The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 12

SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINKR A mm ihr Su.Uy Cumin" tWr A-12 Sunday, Augut 20, 2000 "This is biting off a huge piece. Christopher Schardt sailing machines and driving cars, motorcycles, and ATVs on the pla-ya. Participants must register pyrotechnics and large-scale sound systems, and get video cameras tagged. BURNING MAN from A-l Appointment at Black Rock Topica and Internet messaging provider Critical Path. This year, high-tech PR firm GCI Group in The City paid for tickets for three employees to attend Burning Man, deemed a form of professional education that expands creative thinking.

Going to Burning Man is so important to some tech heads that they will negotiate a written or oral agreement as a condition of their employment "The only culture of sharing that I experienced before was online," said Scott "Spot" Draves, 32, a software developer from San Francisco's Mission District who orally negotiated time off for Burning Man, which he's attended since 1998. "It's changed my life here, in the real world. For example, I just found an apartment through a network of people who go to Burning Man," said Draves, who wrote a graphics program of amoeba-like visuals that react to music beats that he'll feature at the event When Rebecca Pitt, 25, also of The City's Mission neighborhood, wanted to become a designer of online information, she volunteered to do such a project for the Burning Man Web site, and then listed the experience on her "I knew the hiring manager had also gone to the event and would be hip to the positive aspects," said Pitt, who has a beaming smile and a new gig at Livemind, a wireless application service provider in the South of Market area. A Jju v2 i'i EXAMINER PHOTOS BY CRAIG LEE creating a theme camp for Burning Man. In the background Tristan Horn works on a giant goat.

Burning Man is an eclectic arts festival in the northern Nevada desert Participants create a city of camps featuring art Installations, all-night raves, original operas and other forms of creative expression while in costume or in the buff. The event, which began on Baker Beach in 1986, takes its name from the climactic torching of a 50-foot wooden man on Sept. 2. WHEN: Monday, Aug. 28, through Monday, Sept.

4. WHERE: Black Rock Desert, 120 miles north of Reno. WHO: Artists, technologists, ravers and others from around the world. Attendance is expected to top 28,000. PHILOSOPHY: "Leave no trace," "No spectators" and "Tread lightly." COST: At the gate, $220 until 11:59 p.m.

Tuesday, Aug. 29. $250 until 6 a.m. Friday, Sept. 1.

No tickets will be sold after Friday. WEB SITE: www.burningman.org Vanessa Hua No guarantees Arrests have been minimal at Burning Man, with five last year relating to drugs, trespassing and weapons. Tickets warn: "You voluntarily assume the risk of serious injury or death by attending." In 1996, a car driver ran over a tent, injuring one camper. Last year, a man Buffered injuries after leaping off a scaffold. This year, no tickets will be sold at the gate after noon Friday, Sept.

1, to stem the last-minute crush of weekend oglers. Ticket sales cover $500,000 in fees to the Bureau of Land Management (which manages the desert), salaries of six year-round staffers as well as 40 to 50 seasonal workers, $200,000 in artists' grants, and other infrastructure costs of Black Rock City, the limited liability corporation formed in January 1999 to oversee the celebration. The event's evolving vibe in recent years has caused some veterans to stay away, predicting the demise of Burning Man. Jessica Donohoe, 30, of Berkeley, stayed only four days last year and left before Saturday's big burn, on Thursday, the day weekend warriors started showing up. "It pains me that something that was so unique, intense and wonderful is now a beer-soaked commodity," said Donohoe, an administrative assistant who is planning an adventure later this fall to recapture the marvelous weirdness of earlier Burning Man gatherings.

"The original feel is gone and has been replaced with something resembling a Lollapalooza," said Brandon Doughan, 29, of San Francisco's Mission District, referring to the now-defunct alternative music festival that went mainstream in the mid-'90s. Doughan, a six-year veteran of Burning Man, helped create Camp Atari, a vintage video game-filled tent that was a hit last year. "Still kind of hip, but certainly sold out. Perhaps it was inevitable." One-upmanship The new money flowing into the desert shown in the the proliferation of RVs, SUVs and mind-blowing projects creates an absurd keeping-up-with-the-Joneses atmosphere, critics say. Feeling the pressure to put on ever more expensive and sophisticated displays, some East Bay old-timers are trying to sign corporate or private sponsorships for their group, Black Rock Travel.

