Author: factoid

Logistics, mechanics, acoustics

Burning Man 2010 – XyloVan’s first drive on the playa

Tuesday began with the lowering of Keyboard 1, information pills which is truly a six-hand job – one roof-monkey to loose the straps and push it off, approved two adults on the ground to catch it and install the support stanchions (and one mischievous camera-girl to record it all. Never entrust videography to a 9-year-old if you want any kind of serious documentation.)

With the crew enjoying the view from the roof, I cruised down 5:30 to cross the Esplanade and head towards The ARTery to get our driving permit and site assignment.

Heady. That’s the only word I can muster for the sensation of ending eight months of building and preparing an elaborate art car by driving the goddamn thing out onto the open playa, where thousands can see and play it …
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Arrival at Black Rock City for Burning Man 2010

After driving all night from Los Angeles with the kids sacked out in back, there we arrived at the gates to Black Rock City around 9:30 a.m. Monday – and immediately hit traffic.

It took a good three hours to wade through it. After a quick greeting at the gate (and the customary warnings about driving under 5mph and not at all during whiteouts) we plunked ourselves down in Kidsville at 5:30 and Florence and set to work pitching camp … More

Well and truly burnt

I don’t think I ever could have imagined the response to debuting an art car. But what a rush.

We just got back a few hours ago, illness full of the glow of meeting hundreds of cool people who found themselves sudden, happy xylophonists in the wastes of the playa.

We’re also short on sleep, having driven all night and unpacked and cleaned all day, so time to crash. More photos and videos will follow here as I process them – If you played the van out there, we really want to hear from you.

Bits and bobs – knocking down the punchlist

Last night was all about hitting XyloVan’s extensive punchlist of Little Things that Need Doing.

I spent the better part of a flaming Technicolor tequila dusk on the roof beneath the gently fluttering canopy, side effects paranoid that we’ll crash or break down en route to the playa, cialis 40mg and debugging shorts in the strobe/flood bars. Then I set about hammering out all the other little things I’ve been meaning to do as this insane 6-month project comes to fruition.

Things like … More

Big canopy is up

We got it all rigged. It took the four of us about half an hour to get it all monkeyed together, website like this but by god, it stands – at least it still is as I write this, two nights later in peak winds of 18 mph – and the whole thing hangs together structurally as if it could stand more. How much more remains to be seen.

I think I’ll need bigger rope, in the long run – no telling how much damage the rope will take from the ringbolts it’s passing through. I wonder if I should run it through pulleys there, like tall ships do.

It just needs to be realigned around the shoulders, and it’s missing a couple of gussets at the ends, and perhaps a sewn-in draw-bar for the canopy end.

Sound check – Clean!

Clean enough, discount anyway.

That wicked line buzz is gone. It turns out I needed to ground the mixer to the chassis, link which involved tearing apart and then sewing up the 20-foot umbilical. That took a little while.

Pay no attention to my banging. I’m just banging. But it’s sounding pretty lush. And I”m excited to show it off. Thanks to everyone who pulled up and talked to us this afternoon. It’s all good.

Just a little more wiring to go.

Gussets – a little slab of playa engineering

What holds this crazy rig together? Why, abortion gussets, of course.

Fold a nine-inch wide strip of fabric (at 60″) into a strip four layers thick, seam its long edges, and then cut it into strips about six inches long.

Then seam the cut edges and voila – a little stack of stout reinforcements …

… to be sewn into place to keep the fabric all in one piece while still letting the air flow through.

Roof shade – the sewing begins in earnest

Step one, ailment attempt to throw together an enormous framework of PVC pipe to arc over the van like some demented logo for caffeinated high-fructose corn syrup ‘n’ gutbombs.

Valiantly attempt to model it.

Then, when that fails, toss the PVC aside and acquire some 1″ steel conduit and connectors for a new frame, which you injure yourself building.

Then start sewing. (more photos after the jump. More

Nice slice

Hey, page what the …

Why is there blood suddenly dripping onto the pipes that I just cut for the roof-canopy frame?

Oh. Yeah. The little chunk of not-quite-cut pipe I just tapped off the end of the length I cut. Sharp metal. Duh.

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 … More