Author Archives: King Toad

Töads versus the Spectator Society: Lessons Learned at the Belly Dance Saloon

3 Replies

Our friend Chris de la Töad just had a birthday, and the Töad Code commands us to celebrate at times like this. Chris’s understanding wife volunteered to take care of their tadpole for the night, and thus our small group was free to go in search of live girls.

We found ourselves at Habibi of the Nile for Belly Dancing Night.

Belly dancing is the sexiest entertainment that you can talk about openly at family dinners or other family functions, like funerals. Belly dancing appeals to men and women of all ages. Anyone with a spark of life in them has no choice but to enjoy belly dancers.

Joie de belly dance…

Continue reading →

Why do we burn down beautiful things?

1 Reply

Everything is temporary. Eventually, entropy will turn the universe into a pile of goo. The state that your consciousness occupies right this fucking second has changed and is gone by the time you finish this sentence. The cute chicky-snack you met and fell in love with at the bar last night will never call you. The special moments you shared with her are gone.

So why do we spend so much time building intriguing and beautiful works of art, just to watch them be destroyed?

The destruction is a reminder. That amazing sculpture or whatever it is will soon be on fire. So while it exists, you better climb on it, smell it, look at it, take pictures of it, fuck it. Get the most you can out of it. Soak up the experience and artistry. Let it permeate your brain. Because it’s going to burn. You’ll miss your chance. Seize the day. Seize some art. Do some shit.

Or don’t.

You can make the decision not to climb and touch and experience. Use the knowledge of that decision to acknowledge your limitations. The world doesn’t wait for you. You must keep up with the world the best that you can. We all do.

Here today, ashes tomorrow.

Adiós.

Flaming Sign Artwork

Leave a reply

Flame effects like the BEAST are fun to build and operate, but a more mellow, sustainable fire can offer an ongoing ambiance that the big stuff just can’t. I had some old steel shelves lying around and decided to try making a flaming sign. For the pattern, I used the Sacred Bat, which is the symbol of my Burning Man camp Bat Country. I plan to give them this sign as a gift when it’s completed. As with anything I make these days, it will break down for easy transport and have a sturdy stand allowing you to set it up easily.

Construction

The sign itself is an old steel shelf that I cut out with a plasma cutter. The flames come from 1/4″ copper tubing that I bent to follow the contours of the bat. There are holes drilled along the copper tube for propane to come out. The tubing is held in place with stainless steel wire. I used stainless steel because it won’t corrode when exposed to the elements. And by “elements” I mean fire.

Still needs doing:

  • Make a free standing sign stand
  • Balance the fire so there’s more or less the same amount of flame at the end as there is at the beginning

One of the problems of making a flaming pipe with holes is that the gas likes to escape the holes towards the beginning of the run more than at the end. So the fire at the start of the pipe is bigger than that at the end. This is easy to see in the picture below where I had the gas pressure turned up higher. I hope to fix this by blocking up most of the holes towards the start and maybe drilling more towards the end. The other way to mitigate this effect would be to supply propane at both ends of the copper tube, but I’m hoping to avoid this as it’s much more work.

Not that the flames on one side are much higer than on the other.

Not that the flames on one side are much higer than on the other.

Lost and Found: Deer season edition

1 Reply

Lost Buck

 

This note appeared on my door where I found it upon returning from out of town. So I called the guy. He was very appreciative that I called and he explained that he’d lost a good buck but didn’t want to trespass to find it. I invited him down and when he showed up, he got out of his truck and handed me a $20 gift certificate to a nearby restaurant. We took the dog and walked to where he had last seen the buck. The blood trail was obscured by the snow, but the dog soon started digging and turned up some blood. We followed the trail and found that it ended at the creek. Unfortunately, the deer apparently tried to go swimming. But at least we now have closure and know where it went. The dog and I have made a new friend also secured some hunting privileges in primo turkey and squirrel territory.