Craftstravaganza! This Saturday! May 2!

There's a great post by Mr. Jalopy over at Dinosaurs and Robots called $upport Independent Business and Reject the Fakers that you would all benefit from reading. It is a case study around the corporate crapping on of Jenny Hart's Sublime Stitching by Urban Threads that demonstrates how corporations rip off individual artists and create shittier versions of fine goods to screw the consumer as well. Here's a killer Jalopy quote from a few years back.

Everything you love, everything meaningful with depth and history, all passionate authentic experiences will be appropriated, mishandled, watered down, cheapened, repackaged, marketed and sold to the people you hate.

This Saturday, you have the chance to perk up your life wih some quality and style while perking up the pocketbooks of some great local craftspeople and artists at Craftstravaganza in the Fine arts Building on the Minnesota State Fair grounds.

There's a lot of great stuff to be seen including work from these mayoral favorites:

Amy Jo
Nate's Custom Sewing
Mia Sorella Aprons
Meghan Elizabeth Pottery
Aisha Celia Designs
Cosmo's Collars

Pan Handling Competition is Running Hot in Minneapolis

Becoming unemployed means considering all of one's options, like taking up a position as a Public Fund Requisitioning Agent (bum). It's a tough business here in Minneapolis and considering I will be out of a job in two weeks, I think I need to get my game, beard and hangdog look in shape if I plan to continue to provide for the citizens of Mt. Holly while on the streets.

Yesterday, I saw a guy on the street in full clown gear blowing bubbles while holding up a sign saying "The circus laid me off." It brings me back to one of my favorite ad campaigns from the past few years.

Frequent Mt. Holly tourist, Todd Norem (noremipsum.com) (ed 5/4/09 - and his partner Liz Otremba LinkedIn) created these media appropriate and proven effective outdoor boards for his client Ed who reported at least a 800% increase in gross income on days his media ran.

Brother, can you spare a headline?

Another Great Illustrated Unemployment Haiku

As I prepare myself to join the ranks of the great unemployed in two weeks (by choice, if you can believe that), I discover beauty and solace and survival tips in the wisdom of these hardened masters of redundancy, Matthew Bottkol and Todd Eisner. You too can find the cadence in inertia every week at Unemployment Haiku Weekly.

Awesome 60's Hovercraft Video!

Head on over to Dinosaurs and Robots for a great video of one of the suavest modes of transportation ever conceived, a personal hovercraft!

CB Radio Voice Effects! 1

Double Nickel demonstrates the Echo.

More from the Your Business Card is Crap! fellow.

Chris Zubryd, the director/editor of "The Pitch, Poker & the Public" the 30 min doc the original Joel Bauer clip was pulled from, sent me a link to the full clip. I haven't been this creeped out since The Men Who Stare at Goats!

This video asks the question "Can you go corporate without losing your soul?” It explores some of the advertising and influence industry's giants through the lens of the greatest persuader of them all; P.T. Barnum. As it turns out he never said, "There is a sucker born every minute". Hear why you think he did, hear how Joan Jett's career was launched by the man who launched it, hear from the creator of the Marlboro man and from the greatest pitchman alive today as well as one of the greatest Texas hold'em players to sit at the poker table. These men have been in the business for decades and have learned valuable things about creating perceptions to turn a profit.

Big Daddy Roth would have called this Rat Puke Green

loafing dept
Originally uploaded by mthaeg

My new workbench surface is probably going to drive me nuts, but it's left over industrial paint from The World's Largest Cribbage Board. It's as durable as a nun's willpower.

Audible design? Musical Craftsmanship? The Band live in their Woodstock studio 1970

If there is a band that I would ever have wanted to be a part of, it would have to be The Band. I've tried to explain why. It's not because of the artists that they've backed up. It's not because of one particular individual, although they are all amazing musicians.

I think that the real magic of The Band is in how they worked together as a design studio or craftsmen's guild, each with individual talents that built on and played off of each other's creativity to create a hardworking yet beautiful article.

One get's the same feeling from the house bands of Stax, Motown, or Muscle Shoals. But, in Woodstock, The Band created something special. Here's proof.

Prove You're a Human

Got this random come-on from the human verifier over at Facebook. How it's not only my high school classmates who are stalking me there, it's the technology itself.

Everything is?

If you are looking for everything, you'll find more of it at Yahoo.

Yahoo: Everything is @ 2,310,000,000
Google: Everything is @ 571,000,000
MSN: Everything is @ 390,000,000

And for the sake of thoroughness
Neutral Milk Hotel: Everything is

Kermit gets a lesson in visual thinking from Harry the Hipster.

Your Business Card is Crap!

