Lee.org

The Serpent Mother at the Fire Arts Festival.

http://flickr.com/photos/mills42/sets/72157594199422098/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eponai/sets/72157594201435415/

http://www.philspitler.com/photos/faf_2006/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tabasco/sets/72157594199130295/show/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wendyb/sets/72157594198709356/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/80896306@N00/sets/72157594199281434/

Construction photos from Michelle

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nomadfotog/sets/72157594218122821/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49695992@N00/

Not my work but excellent photos of last year’s Angel of the Apocalypse
From InsideBayArea.com and the Oakland Tribune

Artists tame, manipulate flames
By William Brand, STAFF WRITER

OAKLAND – With a flick of a switch, Oakland artist Don Cain sent a streak of fire roaring 100 feet into the air late Thursday, casting an eerie shadow on a passing BART train and spinning a rush of hot wind across a once-empty lot on 7th Street.

Fifty feet away, a crew of San Francisco techno-artists on a 20-foot ladder adjusted the jaws of a glowing 30-foot-long serpent, its scales and bones a tangle of welded aluminum, steel, wires and propane pipes.

“The serpent will open her jaws, flames will shoot out and each of her teeth will have a flame effect,” explained Jessica Hobbs, a member of the Flaming Lotus Girls, who have worked all year on the project.

The tower of flame, the coiling serpent and many other fire-breathing installations destined for the annual Burning Man festival in Nevada next month are part of the Sixth Annual Fire Arts Festival, a benefit for the Crucible, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the fire arts. They include glass making, foundry work, blacksmithing, holography, fire eating and stilt walking. There’s even a class on installing solar panels.

…

The festival, which continues through tonight, is far beyond the cutting edge – acauldron of technical, artistic innovation. It features many performers and artist groups who regularly create works for the annual Burning Man.

Crucible founder Michael Stutz, 37, says fire is maligned in modern society. Many disasters are linked to fire, he said. “We’re trying to change the reputation of fire.”

It has attracted a long list of corporate and private sponsors and benefactors.

…

The lot is littered with projects destined for the Black Rock Desert in Nevada for the annual Burning Man art festival, Aug. 28 to Sept. 4.

The device that shoots a river of flame skyward is called a fire cannon, explained crew member Scott Cocking of Arcata. In this case, the crew, which also includes the artist Bohdi of Oakland and Scott Simpson of Petaluma, has three fire cannons tied together. A click of a computer sends bursts of gaseous propane upward. A small pilot light flame burning at the mouth of the cannons ignites the gas in spectacular fashion.

“I was at Burning Man one year, playing with little torches and this guy fired off a cannon that sent a flame 50 feet into the air,” Cocking said. “I realized what I was doing was yesterday’s news.”

The serpent head assembled by the Flaming Lotus Girls is just part of the Burning Man project called Serpent Mother, Pouneh Mortazavi, one of the founders, explained. When completed at Burning Man next month, the serpent will be 168 feet long, made of steel, copper, glass, fire and light, coiled around a huge egg, which will have its own spectacular pyrotechnics.

The final performance is at 8 p.m. tonight. Tickets are sold only at the gate: $25 for Crucible members, $30 for non-members. Information: http://www.thecrucible.org/fireartsfestival, (510) 444-0919.

Information on the Burning Man part of the show can be found at: http://www.burningman.com.

Contact William Brand at bbrand@oaklandtribune.com.

FAF on ABC’s The View from the Bay (has a good video clip of Michael Sturtz talking about FAF)

Blanche Shaheen previews this year’s Fire Arts Festival live from The Crucible in Oakland!

Blanche Shaheen takes us to the Fire Arts Festival in Oakland, a four-day festival celebrating creations through fire and art.

what I’m working on now with the Flaming Lotus Girls
Serpent Mother

I helped build this last year with Zachary Coffin and Corbett Griffith
Colossus

What the Flaming Lotus Girls worked on last year
Angel of the Apocalypse

And the year before…
Hand of God

And the year before…
The Seven Sisters

Wednesday Flaming Lotus Girls meeting and work on Serpent
Thursday Improv Party at Mary’s… waay too much fun
Friday Forbidden Island in Alameda with Michael and Karin from Improv
Saturday woke up late (darned tropical drinks! It’s the umbrellas, I tell you!). worked at Box Shop, Fire Arts Expo at Monster Park
Sunday Improv class, hang with Harmony and Crism
–now– midway between Sunday and Monday
Monday chill I hope!
Tuesday photo shoot for Flaming Lotus Girl Calendar (!!!) What should I wear (or not??)
Wednesday FLG meeting and work on Serpent
Thursday Going out for Shameless Heather’s birthday
Friday Treesa’s Memorial Day party overnight in Boulder Creek
Saturday prep for my folks coming to visit! Chill with Andre from work?
Sunday last improv class :-(

Phew!

