All posts by johncohn

Friday night / Saturday morning – on the playa at Burning Man (delayed post)

Folks.. here are some thoughts and pics from Friday night and Saturday

morning at Burning Man.. I couldn’t post them until today..

I’ll

start with a short recap of the timecycle car saga that I wrote to my

friend Bobby.. then try to add some descriptions to the pictures when I

can ..

From my note to Bobby B.
   … What a wild

ride it’s been… I’ll give it more depth in my blog.. but.. here’s

what happened..About 4 weeks ago I decided that I had red-lined and

would not be going to the burn this year.. I kept working on the

timecycle lights, but gave up on the idea of going to BRC  It was a

huge relief to be not stressing about i .. for awhile at least. . =
 The

vehicle left vt last Saturday, made it 500 miles then the trailer broke

down because of the weight. They dumped about a ton of stuff then

hobbled back to VT .. we ended up renting a ryder truck , repacked and

got them off on sunday. They got to the playa on wed AM….
   

Meanwhile.. on Wed my baby bro, billy and I started talking about 

going to the burn just for 2 days.. at 3pm on Thursday we decided.. why

the hell not.. He bought us airplane tix.. I spent all night on the

phone with some folks in Amsterdam who still had 2 will call tix.. At 6

am Friday  I was on a plane headed to Reno.   We met up there and got

to the playa at about 5:30.. The crew was just finishing the reassembly

of the timeframe.. At 7PM  Friday we got our DMV certification.. and

this was without the lights. I spent a couple of hours mounting about

half of the LEDS.. .. We took of for the playa at about 2 AM.. but on

the way, a malfunction with one of the machine;s hubs  chewed up all my

wires on the right side. Ugh. I spent about an hour on ladder at the

playa doing battlefield repairs and cursing the decision to go.. Around

3:30 AM we were back in business.. and believe it or not.. everything

worked !  We drove around until sunrise. Folks really, really dug the

design..  I’ll never forget driving into the sunrise with a full load

of riders, music going. lights working.. and a crowd following us like

the pied piper. It was memorable.    We went back to camp around 7..

but on the way we had a number of mechanical breakdowns… Two sheared

pins on the hydraulic motor, a chain sprocket dropped off, etc. but we

managed to improvise and got home for 4 hours of sleep. Sat afternoon 

i mounted the rest of the lights.. while the guys tried to figure out

why the diesel wouldn’t start.. Again.. me wondering about my decision

to be there… around 5  I was able to break free and go check things

out, visit friends and make a pilgrimage to the temple.. Which I needed

to do in Sam’s honor. That changed everything.. I came back recharged,

loving the fact that I was there with my friends and my brother.. and

ready to enjoy the burn.. Around 8 we were hit by a hellish sandstorm 

.. it got bad enough that they delayed the start of the burn.. around

10, things cleared up and we started up the machine and headed down to

the playa.   Just as we hit Esplanade, they torched the man in a spray

of fireworks. it was a perfect time to enter..   Somehow somebody was

looking out for us (Sam ? ).. because from that moment until Billy and

I had to leave at 2.. the timecycle worked flawlessly.. the motors

motored, the lights were beautiful, the chairs gracefully  went

around.. It could not have been more perfect.. !!!!  It was such a rush

seeing how much folks liked the device.. we had a huge line of folks

wanting to take the ride all night.. and the lights (if I may say so)..

were pretty cool and distinctive.. you could pick the thing out from

halfway across the playa..  I don’t know if it was an amazing change of

luck.. or our karma finally kicked in.. but whatever.. it all felt

right and worthwhile…  Around 2AM Billy and I hugged everybody and

headed out to the Reno airport for our trips home.. 
What an amazing 2 days…  

OK.. Here are some pictures.. Here’s what greets you when you get off the plane in reno

Billy

was there waiting for me.. He’d rented a car and raided a grocery

store.. We had enough food and supplies for a month stay… 

The drive from Reno to lack Rock was just under 3 hours.. really beautiful country.. Hot, arid, rocky, so unlike Vermont

