Container Load continues at the shop

Last night I got home at 311 am .

Today was pretty much wrecked being up so late.

Kimric tested the Boeing jet engine.
www.youtube.com/v/NqZZ5oZFA9o

That was the highlight of the eve, beyond getting that damn caterpillar wheel segment into the back of the container.


I had the strangest dreams just now that Mark Pauline was involved in a super high end auction in Los Altos Hills. The catalog of works ( the glossy auction book) sold for $200, the security was tight and it was in a 10 story building off El Camino. w2hich I know does not exist. Myself and the crew had gone down to help move the machines but could not hang for the auction. I got separated from the crew and kinda snuck in wandered the 5 floors of the gallery. Works from the Venice Biannale and elsewhere were on display from famous artist I recognized and were to be sold. When the auction finally occurred one of his works sold fro 200 K.

Anyways.

I'm off again to keep loading.

Wish me well. In less then a week this madness will be over.

Then I can work like mad for money so that I have money to play with while staying in Amsterdam.

If you have any decent paying, but short term job leads let me know

Of course I'll be gone for 6 weeks starting with Burning Man.
kevin

Mr. Satan lives at the SRL shop

Its been a long struggle to get him to blow flame just right.

Jon S got the combination of valves, pressure, and piping just right last night.

I've not been involved in this particular project until last night.

The Makers Faire was the 1st demo of this new Survival Research Laboratories machine.

It caused a bit of trouble for all of us during the demo.

Called Mr. Satan, which is currently mounted on a very fast moving vehicle, the Bomb Loader.

It did a decent job of lighting up the cardboard ball. Yet did not blow out flame as Mark envisioned it.

But now its 20 times better with a blower and double valve system to feed the mouth and eyes

High Quality youtube:
www.youtube.com/v/GltPsFXZDKM

Low Quality youtube:
www.youtube.com/v/msMtHotxpAk


As you can see Jon S. got all the elements together tonight.

He directed me on drilling and tapping a couple of short pipe segments, then he welded the puppy together with the new fittings and valve he put together fresh.

I wired up and hooked up the 110 blower and the propane connection. Minor and incremental work but every part counts. Especially on doing it right.

Karen M. did a bunch of work earlier in the eve.

You can't even count how many hours have been put into Mr. Satan Head by so many.

From Mark Pauline doing all the CNC cutting on the head (30 plus hours? In the process breaking several bits and having to restart the CNC cut.

To those that welded the box together, to the original propane ignition system, to the 3d scan of the original wooden carved mask.

Many hands can make great work that really delights.

I really enjoy working with Jon, and my work let him focus on the dual propane fittings and connection.

A place where you really don't want a leak. Believe me, as I was on the one on the valve handle and new segment on the first test.

Thats the way I like a SRL project to work.

I love it where I can make solid contribution and can point at a machines segment, joint, weld, grind, or electrical connection, or whatever and say "I made that. "

For "safety" and fire prevention, we tracked down a sheet of steel to put between the face and the SRL cargo door, a fiberglass thing that would not be happy with 400 plus degrees of burning propane blowing at it. That was easier then moving the machine. Later we rotated the heavy and hot head 90 degrees to the orientation as you see in the video.

We connected the 20 gallon propane tank via tube to Mr. Satans, plugged in the blower, and Jon leaned over Mr Satans Head mouth with a portable propane torch.

This isn't a job for a lighter or a match.

I stood behind, nervously handling the rear propane valve ( there are two).

At Jons direction I turned the valve partially open.

I could not see on the other side of Mr. Satan what was happening exactly.

Thoughts and fears of leaking valves, bad clamps, explosions, shrapnel, lack of health insurance, and more racing in my head.

Mr. Satan suddenly ignited.

With a passion to breathe and blow the house down.

This is a very bad wolf. Very bad.

The whine of the blower kinda eerie and irritating.

The way machines are suppose to sound when they operate in the SRL playground.

Worked really well.

As Jon said later, it doesn't always work that way.

After 15 minutes the Mr. Satan steel outline was a glowing red, allowing a new trick.

We could restart the propane flames with just the internal heat.

You turn off the propane.

Wait a few seconds, or more.

Then turn the flow back on.

Bang!

An explosion of flames spurts out of the eyes, nose, mouth, and bottom vents. Sparks racing ahead.

Mr. Satan can really wail out a really loud and very startling popping noise.

The stochastic pops had Mark and I jumping like startled deer as Jon would turn off the propane, let it sit for a few seconds then turn the valves back on.

You never knew when he would turn the valve back on.

Or how big the explosion would be.

The explosions had the Chinese lanterns at the entrance swaying back and forth in its unnatural breeze.

Even the platform of the Bomb Loader moving back a bit. Which is a big and heavy machine. Kinda freaky when you think about it.

Mark broke out his camera ( it is a rare sight seeing him do the documentation thing) and took some amazing shots.

