The Matazone blog

The Burning Man festival has long been an interest of mine after I attended in 1999 and 2002. I will get back there again! In the meantime, the art that is produced there continues to amaze me.

Here’s a lovely selection of photographs from the 2009 Burning Man festival, taken by Wendell DeLano.

And here are a few favourites from the set:
1
2
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4

Enjoy!

Gods bless those bonkers LA people: have you ever wondered how would a stormtrooper would look in a corset? Or if C3P0 would look good with boobs? Then wonder no more – Star Wars Burlesque is here to help!

Between a couple of months and two years, apparently. That’s a lot of water, very fast.

So, interesting stuff to think about, but the best bit has got to be in the comments when the Christian who posts saying that geologists could save a lot of time by starting from the Bible and working out from there. Religious extremists: as long as you lock the weapons away, then they’re a constant source of amusement.

What’s bigger than the sun exploding? Well, an object with the mass of eleven suns exploding. Astronomers have witnessed an antimatter supernova. There are many complex things going on inside the whole mess, but the result is this – compared to the scale of this release of energy, our lives are absolutely nothing at all. Now, you could use that as a reason to feel down about our insignificance, or you could turn it to think how lucky we are to even exist in the first place, how incredibly unique we are, and how amazing the universe is that we live in. Seriously. It’s a wonderful and awesome world out there.

There’s a festival called Burning Man that I’ve been to a couple of times in America, but beyond being a cool get-together, there’s also an agenda of ‘leave no trace’. The idea is to make sure that you leave places in as good, or better, state as the one you find them in. I like to apply this to as many activities in life as is practical, and one of the ways of doing this is to support renewable energy sources.

A little while ago I sent a donation over to a small town in Lovelock, Nevada. Due to budget cutbacks, they were having to lay off some of their teachers. The organisers of Burning Man stepped in and asked the world if we could send a donation to build a solar array. By removing their electricity costs, they could afford to save jobs, keep teachers, and be environmentally friendly too.

The project has come to fruitition, and there’s even a lovely plaque with ‘Matazone’ on it, listed among the supporters.

I went through some hard financial times over the years, and it was thanks to the support of the visitors to this site that I got through them and I’m now in a position to help others. Keep passing on the favours and we’ll make this world a better place for everyone.

Ever looked at something small and horrible and thought ‘I wonder what would happen if a huge version of that existed?’ Well, wonder no more. (Contains swearing, but it is rather funny.)

In the game Metal Gear Solid the main character hides in a cardboard box to evade detection by soliders and guards. ‘That would never work in real life!’ I hear you chortle over your cornflakes, but apparently it does:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/6163821/Prisoner-escapes-jail-in-cardboard-box.html

http://bobbasset.com/ is the home of a group of Ukranian leatherworkers who make some very odd things indeed. There’s a running theme of steampunk and masks, veering occasionally into moderately kinky items (so caution is advised if you’re browsing at work) but the craftsmanship and odd designs are well worth a look. The Cthulhu masks that they make are particularly incredible pieces of work.

Like most people, I never met Michael Jackson, but there’s something curiously touching about seeing a thousand people’s arms go up in the air when the chorus of ‘Billie Jean’ kicks in at the flash mob-esque ‘mass moonwalk’ tribute to Michael Jackson at Liverpool Street Station in London last Friday 26th June 2009.

With the number of people there, I doubt many could actually manage to moonwalk, but I think that Jackson would have been very happy to be remembered this way, with people dancing to one of his greatest tunes and having a bloody good time.

I remember walking across the desert, the sun beating down on the parched and arid mud flats. It was Nevada, and just around the corner (geographically speaking) from Death Valley. In the distant heat haze I saw two shimmering figures strinding across the desert in enormous boots, dressed head to toe in black, and huddling a black umbrella. It was great.

I love the tenacity of Goths to wear utterly impractical clothing in the most severe conditions, and now there’s a blog to celebrate their excess. Go visit Goths in hot weather, for all your sweaty Goth needs.

