Pillow aftermath by Gretchen Robinette

A recent article in the SF Chronicle indicated that the recent 2009 Valentines Day Pillow Fight incurred at least $19,000 in city cleanup costs. As a result, the city is looking into cracking down on this and other related messy events like the Zombie Mob which leaves a trail of fake blood and the Pie Fight with it’s splattering of shaving cream pies. Of course, fake blood and shaving cream is much easier to just hose away than feathers.

As many of you know, I’ve been involved in a number of these events, either as a UN CCH Observer at the Pillow Fight or one of the hoards of undead at Zombie Mob. I admittedly have had a bargeload of fun at these events and left my quota of blood behind upon the sidewalks; while I spilt no feathers myself as a UN Observer, we did little to stem the flow. I am also a firm believer in Leave No Trace at Burning Man, Balsa Man, and whenever I go camping; unlike most, I even pick up after myself at movie theaters. Why then do I participate in events that leaves such a wreck in it’s wake? This is a good question‚ one that I was already beginning to ask myself before reading the article in the Chronicle.

Rowdy analogues around the world

While contemplating the nature of these events it is important to realize that these large entertaining mob events have analogues in the rest of the world: the chaotic stampedes of Pamplona Spain’s Running of the Bulls, the actual bloodletting during the Shi’a celebration of Ashura, the rowdy Haxley Hood game in England, and the citric squashing of the Battle of the Oranges in Italy. The Valentine’s Day Pillow Fight may not have the history behind it that these events have, but it is arguably similar in both style and messy aftermath. Also, it seems fitting that as Americans our large mob events would have no connection with history.

Pie Fight Aftermath by Steve Rhodes

That said, Pillow Fight did leave quite a pricy sludge of feathers behind which is hard to just shrug off. As stated so eloquently by NinaVizz (aka Nina Alter), all this highlights “why the Leave No Trace ethos in anarchist art making is so fundamental.”

The Pillow Fight, Zombie Mob, et al. have no meaningful historical connection and thus are essentially anarchistic celebratory expressions of the community. While the Italian government may shake it’s head when cleaning up the smashed citrus covering it’s streets after the Battle of the Oranges, the celebration resonates with a historical toppling of the tyrant Raineri di Biandrate (and the subsequent tyrant Marquis Gugliemo of Monferrato). Because of this deep connection with the past, the Battle of the Oranges can be celebrated by all and the resultant cleanup can be shouldered by all. Whereas the Pillow Fight is essentially an event enjoyed by but a few and shouldered by everyone else in the city with a number of pissed off citizens.

The responsibility of participation

Whether you want to call them flash mobs, pranks, or celebrations, I think there is a need in society for these sorts of events. By their very nature these events guarantee that at least some artistic flotsam and jetsam is left behind. However, I believe those who participate should work to make the event fun for all ‚Äî including those responsible for cleaning up. In the very least, we should reduce the impact it has on our city’s workers and others.

In this regard, the Obama/Bush street sign change was a perfect execution as the signs were easy to remove and by many accounts the city workers got a laugh out of the whole thing. I doubt this was true for those cleaning up the sopping feathery sludge left behind after Valentine’s Day, and personally I don’t see any way for the chaos of Pillow Fight to be contained or diminished, so I will no longer be participating in it. As for other events, like much of life, I will consider my level and style of participation on a case by case basis.

Valencia was never the same after January 30th 2009. The day that will live in infamy quickly became known as the Valencia Hipster Irony Implosion.

When the boy in the red trucker hat picked up the “NO MORE HIPSTER SCUM” sign suddenly a flash of white — and I mean WHITE — light enveloped the entire block of Valencia between 20th and 21st street. Little was left undamaged after the irony implosion. Windows were busted, the protest signs burst into flames, and boy in the red trucker hat completely vanished. His friends all died shortly thereafter. Most were suicides, but others died mysteriously.

Somehow, Gretchen Robinette, the photographer who took this picture is still alive — sadly she can no longer take any photos without breaking down in tears. Unable to completely put her camera down she still gets by with the occasional photo of a puppy or baby.

To this day, the 20th St block of Valencia stands empty. The aftershock of what happened shook the area hard — people left, stores closed. The seats in ATA were even more barren then usual. At the Whole Foods store across the street, organic vegetables and fruit began to rot in the stands. Patron’s stopped coming to Dosa, saying that their idlis suddenly seemed too white and never quite tasted the same again.

A shrine now stands at that fateful location — ground zero of the Valencia Hipster Irony Implosion — on the side of a building, this very photo is posted and beneath a pile of offerings can be found: trucker hats, black shades, white belts, worn sneakers, and t-shirts with obscure references to the 70s and 80s.