We played for an hour or so, me documenting, Mark and Jon lighting various things on fire, trying out combinations of the valves and ignition techniques.

I threw in the occasional suggestion as it occurred to me, but their expositions and experience from previous machines really gave them a significantly larger envelope to know and define improvements. So much for me to learn. Which I love.

Just the three of us enthralled in the passion of pyro and a new machine.

Finally at 1 am we shut down Mr. Satans and closed the shop.

So we left him in the dark to simmer and cool down from a glowing red from his first night up delighting his fans.

A fulfilling 8 hour slot at the shop.

Shipyard Petroleum Jelly party shots finally up

www.flickr.com/photos/418...0697239566/

Enjoy the mess we made in the virtual way and keep your clothes safe.


If you aren't among the 1000 or so viewers that have already seen the videos here they are:

part 1
www.youtube.com/watch

part 2
www.youtube.com/watch

-kevin

Two Free tickets for the Saturday Cycle plays

I have a spare ticket and one of my friends has a spare ticket.

I've been building a set with Larnie Fox and others for this Saturday only Cycle set of plays at Theater Artau in SF.

If you go ( or look at this pict) you have to know one thing. IUt isn't the most crucial or key but I'm pretty proud of this one thing.

Every single point and intersection of bamboo on stage is hand tied, most times in two places at the intersections. Including the piece holding the backdrop curtain.

The show got a great review in the SF weekly ( or maybe it was the Guardian I can't seem to find the write up) and is totally sold out with a waiting list of more then a hundred.

www.theatreofyugen.org/nohspace.html

This is a one day only , one time thing.
The fruition of 2 years of work by the players, director, and writer plus music composed by pals of mine Suki O Kane, and Allen Whitmen ( Mermen). Set designed by Bodeel and Larnie Fox.

I have a spare ticket and one of my friends has a spare ticket.

You can also go to the free dress rehearsal at theater Artau today at 1 pm.

You can go to the morning session ( be there at 930 am ) or go to the afternoon session.

Or even both if you have the stamina.

From the offical write up:
Five plays performed during the course of a one-day-only presentation informed by the ritualistic Japanese Noh theater, written and directed in an ensemble process by Yugen’s Artistic Associate and playwright Erik Ehn. Musical composition by Allen Whitman and Suki O’Kane with the Yugen Orchestra.

This marathon theatrical event presents American stories told in the signature poetic, dance-drama style of Yugen, with its roots in the spirit of Noh, reaching up to new movement and narrative forms through pioneering contemporary music. The five categories of plays forming the traditional Noh architecture are re-invented in the lexicon of Western archetypes and with American legendary figures.

July 7th, 2007
at Project Artaud Theater in San Francisco
450 Florida Street (17th & Mariposa St.)


First Sitting: 9:30 (Performance start time 10 am)

* 10,000 - The day begins with a ritual dance play created with founder Yuriko Doi.

* Winterland – the God Play – is about two girls and their quest to see Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols in their last performance at Winterland in San Francisco

* Guest comedy artist Laura Jorgensen & Fred Curchack

* Letters from a Small House – the Warrior Play – examines the life of Unabomber Ted Kaczinski

Meal Break
(food vendors available on site)

Second Sitting 3:00 (Performance start time 3:30 pm)

* Dark/Silent – the Woman’s play – centers on Helen Keller

* Guest comedy artist - mugwumpin

* Long Day's Journey into Night – the fourth category play is a Mad Woman Play with an adaptation of O’Neill’s American classic

* Guest comedy artist - Moshe Cohen

* Pretty – the fifth category Demon Play – is the story of the abduction and murder of a young girl.

I caught a Rainbow Trout while camping !

On a whim I brought up a rod and reel kit to the camping trip.

We were camping right on the edge of the South Elba River, right next to Washington ( a very cool little gold town) at 5500 feet or so.

I had never assembled the kit ( it was a garage cleaning score from years ago) or been fishing in 25 years.

Luckily a camping neighbor, Derrick, helped me with technicals and got me going pretty quick, in a real friendly way.

I had the reel facing the wrong way, and did not know who to lock it and cast it. He even gave me a couple of night crawlers. I lost the first one on the first cast.

Then he prophetically told me: " You will catch one for sure, I've been fishing for 2 days without luck, its always the beginners that get one"

Sure enough 30 minutes later I got one. The rod wasn't even in my hands, I had simply set it up between a couple of rocks,

Paying no attention.

Then a shout, and a dash to get the reel.

I pulled the little thing in. It was just barely at the limit. I may have been lacking a fishing license.

We had planned on letting it go, but the hook had caught in the gill and it was bleeding strongly.

And it slammed itself pretty hard on a rock on the way in. Which was somewhat of a dumb move on its part.

Derrick pulled the hook, and I tried to revive it for a few minutes.

