Black Rock City got hit with some harsh wind this year. Not as apocalyptically near-tornado-level wind as the playa can whip up, but still, 2015 saw enough consistent and prolific …
line sweeps: tactical information
View Postmeltdown music: DPW irritainment
Ezra Li Eismont, or DJ Darkat, helps run the trash-collection circuit for the DPW in Black Rock City, with a stellar team of dumpster freaks who help reduce our waste …
this ain’t quite a patriarchy
Here’s a world that’s hard to describe. Possibly the only postmodern non-patriarchal city-state on Earth besides Cristiania, Black Rock City is built and run by women and men. If not …
you can’t say ‘cleanup’ on the radio
There are certain DPW types among us who have been here long enough to start “in my day”-ing people. We try not to do it that often — regale newer …
“Carnival Cosmology” by Gary Warne
The year 2015’s Burning Man theme, “Carnival of Mirrors,” seems to be continuing in the default world, with some not-so-pretty funhouse mirrors clanging and shattering against each other every time …
how the Fence began in BRC
View PostTyler Durden invented Burning Man
Perhaps you’ve still never heard of the Cacophony Society, Burning Man’s parent group. Pardon the cliche, but for history’s sake, we’re going to have to talk about fight club. Fight …
Early Man-Man: proto-Burnin’ Dude builders & inspirational catalysts
If you’ll notice, talking to most of the elders of the Burning Man tribe, they put emphasis on the third syllable of the name of our weirdo company picnic. “The …
Early Man: proto-DPW setup at Burning Man
Back when the Man’s knuckles still scraped the ground as the Earth’s crust cooled, there was no official setup and cleanup crew. There was no official anything. As the years …
Summertime Rolls pt. 2: Built with clowngineering & Obtainium
Obtainium — the world’s most precious element. That which others throw away. Remember the TV show Family Ties? It was an ’80s series about a left-wing family with a right-wing …
Olek meets the Billboard Liberation Front
…to make the girliest street art in American history This spring, Dutch-New-Yorkian artist Olek liberated a billboard in Oakland … by crocheting over the entire thing. The HuffPo even covered …
Make Yourself an Indian Headdress (*please don’t, actually, but here are the plans)
Is wearing a war bonnet racist? Yes, unless you’re the chief of a Plains tribe and it was given to you. Accessorize with feathers, but not like this.
thrift-store art score
Michelangelo getting yelled at by the Pope (or some Pope dude) for painting the Sistine Chapel by numbers, while drinking heavily. With a wine stain on it.
God Hates Facts
Westboro Baptist Church got deep-seated issues. Bigoted bring-downs = no fun at parties
Photos: Petaluma Rivertown Revival 2012
West Sonoma County resident and DIY festival-builder Summer Burkes visits Petaluma’s Rivertown Revival, an art-boat free-for-all loosely based on Chicken John’s Camp Tipsy.
Glamping at Camp Tipsy 2012
Summer Burkes and the Dixiecutioner (Hoodsteading.com) do some glamour camping at Chicken John’s Tipsy 2012. Can we still use that word, or is it over already? ‘Glamping’ I mean. Sweetiedahling.
How to make fake eyeballs out of condoms, liquid soap, and nail polish
Summer Burkes learns the Thrillpeddlers’ recipe for how to make slimy eyeballs, for pranks at your Halloween party or scary haunted house.
How to make ‘gypsy tinsel’ like Cyclecide
Cyclecide’s Summer Burkes on how to make reusable safety tape out of old rags for your theme camp or performance installation.
Cyclecide: The Loaded Warrior
Summer Burkes injured herself with a flying spiked mace on the set of Cyclecide’s “The Loaded Warrior,” a madcap sendup of the “Mad Max” flick made in the riparian ghettos of southeast San Francisco.
