Pookes’ ‘Burning Man’ post reminded me that nudist activist Gypsy Taub conducted (nude) interviews at a Burning Man festival in the past, 2010 to be precise.

You can see the video here, alongside many other videos on Gypsy’s ‘My Naked Truth‘ website. I’m a great admirer of Gypsy’s activism and her work.

Gypsy Taub (right) conducts an interview for her ‘My Naked Truth’ channel. 

She was most recently in the news for resisting changes to San Francisco’s social nudism laws.

Following on from Pookes’ post on ‘Burning Man’, we’ve had some major ‘behind the scenes’ discussion at SLN.

Publisher Howie has determined that we should take a plot and run a ‘Critical Tits’ cycling event at the SL ‘Burning Man’, both in the spirit of the event itself and as a promotional tool for SLN.

We’re in a slight bind, though.

None of us know the slightest thing about building. That’s we’re we’re bloggers 🙂 rather than sim owners.

Essentially, we think we need rezzable bikes for this event (which we know we can buy), but we’d also need some posters and banners to set up around our plot. If you have these skills and fancy taking on a little bit of a challenge, get in touch, preferably with Pookes, who will be looking after the Burning Man reporting for us. (You’ll find her in a people search under the name Eva Pookes). Alternatively, if anyone wishes to run a ‘Crticial Tits’ event at SL’s Burning Man event, we’ve decided that we would be willing to hire the land to make that happen, as well as buy whatever rezzable bikes are necessary. After that, all you’d need to add are some banners/posters of your own making, and maybe commit yourself to being in attendance for part of that week in October.  If you’re out there, and have some building skills, or further ideas, please get in touch.

Ella

I think most people now have an idea what the RL Burning Man Festival is. If not, you can visit their website here or read the wikipedia entry on a week of craziness here.

Word reaches us of a virtual Burning Man festival coming to Second Life in October. The RL event is from August 26th-September 2nd, but the SL event will be from October 19-27.

The sim is already up and running. It’s looking a bit spartan at the moment, with just a few builders constructing their contributions, and all manner of building materials in evidence. Still, if you want to go over and check on its development between now and the start date, or bookmark the location for when it does commence, you’ll find the url here.

Why am I so interested? Well, I think there’s a firm emphasis on ‘alternate lifestyle’ at festivals like Burning Man, and naturism is an alternate lifestyle of itself, so we’re kind of like natural partners in a sense.

And anyone who has ever checked out Burning Man events (either for real or in a ‘googling’ sense) will know, quite a lot of random nudity, body freedom, takes place. 🙂 You’ll find a blog on the theme here and a flickr site (emphasis more on the craziness than the nudity) here.

We did actually consider taking a plot here in order to promote naturism, but as none of us are builders, and we can visit it ‘dressed down’ anyway, I don’t think we’ll proceed with this idea. Our collective building skills aren’t even enough to create a banner that says ‘go and read SLN magazine’! Maybe we could buy a fire or something so that a bit of skyclad fire dancing could go on…I dunno. Probably not for us this year, anyway, unless there’s some kind builder can make us some banners.

I’m not sure Ella knows yet 🙂 but I’ve appointed myself official SLN reporter from the craziness that I hope takes place that week, and I’ll certainly be trying to get up several posts from the event.

This year’s art theme at the RL & SL event is ‘Cargo Cult‘, specifically the John Frum variant.

Another element of Burning Man is the Critical Tits event, and this link explains part of the thinking behind it.

OK…if it’s some boobs and nipples you want…let me be the first to go topless at the festival site! 🙂

Pookes poses topless in front of the poster highlighting this year’s art theme at both the RL & SL events

Full nudity will almost inevitably follow, but to get a sense of the naked madness, I’ve included some RL photos of nudity at previous events. Further updates on the RL and SL versions to follow as I get them.

Pookes

My ‘nude beach outfit’ post, a few days ago, pointed you in the direction of a nice tank top and denim shorts set, a very familiar outfit on ladies heading to and from a naturist beach.

One of our readers, Hunni, took my advice and hopped over there. And having done so, she then did a little bit of exploration around the sim (there are teleporters right beside where you tp in), reporting back that there were some very photogenic spots to be explored. Well, I got Hunni to head on back there and take a selection of photos herself, neither of our intrepid photographers being online at that moment.

I’ve also checked out the place and I’m thrilled to report that it contains some rain. After sim after sim of relentless sunshine, sometimes a little change to the weather feels good.

I’m glad to see that it shows itself in one of Hunni’s photographs (the last one of the set).

Ella

For those of you who don’t know, BN stands for ‘British Naturism‘, the official voice of naturism in the United Kingdom.

Te cover photo was taken at Nudefest, which took place in Cornwall in England in July, during a (rare) British heatwave. We reported on it back then, and I have to say I was greatly taken by the idea of naked firewalking. While I couldn’t make it there myself, I have some friends who did make it to Nudefest and who did, indeed, participate in the firewalking, declaring it to be an exhilirating experience.

And so…in a sort of homage to the Autumn (Fall, for you north American tea-tax evading revolutionaries from King George III 🙂 ) issue of BN magazine, I’ve got Harry (yes, he still works here!) to mock up a version of the real thing. Please note that there’s not an actual magazine to accompany this mock-up. SLN 10 will appear later in the year, with work already underway on it.

Ella