The Golden Mean in the NYT
Tomato Trellis and Family
Zolie amazing Karydis with her Tomato crop
When I was Zolie’s age now my dad put in his first garden at our house in Boise Idaho. Tomatoes have always been grown in our Basque family and we have taken pride in them for generations. I remember us taking first place in the Idaho State fair in the mid 70’s for the biggest tomato! We were just shy of a world record! I recall it taking several jars for mom to can and it was as big as my sisters and I head. Over the years my dad worked out a system of supports for the huge plants we would grow that I still use today in the garden with Zolie. Well now he has improved it and he sent me his updated system and photos of the results (see link below)!
Escape From the Shipyard!
We had a wonderful time! Great food, creative backyard science and the Crew from Alabama!
Dinner was great, and Rich stopped by with the new signs for the car. Kyrsten did a great job designing them.
Look close, there is a ghost on board.
Escape From Berkeley
New Mini Boiler Bar!
At the opening night Party this Friday
Tacket built a wonderful new Bar to put the Volt Aged on. Come see us age whiskey 30 years in only seconds! Revel in our ability to change junks shape, and drink enough to believe our tales of science.
Race Kick-off and Vehicle Show Case October 10th, 2008, 8 to Midnight
Escape from Berkeley, Kick-off party and Vehicle Showcase, at the Shipyard Labs 1010 Murray Street in Berkeley, CA. Entry is a sliding scale five to fifteen, with all proceeds going to the race.
The night before the Escape from Berkeley rally commences come gawk and meet the Racers. Lay down your bets, who will win and who will be voted sexiest vehicle. Enjoy, Fired Scottish whiskey by Jon Sarriugarte, Orations and evocations by non-other than Dr. Hal and John Hell, and a surprise libation from Flash.
My friends who have spent way too much time in Berkeley have decided finally to get out, but not soon enough to be affected by the hippie vestages of left wing counter culture.
The year is 2020 A.D. . .
The City Berkeley is now a maximum security statist dystopia . . .
Cars are illegal . . .
Petroleum is a controlled substance . . .
Now, geeks and gearheads unite to . . .
Escape from Berkeley (by any non-petroleum means necessary)
October 10 – 13, 2008
“Escape from Berkeley” is a road rally of alternatively powered vehicles from Berkeley, California to Las Vegas, Nevada. Part engineering problem, part artistic opportunity, the rally challenges contestants to start their “engines” on something other than petroleum based fuel, and by any means necessary, cause their “vehicles” show up in Las Vegas three days later- using only fuels/power/motive force scavenged “for free” along the route.
DARPA had a Grand Challenge. . . the rednecks a Cannonball Run. . . and the hippies a bunch of WVO buses broken down on the side of the road. Now, NASA scientists and junkyard fabricators go head-to-head in a no holds barred battle of engineering prowess and creative excess. Hanging somewhat in the balance, are bragging rights for saving the world. That, and a grand prize of $5,000.
California Blacksmith Ass. Octoberfest this weekend
The first weekend in oct the CBA gets together at Fritz Hagist to camp, cook, drink and…. oh yea blacksmith. We call it Oktoberfest.
Lead Demonstrator ~ Frank Turley, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Frank Turley has taught blacksmithing for more than 30 years at his school. Some of the biggest names in blacksmithing have studied under his tutelage. He will demonstrate Hispanic Gothic “claraboya” and a Mexican “aldaba” among other things, and will bring copies of the book he co-wrote on colonial Spanish blacksmithing. www.turleyforge.com
Workshop Demonstrator ~ Dan Romo, Oakland, California
Dan romo’s specialty is applying patinas to the work of other metal smiths. He uses cold and hot chemicals with a clear paste wax finish. He will be demonstrating his techniques and provide opportunities for us to try them out. www.studioromo.com
CBA Education Workshop ~ Mark Aspery, Springville, California
Welded collar & tools & math (as on Level III grill). Forging set-ups will be available for beginners between sessions.
