Nevada
Burning Man survived a muddy quagmire — Will the experiment last 30 more years?
RENO, Nev. — The blank canvas of desert wilderness in northern Nevada seemed the perfect place in 1992 for artistic anarchists to relocate their annual burning of a towering, anonymous effigy. It was goodbye to San Francisco’s Baker Beach, hello to the Nevada playa, the long-ago floor of an inland sea.
The tiny gathering became Burning Man’s surrealistic circus, fueled by acts of kindness and avant-garde theatrics, sometimes with a dose of hallucinogens or nudity. The spectacle flourished as the festival ballooned over the next three decades.
Some say it grew too much, too fast.
Things came to a head in 2011 when tickets sold out for the first time.
Organizers responded with a short-lived lottery system that left people out of what was supposed to be a radically inclusive event.
As Burning Man matured, luxurious accommodations proliferated, as did the population of billionaires and celebrities.
Katherine Chen, a sociology professor in New York City who wrote a 2009 book about the event’s “creative chaos,” was among those who wondered whether Burning Man “would be a victim of its own success.”
Exponential growth led to increasing questions about whether organizers had veered too far from the core principles of radical inclusion, expression, participation and the pledge to “leave no trace.”
That last hurdle was never harder to clear than this year as “Burners” tried to leave over Labor Day weekend after torching the 80-foot (24-meter) wooden sculpture that is “the Man.”
A rare rainstorm turned the Black Rock Desert into a muddy quagmire 110 miles (175 kilometers) north of Reno, delaying the departure of 80,000 revelers. Once out, organizers had six weeks to clean up under terms of a federal permit.
By the smallest of margins, they passed the test last month, with a few adjustments recommended for the future. The verdict from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management means Burning Man is in line to use federal land again next year.
Debate over the event’s future, however, is sure to continue as divisions grow between the aging hippie types and wealthier, more technologically inclined newcomers. Veteran participants fear the newer set is losing touch with Burning Man’s roots.
The event has made a quantum leap from a gathering of hundreds to one that temporarily becomes Nevada’s third largest city after metropolitan Las Vegas and Reno. The festival drew 4,000 in 1995 and topped 50,000 in 2010.
It’s no wonder seasoned Burners sound a bit like griping cribbage players on a rural town square when they mutter: “It ain’t like it used to be.”
“Back then, it was much more raw,” said Mike “Festie” Malecki, 63, a retired Chicago mortician turned California sculptor who made his 13th trip this year to the land of colorful theme camps, towering sculptures, drum circles and art cars.
“There are more (people) who come out to party and don’t participate. We call them spectators,” he said.
Senior organizers long have wrestled with whether to become more civilized or remain what co-founder Larry Harvey described as a “repudiation of order and authority.”
Ron Halbert, a 71-year-old from San Francisco, has worked support for Burning Man’s 90-piece orchestra for 20 years and remains optimistic.
“It’s still the gathering of the tribe,” he said.
The event is permitted tentatively for the same 80,000 attendance cap next year.
Organizers are considering some minor changes, though generally resist making new rules, said Marian Goodell, Burning Man Project’s chief executive officer.
Critics on social media howled at the mayhem left behind this year, posting photos of garbage piles, abandoned vehicles and overflowing portable toilets while ridiculing the “hippies” and their leave-no-trace mantra.
But that mayhem may have actually helped bring Burning Man back to its roots.
Katrina Cook of Toronto said it forced people to be true to the founding principles of participation and radical self-reliance.
“The rain weeded out the people who didn’t want to be there for the right reason,” Cook said.
Mark Fromson, 54, was staying in an RV, but the rains forced him to find shelter at another camp where fellow burners provided food and cover.
Another principle of Burning Man, he said, centers on unconditional gift giving with no expectation of something in return.
After sunset, Fromson set off barefoot through the muck for a long trek back to his vehicle, slogging through thick clay that clung to his feet and legs. The challenge, he said, was the mark of a “good burn.”
Nevertheless, Jeffery Longoria of San Francisco, who marked his fifth consecutive voyage to Burning Man last summer, said its core principles are going to evolve no matter what as a new generation takes over.
“The people that created this community, a lot of them are getting older and retiring and there’s a lot of new young people coming in, the kind that have, you know, a couple $100,000 RVs and are kind of just careless about the environment.”
Soren Michael, a Los Angeles technology worker who made his 11th trip this year, said the biggest change has been the ability to communicate with the outside world from the desert.
“It was almost part of the appeal to be disconnected,” he said.
Twenty years ago, the psychedelic celebration like none other already was attracting academic scholars — anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, economists and communications professors — curious about how the makeshift civilization functioned without real-world rules.
Burning Man references started popping up in TV episodes and talk show punchlines.
The rich and famous began venturing to Black Rock City, as the festival’s temporary metropolis is called.
A full-blown exhibit about the phenomenon debuted in 2018 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington. Even then, veteran Burners complained about the event becoming as much a curiosity to see as to do.
That’s in part the problem veterans have with the advent of glamor camping, or glamping, in which private companies provide packaged trips to concierge camps with luxury RVs and lavish meals under chandeliers. Some believe the camps violate Burning Man principles.
The growing number of billionaires and celebrities who fly in on private jets to Black Rock City’s temporary airstrip “seems to be everyone’s favorite thing to hate,” Goodell said. But wealth shouldn’t be a cause for shame, she said.
“The question is not about glamping,” she said. “Comfort doesn’t assume lack of engagement. It’s whether you have a glamping camp and you’re not really engaging.”
Burning Man’s purpose remains the same: building a creative, stimulating environment, the essence of which people can take back to their own communities.
“We thought that from the beginning,” Goodell said. “We just didn’t know it would be 80,000 people.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom won’t admit it, but a move by President Donald Trump is especially helpful to drivers in California — and Nevada.
Gasoline prices are pressuring consumers around the country. On Friday, the average U.S. price was $4.55 a gallon. In California, that would be a bargain. The average there was $6.16 a gallon. Nevada’s average was $5.23 a gallon, the result of around 88 percent of the state’s gasoline coming from California.
It might be getting worse — regardless of what happens in Iran.
In recent months, two major California refineries have shut down. That represented a 17 percent reduction in California’s refining capacity. Their closures weren’t caused by the Iran war, but by Gov. Newsom and California’s relentless attacks on fossil fuels.
To make up for the fuel it won’t extract or refine in-state, California depends on imports from foreign countries.
“We are importing 30 percent of our crude oil from the Middle East,” Mike Ariza, a former control board supervisor at the Valero Benicia Refinery, said in an interview. He has been warning the public about California’s potential fuel shortage. “There are not very many ships left on the way that have fuel,” he said last month.
Last week, KCRA-TV in Sacramento reported that “about 2 million barrels of oil are in the process of being unloaded in Long Beach off of the last California-bound tanker that got through the Strait of Hormuz.”
At a California legislative hearing Tuesday, Siva Gunda, the vice chairman of the California Energy Commission, said the state has enough gasoline to accommodate demand for the next six weeks. That’s not a very long time, especially given that it takes weeks or months for oil to travel from the Middle East to California. And that process won’t begin until the Strait of Hormuz reopens.
There is a region, however, with abundant oil available for sale and safe passage — the southeastern United States. Unfortunately, the Jones Act, an antiquated 1920 law, mandates that only U.S.-flagged ships may move cargo between U.S. ports. But only 55 of the more than 7,000 oil tankers worldwide comply with this requirement.
This is where Mr. Trump rode to the rescue. Late last month, the White House announced Mr. Trump would suspend the Jones Act for another 90 days. In March, he originally waived it for 60 days. This will make it easier for California and Nevada to obtain domestic product.
If only Mr. Trump could also suspend the destructive energy policies imposed by Gov. Newsom and California Democrats.
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — An adoptable pet is in the spotlight for “Furever Home Friday,” with Amy from the Nevada SPCA featured in a segment highlighting an animal available for adoption today.
The Nevada SPCA encouraged viewers looking to add a pet to their family to consider adopting.
Alex LaRosa hit for a .262 batting average in 50 plate appearances for the Bishop Gorman baseball team through its 32 games played entering Thursday.
But with a chance for the Gaels to punch their ticket to the Class 5A state tournament, LaRosa came up with the biggest swing of his season.
LaRosa hit a solo home run in the top of the sixth inning and broke a tie game, which proved to be the deciding run in Gorman’s 8-4 win over Centennial on Thursday night at Durango High in a 5A Southern Region winners bracket final.
The Gaels (28-6) have qualified for the 5A state tournament, which begins May 14 at Las Vegas High. The Gaels also advance to Saturday’s 5A Southern Region title game at 10 a.m. Saturday at Durango.
