It’s that time of year again — as SF “empties out” when everyone goes to Burning Man

Marc Canter
Aug 24, 2017 · 2 min read

That’s a good thing.

Not just because there are open tables are awesome restaurants we can never get into (we’re going to “the Progress” tomorrow night) — but also because that means they’ll be less people to get into trouble when the Nazis show up.

Nazis in SF and Berkeley is not a good thing.

Meanwhile my friend Dave Winer suggested that I post an image here that I posted on #tbt Facebook — of an annual “Burning Woman” event we’d put on — at my home on Potrero Hill — every year during Burning Man.

You see — a lot of attention and discourse has surrounded BM since its inception. The Billionaires discovered it, apparently Larry and Sergey have “adopted it” (of sorts) and there even was a 747 dragged there last year — just to show how COOLIO techies can be and how wonderful it is to waste money on “art.”

For me — Burning Man’s initial spirit and impetus has long been lost.

What remains is……………. well that doesn’t really matter.

All that matters is that back in the 90’s we rejoiced when SF emptied out for BM! We’d put on special parties, in this case using old dried out male marijuana plants (which we’d pulled out of the ground) and wrapped in dried eucalyptus wreaths — and we’d constuct a Burning Woman.

We’d then burn her, just like they do up on the Playa — and celebrate the fact that we DIDN’T need to go to the dessert of Nevada, we DIDN’T need to mire in the mud and dust and suffer all those artistic pinings of neo-caveman and cave woman like gruntings.

All we had to do was burn an effigy, with the hose running (to make sure no embers went astray) and party down — like it USED to be 1999.

That’s what life was like on Potrero Hill — in the 90's.

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Marc Canter
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