The upshot is that the tent area may be a bit less open than before, but we’ll have plenty of parking room in the back of the plot. We’ll also probably need to re-arrange the shade cloth pieces to cover the new longer structure.
See the 2014 camp page for the full layout.
]]>Last week was a blur of excitement. Our humble camp will call the 3 o’clock plaza home for a very dusty week. A major change from last year’s 4:00 and A address; we’ll all need to pitch in even more to give back to the Playa.
However, with this news comes more responsibility and anxiety. Planning is still under way, and we’re getting closer and closer to a functioning camp every day.
Check back for more exciting updates soon :)
Sabina
]]>With summer upon us, it’s time to really start planning what Playasophy is going to be like this year. We’re still waiting to hear back from the BMORG about placement (fingers crossed), but there’s still a lot that we can start working on to make this burn awesome.
Unfortunately, the majority of Playasophy’s Seattle members are unable to attend Critical this year. We brought our safety dome, sound system, and full hookah setup back from the burn last September in hopes of making a name for ourselves at Critical, but there just won’t be enough people to organize and watch it. If anyone’s interested in trying to pull this together, let us know!
Like everything else, Greg’s bringing the Wonderdome into Clojure to make it easier to visualize. He’s got a pretty cool working model of our large dome, and will start planning how to cut and organize the LED strips onto the triangles of the dome. It’s going to look pretty badass.
On the coding side of this, let him know if you want to write a visualization mode. We only had about 10 different modes last year (including one blinding secret Konami mode…thanks Geeber), and would love to add more to our arsenal.
I’m taking charge of the Hookah Lounge this year, and am currently planning this year’s version. We created a great framework last year, and I’m super excited to make it even better. This is going to be our main gift during the day, providing a chill space and ice coffee/hookah during open hours. There will probably be a lot of hookah lounges this year, what with the Caravansary theme, but I think our history will give us the edge. So let’s make us stand out of the crowd!
The tables, bar, and general layout will stay the same, but we’ll be adding more fabrics and decorations. A lot of the work will be shopping for fabrics and decorations, as well as making a bunch of random stuff to make the space look cooler. Any help is always appreciated :)
One thing the camp has always been missing is a burn barrel. Hopefully this is the year it becomes a reality! We were offered a burn barrel at the end of the last burn from our neighbors, but declined as it really wasn’t our personality (think flowers and gypsies…).
Know how to weld? We could use the knowledge!
Our 2014 camp roster currently has ~20 people definitely going and 12 maybes; some with tickets-in-hand, some waiting on STEP, some waiting on trades. If you don’t think you’re accounted for, let us know ASAP! Got an extra ticket? We’ve got members who will take it off your hands for face value.
And FYI, the Burner Express is already selling tickets if you’re looking to bus into the city. We had several members use the BE last year, all with positive experiences. Plus, you won’t have to worry about carpooling or gas!
Tickets timeline: http://tickets.burningman.com/
New to this whole thing? Don’t worry! http://blog.burningman.com/10principles/
As always, you can email Playasophy at info@playasophy.org with any questions, comments, and suggestions.
(Try not to panic)
Sabina
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Check out photos from last year! Click through the links below and walk down memory lane with us.
We had around 25 members camping with us by the end of the week, with a healthy mix of virgins and veterans.
We had a small team of four members go in early to start setting up camp. They assembled several structures, and the rest of the members helped finish it up.
The camp layout consisted of a hookah lounge and large dome open to the public, as well as a private camp member area with a kitchen, small dome, yurt, and shower.
Friday morning at the temple, we hosted a three couple wedding complete with high fives and champagne.
The Wonderdome was our main tech project. We added LED strips to the inside that was connected to its own enclosed power system, and cycled through different light displays programmed by several camp members. It could also be controlled with a NES controller! You’ll never guess what the Konami code did ;)
]]>Even with a better tool, digging and repacking the post holes is a lot of work and makes it hard to get shade up quickly. After the last Burn we tentatively settled on a design involving EMT conduit and welded steel fittings. This design is much sturdier, simpler, and quick to set up.
However, conduit isn’t cheap, and due to budget constraints we had decided to only replace part of the shade structure. Fortunately, a generous fellow burner provided us with 25 free tubes! This got us a bit past replacing half the shade structure. We had some offers to chip in more specifically for the shade structure, and eventually we decided to just go ahead and replace the whole thing. This will make setup much easier on our early arrivals and save costs year-over-year on the wood.
Today, Geeber and I cut most of the 8’ uprights and tested out the design for the first time. I’m happy to report that the structure is very solid and a snap to get up even with only two people!
The Man burns in 17 days!
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Based on the direction of the sunlight at our location, in the morning the sun will be streaming into the hookah lounge area but the divider will keep the tents in shade. As it grows later, the sun swings to the south. Some light will hit the outer lounge sections, but draped curtains will help provide shade. In the evening, the sun will start entering the back entrance to camp, but only a few tents should be affected.
30 short days until the Man burns!
]]>The man burns in 50 days!
]]>Here’s a shot of our planned layout:
The man burns in 56 days!
]]>I’ll continue making updates and filling in content, but in the meantime I give you Playasophy Camp, 2012:
Originally hosted at playasophers.org, we had a very basic CMS and some rudimentary forums. The site was hard to use and hard to maintain because no one understood it; something obviously had to change. We’ve since moved to using Google Groups for communication, resulting in the near-complete abandonment of the old site. During the 2011 Burn, we decided to do something about the problem — after all, we had web developers, a designer, and some software engineers — we could build our own site! I registered playasophy.org and set up hosting and some basic software, ready to go!
Alas, despite our good intentions, actually creating the site was delayed time and time again until I eventually shut off the server and let the domain sit unhosted. (This had some interesting consequences when I finally checked on the domain again — it was pointing to some Japanese website about bees… don’t ask.) This past Burn reinvigorated my motivation to at least put something consistent up — how could we claim to be a real camp if we didn’t even have a website? The result: the site you see before you!
For those curious, the site is extremely basic — it uses Octopress to compile a set of Markdown files with some templates to produce static HTML content. The result is simple, but extremely robust and easy to work with — something history has proven to be very important. I’m looking forward to adding more information and content to the site, so stay tuned for future updates!
Greg
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