Oh you were so bad to her…

MySpace is such a wonderus place, where porn bots, desperate starlets and mediocre musicians all throng to your door begging for attention, but this is something new. Imagine all your ex-lovers coming back to haunt you! Oh yes that’s the threat, though you’ll see how seriously I take it. Of course the gullible net generation will fall for it hook line and sinker just like they do for every Internet fad. But really, who wants a website that spouts such vitriol and bitterness?

Here’s the bait I found in my mailbox;

Subject: Kay O. Sweaver, about an ex posting

Body: If the story your ex wrote about you KAy on theexbook.com is true, then in my opinion its not right. I actually took my own time through a link tofind you and tell you that I think its not right to reat someone that way when love is involved. Was it love? What was it?

Good look in the dating world after others read it. Hopefully this experience will result in better decision making. If what an ex wrote is not true orv this is not you, then I appologise for this message. I just wanted to share my point of view -people deserve to be treated with respect, honesty, and loyalty. The site does have a rebuttal section but no rebuttals were made- so either it was not cared about or unknown.

I enjoyed the typos and grammatical errors. My response;

What a wonderful viral marketing approach. Directly targeting personal emotional history. Best of all the more vague the allusions to the horrible things you did to an ex, the more that is left up to the imagination. Add to that the fear of others reading bad reviews, well who wouldn’t want to register and set the record straight?

Overall an excellent approach, though I must say the production quality of the site is shoddy at best. If there really is an ex profile of me on there, well congrats. If people wish to believe the bitter and vengeful rhetoric of disenfranchised lovers rather than learning from past experiences and moving on to form their own opinions, so be it. Those people are of no interest to me.

Of course this is probably a bot so nobody will ever read it. If it isn’t a bot, well, make your profile public and say hello.

If only we’d put the Internet to good use, I wouldn’t have to suffer through so many bandwidth bottlenecks and site outages…

Playa Love

Attention – An important public service announcement for Burning Man participants, please read carefully.

I feel it important to tell all you Burners and potential Burners about a common, yet oft neglected Burning Man phenomenon that effects hundreds if not thousands of Burners every year. Symptoms include but are not limited to starry eyes, fluttering hearts and increasing heat in the loins. Left untreated it can lead to disappointment, heartbreak and embarrassment. The condition? Playa love.

Playa Love comes in many forms and there’s no definitive method of transmission – it just seems to happen. Some stories from suvivors;

Bob – I met a girl at the burn in 2003 – we hit it off right away and had a phenomenal time.  After it was all over I asked her to marry me. I went back to San Fransisco with her and we gave our vows. After living with her for three weeks I realized the truth – she was totally insane. We annulled the wedding and I moved back to Canada.

Bree – I ended up spending almost the entire burn with this boy from Montana. When it was all over leaving him was hard – I just wanted to spend more and more time with him. We exchanged contact information and I invited him to come see me at Christmas. When he finally did come I realized just how boring he was – we barely talked. I haven’t talked to him since.

If Paris is the city of love, then Black Rock City is the city of lust. You can share incredibly powerful, incredibly beautiful moments with people. Moments on great intensity and intimacy. Its easy to mistake these feelings for love, when really they’re flighting dreams and visions that will fade as the desert falls away behind you during exidous.

Who can blame young hearts for their misapprehension when you go for a moonlit walk in the desert, serenaded by travelling minstrels, riding on a flying boat with your new love, watching shooting stars and experiencing almost universal, unconditional love? The drugs, alcohol and sleep deprivation probably help too.

Who you are at the Burn is different from who you are in the default world. The same goes for everyone you meet, to different extents of course. Plus circumstances are different, here there is no money, no jobs, no peer pressure or societal norms to get in the way of your experience. To expect a playa romance to continue along the same course in the default world is pure folly.

So beware of Playa Love. Enjoy your season in the desert. Appreciate it even more knowing that what happens there will most likely stay there. Think not of the future, but only these moments together…

P.S.: Playa Love is also alive and well at recompression parties, regional events and all manner of Burner get togethers. Enjoy it, but allow it to pass if that is its will.