Here’s what I’m bringing:

SWARM.  Video of same.

EOM

I’ll be on my way to Burning Man on August 22nd or 23rd. I’ll be in the desert on August 23rd or 24th.  I’ll be leaving on Monday Sept 3rd or Tuesday the 4th.  Back in San Francisco by the 5th for sure.

If you need to reach me in a dire emergency, you should send an email to: 911@burningman.com

It will probably take hours for the message to reach me.

To get the message to me, they will need to know where I’m staying. Tell them I am with the “Swarm” art project and those folks can probably find me. The people at “Illumination Village” also know me. I’m camping in “Low Key Peep Flambe Camp”, an unregistered camp. It has 2 3′ tall peeps in front of it and the address is probably on Coral Reef somewhere between 4 o’clock and 5:30.

Yeah, it probably all sounds like gibberish to you. But that’s where I’m staying. And loving it (if only I could get some sleep before going to the playa. I’ve been out til midnight every night welding and making battery packs and helping and managing others… managing is no fun and keeping the books. Sleep when you’re dead, right?)

Here’s one design suggestion by Charlie for the SWARM base camp. Click on the image to enlarge it.

As a founding member of Low Key Peep Flambe Camp, it is my solemn responsibility to bring in the peeps (someone else handles bringing in the funk). While procuring our comestibles, I came across a most curious product. It is what appears to be a mammoth 2 lb box of Pop Rocks!

How could I pass up such an irresponsibly sold product?

I have ecstatic visions of consuming vast quantities of pop rocks, reminiscent of that Newcomer drug-lord in Alien Nation who drank so much of the drug that he devolved into a totally awesome monster!

To the right I present to you my official provisions for the 2007 Burning Man instantiation of Low Key Peep Flambe Camp.

This is a part of the Ocean Beach Fire Pit Project

Hi there all my nearest and dearesteses… For the past two and a half months many of you have not heard from me or seen me much. During this time Rebecca, the Fire Bloom crew and I have been bustin’ our butts to get Bloom #2 ready and onto the beach. We accomplished this with many, many hours of cutting, welding, patterning and grinding!
Now it’s time to play!
This Sunday, July 22nd 2007 (my little sister Amna’s birthday) around sunset, we will be celebrating not only Fire Bloom 2, but also Charlie’s beautiful Starfish! The location is Ocean Beach, between Lincoln and Fulton, across the street from the Beach Chalet. Please join us in the festivities. Bring something to drink or eat, wood to burn and your friends. It will be a lovely time burning, watching the sun set and making merry after a grueling two months of hard work! It has definitely paid off.
Thank you to everyone who supported us and helped make this happen. We look forward to seeing you out there!!
Yasi xoxoxooxo

We just finished running the Serpent at the Fire Arts Festival. It was a blast!

Karen’s pix

A terrific (47mb) video by Olivier Bonin of the Serpent at the Crucible’s 2007 Fire Arts Festival The thing to watch!!

SF Chronicle coverage here and here (article title: “Hot-and-heavy sculpture gets artists warmed up Enormous flame-breathing creations at Fire Arts Festival are prelude to Burning Man. Meredith May, Chronicle Staff Writer. Friday, July 13, 2007″)

Here is the schedule of who worked the performance… There’s a lot of Girls, aren’t there?

WED: Jess THURS: Rebecca FRI: Jess SAT: Cherl

__._,_.___

It’s always fun when you’re getting into a new sport. This time, it’s TIG welding. Darn it if I don’t know what every item on this shopping list is :-)

Prt Num	Prt Name	Price	Quantity	Extended
45V26	Gas Lens Collet Bdy 3/32, 2.4mm (WP-17, 18, 26)	$4.67	1	$4.67
54N01	Insulator (WP-17, 17V, 18, 18V, 26, 26V Gas Lens)	$2.13	1	$2.13
10N24	Collet 3/32, 2.4mm (WP-17, 18, 26)	$1.38	1	$1.38
CHEM-SHARP	5 oz. Chemical Tungsten Sharpener Only	$8.89	1	$8.89
362-1423	1.5% Lanthanated Gr 3/32 x 7 10Pcs	$17.66	1	$17.66
10N47	Alumina Nozzle (1-27/32 WP-17, 18, 26) #7, 7/16, 11mm	$1.02	4	$4.08
30214	Stainless Toothbrush Scratch w/Plastic Handle	$2.00	1	$2.00
54N15	Alumina Gas Lens (1-5/8 WP-17, 18, 26) #7, 7/16, 11mm	$1.03	6	$6.18
24CM	24C Sz Md Tillman Glove	$9.45	1	$9.45
3M2091	FILTERS: P100 (2 Per Pk)	$5.05	1	$5.05
362-1295	Pure Gr 1/16 x 7 10Pcs	$8.41	1	$8.41
362-1305	Zirconated Gr 1/16 x 7 10Pcs	$16.00	1	$16.00
362-1145	2% Thoriated Gr 040 x 7 10Pcs	$10.15	1	$10.15
10N23	Collet 1/16, 1.6mm (WP-17, 18, 26)	$1.28	1	$1.28
10N31	Collet Body 1/16, 1.6mm (WP-17, 18, 26)	$2.17	1	$2.17
10N22	Collet 040, 1.05mm (WP-17, 18, 26)	$1.38	1	$1.38
10N30	Collet Body 040, 1.05mm (WP-17, 18, 26)	$2.17	1	$2.17
56-116-36	ER5356 Alum 1/16 x 36 1Lb	$4.55	1	$4.55
56-18-36	ER5356 Alum 1/8 x 36 1Lb	$3.97	1	$3.97
S2-045-36	EWS ER70S2 .045 x 36	$2.95	1	$2.95
S2-18-36	EWS ER70S2 1/8 x 36	$2.65	1	$2.65
308LHS116	ER308LHS 1/16 x 36	$6.95	1	$6.95
#82-1/16	Nickel 82 1/16	$19.95	1	$19.95
3000713	Model 425-50-510P Propane	$95.55	1	$95.55
TH-1731	Grade T Twin Hose 1/4 In x 25 Ft FB/FB Fittings	$24.50	1	$24.50
73580	4-1/2 7/8 80G ZH Flp Dsc	$12.40	1	$12.40
SubTotal				$276.52
Sales Tax				$0.00
Std Delivery (Shipping FAQs)				$18.17
Total				$294.69

Lanthanated tungsten, stainless steel toothbrushes, gas lens collet bodies. These are a few of my favorite things!

In the July 2007 (volume 8, Number 6) issue of Business 2.0 there is an interesting article about Burning Man. It’s cool that there is a photo of the Serpent Mother at the top of one of the pages.

There’s Digg article about SWARM. Digg us if you like it.

Geeks Build Autonomous Swarming Orbs Covered with Steel Blades

You don’t want to run into ten of these in a dark alley. A bunch of geeks are building “art” consisting of plasma-cut steel blades wrapped around a spherical autonomous robot. Think “blades of a hand-push lawn mower, shaped into a giant hamster ball of doom”. Scroll down for videos. It’s open source so build your own!

Charlotte, Karen, Aerin, Marlise, Baba, Jess and I took 2 feathers from the pieces of the Angel of the Apocalypse to the opening of “Arts on Fire”, a show at the Sanchez Art Center in Pacifica.

We had a blast. It was a kid-friendly event and the Angel proved to be very kid friendly. As we were getting ready, the kids lined up, gazing at the flaming feathers. They screamed every time someone shot it off. After 3 hours, their screams were pretty half-hearted ;-)