Welcome back all you MOOP maniacs and line sweepers extraordinaire! The Hun here, reporting from Reno where I, along with my 115 Playa Restoration teammates, am sadly scrubbing the last of the playa dust from our various crannies.
Yes, the Restoration team has completed their mission, sweeping more of Black Rock City than has ever been done, and giving every last ounce of their legendary stamina to make sure our site is clean, so we can have Burning Man again.
Of course, we won’t know the fate of next year’s event until the BLM inspection in a couple of weeks. Between now and then, I’ll be sending you the final results of MOOP Map Live 2012 — our running record of what those intrepid MOOPers have unearthed from the dust of this year’s festival.
I won’t make you wait any longer, folks. Here are the results of Day 5, in which the MOOP Line marched all the way from 7:00 to 2:00 along the blocks between Foxglove and Columbine.
MOOP Map Legend:
GREEN: GO! GO! GO! The Line Sweep moves quickly because it’s clean. Minimal time and effort spent in this location.
YELLOW: Caution! The Line Sweep moves at a stop-and-go pace. Moderate time and effort spent in this location.
RED: Full stop. The Line Sweepers are on their hands and knees. A ton of MOOP. Extensive time and effort in this location.
Well, I can’t say this was a proud day for BRC — but let’s all give a big round of THANK YOUs to the Restoration team, who mooped up a thick yellow streak stretching across practically half of the city between E and F. We love ya, home team!
Today, let’s hear from those of you whose camps scored a GREEN! What was your MOOP prevention strategy? Did you moop daily or in one fell swoop? What made it more fun and less work?
For those of you who lived in the yellow zone: It happens. We still love ya, and obviously you’re not alone. Next year, go get that GREEN.
For now, this is The Hun signing off.
Photos by Vertumnus. MOOP Meter by Ballyhoo Betty!
Arg, a little red patch in our camp! Any idea what they found at the red rectangle inside of Pandora’s at 6:00 and D (“southeast” corner, if North were Up on the map). We had one of the delivered storage containers which was set right in that location – I’m hoping the moop there wasn’t rust or paint debris from the container itself (which left the playa after we did).
Bummed about our first red mark ever. :(
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Ah, such a bummer … mooping under the boxes is the hardest part!! Well as far as I’m concerned, your reputation is still golden green.
It was really crowded in there, so I’m having trouble reading the notes and figuring which was your spot. Sounds like the whole area just had “general MOOP” hotspots anyway. So, it’s gotta be whatever blew beneath that container.
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We also had our first ever patch of yellow.(Frogma, D & 4:20 mountain side) It also happened to be exactly where our BRC container was placed. Is it possible to find out what moop there was? I’m concerned that the deteriorating floor of the container may have contributed but it would be good to know so we can try to make the necessary adjustments. If we purchased a large tarp to go under our container could DPW put the tarp down prior to the container being placed?
Thanks restoration crew for all of your hard work!
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Uhhh, my camp is white, what does that mean?
:)
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It’s nice when 115 friends attend to one’s crannies. That’s service!
I will keep checking back, as my lil’ camp in Centre Camp is part of that bit where the results are yet to be posted.
Thanks again for kicking ass. What’s your favorite beverage for my playa shopping list next year?
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I thought this might happen this year. I was lucky enough to be on the 9′ o’clock side (Revofuckinlution), where the playa was still pretty hard packed. But all my ventures to the other side were in deeper than usual playa dust. I thought for sure it was going to be nearly impossible to moop up everything hidden under that powder. So I feel for ya “other side” camps. We pick up everything we see, including hair. I don’t believe that could have been possible on the 3 o’clock side in this year’s conditions. Better luck next year! Keep on Moopin’!
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I hate to be a bother, but we were hoping you may have some information for us. We are DUSTFISH, located on the Esplanade between 7:50 and 8:00. We are devastated that we have that red strip across the front of our camp. We are all green otherwise, then a red corner on the back side of the camp on “A”. We all take this very seriously. We know we must have missed something major, but are drawing a blank as to what we missed. We know you all are very busy, but if it is possible to find out what that strips of red were, we can learn from it so it never happens again. We all strive to never let it hit the ground, but as a live music stage, with a bar and a chill dome, it happens. Our commitment to our own MOOP policy [[[[[[[[””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””’;e, of course. Any information would be really valuable. We feel really bad. MOOP is very wrong, and to leave it behind is worse.