John Law & Last Gasp announce Cacophony Society history book
Last Gasp’s upcoming book documents the influential collective known as the San Francisco Cacophony Society. While no one specifically ran the group, it was the creative driving force that inspired Burning Man, Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, “flash mobs,” urban exploration, and culture jamming.
carny eye candy
“Abandoned Six Flags New Orleans Tour,” a beautiful six-minute film by Teddy Smith about NOLA’s abandoned swamp-musement park, featuring music by Godspeed You Black Emperor: Follow Summer Burkes on …
Cyclecide: Lazy Loser Leech video
The first and only-so-far rock’n’roll music video from the Heavy Pedal Cyclecide Bike Rodeo. Cheers to August and Big Daddy for filming this … master piece. Cyclecide Bike Rodeo … …
Klown Klux Klan
KLOWN POWER! Follow Summer Burkes on Twitter.
NOLA: Black Label Ridin’ Dirty NYE ’09
To: Cyclecide Bike Rodeo From: Summer RE: report on Black Label Ridin’ Dirty NYE’09 Hi Cyclecide, Miss you clowns. Even so, the new life in New Orleans is finally grinding …
Cyclecide’s Sprock Out with yr Cog Out! (photos)
Summer Burkes of the Heavy Pedal Cyclecide Bike Rodeo attempts to photograph mutant bicycle mayhem with the Derailleurs and the Sprockettes at Ace Auto Drunkyard.
Circus bear on a tallbike!
Fun yet disturbing vintage footage of a bear on a tallbike at a three-ring circus.
Cyclecide’s ‘Pedal Monster’ 2007: Photos
Photos from Cyclecide Bike Rodeo’s Pedal Monster bicycle circus sideshow in Ace Auto Junkyard, San Francisco.
Cyclecide Bike Rodeo POKER RUN 2007 poster by Fitz
Cyclecide’s Pedal Monster Poker Run 2007 poster by Black Label Bike Club’s Jason Fitz.
meltdown music: DPW irritainment
Ezra Li Eismont, or DJ Darkat, helps run the trash-collection circuit for the DPW in Black Rock City, with a stellar team of dumpster freaks who help reduce our waste …
memorial day is too late
johnny was a soldier / he can’t dance anymore
Ghost Ride the Whip: The Hyphy Movement
The Ladies’ Guide to the Apocalypse and Hoodsteading totally adore the documentary “Ghostride the Whip: The Hyphy Movement” by DJ Vlad, starring Keak da Sneak, Too Short, Mack Dre, E40, sideshows, thizz, and urban redneck car tricks.
BP oil spill 2yr anniversary, 2012: So f’d, it’s time to listen to Yob again
Summer Burkes revisits the Deepwater debacle two years later, listens to doom metal, and sticks with the 28th Amendment for the Separation of Corporation and State.
To be a fly on the wall
“Like there’s something new out that got me in the zone. Just that feeling got me. I wish music could adopt me ” – Erick Sermon
top 10 apocalypse albums. for today. okay, top 11, but only if you play them all together.
Summer Burkes fashions a spooky musical setlist for a day of dark forest-y fantasies of an overtaken Earth.
Lark Camp snapshots pt2
French, Cajun, old English, Spanish, flamenco, Bulgarian, Czech, Turkish, roma, Greek, Persian, hillbilly, Zydeco, mideastern orchestra, and brass and bagpipe music at Lark in the Morning.
Lark snapshots
About that time Summer Burkes got to work at Lark in the Morning music festival in Mendocino with her Momma, who taught her everything she knows about music.
Burning Man is the new punk (and not in a good way)
DPW and Gate staff’s Summer Burkes on the Burning Man festival’s unfortunate parallel with punk rock (commodification of) culture.
I Don’t Care About You: How I first met punk rock
An innocent teenaged Summer Burkes had her first makeout session with a hot punk rock surfer … but she liked his Fear tape more than she liked him.
