Dan Das Mann called me from his 40-foot school bus, on his way to the Black Rock desert, the location of the annual pilgrimage known as Burning Man - the art event of radical self-expression that this local artist approaches in earnest.

This participatory community waiting for him on what is known as "the playa," can grow to nearly 50,000 citizens. It's also what Das Man, co-founder of Big Art Studios of Oakland, calls his art school. For 2010's "Metropolis" theme, he and his partner Karen Cusolito have fantasy in mind.

A remote control hot tub still sits in the NIMBY's yard. A giant cereal bowl with pillows in magically delicious shapes lay in waiting for Burning Man. Tomorrow afternoon, a semi-truck will haul them from industrial Oakland to the desert plain of Black Rock City.

In case you don't know: the steampunk movement is about glorifying all things entwined with Victorian/Edwardian science fiction. Playing on the ideals of such writers as H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, steampunk enthusiasts like to marvel in wonderment of what it would be like if 19th century technology were created with the insight of 2010. Steampunks also tend to geek out over Ren-Faire-esque role-playing of old-timey characters, while they gather amongst their own and spout shaky Victorian accents.

There's an article in SF Gate today that suggests that NIMBY, the local DIY fabrication arts organization that moved from West Oakla