Adventures with the BurningMan Power Elite! [this is a multi-part, text-y thing. It will be interesting only if you love or hate BurningMan] If you've arrived in the middle, go back to the beginning. NOTE: throughout this series, marian's writing looks like this. My writing to her looks like this. And my commentary added here, on these pages, looks like this. Sorry to hear you have mis-interpreted the issue. Judging by your response, I hit the nail on the head. I'm a dentist. I know when I've hit a nerve. I assume you'd rather not be on the JRS anymore, so I'll take you off. Bad assumption. JRS is quality entertainment. Please keep me on the list. Thanks for your unkind remarks. Just speaking my mind. Get past the ego-bruising, and consider that complaints of that nature are why fewer and fewer *participants* are coming to burningman. There's no shortage of fratboys and deadheads who'll pay to party with you, though. Those are the people you are cleaning up after. Rather, those are the people you are recruiting volunteers to clean up after. There is paint that has been poured on the playa, burn scars with bottles and nails. More than was expected. Yes, we didn't throw enough money at the clean up, the person in charge didn't know to do so....we learn each year. See above. I LOVE burningman, but I believe the folks in charge have been blinded by the limelight. It's not too late. Rent a bus, put 20 day-laborers in it. Take them and 2 dumptrucks onsite, and clean up in 2 days. It might not be QUITE that simple, but you get my point. I hope you don't bother sneaking in next year, as you clearly don't care about what we are doing in the desert. I'll be there if you will, bank on it. I just won't pay $100 (or more) to crap in a portapotty on public land, while you're spending the money on post-hoc back-patting parties, and having the GALL to ask people to volunteer for you. It's like if you're at a concert, and the band says "hey, we're gonna go party with the event staff, why don't you (the audience) stay here and clean up after everyone who puked?" I think it's a serious burningman growing pain. As it becomes more of a spectator event, overall responsibility levels plummet. Like I said, I've left the playa cleaner, every year I've been. I'm not the reason the playa is covered in paint, you are. At least indirectly. When you have a party at your house, if someone got out of line and broke a window, would you ask your guests to chip in and fix it? I care deeply what goes on in the desert. I love the atmosphere on the playa. It just seems like the folks in charge want all the credit, and all the fame, and all the money, and none of the responsibility. Bad community leadership. That's the implicit point of my first email. Bad leadership. All concealed behind orwellian talk of community. Please keep learning each year, and I'll see you on the playa. If you're interested in my take on bm98, check it online- www.cardhouse.com/drcliff/wreck/bm981.html So, I'm a little less emotional, and a little more rational (and friendly) than in the first email. Now we can open up a dialog, right? Yeah, sure. Wait and see the kind of foul-mouthed personal insults this email provoked from maid marian And I got this response