Pavement Is Paper by EchHeck, Burn Unit
July 4th, 2007 1:12 PMBurn Unit called the city to find out what the issues were with regard to vandalism of wet cement (actually was more worried that folks in our neighborhood would be unable to resist and didn't want swear words out front of the house). WELL! Turns out that if someone writes in the pavement, the contractors are technically supposed to tear it up and replace it, at their own cost and labor. Even if it's the sidewalk in front of our own property and its our tax bill that will be paying for it and it's something harmless like a message from SF0, they're supposed to rip it up.
Feeling flummoxed and remembering our roots in BARTpa (good comfortable sidewalks promote mobility!) and Humanitarian Crisis (why burden workers unnecessarily?), we hit on an idea. Not a moment too soon, as we discovered the morning after we returned from the hospital: they were already filling in up the street.
Burn Unit went over to the foreman of the crew and asked if it would be okay if we put a message into the cement--a short message encased in a time capsule! The guy said yes; turns out they do this all the time, people asking to bury time capsules.
Prior to talking to him, we had quick collaborated on a short message and prepared it, along with one of the leftover apocalyptic trinkets and Burn Unit's bracelet from the hospital. We put it in a plastic bag inside a small container --Burn Unit decided he was going to put it in there no matter what they said, but better to set things up ahead of time first. Here's the message we composed:
Greetings people of the future! It is 2007 right now and I'm writing to say SORRY for messing up the world and THANK YOU if you found a way to preserve it. We had a bad culture during this time.
BUT there is hope: we hope for the world and we seek to do something about it. Look for evidence of our work on that old world wide web at http://sf0.org
Love and peace,
BurnUnit &
Eleanorest
Very short and sweet, both because we didn't want to miss our connection and because we didn't have a very big container. We wrote HOPE! on the back.
(burn unit presents non-flash version)
the container and backside
look!
they tore up the sidewalks...that means wet cement soon!
quick!
They're already at work up the street!
start
They started to pour the cement but the van at right was in the way (and our car as well). This bought just a little more time
a touch of the literal
Yes, it says "a message" on it. For leaving in wet cement, natch. But inside is our note, and some trinkets. You know, for the future.
awaiting
Our message awaits.
A message in wet cement
Download FLV
Here's the wet cement part. The little pink person in the background is Eleanor, adhering to strict instructions to Stay Put.
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Boy are your faces going to be red if sf0 causes the downfall of humanity and the end of the world! Oh how they will laugh when they read your message.. oh.
Love it love it love it.
I've never seen cement being poured out in public before! In fact I'm not sure we have cement pathways over here at all. I hope Eleanor goes back there when she's 60 - with a jackhammer.
OOooo, what a lovely way to complete this task. I never even though about burying something in concrete. I guess thats why you're the senator