Maker Faire 2008

I went back for the last day of Maker Faire 2008 -- I'm just now getting around to blogging about it, but this was the 19th.

It was at the Expo Center, which meant that we drove through miles of parking before we even got to the main entrance. From outside, we could hear some of the most interesting sounds . . . and we walked in to see the coolest musical instrument I have ever seen. Watch this video, but pretend that they're set up on the floor of a darkened arena, and you're up in the stands. Also, there's an electric guitar suspended between the columns, and the drum set has LED lights that turn on as the drums are hit:


OH HI THAT IS ELECTRICITY!

I caught the name of the group eventually: it was Arc Attack, from (of course) here in Austin. I was entranced, but my guest had had his fill after four songs, so we made a beeline for the exit onto the main fairgrounds. As we were headed out, the emcee said, "and now here's something you'll ALL recognize," and they launched into the Buffy theme song. Sweetness. You can also hear/see more Arc Attack songs here.

I didn't have my camera on me, which was just as well because I got very distracted. There were, at a conservative estimate, roughly a bazillion booths and events to look at. For example, the silver armadillo car that shot fire from its nostrils. This is completely unfounded gossip, but I suspect that it may have had something to do with the screaming alarms we heard later in the afternoon.

We were also lucky enough to see the life-sized (game of) mousetrap in action. Here, I stole one of their pictures for you:

And they smooshed a lizard-boy at the end and everything. It was fantastic.

We ended our trip by browsing the "for sale"-type tables. Notably (i.e. I found their business cards in my purse later):

• Space Squid, "Austin's only hybrid sci-fi and humor 'zine." They were also handing out freshly-stapled copies of their 'zine, so props for that. I grabbed an issue of submissions by fairgoers from the previous day. I especially enjoy the short story that begins, "It wasn't the first time that my mother ate my leg."
• The Purple Fig Cleaning Co. The women in the booth -- I believe it was the founder and a friend of hers -- were quite nice. Purple Fig is a cleaning company, and at the Faire they were selling natural cleaning products that smelled like delicious tasty things.
• The Weekend Store. Selling beautiful jewelry that I can't actually justify buying for myself. People with disposable income, I direct you to their steampunk section. (Oh, and mom you were asking me for a definition of steampunk? There you go. Also, here is some random/awesome steampunk Star Wars art. The steampunk Death Star is my new desktop pattern).

Finally, there were also Roomba robots (with eePCs strapped to their heads) performing bits of a communist-era German expressionist play. As I'm not even sure where to begin doing a Google search for that, you'll just have to use your imaginations.