Then Derrick gave it a tender go.

Washing it off and moving our little Rainbow buddy back and forth in the water.

Hoping it was just stunned. You could see the trout gills weakly flap in and out.

After 10 minutes of the three of us exercising our new pal we gave up rescue attempts.

My pal Jennifer and former semi-pro fisher gave the verdict, quickly drawing her handy leathermen.

Slice went the knife. The head detached. Slowly drifting around the river. Lost.

Now she gutted it, washing out the entrails, then offering them to our fishing neighbors for their fishing plans.

They turned down the fresh guts.

So we trooped up the bank, and lit a fire in the campsite.

Jennifer applied her special mail order salt and pepper to the little trout.

She is a bit of a gourmand, as a culinary academy graduate and former food critic of the SF Chronicle.

Then we cooked it up on the grill, straight on. No foil.

After a couple false guesttimates of it being done, Jenn offered it up to me, in chunks right off the body.

Raw, scorched, cooked.

No forks, no knife, just peeled off chunks.

The taste was incredible.

I'm now believer of Rainbow Trout.

Crank show: Chapel of Chimes this Thurs Oakland 5 PM to 9PM aka the Garden of Memory

One of my favorite shows in the year is this Thursday June 21st.

For the third year running we ( the Larnie Fox Crank Ensemble) are performing.

It is the Garden of Memory show at the unbelievably gorgeous Julia Morgan columbarium

Event info :

www.gardenofmemory.com/

Dets on how to volunteer and go for free at the bottom of the post.

A columbarium is a building for storing the ashes of the dead. Its kinda freaky, gothic, and cool. Over 500,000 folk are in storage there. So you could think of this as a modern concert for the dead. That is, a dead show.
Drum roll please.
But without the hippies and tie-dyes.

Info on the columbarium:
www.chapelofthechimes.com/oakla...x.html

If you have never been there you are really missing out on this gem of a building. I truly feel the building compares to the Al-Hambra in Spain.

This is a once a year event ( always on the solstice) and just has to be seen and heard to be believed.

Over 35 groups will be performing in the various rooms, halls, atriums, gardens, and cranies of this place. Including: pianist Sarah Cahill, Paul Dresher, Amy X. Neuburg, Terry Riley, Heather Heise, Anne Hege, Henry Kaiser, the William Winant Percussion Group, the Cornelius Cardew Choir.

We will be in the Garden of St. Paul Room from 5 PM to 9 PM

4499 Piedmont Ave., next to Mountain View Cemetery

Admission is $12 general, $8 students and seniors, $5 kids under 12 (kids under 5 are free).

if you want to go for free and get a pal in see below:

Speaking of volunteers, we're gathering them together, and if you have any names of people who might help, please contact Jeff Dunn at <mailto:jdunnpm@yahoo.com>jdunnpm@yahoo.com. Each volunteer gets two passes for the concert, in exchange for an hour and a half of helping out.


The Crank Ensemble performs using six or more low-tech, hand-made instruments. Each of them work with a hand-crank. Each has a contact microphone (piezo) so it can be amplified. We run the signal through a mixing board. I conduct the performers and mix the signals to the board during the performance. We don't use any processing. We like to dress a little funny ~ parody on classical performer's costumes. The actual sound is sort of a like cacophony of kalimbas and plucked strings, and sometimes we can be very rhythmic when we find our groove. Our slogan is "Making New Music Look Easy". Each piece is improvised.

Please see and hear here:
<www.infoflow.com/larnie/cr...nie/cranks
<www.myspace.com/crankensem...ankensemble

It is offically a camping weekend

I'm off to the Yuba River up in the Sierras to go camping with a couple people I know and a bunch I don't.

The funny thing is that I got a call today from another friend about going camping this Saturday up by Santa Rosa at someones private land..
But me and the tent were already booked.

And I know JC is off spinning at some rave camping event.

So that in my mind means it must be officially a camping weekend with at least three folk I know going camping.

Now I don't know the camp site, but I hear its pretty nice.

www.riverrestresort.com

The only bummer is that I don't have a replacement camera, I forgot to patch the kayak ( so I doubt I will bring it) and I didn't have time to get the Subaru registered and put fresh tires on it.

Now if my client had just paid me on Thurs, I'd have all those little luxuries. Darn it.

So the VW Bug is headed for the Mountains.

Still should be really nice to get away.

kevin

DSC party Friday night in Oakland benefit for firebloom

Should be muy fun!

So come on down to ACME in West Oaktown (see flyer for dets) , be sure to say hi the Spontaneous Combustible folk.
I hear rumors that both John and Bohdi are free for fun and maybe if your lucky single.
Then dance and party your ass off.

Their last party got a 11 on my scale of 10.

Post party, I'm gonna rockstar off to the Yuba river for camping and get some Sierra time in.

Let me know if this sounds like weekend fun to you and want to go.
kevin