This weekend was Maker Faire. Don't worry, I'd never heard of it either. It was basically a fair highlighting and celebrating the artistic expression of scientists and engineers. Long story short, so many geeks, so little time. The attractions were many and diverse, like art cars, including one literally covered with in-sync 'Billy the Large-mouth Bass' dancing fish and lobsters, one of which was the conductor on a raised, telescoping platform keeping the beat for such hits as "Age of Aquarius" and "Bohemian Rhapsody". Taste in motion, let me tell you. There was a farmers market section, an indoor section full of books and do-it yourself science and craft projects, a barn full of sculpture and crafts exhibits, and an arena with a cage for robot combat and a Tesla coil show. There were giant kites and sculpture bikes, as well, by Austin Bike Zoo. Some were seemingly, if not really straight from Burning Man, with one holding 6 riders in the shape of a snake skeleton.Oh, and it's Texas, so I couldn't neglect to mention the meat-on-a-stick pavilion with sausage, corn dogs, and turkey legs. It's not a fair without food that would otherwise be considered completely disgusting and certainly not finger-food.
My favorite part, for purely nostalgic reasons, was the life-sized Mousetrap game. A group from San Francisco brought in the elements that made up the game in one 53' semi-trailer and set up for 4 or 5 shows a day. The only part that didn't stay true to the game was the trap itself. Myself and my friends distinctly remember the 'trap' being a cage that fell over the mouse (thus mousetrap, not cheese-crush), but for what I can only assume were actual scientific reasons, this contraption included a real 600-lb safe. We weren't sure it was real at first, there was a part of the show which included Lucky, 'the strongest boy in the world', a 3-yr old in a red muscle suit that lifted a '2-ton' barbell, heaved over to his platform by four grown men. The barbell looked a whole lot like a few plastic toy tractor tires on a dowel, but that's no fun. When the bowling ball got through to the end of the obstacle course and tripped the lever to let the 'trap' come crashing down on the cardboard box painted to look like cheese, though, the ground shook.
It was not something I ever would have heard about on my own, and probably wouldn't have been inclined to go if I had, but it was a great, intellectually stimulating way to spend a day. All that was screaming to be tempered however, so we came to our own equilibrium by spending the evening drinking beer and avoiding all things smarty-pants. Mission accomplished!
