Burning Man 1999 - The Aesthetic Meatball Foundation

In 1998 we had a serious discussion about the Aesthetic Meat Foundation, the apocalypse group whose performance includes machines ripping apart cow parts, flames, and plenty of blood. Frankly, they aren't funny enough. Meatball, though, the Meatball is funny.

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Here's the big Meatball. At night we placed a dim flashlight inside to light the way of the faithful.

The Aesthetic Meatball Foundation takes on the night.

a closeup of our founder

a larger version of this photo
We prepare to spread the word of the Meatball. Those fortunate enough to cross our path had their fortune told by Thee Mystic Meatball (much like is available here) and received several fine stickers. Hundreds were enlightened.

The view from the cockpit. Ahead we're approaching some kind of catapillar vehicle with a butterfly on top. Typical Burning Man traffic.
The next several shots document the Meatball Mobile in all it's glory. It's a surprising amount of work to create even a minor art car. It took a few days to prepare and attach all the parts. Many of the meatballs on the car were spray painted on the playa in front of our camp. For about two days various combinations of odd toys littered the ground in no particular order. During this time we were continually amused by the steady stream of freaks who would walk by, stop and give the presentation a serious study, laugh knowingly, flash us a smile, and walk off.

Meatballs are a universal symbol, as discussed by Joseph Campbell in his seminal work "Hero with a Thousand Sauces."
Elmer's School Gel makes a good temporary adhesive. It doesn't run as much as the regular Elmer's School Glue, washes off with water, but will withstand squirt guns, short rain showers, and highway speed.
Glitter glue is a decent option for temporary writing on your car. The squeeze bottles go on easy, and wash off with a garden hose. You can also write with the Elmer's School Gel and dump regular glitter on the glue, but this is messier and more work.
Art Car people are a special breed of showoffs who also like to keep the riff-raff at a distance that can be selected using the accelerator. If you make an Art Car, even a temporary one you can increase your popularity by having a cheapo give-away, like postcards or stickers. Everyone loves stickers. We gave out stickers that looked like these:

 

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