, Winnemucca District,...

Ten thousand more people are expected to be on hand in the Nevada desert for this year's Burning Man festival after federal officials increased the event's attendance cap. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued a special recreation permit to the nonprofit behind Burning Man, San Francisco-based Black Rock City LLC, that allows 60,900 people to attend the arts festival, up from 50,000 last year. Officials announced the increase on Tuesday.

Go to Burning Man, and you’ll find everything from a thunderdome battle between a couple in tiger-striped bodypaint to a man dressed as a gigantic blueberry muffin on wheels. But underneath it all, says the festival’s co-founder, Larry Harvey, is “old-fashioned capitalism.”

Organizers of the Burning Man festival are challenging the federal government's decision to place them on probation for exceeding the crowd cap last year.

RENO, Nev. - The biggest prior threats to Burning Man's annual regeneration in the Black Rock Desert were U.S. land use laws, undercover cops and the media-perpetuated perception that the largest outdoor arts festival in North America is really just an excuse to get naked and do drugs. But that was before the teeth-gnashing "ticket fiasco." Two decades after the free spirits moved their party from San Francisco's Baker Beach to a dried up ancient lake bed 120 miles north of Reno, the annual pilgrimage with its drum circles, decorated art cars, guerilla theatrics and colorful theme camps has become...

I was unhappy with the poor journalistic coverage of the #OccupyWallStreet protests, so I went to Wall Street myself to see what’s going on, and report on it. It’s the quality of the coverage, not the amount that's the problem. It’s been on the nightly news every night for the past week, but there has been little “serious” reporting.

BLACK ROCK CITY, Nev.—The giant Burning Man art festival, in its official manifesto, calls on attendees to exhibit "radical self-reliance" as they camp and frolic on the dry lakebed here for a week every year. Burning Man's mantra is so compelling that some 50,000 participants have gathered in this rustic setting for the 25th annual rite. But some bourgeois Burners are calling upon more than spiritual vibes to tap their inner self. They've got hired help. ... Elsewhere on the desert grounds, Burners wear bikini tops, leather chaps, stilts, goggles—and sometimes nothing at all. They rely on canned food for...

Burning Man, the arts festival and experimental community that blooms once a year for a week on a dry desert lakebed outside Gerlach, Nev., starts Monday.

Northern Nevada will host one of the largest and most innovative art and cultural events in the nation this week, yet most local residents have never experienced the weeklong Burning Man Festival. Western Nevada College offers a fascinating glimpse into the Burning Man culture of self-expression and self-reliance through a photography exhibit that portrays the art, costumes and energy of the event. “The Culture of Burning Man,” showing through Oct. 15, is made possible by the Black Rock Arts Foundation, and is curated by local artist Maria Partridge.

It’s easy to dismiss Burning Man as nothing more than a bizarre hippie love-fest that takes place deep in the Nevada desert every year the week before Labor Day. But doing so misses the fact that it’s an amazingly successful enterprise--and, as such, has a thing or two to teach about how to inspire creative people and create a great product. Since it first began 25 years ago, Burning Man has grown larger every year (if you ignore the slight dip in recession-scarred 2009). It’s grown so much that this year, for the first time ever, the organization had to...

Are any other FReepers attending the Burning Man festival next week? I'm going with some other patriots to explore and spread our Founding Fathers' message of true freedom through limited government. We haven't named our camp yet since this is the first year. I'd love to hear your advice too. Freepmail me if you are interested in joining forces out there. -V

Thousands of euro of Irish taxpayers’ money has been spent building a wooden ‘temple’ that will be ceremonially burnt to the ground at a hippy festival in America next month. As the nation faces yet another austerity budget, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal that €9,000 has been given towards building the Temple Of Transition – a giant timber structure that will be torched at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert next month.

For the first time in the event's 25-year history, tickets to Burning Man have sold out. With more than a month left to go before the gates to Black Rock City open at midnight on Aug. 28, burners have already started a mad scramble for spare tickets through various message boards and online networks.

