Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky's Adventures at Burning Man #)'(

DJ Spooky @ BM 2001

Back in 2001 Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid sparked a tremendous brouhaha at Burning Man when it was announced he would be spinning at Camp Xara.  The story goes that Rangers became perturbed because they believed that his presence might cause a gang incident or something. But the real issue was Spooky promoting himself at the event. How far we've come as a community when the cause for concern back then was the promotion of a deejay.

Today, nobody bats an eye when the likes of Tiesto, Christopher Lawrence, Adam Freeland, Daft Punk, Paul Oakenfold, the Crystal Method, Carl Cox, Perry Farrell, etc.) ascend upon Black Rock City with a fanfare and a fanbase. In fact, superstar deejays are a serious draw to many participants, and are nowadays heavily promoted by a variety of media and especially by the camps that host them.

It doesn't take a genius to realize that the community (drink!) at large benefits from the juicy phat beats served up free on the playa every night. What's more: the fine folks of BMorg profit from these gifts from said deejays in the result of increased ticket sales from fans.

Burning Man Ticket 1999. Cost $40

In this video,  DJ Spooky brings us all the way back to when Burning Man was young and feral with only 4,000 attendees -- "the ancient mid-nineties." Of note: as I recall tickets were only $40 then. (See image right).

Burning Man Ticket 2001. Cost $165.

After a romantic break up, Paul leaves New York to relax and "deprogram." But his attempts are thwarted by Pippi Longstocking's playa-wide hunt to prevent him from playing "commercial music" at the festival.

On the on-line forum "Reality Sandwich"  from which this video was produced, contributing  editor ST Frequency had this to say:

"As Paul mentions at the end of his story, some of the biggest names in commercial dance music are now star performers at the Festival, playing 45-minute showcase sets to massive crowds at MTV-Beach-Party-style setups. Oakenfold, DJ Dan, and Rabbit in the Moon at Burning Man? These guys are some of the highest paid and most accessible names in DJ culture. No offense to the artists -- they've all earned their cred in one way or another -- but it's the Electric Dance Music equivalent of putting a Starbucks or H&M on the Esplanade."

Whatever you may feel about what DJ's bring (or don't bring) to the playa and how they may (or may not) enhance your Burning Man experience, the sad truth is that due to the Burning Man Ticket Debacle of 2011, many deejays will not be able to attend the event this year and the BMorg doesn't really give a hot damn. Actiongrl, the Manager of Communications for the Black Rock City LLC recently remarked on an online burner forum called 3Playa: "Bassnectar still can't have my ticket."

But Bassnectar is nonplussed. According to recent tweets, he has a ticket but isn't committed to going yet.