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 wo days before the show, the SRL crew invited local media to a demonstration of the larger machines. By this time, the infield of the quarter-mile track was littered with all manner of machine and elaborate props -- expendible dioramas to be destroyed by the starring machines. A muliticolored steel carousel (donated by the Austin-based arts group "Carnival of Fools") sat behind a life-sized fireworks stand. Three 35-foot telephone poles were laced together to form a huge tripod; on show night, it would be draped with human mannequins and other flammables. In the shadow of a huge replica of the UT Tower, a 28-foot wooden pleasure craft (christened the HMS Entropy) awaited its impending doom.
Photographers and video crews wandered the field as various machines swung to life. Smoke machines covered the field in sulfurous fog as the Shockwave Cannon pivoted menacingly on its tripod and took playful potshots at the visitors. Somewhere downfield, the V1 started its booming test run. In a prelude to Friday's show, Mark Pauline stalked the staging area and demonstrated a radio-controlled robot arm for eager camera crews. Strapped into a one-armed electronic harness, Pauline used the cranelike jaws of the Little Arm to crush concrete and wrestle with various props.
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