Italian Burning Weekend 2010

The Italian Burning Weekend 2010 is coming. Are you ready?


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More pictures from Nowhereland

I just created a new photo set on Flickr.com - enjoy these pictures of Nowhereland in May!









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Ready for Nowhere 2008?

I'm very excited by the idea of going NOWHERE 2008 this year again, after exploring and starting connecting with the Euroburners at NOWHERE 2007 last year.



Actually, I can't wait to go back to NOWHERE this year, as I already paid a visit to Nowhereland a couple of weeks ago, a field survey to check out the new, ultra-secret site, as I'm planning a land art intervention for next month's event. Want to see the new site? Check out my video here below!!!



I also shot another video with the almost step by step info on how to get there, but the NOWHERE secret services caught me and forced me to agree on their paranoia not to share those info with non ticket-owners - which I can partially understand but.... what the hell, is this still Burning Man or is a spin-off of the Glastonbury Festival?

I thought the gift economy (in this case, sharing info and helping with driving directions), not to mention the radical creative self expression should grant me (and anybody else) the freedom of expression, right?

Wrong! I have been asked/forced to take the video down from YouTube (and the other 16 video sharing sites I uploaded it to) and I did, as this is meant not to be "publicly shared" - but this is my bloody blog and I take full responsibility and publishing autonomy here - so you know what?

If Burning Man and its community focus with the radical creative self expression is all going hell, then I still can appeal to the freedom of blogging and the Blogger Manifesto which, at point 4 states that "If you don't like what you see go somewhere else", reinforced by the statements at point 11 "I share what I want to share" and point 9 "You don't have to agree with everything I say", and the final cherry on the pie with the closing point 26 "I don't have to explain myself to you"!!!

Here is the banned video "How to get to NOWHERE 2008's new site" - enjoy!



See you all at NOWHERE 2008 this year!

Just remember that, even if you now know how to get there, there will be no tickets at the gate, so please go check the NOWHERE website for tickets and other information on how to participate to NOWHERE 2008!
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Burning Rome like Nero: Christmas Fireworks at the Coliseum by the Italian Burners

A Christmas Burn in Rome with fireworks by the Italian Burners!


Orseolo and friends organized last Friday an amazing party in Rome, and we had Italian Burners coming from all over Italy to celebrate a Burning Christmas together! Check out some pictures from the RED party, just click on the image to get to the proper Flickr.com photo album.


The party started at 8pm on a tram that normally hosts a restaurant - but we are burners, we prefer drinks and djs!!! So the Roman posse of Burning Man Italy rented the tram to go for a crazy ride across Rome, ended at the Celio Park, just behind the Coliseum, where the party grew, getting more and more people involved.

After a while, fireworks started - of course we had no permit to play fireworks in the center of town and next to the major Roman archaeological highlight, but one clever guy (aka Nutella) approached the Police and told them we were a group of co-workers from ATAC (the Roman tram company) who were celebrating Christmas, so we had an on-the-fly permission to launch the fireworks!!!

Here is a video of the fireworks performance - of course it was better live, but we want to share this moment with the rest of the Burning world....

Burning Christmas and a Flaming New Year from the Italian Burners!!!!
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I missed London Decompression 2007 =(

Damn, I travel too much, and I end up being on the other side of the world when I want to be somewhere else. Or to be in the right place, but at the wrong moment. As for London...

I was in London on November 15, for about a week. I spent 4 days in London, then rent a car to drive all the way South-West to Stonehenge, and then South to Portsmouth. Nice trip - a lot of rain, though... and when I tried to get in touch with my London campmates from Quixote Camp, I couldn't find anybody... =(
A couple of weeks later when I'm stuck somewhere else, all of my friends from Quixote, Nowhere, and some fellas from Burning Man Italy met in London for a fab London Decompression 2007 Party!

