The following is written by Abe Shultz…

The New England Black Rock Desert Camper Regional, Firefly, usually has a giant bug as the effigy, and this year somehow ended up with a woolly mammoth. In that spirit of change and growth, and in line with the “Growing Pains” theme of this year’s Balsa Man, participants at the NE Balsa Man regional will burn a 2′ effigy of a glowworm. This insect symbolizes our hopes for illumination and the difficulties of ecydysis yielding to mature awareness (and becoming a full-grown bug).

Abe Shultz is the regional contact for the New England Balsa Man Regional. He has been attending Firefly for the last four years, as a member of SSRI and Totenkitten. His art has not injured the unwary, but there is always next year.

The regional will take place on Saturday September 3rd somewhere sandy in the Boston/Cape Cod area with the exact time and location to be determined. If you would like to get involved or find out more you can contact Abe at gro.namaslabnull@ENaslab.

The Balsa Man Org continues to encourage new regional balsa burns around the country and the world! If you would like to host your own regional burn and are interesting in receiving a tiny art grant please review our Balsa Regionals page.

The following was written by Feral…

Balsa Man was a tiny bit better last year. Don’t go.

I hear the beach can be chilly and there’s sand everywhere and the whole place is overrun with seagulls and screaming children and tourists. Besides, in this economy I can’t afford to spend $2 on MUNI let alone take time off from my job at Costco Soulmate Trading Outlet. Wait! What do you say? You can’t afford to take time off from the DPW/Rangers/Cafe/Lamplighters/Temple/DOOM RAVE/Gate Crew either? And you can’t find a babysitter for your sparklepony OR a ride to San Francisco OR a pair of pants? Well, perfect!

While everyone on Baker Beach is buttoning up their parkas and fumbling with their thermal underwear we’ll throw our own Balsa Man in the Black Rock Desert. Let’s say, 5pm on Friday September 2nd at Costco Soulmate Trading Outlet? It’s a deal. You bring the tiny toothpick art and I’ll bring the flamethrower. See you at Funeral and 8:45!

Feral, 2011 BRC Balsa Man Regional Rep

Yours in minutia,

Feral

Manager of Costco Soulmate Trading Outlet and 2011 Black Rock Balsa Man Regional Rep

You can find Feral on twitter as @IHazRabies

RSVP to the Black Rock Balsa Regional on the Facebook event page!

The Balsa Man Org continues to encourage new regional balsa burns around the country and the world! If you would like to host your own regional burn and are interesting in receiving a tiny art grant please review our Balsa Regionals page.

Better late than never I guess… We just got this writeup in about last year’s Balsa Regional in the Black Rock Desert. And here I thought Balsars were procrastinators, but these desert campers are even worse.

As the date for the 2011 Balsa Man slowly approaches, I realize I am overdue to turn in my report from the 2010 Balsa Man Regional Burn. Apologies for my tardiness. I had a marginally rough return to what I am now calling the “Deficient World”, and I allowed minor commitments get in the way of a proper Balsa breakdown. This year’s Balsa Man Regional Burn was held on a dry lakebed in rural Nevada. It was attended by several dozen Tiny Art enthusiasts and builders, as well as a few passersby from a nearby arts & crafts festival.

BalsaMan: Black Rock almost didn’t happen at all.

Some crazed firebrand snuck up on proceedings just as a small crowd was starting to gather, and set the initial Balsa Man sculpture on fire. 2010 was the year our (regional) Balsa Man burned early!

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The Balsa Man organization has been going through some “Growing Pains” itself. After much discussion, consternation, and deliberation we have decided for the first time in the history of the event to require participants to have tickets to gain admittance.

I know many will cry “Balsa Man Has Sold Out!” — this is simply not true. We have made this decision in the best interests of the community. We feel that the optimal way to grow a stronger, better, more inclusive community is to restrict it to people who are willing to put their money where their participation is.

Tickets to Balsa Man 2011 are 10¢ and are available from any official Balsa Man representative — do not buy tickets from unofficial sources! Donors also receive complimentary tickets as part of their donor reward package. Tickets will be also for sale at the gate on a first come first served basis. We encourage you to buy early in case we run out!

Ticket Policy Addendum: No ticket is required for kids 12 and under since as tiny humans they are considered art.

We wanted this ticket to be a beautiful collectors item, but unfortunately due to the last minute nature of this decision our preferred designer was busy. As a result, we are stuck with this tragically mundane ticket design — seriously copperplate bold?!? We apologize and plan to design a better ticket next year. Don’t worry we won’t feel bad if you just throw out your 2011 ticket after the event is over.

Balsa Man Ticket 2011

UPDATE: So it turns out that the “designer” we got to do the tickets—some guy’s nephew’s cousin’s roommate or whatever—decided to surprise us my sending a completely different “hella cool” design to the printers. It’s too late to change anything. The following is the resulting ticket design we are stuck with misspellings and all… I’m at a loss for words… or at least at a loss for words I’m allowed to post here.

The actual ticket design, ugh… growing pains indeed

The theme of Balsa Man 2011 is “Growing Pains”. This year we will focus on growth — it’s fits and starts, it’s pains and pleasures, it’s mistakes and triumphs that are the fuel of growth.

For more info on this year’s theme please visit the home page.

Info on this year’s art grant submission and stickers and patches will be forthcoming.

For those of you who weren’t able to make Balsa Man Japan, you missed out on a great mass of itty-bitty imagination and joy. Obviously the main Balsa Man event kept me on this side of the Pacific pond, though I really would have loved to be there in person to see the Li’l Lamp Fighters marching across the sand.

Balsa Man Japan 2010 - Lamp Fighters, photo by toitoi

I’ve gone through all the photos and video from the event with relish—especially the tiny Hot Chihuahua Stand! But nothing beats a first hand account so I will let Makibee, the Japan Balsa Regional Lead tell the story…

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