Tonight through Saturday, I’ll be performing in “The Twilight Zone” Plays at The Dark Room! Last night was the dress rehersal and it went really well. The 2 episodes we’re performing are funny, intense, campy, and profound all in one show. And it’s only $15. You should go!

Blogging has just taken a back seat lately to actually doing the things I might blog about :-)

When Charlotte was here, we went non-stop… From the 13th til the 22nd. I was -going- to chronicle it all for you my gentle reader but what do you care? So I’ll just blather about it randomly (isn’t that so much better?)

Shopped at Rainbow Grocery for like 2 hours for a fantastic Chobunnpeggelly Easter/Ostara lunch. Had fun frustration with all the fun things to buy… such that we needed to rest on that bench near the cosmetics.

Astounding Chobunnpeggelly lunch with 6 people in my tiny place (Crism, AJ, Vickie, Charlotte, Ion, and myself) with toys and eating too much chocolate and tremendous amounts of cheer and smiles and mimosas.

Tango at The Metronome, Tango at Cell Space… Drove around including Fort Funston… umm, what else.

This Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I showed up at The Box Shop (the home studio of the Flaming Lotus Girls and other groups). This was the first Wednesday I got around to showing up since Jessica Rabbit had invited me at Decompression last year. Wednesday was mostly talk about what’s going to happen and how work is being divvied up. I showed up Thursday because a team was meeting to make the flaming teeth of this 170′ serpent thing they’re making. Fire, fire, heh heh, fire! We played with propane and plasma cutting but didn’t get too far. I showed up Friday because that’s when the spine crew was meeting. Turned out that… umm, I think I was the only newbie that showed up. And after some time helping out I (foolishly?) committed to becoming a good enough MIG weldor to help put together the 116 or so 24 gauge sheet steel formed pieces into vertebrae!

Saturday I went to a Giants vs Diamondbacks game at Telephone Company Park with Barry and… oh my, I don’t know the relation… brother-in-law? and brother-in-law? It was a whole day and evening affair :-)

Sunday morning I went back to The Box Shop for MIG welding lessons but I could only stay til 2. I had an Improv class at BATS in Fort Mason. I spent much of the rest of the afternoon on the phone and catching up with little details like writing blog entries.

Sunday night I saw White Comanche at The Dark Room at Bad Movie Night. I laughed so hard, I walked out with a limp.

Ask A Ninja

I tried out to be one of four Rod Serlings in The Twilight Zone at The Dark Room next month. Though it wasn’t side splitting like the stuff above, I really enjoyed the lesson/audition that Jim Fourniadis gave. I was reminded that acting is a very precise art. I was turned down for the part (phew! I was really concerned about playing such a key, tempo-setting role my first time out!) but the audition was great fun and rewarding!

I have a role onstage for the first week’s episodes of Twilight Zone in May! This is the first time I’ve been onstage since… well, there was the final project in front of my Drama 010 class as a junior in college. I did a Cyrano de Bergerac monologue that I deftly turned into a dialogue because I couldn’t remember all the lines after 3 full nights of rehearsing at home. :-(

Before that, in high school, I played Dan in Cheaper by the Dozen. I had 4 lines and a gaff with a toga. I fondly recall the horror of changing into my toga one scene too soon on the second night of the show. That caused me to miss my cue by about 15 seconds and the gaff was ruined. But the lead, played by Kevin Someoneoranother was excellent. He stalled perfectly and then played right through it, finishing smoothly with, “And excellent, you’re already wearing the right outfit. I’ll see you [in two scenes].”

Another year in high school I played Dr. Fasbender in Revenge of the Pink Panther played with, if I remember correctly, some horrid German-ish accent. But it was mercifully only like 2 lines.

