Friday 18 September 2009

outting arrakis camp, burning man '09

My dear fellow black rock city citizens~

Much as it is not in my nature to complain, and as much as I loathe the buzz-kill aspect of events I am compelled (as much by my frustrated theme-camp-mates as by my own conscience) to report here in detail, I offer the following as a cautionary tale so that no one will ever find themselves in our shoes ever again.

I was a member of Arrakis Camp 2009, 7.40 and DNA(search “planet arrakis” on facebook for a seriously redacted event plan); this is something of an exaggeration, because there was no arrakis camp, 2009. There were 37 people, many of them virgin burners, relying on this camp and the representations made by our camp leader, Jason R Levin of Sarasota, FL (jasonrlevin@gmail.com), but in the end mr levin (who is not so much a mister as a boy pretending to be one) provided almost no infrastructure and no services. It is additionally important to relate here that our camp was unhealthy (one of our members even got so ill we thought we were going to have to evacuate her to Reno-- not that mr levin was aware of this, even after the fact: he was sleeping off his party favors). It was also unsafe: 2 of our members were injured-- one badly-- when they fell off the roof of the bus trying to install our second of 4 proposed shade structures on Friday, 4th September (2 days before the end of the event); one member was injured badly when he stubbed his foot on some sharp steel that was left laying around the camp. It was also uncomfortable: more than two-thirds of our members were camped in the full sun with daytime tent temps well above 115dF. Our camp generator, transported by mr levin from Sarasota, was not tested before being loaded; in order even to start it needed emergency servicing at Bman with-- in the absence of any real tools-- a sewing needle, a q-tip, and a cup of vodka. On several occasions this generator was allowed to leak large quantities of petrol directly onto the play; after one member attempted to shovel the contaminated earth into a storage box, the contents were dumped back onto the playa and scattered before mr levin departed.

These are some of the things we were promised, contrasted with what we witnessed:

2000sq feet of tents and shade structures 700 sq feet of partially completed shade structure

Nightly events in our “hookah lounge” no events; no lounge

Hammocks in our “hookah lounge” surprise: no hammocks, no lounge

Light breakfast, bagged lunches, 100lbs potatoes; 100lbs onions; 1 case
gourmet dinners corned beef hash; I case banana pudding;
1 case fresh limes; 1 case fresh lemons; I case
Fresh (rotten) oranges; 1 case fresh apples;
Misc children’s breakfast cereals (count
Chocula, etc…); 1 box powdered milk; 1 box
instant pancakes; misc recycled deserts
(brownies, etc…-- candidates for the garbage
which we were eating). *it is important to note we
had NO cooking oil until “midnight poutine” gave
us used french-fry oil, and no sweetener of any
kind.

Gourmet kitchen (* please bear in mind: this is for 37 people)
1 2-burner camp stove; 3 bottles propane; 2
skillets; 1 pot, 1 roasting pan; 4 knives, 2 spoons;
1 folding table approx 4’x4’. *it is noted here that
our improvised spatula was the lid from one
of our cans of pudding. There was also no
provision for cleanlieness: the kitchen was
routinely littered with spoiled food, rubbish, and
dust.*

300 gallons potable water there were 6 55gal drums of water; the contents
were, however, stolen from a Nevada truckstop
carwash with a garden hose, and tested with
extremely high levels of chlorine.

Public shower and bathing area though it is true we had a shower and bathing area,
it was very public, which for some of our girls was
a little off-putting; furthermore, because our
water supply was in the bus, some 15m from the
shower, there were many occasions on which grey
water from dish washing and even showering, as
well as fluids leaking directly from the bus, were
allowed to fall on the playa.

Moop management plan because of the high concentration of people
occupying our one small communal space, moop
quickly got out of control, and NO effort was made
on the part of mr levin to remediate the problem,
even after being notified about a visit from a brc
earth guardian.

Now, clearly mr levin failed completely in the development of his camp. If we accept the premise that the theme camp is the flesh and bones of Bman, and that the privilege of having a theme camp comes with responsibilities (enumerated clearly on the Bman website), mr levin is guilty of some fairly gross transgressions here. The fact that his performance actually got WORSE defies explanation.