Here are some of my Euroburners friends such as Kittykaat, Claudi, Dario, Santi e Michael, cut'n'pasted in this photo composition from the amazing shots of NK Guy, who did a photo session at the London party, with great results. The pictures below and many more from NK Guy are available online at Burningcam.com, of course in their full view.

Photo credits: PK Guy at Burningcam.com

You all look good, fellas - keep burning!

Ok guys, I'll definitely make it for Decompression Paris in May, and of course for Nowhere 2008!

In the meanwhile, my wishes for a Burning Christmas, and a Flaming New Year to all of you!!! See you in 2008!
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Black Rock City, Nevada 89412 - Google Maps!!!

Did you know that Black Rock City actually has a post office?


Burning Man IS a real city, not an Utopian place, and its zip code is 89412!!! If you look for it on Google Maps, you can even spot Black Rock City's location, but you have to zoom in and look very carefully to spot it.

This is how the Playa looks like from above with Google Maps, and a decent zoom - it was not easy to spot the exact location in the area, I had to beat the map almost inch by inch to find Black Rock City!!!



Then you give the zoom a last click, et voila' - ladies and gentlemen, geniouses and weirdos, here is Black Rock City in all its airview splendor!



You actually get two Black Rock Cities in one shot - the South-western one is the previous location of Black Rock City, up to Burning Man 2004. From Burning Man 2005 on the site moved a little bit up, as you can see.

You can zoom in a lot, and explore Black Rock City - this one below is a nice view from above centered at Center Camp, with the Esplanade and all. You can zoom in upo to see the flags!



This definitely is Burning Man 2006, with the rotating Man and the Maze below, you can see it clearly if you zoom your way up to pay the Man a visit - but the deep zoom doesn't have a good quality, I'm afraid. Here is another nice shot from above.



Now you can ask Google Maps driving directions straight to Center Camp! Don't come saying you got lost... in this case you need this map! =)


View Larger Map on Google Maps
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My Burning Man 2007 videos on Blinkx.com

Here we go, it took a long time to upload them all (and I still have plenty to upload), but you can start browsing them from here =)


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A Video Player full of Burning Man 2007 Videos!

Enjoy my videos at www.dailymotion.com/burning-max!
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Quixote Cabaret Camp and Green Man Pub

It was inevitable - after hanging out with the Euroburners at Nowhere 2007 I ended up camping this year with the Euroburners. Well, after all, I'm European too, and a burner! I guess this makes me an Euroburner too...

It really has been a chance, my friend Paul decided not to set up the Hammock Hangout this year, Flaming Lotus Girls were too tired from an entire year traveling the world with the Serpent Mother and the Hand of God, and decided to just hang out this year, with no big artwork commitment. At the same time, I was hooked with the Euroburners newsletters, reading about these Eurofellas actually setting up a nice thing: the Green Man Pub!

I couldn't resist so I got in touch to join the Quixote Cabaret Camp, and I really had a great time. I have also met great people that now belong to my Burning Man family, with which I hope I'll be doing more stuff, starting with Nowhere 2008, for example!

Yes I had some scratches with a couple of campmates - it never happened to me before on the Playa, but I know this is pretty normal, and it happens all the time at all BM camps. Hey, screw that! I really enjoyed my campmates, and I had a great time!

Here are some pictures of my campmates, and some Euroburners friends and Green Man Pub guests - click on any image to be magically teleported on Flickr.com, where I created a Quixote Cabaret Camp and Green Man Pub dedicated photo collection!














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My Burning Man 2007 pictures on Flickr.com

Check out the 8-set, thousand pictures collection of Burning Man 2007 pictures I created online to share my Playa shots.


I also prepared this Euroburners photo collection for my campmates at the Quixote Cabaret Camp & Green Man Pub.


Enjoy Burningmax's Burning Man pictures!
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NOWHERE 2007 pictures and videos!!!

Well, actually video, not videos - just one video, as I accidentally deleted other videos and pictures by using an old, corrupted smart card for my camera. Shit happens....

