The trick with scrap-aluminum gongs is that you just can’t tune them.
So I built this basic array by ear (back when I decommissioned XyloVan), choosing disc gongs that would resonate well together.
This past month, I upgraded the whole thing to get it ready for visitors to Seacompression to bang on and enjoy.
Weather had beaten the crap out of the backboard while it lived on our rooftop in Brooklyn (site of my many nighttime courtyard gong serenades), so I gave it a fun paint job.
And I engraved all 7 of the otherwise dull chunks of metal, using a 1/16″ burr bit on my Dremel for the lines and shading, and then a series of drillbits for the points, all of which … took a few hours.
I spent quite a few hours finishing this for Jack, the bit, friendly genius/nice guy of a home builder who finished the last major step of our 2nd floor remodel this afternoon. I engraved two gongs that sound good together, mounted them on a chunk of the butcher block that I milled from scrap left over from the countertops, and laser etched the plate to say:
With my deepest thanks
to
Jack Medrala
Homebuilder
Gentleman
Hero
He earned this; He got us through hell, and we love living here on the other side of it now (see earlier posts) thanks to his skill, moxie, and hard work. We love the guy and would recommend him to anyone.
Long, long ago, in a city far, far away (2010, Los Angeles), I made this crazy thing with the help of my loving and endlessly tolerant family.
XyloVan – the only musical instrument I know of that got 8 miles a gallon downhill in a tailwind – played and ran for many years at Burning Man and various like-minded creative events and venues, and many thousands of people enjoyed playing on its instruments and generally making happy noise.
In 2019, with much excitement, we moved to New York City – which meant that, with much regret, I had to sell the vehicle, unmount all the instruments to put them into storage, and move on to a new phase in our lives together.
We moved to Seattle in 2021 and this year, I finally got tired of tripping over this set of scrap-aluminum gongs (which I had stripped off of the van and rearranged in this array four years earlier in a fit of creative frustration in NYC) and decided to share them with the world again.
So here they are, mounted on one of our flowering plum trees (carefully, so as not to hurt the tree!)
We’re also planning to bring the xylophones up from storage in L.A. and mount them in the front yard for all to play. In the meantime, you’re invited to come bang on the gongs. Please enjoy.
UPDATE: Confidential to the wonderful stranger who ding-dong-ditched a pair of Sonor percussion mallets on our front porch this week:
Thank you! I’ll rig them up and put them out so people can play together. Next time you’re around, please say hi!
I’ve had dozens, if not hundreds of intriguing little pieces of stuff kicking around the shop for years. Faucet handles, wood scraps, crystals, bits of string.
I decided to throw a few of them together and put pinbacks on them before Christmas, but then the family decided this would be a no-gifts Christmas so we could focus entirely on conversation, games, and good time together. So they kicked around the shop for weeks.
Our neighbors here in Seattle have erected the delightful Red/Orange Door ART Gallery. I hope they don’t mind my offering them there.
If you see them, take one! If you take a pin and don’t mind seeing yourself featured here, please email me a photo of yourself wearing it, and I’ll post it below.
And if you happen down 75th Street between Linden and Fremont, I hope you’ll bang on the gongs mounted on the tree in front of our place.
@findthecoretruth (parading the round numbers around the ring), our good friend Lara (in referee garb, judiciously scoring the fights and calling the winner of each round) and I (the robed announcer in the silly hat) were so busy staging the fights and interacting with the wonderful fighters that we forgot to take photos at the time.
I wanted to bring something fast, loud, and stupid to the playa this year. Something that was portable, easy to make and use, and memorable. (photo gallery below!)
You know the sound a steel mixing bowl makes when you strike its edge? I love the round, BONGing resonance of it. So:
Fighters must strike each other’s armor as musically, creatively, uniquely, balletically as possible
You have 60 seconds
The crowd judges the winner.
Gong Fights exceeded my wildest dreams! The ferocity of the Violence Fighters, the grace of the Art Fighters, and the the idiot noise and chaos overran all rational concerns, and a kind of animal fervor took over.
It was stupidly magnificent, and magnificently stupid. Thank you especially to Mr. OK, Michelle, Lydia, Dakota, Thor, Sumit, Dandelion, Drift, Jackson, TwoNames, HoneyBear, Mike, Special Snowflake, and everyone else who armored and scored and assisted and fought and danced and hooted and lost and won.
The sound inside the kit is kind of glorious, but I think during a fight it will be hellaciously loud. Might need to hand out earplugs to the fighters. I’ll be working on arm protection next. And maybe some smaller noisemaking items.