What do you do when the oil runs out and society tears itself apart? Plant nut trees and encourage people to learn to make their own tools, of course.

It’s nice to see Americans doing this kind of planning. The world is likely going to change radically in the next 50 years (probably less) and so the transition to a new style of living is something we all need to examine.

Planning for the end of the world.

Apparently there are eight police officers in Scotland who in a survey identified themselves as being of the Jedi faith (plus two more in office support). The question is not ‘why are there Jedi in the police force?’, but ‘why aren’t there any Jedi in the English police force?’

Full story over on the BBC website.

Let’s play spot-the-FBI-sniper-squad!

President Obama’s inauguration in enormously high detail

This looks like it uses the same technology as Google Maps, except with a photo instead of a map. Pretty cool. You can use the on-screen controls to zoom or the mouse-wheel.

Personally, I think one of the dark shapes on the White House pillars is a sniper cover. Oh, and check out the journalist’s seating – I think about 1 in 40 faces isn’t caucasian. President Obama being elected is a huge step, but we should never forget that there’s still a long way to go before all skin colours are represented proportionally across all areas of society.

For a change, this gallery of photos from the Burning Man in 2008 doesn’t appear to have nudity so should be safe to browse at work. The photographer is particularly good, so I highly recommend spending a bit of time browsing through the weirdness that Waldemar has lovingly documented.

Click here to see Waldemar’s photos of Burning Man in 2008.

My favourites?

The Pooh ball
Spread Eagle
Basura Sagrada
The End.

Great stuff!

It’s not often that a person can point to one thing that gave them confidence to follow a dream, and even less common when it’s a professor who wrote to the British children’s TV program Blue Peter.

I did what all sensible children do when in need of practical help with an idea. I wrote to Blue Peter

If there’s a moral here, it’s that you never know what will be the future impact of a word of kindness or dismissal, especially with kids. Aww. I feel all fluffy inside.

Read about Professor Anthony Hollander’s letter to Blue Peter here.

President Obama’s term in office will doubtless be difficult. The world is in a bad state in many ways, but there seems to be a near unanimous sense of hope that he might make better choices than lesser leaders. Skin colour shouldn’t be an issue, but it still is, and it makes me proud to live in the times when the first black president was elected.

There are some excellent photos of the inauguration of President Barack Obama here.

That last photo though… A folder left by president number 43 for president number 44… Just how much would you love to know what’s in there?

Nick Adams took some brilliant images of Burning Man in 2008. Click here to see them. Even if you don’t go past the first photo from the Burning Man 2008 file, go visit to see that one.

Don’t know what the Burning Man is? It’s an amazing performance-involvement art festival that I’ve written about it before, check out some of my earlier posts for more information.

Do you remember those intensely annoying ‘wassup’ adverts from a few years ago? The cast have got together to try and get you to vote (for Obama, in their preference). You know, that’s actually redeemed them in my eyes. Wassup 2008 video here.

(Link found via the ever-curious William Gibson Blog.)

Fancy being nosy? Here’s a selection of photos from cameras that were lost at 2008’s Burning Man festival.

General trends:
Everyone seems to be good looking
Face paint never goes out of fashion in the desert
Furry leg warmers might be impractical in 40 degrees C temperatures, but that doesn’t stop people wearing them.

Go, browse, enjoy the guilty pleasure of looking at things that were never intended for public viewing. They’re posted with big codes on them in the hope that the owners will see them and get them back, but it’s weirdly fascinating for the rest of us!

Don’t know what the Burning Man is? I’ve posted about it before. Have a browse of those posts here.

It does exactly what it says on the tin link. Random computer game name generator creates weirdly believable game names and is almost gauranteed to amuse you for twenty or thirty seconds, or longer if you actually try to imagine how ‘Medieval Jazz Jihad’ might work.