Handcar Regatta

Image: Sonoma Vally Sun

The brilliant artist, Bryan Tedrick, maker of gargantuan sculptures hefty in both weight and concept, will again astound at this year’s Great Handcar Regatta.

The latest piece is called simply Minaret and stands nearly 50 feet tall (though a slightly shorter version will be installed for The Regatta), including a design incorporating numerous ornate visual approaches and interactive sound and LED lights, plus a beam for aerial artists to perform from whilst hanging high above!

Of course, the sculpture will appear at this year’s Metropolis themed Burning Man event prior to installation at the Regatta.

The Sonoma Vally Sun has an informative article for your further edification.

BEHOLD!
The roster of Mechanical, Artistic, & Sideshow Curiosities to be witnessed at The Great Handcar Regatta 2009 is available for your perusal.

Mechanical and Artistic highlights include:

• Jon & Kyrsten Sarriugarte — The Golden Mean
• Scotty C — various contraptions
• Cupcake Cars — Yummy electrified personal transport with sprinkles!
• Tony Speirs & Art Farm Motel — large-scale collaborative work
• Michael McGinnis — Giant Superplexus
• Yet more wonders…

Sideshows & Curiosities highlights include:

• David Farish — 3D kinetic sculpture
• Arthur “Art” Moura — 3D sculptures & conspiracies
• Gene McClelland — Finely crafted marionettes (with fangs)
• Muir Houghton — Amplified gothic confessional booth
• SSU Biology Department — Live & preserved biological specimens
• Yet more curiosities…

Peruse a majority of the race teams entered for 2009 Great Handcar Regatta:

Regatta Railcar Racers

The fanciful mechanical concoctions to be witnessed this year will amaze, astound, and, with Lady Luck’s serendipitous caress, inspire too The People in attendance! Huzzah!

Engineers’ Arcade Gallery
The Engineers’ Arcade also has updated photographic depictions, featuring:

• Hennepin Crawler by Krank-Boom-Clank
• The Screaming Vortex by Andy Graham
• Shefield’s Fantastic Pump Trolly
• Two Penny by Todd Barricklow
• Wonkatania by Uff-Da-Loompas

More race team documentation is sure to arrive subsequently.

The lads known as the Uff-Da’s (who built the Welded Sykellen for 2008 Handcar Regatta) are steadfastly proboscis to the grinding disc on their latest contraption:

“Wonkatania”

The clever new team name under consideration is “Uff-da-Loompas”.

Witness them at their Aetherweb site.

Hurrah!

A new racing team has joined for the 2009 Handcar Regatta:

Shefield’s Fantastic Pump Trolley

Said trolley is a scale replica of a handcar that would have been in use 100 years ago.

See electro-luminescent graphical renderings in the Engineers’ Arcade

URGENT NEWSFLASH!
Todd Barricklow, of the Steam Pedal renown in 2008, is hosting a fundraiser this Sunday for his latest masterpiece of cockeyed carriages on the rails:

Two Penny

3pm on Sunday, May 24th, 2009
Toad in the Hole Pub 
116 5th Street, Railroad Sqr., Santa Rosa

Featuring:
Such local eminent persons as Kelly “What-Won’t-I-Do” Cowan as master of ceremonies and the euphonious mélange of musicality called Earstu. 

AND:
Raffles for Todd’s own artwork, some welded sculpture, Roshambo Wine, a cool bike bag by Lucie Goods, and more! 

Did You Know?
The title of Mr. Barricklow’s Two Penny contraption refers to the large wheeled bicycles of yore known as “Penny Farthings”, “Bone-Shakers”, and occasionally just “High-Wheels.” Todd’s extravagant machine has upped the penny-ante by incorporating two wheels AND fabricating them by hand at a whopping 8 feet in diameter! Impressive indeed. One of the wheels will be on hand for proper inspection.

We, at The Great Handcar Regatta, tip our toppers in awe at Mr. Barricklow’s feats of the tool. Dear reader: please mount one’s own Penny Farthing or bicycle to attend the Toad for a rousing good time and to support your local makers of art and kinetic eccentricity.

We Regatteans are ever vigilant for all things kinetic around the globe. Recently, we discovered an accomplished group of delirious devisors out of Philadelphia, PA. They are set to launch their latest unruly contraption known rather ominously as:

The crew have been diligently documenting their construction days and nights, displaying that certain crackpot craftsmanship we love in kinetic sculpture devotees.

Also true to maker form is their DIY approach to events, parties, and general rousing fun in creating their own vital community of like-minded participants. Witness:

• Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby
  A good old-fashioned street derby of human-powered contraptions
•  The Philadelphia Experiment
   An events umbrella organization of sorts fraught with fabulous parties
• And what looks to be a terribly exciting event:
  PEX Summer Festival
  “We will be uniting for three days and nights of amazing music, art, education, dance, participatory shared experience and conscious connection on 200 acres of private land, just one hour south of Philadelphia.”

Partake of the following moving picture electro-luminescent display of the derby:

We wish Team Sand Reckoner many excellent voyages plus the stellar events and parties among fearless doers who spin the wheels of an emerging maker culture! Huzzah!

The plucky fellows known as Uff-Das, who last year built the windy Welded Sykellen, are setting sail again this season upon their modified chassis.

This year their craft is called the Wonkatania and is being modeled after the famed boat in the motion picture, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

As Mr. Wonka claims, “Invention, my dear friends, is ninety-three percent perspiration, six percent electricity, four percent evaporation, and two percent butterscotch ripple.”

I only hope the boys can survive the fabled Curse of the Oompa-Loompas which has found many a Halloween costumer and stage production actor to suffer peculiar mishaps and curious bodily discharges usually involving profuse cacao beans as well as dreadful visitations from “Whangdoodles,” “Hornswogglers,” “Snozzwangers,” and “Vermicious Knids.” Good luck, chaps!

Hearty congratulations and huzzahs goes to our own calamity contraptionists known as Krank-Boom-Clank of Hennepin Crawler repute.

Our favorite magazine of doers called Make dispatched a local colleague and DIY enthusiast named Dave Sims to interview the crack K-B-C team about their Hennepin Crawler. The theme for this volume 17 is “Rediscover Lost Knowledge”.

Well done, lads! We look forward to many more invigorating kinetic conveyances of whimsy in the near future from Krank-Boom-Clank!

ITEM! The word on the thoroughfare has it that K-B-C will be in attendance at the following illustrious events:

• The 115th Annual Luther Burbank Rose Parade in Santa Rosa, CA, on May 16th, 2009
• Kinetic Art Cruz in Santa Cruz, CA, on May 17th, 2009
• 4th Annual Maker Faire 2009 in San Mateo, May 30th-31st, 2009

A tripartite of kinetic trounce!

Erasmus P. Kitty implores you with sincerity to join in the fun and support your local artistes.

Andy Graham, of Joe’s Revenge fame from 2008 Regatta, has begun mysterious toils upon his latest contraption known as:

The Screaming Vortex

“The Future of Personal Rail Transport”

Take a moment to view the Web site…