In return, companies send executives out to the desert for team building. Gone are the days of half-finished art pieces in the dirt, they say. "We want to participate, but it's intimidating," said Jack Murgia, of Richmond, a bearded Mac technician who calls himself a "plumber of the new economy." He says that he and his friends who include artists, musicians and a ufologist all 30-something or older represent Bay Area throwbacks now searching for a place in the present. "The people with the great theme camps are the dot-com yuppies who have no other lives besides getting jazzed all year planning," laughed Adrian Roberts, editor of Piss Clear, the playa's alternative newspaper and art director of the Bay Area Reporter, a gay weekly in The City. "There's pros and cons.

If only poor people went to Burning Man, there'd be a bunch of tents. It would be communal and cute. There wouldn't be as much stellar artwork." The Man is dead. Long live the Man. Merin McDonell, 35, an event regular since 1996, had sworn she wouldn't go this year: Burning Man had become too crowded and she'd been exhausted planning a light-laden theme camp in 1999.

But somehow, in late July, the Mission resident found herself buying a ticket, renting an RV and calling up friends. She estimates that most of her social circle will go. "It's kind of like democracy. It's not the best form of government, but it's the best one we have," said the Web designer and former management consultant. "Burning Man is not as good as it was, but it's still better than no Burning Man." Mark Welch is part of a team oftechies light emitting diode lamps and an optical illusion to display words and animation revolving in the air.

"This is biting off a huge piece," said Schardt, who lives in San Francisco's Castro District. He was inspired by the audacity, the ambition he's witnessed at Burning Man since 1998. Others are taking a more mellow approach, eschewing preparations greater than piling in the SUV and packing up camping gear and food. "Less planning is better. It forces you to interact with others," said Page, the sweetly nerdy co-founder of Google, who keeps a panoramic shot of the festival displayed across his three computer screens and the wall of his Mountain View office.

Page borrows what he forgets to bring and shares what he has, meeting people in the process. Seeking equilibrium Participating in Burning Man can bring equilibrium to lives marked by long hours and often isolating work. This summer, on top of building an online music start-up, Mark "The original feel is gone and has been replaced with something resembling a Lollapalooza." Brandon Doughan Welch, 34, helped construct a giant goat for Burning Man. Welch of San Francisco's Ash-bury Heights a smiling Buddha of a man with a penchant for Internet relay chat and philosophical tangents has helped weld and paint on layers of resin, testing new artistic skills. The festival first-timer, or "newbie," estimates he'll spend $4,000 renting a 34-foot RV, stocking supplies and helping to pay for the iron, chicken wire and burlap 16-foot "goat" his group is building as the centerpiece of its "theme camp" the name for Burning Man communal spaces with a shtick to attract passersby.

Featuring music and visuals, the project dubbed "Goat Rodeo," tech-speak for a screw-up involving too many factors to manage Celeste Roschuni does her part stitching the giant goat. is their contribution to the spectacle put on by and for participants. "I'm starting to learn the value of balancing work and personal life," said Welch, a former software engineer who cashed out his stock options when he left Netscape Communications in May. "It's difficult in the valley." The pervasiveness of the tech crowd at Burning Man is a testament to the Internet sector's influence on the Bay Area, as an employer, as a connection. "This even happens among art friends," said San Francisco metal artist Dan Das Mann, 30, who ticked off a list of computer professionals among the 100 volunteers who assisted on his installation of 20-foot-tall masks, one covered in copper, the second in driftwood, the third in grass.

"They end up in computers, as well as pursuing their art, because that's where they can make the money." Call of the desert Beneficiaries of the new economy or not, attendees say that the desert's starkness offers a relief from the Bay Area's dot-economy, splashed on billboards, over the airwaves, on shrink-wrapped vehicles. "One week out of the year, I can get out of California and do anything I want," said Kevy Arens- Everything is possible At Burning Man, nothing is scheduled, and everything is possible. A massive ball of ice filled with clocks, all-night raves, a Mad Max-style Thunderdome for fighting and performances, and friendly strangers handing out free ice cream all reflect the hard-core enjoyment of creative expression. "There's an ethos of the young dot-com set of wanting to overcome challenges. We've done this in the dot-com world," said Dal Busco, 27, of Oakland, the Ask-Jeeves content director, who met her boyfriend, an Apple Computer engineer and fellow raver, at last year's Burning Man.