July’s Critical Mass got a bit nasty in a couple cities last month. In Seattle, a driver who was “corked in” (ie, blocked) by bikers as the Critical Mass streamed past, got frustrated and drove forward plowing into several cyclists. One cyclist got his leg run over and another ended up on the hood of the car as the driver attempted to drive off. Thankfully, no serious injuries seem to have occurred. The news reports up there seem to be getting the facts wrong which isn’t a surprise.

During the NY Critical Mass a rookie cop charged a biker on foot, slamming the cyclist off the bike and onto the sidewalk — this incident was caught on video. It is unclear if there was any previous provocation for the action, but it certainly seemed in the very least to be excessive use of force, if not downright assault. There is a bit of justice in this instance: as of this writing, the cop has been stripped of his badge and gun and is doing desk work while the action undergoes investigation.

Peddlya Haters

The blogging of both of these incidents on Checksum Arcanius, Gothamist, and Boing Boing has brought out the Critical Mass and cyclist haters:

• “Like many (most?) urban pedestrians, I have little sympathy for Critical Mass thugs.”
• “this mob is out of control”
• “I say it again (as ignorant as it sounds), the cop should get a medal. Good for him.”
• “As an avid road cyclist I have big problems with things like ‘Critical Mass.’ What they do is extremely unsafe and gives responsible cyclist a bad name.”

The last quote makes me recall the June Critical Mass here in SF, where there was one corked in car with two fancy carbon road bikes on the roof rack. The passenger of said vehicle, who obviously was driving somewhere outside the city to ride their bike, proceeded to furiously yell insults out the window at all the Critical Mass cyclists — massive cyclist culture difference.

Of course, some of these commenters are just semi-professional trolls, and there was also a decent share of people who support the rides. I see these supporters on the comment threads and out during the Critical Mass events themselves, happily waving at us as they remain stuck in their cars. However there are also a good number of people who hate the rides and hate any cyclist who “breaks the law.”

Who’s Breaking the Law Now?

Car drivers break the law all the time, as do pedestrians, but they do it in different ways: drivers speed, drive recklessly, roll through stop signs and more; pedestrians jay walk. Everyone breaks the rules here and there when they feel that the risk is lower than the reward; and for cyclists going through red lights and stop signs is less of a risk than it is for cars. The WashCycle blog wrote an excellent article called The Myth of the Scofflaw Cyclist, which does an excellent job discussing this very topic, so I won’t be going into it more myself.

Reclaiming Streets For Fun

Culturally, Critical Mass is an interesting issue. As much as many Critical Mass riders claim it’s a pro-city-cyclist political act, it is also frankly just a way for a whole lot of cyclists to get together and have fun once a month. In many ways, it shares a relationship to the Running of the Bulls, Carnival, New Orleans Running of the Roller Girls, Songkran, and any other traditional or nontraditional roaming street festival. Like Critical Mass, all these events are all reclaiming the city streets for fun and enjoyment rather than the hoo hum of business and the daily grind.

I’m sure that many of the same people who bash Critical Mass in the Boing Boing comment thread would call other moving street festivals “AWESOME!” It’s all a matter of perspective: for them, as long as your fun doesn’t get in their way it’s great. In reality, most of these drivers stuck corked in have lost maybe 10-15 minutes of their day.

For all of the above reasons, whenever I am talking to a frustrated stuck driver in the middle of the CriticalMass, I don’t tell them “we are traffic” or get abrasive. I just tell them to think of it as a parade; a bicycle parade that happens on the last Friday of every month. Frankly, I think it’s a better way for Critical Mass riders to frame it for themselves as well. When your out there, don’t think of yourselves as political rabble-rousers, but as a leaderless parade celebrating the joy that these city streets can bring.

Professor Ken Miller, who is famous for being the lead expert witness against Intelligent Design at the Dover Trial, has recently proposed that scientists reclaim the word “Design” from the ID movement (ie., the Creationists).

You can listen yourself to his argument for semantic reclamation here in a short discussion he had with James Randerson. I’ve also transcribed a couple of the most relevant quotes here:

ID proponents argue that we can see the hint of design in nature and they use that as evidence against evolution. And that puts scientists in a position of arguing that there is no design in nature — that nature is somehow capricious, arbitrary, random, pointless. Well there is design in nature and we should take that word away from the ID movement and define it in a scientific sense….

Yes design is real but that design emerges from the evolutionary process and the laws of physics and chemistry.

Personally, I couldn’t agree more. I really like the sound of Emergent Design. Others in comments on PZ Myer’s post have suggested Natural Design or Evolutionary Design or the longer Evolutionary Emergent Design which may work too. However, I prefer the term Emergent Design because I think it sounds better and it can contain more meaning: Emergent Design can also cover such emergent patterns such as evolutionary programming, fractals, Mandelbrot, etc.

