Death Star Mutant Vehicle: 2010

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Heavy Lifting

Tuesday started off as a productive day of building. When the sphere was out of reach of the ladders the new plan was to tilt it and the rotate it and work our way around. This work for a while, until the sphere became too heavy, started folding in on itself and it was just plain too dangerous. El Capitan (a burning man art car veteran) stopped by to help, and expressed concern with our plan which only solidified Dan's gut feeling that what we were doing was bad, and we had to stop.

Discouraged, we turned to burning man for help. We rode to The Artery and were linked up with a man named Chaos who was in charge of all the heavy machinery used to build the city. We requested the use of a JLG (cherry picker lift), which shockingly Chaos said wouldn't be a problem!!! We were to meet them out in the center playa the next morning and we would have our JLG. So off to the center we went.

The next pictures are pretty much self explanatory and capture one of the most awesome steps in the process.

The JLG arrives

The right tool for the job makes all the difference

I assume the position as Pods mounts me and we mouth swap washers and nuts

Sphere is complete!!!

Next the crane arrives to help rotate the sphere to the right side so we can strap it down.

Rain Delays

On Monday afternoon dark clouds rushed in and rain fell from the sky, delaying work on the sphere but creating a amazing memory. Rarely does it rain at burning man so most are not prepared for it. The rain on the playa creates an unforgiving mud and seriously mellows your buzz man. So neighbors from Dark Sparkle, Yurt Cafe and Tennis Camp and others rushed to the bus for shelter. Beers were cracked and friendships were made.

When the clowds cleared there was a DOUBLE RAINBOW!!!!. AHHHHHH!!!! OHHHHHHH MY GOD!!! IT IS SOOOOOOOOO BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

Supposedly the daughter of the double rainbow video guy was also on the bus with us.

With the rain cleared it was back to work for us and progress was made.

In the Beginning

What a ride it was. We embarked on this journey long ago... in a galaxy... WAIT sorry, got caught up in the moment. Needless to say this was an incredible ride filled with many extremes of emotion. Arriving on the playa Saturday night we had a dream that was about to come to fruition. Little did we know that our challenge had just begun.

We began building the supports and the ball on Sunday afternoon after the shade structure was complete, (and despite warnings of thunderstorms). It took help from neighbors all around to lift the "bowl" up the side of the bus and put it in to the support. After loosing my shit on Dan and Pods about working into the night while exhausted (and concerned the at the week would be consumed with the construction of the sphere, which we had no idea how we were going to complete), this is what the barely construction sphere looked like the next morning.

What began next was a series of hurdles to complete the sphere construction. To begin we simply spun the sphere and used ladders to add additional pieces.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

The Peacock!

Always good luck to see a peacock before Burning Man.

Omen?

Pods Under the Map

First under pass test!

Triton and Brittany

And we're off!

Where there once was bus Is now cars.

Final touches

Thank you Dad.

Dad,

Years ago you started me on the path that has led to my current career in construction. Thank you for teaching me what you know. Thank you for teaching me to appreciate hard work. Thank you for all YOUR hard work on the Death Star.

Love,
Your son

P.S. It is very good practice to put your name on your "plans". :)
P.P.S. For liability reasons it is even better practice to put your name on them using removable blue tape!