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Can you publish a high resolution copy of the moop map so that a poster size printout can be done?
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Sexiest butts on the playa! Knock ’em dead you guys, all of you! xoxoxo!
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Wow, after 11 years of green we are absolutely mortified at our report card this year.
We are diligent about MOOP and LNT. Our LNT plan included a rake of the entire plot so you can imagine our surprise at all the red.
Is it possible to get more information as to what was found in the four red spots scattered throughout the Lost Penguin (5:45 and D)?
Believe me, DPW is getting some nice scotch next year, this is really embarrassing.
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Hun – thanks for the report, it sounds like Trey may have had a similar issue with stuff either blowing under the container, or falling off the container (our container appears to be in good shape, but we have no way of inspecting the underside for paint or rust damage).
We’ll try to work with the container delivery team to find a solution – I’d hate to leave a gross patch every year just because we can’t lift up our container to check for MOOP.
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Dear restoration team!
Please, don’t give us (Hippocampus @ 4:15 & E) a red mark just because you found a piece of metal on our site. This isn’t moop – its our container. As every year, we did a tremendous effort to leave our spot as clean as possible, but we couldn’t take the container. Other than that, we were completely satisfied upon departure.
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Thanks for the hard work of cleanup. It’s been a month already?
Noting the large yellow band along the entire stretch between E&F from 2:00 all the way to 5:30 seems odd as our camp and we know others were diligently raked and had a total cleanup. It would seem that, after a month after departure with wind conditions, it would be hard to attribute windblown moop to any particular location.
I feel good that we did leave no trace in our camp (SparkleSpaz) after raking the entire plot. Maybe it was leftovers from Hippocampus next door? Just kidding, we enjoyed having them as neighbors and they served great morning café treats!
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I am extremely saddened to see the map this year. After 7 years of our camp being green, we are marked yellow. I don’t understand it, we went over our entire camp with a fine-tooth fork (yes fork, we even picked up pieces of ash that blew into our camp from the large burns on the playa), it was pristine when we left. For that matter, why is our whole block from 2:00 – 5:00 between Foxglove and Geranium yellow, it seems a bit odd. I would really like to know what they found and why this is. Is there any way to find out?
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By the way, we are We Come in Pieces and were next door to Hippocampus and behind SparkleSpaz (F and 4:15) who also just posted. If we were all diligent and feel we shouldn’t be yellow, then I think something is very odd.
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I hate to be a bother, but we were hoping you may have some information for us. We are DUSTFISH, located on the Esplanade between 7:50 and 8:00. We are devastated that we have that red strip across the front of our camp. We are all green otherwise, then a red corner on the back side of the camp on “A”. We all take this very seriously. We know we must have missed something major, but are drawing a blank as to what we missed. We know you all are very busy, but if it is possible to find out what that strips of red were, we can learn from it so it never happens again. We all strive to never let it hit the ground, but as a live music stage, with a bar and a chill dome, it happens. Our commitment to our own MOOP policy is strong withing our entire camp, and usually evident year after year on the MOOP map. This year, we failed somehow. We know you are very busy, so we understand if you can’t reply with a ton of specific imformation, of course. Any information would be really valuable. We feel really bad. MOOP is very wrong, and to leave it behind is worse.
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Does anyone keep track of what gets found where? Seems like it would be a real PIA to track that stuff. But if it was available, it would be a great help to us all to know what we left behind. I was at Silicon Village at 6 and D. I see we have one red blotch. I’d love to know what it was so we can avoid fucking up in the future.
JR
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Proud to see our beloved Swing City at 9:00 and D was FULL GREEN. AGAIN.
Disgusted at what went on a few blocks away. Ick. How do people not understand Clean Up After Yourself?
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Sad to see the whole strip on E yellow: (?) We spent hours, yes, hours making sure our camp was pristine on Monday. We walked lines, raked, and even picked up teeny tiny pieces of ash (and burned plastic) from neighboring camps burning their refuse, which bowed into our camp. Hard to believe our hard work & diligence evidently was not enough. Michi, you guys were great neighbors, hope to see you next year. Sparkle Spaz
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“Sad to see the whole strip on E yellow: (?) We spent hours, yes, hours making sure our camp was pristine on Monday.”