We

were enjoying the scenery so much we got stopped by a local police guy

for follwing the car in front of us too closely (we wern’t). He let us

off with a brief warning…

It

seemed like in no time we were in Gerlach, the town 9 miles from lack

Rock City.. Ths town lives for the Burning man traffic…

Finally we were there… or ‘home’ as the Burner community says.. (so unlike home, though)

Since it was late friday afternoon, tehre were few other cars to get through.. last time I was here this place was packed

I went over to pick up the will call tickets I’d

ought at the last minute on Thursday night from Eva and Rick in

Amsterdam (thanks guys.. if you’re reading this).. The transfer papers

Eva put together worked fine and in a moment.. we had our two tix !

As a frist time runer, illy got to ring the new burner bell. 

Then we drove into the camp and looked for our crew at 8:30 and

Kinship.. (Black rock is arranged in a circle.. with radiating streets

named after the time on a clock face and concentric connecting streets

named theme related words that begin with hte letters A through I. )

We quickly found the camp and suprised the hell out

of the folks who saw us.. nobody there expected either of us to come..

I quickly introduced billy to everyone.. then Ben took us on bikes to

find the other guys. They were just finishing the assembly of the

TimeCycle.. They had to get the thing finsihed so it could get

registered.  

On the way we ran into one of my favoritepiueces from last year.. this

is a beutifuly crafted human powered dragon.. it’s pedal powered and

it’s graceful neck and head are all actuated by a complicated but

elegant set of cables. It has a flame thrower in it’s moth (of course)

… A cool feature is that it’s made entirely of aluminum backing

ware.. eg. cupcake tins, cookie sheets, etc.   Ben knew this guy.. so

we talked for awhile. He’s dreaming up some collaboration with

Homer..based on his first look at our car.  I can tell Homre will soon

be a legend here.

We found Homer, duane, Kris and Dave out on the playa

doign soem finishing touches.. They found a girl with a gas generator

welder to pin the exel into the clock work. It had turned on first try

and sheared off some of our wiring (.. yikes 1)

Soon we were assembled and under our own poer.. no

fancy lights, just some 12Volt car headlights.. It’s amazing.. that we

walked in at the exact right moment for the car’s maiden trip.. it was

late.. but running well enough to get registered at the DMV (department

of mutant vehicles). The DMV folks really dug the design. They gave us

a license on the stipulation that we get at least some of the lights up

tonight. The lights are as much a safty as they are an aesthetic

requirement.. both are regulated in BRC>

We then started takign in the night life and night art.. it’s just so amazing.. and so overwhelming.

Wre then drove back to camp, grabbed something to eat .. and I finished wiring the the two sets of lights that Carly had already mounted.. We took back off to the playa at 2:30 AM.. Miraculously, the lights survived the trip.. Things looked good !

That is.. until the hub mechanism snagged some wires and ripped out the rotating hub mechanism.. It was an awful moment.. Homer had to talk me into fixing it.. I was so frustrated/sad that this mechanical linkage hadn’t been tried out more.. kind of a shared problem.. but.. I pulled it together and did a duct tape battlefield repair..

Around 3 we got everything moving asgain. and it was beautiful.

Friday afternoon – (delayed post) Impulse control

…………

Folks..  I was without internet access from friday ’till today.. here’s what I tried to post on Friday…

The strangest thing happened to me today.. I found myself on

a plane heading out to Reno NV. OK, so it wasn’t  a complete surprise.. Yesterday afternoon my

brother and I hatched a schemed to go out and catch the last 2 days of Burning

Man at Black Rock City. Billy and I have talked about going before.. but I had

made up my mind not to go this year because of… well… because of everything.

I’d spent so much time and energy helping Homer and co. get ready for the trip

to Burning Man that I’d worn myself out, neglected my family and let stuff go

in various other important corners of my life..   that 

I decided about 4 weeks ago that I wasn’t going to go this year.