May 24, 2010: St. Bernard Parish Town Hall Meeting
Well, that was depressing. Tuesday night, down the street from us on Judge Perez Dr., we all met in the St. Bernard Parish Convention Center to get some answers. The …
guest post: Local Resiliency and the Collective Threat of the Gulf Oil Spill
Enjoy this piece, originally written for Evolver by Natalie Pierce (Evolver.net New Orleans Regional Coordinator). At a time when Evolver.net Spores across the world gear up to explore and discuss …
Debbie Downer Does Deepwater
“If it were possible to cure evils by lamentation and to raise the dead with tears, then gold would be a less valuable thing than weeping” — Sophocles New Orleans. …
Springtime at the Lower Ninth Ward Village
So anyway, besides the oil spill … It’s Springtime at the Village, and presto, we got ourselves a community garden! Our new star volunteer, Cara Walton, wrangled some volunteers and …
Deepwater Horizon oil spill = America’s colon cancer
Louisiana is — was — the Sportsman’s Paradise. But ain’t no more swimmy things on the menu. … Ever tasted a Louisiana wild-caught shrimp up against a tiny farm-raised Vietnamese shrimp? No comparison. Alas, now all you’ll get for the next decade is tiny rubbery shrimp from NOT AMERICA. That’s the entire livelihood of a people, a region, a state in this nation, OBLITERATED by one $500,000 life-or-death acoustic trigger that was apparently above budget to install.
Check Your Bucket
Our doors and windows have been open for the past three weeks. New Orleans is unseasonably … perfect. After Jazzfest, according to local wisdom, the houses will all be shut …
Mardi Gras Indians – photos (don’t do justice)
The 101 Runners, ostensibly the world’s only current and costumed Mardi Gras Indian band, played at legendary club Tipitina’s a couple nights before the High Holy New Orleans Holiday. Under …
More Mardi Gras errata
One more round of similarities between Mardi Gras and the Burning Dude and we’re done: You can either pay someone else lots of money to build your floats (theme camps) …
New Orleans, 2010 – Mardi Gras recap
So we were always led to believe Mardi Gras equaled Girls Gone Wild. Period. We were so, so wrong. We would get mad, working at the Burning Man event with …
Dat Tuesday
Sigh of relief. Victory lap. Post-coital cigarette. Chocolate mousse and a snifter. The collective and sustained “wooooo” after the who-dat chant is over. The Saints won the Superbowl.
American Oilpocalypse: 5 years & counting
Coughing up this blog post like a hairball on the 5th anniversary of the Gulf BP oil “spill” is not our idea of a good time. One of the main …
convert to biodiesel and save the whales
October 2014. Breaking news: ISIS POISONS CALIFORNIA’S DRINKING WATER J/K it was fracking; no big deal. Right? Just dumping apocalyptic carcinogens into everyone’s most precious and life-giving common resource. This …
America’s Gulf Coast / BP oil spill / Bayou Corne sinkhole update 2012
Summer Burkes of Burners Without Borders collects the latest Oilpocalypse news links from the Gulf Coast.
BP oil spill 2yr anniversary, 2012: So f’d, it’s time to listen to Yob again
Summer Burkes revisits the Deepwater debacle two years later, listens to doom metal, and sticks with the 28th Amendment for the Separation of Corporation and State.
