Shaven Apes
Shaven Apes is an all volunteer department of Burning Flipside responsible for lifting, moving, and fixing (with the occasional grunting and scratching).
Shaven Apes can help with things like Theme Camp setup, Art installations, building your shade structure, and will even help you pitch your tent or just provide transportation. Shaven Apes are there to provide the extra hands (and strong backs) needed to turn impossible tasks into difficult ones and difficult tasks into completed ones. Shaven Apes make things happen at Flipside, and they get to wear really cool T-shirts.
The Shaven Apes currently operate under the Site-Ops department. They sometimes assist the Load-Out Transportation team with moving infrastructure from the Warehouse to Pyropolis and back again. In recent years, Shaven Apes have also been responsible for re-fueling all carts and generators during the event.
Shaven Apes have sometimes been compared to Burning Mans' Department of Public Works (DPW), but with a different focus: Shaven Apes are there to directly support the citizens of Pyropolis and the Theme Camps.
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Recognizing a Shaven Ape
A real Shaven Ape, and not some wicked imposter, will be wearing a bright yellow t-shirt with the word KANIHEPYA on it, or perhaps walking with a yellow banana around it's neck. They are everywhere but, somehow, there are never enough of them.
Getting Help
The quickest way to find a Shaven Ape is to find someone with a radio and have them ask for one (fyi, folks driving carts usually have a radio).
Volunteering
Shaven Apes wouldn't exist without volunteers. Please consider volunteering some of your time, it's a great way to improve your kharma.
Assistance for your Theme Camp
If you know you're going to need help putting up a camp structure or an art piece, please don't hesitate to ask for help. There is a wiki page for this
and you can also contact the Shaven Apes Lead at apes11 at burningflipside dot com.
Please understand that Shaven Apes is a small team of volunteers and we're not equipped to lend DaFT-sized amounts of help.
Shaven Ethics
On the Shaven Ape ethos, Unkie Neal (AKA Bubbles) wrote:
"A Shaven ape is a person who rises above themselves. In a world of self-centering and greed, amongst the unshaved masses of conventional society, a person steps up and rises to the need of others. The Greeks use the word AGAPE for unconditional love. Shaven apes use the word KANIHEPYA as their unconditional love for the temporary community we all have come to love and call Flipside.
Where the human condition is instinctively set for self-preservation and "it isn't my job," Shaved apes have shorn their hair and walk erect looking for places to lend a hand or ear with a strong heart. Reward in the act of helping is a bonus that serves the Shaven ape in their respective heart.
Physical rewards (i.e. beer) sweeten the deal and lead to the best of possible situations...new fellowships and sublime intoxication. The true ethos of the Shaven apes is to take their mantra KANIHEPYA with them past the event and into their daily lives. We used to wear a banana around our necks as a uniform and a symbol that an ape (we all are primates) can rise above their own desires (eating the banana)."
See also
- Site-Ops - The Area Facilitator for Shaven Apes
- Load-Out