PZ Myers, of the ScienceBlog Pharyngula, doesn’t agree with Ken Miller on this:

Look at all the flailings about over the word “theory”; lay people will hear that word being used by scientists and conclude that the creationists must have been right all along long before they get around to remapping their mental connections to design.

Another problem is of even greater concern. The word “design” carries other implications: purpose, planning, calculation. These are not present in evolution!

PZ Myer’s first argument is that it will just give creationists another means to twist our words. And his second argument is that this new use of design differs from current usage. Neither of these arguments are really valid when discussing the pros and cons of semantic reclamation.

Every time a word is reclaimed it is always the dirty word that everyone shies away from. The words are purposefully being twisted from their traditional meanings. Of course, some terms are not so much reclaimed as empowered such as Black and Gay; however, there are several examples of successful semantic reclamations:

• Punk, something or someone worthless or unimportant; a young hoodlum, becomes the proud Punk rock; and now gets transformed further to a suffix that means a style or movement characterized by the adoption of aggressively unconventional and often bizarre or shocking in both fashion and attitude.
• Queer, disparaging term for homosexuals in the sense of effeminate or unmanly, becomes the proud Queer embracing all who deviate from sexual/gender stereotypes; to now transform and mainstream even further with “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.”
• Dyke, used disparagingly by many, but like Punk and Queer it is now used proudly by the many of the same people it meant to insult.

Of course, one could point out that the hip hop cultural use of nigger, bitch, and ho haven’t really been all that successfully reclaimed. However, those terms are still also used negatively within the hip hop culture, which makes it hard for these terms to ever take on a new positive meaning.

What does this all have to do with Intelligent Design you might say? Well in this instance, Design isn’t used exactly as an insult, but it is being used as a means of attack. As a result, it has become the dirty word that scientists must shy away from. By being afraid to use the word Design, we are reinforcing the meaning that ID proponents want it to mean. We are empowering it for them not us.

Ken Miller is right. Anyone who looks at nature can plainly see pattern and design. By allowing the ID camp a monopoly on the word Design we are allowing all perceived design to be a win for the creationists. By instead reclaiming Design as Emergent Design we are reclaiming it and empowering it for ourselves.

With a red eclipsed moon in the sky, a person set forth to burn the Man early. The fire was extinguished, but the Man was a shadow of his former self, and a decision was made by the Man Krew to once again get to work rebuilding it. I was fortunate enough to participate in the rebuild — it was an amazing team of individuals and honestly one of my best experiences ever in the Black Rock Desert.

The controversy surrounding the early burn was one of the most talked about events on and off the Playa and it appeared across several news outlets. Unfortunately most if the gossip and coverage has surrounded the man responsible, Paul Addis, rather than the efforts of the rebuild team and effects it had on the event as a whole.

Paul Addis’s jaded facsimile of wisdom

Paul Addis has been interviewed a few times already, yet he has yet to present a clear reason for his act. Mostly his interviews just come off as rambling screeds of jaded narcissism. He himself has not been to the event since 1998, and yet he seems fit to rant that “Burning Man doesn’t accomplish anything anymore. What do we get out of Burning Man? Nothing.”

What the hell is the we he’s talking about? My first burn was in 2002. I’ve gone every year since — not for the party, or the man burn, or the BMorg, but because of the creative inspiration, empowerment, and fulfillment I get from the community. By the community, I mean the 5% of people who still make shit happen: the artists, the performers, the cooks, the camp organizers, the pranksters, the city builders, and hell even the fucking rave camps. Over the years, I’ve become friends with several of these people and even participated myself in several ways. As a result, I’ve gotten a whole lot out of Burning Man — or else I would have stopped going long ago.

Frankly, Paul Addis stopped being one of those 5% a long time ago. His jaded empty diatribes don’t relate to me or any of my burner friends whose Playa experiences began after Addis stopped going.

The BMorg Bubble

Addis doesn’t represent me or my friends, but neither does the BMorg. If they really wanted to propel the event on to bigger and better things they’d find out what inspires these legions of new burner artists of the Oughts. Why do these people keep pouring their heart, souls, and money into Burning Man projects in the face of crap themes, annoying bureaucracy, asinine yahoos, and ever encroaching police state atmosphere?

But no all we get is even worse themes such as next year’s American Dream, which has to be the most reprehensible themes yet. Obviously, the new theme doesn’t represent the hordes of international burners, but it also rejects the massive number of Burners who go to the Black Rock Desert to escape from the politics and flags they live under.

I know I’m not alone in this abhorrence. Of course many will just ignore the theme and continue to create beautiful art and community, as they have in years past. However, won’t it be better to find a theme that inspires and supports rather than insults and divides?

