After returning from the annual Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert, design consultant Ron Reason checks in with a post describing two alt-weeklies he found circulating at the event: BRC Weekly and The Shroom.

Reason notes that in a setting with no wifi or cell service, newsprint is the best way to get information out to the estimated 50,000 inhabitants of a makeshift city. The editor/publisher of BRC Weekly tells Reason:

We do it for the notoriety! But we also do it because if you’re going to build a temporary pretend fantasy city in the middle of the desert, then dammit, that city should be like every other city in America and have an alternative newsweekly.

(emphasis added)

BRC Weekly‘s cover story was written by none other than Steven T. Jones of the San Francisco Bay Guardian (he’s known as Scribe at the event). Jones, who also serves on AAN’s editorial committee, is releasing a book in December based on his five years covering Burning Man for the Bay Guardian.