XyloVan needs advice - BRC DMV denial

[factoid]

To that last, I should add ;)

I don't take any of this shit personally. Burner interactions are always cool, whatever the flavor.

[percussivepaul]

Yeah I understand that. Maybe it's the sort of thing you'll be continually adding to for years.

I'll try another constructive idea then. And I'll point out that your immediate problem is not purchasing the fabric, it's coming up with a plan for your appeal.

It seems that in order to pass, you need some kind of structural modification to the shape. It can't be recognizable as a van. I'm assuming you're not able to start cutting the chassis, but if you can't build inwards, you can always build outwards. Adding wings and sails and that sort of thing. (You mentioned something like this earlier?) Again though you will likely get rejected unless there is some thematic consistency to the modification. If it looks like a Frankenstein it will not really contribute to the event the way mutant cars are supposed so.

How can adding wings and sails and stuff contribute to the theme of a xylovan? Your problem is in the very name, xylovan. It can't be a van. It has to be xylo-something-else. xylo-boat? xylo-cloud? xylo-duck? Getting silly now but I'm just brainstorming.

Without getting silly, you could work with an abstraction. The xylo-dreamscape. Make some big sails that project out from the van and wrap around it like a shower curtain, so you have to go inside to get to the xylophone. More curtains and sails inside so as to hide the surface of the van. You could have interactive lighting all around the players that responds to the music. (Maybe you already have something like this?) That would be really awesome at night -- if you saw different sections of fabric being lit up, from a distance.

Hope this is helpful.

[factoid]

Hey oneeyeddick - can you share a link to your MV? I'm curious!

[factoid]

Percussivepaul - I've been sketching pretty steadily since yesterday - getting closer, but still not confident in what I have in mind. Again, the trick is to keep the instruments and doors operational.

I'm not spending a dime more until/unless I can pull together a design that works - and can be preassembled and then applied easily after we arrive.

If we were trailering it up there it would be a different matter, but the whole thing has to remain street-legal.

[Bling]

Paint?

[EmilyD]

Is anyone seeing my posts? I'm thinking somehow not.

[Bling]

Yup, this one and the one with all the fabric links. Feeling invisible?

[oneeyeddick]

she posted links to tribe.

that makes her whole post null and void.

[EmilyD]

she posted links to tribe.

that makes her whole post null and void.

LOL one is really invisible if a oneeyeddick can't see you! Thanks for the response Bling, & guys. There were so many problems with this site yesterday I was wondering if I was somehow blocked. But no y'all are just ignoring me and forgetting to say THANK YOU! ;-)

[factoid]

[quote="factoid"]Emily's reply slipped in while I was replying to Lord of Ruin.

I can sew, not worried about that, just concerned that all the fabric we considered for our sunshades over the keyboards is too expensive to buy in the sort of quantity we'll need for a full mutation.

Thanks so much for the pointers, and the kind words, Emily. I'll dig into those and post back here on success.[/quote]


thanked!

[Homiesinheaven]

your vehicle looks awesome and this is a great challenge to your creativity. i agree with percussivepaul, change the name and go much further with the concept. the van looks a bit drab. how about covering every inch of it in multicolored xylophone keys or painting those all over?

i can understand you being bummed out but having this artwork be stationary or at the Artery is not all that bad of a compromise. maybe spend your energy advertising it and getting the word out so people and other musicians can find it? or spend more money making it louder so more people will hear it? i look forward to finding it so i can play it. good luck!

[EmilyD]

Emily's reply slipped in while I was replying to Lord of Ruin.

I can sew, not worried about that, just concerned that all the fabric we considered for our sunshades over the keyboards is too expensive to buy in the sort of quantity we'll need for a full mutation.

Thanks so much for the pointers, and the kind words, Emily. I'll dig into those and post back here on success.

thanked! "you're welcome" ;-)

The quickest, cheapest way to mutate your van would be form armatures using wire mesh and/or insulation foam (the stuff in a can) and then paint the stuff (or cover it with fabric). Philo has done that on all his cars but especially this one:

[theCryptofishist]

- Have a vehicle allowing us to stay out on the playa with the kids well past their bedtime

[ygmir]

- Have a vehicle allowing us to stay out on the playa with the kids well past their bedtime

x2

[Captain Goddammit]

The van is cool for what it does... but how could you possibly have not known it wouldn't get a mutant vehicle license? They've been making it extremely clear what they won't license in recent years; you built a really cool rig for sure, but it very obviously doesn't fit their arbitrary "mutant vehicle" description.

The way to get it licensed is to take away the "van" part. If you can successfully hide it with fabric over PVC or conduit then my best advice is LIGHTING, LIGHTING, LIGHTING! The DMV likes radical illumination. Make it really catch people's eyes from a distance.

Doc Pyro had a well-published battle with the DMV over his mutant vehicle "Tieland"... the thing was awesome, had a flame cannon to wow the most jaded fire junkie... but their problem with it was it looked like a pickup truck. I'd say it was a 1970 Ford, to be exact... which they don't think I should have been able to tell so accurately. It had such awesome pyrotechnics that I really think the DMV did the Burner population a disservice by not grandfathering it or something. But - that's what you're up against.

So, try your best to make it unrecognizable as a Detroit vehicle, and go as nuts with the lighting as you can!

