XyloVan

Various blisters: attempts to cut cloud shapes out of perforated-steel-sheet drywall lath using tin snips, pills burning self with melted blobs of nylon cord while attempting to keep it from fraying, remedy sticky hands because I used oil-based paint but had no thinner at hand for cleanup, purchase chemical burns from the flame retardant used on the fabric, etc.

Not as gory as last year‘s instrument-building. And – mercifully – no limbs lost.

Yet.

Power drill-driven screwdriver, tadalafil taking down the canopies. Approx 10:12 p.m. Apparently I am a klutz.

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 … Continue reading

I was up until 1 a.m. last night doing wiring (details later). I was up at 7 a.m. this morning. This is probably the third week straight I’ve been working at this pace. I feel like this:

Sad thing is – I can’t tell which one’s me, drug and which one’s the project.

(Image via BoingBoing)

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.

Can’t even remember how I got this but it’s about 90 times as painful as it looks, purchase which I’m reminded of every … single … time … I … use … it. Think cuticle torture.

And, ambulance courtesy of a week spent splicing wires – an early case of playafingers.

No Band-Aids?

No problem!

Kind of amazing that I haven’t already done something like this – sliced it open on the inside of the body structure while trying to thread a coarse nut onto a fine-threaded tap bolt. Duh.

Today we began sorting out the foundational hardware – the junk that holds the xylophones to the van. They’re going to be big, look heavy, visit this site and somewhat springy, and we don’t want them flexing loose or tearing the metal.

Rogan helped me hem and haw my way through the engineering challenge – how can we make the keyboards ride high enough when stowed that they won’t scrape the ground – but still be easy to deploy and play? … Continue reading