For seven years, Roger Huang, a pastor who runs a rescue mission in San Francisco's Tenderloin district, has been trying to shut down the sex shops there. This week he may have seen a sign that his efforts are working. On Wednesday, a man burst into flames while inside one of those porn shops, police said.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) — A man was hospitalized Wednesday evening with life-threatening, third-degree burns after catching fire inside a San Francisco porn store, authorities told CBS 5. The fire occurred at an adult arcade at Sixth and Mission streets just after 6 p.m. Police officers across the street from the porn shop saw a man run out the front door of the store “engulfed in flames,” an SFPD spokesman said.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) — A man was hospitalized Wednesday evening with life-threatening, third-degree burns after catching fire inside a San Francisco porn store, authorities told CBS 5. The fire occurred at an adult arcade at Sixth and Mission streets just after 6 p.m. Police officers across the street from the porn shop saw a man run out the front door of the store “engulfed in flames,” an SFPD spokesman said. Some firefighters who happened to be about a block away at the time were immediately summoned and extinguished the flames. Arson investigators said it was not exactly clear how...

A man was hospitalized Wednesday evening with life-threatening, third-degree burns after catching fire inside a San Francisco porn store, authorities told CBS 5. The fire occurred at an adult arcade at Sixth and Mission streets just after 6 p.m. Police officers across the street from the porn shop saw a man run out the front door of the store “engulfed in flames,” an SFPD spokesman said. Some firefighters who happened to be about a block away at the time were immediately summoned and extinguished the flames. Arson investigators said it was not exactly clear how the man caught fire. Police...

To some (like the man from Communist China who created the thing) this may represent Obama the trailblazer ... To others a great representation of Obama as Satan.

A dust storm chased away some participants from the counterculture Burning Man festival before its traditional climax Saturday night on the northern Nevada desert, authorities said. [snip] "We are in (a) total whiteout," he wrote by e-mail. "A similar cold front caused a major dust event on Monday. The rest of the event has been relatively dust-free."

When San Francisco performance artist Paul Addis was arrested two months ago for prematurely setting Burning Man’s iconic wooden structure ablaze, some mused that Addis may have been trying to simply shake things up at the 21-year-old festival of radical self-expression. But as Addis, 35, remains behind bars in San Francisco after being nabbed Sunday night for the alleged attempted arson of The City’s historic Grace Cathedral, investigators, “burners” and churchgoers were hard-pressed to come up with a possible motive. Grace Cathedral spokesperson Brent Andrew said members of the Episcopal congregation had no idea why a man with no known...

SAN FRANCISCO - The man accused of setting the Burning Man on fire four days early has been arrested for allegedly planning to set Grace Cathedral ablaze, San Francisco police said today. Paul David Addis, 35, was arrested on the cathedral steps at 11:40 p.m. Sunday by police who said they had been tipped that someone intended to set fire to the Episcopal church, police spokesman Sgt. Steve Mannina said. Addis was wearing an old ammunition belt that carried small explosives, Mannina said. He was booked on suspicion of attempted arson, possession of an incendiary substance, possession of explosives and...

Let the '60s refugees and their rainbow-haired progeny roll in the mud and do in their Burning Man. The grown-ups of the world are setting fire to our patriotic spirit, winning freedom for oppressed Iraqis and killing a lot of Muslim extremists who would be more than happy to take them out into the desert night, douse them with gasoline and burn them alive, exactly what they did to Iraqi children whose parents supported reconciliation in Iraq. Please join the Fight For Victory caravan. Come to Washington, D.C., on Sept. 15 for the Gathering of Eagles and Eagles Up! push-back...

I was intrigued by the headline of an article from Monday's Washington Times: 'Burning Man' gets religion. It starts out with a look at the feelings and experiences of a Muslim man who attends Burning Man. Interesting enough, so I kept reading. The first page of the article is rather innocuous; it merely talks about what Burning Man is, about the mostly "spiritual but not religious" people who attend, and about how out-of-place Muslim convert Jack Fertig is there. All fair and true enough. But then, it gets to the meat of the article for me. First, let me say...

SAN FRANCISCO, (AP) -- After the signature effigy of the Burning Man festival went up in flames four days ahead of schedule, festival-goers vowed to rebuild the 40-foot icon by Saturday's planned climax. But not everyone was disappointed by Tuesday's incineration. The alleged torching of the wood-and-neon figure by a San Francisco performance artist has cast light on the disillusionment of many who feel the annual celebration of radical self-expression has lost touch with its spontaneous, subversive roots. "People have been trying to set that thing on fire for years," said Hugh D'Andrade, a San Francisco artist who attended the...