What’s gone right in the past several years

Rather than just rant, I thought I’d end this with a few words on the positive things I’ve seen happen from the larger Burning Man event:

• The Floating World: the most visually rich theme idea I’ve ever seen, which made the entire playa feel like a interconnected living entity (we need more themes with good visual hooks like this; leave the intellectual depths to the artists)
• The gods at base of the Man in 2003: The man had a dynamic human connection rather than a static symbolic one creating a constant swarm of community at the base of the man
• The Green Man: yeah the environmental push was half-assed, but it’s a start, and at least the theme didn’t feel like cheap freshman new agey philosophy as several others have
• Burning the Man early: leaving the guy who did it out of this, the community effort and cohesion that resulted from the early burn was fabulous.*

* I know I had more connection to Saturday’s burn than I ever had to any other Man Burn. Burners came by day and night to see how the rebuild was progressing, and for once the Man was just like any other art project on the Playa. It was a tangible entity, with real people behind it rather than a spectacle already in place on Monday.

Personally I think the Man should be built this way every year: sure prefab it ahead of time, but start putting it together on Monday and have it raised Wednesday or Thursday, so that the participants can see the work that goes into it. Sure some Man Krew would rather not work during the Burn like this, but I know I would, and I’m sure I could find several others that would join in.

External Links to the events that transpired:
Laughing Squid: Burning Man Set on Fire Early Due To Arson
Laughing Squid: Paul Addis, The Man Accused of Setting Fire to Burning Man
Wired: A Fiery Q&A With the Prankster Accused of Burning the Man
Valleywag: Interview with the accused Burning Man arsonist
Burning Man 2008 Art Theme: American Dream

Many people I know have a love affair with whatever it is they tote stuff around in. Obviously the connection between a woman and her purse can be nearly sacred, but guys too have there bag obsessions.

The bag is an interesting piece of fashion, both functional and ripe with social identifiers.

I remember as a school kid being really picky with my chosen backpack. Growing up as a industrial punk, spike modified military packs were all the rage and the goths all toted their lunchboxes and little black leather handbags just big enough to carry lipstick, white face powder, cigs, and a bit of brimstone.

Gadget, check. Wallet, check. Gadget #2, check. Phone, check. Gadget #3 check.

Choosing the right bag has gotten to be even more of important in the past decade due to the rise in gadget n’ laptop culture. It’s quite fascinating to see what people keep in their bags these days. In fact, there’s even a flickr group dedicated to this called What’s in your bag?

Nowadays it’s hipster messenger bags replacing the uncouth backpack (not the most back-friendly fashion shift) — though backpacks are still cooler than those rolly packs. Also on the way out are briefcases, which have been replaced by the ubiquitous laptop bag. Oh and there’s also the nascent man-purse (aka murse) trend, which is slowly expanding beyond the it’s core metro-sexual set — “no really it’s not a man-purse it’s a gadget bag!” (I admit I’m looking for one — they’re useful)

As a great example of this generation’s romancing the bag, Scott Beale, of Laughing Squid, just posted about his new Timbuk2 Hacker Bag. It’s a well designed back and seems a perfect fit for his photographer/blogger lifestyle. One commenter accused him of timbuk2 product placement — missing completely the real reason behind the post: bag-o-philia.

Confessing my own love for fashionable lugging equipment

I admit I’ve got a strong streak of bag-o-philia myself. And that love combined with what’s left of my punk-roots often leads towards rather beat up bags. I lean towards backpacks rather than messenger bags, and in the past few years I’ve burned through a couple. However the one bag that has lasted for me is my Arkel Bug combination pannier and backpack.

I know most bicyclists go for a messenger bag, but I gotta say unless you need instant access it’s way better not having anything weighing you down or making you back sweat. And the Bug is a fabulous design. Like all their panniers, it’s extremely well made, tough and water resistant, with plenty of sensible storage, and it comes with a lifetime guarantee.

I love my Bug and like Scott Beale’s post this is not a paid product placement just an blatant admission of my passion for a good bag.

UPDATE:

My Arkel Bug is still going strong. In fact it’s lasting longer then my bike. I still really recommend it — as do friends of mine who also picked up bugs recently. However, I thought I should update this post with a couple other options for people who are looking for backpack panniers:

Nashbar makes a Action Pack-n Pannier. Tout-terrain makes a seat post attachable backpack called the Sherpa (go the bottom of the page). Ortlieb makes a weird carry system, which is basically are stow away backpack straps that you can attach to any of their bike panniers into a backpack — neat idea but it probably takes a little bit to set up rather then the pleasurable instant on-off of the Arkel. Also, Knog makes a nice looking over the shoulder laptop bag that has a pannier attachment and backpack attachment (not sure how good they work though).

If you want to got the DIY route, this guy came up with a pvc attachment method for his normal backpack: see pics here and here. You could also go overboard DIY and make your entire rack yourself out of wood like this guy