Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

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Magic Newswire
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Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby Magic Newswire » February 28th, 2010, 1:52 am

...and it isn't who you think.

It is actually his new $100k motorcycle made from a real human skeleton.

Read More and have a peek: http://bit.ly/cGoWQ3

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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby NCMarsh » February 28th, 2010, 3:12 am

Human remains as automotive decoration...how tasteful

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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby Magic Newswire » February 28th, 2010, 3:45 am

Not sure how I'd feel if I donated my body to science only to discover that I ended up with Criss Angel sitting n my back.

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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby Doc Dixon » February 28th, 2010, 3:50 am

Every sarcastic comment that comes to my mind is overwhelmed by the crassness of this.

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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby David Alexander » February 28th, 2010, 10:21 am

Yet another illustration by Criss of H.L. Mencken's observation: "No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."

Sometimes it is written "...intelligence of the American public."

Criss manages to cover both contingencies.

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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby Terry » February 28th, 2010, 1:27 pm

Have to give him credit, he surpassed Andy Warhol's statement about 15 minutes.

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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby timbrown » March 1st, 2010, 1:12 pm

From the link...."The folks at Big Bear Choppers made the custom super bike from bones dipped in stainless steel for the frame."

Stainless steel melts at about 1400 to 1450 degrees Celsius.

The temperature for cremation is in the range of 760 to 1150 degrees Celsius. (google is a wonderful thing)

I doubt that it is even remotely possible to build a motorcycle from from bones that have been dipped into stainless steel. Even if the stuff stuck to the bone and solidified the results would have no structural integrity.

This sounds like goofy hyperbole intended to continue the weirdo mystique of Mr. Angel.

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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby NCMarsh » March 1st, 2010, 1:49 pm

I doubt that it is even remotely possible to build a motorcycle from from bones that have been dipped into stainless steel. Even if the stuff stuck to the bone and solidified the results would have no structural integrity.


Is it "built from" bones, or are the bones ornaments on a steel frame. My sense was that the bones are decorative elements that don't bear weight.

As for temperature, keep in mind that it takes time for two bodies to reach a temperature equilibrium. The bones become ash when the bones reach 760 - 1150, but putting them in a 1400 degree medium doesn't mean they're immediately 1400 degrees; any more than putting your 72 degree f turkey in a 400 degree f oven makes the turkey -- at that moment -- 400 degrees. Think of how long it takes for that turkey, surrounded by a 400 degree medium, to reach an internal temp of 150 and have the thermometer pop up.

That's not to say that steel-plated bones are possible, it is simply to say that the threshold temperatures -- themselves -- aren't enough to make it impossible. What happens to the bone depends on how much mass the bone has, what its temperature is, how much mass the steel has, what its temperature is, and how long the two bodies are in contact. That would allow you to calculate the temperature of the bone. If that number is greater than 700, it is ash.

It is conceivable, to me, that you could dip a bone in liquid steel for less than a second and have it remain under the cremation point. Once it is out of the pool of steel; the liquid steel around it has very little mass compared to the mass of the bone. That steel is still in the 1400 C range -- because temperature is an average of the heat within a body -- but the total amount of heat is very little and I can easily see them coming to equilibrium under 700.

N.

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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby Jonathan Townsend » March 1st, 2010, 1:59 pm

Way too easy to put that through the word mixer and untoss that salad... also way too obvious. Freud and Jung nod in approval. Somtimes the iconic crosses over into the ironic though this time it's mor- IMHO.

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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby Magic Newswire » March 1st, 2010, 2:43 pm

The first reference that I found to it was on Feb 24th from the San Bernadino Sun which said:



(Angel) told me he wanted to build a skeleton bike made out of scraps of sheet metal," said Kevin Alsop, who owns and operates Big Bear Choppers along with his wife, Mona. "I told him, `Why don't we use a real skeleton?"'

Kevin said he knows the operator of a foundry in Georgia. He said the operator was able to get hold of a real human skeleton that he then cast

Big Bear Choppers in Big Bear Lake is building its seventh custom bike for magician Criss Angel, a vehicle dubbed the "Skeleton Bike." Kevin Also, owns the shop with his wife, Mona. Kevin says human bones can be purchased and often are used for medical purposes.