Anyway, I'm pretty happy that this silly video survived - this was one of the nicest moments, with an impromptu small Jamon party threw by a group of cool Euroburners from Madrid, that immediately grew with many people, silly dances, photo sessions, and of course a lot of fun! After this I loaded a group of half a dozen people on my truck, and we all headed to the river!!!

I have saved from the bad smart card also some pictures, I though I was going to lose more.

The 200+ surviving NOWHERE 2007 pictures are now all in a safe place, a Flickr.com album of course!

Click this link or the picture above to browse them all!
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NOWHERE 2007 Google Maps!

After several summers spent in California, this year I finally managed to spend a beautiful European summer, hanging out in Italy, France and Spain - and of course, since I was around, I couldn't miss NOWHERE, the European Burning Man event managed by the crazy posse of the Euroburners, with which I finally hooked up after many BM connections in California and United States.

NOWHERE rocks. There are a lot of rocks, too... NO WHERE, NOW HERE, NOWHERE. The place really is in the middle of nowhere, check out the Google Map here below...



OK, that was a joke, but to an extend... as a matter of fact, this other map here below is exactly the same map, only that I switched from "satellite view" to "map view" using the tab on the map - try on your own, you'll see...



Still looks like in the middle of nowhere? Of course, what were you expecting? The difference with the US nowhereness of Black Rock City is that while the European burn camp really is isolated, you can drive just 12 km (less then 10 miles) to get to small villages with pretty much everything you need. Yes, at Nowhere decommodification still is up, and still there are dust storms, but how about diving in the river nearby during the peek heat hours?

I really loved NOWHERE, and also the people that I've met, coming from all over Europe, some of them also from the US, including Burning Man Vip celebrity $teven Ra$pa! Of course I will return to Nowhere in 2008...

If you look at the map below, you will realize how central Nowhere is in Europe - North of Zaragoza, easy access and driving distance from Spain, France, Switzerland - and cheap flights from Italy, Germany, Netherlands, UK and all over, I flew Ryanair to Zaragoza from Rome with just 48 Euro total (60 bucks)!


Click for a larger map on Google Maps

Now that you know where Nowhere and Nowhereland are there are no more excuses - get your Nowhere 2008 tickets at www.goingnowhere.org and stay tuned with the Euroburners site!
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Flaming Lotus Girls, the Serpent Mother, and a new Burning Man family!

I LOVE Flaming Lotus Girls, one of the most creative posse on the Playa... and beyond!

I always enjoyed Flaming Lotus' work, since I hit the Hand of God on the Playa back in 2003. And then there was the Angel of Apocalypse last year - awesome. I still remember the Friday night party with the Space Cowboys soundsystem (the mighty Unimog), but this year they really moved forward, and created the incredible Serpent Mother.


An art piece bigger than a parking lot, the Serpent Mother is an articulated fire-animated pyro-mechanic art installation that will go on a world tour after Burning Man, from the US to Australia, then Europe and more. The art piece really deserves some fame, and FLG deserve some spotlights on their amazing artwork, too. Bravo, FLG!

I do have some cool pictures of the installation, like the one above and more pictures on Flickr.com, with many shots not only of the Serpent Mother, but also of the people partying at the art installation site. Click on the image below to see more pictures of these cool burners!


People is always good, but I believe no picture can describe how majestic the metal-fire art piece is, an installation to be experienced first-hand (of God...). So maybe a video can help a little more.

Flaming Lotus Girls were actually performing a number of shows each night at the Serpent Mother, starting with fireworks and other cool pyrotechnics, then opening up to the crowd to get inside the hot embrace of the big FLG snake.

This video has been shot immediately after the end of the fireworks show, so you can (kind of) experience walking inside the Serpent Mother. Enjoy.



This other video has been shot on the Friday before the burn, with the sound of Space Cowboys as a grand soundtrack for such epic scenery. People chill within the Serpent, and dances nearby, by Space Cowboys' Unimog.



