How I electrocuted my pants before I got to Burning Man

I ruined a pair of pants and I'm almost ready to cry.
These weren't any pair of pants. They were my new sparkly red stretch pants -- ready for their first trip to Burning Man.
My Burning Man wardrobe slants utility and function over sexy and flare. Despite boasting only one real pair of sexy pants, my playa name is Major Sexy Pants, more on that later.
These pants, made lovingly by my campmate Tractor, were going to redefine my swag.

How they died: The pants were placed in a bag with also contained a block-sized (5ah) 12-volt battery. The pants connected the circuit and the pants were fried as the wire melted.
Assessment: No reasonable person thinks "Don't put the pants next to that rechargeable battery." But no reasonable person transports large batteries in the same bag as funky red stretch pants.
Are the pants safe? Hell yeah. If I were in said pants and came in contact with a live battery, I would move. Ladies weren't safe around these pants either. In a small sample size, they demanded to be rubbed.
Burner Bio: Attended six consecutive after first 2009 burn. Camp GYST elder. Major Sexy Pants playa name references my general helpfulness as much as the cut of my pants.

This it/was the year I planned to step up my playa wardrobe. "Radical Self-Expression" is one of the 10 of Burning Man. People have generally interpreted that to mean you don't ware your "default" world wardrobe.  The dusty surface of the lake bed his highly acidic so it makes sense not to ruin your regular clothes, but it also encourages you to step further out of your regular life. (Discussing life outside of Burning Man id generally discouraged.)
Tractor is passionate about getting people out of the cargo pants that she intends to dress 1 percent of Burning Man in booty shorts. Assuming a population of 60,000, that's 600 booty shorts. She's done that number and well beyond, helping people like me and many others.
My first years, we're all about survival, but as my camp has grown I've found campmates that care enough about me to upgrade my style package. The loss of these pants is such a setback.

Video Shares Camp GYST Burning Man experience

Burning Man is a videographer's dream. One could literally spend all day and night behind the camera and never feel like they got enough. That person would also be missing out on experiencing the magic of Burning Man.  I try to strike a balance between documenting the beauty and joy around me and participating in that experience.

This video is my attempt to scrape together a taste of the experience, without letting the effort get in the way of my experience.

Much love to Camp GYST and the beautiful, friendly, curious, doers of Black Rock City.




Photography and video by Ed Fletcher. Additional photography by Angela Gentry. Animation by Epicpranks01. Music Soundcloud creative commons "Welcome to the Video Game" by Vextor Kyoto, "Rigomortis" by Kaiyne, "stabb270" by beatfux, "(#270) The Process by yo.Areou, "Dubstep Dishwasher" by The Living Tombstone, Additional vocals by Capt. Sexy Pants.

Please help identify the band with the green wigged singer. I'd love to credit.

Scouring the Web for Dubstep

In a matter of months, I've gone from not knowing what a Dubstep was to scouring the web for a hot track for my up coming film "Dance Step of Death." For the film, I'll need three non-electronica songs that have a nice danceable groove, and one killer Dubstep track. They all need to come from unsigned artists. If you have suggestions hit me up. In the meantime, enjoy my collection of dubstep music and dubstep dance videos.

Video captures whimsical fun of Burning Man 2011

After much delay, I've finished and uploaded my Burning Man video. With so much to see and do everyone's experience is undoubtedly different. This is a small slice of the sights and sounds of Burning Man 2011 Rites of Passage. With enough distance, I can hardly remember my listless dehydration at the tail end of the week. Burning Man is not for everyone, but clearly its for plenty. Enjoy.

And while you're here, I've also embedded my 2010 slide show.

Two music idiots ask: "What the hell is dubstep anyway?"

"Dubtep is robot dinosaurs fighting with lasers," random guy at Burning Man.

Music is a big part of Burning Man. For reasons unknown to me, the vast majority of the offerings are various sorts of electronica. The meager live music offerings are dwarfed by large theme camps offering dj music. It's important to note that the Burning Man organization does not bring, host or promote any of the artists. It's all done by theme camps interesting in hosting a huge free dance party in the dessert.
For the first time, I was camped with a electronic music expert who alerted us electronic idiots on when the world famous artists will be spinning the latest dubstep.

Dubstep expert

As we came to learn, dubstep is all the rage. (If you aren't already, you should be playing the clip above). Following our music expert's instructions I listened to several artists people pay good money to hear including bassnector and Opiuo. That often meant lasting until 3 a.m. But while I knew they were spinning dubstep, I didn't have the foggiest idea what defined dubstep.
As we sat in the queue to leave Black Rock City after a week of excess, (exodus the bane of Burning Man) Princess Fussy Pants asked me, "What is dubstep anyway?"
"A series of beep and twerps," I replied, to a laugh. But what is dubstep really?
Given the fact that we had hours of mind sapping traffic to clear, we decided to ask our fellow automotiveinmates. Below is a list of responses from other waiting to leave the incredibility enjoyable and exhausting festival. Some went for humor, some aficionados gave us a clear thoughtful response.

• "Dubstep is robot dinosaurs fighting with lasers." 
• "You know when your in the jacuzzi and you put your head under water by the jet? That is dubstep."
• "Pitch driven base line -- kind of a wobble. Beeps and twerps are more electro house."
• "It's all about the whoop. Baseline of whoop, more dynamic that house or techno. Wah, wah, wah, wah."
• "drug music."
• "Don't know -- I'm not a fan."
• This one super knowledgeable, not so articulate fan said it has something to do with a "double oscillating base" related to reggae and two step -- hence the name. 
• "It's doing a hit of nitrous by the speakers."
• "70 beats per minute sounds like doom ... do dat -- doom doom do dat."

If that doesn't want to make you run out to shill out $100 to see bassnector spin I don't know what will. Please share your impressions of Dubstep or call me a idiot below.