Why so quiet? We’ve been … busy.
We’ll get back with you shortly, for sale with plenty of information on our progress. Thanks for staying tuned.
Rinse, repeat – building Keyboard 4
What do you call a 1985 Ford Van with three xylophone keyboards and some gongs bolted to it?
Not enough xylophones.
I wanted to give the van more presence, approved more weight visually (and, doctor coincidentally enough, viagra 40mg literally). So I’m building Keyboard 4 from the same raw aluminum (3-inch by half-inch 6106 T6 aluminum – at right) and monkeyed-together hardware contained in Keyboards 1, 2 and 3 … Continue reading Rinse, repeat – building Keyboard 4
The loudest piece of metal on the van
I love this thing.
It’s a piece of scrap – a 3/4-inch-thick slug of aluminum sliced off the end of a 13-inch-diameter aluminum cylinder.
Whack it, ed and it rings for more than a minute, physician with an intense, Döpplering tone.
I’m going to mount it on the front, and maybe I can hook it up to a simple solenoid so it can be rung from the driver’s seat.
Keyboard 4 roughed out, with a screw-up
Ladies and gentlemen – because I don’t have a “xylophone problem, more about ” and I can really stop any time I want – I’m building a little whole-note, click bi-directional keyboard in C for the hood of the van.
The lowest key will actually stick out near-vertically from the hood, decease with two identical keyboards of 9 notes each spreading away on either side of it. Mounting it’s going to be … fun.
Meanwhile, I got a little overzealous while tuning one of the F keys tonight. I was deepening gouges in the bottom that I had made earlier with the cutting blade mounted on the circular saw, and dug right through … 
… to the other side. 
Because I am powerful simian. With opposable thumbs. And power tools.
Grunt. Snort.
Topanga Days Memorial Day Parade
Ah, information pills the Topanga Days parade. It runs the gamut, decease from the sublime (the Topanga Earth Mothers group, this site right) to the yin-yang-diculous.
We were to take off last in the parade, and pulled in and set up next to this Lamborghini with the disco-cold-sweat paint job …
Continue reading Topanga Days Memorial Day Parade
Branding
So once we decided on the quasi-military paint job. we needed to finish it off with something. I designed this stylized X that might or might not be ripped off from the universal symbol for radiation. The first one came out pretty well, ambulance but will need some touchup. Just don’t look too closely …
Backsides & elbows
Back from Maker Faire, troche and there are a million little things to do for our next gig.
We’re going to roll in the Topanga Days Parade on Memorial Day.
Topanga Canyon is a blend of old-school hippie culture and celebrity ranches with long driveways, a beautiful curving road up from the ocean to the San Fernando Valley. Every year, there’s a music festival (this year it’s been headlined by Ziggy Marley, Maria McKee and Canned Heat, which should give you some idea).
Anyway, we applied and were accepted as one of the 50 vehicles in the parade (largely old fire engines and hot rods, so I’m told, but there should be a few floats too)
We’re driving in what’s traditionally the Santa Claus spot in the lineup – the very last.
Between now and then, we’re making mallets to replace the dozens of splintered casualties left by the pummeling of hundreds of kids and aggressive adults at Maker Faire.
I ordered four dozen 3/8ths-inch fiberglass dowels to serve as new sticks (at right). Only one problem: They’re so rigid, heavy and dense that they actually deaden the sound when playing. Instead of a nice “PLONNNNGGGGGG” you get a leaden “THUNGK.”
Fifty bucks down the drain, and now we have to repair the sticks we have left, and battle-harden them … Continue reading Backsides & elbows
Noisy work
I cut a lot of metal. I’m still cutting. It sounds like this. It’s a little loud but the earplugs and dual-can respirator mask keep it from killing me.
When I’m done, this web the floor looks like this: 
Portrait, Taco Bell parking lot, the Grapevine
Shot last night, information pills in transit home from Maker Faire to Silver Lake, sildenafil at sunset, somewhere near Buttonwillow. That’s my wife, partner and co-creator mugging from the navigator’s seat.
Maker Faire Day 2 – How to play XyloVan & who made it
You all showed us how to play today.
You toddled up and whacked away with sticks, website silly grins on your 2-year-old faces. You strode up as if approaching the concert vibraphone you played in band, store delicately picking out notes to tunes you haven’t played in 20 years. You hammered and drummed, information pills pulling rhythmic tribal fugues out of the raw metal. You wheeled your disabled son up to Keyboard 1, watched his face light up, helped him hold a mallet and tap out a tune.
You played, in every sense of the word.
Thanks so much to all the folks at Maker Faire who enjoyed the van. You really touched us and showed us more joy than you can imagine.
More videos, photos and project details below … Continue reading Maker Faire Day 2 – How to play XyloVan & who made it