The weekend before a smaller group sets up the whole thing, then we cook, drink, and shoot the shit.
Here we are at beer:30 after a hard day in the woods setting up showers, tents, a full industrial kitchen, pig roaster, and Oyster cooker! I’m looking forward to this weekend with Kyrsten Zolie and all the CBA crew.
Art Car festival at “How Berkeley Can you be” Parade
The SS Alpha Fox and our new car the Golden Mean.
It was great to get both the cars out for this annual event. I loved the crowd and the response we got was over the top. The entire parade route was nothing but claps and cheers! Zolie wasn’t sure what to think and spent most of the parade just staring at all this attention with a blank face.
No fire this year as Berkeley city continues to make this event watered down with drugs, bad politics, naked people, but no beer (unless your in the fenced area), fire or free thinking art.
The Wong and Chan Family joined us!
We were swarmed with questions and congratulations from the crowd.
Thanks!
Next we went over to Harrod Blank’s opening of his new film at the Cerrito Speakeasy Theater.
The Artcar Fest is put on every year by Philo and is a wonderful event with so many great art cars and people.
Flicker photo’s of the snail
Golden Mean in the news!
Oakland Tribune
The Oakland Tribune stopped by to do a story on the snail. We had great fun telling Elizabeth Pfeffer why and how we made the snail.
Full story and pictures are here
A story at the Contra Costa Times too!
Make
The next day Make magazine came by to do a shoot for one of their upcoming issues!
Our good friend David Pescovitz from Boing Boing is doing the article
Sam, Bronca, and Vanessa did a great photo shoot and I can’t wait to see the great pictures of Zolie my daughter and us.
turning the camera on them
Trace Mounds at Blackrock
1970 Blackrock Desert
A good friend of mine Christopher Brooks responded to my questions about the trace mounds we saw this year at Burning Man from the previous year’s event.
Here is the research he did along with a bit of history of the Blackrock desert.
The pictures he shows of the early years remind me of my first trip to Blackrock. I brought out my Vespa with 10″ tires and was able to drive at 50mph with my eyes closed and no hands! It was not a reckless move back then, just flat and hard.
The Snail meets the Dragonfly
After a very early morning photo shoot of the snail, while trying to find someone who was serving pancakes, Lisa and I are approached by a guy on a Segway wondering if we have 110v power on board the snail. He asked if it could run a vacuum cleaner and would we like a ride in his helicopter. I stepped out of the car to make sure I understood his request and quickly said yes. I followed him back to his camp to pick up gear, friends and our tip…
While they were loading, a couple of clean guys got in wearing Enron shirts and tossed in this neatly stacked $50,000 bundle of cash! I grabbed it and thanked them for our tip. They laughed, took our picture and then showed us the center was all ones.
I stopped by camp to pick Kyrsten up (took a slick tongue to get her out of bed that early) and 20 min later we are vacuum cleaned and seat belted in.
Paul, the guy who stopped us, and the snail in our prop wash.
These guys brought out a plane too. Here it is after they crashed it a few days before. As we head straight at the side of Trego mountain and pull up just in time to barely make it over the top, we are starting to wonder if we should have said yes to this ride. I found out after the ride that Lisa is terrified of flying!
One of the interesting things I saw from the air was the large dune we kept hitting riding the snail around that week. You can clearly see it in this picture as a dark fuzzy line running from the bottom left, though the camps, twords Trego mountain (looks like a road). Turns out this is where last years trash fence was! I took a look at aerial shots (see below) once I got home and you can see many years of scars left from having the event out there. I think this is a great event, but I wish there was a more open dialog with burners and BM about the damage being done. The combination of lack of rain and years of BM is why this years event was so dusty. This event leaves a huge trace, what are the real impacts on this area and how long will the desert take to recover?
What a ride! Thanks Paul and crew!
