Lee.org

via Lady Bee on the Burning Man Artists-Announce mailing list, From Rachael

I wanted to make sure everyone here had heard about the current crisis being faced by one of the main art spaces in the Bay Area.  An incredible amount of Burning Man art has been produced there.  Read the note below to learn more about the closure (and future plans) of this great space.

NIMBY, a 40,000 square foot industrial art space located in West Oakland, California, was shut down by the City of Oakland for non- compliance to fire and building codes on September 11, 2008.  The inspection conducted by the City of Oakland was in response to a fire at the building on September 10, 2008.

For 5 years NIMBY has been the largest industrial art space in the Bay Area.  Over 40 groups, comprised of over 200 artists, use the  

space for designing, fabricating and storing large-scale projects.    

The closure of NIMBY is having a huge impact on the arts community in our area.

The City of Oakland is offering assistance to help NIMBY relocate to a new building.  City officials are being supportive in helping with locating available properties, and working with us to design a space that can meet the needs of artists while complying with building and fire codes.  While we are grateful for this show of support we must find considerable outside financial assistance to make this move possible.

We are working to create a new space that is larger and more versatile than the current NIMBY, turning this tragedy into an opportunity for expansion.  Included in the plans is a massive, permanent gallery space for large-scale works of art usually left in storage.  Artists will then be able to design, construct, and showcase their pieces between events in one space, allowing them increased exposure for their art.

In order for this vision to be realized NIMBY must receive support from the entire arts community.  Please visit our website  (NIMBYspace.org) for more details on the closure and to make a donation.  The entire Bay Area arts community is depending on the support of the national arts community to save NIMBY.

Below are links for just a few of the pieces that have been created at NIMBY.  Please contact me should you have any questions or ideas for partnering with our organization.

Rachael

Paypal:  nimbyLLC@yahoo.com

NIMBY site:  http://www.nimbyspace.org/

Some Art Created at NIMBY:

Colussus http://www.zacharycoffin.com/colossus/index.php

Steampunk Tree House http://www.steamtreehouse.com/

Cleavage in Space — A 40 ft Chandelier http://images.burningman.com/index.cgi?image=12425

Sim Nuke – http://www.simnuke.org/

Interpretive Arson — DDI and 2?R – http://wiki.interpretivearson.com/

The Disgusting Spectacle – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V652yOYHWdo

KSW Paddle Wheel Steam Boat – http://www.kineticsteamworks.org/
 

A few items currently in storage at NIMBY:

The Serpent Mother http://www.flaminglotus.com/serpent_mother/Serpent_image_gallery/

IT – http://www.michaelchristian.com/

An installation for Natural World Museum – http://www.artintoaction.org/

Sets for the Oakland Opera – http://www.oaklandopera.org/

I’m considering starting bngbng.net, a site wher……… Ha! It’s already been done! Check it out.

Well actually, I was hoping to do something a little different. I’d like to start a boingboing.net where people are free (as in beer on the fourth of July) to comment. It wouldn’t take much effort to build it.

Grab stories and comments from BoingBoing (it’s Creative Commons non-commercial, attribution 2.5). Just use our own comment system.

Rick T made interested noises… Anyone else?

I’m sure you’re asking yourself, “Self, why is Lee talking about Boing Boing but with no vowels?” I’m glad you asked. Check out this post I wrote about  Disemvoweling. And then  this.

It was a little windy on the first day of Burning Man…. errr…. a 4 hour white-out. So I climbed to the top of the Man structure, hoping that it would be above the dust. A few years earlier, I had climbed onto a 12′ tall flower-thing and it was astounding; it was like I was on top of a cloud bank, just a dozen feet above the earth! But not this time…

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It was Sunday night of the Temple burn… Charlie had a car. Rigger’s art,  Bizzaro Saguaro  was in Illumination Village. Put them together and you’ve got an art-car ready to drive out to the Temple!

On the way out to the temple, we were in another white out. The whole car (all… 20 or so of us) roared with laughter when we saw that Charlie had gotten lost and we were headed straight for Center Camp! Not one of us could have done any better, crawling along at 3 miles an hour in a dust storm. We arrived on the scene just as the temple was being lit. We hung around for about 20 minutes… this year’s temple was built with a very airy frame… such that it just wouldn’t fall over! It was cold and WINDY so we took off… another 20 minute leisurely  drive in the wind back to Ill Ville.  

My favorite “Safety 3rd” moment is pulling a beer out of the trunk…. Yes, that’s 2 propane cylinders hooked up to a quick-release manifold and ball-valve powering the cactus on the hood of the car.

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Marcus is a friend and unicycle enthusiast. It’s astounding seeing him ride on the esplanade.

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I want one of these for Christmas

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This is the kind of perfect insanity that makes Burning Man worthwhile. A 20′ tall, 50′ long, mobile, flaming trojan duckie. I walked around it and was amazed at the the care taken in it’s construction. It’s a beautiful mammoth vehicle.

Apparently when the editor on BoingBoing doesn’t like your post, instead of doing something reasonable like discuss or refute it, it gets “disemvoweled“.

This is the most insulting thing I’ve seen in ages. It’s akin to the moderator of a discussion putting a dunce cap on your head and then saying with a straight face and a titter, “continue, we’re all listening.”

This happened to Travis. Teresa Nielsen Hayden, an editor at BoingBoing stripped his comment (#1) humorously critical of Hillary Clinton of vowels while the very next comment with almost the same wording critical of George W Bush was not stripped.

#1 posted by TJIC , July 28, 2008 11:37 AM

Cn w gt pctr f Hllry Clntn’s cmpncts smrk whn sh ws ccsd f th xct sm fdrl crm n th TrvlGt scndl ?

