Some pictures of the camp we put together this year. Gifting hammock naps on hot afternoons makes people happy…

… I feel good.

… a cacophony

    of

       sounds
       lights
       faces
       experiences
       hearts
       souls

I

       went home again.

Fuck to the default…

Conjured Accomplishment!

So… the art car license wasn’t granted. The idea came across as simply having the “seats removed and furniture and decorations added.” Fair I suppose….

Of course additional mutation would be possible… but I didn’t get anything decent worked out before the appeal deadline. So this is something that will have to wait for another year.

Not sure if the family plan will work out anyway… just need to be patient for a few more years I think. Then the kids would be more able to participate. I’ve got a feeling they aren’t really ready to get the most out of the whole thing.

So, now I need to come up with an alternative plan for this year’s burn. I think I’ll take the dragon bike again… not sure what other art project I may try to get together. Or maybe I’ll just join up with a theme camp and dedicate my time to that this time around.

We have been refining the idea for the art car. The pictures below show how we expect to put a brick facade on the outside, paneling on the inside, and curtains. We also expect to mount the chaise lounge sideways and put a couch at the back.

This should create a nice shaded space that can hold quite a few people. We expect to cruise around taking people where they want to go while they spend time on our couch. We’ll also park out on the playa somewhere pull people who wander by in.

The brain? What brain? Oh, that brain. Yes, that is a giant metallic lighted brain on top, complete with eyes. The “neural pathways” will slowly change color and will have a variety of colors at any one time. During the day, the shiny silver duct material we are going to use should reflect a lot of natural light as well, making it quite dazzling in the sun. Below is a test that gives some idea of what it may look like.

We have also started working on the car itself. Doing some cleaning and repairs. Looks like it will work out well for our intended use.

A requirement for a successful Family Burn will be to encourage my couch potatoish internet focused family (myself included) to actually interact with people. So, we are building the “Family Therapy” art car.

Starting with this (I can’t believe I just bought this thing):

Remove those seat cushions and seat backs, then add something like this:

Along with four (one for each family member) of something like this:

Arranged something like this (click for a better look):

Finish it off with some carpet and wood paneling, and a bookshelf along the back. And some lights of course.

You know. Like a family therapist office, but backwards. The family is the therapist (like we have a clue). Get it?

We’ll have pins and stickers for anyone who gets on our couch:

Anyway that is the idea. I’ll post progress…

I’ve been to Burning Man three times now. All three times without my wife and two kids, 14 and 16.

This was for some practical reasons.  Until recently my wife was teaching and the new school year starts at the same time. The kids would miss the first day or two as well. There are the sometime challenging conditions that only the right attitude can overcome. And the exposure to… well everything.

It was also because I wanted to see what I would do at Burning Man when I didn’t have them to worry about. Or have to worry about their reaction when I did them… experiment with being a different me….

But what I learned is that I don’t want to be a different me, I can’t be a different me, without also trying to bring them along.

I won’t go into details here, but some things that played a role in this realization include: letting the godling statue go… and then leaving without it returning…. Trying to figure out how to relate to some friends I made…. And considering my relationship to the event itself as embodied in, and contrasting with, one of my neighbors.

So as soon as I got home (ok, the other home where the wife and kids were waiting), I told them that next year I wanted us all to go.

But this journey is about more than just that… it is also about integrating the discoveries of the experimental me into the rest of my life.

Burning Man changes people. This change, as challenging as it may be, is the best gift I can give my family.

Finally killed off an old e-mail account a few months ago. Which meant I didn’t get the e-mail from my domain registar telling me that eyeree.com needed to be renewed. So they sold it to a squatter that wants $2,250.00 for it.

So I bought eyeree.me for $11.99 instead. Much better.

Wings are done, now I need to wire up the color changing led strip lights.

The money godling is almost done and will be making the trip to Burning Man this year… but got distracted by a different project when I saw the Craig’s list add for this bike:

What I’m doing is turning it into a dragon:

With wings:

OK, that last one isn’t the best picture, and it just giving an idea of what it may look like when finished. I’ve basically made a mount for 4 1/4″ steel rods that will form the “fingers” of the dragon’s wings and I’ve got some white mesh with shiny silver stuff on it to make the “skin” between the fingers.

It sparkly silver should gitter in the sunlight with wind blowing it. For night, I’m planning to use some color changing leds to light it.