a diminute effigy for a reduced community!
Camp Riverton, is hosting Balsa Man, a celebration for all campers who this year forwent the dusty desert and decided to remain here in the foggy Bay Area. The Balsa Man KCrew, Colin, Nifer, and Supervisor Ghastly, have been hard at work building the diminutive Man. The X-acto blades are slicing, the dremels are whirring, the glue is sticking, and the whiskey is pouring! Photos of the ongoing build process are available in the Balsa Man Build flickr set.
Soon he will stand on his own and we invite you the community this Saturday 30th at sunset (around 8pm) to the north end of Baker Beach* to watch us burn Balsa Man in his full lilliputian 3 foot glory! It is a celebration of small transformation through fire.
Balsa Man may not be big enough to help you forget all your cares, but he can help overcome the small ones. In fact, we invite you to write down any petty grievances, minor troubles, or picayune worries that you have on a small slip of paper to be placed at the base of The Balsa Man before the burn.
However, if we really want this to be a successful Balsa Man burn we need some help from you the Balsa Man community! If you can help with any of the below items please leave a comment or write me an email.
- Photo and video documentation — nothing exists these days without evidence and the Balsa Man KCrew will be too busy to snap away so please come with your cameras!
- Build volunteers (maybe) — we may have need of a couple build volunteers depending on how the build goes this week. If so, we will issue a callout on twitter
- If you have anything else you would like to add for the Balsa Man let me know — but make sure it is to scale! (matchstick poi spinning, miniature art cars, or small figurines of Larry Harvey, Crimson Rose, Paul Addis, etc.)
- This is a leave no trace event, and we appreciate your help sweeping for moop after the burn.
- Remember unlike the Playa, the Bay Area has few wandering art cars and it’s a bit of a haul to walk, so please plan ahead if you will be in need of a designated driver.
Join us and make Balsa Man a tiny burn to remember!
*UPDATE: Balsa Man will take place at the North End of Baker Beach where the original Burning Man once was.
NEW UPDATE: More info and news - Balsa Man news: community, we need you!
14 Comments »
[...] those of you not making the trek out to Burning Man this year, Camp Riverton is organizing Balsa Man this Saturday, August 30th at Baker Beach (the location of the original Burning Man events) where [...]
A Darth Maul action figure oughta work for Paul Addis:
http://cache.valleywag.com/assets/resources/2007/08/pauladdis-thumb.jpg
http://www.mwctoys.com/images/review_12maul_3.jpg
…of course for the full effect, he should be carrying a miniature lighter.
It sounds awesome, and I’ll try to make it with my tiny ravers, aged five and two. Maybe we can decorate some RC art cars?
Yeah, it sounds fun but I’m sure it won’t compare with last year’s Balsa Man…
can we just burn larry harvey instead?
@indigo go ahead and make a scale model of Larry Harvey, and I’m sure someone will hand you a match.
@spacemonkey Yeah but nothing will ever compare to Balsa Man 1928! That Balsa Man was a swinging good time!
You guys are the awesome.
If I stick around this weekend (looking likely), will come by with my “petty grievances, minor troubles, or picayune worries”.
@Ali H Excellent! Just remember Balsa Man can’t handle large problems, so it should be something along the lines of “I can’t stand this pimple on my nose!” or “Larry said he’s buy me a drink last night but he didn’t!”
I gots me a purty little effigy to burn. Can I bring it to the party? It’s not a man per se- it’s a couple of dia de la muertos skeletons arranged in a ’sacrificial’ fashion.
yes you can bring along your mini-sculpture. I’m asking that everyone with something else to burn make sure to arrive before the Balsa Man burn and that they provide their own means of lighting it on fire. Also, please make sure to pick up any moop afterward.
You guys rock more then I thought humanly possible.
Alas I have plans to go on a houseboat and possibly re-enact various scenes from Alice in Wonderland.
Pinch that Nifer for me. yea you. Think I’d be brave enough to?
we are going to have a little spurning man on ocean beach on saturday as well. if we get busted, we’ll find you! and vice versa!
andrea@spacecowboys.org
In 2007 I gave a 3′ tall balsa wood man to Spoon Return Center.
It is amazingly similar to yours.
I still have the stencils.
One difference is that we had a string that went form the top of the arms and down through the ribs, such that when the string was pulled, the arms would rise.
http://stilen.com/gallery/v/dome/bm07/rxy_john2007/rxy_john_preplaya/01230024.jpg.html
Nice job. Great proportions.
Thank you very much - these look great!
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