Do you want more Space Cowboys? Here we go, this is one of the movies I posted on YouTube from that night - the description I added to this video goes like this: Space Cowboys rock the house. Flaming Lotus Girls rock the scene. The Serpent Mother is the perfect ultimate rave location for the Space Cowboys' Friday night classic: the Unimog big party of the Playa!!!

It's all true, folks! Here we go with the nasty and trancey Unimog beats!



Flaming Lotus Girrrls play hard, but work hard too. I approached FLG after the big crowd left Black Rock City on Monday after the burn, just to say hi! before driving back home.

Last year I spent an additional week or so to tear down the Hammock Hangout, so I felt happy when FLG accepted my help to pack up the Serpent Mother. Funny, I said "I can help you for a couple of hours", then I ended up spending the next three days with FLG !!!


Packing the art installation took less than two days, after which we went for another Burning Man veteran classic: Trego desert hot springs! After that I spent another day with FLG dusting off in a Reno casino, drinking poolside margaritas! The FLG posse works hard, then plays hard again... love them!

I like these pictures at Trego, the Black Rock City desert hot springs - bathing at night, waiting for the sunrise, and cooking eggs in the hottest spot of the spring (the water was actually boiling in the spot!) - follow this link to see more Trego and FLG chill pictures.




Here is the last Flaming Lotus Girl video for this post, shot while packing the Serpent Mother in the middle of a dust storm. Check out how close objects disappear into the dust white-out, and how big the container truck is!!!



For more info on Flaming Lotus Girls and the group's artwork, visit their site at www.flaminglotus.com, the Flaming Lotus Girls blog, or the website created to support the Serpent Mother world tour that started right at Burning Man 2006, of course!

Final note: after sharing so much with the FLG gang this year (we also met in San Francisco to discuss potential art projects in Europe) I can now say that I'm a Flaming Lotus Girl too!
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All my pictures from Burning Man 2006!

Here are all my pictures from Burning Man 2006, as usual arranged within several Flickr.com photo albums. This year it has been a weird year, after the intensive commitment of last year with the Hammock Hangout.


I believe this has been the first year where I could have just hang out with no much camp responsibilities. I parked my RV at the crazy camp of the Pirates of the Playa, a bunch of cool local people from Nevada who cruise the Playa with a pirate boat where they often perform bondage sessions!

Also, this has been the year where I catch up with Flaming Lotus Girls, the mythic metal-fire collective who amazed everybody this year with the Serpent Mother. I stayed with FLG for four days after burning Man, helping them tearing down and pack up the huge Serpent Mother, but also de-dusting and chilling at the Trego desert hot springs, and poolside in Reno sipping margaritas! Flaming Lotus Grrrrrls rock!
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Gift Economy in Italian + BM 2006 best pics

My good friends from the Roman advertising agency xister asked me to write an article / editorial on - guess what? Burning man, of course. At the beginning I was not so sure - I still believe Burning Man has to be experienced, not told.

But then I put all my experience together, and I tried to surrogate it in a Wikipedia-style article, rich of links and references - pretty much like this blog. Only that the article is in Italian, and geared towards a specific topic, just to launch a little provocation at xister's newsletter audience, basically composed by marketers. So I talked about one of the Burning man principles that inspire me most, the Gift Economy.

Here is the link to the very long article, and here below a selection among my best Burning Man 2006 pictures that has been published with my Gift Economy article. Enjoy the reading (if you can read Italian!).




















More Burning Man 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 pictures from Burningmax are available at Burningmax's Burning Man photo collection on Flickr.com !

If you are interested in learning more about Burning Man's Gift Economy, follow the link in the Burning Man essentials, or just watch a movie!

A very good documentary called Gifting it has been circulating at several independent film festivals worldwide in the last years, including the London Burning Man Film Festival.

You can buy the Gifting it DVD for just a few dollars (even less in Euro), so you don't have to chase it around film festivals! To know more about the movie, and hot to get your copy of the Gifting it DVD, click on this link, or on the image on the side.

Enjoy gifting!
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