Yea, something is very wrong with this map. Look at Gigsville/ BDC&WB- the back half is almost perfect on one day of sweeps, and the next day the front half(s) are all yellow.
We we’re only 50×100 and I’m certain we left our space cleaner than when we arrived, yet we are in the vast yellow sea.
Props to those doing the sweeps, but you definitely made an error on the map.
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How can we see a higher resolution copy of the map? My camp might be green, might be red – I can’t tell from the posted version?
Thank you for what you do!
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I see I am not alone in wondering about the big yellow strip… we mooped the hell out of our spot and our neighbors spot for hours upon hours. We left that thing green, green, green. This definitely needs to be commented on.
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After 7 consecutive years, this is the first time my camp has not gotten green and we’ve changed nothing about our LNT plan. We do meticulous walk-throughs with rakes and a second set of eyes on what’s being looked at/overturned. We even moop the neighboring properties about our perimeter as an extra measure. We spend hours upon hours on this process with multiple sets of eyes checking and double checking. We’ve never gotten anything but green, until now… I am absolutely puzzled by the huge yellow strip along E & F. How is that even possible? Will there be clarification on what exactly caused that unwavering yellow strip?
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no. I call bullshit. we were More Cowbell saloon and Apocalypse Lounge respectively. 4:45 and F. we Policed that area within an inch of its life.. we even stayed an extra day to help clean our neighbors camp. that shit was raked, and inspected. no offense meant to the crew, but our shit was clean. period.
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our camp was very diligent about un-MOOPing our area before departure, but half our camp is green, while the other half is yellow.
it’s likely that this map isn’t perfectly accurate…
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There was a huge amount of “Manbits” that flew in after the Man burn in the E/F region I am guessing this accounts for the huge swipe of yellow on the map. We had grave difficulty when trying to pick them up as they would fall apart in our fingers. Any thoughts friends on how to tackle this type of char-coaled style “Manbits” debris be it that it ever happens again.
Something’s got give with these storage containers!! We don’t have one in our group however we feel for those that had such issues with moop. They should be shrink wrapped or something else that is completely unfeasible.
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Speaking of Man bits, does the pyro team select fireworks that are low debris? I never position myself down wind from the Burn, but have been to other fireworks displays where the shredded cardboard fireworks casings and cinders were simply raining down.
DPW came with a fork lift at breakdown time and lifted one of the two containers at the Greeter’s station. Turns out a rat had built a nest under there. Poor rat ran for its life. It was a good mooper, its nest amounted to about three hands full of some of the finest (texture) moop.
Say Hun et all, is there going to be a final complete moop map posted?
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i can only imagine how bad that ass must smell. DPW never shower. don’t want.
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The map posted at SF decom was different than the day 5 and day 6 map posted here. What gives? Hun, please give us some details about the yellow stripe on the 3 oclock side of the city which was green between E-F on the 4 oclock block at SF decom yet still yellow here on the Blog.
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I see a red spot near or on our camp site. Everyone in camp is really concerned about this. Some of the group thinks the map is wrong because we felt we had cleaned well. I see a number of posts from other camps saying they suspect there are problems with the map also. The entire patch of 7:00 showing up yellow doesn’t seem likely or at least was the result of external forces. I have a hard time believing that entire block sucked at cleanup. For our part, we spent hours cleaning, it’s hard to believe restoration team was on their hands and knees in our area.
Despite any doubts, until I hear otherwise I’m treating it like it was our MOOP and we have to make changes to fix the problem. The issue is, I don’t really know what the problem was.
I would like to get more detail. Is there higher resolution available so I can see the camp names to find out for sure if the red spot was us, or our neighbors? If it was our area is there someone I can contact to get more detail as to what was the problem in the red area? I don’t want to bother people or make a fuss, we want to get this right.
For next year we are enhancing our cleanup plan as though our area turned up red, one can always do more. I’m just talking about general steps, increasing the number of people on cleanup crew and so on. But the area was red, that seems a severe problem. We would like to know if there is something specific we should be after so we don’t make the same mistake again. Can we find out what they had to get out of our area?
