RIDING HIGH

Is there anything that has not already been done? Maybe we need to just do it anyway and not be concerned about being first.

ALL STEAMED UP

This past Friday evening found us excitedly entering a very impressive old factory building in Waltham, Massachusetts which is now the home of The Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation www.crmi.org. We were there to check out a Steampunk themed show in which two of our crew members had gotten involved. The Orienteer and Straat, aka Fendabenda, were quickly found flying in formation by means of that anti-gravity thing that they do. They were hovering in one of the three gallery areas accompanied by a six-pack of the most interesting and mysterious machines we have seen in quite some time. We had no idea that the usually reclusive twosome had made so many new friends from obviously good tribes. The atmosphere created by so many machines and their creators in such close proximity was so intoxicating we found our heads swooning.

We took our leave, shortly after the announcements, acknowledgments, and awards had been made, comfortable in the belief that our mates would be safe and happy during the six-month cruise they have embarked upon. They do really love having visitors and can be seen at the Museum from now until the end of May 2011. Check out the museum site for hours of operation.

NEW MEMBER JOINS TEAM

In 1898 the Columbia Bicycle Company was apparently living large on profits from tapping the bottomless reserves of pleasure seeking cyclists. Included in their line was offered a wheel known as The Model 49 Racer. This machine was light, fast, affordable and very fixed.
We are delighted to announce that one of these machines has come to reside at our headquarters and has already undergone the initial "What are you going to do with that?" intake process.
Below are some initial contact photographs in all of their usual crappy cell-phone splendor. We will be adding more as the additional preening progresses.

DAAWN

As you gaze detachedly at the array of pieces to your puzzle, an image of the final solution begins to take shape.

Your vision clarifies and an emotional response builds towards it.

The satisfaction created by such an experience is fully embraced until it slowly becomes absorbed into to sub-conscious where it will remain until called upon again by its creator.

This is the moment when you take ownership of the work.

EVERLAASTELODION Breakdown

After marinating in Marvel Mystery Oil for about a month, the crew was finally able to take advantage of the long week-end to break down the "Beast" and remove a mountain of rust and flakey paint.

Once broken down, assessment of conditions were positive save for the fact that the handlebar and stem are still frozen in place by years of exposure.

Next: Stem and bars must be removed.

ALL THAT MIGHT BE SAINTLY

Our recent excursion to Newbury Street for a haircut and stroll was viewed as nothing too exciting

RRBBO5 Review

Once again we are struck with awe by the caliber of works submitted by the most talented and creative community of builders in recent memory*.
Casting our votes for which rat was the best, we were faced with well over sixty entries to choose from. Since they were all outstanding, we first thought that a sixty-six way tie for first place would be the only way to ensure that everyone received their due credit. This seemed to be the safest proposal but, where is the fun in that! We then ruthlessly and without mercy hacked the number down to a Bakers Dozen. Still too wussy you say. Ok, Top Five then!

*Our memory sucks.

ICA Home | Into the Heart of Music: RiseUp

ICA Home | Into the Heart of Music: RiseUp

DRINKING

Pilots were always prepared to do whatever, within reason, was necessary to keep the motors happy. One particularly popular incentive was a variety of fuel additives which the motors always appreciated. Vendors, eager to capitalize on this situation, prepared large quantities of such mixtures and would make them available in containers which were designed to appeal to the purchasing agents from the ships.

SLIP SLIDE

 

TRIJAAKs' creator,  JADE,  knew that he would never match BODEs' engineering understanding and skills. JADE was much more interested and enthralled with the way that things looked rather than how  

they worked. BODEs tools

EVERLAASTEON

Just because I apparently have too much time on my hands. More about this later. . .

COMING IN OCTOBER

TAG DECODED AS WORK BEGINS

Once the boys back at the lab were able to reconstruct the
specimen sent from the site, the historians at the institute
were able to identify most, if not all, of the components that
had gone into the construction of the ship.
Fortune was such that many of these pieces had be found
earlier at a number of other digs but had been unassigned
because there had not been available any clues as to the
exact nature of their sources.
Technicians are now able to begin to reconstruct the ship
using the rather simple codes revealed by the 02048 tag to
not only determine the components’ structures but also the
manner in which they had been assembled and their likely
locations on the ship.
The work was slow and tedious at times but we are most
encouraged as we now have a clear direction.

