As I mentioned before the only way to build a really interesting mutant vehicle is to either be a genius or work with geniuses. Lucky me, I’m in the latter camp: Spencer and Rina continued hooking up the elaborate Arduino-run LED array this week. The trick was bringing the mass of wires coming down from …
Sex-appeal – Installing the wheel covers
As I write now after the burn, aware of what was to befall them in our tumultuous trip to the playa, it pains me to see these gorgeous wheel covers. But at the time they were gorgeous, and once we get the wheels rebalanced and the covers reinstalled with plenty of insulating/gripping silicone caulk, they …
Time to refresh the mallets
Our mallets are made from fiberglass rods, which we secure from a company in Georgia that supplies whip antennas for dune buggies, patient among other things. The hard mallets – best used on the high keys and gongs – are simply dipped multiple times in PlastiDip, a liquid vinyl that needs to be refreshed on …
Life in the Chandelier Factory
It took us a couple of weekends and some help from excellent friends to do it, but Chuckles (my loving and long-suffering art-car widow of a wife) and I built 14 chandeliers with the help of dear friends Lee Vodra and Christefano Reyes. We began with discs of 1/2-inch plywood that I designed by using …
Sewing, skinning and draping your own art car
It pays – and I mean *really* pays – to have experts among your friends. Robert DeHart – a wonderfully talented clothing designer and expert human – stepped in again to help finagle the rough fabric patches onto the body. And lo and behold, it’s starting to resemble my sketches!
Illuminating XyloVan: Why do ya call this thing “Light Fandango?”
Well, it’s like this. I’m an old hippie at heart – though I’m technically Generation X and more of a punk (I once broke my nose moshing at a Hüsker Dü concert – true story.) But it’s inspired by the opening line of Procol Harum’s amazing A Whiter Shade of Pale: “We skipped the light …
How to skin a mutant vehicle
First off, you need a plan. It can be a harebrained, cockamamie, piece-o-shit plan, but you need to have some vague idea of how you’re going to pull it off. Sketch before you build. Figure out how things are going to connect, what they’re gonna hang on, how big they should be, where they might …
Sewing the skin for “The Light Fandango”
Today we began the monstrous job of turning 120 linear feet of theatrical scrim into the vehicle’s skin. We worked with the guys at Rose Brand to choose “Celtic Cloth”, a fairly strong, lightweight and slightly flexible fabric that gives off a soft glow when lights are placed behind it. The beauty of it is …
Shaping the halo
Today Hitgirl, Biomass and I – along with pipe-bending expertise from Bender – shaped the halo of EMT conduit that will support the fabric. It was finicky, time-consuming work, since each of the 10 lengths of conduit had to be bent multiple times – just so to approximate its precise role in the rough oval …
The work begins – roughing out the frame
This year’s mutation, ailment “The Light Fandango,” rides heavily on work we did for Janus three years ago. Like 150 pounds of new steel, fabric and fittings on top of another 100 pounds of recycled security grating that served as Janus’ cloud deck railing. Biomass and I bolted that together onto the big honkin’ roof …
XyloVan fundraiser EXTENDED!
XyloVan’s Indiegogo fundraiser was awesome but since we didn’t hit our goal, we are EXTENDING IT HERE! Help us create this amazing project for Burning Man, 2014! $5 gets you: a XyloVan sticker. $10: A XyloVan crew patch (plus sticker!) $35: A hand-machined aluminum slice amulet (plus patch and sticker!) $85: A hand-machined aluminum block …
Gongs all made!
Just a quick one – these are the gongs we made for our Indiegogo supporters, all engraved and ready for their fittings. It’s not too late to get one of your own! A $150 donation to our big Burning Man project nets you a hand-engraved gong with your slogan Or inspirational quote of choice, a …
Fixed, home and ready to mutate!
At last, halleluia and w00h00!! Thanks to our wonderful Indiegogo backers and the wizards at JP Engine, XyloVan had a smooth, steady ride home today – and into the next phase of its life. Oscar and the crew at JP pulled off the heads of our brutish 7.5-liter V8, machined them, and reinstalled them with …
BOOM – Approved for Burning Man 2014
Well that took exactly two days. 😉 As to the review team’s “concerns” – well, we know how to address them. This ain’t our first time to ride in this rodeo. Meantime, the engine shop called to say they finished heart surgery. Our big, fat V8 is running nice and smooth once again. They had …
Burning Man 2014 Mutant Vehicle application – submitted!
Thanks again to all our fantastic Indiegogo supporters for making this application possible. Stay tuned for updates! Mutant Vehicle Name XyloVan Mutant Short Vehicle Description A rolling ballroom ceiling with amplified xylophones and gongs for everyone to play Mutant Vehicle URL http://xylovan.com Previously on the Playa? Yes Years at Burning Man 2010,2011,2012 Previous Mutant Vehicle …
Open-heart surgery
Here – not for the queasy – is a view of XyloVan’s monster 7.5-liter V8 engine, midway through heart-surgery.
Indiegogo sends XyloVan to the shop!
Wow. Color us thrilled – and supremely grateful. Thanks to all of our 101 supporters on Indiegogo, the XyloVan resurrection campaign raised $5,040. That’s about half what we were shooting for, but it should be enough for us to repair the engine (rather than just swapping in a new engine and transmission) and steering – …
The soul of music – the heart of XyloVan’s Indiegogo campaign
XyloVan coaxes all flavors of music out of the people who play it: Jazz, TV themes, happy heedless drumming and wild, intricate improvisation. That’s why we’re raising funds to resurrect it – because it empowers creativity and brings happiness to everyone who grabs a pair of sticks to play – Check out this short video …
Starting to machine our Indiegogo perks!
Hey, friends: We’re hand-machining two types of amulets out of raw block aluminum for our Indiegogo donors. The end result is a glossy, lightweight, rough-hewn one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry suitable for sweetening your ensemble, deflecting bullets or reflecting flirty glints of love into desirable people’s eyes. Here’s the process we go through to make a …
XyloVan – almost 1/4 toward our Indiegogo goal!
Hey, friends – the BoingBoing coverage gave us a nice little bump, but we want to keep our momentum going. In 2 days, we’ll be 25% through our campaign, and we’d like to be past 25% of our goal. Help us get to $2,500 before Thursday! Please share our campaign link with anyone you know …