Thanks for the link from Cornelius Coons >

Will You Be Here Tomorrow? Industrial Education Video Carnage Compiled

Thanks to idea designer and budding cannibal Sean Whipps for sending this one along.

While I would love to think that this video exists exactly as it is currently edited, I have to believe that this is a compilation of scenes from an industrial safety video series. It's has to be. It's too insane.

Unless, perhaps the producers decided that the BLOOD ON THE HIGHWAY model of teen instruction through terror is the only way to ensure a safe workplace.

The next time your boss tells you that you are lucky to have a job especially in this economy, tell him you're not so sure and send him a link to this amazing gorefest.

Possible Good Luck Charm Recall - RIP Art Car Genius and Political Prankster Tom Kennedy

Topsy-Turvy Bus (Ben & Jerry’s latest flavor?) @ Yahoo! Video

I was lucky enough to get to meet Tom Kennedy this last winter when he visited the Art Shanty Project. Right off the bat, you could tell this guy was something great. Denis the menace grin and a twinkle in his eye. Tom is responsible for many amazing art cars and political pranks. I just saw over on Boing Boing that he had passed away.

On February 13th, 2009, Tom posted this responce to recieving a Mt. Holly Good Luck Decoder badge.

Dear Mayor, Your frozen dice game was superb! Greetings from Tom Kennedy (www.tomkennedyart.com), who met you on the ice. I am back in San Francisco, and really appreciate your gift. Is it a decoder and will I get sent secret messages? When we make art boats and float down the Mississippi, you should consider floating dice!

I hope it was not defective, Tom. May it serve you well in the next world.

Anyone who can put me in touch with those art boat folks, let me know. I do indeed have a dice I'd like to float.

World War I re-enacted by dogs!

More from the Dogville Shorts! "Vell Mr. Schmartalec, zoon you will be a frankfurrrrtar!!!!!"

[SPOILER] Another soundtrack inspired spoiler - Electra Glide in Blue

As long as I am spoiling movies...

Anyone who has seen this movie will tell you how unexpected and moving this final scene is. I'll tell you what. It was even more unexpected to discover that all the hairy bikers in the film were actually played by members of the band Chicago, one of whom, Terry Kath, also sang the closing song.

SPOILER ALERT - Paris, Texas (1984)

PARIS TEXAS
by birdy66

Last night while I had some sketching to do I wanted something mellow and lazy to listen to, something that would sound good comping through the small speakers of the radio that I play my records through. I got to C and pulled out Ry Cooder's soundtrack to this amazing Wim Winders film. It was perfect. But, I had forgotten one thing . . . that half of one side of the LP is dedicated to Harry Dean Stanton's monologue from this incredible scene. It stopped me dead in my tracks.

Queenie in Trouble - 1930's dressed up dog movie

Hold on to your pig's ears, chomp on your rawhide, there's trouble brewing for poor Queenie. Thanks Nicole.

Nick Saloman aka Bevis Frond plays the Countdown theme on Countdown

I remember seeing somewhere back in the early 90's a magazine's list of the most 10 most amazing guitar soloists of all time. There alongside Hendrix and Beck and Page was the name Nick Saloman. I was floored. Up until this point, Saloman, had self-released 3 home recorded albums on which he played all the instruments under the moniker Bevis Frond. 3 mind melting albums of lysergic noodling, drippy farfisa and amazing songwriting (One of my favorite songs of all time, Lights are Changing off his Triptych lp was covered by Mary Lou Lord whose version appeared in some crappy movie).

If you have never heard these albums: Miasma Inner Marshland and Triptych you really owe it to yourself to give them a spin.

Here Saloman puts his licks to good work interpreting the them to his favorite gameshow. It's the closest thing I could find to showcase the sound and feel of that amazing early Frond sound.

La Mano Art Sale!

My buddy, Zak Sally, kingpin of the La Mano Comics and Shark Psychology Empire, is selling some original works of art.

From Zak

Yes.
Like many people in the country (...and just about everywhere else), I'm scraping the barrel. This is NOT my "long-talked about-but-never-instituted 'I WILL DRAW YOUR INSIDES' Initiative", nor is it my "Sammy the Mouse OUT-TAKES Project": it's just me selling some art for money.

Keep your eyes on Zak's blog for more art as it becomes available: Sleeping Bait

Artist Scott Seekins - The Britney Cove

Scott is one of my favorite artists in Minneapolis. His life is art. He is a master of many styles an techniques. If you are in or around town when he has his open studio, you must go to witness the breadth of his talents. One of his favorite subjects in the past several years has been Britney Spears. In honor of her show here in Minneapolis and the excitement Scott must be feeling, I would like to share with you Scott's Britney Cove.