Thunderbolts & Team Tesla: the universe is electric
Gravity is so five minutes ago. We’ve watched this video twice already, like it was Duran Duran and we’re nine years old again. We also felt compelled to watch a …
BP trial 2012: No settlement; no exceptions
Trial of the Century … February 27 … ::sound of record scratching:: WHAT?! Delayed? … With talks of a 14 Billion Dollar Settlement? AYFKM? [UPDATE March 8 2012: Please call …
Henry Ford & Rudolf Diesel against petroleum
One of our favorite things about the Internet is that — although it’s made our job as an arts writer obsolete — everyone’s a filmmaker, journalist, and book reporter now. …
What Would Jesus Buy? – plus a BP oil spill bringdown
Some Christmastime Cacophony starring Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir. Yes, it’s the full documentary! And hey, this holiday season, how bout NOT showing your love with petroleum-based items …
“Mystery” illness in the Gulf Coast — mutated bacterial infections + synthetic genomics
Ron Kellum designed a memorial poster that parodies John Van Hamersveld’s iconic “The Endless Summer” poster. This one is called “The Endless Bummer”. It’s for sale! 11 x 17, fantastic-looking …
BP oil spill one-year anniversary: Guest posts
“Corexit dispersant will very likely be an issue again this summer as Gulf temperature rises and oil comes surfacing,” by Ro Mayer, founder, Krewe of Dead Pelicans: “Elizabeth Cook is …
Summertime Rolls, pt. 1: Natural highs
… a photo collection in which we try to show Momma what we’ve been up to this sun-worshipping, water-wonderlandish spring and summer season.
Glamping at Camp Tipsy 2012
Summer Burkes and the Dixiecutioner (Hoodsteading.com) do some glamour camping at Chicken John’s Tipsy 2012. Can we still use that word, or is it over already? ‘Glamping’ I mean. Sweetiedahling.
photo: Little Goat Girl
Our associate Silent but Violent found this here but the original source is here (NSFW).
Pointe-Aux-Chenes, Louisiana: dreamy. watery. beautiful.
Ever wondered where the water-elves might live, or Cajun Yoda maybe?
Mardi Gras Indians – photos (don’t do justice)
The 101 Runners, ostensibly the world’s only current and costumed Mardi Gras Indian band, played at legendary club Tipitina’s a couple nights before the High Holy New Orleans Holiday. Under …
More Mardi Gras errata
One more round of similarities between Mardi Gras and the Burning Dude and we’re done: You can either pay someone else lots of money to build your floats (theme camps) …
NOLA: Black Label Ridin’ Dirty NYE ’09
To: Cyclecide Bike Rodeo From: Summer RE: report on Black Label Ridin’ Dirty NYE’09 Hi Cyclecide, Miss you clowns. Even so, the new life in New Orleans is finally grinding …
Burning Man Cleanup: Golden T-Stake ceremony photos
October 3, 2007 Black Rock Desert Yesterday was the last day of Burning Man cleanup on the playa. Today, the Bureau of Land Management came to inspect the site, to …
Burning Man Cleanup: DPW / Gate vehicles
This is the opposite of the Bonneville pictures (part 1 & part 2) we took with the Stinkin’ Linkin crew from NOLA.
Burning Man Cleanup: Snow day field trip
Septembe 23, 2007 Black Rock Desert Fall has come, suddenly. The rains came too, last night. For hours. And wind — enough to shake the trailer and rock us to …
Look at this nutritional analysis of GMO vs. non-GMO corn
Congress passed the Monsanto Protection Act this week, so let’s see what the nutritional breakdown of genetically-modified corn stacks up to the God-made-it kind.
how to deal with Corexit & chemical poisoning, & prevent staph / MRSA
A friend asked some food-science questions about how to medicinally prepare their meatsack for a trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras 2011. They’d been creeped out, and rightfully so, …
Nicotine addiction cure: Stop smoking with cream of tartar
We have a friend who is going to stop smoking forever after reading this. She told us she wanted to quit, and we told her we’d do the interweb research …
Heavy Metal Blood Soup
… a delicious food-science recipe for Metals, Corexit, VOC, CFC, or Hydrocarbon Poisoning. Here’s a solution. It’s time to be solution-based, even if we are only solution-based in tiny increments …
Apocalypse recipe: One year of sustenance
Summer Burkes gets advice from Ian Williams’ aunt on how to pack a year’s supply of food in case TSHTF.
Recipe: Momma’s Southern-fried chicken
Summer Burkes shares her Momma’s (and Maw-Maw’s) recipe for the best Southern fried chicken you ever tasted.