Deciding that lifted a huge burden from me.. I wasn’t dreading the prep, I

wasn’t feeling as bad about the time away from family, etc.. I still had

several weeks of working on the Burning Man vehicle.. but even that came easier

when I knew that I would be free of the stress (and of course the fun) of

going.   

   But then.,. .. I

Billy offered to help out on the plane tix, 

and sealed the deal by reminding me that going out there together would

be a life long memory and  good hang out

time for the two of us.. I was also wondering/worrying how Homer and the crew

were doing on the TimeCycle .. I know they’d gotten this far without me.. but I

still felt  considerable  ownership/pride/responsibility for this crazy

project.. . Add on top that there were some other friends out there I was eager

to see Mary, Raye, Ben,  Carlyn, Meg,

Peter, Jerry, Whit, Gadget, Scarlett,   Around  noon yesterday afternoon, Billy and  I decided we were going to do this.   I checked with Diane and Gabe.. and they were

ok with it.. so Billy’s friend and Admin Sharon found us the plane tickets.. but

there was still one hitch.. Burning man tickets were no longer on sale online

.. and the walk up sales ended at 6 pm yesterday.  It seemed there was no place left find

tickets.. and they have a strict no ticket.. no entry policy at Black Rock.. no

matter how far you’ve come.   We ran out

of ideas for a bit.. then I started looking online.. there’s a thing called

eplaya  where Burners tlak about the prep

for the event… There were tons of other folks there looking for tickets.. and

only a few folks offering them.. most of them single tickets for physical pick

up in far off cities.. and most of those already gone.. I was about to give up

when I saw a note only a few minutes old from a couple in the Netherlands.

They’d just gotten married and had hoped ot go to Burning man as part of their

honeymoon. .. Well.. that hadn’t worked out..  

I’ll spare you the long story.. but I talked, texted and emailed  with them on and off  through the night and managed to  transfer the tickets to us (Thanks Eva and

Rick !) …so  That’s hoe I find myself

about an hour out of Reno ,

     So.. now I’m

trying to figure out if I should congratulate myself for making this all work

out at the last minute.. and following my bliss and doing this very cool  spur of the moment trip.. or beat myself up

for not sticking to my decisions and running from responsibility…  Actually, 

I think I’ve just convinced myself not to think about it much at all..

and just enjoy it..   What do you think ?

.. ..

OK.. landing soon. I won’t be able to post my blocg

tomorrow.. I’ll write and post both sat and sun on Sunday on my way back. Unitl

then.. happy vacation folks..  Love oyu

Sam

-me

Wednesday night – … should not be consumed

First of all.. i want to wish a happy birthday to my baby brother  Billy and my mom.. one of them is 49 and the other is 76.. I forget which is which.   I love both of you guys !

Second.. I want to thank Discovery channel for the nice disclaimer at the end of the  show last night. It was enough to put you off eating rats all together !  I do want to add that the rats were very tasty thanks to Vlads excellent cooking.. That man could cook bricks and they’d be delicious.

So,  today was the first day of school for Gabe.. that meant the hoeshold was up by .. (ugh) 6:30.. actually I don’t mind it much.. I just get pretty sleepy by midweek since It usually gets me down to about 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night.. I know I should l try to go to bed earlier..   but after 10 is my prime thinking time..

Diane made Gabe a good breakfast and we were in the car by about 7:15.. It was kinda nice seeing all the kids out waiting for the bus.. It felt like Fall.. in the mid 40’s and misty.. I evens see some of the trees changing color already.    Gabe was thrilled to be going back to school.. I could tell.. Actually, I secretly love driving him to school. We always manage to get in some sort of cool conversation in the short 3 mile drive. It always reminds me of the time I spent getting driven around by my dad.. He always called them our ‘captive conversations’.. because I couldn’t escape.. I never wanted to, though. I still remember them.. and so does he..

