More costume ideas

I followed The Baroness' link to that great costume site. It led me to find another. It's more Goth than Steam but it has some great stuff. I particularly like this Battenburg lace parasol. Only $20.50 for a 24" diameter and $28.50 for a 30" diameter.

Costuming

Vintage Victorian Steampunk Apocalypse is an awesome site for steampunk costume ideas.

Labels...very practical, so not punk

I want to encourage the use of Blogger's labels to help us find ideas of a similar vein. Labels work just like tags (you can use none, one or more than one at at time).

Suggested labels...you got more? Good thing is you can make up as many as you like, when you like.

Labels (for discussing labels :)
Meetings (meeting notes and the like, C already used)
Food (consumables of all types: victuals, libations, kitchen setup, wonder tonics)
Shade (home)
Green (eco-ideas that relate to the Green Man theme of BM07)
Steam (ideas that relate to our motif of Steampunk and other
Costumes (pretty things)
Art (perambulator, Mister Rocker)
Reno (for the day we leave BM)
Budget (for posting projected or final cost of an item)

Kick-off-Meeting Notes

Okay already - after just a little pestering, here are my notes from our first meeting.

In attendance were: Todd & Lauren, Eric & Christen, & Eran.
Other confirmed camp-mates are: Matt, Professor Fate & The Great Leslie (J&N)
Total confirmed = 8
Potential camp-mates are: Doug +1-2, Tate, Josh & Sutay (Todd's brother & his wife), Mattthew (a.k.a. triple t)

10-12 people in camp is the preferred size so we'll have to discuss if additional people are interested.

Need a minimum of two vehicles on-site & so far that is accomplished with J&N & E&C. (T&L do not own a vehicle.)

THEME: The Green Man (Man's relationship to nature)
MOTIF: Steampunk
The theme and motif should relate in some way.

Discussion topics/Ideas:

• Visions can be personal or group related but we should discuss how this is reflected in financial and emotional investments.
• camp party on wednesday or thursday at BM
  
• cool neon
• music
• recreational sandwiches (Eggplant vs. Mushroom) (verbal explanation probably needed here)
• recreational fluids (BMJ) (verbal explanation probably needed here)
• uncle boogers bumper dumper toilet box or similar for Natalie (separate from camp)
  

TIMING:

• arrival & departure - first & last day issue with set-up and take-down/clean-up.
  
• Group needs to be aware of who plans to show up and leave when so tasks are equally divided. Previous year's issues of particular people working harder than others would like to be avoided.
• E&C would likely arrive Tuesday 8/28 and depart on Sunday or Monday
• T&L are at the mercy of a ride.
  
• Eran is likely in for the full week.
• In previous years we have stayed in Reno the night we leave the playa to cut down on the dirty ride back to the bay area. This is a good idea, trust us, and we plan to do it again this year.

What is our CAMP like?
3 main needs: SHADE, SHOWER/GREYWATER, KITCHEN (see below)

• Pillows & Blankets & futon mattresses - start collecting. Eran showed us his new blanket from his mother - a family portrait woven into the blanket - freaky, hilarious & wonderful all at once.
• Wooden futon frames ideal so we can burn them on-site.
• C drew a plan of what she's visualizing in terms of layout. Relationship to sun & to street is important.
• Our camp and our vehicle (parambulator) should look like they go together.
• comfortable and inviting
  
• 2 hammocks are available to incorporate
• firepit/chiminea?
  
• lanterns, LED & solar lights (E&C & T&L)
• generator (J&N)
• nature things
• full-length mirror (Eran)
• place to dress/costume storage/sharing - large tent? (Eran or J&N?)
• tent shade important

SHADE Structure - 2 designs were discussed

1. Carport (C)
2. Custom frame to lugnut design (J)

• The idea of utilizing both came up since we would all like to include shade for the tents as part of camp.
• fabric instead of tarps for shade - canvas and sail cloth were discussed and Eran has some sailing contacts he will chase. Eric knows of sail repair shop to contact as well.
• floor has to be tarp (E&C)
  

KITCHEN & FOOD:

• do we want one or two food groups? (teams of folks who plan/cook/buy food together)
• needs to be shaded & have tarp floor (E&C have tarps)
• coolers - need wet & dry coolers (E&C=1, T&L=1, need a couple more at least)
• no onion skins or garlic skins (should all be peeled prior)
  
• box wine good (avoid glass on playa)
  
• Lauren suggested better cheese than previous years.
  
• at least one vegetarian (almost vegan) so we should plan accordingly
  
• two stoves (Eran & E&C)
  
• Lauren brought up the idea of a jockey box since beer in cans is so waste-heavy & Eran jumped on that idea, something he's been thinking of making anyway and would keep after BM.
  
