Dreams

I had a dream the other night that we were driving in two cars through the woods, when all of a sudden some bears attacked us. I think they were attracted by this guy wearing a silver sequined full-body suit who looked like he was a performer in a circus. Somehow we escaped the bears and then we were home. All of a sudden there's a knock on the door, and someone lets in a giant panda. Only, it's not a giant panda, it's a bear dressed in a panda suit. Somehow I'm the only one to realize this, so I run over and push him out of the room, saying "No bears, no bears, no bears". Everything seems to be fine, but then a pair of bears come into the room carrying a couch, as if they're helping to move it into another room. Once again, no one seems to realize that this is solely a trick so that the bears can get inside the house and attack us, and I have to push them out of the house to protect everyone.

Burning Man

I just recently got back from Burning Man, and it was a blast. There was so much great art out there. It was really cool to see how many different kinds of installations people can make.

I think my favorite part of Burning Man is getting ready. I helped out making the Conexus Cathedral. They had work parties over in a warehouse in Oakland where I learned how to weld. We built 15 foot long arches for the flying buttresses out of rebar. They were then covered with industrial shrink wrap for a much-more-proffesional-than-they-really-were look.

Welding is actually ridiculously easy, at least just making something that will stick together, rather than something that will look nice. Since I learned how to weld, I decided to make some art bicycles for the playa as well.

The first was what was supposed to be a simple chopper bmx bike, although it took a few revisions before it was rideable. My friend Max let me work at his shop, and I chopped the front fork and added 2 feet of steel to it. Unfortunately, this put the seat behind the rear axle, so it basically fell over backwards anytime you pedaled hard. We then chopped and flipped the headstock, making the forks stick out super far, but then when you rode it it just collapsed to the side. Finally we had to cut the frame and add some extensions to put the handlebars up high enough for the forks to work while still keeping the seat in front of the rear axle. I got quite a few comments on this bike on the playa.

The second bike, however, was much more popular. I found a bmx frame on the sidewalk, badly abused, and decided to resurrect it by combining it with a cheap mountain bike I had lying around. I took of the pedals and chain from the bmx so the rear wheel spun free, and then attached the front fork of the mountain bike to the rear wheel of the bmx. I then pulled the bmx bike front wheel as high as it would go into wheelie position and welded it there (along with welding the handlebars solid). You then sat on the mountain bike seat and steered using the bmx handlebars. The Perma-wheelie™ bike got compliments from about every 5th person. It was especially fun to see at night because only the bmx bike was lit up.

You can see photos of both bikes here at our camp: bikes!

I had so much fun working on the cathedral and building these bikes that I'm hoping to keep building stuff outside of Burning Man season. Even though I get to be creative at work, it's nice to be able to build a fun, physical, artsy thing sometimes.

Look for a baby-godzilla t-shirt, and maybe some rebar garden art and indoor el-wire stuff.