Without proper infrastructure, our camp never really coalesced into a proper Bman family; those who stayed struggled, and more than a third of our group migrated toward more effective camps elsewhere, leaving them feeling somewhat homeless and the ones who stayed somewhat abandoned. On the several occasions mr levin was approached on the subject, he was either incapacitated by drugs and alcohol; indifferent; or arrogant, defensive, and aggressive.
Hi final transgression is one he made against the fundamental underpinnings of the Burning Man weltanschauung: he clearly ran his camp at a very high margin of profitability. Collecting between $250 and $400 per camper, his income must have been about $10,000.00; the nearest we can extrapolate the expenses for infrastructure are about $2500.00. *None of us are able to establish exact income and expense figures: the spread sheet mr levin promised us at our last camp meeting has never materialized. Furthermore, mr levin has removed much of the infrastructure proposals we all read from his facebook event site, simultaneously making himself unavailable to many of us from that camp.

There are some suggestions it seems salutary to make to future burners to avoid the situation those of us at Arrakis Gulag find ourselves in now. 1. Ask your camp leader for references. Is this his/her first time leading a theme camp? Have they made contingency plans if things go feet-up? Is there a “second-in-charge” who will be able to deliver the camp if something untoward happens to the “leader?” 2. Under no circumstances should you pay with cash or a personal check, and if you use paypal, have the camp leader submit a proper invoice to you for payment. Several of our members sent paypal “gifts” to mr levin and find themselves in the unenviable position of being unable to file a complaint with paypal. 3. Create a thorough web of communication among all your prospective camp-mates-- even those you’ve never met-- to assure that if all other infrastructure goes feet-up, you can rely on each other to create a solution. 4. Finally: save all correspondences with your proposed camp leader(s), in case a dispute like ours arises: we are lucky-- many of our members have detailed accounts of what mr levin proposed, and photos and video of what was delivered.

I realize that another of the controlling principles of Bman is total inclusion, but by the same token Bman has an interest in protecting these same principles from being abused by people like mr levin. I have been asked by many of my camp-mates to write this account of our experiences specifically because they don’t want to see this happen to anyone else, ever. It does not seem unreasonable under these circumstances to request that mr. levin at least never be allowed to have another theme camp; given the abuses he has lavished on the playa (leave no trace, huh?), his camp-mates, and BMORG (his profitable Camp Frat-Boy Flophouse, aka. Arrakis Gulag, is an utter betrayal of burning man’s most cherished principles of gifting and anticommercialism), we refugees of arrakis gulag respectfully submit that, if such a provision can be made, mr levin should be prohibited from attending personally ever again. Any other outcome merely rewards his selfish, self-serving, and greedy conduct.

In spite of mr. Levin’s failures, deceptions, and obvious contempt for his camp-mates, we all had a great burning experience. The problems are that it was less than it might have been if mr levin had delivered the camp he promised us and BMORG, and that mr levin will not even pay us the courtesy of a dialogue on the matter. In spite of all this, many of us plan to return, and more than a few of us together.

With mixed emotions, yours very sincerely,

--Jonathan schork (aka. Mr. bus)
3-time burner, former theme camp leader (artbus’07), “camp dad,” Arrakis Gulag ’09

hey, guess what one of arrakis gulag's survivors found: "mr" levin's sales material promoting his dusty group-colorectal-exam! as follows:

This is your ticket to Planet Arrakis, the most intergalactic Burning Man Theme Camp on the Playa.
Featuring 2500 square feet of covered, insulated, climate controlled living space separated into 3 rooms, 100 square feet of shaded patio, a full kitchen and pantry, a professional chef, solar shower, electric misters, free standing hammocks, an electric generator, a galactic hookah lounge, glow stick parties, and a full powered mobile sound system, the SandWorm.
Additionally, Planet Arrakis can hermetically seal itself in the event of a dust storm, keeping its lifeforms clean and dust free. During good weather, walls roll away to allow a cooling breeze.Updates will come more frequently as the event draws nearer. Look for updates from this event.
Please do not select "Attending" unless you are CERTAIN you are living on Planet Arrakis. You use a lot of food, water, and electricity in a week, and we need to allot for you accordingly. The Playa doesn't forgive waste.Planet Arrakis asks for a $200 donation ($300 after August 1st deadline, $400 after August 15th deadline) from each of its inhabitants to offset camping expenses. This money goes directly to pay for food, fresh water, electricity, and supplies for Arrakis, which includes you. Without your donation, Planet Arrakis wouldn't exist, and you would quickly dehydrate.
See you on the Playa...

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