Back to Burning Man, Back on the Radio

It's two weeks before Burning Man and of course I'm getting ready to go to Burning Man. While some of my earlier more ambitious musical plans came a cropper, I will be performing as often as we can manage with my band Banned Rehearsal at the Camp Such n' Such stage on Esplanade near 2:30. I may well get a bug to read the book aloud again as well, and I might not.

As Burning Man approaches people start talking more about Burning Man, and sometimes they ask me to talk about it with them. I am scheduled to appear on Seattle's KIRO-AM (710 on your AM dial) on the Lou Pate show to talk about Burning Man, at 1 am on Thursday August 25 (colloquially speaking, late Wednesday night; technically very very early Thurs. morning) for a full hour with what sounds like a very interesting host. Please listen if you have ears to hear.

Brief Return from the Wilderness

A series of not-yet-solved laptop problems and deep immersion in the book I have to finish this year have kept me away from this blog, but not necessarily away from Burning Man business. Back in mid-May I gave a well-attended and well-received talk on how Burning Man does, and does not, fit in with anarcho-capitalist thinking at FreedomFest. (One chaparoned young fan of my work at Reason was told that his parents wouldn't appreciate the subject matter of my talk.) I learned that due to a communications snafu, I was mistaken that the BenBella paperback of This is Burning Man would be out this year; in fact, look for it in the summer of 2006. Until then, at least for now, the original hardcover is still available.

This is being written during a quick guerilla strike on a computer from which I can actually blog; the full-on recap of all old reviews will have to wait, but here is a fresh one I recently found, at least one I had not yet linked to from this blog, from the Eugene Weekly. Scroll way down for the review by Kera Abraham. Some excerpts: "for die-hard Burners, Doherty's work might do the event as much justice as a mere book can....he paints a lively picture of Black Rock City as a place of "functional anarchy," where living in the moment is the cardinal rule. In these aspects, Doherty hits a nebulous nail on the head...[The book] details the excruciating nuts and bolts, which hold together an event that feels effortless. And its images illustrate the sheer weirdness of Burning Man: a dirt-surfing dwarf in bondage gear, a mechanical dragon breathing fire into the star-spattered night."

Back on the Radio Radio

It's been a while, but I'll be back in action talking THIS IS BURNING MAN on the airwaves Tuesday, March 29, on the Charles Goyette Show. His booker, Ernest Hancock is a man so hardcore he tells me he decided against going to Black Rock once he heard there were cops there. There should be much to speak about. It happens from 8:30 am to 9 am mountain time. It airs on Phoenix Arizona's Air America affiliate, KXXT-AM, 1010 on the AM dial. It will then be archived at CharlesGoyette.com.

I will try to get a bunch of old reviews up on the blog page here, and perhaps create a dedicated permenant page off the front for review links. I am distracted, not least by a ridiculously ambitious art project plan for Burning Man this year, more on which later. (I did not get funded, despite what I consider an utterly brilliant proposal.)

The Paperback Conspiracy

It has been officially announced in some industry trade publications, apparently, so I can announce it here: the paperback rights to THIS IS BURNING MAN have been sold to BenBella Books, who will be doing the paperback edition sometime later this year--probably in early to mid-summer, tho nothing is set in stone yet. I'm very pleased--they published the anthology CHOICE: THE BEST OF REASON to which I contributed and did a wonderful job in booking many bookstore and radio events for that book, I've enjoyed the time I've spent with their tenaciously dedicated staff, and I look forward to a wonderful working relationship on bringing the good news of THIS IS BURNING MAN to the world in paperback form.

In the meantime, the first-printing hardback is still available, tho who knows for how long?

Ego Posting

A couple of gratifying references I've found floating on the Web recently:

*Someone named Craig sees me on C-SPAN2, declares "I'm an expert in the Tom Wolfe/Rolling Stone style." Thanks, Craig!

And the Piss Clear that shouts out to me finally makes it online. As reading Piss Clear--Burning Man's non-official news and commentary publication--was one of the first ways I got acclimated to Burning Man during my first visit in 1995, I was especially proud and pleased with this one. When Piss Clear editor Adrian Roberts handed it to me at a media tent party out there in 2004, it got me nearly as elevated in mood as the rocket fuel (vodka and energy drink) being doled out. The mention is on page two of the pdf file of the issue, and here it is: "If you want to get a sense of how Burning Man has changed –
and continues to change – I highly recommend you pick up the
book This Is Burning Man, by Brian Doherty. It’s a well-written
history lesson of the event, full of smart insight and colorful
commentary. Even if this is your first year, and you’re not quite
yet a jaded old-timer, you’ll learn Burning Man lore and information
that even a 12-year veteran such as myself didn’t know!"

Thank you Adrian for Piss Clear through the years and for that.

Everybody's Talkin'

I trust you all enjoyed my appearance talking about the book on NPR's "Best of Our Knowledge" yesterday.

In this Interweb world of mutual back-scratching, I'll take one of my periodic breaks to note mentions of the book hither and yon:

*A man of mystery from early Burning Man days (his name is Robert, but his blog doesn't give any obvious other clues to his identity) says my book is "very fair to everyone involved. Definitely an entertaining read for those interested in the evolution of cultural events and I say it's REQUIRED if you're considering ever going out to Black Rock."

*Anirvan Chatterjee, a man of great and wide tastes, puts me on his reading list.

*Katrina Lehman's interesting blog-from-Asia gives the site a shout-out link. Back at you, Katrina.

Since many of them have passed over into blog-past, I hope to compile all the reviews of the book with live Web links for reposting here soon.

I'm on NPR's "Best of Our Knowledge" This Weekend...

I taped a long interview with these guys a couple of weeks ago; they will be turning that raw material into innovative radio journalism, before our very ears, this very weekend! The theme of the larger show is "The Desert" for the first hour, and it is as part of that hour that I shall be speaking. The program airs on over 100 NPR stations nationwide; go here for a full list. It airs at different times in different markets, but this show debuts this Sunday Jan. 23, and I am apparently in segment two of hour one, according to their Web site here. I shall take the liberty of listing some right here for areas where I know I and/or my book or Burning Man itself have many fans. All times are LOCAL:

San Francisco: KQED 88.5 FM--Sunday Jan 23, starting at 3 am and then repeated at 7 pm.

Los Angeles--KCLU 88.3 and 102. 7 FM--now the web site confuses me on this, as they seem to divide the show into two separate hours, one on SATURDAY noon-1, the other on SUNDAY 9-10 p.m.--the show allegedly FIRST airs on Sunday, so perhaps that will be the first hour (the one I'm on) with the second hour NEXT Saturday? Who knows, alas.

Eugene, Oregon--KRVM 1280 AM--starting at 8 am Sunday Jan 23.

San Antonio, TX--KSTX 89.1 FM--starting 10 am Sunday Jan 23.

Again, that's just a tiny sampling. See here for a map of the U.S. that will tell you every area you can hear this.

I didn't know it until it was too late, but C-SPAN2 re-ran the New York reading again last Saturday, at noon est, 9 am pacific. Pete Goldie let me know when he ran into me at the Odeon.

The vote for Arts Council members and guest curator for Borg2 are over. Those wonderful folk at Madagascar Institute got curator. I couldn't be more delighted. Go to the Borg2 web site for all details, and Borg2 Tribe for all arguments and tomfoolery. It truly will be the Best Burning Man Ever.