And before that… ummm… oh yes, I oiled the Tin Man in a grade school production of The Wizard of Oz. My one line was something like, “We’ll lube you up real nice” while I oiled his joints.

And there was a magic and talent show in Lynn Briggs garage performed for a rapt audience of parents when I was 9 or so. Unless I’m forgetting something, that’s about it, you have read my entire acting resume. But now……

Now, coming back from a long hiatus, I’ll be onstage May 4, 5 & 6 doing a “commercial” during the Twilight Zone show. I’ll be performing a dramatic reading of the back of a moist towelette package!

Seriously.

I really like my little studio apartment at 24th and Valencia in San Francisco. I commute to Cupertino 3 days a week and telecommute 2 days to Wavexpress.

I worked for Wavexpress back in 2000 and they hired me back this summer. We/they are still trying to make a video blog viewer that works a lot like television. I’m a little disappointed in the progress we’ve made, but I’ll keep plugging away at it because it pays the rent.

I have been doing my best to enjoy life… going to events like the Urban Iditarod, Kite Fight (although I have still never made it to a successful event, I have been trying now for two months… I am beginning to doubt that Rick really exists), Argentine tango classes, concerts, more concerts… I’m probably going to do Improv lessons at BATS soon.

For exercise, I’ve been running (occasionally). I feel good when I do it. I was thinking of going to Golden Gate State Park right after writing this…

For my commute to Cupertino, I have been carpooling with a coworker named Linden. Well, actually he works for Wave and I’m with Wavexpress (we’re just like Wave, only we don’t stop as much) We’ve been getting along splendidly. For the last month we have been listening to Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink” on the way to and from work. It’s a fantastic book. Before that, we have been listening to podcasts that I have been downloading from the internet. over the last several weeks I have been watching the first three seasons of Penn and Teller’s “Bullshit”. I feel like they might turn me into an atheist yet. At the very least, they have reminded me of how important personal responsibility is.

I still haven’t put any art on my walls. I don’t know… I like the clean lines or something. I’ve got lots of art from friends and my own collection… I should just put a nail in the wall and see what happens…

A coworker (well, she’s with Wave…) showed me a model airplane field thats 10 minutes from my office last week. I’m getting my planes ready to fly!

I was introduced to a friend of Jeremy and Fiz.. Charlotte. She lives in Boston right now but she’s moving to SF this summer. I’ll give further news as it develops.

And I continue to find it to be near impossible task to keep up with all of my friends blogs. I do apologize. I’m not sure if it’s crazy that it often takes me a week to get back to people via email. The backlog just never ends.

Charlotte’s week in San Francisco

Watercourseays Hot tub and sauna.
Picnic dinner in palo alto
Went to Craft night with Julian Cash, met cool photographers and artists. Got Maple syrup, Torrone and camp towel.
Went to bed at 12am and went to sleep at 2:30am : ) Worked. C went to Berkeley Hills with Ion.
Met group of seven friends, at an egyptian restuarant in Sunset. Saw Egyptian belly dancing. Went to sleep. Got up and didn’t get out of bed.
; ) Ran a hilly 1.8 miles. Lee went to work. C went to Twin Peaks, de
Young museum, and ‘ake Stowe. Met friends for drinks. Saw the play,
Take me for a ride cute girl. Drinks with cast. Slept. Woke up and didn’t get out of bed ; ) C belly danced. Breafast at Boogaloos. Tango lessons. Drove divisidero. Exploratorium and Tactile dome. Snack. Nimby tour. Necked in car. Airport.

Last week, I cleaned out my storage space. Everything is in my apartment or my downstairs garage. This makes me feel much more moved in.

I also got a snazzy bed frame and shelves last week.

Just a few finishing touches and I’m totally moved in! Rug, comfy chair, art on the walls.

I got a mattress. I slept well last night. The Swedes are helping feel a bit more at home with their Sultan Hasselbäck. And thanks to Linden for helping me get the bed home… again! He helped get the first, failed bed home as well.

Next up, a bed frame that costs almost 3 times what the mattress costs.

But I’m returning the $1,500 rug. I just can’t conscience walking on something that expensive in this place. I’ll buy a vacation in the desert or something with the money saved.