How to make fake eyeballs out of condoms, liquid soap, and nail polish
Summer Burkes learns the Thrillpeddlers’ recipe for how to make slimy eyeballs, for pranks at your Halloween party or scary haunted house.
Recipe: Hobo Crack Herbal Tea
Summer Burkes reveals That Damned Band clarinetist Sam X’s recipe for women’s healthy detox tea made from herbs.
convert to biodiesel and save the whales
October 2014. Breaking news: ISIS POISONS CALIFORNIA’S DRINKING WATER J/K it was fracking; no big deal. Right? Just dumping apocalyptic carcinogens into everyone’s most precious and life-giving common resource. This …
music-writing flora and The Secret Life of Plants
Did you know plants could compose music? All you have to do is get the kooky idea to wire them up to sensors and electrodes and whatnot in an intentional …
How to save the post office AND get rid of junk mail
Summer Burkes of the Ladies’ Guide to the Apocalypse re-teaches an old trick about saving the USPS and making junk mail work for YOU.
Look at this nutritional analysis of GMO vs. non-GMO corn
Congress passed the Monsanto Protection Act this week, so let’s see what the nutritional breakdown of genetically-modified corn stacks up to the God-made-it kind.
Sacred Geometry Explained
Scoop your brains off the floor after 20 minutes of this. part two, courtesy Youtube user achozen shaman: BOOSH, life is amazing. And math may even appear a little less …
American elections: Fraudy by nature
via Youranonnews – Nevada slot machines get regulated up the wazoo, while USCORP elections seem way more loosey goosey.
photo: Little Goat Girl
Our associate Silent but Violent found this here but the original source is here (NSFW).
Introducing: Hoodsteading
Summer Burkes introduces Julie LaTendresse’s concept of HOODSTEADING, a decidedly “derelicte” alternative to shi-shi upscale fancy-pants gardening. We’re talking food everywhere.
Thunderbolts & Team Tesla: the universe is electric
Gravity is so five minutes ago. We’ve watched this video twice already, like it was Duran Duran and we’re nine years old again. We also felt compelled to watch a …
pigs won’t eat GMO corn.
Animals don’t fake it. They come down with health problems after eating GMOs, and avoid them if possible. But they’re GMO-corn-fed, and we eat those animals.
line sweeps: tactical information
View PostDPW dunebusting at Resto
Black Rock City got hit with some harsh wind this year. Not as apocalyptically near-tornado-level wind as the playa can whip up, but still, 2015 saw enough consistent and prolific …
meltdown music: DPW irritainment
Ezra Li Eismont, or DJ Darkat, helps run the trash-collection circuit for the DPW in Black Rock City, with a stellar team of dumpster freaks who help reduce our waste …
this ain’t quite a patriarchy
Here’s a world that’s hard to describe. Possibly the only postmodern non-patriarchal city-state on Earth besides Cristiania, Black Rock City is built and run by women and men. If not …
you can’t say ‘cleanup’ on the radio
There are certain DPW types among us who have been here long enough to start “in my day”-ing people. We try not to do it that often — regale newer …
“Carnival Cosmology” by Gary Warne
The year 2015’s Burning Man theme, “Carnival of Mirrors,” seems to be continuing in the default world, with some not-so-pretty funhouse mirrors clanging and shattering against each other every time …
how the Fence began in BRC
View PostTyler Durden invented Burning Man
Perhaps you’ve still never heard of the Cacophony Society, Burning Man’s parent group. Pardon the cliche, but for history’s sake, we’re going to have to talk about fight club. Fight …
Early Man-Man: proto-Burnin’ Dude builders & inspirational catalysts
If you’ll notice, talking to most of the elders of the Burning Man tribe, they put emphasis on the third syllable of the name of our weirdo company picnic. “The …
Early Man: proto-DPW setup at Burning Man
Back when the Man’s knuckles still scraped the ground as the Earth’s crust cooled, there was no official setup and cleanup crew. There was no official anything. As the years …