Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (AKA Mighty Breaks, Flaming Lotus Girls, and more!)

8Ball — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:01:00 -0700

Hello Friendly Person:

(Long preamble this morning, so if you’re impatient, skip down for info about Mog appearances at Mighty Breaks tomorrow, the Serpent Mother fundraiser on the 27th, and other goodness.)

Seemed like a good idea at the time. I wish I knew who came up with that phrase, and I’ll bet whoever it was wishes they’d copyrighted the bugger. Think how often it comes up—after Gavin hooked up with his buddy’s wife, right after Chris Daly opens his mouth to says anything, whenever Iraq is mentioned in the White House, and if there’s a God I’m sure he says it whenever he thinks of us. Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time is the only way to explain things like pet rocks, the country meets techno anthem “Cotton-eye Joe”, taking another pill because you’re not “feeling” anything from the first one yet, or any kind of trance ;)

Space Cowboys have done a lot of lame things in our time, and I promise you all of them seemed like a good idea at the time. It’s hard to single out any one moment or act, because they’re all so gloriously lame in their lame, Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, way. But with Burningman so close, and with discussion in our group turning towards art projects, there is one treasured story that I think is worth sharing. The story of Space Cowboy Byron’s swing. This was somewhere between 98 and 01, the years are all a blur at this point, so let’s just say the theme was The Seven Nebulous Wheels of the Body. Space Cowboy Byron (who has long since retreated into matrimonial seclusion, where his brain cells will be fortunate enough to live out their remaining days and die a natural death) decided that, while our camp had a barter bar, DJs, hot chicks and dangerous playa vehicles, it was missing one thing: a really big swing. So, he went to work. Now, swings have a fairly uniform structure—a couple of supports with something across the top that the swing hangs from is what most of us are familiar with, but Space Cowboy Byron was what you might call a non-conformist. No paired support structures for him, his swing would be a feat of axioms, paradigms and mathematics, or something. He envisioned what ended up looking like a long, narrow upside down V – where the two top tips of the letter were rooted into the ground at an upward angle, that shot the point of convergence up in the air about 30 feet or so, and the swing hung down on a long rope from the apex. He built the whole thing with thick metal pipes, but since he couldn’t find single pieces long enough to achieve the height he was going for, he coupled several together with some sort of threaded joiner. Remember that, because it’s the important part. The swing went up early in the week, and all agreed that he was right – the camp did need a damn swing after all, and for the next few days many of us lazied away the days swaying on what we would later learn was a giant death trap. Flash forward to the Hoe Down. We were having a party, people were dancing, other people were doing weird Burningman shit, customers were trading random crap for dusty booze at the barter bar, and a dozen yards or so away from the dance floor, a couple of hyper-active burner dudes had the bright idea to try red-lining the swing. They’d take running starts at it, they’d stand on the seat upright, they’d flex and grunt, and kick, and keep the swing further and further up. They were doing such a good job at it that soon, they had a small crowd cheering them on. That just encouraged them to push harder, which must’ve seemed like a good idea at the time. But on their most triumphant lurch upward there was an audible crack, and as they hung in mid-air, segments of the pipes separated everything began to plummet. The two guys, having just reached the crest of their swinging, were shot forward from where the 80lbs or so of metal came crashing down, but they still hit the ground hard, and for a moment nothing moved but the cloud of dust that accident kicked up. Because the guys had been swinging so wildly, the crowd had been standing back a respectable distance, so no one else was in what would’ve been the decapitation zone when the metal came down. Space Cowboy Byron and some others jetted over to see if anyone was hurt, particularly the two nummyheads who’d been on the swing, but as soon as they were able two stand they raced off into the night, apparently fearing some sort of retribution for causing the swing’s collapse. A quick investigation into the disaster uncovered that the ends of the pipe, which had been threaded, were now nearly perfectly smooth – the stress caused by the Xtreme-swingers, which was a scenarios not considered in the design’s calculus, had completely stripped the pipes’ threading. And that was the final ride of the Space Cowboy’s Swing-of-Death, which definitely seemed like a good idea at the time.

xo, 8ball@spacecowboys.org

UPCOMING EVENTS

FRIDAY (TOMORROW) – 7/20 – Mighty Breaks presents SHOW YOUR COLORS Mighty Breaks is hosting a field day/pep rally that brings together your favorite Burning Man crews, each with their own color and DJ.

Join us for a musical battle royale as the crews challenge each other to “walk offs,” arm wrestling, dancing competitions and, of course, drinking games. But know this: there are no sanctioned events, so anything is fair game. Burning Man’s loudest cheerleader, The Space Cowboy’s Unimog, will be bringing it on outside all night.

SPACE COWBOYS – ORANGE – 8ball, rrrus, Mancub & Brad Robinson on the Unimog

SEISMIC – RED – Murphstar
HOUSE OF LOTUS – BLUE – Beth Murphy
THE FRINGE – PURPLE – Mopo & friends
DEEP END – PINK – Zach Moore
OPULENT TEMPLE – WHITE – Syd Gris, Zach Moore
GARAGE MAJAL – GREEN – Jive

Saturday, July 21 – Day Party/Fundraiser at Pier 23 You are invited to an afternoon/evening of dancing in the sunshine (or fog) to celebrate Mango’s soon-to-be bundle of joy! Get your groove on to DJ’s : Ellen Ferrato
Brad Robinson
Zack Darling
Joy Glasier

Pier 23, San Francisco
1pm-8pm, $10 donation requested

Saturday July 28th – SERPENT MOTHER FUNDRAISER presented by Flaming Lotus Girls We’re bring the Mog to Flaming Lotus Girls’ party to help raise funds for the Serpent Mother World Tour. The day kicks off with our favorite carbon-belligerent activity, BBQing followed by several hours of dancing and libation!
With Space Cowboy DJs Brad Robinson, Mancub, 8ball, Kapt’n Kirk, Aaron Jae, and Pure Evil Also with DJs ShOOey (Deep End), Murphstar (Seismic), Shissla (House of Lotus), and Majitope (Lowpro). From 2pm-2am (BBQ 4pm – 9pm, Dancing ‘til 2am)
354 5th Street @ Harrison

S P A C E C O W B O Y S: Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (AKA Mighty Breaks, Flaming Lotus Girls, and more!)

Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (AKA Mighty Breaks, Flaming Lotus Girls, and more!)