“My teammates, they just push me to be better in everything to do,” LaRosa said. “I know if I get on, they’re going to to get the job done and score me. My job, hitting in the bottom of the lineup is making sure I get on base anyway I can. I just put a good swing on the ball and it got out.”
Centennial falls to the losers bracket final and will play either Arbor View or Palo Verde at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Durango to determine Gorman’s opponent for Saturday and the South’s second spot in the state tournament. Arbor View and Palo Verde play in an earlier elimination at 4 p.m. Friday at Durango to determine Centennial’s opponent.
”It feels good, we fell short the last couple of years (of reaching the state tournament),” LaRosa said. “It just feels good to finall be in it and hopefully we keep going and win it.”
LaRosa’s blast was much needed after a disastrous bottom of the fifth inning for Gorman. The Gaels led 4-0, but Centennial (25-10) cut into the deficit when Jaxon Burr singled which scored Chase Hurley, who led the inning off with a triple.
Then Jake Turner hit a fly ball to left-center field, and as Gorman center fielder DeMari Hall and Logan Grubbs dived for the ball, they collided and the ball went all the way to the wall for a two-run, inside-the-park home run.
Four batters later, Gorman catcher Austin Argenta threw to first base to pick off runner Trevor Henson, but Argenta’s throw was wild and sailed into left field, scoring Kane Barber from second, tying the game.
“I had just given a speech right before we went out to hit that we were good, we weren’t losing this game,” LaRosa said. “We’re still in this game and the dugout went crazy. We just exploded after that.”
LaRosa, who finished 2-for-4 with two runs scored, followed up with his home run in the top of the sixth, which hit the top of the left field fence. That caused a brief discussion between the three umpires before they confirmed it was a home run.
“I was just looking for a fastball to drive into the gap so my teammates could drive me in, but I got lucky, back spun it and it got out of here,” LaRosa said. “At first, I thought it was gone and then I looked up and the ball bounced back in the field.
“Then the (umpire) told me it was a home run and I kind of blacked out. It was a surreal feeling.”
Grubbs added an RBI single in the top of the seventh for Gorman. Chase Wilk was 2-for-4 with a home run in the second, a run scored during a three-run Gorman fourth inning and an RBI on a ground out in the seventh.
Justin Rodrigues had a two-run double in the fourth capped off the fourth inning for Gorman, which put the Gaels ahead 4-0. Rodriguez went 2-for-4 and recorded the final three outs on the mound for the Gaels.
Hurley and Burr each had two hits and a run scored for Centennial.
“It feels good, just returning to a national powerhouse that we were,” LaRosa said. “It’s the standard to be in the state tournament every year and compete for that state championship. So it feels good to bring the culture back to Gorman.”
Other 5A baseball results
No. 2S Arbor View 11, No. 2M Faith Lutheran 3: At Durango, Devin Martin’s two-run home run capped off an eight-run fourth inning for Arbor View, which helped the Aggies (30-7) roll past Faith Lutheran (16-15) in a 5A Southern Region elimination game.
In the fourth inning against Faith Lutheran, the Aggies scored twice on bases loaded walk, a wild pitch, a two-run single from Rhett Bryce and an RBI single by Angelo Ugarte before Martin hit his home run.
Martin finished with three RBIs and Ugarte added two RBIs. Rookie Shepard and Kingston Kela each recorded an RBI for Faith Lutheran.
No. 3M Palo Verde 7, No. 2D Desert Oasis 5: At Durango, Stone Amsden’s grand slam highlighted a seven-run seventh inning to give Palo Verde the lead, and the Panthers (26-8) held on to beat Desert Oasis (26-8-1) in an elimination game.
Desert Oasis, the Desert League’s No. 2 seed, led 4-0 entering the seventh. Owen Anderson and Matthew Simmler each had an RBI single, and Kyle Johnson scored in a wild pitch before Amsden’s homer put the Panthers, the Mountain League’s No. 3 seed ahead.
Amsden finished 2-for-4 for Palo Verde. The Panthers had just six hits.
Lincoln Guillermo was 2-for-4 with a home run for Desert Oasis, and Brody Griffith was 2-for-3 with two runs scored. Landon O’Dell had an RBI single for the Diamondbacks and Aidan Smith added an RBI and a run scored.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
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