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OK, I gotta ask too: can you hit me up with information on two small red spots? I camped with Mama Kabuke’s Big Tent at 7:05 and Foxglove, on the side away from the man. I left on Monday and things looked okay although there was tons of teardown to do. I asked our team and nobody who was there ’till the end saw anything obvious.
Specifically, there are two red dots between 7:00 and 7:15 and between Foxglove and Germanium. Hit me up at my e-mail if you want. Thanks!
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Trey – I can try to find out, but I don’t think we usually take notes for yellow spots in a sea of green. All it means is that the line slowed down momentarily to pick up a little more than the average amount of MOOP. Sorry I don’t have more detail! If we wrote down every cigarette butt, we’d never get the job done ;)
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durgy! The Resto team loves beer and whiskey :)
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Luke – Amen!! Finding stuff in that dust can be difficult! We were very, VERY lucky this year that it rained right after the event, which not only kept the dust storms to a minimum but also exposed a lot of the MOOP.
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Blondie!! First off, thanks for having such a great camp and doing what you do.
I am still waiting on some of the notes from Esplanade, so I can’t tell you right now what was found. Hopefully I’ll get that info and be able to update you. If it doesn’t happen, the Placement team will definitely have all the details in a matter of weeks, and will help you out.
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Sam Ley – Found it! Sounds like that spot had to be raked out and then mooped. Almost definitely because of the box. Oh well.
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JR – We track the red spots, not so much the yellow. It sounds like that spot was a “general MOOP” area. From the notes I have, it seems most likely that the team found a dune in that spot, which had to be raked out, and which contained MOOP. Great job otherwise!
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Born Ready – I am so sorry to hear that. I find it odd too that there’s such a big yellow strip, but we generally judge these things by how fast the line is moving. If there’s enough MOOP that they can’t keep up a good pace, the area gets a yellow score. In this case, the scribe keeping track has been doing this for years, so she really knows what she’s doing and can be trusted to be accurate.
Sometimes the yellow doesn’t necessarily mean that there was MOOP everywhere, but that there were lots of small hot spots. Looking through the notes, I’m seeing some recurring elements — specifically wood chips and gravel — which tend to “travel” a bit. I am going to talk to the scribes and get more answers, but it looks legitimate to me. Doesn’t necessarily mean your camp was entirely to blame, and that’s the part I will look into.
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Jimbo – See my comment to Born Ready, above.
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rocco – We will publish a higher-resolution map in several weeks, once we’ve absolutely verified all the reports! Sorry for the lack of detail right now.
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Pinga Loco, Lady J, stech – See my comment to Born Ready. I have a couple of theories about what is happening here, and will report back once I get to the bottom of it.
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blizz – Your insight might help us out a bit, can you tell us which camp you are with and what the general layout was? For example, did you divide your camp roughly along those lines, with living spaces in one area and hangout spaces in the other? Not to imply that your camp layout created the yellow strip :) but the information can help me figure out what we are looking at.
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reidflys – Manbits, indeed!! The best thing to do is to sweep them into a pile with a broom, then use a shovel to move the entire pile into a bucket for removal. If they are smaller than a nickel, you can break them down into the playa without causing lasting damage.
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G – Glad you finally got the Center Camp score! We’ll post the hi-res map when we have everything finalized & figured out.
As for the rat. Poor fella. I always feel so bad for the little things that wind up in the desert, they do not have an easy time of it.
I’m not sure about the type of fireworks we select, but I do know that we spend an awful lot of time picking up those little pieces of cardboard!
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tammy – To be fair, the two individuals pictured are among the more pro-hygiene members of our crew ;)
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Felony – it was different? This is the first I’m hearing of it. Please, tell me more.
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Damon – If you can give me your camp name and address (as precisely as possible please), I will do my best to figure out what that red spot was!
However, if you had a single red spot but otherwise scored green, I wouldn’t be concerned. For all we know, after you left somebody crashed their bike and broke a light. Ya know? Things happen, and you will not be judged harshly for a single spot.
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Zhust – It doesn’t look like either of those spots are on your camp. Congratulations!!!
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