TAG LOCATED AT SITE 02048

News from the field had been slow and information bits which
had been received were not encouraging.
The accounting department was becoming increasingly
impatient and it looked as if we might have to bring our team
in from the site and write it of as a hard lesson learned.
As the team was reluctantly beginning to pack up the site, one
of our guides returned to camp with a find that justified our
efforts and confirmed our belief that we were on to something
of great import.
Origins of construction tags were always removed from any
of the items that the boys used to build their ships and discarded
so that they could affix their own tags. This would declare
ownership without being questioned about their sources by
those who might attempt to lay claim on their ships.
This tag was surely created by a young builder who used a
simple alphanumeric code to describe his build. . .

TRIJAAK

Many of the younger ZB140 meat-motors would so admire the skills and adventures of their seniors that they would emulate them in as many ways as they could. The most obvious was of course the idea of having your own ship. ZB140 pilots however saved very little or none of their earnings and therefore almost certainly did not have sufficient funds to purchase the wonderful replica ships that most of the other, more well-to-do, ports could afford. Undaunted by these circumstances, the more enterprising or driven, young would endeavor to make their own renditions of these cherished items.

The remains of one such item has been acquired by our one of our most respected field investigators and is expected to arrive at our location shortly.

ZB140

CAPTAIN'S LOG SOLVES ANCIENT MYSTERY.

Documents discovered in personal effects

of pre-warholian pilot’s remains shed

light on age-old Salvage Ship mystery.

Until recently, historians have been at a

loss to adequately explain how the Salvage vessels

(see Crankenstein) could traverse the varied

landscapes of their designated pickup locations.

Intergalactic/planetary travel was in no

way hindered by their massive weight due

to the weightlessness of space. Once on the

ground however, it was very different.

The SS 396 Salvage Ships ships were heavy and difficult to maneuver.

No amounts of coffee and tobacco products

could entice the meat motors to attempt to

reach the higher elevations where most of

the precious payloads were harvested.

The journal belonging to a 500 year old

veteran of the invasions led our field researchers

to a site in the Northeast 02048 sector.

(Insert whip story here) The apparent remains of a

previously unseen vehicle that was commonly used by more skilled

pilots and meatmotors to gather payloads from the

extremely high elevations was reported to have been uncovered. These teams would then

deliver them to central pickup locations in the

valleys so the Salvage Ships could be loaded

and continue on their route.

The only enticement that the pilots could offer the special breed of

of meat-motor that would be willing to scale these elevations was to agree

to turn control of the vessel over to the meat-motor during the

entire descent.

It was clear that the meat motors had no particular knowledge

of the purpose of the run nor would they care.

The only aspect that interested them at all was the blinding and

totally reckless thrills encountered during the descent.

The pilots would simply power down and keep their circuits crossed

during the return trip to the valley.

CARGO

Cargo areas needed to carry payloads sufficient to offset cost of missions as well as generate reasonable profits upon return to home port.

COMMUNICATIONS

The communication between Scout ships and their Home Ports was embedded into video images and sent to respective way stations located in each solar system. The codes for our particular ship were finally decoded from messages entitled "I Love Lucy". The diagram shown here is a reproduction of what was apparently a detailed cue sheet for the last mission the ship was on when it was lost.
Once underway, these details would be projected onto the cylindrical section of the communications and guidance display for the pilots to follow.

HARD TO HANDLE

Legend has it that these ships were difficult to operate at sub-sonic speeds and many were lost during re-entry.

SS396 CRANKENSTEIN

While cleaning out from under my bed, I pulled out the frame-set of what initially appeared to be just another early motobike as were so common and plentiful on Terra Acirema during the period from SD9.9.10 thru SD9.9.30. But then we all did a double-take when we began to discover evidence that this was not the case at all! Numerous empty mounting holes clearly not intended for standard accessories, burn patterns on the skin and tell-tale scaring of the skeletal structure could lead us to only one seemingly impossible conclusion.
Could this really be? A quick conference call to the Sneers and Blowbucks Institute archives confirmed our suspicions. What in fact stood before us was an actual Pre-Warholian Aissurian Scout ship! This revelation alone was mind-bending enough, but that was just the beginning. . .
Many of these ships had been converted to salvage transports after the invasion. Cruising to earth at 20 year intervals to collect used cigarette filters which were highly sought after for an energy source in many remote regions of the universe. Most of the original fittings are missing of have been replaced with common replacement items.