    (de-disemvowelled: Can we get a picture of Hillary Clinton’s compunctious smirk when she was accused of the exact same federal crime in the TravelGate scandal?)  

#2 posted by VagabondAstronomer , July 28, 2008 11:38 AM

Seen the same smirk on Dubya as well. Must be endemic to this administration…

In browsing the site, I see that this apparently happens a lot. Mostly because they “just didn’t like the tone of their voice” 1, 2, 3…

Their moderation policy says pretty much, “Don’t like our censorship policy? Get your own website.” The exact quote is

Q. I can’t believe that Boing Boing, of all places, would be using censorship. What happened to freedom of speech?

A. Boing Boing is steadfast in its support of your freedom of speech. We believe that you, O Reader, should be able to have (or refuse to have) anything you want on your own website, as long as it doesn’t deprive others of their rights. Yay, freedom of speech!

By that same token, freedom of speech also means that the people who write and edit Boing Boing have the right to have (or refuse to have) anything they want on their own website. If one of the things they don’t want is a comment that you have posted, they aren’t depriving you of your freedom of speech. You’re free to put that comment up on your own webpage.

 

Fuck you, BoingBoing. If you claim intelligence but can’t take the heat have a reasonable discussion, you don’t deserve to be spoken to.

I right now vow to not click on or look at any ads on BoingBoing for 1 year.

No, wait…

I just removed BoingBoing from my RSS reader.

Burning Man 2008 was a blast. It’s taken me weeks to recover mentally. As is usual, I now need a vacation from my vacation ;-)

You’ll find several images on here. I haven’t found my video camera yet. It’s in the garage somewhere. When I do, I’ll post some more footage.

Look at some of my Burning Man 2008 images

What should be done with the soon to be empty radio spectrum, freed from analog television transmissions?

Dearest members of the FCC,

I strongly encourage you to allot a large portion of the soon to be freed up analog television white space to unlicensed data services.

You may have noticed how incredibly beneficial and popular the unlicensed 2.4 gigahertz spectrum has been for our society. Please let that kind of progress continue. There are many more radio services, some of which haven’t even been conceived of yet, just waiting to become feasible.

I am sure that you have received many more letters telling you about the myriad possible uses for this spectrum. Please read them.

I am sure that several companies are whispering in your collective ear, giving you all manner of reasons why the spectrum shouldn’t be unlicensed. Planting fear, uncertainty and doubt, “FUD” is a time honored tactic to subvert the will of public policy makers. Please do not fall prey to this tactic.

Do what is best for the American people.

Thank you,
Lee Sonko

FreeTheAirwaves.com talks more about this issue.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the final scene in the movie Big Night.

I made a perfect omelette for breakfast this morning.

And another for lunch.

It’s a good time to start anew.

(via)

As of Q1 2008, YouTube is not profitable, with its revenues being noted as “immaterial” by Google in a regulatory filing.[4] Its bandwidth costs are estimated at approximately $1 million a day.[4]

So umm, where’s the money coming from? Google might have billions but $1 million/day could suck that dry pretty quick.

Though I suppose starting a new kind of television is going to be expensive…

“You could buy every single person who will regularly use this boondoggle their own personal Prius, and you’d not only use less energy, you’d spend a hell of a lot less money doing it.” (via) (and)

Make sure to read the bottom part too!

Hallie’s Baby Shower
Celebrant: Hallie McConlogue
Baby: Pumpkin unit 1
Event Date: 2008-08-16Trailer Trash /punk/hippy themed baby shower at the encounter Studio. Come as you are or in theme.

Time:2pm – 6pm
Where:The Encounter Studio
555 De Haro St Suite 120
San Francisco, CA 94107

Look for the 2 stone griffins around the ivy hidden outter door in the back of the parking lot.

Call hallie for directions if you need em:

408 956-xxxx

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And from Corey…

There there I was, waxing up the wife, like a surfboard, with gallons of vitamin E oil, making her belly shine like a pink bowling ball.   Every once in a while, our baby would kick.   It felt like he was rubbing back (more likely, he was fighting for space because I was caving in his roof, but I digress.)   The more I rubbed, the more I started to recognize shapes.   We know where the head is, it’s the BIG round thingy… but I swear, this long thing, just below and to the left of Hallie’s belly button, felt like an arm.   And over where Hallie’s belly was churning like a pot of pasta, over near Hallie’s right kidney, that must be his feet!   And with vision granted by the tears in my eyes, I caught my first glimpse of my baby.   There he was, all curled up in the fetal position (imagine that!) as clear as day!

And this salt crusted face that was already beaming is now lit with a florescent glow I write you this invite.

Hey all, it’s me, Mr. Last minute.   Sorry for the lag, but I’ve always been a busy bee, and now I’m a busy bee for three.

We’re having a baby!   As you all know.   So we’re having a baby shower, and it’s next weekend, and yer all invited.   And we have a registry!   And it’s, as always, optional, since, as usual, its too late to get anything in time.

But come, if you can.

The theme is “Robo-Trash”… Think white trash…think engineers…think Burningman during construction of AWESOME kinetic art (that can kill you) under the hot desert sun! Think Robogames with less nuts and bolts and more duct tape.. (key work, MORE!)

Meanwhile, all you robots nerds, wanna help me build my new Push Powered Robo Stroller? :-D   And you expecting or unexpecting (those who are no longer expecting?) robot nerds, if you help me build mine, I’ll help you build YOOOOOOOOOOURS!   (PS, there’s more of you than you think, we should start a club!)

local version:

Ciiiiiiiiiiao!