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LONG_AND_SHORT

                                             February 17, 2007


"Burning Man": an event largely dedicated
to emphemeral art, contstructed for a week
or a weekend, and then destroyed,
traditionally by fire.


"The Long Now Foundation" is an
organization dedicated to encouraging
long range thinking.  Their signature
project is an attempt to build a clock
that will run for 30,000 years.


Comparing these two would seem to be a
fairly obvious thought -- one embraces         There is some overlap
the emphemeral, the other reaches for          between the two groups:
the eternal --                                 Notably Jim Mason, one of
                                               Burning Man's incendiary
  I don't know of anyone                       artists was also working for
  who's ever done so.                          the Long Now on the Rosetta
                                               project -- a catalog of all
                                               known languages.
     One thing both groups
     have in common is that                       Oh, and obviously:
     each sounds completely                       both of them came
     ridiculous to outsiders.                     out of San Francisco.

       You can't build something           EXTREMES
       that will last 30,000 years!                      OTHER_HAND
       And if you could, what would        ADDICTION
       be the point of this silly
       symbolic stunt?

       Why take the trouble to build
       these enormous, intricate
       pieces of art if all you're       Burning Man has the edge in
       going to do is destroy it?        this respect: parties at
                                         least, are something people get.

                                            And maybe mindless destruction
                                            has more appeal that anal
                                            retentive preservation.

                                                LIGHT_AND_DARKNESS

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