SAN FRANCISCO - Burning Man became Burnt Man four days early on Tuesday, and a San Francisco performance artist was arrested on suspicion of igniting the signature figure of the counterculture festival in the remote Nevada desert. The early morning fire scorched about 85 percent of the structure, Burning Man spokeswoman Andie Grace said. Event engineers decided it would be best to dismantle it and rebuild a less elaborate version, accomplishing in two days what normally takes weeks so the figure would be finished in time for Saturday night's scheduled burning, she said. The approximately 40-foot-tall wood and neon structure...

BLACK ROCK DESERT, NEV. - A San Francisco man was arrested on felony arson charges today after the 40-foot-tall "Man" statue whose torching is the annual highlight of the Burning Man festival in Nevada went up in flames four days early, authorities said. Paul Addis, 35, of San Francisco, was booked into the Pershing County Jail in Nevada on the arson charge and misdemeanor possession of fireworks, Sheriff Ron Skinner said.Festival organizers, meanwhile, pondered the smoldering remains of the Man and promised to rebuild the big guy in time for Saturday's regularly scheduled burn in the Black Rock Desert north...

Inside the Alamo Square apartment of Larry Harvey, the co-founder and impresario of Burning Man, there is a wooden statuette of Ganesh, the Hindu deity known for his patronage of arts and science. The expensive artifact was part of a splurge Harvey allowed himself three years ago, when he finally was able to redecorate his rental apartment and turn it from the paper-infested swamp he'd lived in for the past 22 years to the elegant bachelor pad it is today, adorned with Far Eastern decor and inhabited by a man who, by his own definition, has done well for himself....

Bin Laden found - at Burning Man! Black Rock City, NV - Despite a half decade of being sought for the 9/11 hijack bombings, Osama Bin Laden is still at large. Recent sightings of Bin Laden in this Nevada festival indicate he is much closer than anyone thought. "This is proposterous", fumed representative Nancy Pelosi. (D-CA) "We have spent billions of dollars in pursuit of this man, and here he is literally in our backyards." MORE http://www.staggeron.org/universe.html#osama_burningman

A counter-culture arts festival which champions alternative living is being vetted by environmentalists for its contribution to global warming. Burning Man bans the sale of anything but ice and coffee and declares clothing optional. The festival, which is expected to draw nearly 40,000 people to the Nevada desert this week, is described as an "experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance". It has few rules, no structure and features performances, installation art and music, which culminate in the symbolic burning of a large wooden man. A group of San Francisco scientists, calling themselves Cooling Man, have...

TWENTY YEARS AGO, a pair of San Francisco bohemians, Larry Harvey and Jerry James, burned a handmade wooden effigy on San Francisco's Baker Beach. That simple gesture, through word of mouth, attracted more participants in following years, and by 1990 the crowds pushed it off the beach and out to the Nevada desert. It developed into a seasonal settlement of 40,000 or so, known as Black Rock City. For one week each year, Burning Man becomes the most quintessentially American city in America. The city, dedicated loosely to art, community and general post-Merry Prankster high jinks, gets built, lived in,...

Sometimes there is just no way to know. Sometimes you are just handed a slab of raw perspective, a shocking dose of irony, and you have to do with it what you can. Some readers wrote me e-mails when I was out scorching my nether parts in the remote Nevada desert at Burning Man 2005, half naked and beglittered and intensely hung over and posting daily blog entries that read more like postcards from my moaning id than rational semicoherent slivers of BM reality.

A man dressed as a clown who assaulted another man and stole his bicycle at a counterculture festival last year has been sentenced after the victim's friends tracked down the disguised assailant. Dennis Hinkamp had to have two plates implanted in his arm after the attack at the Burning Man festival in the Black Rock desert, Nevada, Associated Press reports. Although his attacker disappeared into the crowd of painted and costumed celebrants, Hinkamp's friends began an internet search to find him. They linked the assailant to a group called Anarchoclowns, and finally to a hospital in Washington state, where Johnny...

Tips Lead to Arrest of Clown Assailant 2 hours, 38 minutes ago RENO, Nev. - A man dressed as a clown who assaulted another man and stole his bicycle at last year's Burning Man festival has been sentenced after the victim's friends tracked down the disguised assailant. Dennis Hinkamp had to have two plates implanted in his arm after the attack at the annual counterculture festival on the Black Rock Desert. Though his attacker disappeared into the crowd of painted and costumed celebrants, Hinkamp's friends launched an Internet search to find him. They linked him to a group called Anarchoclowns,...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The Board of Supervisors passed a resolution Tuesday opposing the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, close to the spot that draws thousands of people every year to the Burning Man festival. The resolution passed unanimously with extensive public comment from environmental advocates. It urges the city of Los Angeles to reject Sempra Energy's application to the Department of Water and Power to tap the regional transmission line it partially owns to carry electricity across the border to California. "This won't be the straw that broke the camel's back, but it's...

City says sanctuary for day laborers must come down after property owner complains. Burning Man's renowned temple-builder, David Best, was one day from completing a towering art project dedicated to the day laborers in San Rafael's canal district when the city decided it was all too much. "The Chapel of the Laborer," a small-scale version of the respected plywood structures that Best builds for the weeklong festival in the Nevada desert and then burns in remembrance of the dead, was to be a temporary sanctuary where Latinos could gather, pray or light a candle for loved ones. One of six...

BLACK ROCK DESERT, Nevada (AP) -- As jugglers danced with hoops and spirals of fire, vehicles belched flames and hypnotic drums echoed through the night, more than 35,000 costumed revelers ritually burned a 40-foot neon-and-wooden icon of a man deep in the Nevada desert. The 19th annual Burning Man festival, a bizarre counterculture event in one of the most remote places in America, was back, this year with record crowds. "It's an emotional experience," said Silvie, of San Diego, who would give only her first name. "There's a reverence here." The annual fantasy event grew out of San Francisco's bohemian...

Burning Man, infamous for its drug-fueled debauchery in the wind- whipped Nevada desert, may seem like the last place to haul the kids for a family vacation. But the annual experiment in radical self-expression, communal living and massive interactive art is becoming something of a counterculture Disneyland as increasing numbers of Burners from the Bay Area and beyond are bringing their young ones to Black Rock City. To the uninitiated, a dry lakebed in the middle of nowhere -- plagued by dust storms and extreme temperatures and inhabited by no small number of naked people -- sounds like no place...

<p>Oh sure you've got your giant floating neon dragons and your epic desert sculptures and your hissing Mad Max-ish art cars shooting flames 400 feet into the air, and every single thing everywhere smells like some combination of sweat and dust and marijuana and urine and fire and tequila and glue.</p>

<p>Burning Man, the wild counterculture festival held annually in one of the nation's most remote areas, is coming to cities across America.</p> <p>It's time to try to influence the very culture against which this year's record 30,500 Burning Man participants rebelled, the phenomenon's founder and resident visionary said in an interview.</p>

<p>A woman riding an "art car" at the counterculture Burning Man festival died when she accidentally fell under the vehicle's wheels, authorities said.</p> <p>The death of Katherine Lampman on Saturday was the most serious in a series of accidents at the weeklong huge desert revel, where thousands of people gather each year in a celebration of art, performance and individuality.</p>

<p>Rising from the desert in one of the flattest, most remote places on earth is an 80-foot temple topped by the stylized figure of a man.</p> <p>It wasn't here last week and it won't be here after Saturday night, except for a pile of ashes where it is to be ritually burned to the ground.</p>

By Thomas Horn For the past ten years earth-worshipping pagans have migrated from Canada, Brazil, Germany, Russia, and 25 other countries, to an isolated corner of Black Rock Desert in Nevada, where a four-day-long New Age techno-fest known as "The Burning Man" has been conducted. Recent attendance at The Burning Man surpassed 15,000 wiccans, satanists, goddesses (white witches), nudists, and a consortium of other lost party-goers, who converged on the hot Nevada desert for a Labor Day weekend of "glorious Hell on earth." The number of participants at the Burning Man gala has nearly doubled each year since 1986, and...

Black Rock City LLC, the San Francisco-based money machine that organizes the annual Burning Man drug festival in the desert about 100 miles north of Reno, is threatening to move because it can't get along with its neighbors. Frankly, I like the idea of a move back to Northern California, where Burning Man originated and where it belongs. I recommend Mendocino, where participants would have access to a ready supply of illegal drugs. Let me clarify my position on Burning Man: I don't think it should be abolished. Rather, I simply believe it should be held on private property in...

RENO, Nev. -- Thousands of techies, old hippies, trippers and artists from worldwide are on their way to the northern Nevada desert for the annual Burning Man counterculture festival. Although the event known for its eclectic artwork, music and games began yesterday, most participants aren't expected to show up until later this week at the Black Rock Desert, 120 miles north of Reno near Gerlach. Billed as a celebration of art and radical self-expression, the 17th annual gathering is expected to draw 28,000 people from at least 40 states and 20 countries. "There's a certain energy out here, everybody is...