• paper plates & compostable untensils (L)
  
• kitchen & recycling/waste set-up w/ tables, milk-crates & zip-ties (E&C)
• water barrels (soda bottling plant re-use) need to acquire in bay area, fill in reno

SHOWER/GREYWATER:

• need sun showers (2 minimum)
• suggested size of footprint to be 2 pallets (not 1 as in previous years)
• suggested materials to be bamboo poles and mat as sides for air flow and rigidity
• needs to be designed & pre-fab as much as possible
• needs hooks/hanging place for towels
• needs shower caddy
• needs pully to raise and lower sun shower bags
• hair-wash station?
  
• black plastic (E&C)
• greywater needs some design attention (can/should be incorporated with Shower design)
• Lauren has some ideas/experience re:greywater
  

ART/IDEAS:

• Top hats
• making our trash into art
• apothecary box on parambulator?
• parambulator (BIG)
  
• scroll for drawing mounted to parambulator?
• flasks strapped to bodies
• art workshop session (Todd)
• rubber stamps (w/stamp pads this year)
• rocking chair (Eran) should do something as it rocks (a mister, perhaps "mister rocker")
• flux capaciter
• jacob's ladder
• save your corks! beaded curtains made from corks
• save your dryer lint - lint pillows, etc. (for you furry bellied boys, if you want to save your belly-button lint, you will have to make sure your pillow has your name on it)
  

FINANCES:

• approx. $200-300 each on camp expenditures? (trailer rental fees & associated gas to get infrastructure on-site, water, shade, shower, kitchen, general infrastructure - preferrably to include shared art & vehicle, etc - needs more discussion in next meeting when we really dig into the parambulator ideas)
• $100 each for food (max) [we've done previous years on $80 each for food/booze, etc.]
• not including ticket prices
  

NEXT MEETING:
Friday Feb 9th - location TBD
Idea - watch a steampunk theme movie at next meeting.

Beautiful tents from India

I stumbled across this Indian company that sells tents. Even though I know it would probably get ruined by Playa dust, I still like the idea of an exotic themed tent to lounge around in. I'm sure the shipping costs from India would be outrageous, so could erocking pick one up on his next business trip?

Awesome lights for bikes

I found this on a site and thought it would be great for a playa bicycle at night. The biggest problem I see is keeping the bike at a constant speed. Either 15 mph,10mph, or 7mph depending on the setup. Apparently you can use any image. Cool stuff.

As part of our daily diet

My mind often turns to food. While we wont be backpacking at Burning Man, it is sort of the backcountry when it comes to keeping food fresh and cold for a week. I love MaryJane's Farm backpacking food. I'll eat it at home, it's so good. Mary Jane's gives you the option to buy in bulk which I've always wanted to try, but couldn't justify for just PF and I. Maybe we should look into it for this camp for some of our meals.

Saving dryer lint

I don't know if it came up in the meeting last Saturday. (I would know if someone had posted the highlights of the meeting) but Christen (for now) had mentioned to me that we should start saving dryer lint for our pillows and cushions. Well, we here at the Fate household have a small pile already. Anyway, here's a site devoted to dryer lint and all it's soft fuzzy goodness. www.dryerlint.com No mention of cushion stuffing. But maybe we could try the lint clay eh Tbone?

Steampunk all around

Trader Joe's grocery bags have been sporting a steampunk theme lately...once you get fixated on a motif, it starts popping up everywhere. Apparently, the Fearless Flyer Special Collector's Edition is full of steampunky cartoons, but I can't seem to find it for download anywhere. I was curious to see if the official site had any more inspiration for us (and Professor Fate was nagging me to come up with a reason to make a post on this blog) so I checked it out. Alas, no steampunk. Just lots of tiki huts and palm trees.

First Order of Business

Todd mentioned that we need to think of a camp name. Eran suggested we employ both onomatopoeia and synesthesia. That sounded like an awful lot of work to me so I employed the use of some name generators. On www.brassgoggles.com there is a Steampunk name generator. When I typed in 'burning man' I got 'Isiah Moody' or 'General Isiah Moody' if he wanted to enlist. If you type in 'Burning Man' you get a different name, 'Alistair Beard'. Not particularly interesting. If you're looking for a nickname for the event this is a decent place. Matt's name came up 'Phineas Muggeridge' which I like. Nat's is 'Arabella Barton' but I think she's going to stick with 'The Great Leslie'. Christen (for now) came up 'Amethyst Barman'.
At another site I found the Dark Ritual Generator: www.seventhsanctum.com presumably for roll playing games. It's random and dark. I liked; Transfiguration of Souls, Incantation of Soulless Fiends, and Insane Messiah's Evocation of Heaven. Get out your 2o-sided die! Not very BM though. Maybe after the sun goes down and the shrooms come up.

Virgin Posting

So here's the blog that goes along with our group this year. Here we can talk about stuff and express new ideas between meetings. Ironically I didn't get to go to the first meeting on Saturday so I don't have much news to report here yet. Anybody wanna fill in those of us who couldn't make it with the high points of the meeting?