You'll note that he says "cast" not "dipped in", "coated" or "clad"




The next was on Feb 25th, from Robin Leach mentioning that the bike was to be delivered on Saturday:



By Robin Leach (contact)
Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010 |12:59 p.m.

ROBIN HALDANE/MOTORCYCLE USA
Illusionist Criss Angel straddles his new everyday ride at Big Bear Choppers in California on June 16, 2009.
A new $100,000 motorcycle made from human skeleton will be delivered to Mindfreak magician Criss Angel this weekend at his Cirque du Soleil show Believe at the Luxor. The folks at Big Bear Choppers made the custom super bike from bones dipped in stainless steel for the frame. A Georgia foundry cast the purchased bones that had been discarded after medical purposes.



You'll notice that it references Motorcycle USA. That being the case, I went there looking for more info and a pic, but found nothing so waited for a final photo to publish the story. Then yesterday, Criss posted the pics to his Twitter Stream saying :



On Saturday 27th February 2010, @crissangel said:
http://tweetphoto.com/12760764 MF6 "The Enemy" w/ me & Kevin;owner of Big Bear Choppers my 8th BBC bike. The craziest chopper I have ever seen period!
MF6 "The Enemy" fabricated by Kevin at Big Bear Choppers. http://tweetphoto.com/12741555
This bike is a reminder for those who breed negativity in the world. You can see the outcome...




Now you know how hard I work to bring you the news. Isn't it sad that this much energy went into this specific story? ;-)

I think it just one of those cases in which a story gets passed around and changed slightly each time.

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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby Richard Kaufman » March 1st, 2010, 2:49 pm

Yup.
Subscribe today to Genii Magazine

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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby NCMarsh » March 1st, 2010, 3:07 pm

Magic Newswire wrote:I think it just one of those cases in which a story gets passed around and changed slightly each time.


And, in this case, the slight change (which looks like it came from Robin Leach) makes for a radical difference. Casting steel bones from human bones -- which can be, one hopes, then laid to rest respectfully -- is very different from putting someone's relative, coated in steel, on a motorcycle.

My sense is that the bones were likely cast (re-reading the Leach piece, he contradicts himself in the same sentence; first saying they were "dipped" and then that they were cast -- given that the other source clearly says "cast" I think it is highly likely that Leach was embellishing the story without actual knowledge/particular care about the process); and, in that case tempest over nothing...

N.

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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby timbrown » March 2nd, 2010, 11:11 am

I thought the same thing when I read the article. If bones were used as the pattern for a sand mold you could cast them (or at least the shape of them) in metal. Much more believable than "dipping them in stainless steel". Not that the end result is any less bizarre or disgusting.

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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby Brandon Hall » March 2nd, 2010, 2:21 pm

It's an ugly bike. Not to mention the bad karma...
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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby Jonathan Townsend » March 2nd, 2010, 2:38 pm

NCMarsh wrote:Human remains as automotive decoration...how tasteful


It's a Voodoo thing. Be nice. The Loas are watching.

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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby Magic Newswire » March 2nd, 2010, 11:12 pm

Someone else got the joke.. and took it one step further: http://bit.ly/bxhRDF

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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby kevin fortin » March 2nd, 2010, 11:36 pm

I blame the public school system.

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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby Mr. Stickley » March 3rd, 2010, 1:10 am

I just saw a pic of the bike...

Don't mean to be a jerk but...

Wouldn't it kind of look like he's doggy stylin' some poor dead guys bones when he's riding it!?

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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby Jonathan Townsend » March 3rd, 2010, 7:52 am

Henry Moore would not be amused.
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time

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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby Jonathan Townsend » March 3rd, 2010, 8:32 am

* and no it's not shagadelic
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time

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Re: Criss Angel Meets "The Enemy"

Postby Bystander » March 11th, 2010, 10:14 pm

Robin has been known to get his facts messed up from time to time.

I get the symbolism behind it. Especially the knife thru the back where the gas cap is.


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