Scrubbing my way to Burning Man
Jul. 6th, 2019 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreWe got a lot done today. Picked up the Free Trailer Beowulf and took it to Kirsten's office. The main item on the agenda: pull the mattress out and clean the cover, then check for mold.
Because last fall we were both lazy and never got the tarp on the trailer before the rainy season started. We ended up with some mold, and mostly mudstains on the mattress cover. Luckily, the mattress itself was fine.
We also had access to our pallet of stuff and were able to add a few items and double-check the inventory sheet. There will be a more detailed inventory about a week before we leave, with packing lists for each box. I'd like to get down to three of the big Costco boxes for our packing, so we can use the fourth to hold our gas cans, as those need to be both contained and kept off the Playa.
Kirsten is looking into finding a place that can teach us how to back up with the trailer, as we both suck at it.
Because last fall we were both lazy and never got the tarp on the trailer before the rainy season started. We ended up with some mold, and mostly mudstains on the mattress cover. Luckily, the mattress itself was fine.
We also had access to our pallet of stuff and were able to add a few items and double-check the inventory sheet. There will be a more detailed inventory about a week before we leave, with packing lists for each box. I'd like to get down to three of the big Costco boxes for our packing, so we can use the fourth to hold our gas cans, as those need to be both contained and kept off the Playa.
Kirsten is looking into finding a place that can teach us how to back up with the trailer, as we both suck at it.
no subject
Date: 9 Jul 2019 01:39 (UTC)Your icon here is interesting. Is it true? I’ve heard that said, but it’s a common reaction to the advance of time, and often such “Golden Ages” are simply because the critic was young then.
But not always. “New” and “Improved” are not synonymous. Now that Burning Man is hip and well-known, with ten times the turnout and a third of the average intelligence, is it better?
no subject
Date: 9 Jul 2019 17:00 (UTC)There is a sentiment among long-time Burners that the event is past its prime, and was much better years ago. This is a swipe at them.
I first encountered this kind of attitude as a Deadhead. In the mid-80s there were plenty of older Deadheads who would bemoan the lost days of 30 minutes jams and how much better they were when Keith was still laying keyboard, and so on.
Re: “The Magic Goes Away”
Date: 9 Jul 2019 18:46 (UTC)But this happens to everything. Srsly: If I tried to assemble a list of where all I’ve encountered that sentiment, I’d get tired. Biker rallies used to be more fun. “I’m glad I went then - people today got no idea what fun we had!” That same sentence can be put to every kind of Con - SF, gaming, model-making, you name it. (Sometimes, yeah, they’ve got a case.)
“Origins / GenCon used to be fun - now it’s lame.” “WorldCon used to be…” &c. (Again, that’s true, for several reasons.)
You see this a lot on Imgur - “They don’t make TV shows like this any more…” (Look at 1966, the shows that ran then. Wow.) “Who remembers when SNL was funny?” (I do, and I witnessed the change - in 1984, when the producers decided that viciously hateful and unfunny anti-Reagan propaganda was more important than mere entertainment. Reagan won re-election by a landslide… They never regained the popularity or the viewers they lost, nor did they care - like Disney today, they had higher priorities.) +
The problem is, it’s not just gerry-boomer rose-colored glasses - in many cases it’s quite true.
In 21st century Britain, Bonfire Night is usually celebrated with a trip to
an organised bonfire and firework display, with paid admission and
controlled access.
Not so in the 1950s and 1960s. Bonfire Night was a hands-on celebration.
Family bonfire parties and get-togethers with neighbours were the thing.
And as for health and safety: well, apart from the annual safety lecture on
BBC’s ‘Blue Peter’, common sense was the order of the day…
https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Bonfire-Night-in-the-1950s-1960s/
Whether because of population increase (or changing demographics), “there ought to be a law” (which includes Politically Correct self-appointed watchdogs, in the case of Cons) or “peak media,” aka simple information overload weariness, things used to be done, or done better, that are not now. Indeed, the only exception to this trend I know of is Dragon*Con, which is still climbing the bell-curve. A LOT MORE things happen now than did before.
Schools - and that’s very true. Even hitchhiking - across America, Europe, India - in the 1960s it was safe and fun. Not now.
It goes on all through history. It’s like lava: Every outbreak cools, hardens. Then a different, fresh outbreak happens - somewhere else.
+ A fallacy exists: Back in video rental store days, a friend of mine sighed at the Classics section and said, “Movies were so much better then…” And I said, “Not so. Casablanca, sure - but it was only one of fifty-two movies Warner Bros released that year. (That’s one complete movie every week of the year. They don’t call it an “industry” for nothin’…)
“Now, name any of the fifty-one others.”
Blank.
“You’re seeing the survivors,” I concluded. “They made stupid forgettable movies then just as they do today.”
Re: “The Magic Goes Away”
Date: 10 Jul 2019 01:30 (UTC)A quote I’m not finding right off, I think Oscar Wilde, speaking of the post-war South, that “one can scarcely admire the beauty of moonlight without being told how much better it was before the war.”