"It's more interesting to do it for art's sake in the middle of the desert." Though tech trend-setters go to escape what they've created in the Bay Area, the confab constitutes a microcosm of the world they've left behind. Those gearing up for this year's Burning Man include Tiffany Shlain, founder and director of the Webby Awards; Brian Behlendorf, a major collaborator on free Ap-iche software for Web servers; and Sergey Brin and Larry Page, founders of Google, the search engine popular with the digital elite. Last year, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was the guest of an Internet archivist so enamored with Burning Man he was married there in 1992. Those who live in high-tech comfort come despite the primitive conditions: no water, frequent dust storms, extreme temperatures, portable toilets, nothing sold except ice and espresso and no mobile phone access on the 400-square-mile emptiness of the pla-ya, an ancient lake bed. The logistics of going can be as time-consuming as launching a new software application, as complex as putting together an IPO.

Since February, Christopher Schardt, 37, a puckish contract software developer, has put work on hold to execute his art project, organized a camp of about 60 people that will include his parents, ages 63 and 64, and helped clean the desert of trash and other traces of past Burning Man events. Costing $5,000 to $10,000, Schardt's installation, "Spin," employs custom software, spinning Communal effort: The creation of a theme camp involves inspired volunteerism. At right, Gregor Miziumski, the designer and artist of the giant goat project, confers with Thomas Spindler.atleft. berg, 25, a goth motorcyclist who works in the art department of Ninth House Network, a San Francisco broadband education start-up. "I don't have to look at the damn advertising everywhere I go." Indeed, Burning Man is defined by what it is and isn't.

Organizers have fought to keep out commercial influences, banned the use of logos and turned down sponsorships. This year, they turned away crews from HBO, the Learning Channel and the tabloid TV show Extra. Out on the playa, the only slogans are Burning Man's "Leave no trace," "No spectators" and "Tread lightly." No vending is allowed in the desert, either. Organizers encourage giving an ironic counterpoint to the free launch parties and other start-up giveaways in the Bay Area paid for by the tech industry's promotion machine. At Burning Man, in-your-face deal-making or business talk is also taboo.

"You wouldn't find people re-. cruiting for jobs. People would think it was rude," said David Marr, 35, who found his current job this past year as a graphics designer at Bluelight.com through a nearby camper. "You get to be friends outside of Burning Man, 34 EXAMINER OKWMICS I ffl (48 iGerlach I irk a "QSS Loverlock (395) fm4 VRenc 1 1 1 Vi5. I CA.

I Area of t'ff Carson; 'il1 fcity fahoe (395) Ocetm and then they might ask, 'Do you like your Some low-key networking goes on, an informal point of contact in a digital culture and economy built on connections. Trucking in the lawyers San Francisco law firm Thelen Reid Priest LLP will rent a 34-foot RV for attorneys attending Burning Man, as a business retreat and as client development. 'It's like going to play golf or to the yacht club in a different generation," said intellectual property lawyer Gil Silberman, 35, who owns Butterfly, a hip new jazz club in Mission District. Out in the desert, "you get to know people better." In some ways, the evolution of Burning Man which grew from an underground festival to one with glitzy production values, mainstream press and international attendance mirrors the Internet, which advanced from a no-frills medium to a multimedia daz-zler with a huge audience. And just as the Bay Area exploded from the Net boom, so too has Burning Man, causing the same culture clash over gentrifica-tion in the desert as in The City.

Attendance at Burning Man multiplied fivefold from 4,500 in 1995 to 24,500 in 1999, and is expected to top 28,000 this year. Ticket prices have also gone up, with prices ranging from $95 to $250 (cheaper when purchased earlier), compared with $65 to $130 in 1990. "Here we are in the digital world, but you can't have a community on the Internet," said Marian Goodell, Burning Man's feisty Mistress of Communications, a full-time position. "You end up creating it out here. "The Internet is a rolling train that picks up passengers throughout the year.

We are using the Internet, and the Internet is using us." Over the years, organizers established rules to manage the chaos. Banned are firearms, tiki torches in encampments, wind- 1 r-2t-.