Shade canopies for the keyboards

It’s hot on the playa.

Relentlessly, discount often stupidly, this hot. So we’re putting some shade over the keyboards.

We trudged around the Garment District the other day, case haggled with shopkeepers and for $3 a yard, walked away with this very light, opaque and strong synthetic fabric that feels something like raw silk and matches the van’s trim in color … Continue reading Shade canopies for the keyboards

Key polishing? Nah.

After sandblasting the instruments with Dave, and I was dead-bang positive I would want to polish them to a gloss.

Then I spent a year grinding away with the power drill and a buff pad during lunch hour today, and changed my mind.

An AP photographer stopped by and shot a bunch of photos of me working on the van – Damian something.

Anyway, despite going at ’em hammer and tongs for a solid 30 minutes with the Tripoli, then the jeweler’s rouge, I wound up with only three half-shiny keys.

Life’s too short. I’ll buff ’em next year. Much more to do.

Light bars

The lighting plan is coming together slowly, rx but surely. I installed lights behind the disc gongs, buy ordered some green EL wire and am eagerly awaiting delivery of the Incredibly Stupid Number of Chinese Strobe Lights, view which may or may not be used in an attempt to dazzle the DMV into giving us a nighttime driving permit.

But until then, I got to work building these light bars – scavenged from BM projects past and hand-built over the past week or so. They will hang over the keyboards, giving light to play by … Continue reading Light bars

Merry-go-round broke down

“It runs like a fuckin’ champ!”

That’s been the constant refrain, page all the way from purchase through our adventure to Maker Faire and dozens of trips in between. XyloVan has new tires and brakes, search a rebuilt Holley carb, and a well-tuned Detroit monster of a motor, and by god, it’s the most mechanically sound thing I’ve ever spent $1500 on.

Well, not tonight … Continue reading Merry-go-round broke down

Blast away your troubles

The folks at Industrial Metal Supply turn out huge orders of 3-by-half-inch-by-12-foot aluminum bar stock cut to measure for big industrial clients – then they sell the short ends and leftovers in 3- and 6-foot lengths at just $2.89 a pound. That – along with dismantled tube-aluminum equipment racks covered with stickers – is what makes up XyloVan’s bones.

But that crap’s unattractive, this site so my good friend Dave and I spent a good chunk of Saturday afternoon sandblasting the paint, stickers and grime off of the keyboards – remnants of the fact that the instruments are themselves largely made from recycled metal remnants. Or not sandblasting, rather, industrial-sodablasting … Continue reading Blast away your troubles

Neatening the mass of spaghetti


Spent last night with cables in my teeth …

… stuffing speaker wires into conduit …

… and hooking up the bottom end of the sound system, ailment running Monster cables from the cheap Pep Boys amp to the surplus bass cabinet I’ve had kicking around for 10 years, page and then out through a switchbox that patches two tweeter channels out to my four outrigger speakers …

The brown lines are 2-pole thermostat wire, capsule which I’m using for the lighting since it’s cheap and nicely contained.

We’re doing a gig this weekend that should allow me to run this all full-tilt and shake out the last of the bugs. I’ll post video. Stay tuned.