[TomServo]

The base vehicle, still looks like the base vehicle. I used to work for the DMV, and despite some awesome additions, I had to turn vehicles down. You might try lighting it up with ElWire or something, to be approved for a night license. Otherwise, the van needs to be radically modified. If you want to blame anyone, blame the BLM. They set the standards for mutant vehicles. Even if you can't alter the van, enough pretty lights may get you a night license...

[Bling]

Lots of cheap El-wire on eBay these days. It's from Hong Kong, but I've had pretty reasonable luck with shipping on LED strings from there--usually 1-3 weeks, so there's still time...

[sputnik]

Really, the BLM sets the mutant vehicle standards? How the hell does that happen?

[factoid]

We've actually got lights a-plenty - can you get a night license without full mutation?

I've been talking to my wife a lot about the pros and cons of full license versus Artery siting, and for this piece - all our moaning about nighttime travel aside - stationary is starting to look like a potential option.

[TomServo]

Really, the BLM sets the mutant vehicle standards? How the hell does that happen?

Simple, the BLM would prefer no art cars, or as few moving vehicles as possible. Thus the DMV and all the regulations. Was a compromise, between Burning Man and the Feds.

[TomServo]

We've actually got lights a-plenty - can you get a night license without full mutation?

I've been talking to my wife a lot about the pros and cons of full license versus Artery siting, and for this piece - all our moaning about nighttime travel aside - stationary is starting to look like a potential option.

If you have the lights use them, and keep trying! I'm not handing you a shit sandwich like the DMV does.....and yes its a term and practice that's taught. But shoot for a night license! I hate to see art cars get shot down, which is why I left. Best of luck!

[EmilyD]

I know you're trying to keep the cost down but if you really want to get it in for this year you will have to spend several hundred dollars I suspect. If you're willing to do that here's what I'd do:

1) Cover all windows with mirror effect so the people playing the sides can see themselves having fun.

2) Add a bunch of small xylophones (like someone else suggested) from thrift stores and such. Put out a mass call for them and get everyone searching for you.

3) Push the shape of the hood, roof and space between xylophones on the sides with some type of armature (you mentioned PVC, I'd add chicken wire) then cover with cheap muslin (usually under $2 per yard). I'd consider making the shapes musical (like frets, notes, undulating sheet music etc. but jumbo size)

4) When you have your final shapes and they're covered with muslin, put some bright fabric (red would be great with the silver):

Here's a great source for the latter that was mentioned on TRIBE!!!! ;-)

http://spandexworld.com/

But you'll do better price-wise hitting downtown LA for sure. Good luck with this, I hope you make it in time for this year. If not...there's always next.

[factoid]

Thanks to all for the encouragement and advice

My wife and I still haven't decided which way to go (more discussion among us on that tonight) but we've come up with a pretty good (and extensive) mutation plan that we could pull off by next year, and we're working on the backup plan - contacting the ARTery.

Problem - their email address (artery@burningman.com) bounces. Anyone have a good email address?

Here's how that went down: http://www.xylovan.com/?p=559

[factoid]

Thanks to all for the encouragement and advice

My wife and I still haven't decided which way to go (more discussion among us on that tonight) but we've come up with a pretty good (and extensive) mutation plan that we could pull off by next year, and we're working on the backup plan - contacting the ARTery.

Problem - their email address (artery@burningman.com) bounces. Anyone have a good email address?

Here's how that went down: ( http://www.xylovan.com/?p=559 )

[oneeyeddick]

If you get your on-site daytime approval, then night liscence is a cake walk.
All you have to do is have it RADICALLY illuminated, the more lights you have, the better, and be sure that it is lit on all four sides, and that your taillights (red) are still visible, if not, you must have red at the rear by some other means.
They don't care about what the vehicle's mutations look like at night, that is the daytime hotties job.

Glad you are still not hanging up the phone on this, it is a learning process, and easy to get discouraged in.

GOOD LUCK !!!

[factoid]

Well, what I was wondering was would we be able to (well-lit) get a night license even without a daytime license (almost a foregone conclusion here unless we spend considerable time/money we don't have on a half-ass mutation).

[oneeyeddick]

Unlikely, nightime only liscences tend to fall into the flamethrower and moving lights catagories, and I am not even sure if they do that anymore(even though the option is in the app)

There are cheaper ways to cover your vehicle, chicken wire (formed to needs), combined with felt or some other cheap cloth will do the trick, and don't count out that tablecloth plastic, if you make sections(from chkwire) that will hang easily in the "exposed" vehicle areas ahead of time, you won't have problems attaching it(the plastic) when on playa.
It seems flimsy but it hold quite well without stretching in the wind.
1 or 2 rolls easily will cover your needs, you could have the whole thing done for less that $100.

[factoid]

Looks like the DMV wins this year. But we'll be back next time around with a huge mutation in mind. Here's what just went up at the XyloVan blog:
http://www.xylovan.com/?p=563

My deepest thanks to everyone here who has been encouraging, inspiring and challenging. The past week has been an emotional jetski-ride-on-meth-in-orbit, and all your thoughts remind me why BRC citizenship is so goddamned important to my soul.

See you out there - come by and introduce yourselves, and definitely bring the noise.

[dragonpilot]

You're still bringing it, though, aren't you? Park it in your camp, invite passersby to interact?

Good luck with plans for next year!

[factoid]

Hell yes, we're working with the Artery to get it sited somewhere on the playa.