Kiki's first SRL show!


The show was amazing!  But we also have tons of pictures and bunches of .avi movies -- I'll put them here for now, but I'll eventually take them down.  [Email me if they're gone and you want copies...]  Also, Steph videoed a lot of it too.

The running machine was extremely cool, and reminded me of a machine two friends of mine independently have talked about building -- it's different from both of their designs, though, of course.  It walks kinda like an ant -- three legs, two on the back and a pivoting one in the front.  The legs were in lock-step, so the whole thing rose up flat as it took a step.

The pressure cannon [or whatever it was called -- shock wave or something] was also extremely amazing!  It's like two pipes end-to-end, or stages -- the back, narrower part is filled with propane and air, and when it fires, the shock wave shoots into the front, wider stage.  The change in diameter causes the shockwave to push through the middle, and generate a vortex in the larger chamber.  The vortex shoots out of the cannon with great force -- I literally had my santa hat blown right off my head!!  When it first went off, everyone jumped.  I regretted not bringing more ear protection than the foam ear plugs they passed out at the gate, but after a few more "shots", I realized that the resonance was moving throughout my body and more ear protection wouldn't've made any difference!

The hover craft , of course, was lovely.  It was right next to us, and we had to duck as they lit the 4 pulse jets.  But once it was lit, I got some nice pictures and movies straight down one of the pulse jet's throats!  I like staring the beast in the eye. :)

They also had an even larger pulse jet.  It was strong, and I have a feeling it will be used for the fire hurricane -- I wanna see that!!

Another cool machine would send a huge voltage spike through a whole welding rod at once -- it would send a bright shower of sparks that shot across the arena and bounced back.  Just lovely.  We only have one remote 220 line at the ShipYard at present, and this one got it. :)

The inch worm was menacing looking enough, but at one point caught on fire and they had to put it out with extinguishers!

There were two flame thrower types of things -- Kimrick [sp?] was firing the big one.  At one point, it spewed it's fuel but it didn't ignite -- so the whole area was filled with partly burnt diesel.  We still stank of it the next morning. :)

There were other small machines running around, but I wasn't sure what any of them did, specifically.  Just too much going on!

The target of the evening was a giant Toys-R-Us giraffe head.  They utterly demolished it!

The pitching machine was loaded with short pieces of 2x4s -- about a foot long each.  They flew so fast and furious!  Scott brought one home. :)

The SRL part seemed to go on forever, but we watched the tape today and it was only like 20 minutes!

Sadly, once the show was done, someone fell from where they were watching from the top of the warehouse.  Just an accident, but it was the roof of a two-story building!  She'd tried to step on the plastic roofing over the back yard area...  Jim said she was a long-time SRL member -- like 10 years -- and the wife of one of the SRL folks as well.  Totally competent.  Not sure what happened.  Just a real shame -- our first show, and someone got hurt, and it didn't even have to do with the show itself!  Just frustrating.  But it looks like she only broke her leg and maybe a crushed vertebrae, which is much better than falling on her head or something!!

The marching band came out after that -- and they're totally amazing, as you might know!  The flag women were waving their flags as slutty as always. :)  One even "attacked" Scott Beale of the Squid list, and he looked totally flustered -- she pushed her hips against him, then got on the ground and girated her hips and generally embarrassed him utterly.  It was classic!

After that, it just turned into a party -- and lots of fun!  We had an amazing time all told!  We even got home by midnight!