Burning Man torched early; artist held

Yahoo News ^ | 8-28-07 | By LISA LEFF, Associated Press Write

[WackySam]

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 was supposed to go up in flames in the ceremonial climax of the weeklong annual event. Burning Man, an art, music and performance festival that draws thousands of people, began in San Francisco in 1986 and moved to Nevada's Black Rock Desert in 1990.

Many festival-goers who were awake watching Tuesday's lunar eclipse said they saw a man deliberately ignite the figure at about 3 a.m., Grace said.

"It was in plain sight of many people," she said. "Everyone is looking at it this morning, this big black figure in the sky and that wasn't supposed to burn, saying, 'Now what do we do?'"

[WackySam]

LOL

[SIDENET]

and a San Francisco performance artist was arrested on suspicion of igniting the signature figure of the counterculture festival in the remote Nevada desert.

Why did they arrest him? He's a performance artist. He was just demonstrating artistic expression. Those people have no appreciation for art.

LOL.

[Michael.SF.]

Anarchy, Anarchy!!

My gawd have these people no respect for anything???

[SIDENET]

"Everyone is looking at it this morning, this big black figure in the sky and that wasn't supposed to burn, saying, 'Now what do we do?'"

LOL. They were SOL.

[RansomOttawa]

Cool. It's Strong Bad's craziest caper yet!

[rogue yam]

I’m laughing here.

[Lancey Howard]

Here is a link to the first “block” of the ‘Burning Man’ episode of the TV sitcom, ‘Malcolm in the Middle’. It is one of the funniest TV shows I ever saw. The family borrows the boss’s RV and goes to the ‘Burning Man’ festival. The entire episode is available at YouTube in a series of ‘blocks’. If you have about a half-hour to kill, you will definitely enjoy this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wRLtAvVixY

[Billthedrill]

Well, he’s a performance artist, after all, and a performance artist is the purest distillation of “it’s all about Me!” And...it was.

[Jaysun]

Hilarious.

[TASMANIANRED]

Don’t you just hate it when a self agrandizing liberal steals the thunder of a bunch of counter culture liberals.

[ccmay]

Daring, transgressive performance art. A big fat NEA grant for this genius!

-ccm

[Neu Pragmatist]

Lol , exactly .

[blackbart.223]

These idiots are drugged up freaks. I wish they would pick another state to pull this s##t off.

[SIDENET]

The man understands the deeper meaning of non-conformity.

(Actually, that's more true than I intended.)

;-)

[Bullish]

Burning man festival is just slightly less significant then a fart in a windstorm.

[pax_et_bonum]

Tard ping worthy?

[gondramB]

>>The approximately 40-foot-tall wood and neon structure was supposed to go up in flames in the ceremonial climax of the weeklong annual event.<<

I wonder if that releases much CO2? /s

[blackbart.223]

"The man understands the deeper meaning of nonconformity."

Idiocy perhaps?

[blackbart.223]

"I wonder if that releases much CO2? /s"

Not to mention the amount of pot they smoke up there.

[Lawdoc]

I imagine the BIG carbon footprint!