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 JANUS’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 that …
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, “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 rack …
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 …
XyloVan is featured on BoingBoing – w00t!
Big news – We just got featured on BoingBoing! A huge thanks to Cory for taking note of our work – we couldn’t be more thrilled. And welcome, BoingBoing readers! We hope you enjoy what you see here and spread the word about our project. Somewhere out there, we just know there’s a music lover …
Support XyloVan on Indiegogo!
That’s right, friends, we’re campaigning on Indiegogo right now! Please jump in, check out our video and give as much as you can to help XyloVan get back on the road and all gussied up with new lights, sound and instruments. Please share this link with your friends and help us bring more music to …
Xylovan’s neighbors – and our coming Indiegogo campaign!
So – a little background: a) We live on a narrow, hilly street, but most of the neighbors are cool. b) We’re almost ready to kick off our IndieGogo campaign to give Xylovan a badly-needed new engine c) Not all the neighbors are cool, it seems d) We just jumpstarted it (had to use both …
Building “The Light Fandango” on playa
Like XyloVan’s other mutation (Janus), The Light Fandango took shape over many weeks of building, sewing and all-round hackery. And like Janus, the final product was disassembled for transport (via its own bad self) to the playa of Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, where we then built everything back onto XyloVan to achieve its full mutation …
What happened … And what’s next for XyloVan
So here we were, all ready for Burning Man 2013. We were gonna drive up there, set up XyloVan for all the Swing City visitors to play, get re-married on Tuesday, volunteer at Gate and Cafe again – just have a total ball. Look! Here’s Xylovan all stuffed to the gills with gear, ready …
Xylovan down, but crew will make it to BRC
Sad news, friends. Xylovan suffered a mysterious overheating problem en route to the playa. After toiling 12 hours to replace the thermostat and water pump in a gas station in one of the sketchier parts of Pacoima, we were heartbroken to discover that the problem still wasn’t cured, so we made the best decision we …