Category: Homo sapiens

Beauty at Burning Man 2010

Soak humans in art and the playa’s environmental extremes (harsh wind, high heat, relentless dust) and you bring out something significant in them: happiness. They’re working their tails off to be here, to create something meaningful (if temporary), and to delight and shock each other.

Black Rock City is populated by some of the most beautiful souls you’ll ever meet. That said, sailor guy here drummed so fiercely on Keyboard 2 that he actually snapped a fiberglass mallet. Ah, well – there are 20 more. That ought to hold us until the next burn.

Rangers stopped by in camp (here) and out on the playa …

Children loved XyloVan – this dude (probably barely 20 months old) banged away on the tubular bells for quite a while … 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.

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.

Handmade Music LA at Crashspace

So, we probably fit in with the circuit-bending loop/fizzbit laptop-jazz at Crash Space about as well as well as rubber boots at a tap-dance show, but hey, that was huge fun.

Thanks to everyone who (like these two) found their own sound tonight with fiberglass sticks and aluminum bar stock, somewhere between themselves and the van. I really enjoyed talking with you and hearing you play.

Tomorrow’s all about figuring out that line buzz thing.


Rinse, repeat – building Keyboard 4

What do you call a 1985 Ford Van with three xylophone keyboards and some gongs bolted to it?

Not enough xylophones.

I wanted to give the van more presence, approved more weight visually (and, coincidentally enough, literally). So I’m building Keyboard 4 from the same raw aluminum (3-inch by half-inch 6106 T6 aluminum – at right) and monkeyed-together hardware contained in Keyboards 1, 2 and 3 …

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Maker Faire Day 2 – How to play XyloVan & who made it

(videos of this lost when we quit Facebook)
You all showed us how to play today.

You toddled up and whacked away with sticks, silly grins on your 2-year-old faces. You strode up as if approaching the concert vibraphone you played in band, delicately picking out notes to tunes you haven’t played in 20 years. You hammered and drummed, pulling rhythmic tribal fugues out of the raw metal. You wheeled your disabled son up to Keyboard 1, watched his face light up, helped him hold a mallet and tap out a tune.

You played, in every sense of the word.

Thanks so much to all the folks at Maker Faire who enjoyed the van. You really touched us and showed us more joy than you can imagine.





We wanted to give a huge shout-out here to all the good people who helped us bring this project together:

  • To Dave for the junkyard crawls, the invaluable hoisting and finagling and sandblasting and painting of the enormous honkin’ rack, and the endless bonhomie.
  • To Robbie for wrenching and sweating par excellence to restore the damaged door, and for all the cheerful banter on the rainiest, slimiest junkyard crawl ever.
  • To Brian for acoustic advice, hardware assistance and spiritual support in the “man, that’s a wacky idea, but it should be cool when it’s done” vein.
  • To Steve and Beth for helping us mount the xylophones (man, was that just last week?)
  • To my excellent son and daughter for helping with makin’ mallets, changing valve-cover gaskets, cutting keys, mounting disc gongs, doing body work and probably helping us violate various child labor laws (although safety gear was worn at all times!)
  • To Rogan for engineering advice on mounting the keyboards, and to him, his lovely wife Susan and son, Asa for crewing our Maker Faire demo. We had an awesome weekend with you, and thanks to you freeing us up to see the other great creations there.
  • And finally, to my ever-patient, enthusiastic and non-stop gung-ho wife, Kristina, for helping to make all of this happen. Can’t wait to travel to Topanga Days Parade, Burning Man and all places in between where people love making sound.

If you enjoyed the van, drop a comment below – if you have photos or more/better video, add some links!


Here are some more videos and photos from Sunday:






Day 1 of Maker Faire – hundreds of hammering hands!

(videos here were lost when we quit Facebook – photos below!) Hey!
The Maker Faire crowd gave the van a good wringing (ringing?) out all day long,and the gear all held up (mostly) great.

Welcome to all the Maker Faire folks who came by and banged on the van today. What a fabulous noise you all made!

Waves of people washed up against the side of the van all day long – it was so great seeing the variety of ways people interacted with the van …

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