Hello Monkey lovers!

How come there hasn't been much talk about the Monkeys … were y’all waiting for an official post or something? Oh, okay …

Or, it’s not all exactly official but I’ll tell you what I know. Date are confirmed, no matter what! The piece will be installed and open to the public on May 15th and it will be there through June 15th. We will have some kind of dedication ceremony, depending on various dignitaries’ availability and how many people want to be at the party, and may piggyback this onto the Zero1 festival’s permits on the first weekend of June. Stay tuned for details on that …

We are thisclose to having Discovery Meadow confirmed as our location. There have been several challenges we didn’t expect in getting final signoff and permits, and we still have our Plan B location, Center for Performing Arts, as 100% doable. We just like the Meadow better, so we’re doing everything possible to get there.

Having the site 99.999% confirmed means we have a few tasks and volunteer needs that we’re waiting to announce because they’re contingent on the site. Like, whether or not we’ll need a trencher, landscape architect, etc. depends on if we’ll actually be on grass or concrete. And, we don’t want to print the flyers and postcards for everyone to hand out until we are certain what the location will be! But you all like ambiguity, don’t you? 

Are you talking to your friends, campmates, and work colleagues about the Monkeys? We want to look outside the box … beyond the orange trash fence … and get everyone excited about community art. Have you found the perfect way yet to let people know that some really Big Monkey Business is coming to San Jose?

There are a few things we know we’ll need no matter what, like a first aid kit, fire extinguisher, and safety stuff like that which needs to be available for the docents (ambassadors, primatologists, or whatever you want to be called). Also, evening shifts are starting to fill on the docent sign-up sheet, but we’re still looking for theme camps to adopt weekends, and people to volunteer to give their lunch hour and/or play hooky one morning to interact with the business people and school kids who will visit during the day! And finally, we’re looking for an overall Leave No Trace guru for the event (whether we’re in the park or on concrete). If you know of anyone who might not have raised their hand yet, send them to southbay@burningman.com!

And, Peter Hudson still needs people willing to help prepare the piece at his Oakland studio on weekends, and transport and install it to San Jose during the week of May 12th. If you’ve got the muscle, or just like the idea of helping to make the Monkeys beautiful for their San Jose debut, don’t hesitate (there are only 5 work weekends left!)

Got questions? Wondering what’s up? Been thinking about how this can be done? Speak up! This is the place for monkey chatter, remember? BigMonkeyBusiness@yahoogroups.com