i have my moments with the crowd. a lot of them are my cohort in the art collective i work in. the Egg was founded on the principles of the burninman. at least some of the higher ones. we have evolved from a party space to a business oriented space where all of us make most if not all of our livings through our art. please see my rant on community:
theegg.tribe.net/thread/0d...1c85a52436

my problem is that for each person who claims to live by these ideals, only a small number of them actually do. an important part of the factor of community is taking careof onesself. which doesn't mean expecting others to provide for you when you never contribute a damn thing. just my two cents. that said, i also tend to have a sense of humor about things (as most reasonable people do).

i remember attending my first burningman fundraiser party located at the egg two summers ago. i never had an interest in going, but i also wwasn't down on those who did. and all of my studio mates at the time were going. they knew i didn't have any interest, and they respected that. they weren't all down on me for my disinterest, but this woman at the party (not a member of my greater community, just some random burner attendee), freaked out on me for not going. she was actually abusive! all the peace and love and hippy dippy crap didn't apply to those who didn't agree apparently (to this woman).

this began as kind of a joke. a sort of silly counter to all of my burner friends who pitied me for haveing to hang around in theghost town that portland would become during the week they were gone. me alone at the egg crying from loneliness watching the tumbleweeds roll past the door of the egg. it still ceases to amaze me how adamant people are! thanks for posting. it keeps our lives interesting.