It was bittersweet letting Gabe off at school, the end of a summer. the beginning of a new year.. .I hope it’s a good one for Gabe.. I just love that kid .  Max also strated classes this week. It was really great havining him home for August. I hope his courses are fun this semester..

Milestones like this always yank on my heart.. Sam would be starting his senior year today.. driving..   maybe hanging with his same friends who we still see and love.

I hope it’s a good, fun and safe school year for all of our school bound friends. Study hard freinds.. nite Sam
-me

Tuesday night – end of summer

I can’t believe that school starts tomorrow ! t’s been a good summer.. Gabe had fun.. we loved having max for august.. and we got in some cool projects.  It’ll be a completely new rhythm for the days.. I guess I’m sort of

looking forward to it as a change.. but I’ll miss the slightly lazier

mornings.  Gabe needs to be in his seat at 7:30AM.. what kind of people are awake at that hour.. ?!?!  Maybe I’ll learn to end work earlier since I’ll be starting earlier.. but that’s never worked.
  It’s about midnight and we just got home. As with all tuesday’s we went over to jen. Jim and Avery’s to watch The Colony with a bunch of friends. There was a nice.. but slightly smaller crowd there because  tonight is a ‘school night’.  It was a really cool episode this week. Its really fun for me to see what the editors choose to hilight.   Usually I have no idea what they will choose. Tonight there was so much in there.. I didn’t think they were goign to show the ‘ozonator’ (is that really a word ?).. since it’s a little hard to explain.. but i actually think they did a pretty good job of gettign the concepts across. It was a really fun build on many levels. I loved reusing the components of the transmitter.. I’m not sure this came across.. but I was able to switch back and forth between transmitting and ‘ozonating’ just by moving the high voltage tap from the capacitor and spark gap from the transmitter primary coil to the tap on the tesla coil transmitter. ..   I also loved the way the idea came up.. I was jonesing to build a tesla coil anyway since the transmitter got me 80 percent of the way there.. the water purification application was a really lucky and useful excuse.. Several folks asked me if I could have just used the arc from the car spark coil supply I used to fire the transmitter.. What kinda surprised me is that that arc didn’t geerate much ozone.. The tesla coil combined with teh pressurized ozone cell that Mike came up with generated tons of ozone.. I used a pump I pulled from an old blood pressure machine to pressurize the cell and blow the ozone through a porous stone from an old  aquarium aerator . The water absolutely reeked of ozone after a 30 minute dose. I also really liked working with Mike on this build.. he’s a really good fabricator.. by this point in the show we’d really figured out how to work together.. I learned alot by wathcing him work. (oh man was that a geeky paragraph)
    On the people side.. I was psyched to see more of the other colonists.. I like the way Johnny V came across . He is such a kind hearted guy.. He has this deep spiritual side.. coupled with the most insane and crazy sense of humor. He kept us laughing  all the time.. for example.. every morning we woke to the ‘Good Morning with Johny V’  ‘radio’ show.. he’d do some weird off the wall improv comedy to get us moving. I also liked seeign Morgan’s phonograph build.. it was very cool watching her work through how a phonograph worked.. she’d actually never seen one working .. and there she built one !  I’m glad to see them finally showing that the women did engineering builds all the time too !  Oh… and they worked in the soap that Allison and I made.. what you didn’t see there was that we’d put a samstone in the soap too.. ou also didn’t see that we tried to use it too soon a week or so earlier and it damn near took our skin off !  It was also funny to see all the rats !.. they really were everywhere.. Johnny V and Vlad were constantly .. uh… escorting them out of this world..   But by that point in the show.. they were definitely looking more like food. It was amazing to me what vlad was able to do with them (or anything for that matter).. I have to say they were very tasty.. and my body really needed the protein !!
   It’s so much fun to analyze these episodes..  I’m digitizing a bunch of the episodes as we speak which has caused my laptop to slow to a crawl. It’s gettign tough to keep writing.. so I’ll end here and get some sleep. 6AM will come very soon..

OK.. that’s all for now.. nite folks.. Nite Sam
-me