Burning man documentary

don't know if anyone else watched this last night(UK) on discovery adventure channel..?

but i was really disappointed... not in the festival, which of course looked awesome, as has been pointed out to me by many good friends who have been(oh for the freedom to do anything in those important summer wage earning months...), but in the filming which jumped between things far too much and far too quickly, not allowing any time to appreciate what each group/person had put together for the public pleasure... And personally i was shocked that in 1 hour there was... 28 seconds of rather sketchy fire swinging(apologies if this was you, but i know you are much better now, this was 2000 after all )

any thinks?
love
Rob

I didn't see the documentary but consider two things. Most people get bored with a documentary when it exceeds an hour so many television documentarys are an hour long. Secondly that hour is actually closer to 40 minutes because you have 20 minutes of commercials.

In a 40 minute time frame how could they possibly give you an idea how how diverse burning man is without only showing small bits of each thing?

whats the Burning Man ?

http://www.burningman.com/

[ 12. February 2003, 10:31: Message edited by: Astar ]

they could easily have concentrated on a few things, not spent the whole hour (ok45 mins) jumping, and still show in some short periods how many other things there were. you don't HAVE to show everything to show that it is there...
R

Fire twirling scetchy? Sounds like Burning Man to me...

Inspiring fire twirling at Burning Man is few and far between - its there, just not very common. Most ppl look like they dont practice during the year between Burns...

Josh

I've been the last 2 years and will be going this year too, so I've watched everything I could see on telly about it and read everything in magazines etc.

I have never seen one documentary or read one article that even comes close to being an accurate reflection of the place.

If you put everything together then you can get a little bit of an idea about it (say, 0.1% of what there is to experience there)

But, you just have to experience it yourself. Listening to other peoples descriptions of it is close to useless because everyone will get something different from it.

)'(

Jo

I'm Looking for the experiance this summer!!
Josh~ I hope your not serious? I practice alot, and hope to find better spinners to hook up with.
Can't wait!! Has any one bought tickets yet?

yeah I'm serious. I would have to say that Burning Man is about a lot more than fire twirling, and most of the twirling people there *do* look like they havent picked up a pair of poi or a stick before getting out on the playa. IT seemed to me that Fire twirling at Burning Man was very 'in', with everyone having their first go there, which makes for huge quantity, and tiny quality.

Some people are very good its true. but you will wear your feet out tracking them down - I kid you not. For every 100 spinners you see, 99 will be doing 2-beat weave...(and thats ok, we all have to start somewhere).

I guess I'm just a bit jaded - after all I travelled from Oz hoping to see some amazing twirling, and in the end, the best twirling I saw wasnt at BM, it was on a Beach in Oceanside (thanks for that Poz) and at a Trance Festival outside of San Francisco.

Honourable mentions go to Peregrine, and Nomad (HOP oldskool ) who were among the best twirlers I saw at BM.

HOWEVER

BM is an amazing event/experience, and I would recommend it to anyone with an open mind. If I were in the area, I'd go every year - its fucking crazy! )

Josh

Maby what we should do is; Get As Many HOP Folks There as possible!
If you are really serious about Spinning Fire and are already in the US, it shouldn't be a problem.
I'll make a Big HOP Flag to fly there, so people can come by and congigate. Do you think that would be an Idea? Or is it just so big that a flag would be silly? Maby we could have an HOP area at the fest, where we all can meet and hang.

I'm sorry that you travaled so far and where disappointed Josh. Maby we could get more (old school) HOP folks there this summer?

Hope to see ya all there!!

~FS

I've seen that documentary. The same person went back the next year and did a second one, which was a bit better, but they both were a little on the fragmented side. Probably just because there was too much going on, and he wanted to try to show a more complete cross section instead of concentrating too much on any one particular aspect.
HoP meet up sounds good. I'll be there.

J

There are people at BM who are great spinners. I think part of the reason you don't see them is that spinning is something they do on a regular basis. There is so much to experience at BM that they would rather see/experience other things than do what they can do at home. At least that's the reason I didn't light up once while there.

yep, just too many transformative experiences to be had out there...

....last year OVER 500 fire spinners performed around the Man on Saturday night before the burn. Most (if not all) were members of the Fire Conclave. They were fabulous! Also, a friend of mine did fire watch and NO ONE got hurt. Just need to know where to look to find the BEST!

Burning man lasts how long? A week or two (I am sure I am off here but for sake of example it is two weeks long )

How do you cram two weeks into 45 minutes without jumping around?

Sorry it cant be done.

I mean they try to cram 3 months of USMC boot camp into a 45 minute segment and they cant get that done for nothing.

The closes thing I have seen to actual boot camp is Full Metal Jacket!

So anyhooo point in case, you cant make a show that captures the whole essance of just about any life changing experiance.

Ray did you see band of brothers?

Hey Josh, thanks for the kind words. But for the record, it was me and a girl named Jessica (the girl who taught me how to spin the year before), not me and Peregrine. Pere has never been to BM.

I hope we can hook up again over the summer, this time in France.

Nomad