Sunday was my second-last day in New York. Oh no!
Now, when I was first planning my New York holiday, I mean vacation, I only bought my plane ticket out. For various reasons I made sure I didn’t book the outward and home flights together, because doing exactly that meant I had to buy flight home from the EJC twice. So, my flight home was flexible up until just before I left for NYC.
My best-case flight home was Monday 27th, chosen so I could stay until the Maker Faire. It was the very last thing on my mental TO-DO-IN-NYC list, so I made sure I went.
The Maker Faire is all about building fun but useless stuff at home. As someone who has been building a room that rotates in my living room, this kind of things really appeals to me.
Not everything can be built at home. For instance, a “life size” version of Mouse Trap.
Or how about a propane powered rocket that shoots flame from the wrong end?
This is a fun musical instrument played by pulling on ropes. It’s like bell ringing with different sounds.
The inside of a geometry puzzle.
A magnetic liquid kaleidoscope thing.
A machine that throws balls from a rotating funnel, through holes set in two oppositely spinning disks, and back into the same funnel (I think).
The highlight of the Faire (for me) was the EepyBird.com stage. you may know these guys from their experiments with Coke Zero and Mentos.
The smaller bearded half of EepyBird is Fritz. I know him from years ago, a time when he made his money as a juggler and diabolist, rather than getting soaked with sugar-free cola. I mean soda.
I took photos while they set up. Fritz told me it gets a bit crazy for their show, so said I could come inside the barrier to watch and take photos.
The “do this at home” method.
Results!
Celebration!
As you can see from this photo, the crowd was HUGE. These guys are the rock stars of the Maker Faire.
The Experiment (show) begins!
I got soaked too!
The reason they use Coke Zero is the lack of sugar. No sugar, no stickiness!
Fritz at the end of the show. I tried to take more photos of the show itself, but the fizzy pop on my camera lens kinda got in the way.
The aftermath.
Clearing up.
It’s amazing how many kids (of all ages) wanted a half-empty bottle of mildly minty Coke Zero as a souvenir.
Later I cycled across Queens and into Manhattan for a burger, then over to the New York Clown Theatre Festival end-of-festival party. I missed the start, which included a clown funeral procession through Williamsburg. I joined in with the dancing for a while, but I couldn’t keep up with a crowd of clowns doing silly things.
My bike route on Sunday.
