Elephant Bird Camp at Burning Man 2011
Elephant Bird Camp at Burning Man 2011
Setting up Elephant Bird Camp.
Our first sighting of Grahama’s House photographed by a Black Rock Citizen at Burning Man 2011!
See how she simply glides across the Playa like a beautiful lavender mirage!
Thank you Aeturnum!
Belly Button Lovin performs a song at Elephant Bird Camp, Burning Man 2011
living
Tent - 7’x7’ or smaller
tent stakes
sleeping bag
sleeping mat
sheet or light blanket
pillow
small rug for outside tent
tarp to put tent on
folding chair
Grahama’s House by i can dress myself. Produced and engineered by Joseph A. Meyer.
Written for Grahama’s House the Mutant Vehicle, Elephant Bird Camp, Burning Man 2011.
Special thanks to the Funky Ones and Elephant Bird Camp and Burning Man LLC.
We leave for Black Rock City on Wednesday! Check out Grahama’s House at Elephant Bird Camp on Divorce at 7:30
I bought more elephant bird hats!!! 15 just came in the mail today! So if you are part of EBC camp and you didn’t get a dick-nose elephant hat last year or you are new to our camp, come talk to me!
EBC is looking for live music acts and electro/live bands to perform at our camp on Wednesday night. Our schedule isn’t set yet, so we are open to suggestions. Performers will be atop our art car, Grahama’s House, rocking faces off. If you know of performers down to play send them to Graham or send a message to our tumblr page.
We were placed and will have a frontage of 100’ just what I planned for. Good news!

Designs for layout, structures, etc will be finalized, campers will be confirmed and musical acts will be booked. Hooray for EBC!

Burning Man theme camp placement goes out tonight. We will find out if EBC was placed or not. If not, then we gotta rethink our approach to building our camp. If yes, then we are in business and our 2 camp system experiment can begin to take more form.
Here is what they said in their email for all who are curious:
“INSIDE THE MIND OF A PLACER
By tonight you should receive individualized notification whether you are placed
or not, and if you are, where? First we wanted to share some of our thought
process behind making placement decisions.
What do placers really think, and how can this help you?
Bigger is not better: especially when an increase in the size of the camp
does not see a proportional increase in interactivity for participants.
Our reserved area for Theme Camps and Villages at BRC are finite. Placing 10
smaller theme camps is much easier than placing 10 very large camps. There
is a higher likelihood of a more interactive area with the 10 smaller camps.
When we look at camps that are becoming larger and requesting more space,
we really look at the what the interactivity is and if the size request seems
to be justified.
Collaboration = Village
We at Burning Man love collaboration. Villages also have a limit on how big
they can be, so again the smaller the camps within the village the more
camps that can get together and share resources. This truly is the model for
collaboration, as it is very difficult for the placement team to accommodate
numerous requests from individual camps that wish to share borders, and yet
are not a village. In essence those requests create a “camp” that becomes
too big to place.
Interactivity- Completed Questionnaires - Proportional Sizes = Placement -
If we have the room!
Our team reads each and every questionnaire. We look at each and every camp
plan. We are getting a sense of what the trends are and how to approach our
job each year to help create a vital - functioning- fun city when our event
begins, after all we only have a week! If some camps are not placed,
generally it is because it is not a good fit. Keep in mind when completing a
questionnaire - that the interactivity, completeness of questionnaires, and
the proportional size are by far the highest priorities on our lists.”
Bradbury & Bradbury creates highly detailed designs that not only have pleasant color schemes, but are also very intricate and lively. Once I stumbled upon this website, I knew I was going to use their designs. They are also located in the bay area!
This is the wallpaper we will be using for the interior of GMAH. It is actually going to be a combination of papers: frieze, wall border, ceiling borders, blocks, ceiling paper, and wallpaper. This will make a complex arrangement of patterns and dimension. Although it will cost an arm and a leg, I believe this addition is an important component to the great GMAH that will really “sell” the concept and tie the whole project together.
Some big things have happened to GMH since we last checked in. All the rope lighting used for accenting arrived, we decided to ignore insurance (fingers crossed) and we got some building done on the damn MV!
Last weekend we worked from noon to 9p on both Saturday and Sunday. We made some really big strides. We purchased pretty much the last of the hardware and lumber we would need to finish the structure. We in turn put the plywood on top to complete the deck and then subsequently installed the linoleum flooring. We then built our railing and finally finalized our roof design. All huge steps. The rail is solid and could support Andre the goddamn giant. A linoleum floor with a rug on top will get slippery with playa dust, but it will be much easier to clean. Anyways, throwing a rug up there will fix any problems anyway. Structurally, all we need to do is build the roof, which has a folding design so it can fit through things like toll booths.
After numerous tickets and a very expensive tow, the truck has been moved to an empty lot in Pleasant Hill and is in the hands of Michael and Antje to look after. This is a bit of a burden for everyone else as our camp primarily lives in SF. But not having to move the thing twice a week and having it out of my hands is worth the trip out there. We plan on working both weekend days all day until the burn as we still have to build the rail, panel the outside, panel the inside, wire the lights, install wainscoating, glue on wallpaper, install the interior floor, build a secret cabinet, set up the sound system, build a ceiling, detail the interior/exterior, put on the siding, etc. There is a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it! Building resumes after 4th of July weekend. Till then!
Just spent about $500 on rope lights and controllers. The lighting is gonna be off tha granny panties!
I am at a crossroads for our beloved box-truck turned comfy abode. I had been putting off getting it insured for the past 4 months, but when I got a notice from the DMV to show proof of insurance or the registration would be revoked, I decided it was finally time to get off my ass and just pay up. Of course this wouldn’t be too big of a deal, I would call up AIS and they would find the cheapest insurance provider for me to fork over my cash to. I decided since the burn was coming up soon it was best to just get the insurance and get protected, yet little did I know how hefty of an ordeal I was about to leap into.
Our journey begins with a call to AIS 2 days before the proof of insurance is due (I am lazy like that). We go through the process and I am thrilled to learn that the insurance will only cost $239 for 6 months, all I need to provide is the VIN number of the truck. I quickly realize I do not have it as the title is in the truck itself, which I have also realized I forgot to move last week. Fortunately, I borrowed my girlfriend’s car to drive to work and used that during lunch to find and repark it. Once I get to where I remember parking it, it is nowhere to be found. I drive around all over the neighborhood, assuming my memory might be deceiving me. The more I look the more I panic, as I realized that it might’ve been towed. 2 calls and 4 hours later I have recovered my truck from the tow yard with $810.50 less dollars in my pocket.
I go back to the truck the next day and look on the dash to write down the VIN number since I forgot to bring the truck key with me (and forgot to to get the VIN after I got it back from the inpound). I call back AIS, hoping that we can be done with this ordeal only to find that the VIN does not show up. I start getting worried again and soon discover that the truck is in fact registered as a commercial vehicle, which cannot be changed. What was once $478 for a year of insurance has jumped to $2600!
I decided with few options available to do the following. I will risk not insuring it considering how little it is driven. The consequences being I get fined $200-$500 and have a possible tow. By all accounts this is much less than getting insured. We will soon move it to a lot in the east bay where it will be worked on and where Michael and Antje will watch it in the meantime. There’s a company I found that will insure vehicles temporarily and specifically for Burning Man, so hopefully that’ll work!