the Language of Birds & the Extra Action Marching Band

When I have the day to myself, I tend to get a bit restless. So I headed out to SF to catch the unveiling of an art installation called "the Language of Birds" by Brian Goggins and Dorka Keen, on the corner of Broadway and Columbus.

It was great to be out and to be present at the unveiling of a new urban art piece. There was live music (didn't catch the first band's name) consisting of a string quartet and a pair of singers. Former mayor Willie Brown was present, as were several City officials.

The art piece itself was a combination of words in the pavement (taken from about 90 books reflecting the cultural heritage of both North Beach and Chinatown) and lighted books suspended from wires above, open like birds taking flight. The piece is amazing, technically and visually. It uses LED lights, running on an array of solar panels on the roof of the City Lights bookstore, and has a net zero carbon footprint.

Dorka said in her speech "The language of birds teaches us about the mysteries of life, and unveils the truth". She talked about reconnecting to that wisdom, having that reminder on our streets.

The unveiling of the piece was tricky. Each book was covered in black cloth, with a strap and metal ring hanging down. Each book had to be uncovered separately. The lovely ladies of the Extra Action Marching Band did their best to unconver the art, but there were a couple of snags. The cover of one of the highest books got caught on the book itself. The artist, Brian Goggins, climbed an impossibly high ladder (to the baited breath of the audience) to wrest the cloth from the piece.

Afterwards, the Extra Action Marching Band had an impromptu dance party in a little niche off of Columbus. Here are some clips from their performance:

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Good time was had by all. And I am glad I went!

Yellow Submarine, part 1

There is the skeleton of a 7' long Submarine in my carport.

My son's school is having a variety show. I asked him if he wanted to be in it, and of course he said YES. He told me he wanted to sing Yellow Submarine and he wanted me to sing too. I got the idea from my neighbor to ask other kids in his class to see if anyone else wanted to join him. I am now organizing a troupe of kids for the show. Whew! :)

I posted to the Burning Moms list to see if anyone had a cardboard box. One couple said their neighbors just got a couch and had a large box to donate. We picked it up in my brother in law's pickup truck and took it home.

It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with it. One of the parents in the group had the great idea to use dowels as handles so that kids inside could pick it up and walk around in it. My original idea was to just draw a submarine on it, but the box was pretty short. I would have to build it up, I decided.

After some research on the web about paper mache and frameworks, I hit on a forum for model train builders. There were recommendations for using crumpled newspaper and plaster cloth strips. It was supposed to be relatively fast and easy. So with a deep breath, I dove in:

the box:





starting to build up the top:



added the top periscopes and front "nose":



closeup of "nose" and porthole:



I realized that I needed to get the structure up off the ground so I got help from D. lifting it onto my recycling bin and greens can:



Nose is built out. I then realized I could not put the PVC pipe in the sides because the bins were in the way. So I very carefully had to lift it (one side at a time, as I was alone) onto two saw horses. You can also see the tail started:



Closeup of PVC pipe framework from outside. I decided to use cross-pieces to stabilize the box:



More build up on the sides. I started with long pieces of tape spanning the length of the box:



Then I would build vertically down the side, out from the middle:



On the other side I built vertically first, then taped horizontally:



Paper framework complete:



You can see the finished tail from here:



And on to plastering! I niavely thought that 8 rolls of plaster cloth "should do the trick". This is how far I got with those:



When I woke up Sunday morning, I realized I had made what could have been a grave mistake. I had envisioned the kids getting into the submarine, then lifting it up and walking along with it. However... there was no hole in front for them to see! So the first thing I did was very carefully cut a viewing hole from the inside. I had to cut through the original box AND the box that made up the nose. I was nervous that the sawing would dislodge the tape and newspaper, but managed to keep everything intact.

That day I drove to three different art supply stores and bought every roll of plaster cloth they had. Midway through plastering:



And this is where I stopped (for now):


A view to the inside of the submarine, from the front view hole: