"Art" Fair On A Stick

Ah, the Ann Arbor Art Fair. You've no doubt heard tell of it in song and legend. You have probably even gone so far as to doubt its existence.

Let me assure you that it is real.

Here's a quick rundown on the kind of stuff you would have seen this weekend at the Ann Arbor Art Fair:

1. Creepy Naked Art - There are just too many of these. And just because your photos are in black and white does not mean they are art. No matter how much photoshopping you do. Also, the guy with the tent next to the guy with the creepy water nymph paintings? You got troubles, dude. And don't think you are getting away either, Water Nymph man. I've got my eye on you.

2. Art-On-A-Stick - There are three things that can by found on stick at the Art Fair. The noble Corn Dog is of course present, as well as the "Chinese" creation 'Chicken-on-a-stick with fried noodles.' Though the later is substantially more delicious than the former, I still have no idea why it is on a stick. The last thing stick-bound is, oddly enough, art. Though this makes marginally more sense than the chicken, I still firmly believe that if its something clever on a stick and meant to go in your lawn then it is not art. I should also emphasize how much of this kind of crap there is at the art show. There is a lot.

3. Bad Fashion Decisions - Just because it might be warm out, and there are lots of people around does not mean you have to dress like that. Although I have to admit that the dude in the cargo man-skirt looked pretty cool.

4. 'Good' Art - See Below*

5. The Art Fair Dolls - Every year, someone or something places weirdly disfigured dolls in odd places around the art fair. Though they disappeared for a few years, a couple did show up in trees and secured to light-posts this year. Since this is a blog intended for mixed company, I will spare you the details and instead instruct you to imagine what a 7yr old boy with a soddering iron, a red marker, and a penchant for the grotesque could do with a Barbie doll. Whatever you are thinking of is probably very close to these horrible and wonderful little things.

6. Me - Yes, I was there. Every day. Part of working on the Diag Crew is having to cover Art Fair, and this lead me to walk around several times a day changing trash-bags and hauling away stuffed plastic sacks leaking fluid all over the place. After four ten-hour days of this, I finally lost it. Saturday was my worst day at work this summer. Despite having completed the wooden pirate-ship model we found some weeks earlier, I was otherwise mentally out to lunch. I am certain that nothing I said made any sense that day. To anyone who encountered me on Saturday (especially anyone who tried to talk to me on the phone that day), I feel I owe an apology.

Thankfully, Art Fair has passed. Today, my only day off this week, I woke late and spent the entire morning reading. After a quick trip down to the comic book store with Nate and his roommate Jane, pausing only briefly to play with iPhones, I decided to roost up on the fire escape. And here I have stayed.

Its wonderful. I've even lit some candles.
Tomorrow, I go back to work.
Today, nothing is allowed to bother me.

---

*This is very subjective, I know. While the Art Fair has lots of 'cool' things, there were only a very few that actually made me feel bad for not having any money to give them. Here they are, for your viewing pleasure:

Rex Benson: Specializes in wonderful ceramics with a bend toward the bizarre and fantastical. I am reminded of Don Bluth animations, and other late 70's cartoons. Im also reminded of the work done by my old neighbor, Jimmy Thompson.

Chrsitine C. Schub: Her intricate oil paintings could be many things. Perhaps a city seen from above? A skyline? An artistic understanding of a circuit board? Whatever the analogy her cramped and busy little paintings really fascinated me.

Nick Wroblewski: My personal favorite from last yuear enchanted me again. I told him straigh up that I wish I could buy some of his work. And if anyone wants to spend a substantial sum of money on me, they should get me this:




There were many others that caught my attention, and Im sure many other worthy artists could be found amongst the crap on sticks. But these were my big three.

Also, this is one of the few blog-posts I have taken the time to edit, and re-read. If you are in a masochistic mood, you can read the first draft here. Im leaving it in all its whiney, boring, overly-detailed glory.

Pandora in my ears tonight

I imagine my hordes of adoring readers see me as a simultaneously gruff and sophisticated free spirit. The kind of guy who fells a tree with his bare hands, then carves a chair out of the trunk with his teeth so that he can sit comfortably while reading high literature and sipping San Pellegrino.
Sadly, this is not the truth.

I've been a geeky dude a long time. In fact, I can't remember a time when I wasn't lusting for gadgetry or wanting a spaceship. There are hints of this in the blog. Most notably when I write whole posts about a computer, or compare different blogging softwares. A keen reader will note that I seem to be more and more involved in internet-related projects. This blog is a prime example, my use of Twitter is another. I find the way these projects integrate people as participants and architects wonderful as well as intriguing.

Anyway, I started this whole post because I wanted to talk about Pandora. Nate put me onto this recently and, despite its foreboding name, I am really enjoying it.

--- INTERMISSION ---

(During this short intermission, we'd like to present a re-enactment of the scene in which NATE tells MAX about PANDORA)

Nate: You should check this out. Its this web-app called Pandora...

Max: Uh-uh! No way! No way am I going anywhere near, or having anything to do with this "PANDORA" of which you speak!

Nate: But it...

Max: Dude! I've seen movies! I know mythology! Anything with a name like that is BAD NEWS. Forget it, lets get a ham.

--- END OF INTERMISSION ---

Pandora is a web-based application, part of the Music Genome Project. It acts like an internet radio station that filters the output based on your selections. When starting a new "station" you're prompted to enter a band or song that you like. You'll then be fed a stream of songs, one after the other, that have something in common with the initial choice. These songs can be rated by the user, thats you, which changes the "content" of the "station." For instance, if you entered Frank Zappa as your initial favorite your ratings of the songs which followed could eventually have you listening to Rachmaninov or perhaps jazz quintets.

Its quite a fun little toy, and its letting me enjoy a wide variety of music that seems to be within the vein of things that I enjoy.

The whole thing is powered by the Music Genome Project, which seems to be an overly ambitious exercise in cross-indexing. But whatever, Pandora is fun and is giving me new tunes for free.

I Took A Pretty Good Picture

As many of you know, I like to take pictures. Im not a photographer, not in the least. I have only a rudimentary understanding of camera settings and very rarely am able to use them effectively (more often I just take the picture without monkeyin' with the camera).
If I ever get about $1k I could just throw at something, I'd probably purchase myself one of those nifty digital SLR cameras. They're all crazy with their manual zoom, manual focus, and no shutter delay. Basically, its a camera that makes all the pictures you take with it awesome. Its almost magical.

Here's one I took last night. I usually take about 12 at a time, and keep one or two that turn out well. Here's last night's good picture.




PS.
My computer worked for 12 hours last night, through jostling, heavy use and extreme heat. COULD ATOMSK BE HEALED (again)!?

A Confession, And A Bit More

Dear Lord,

Please forgive me for lying to the Mormons who accosted me on the street so as to avoid what I anticipated as being a frustrating and one-sided conversation on the nature of existence.

Amen.

I thought I would just drop a little something here since my computer is not co-operating. Atomsk is alive, I guess, but cannot seem to make it through booting without freezing and needing to be re-started.

Claire has requested that I clarify that she is NOT ON A HOPI EXCAVATION. She writes, "Not a Hopi excavation! Ancestral puebloan!"

Also, I am going to be working 4 ten hour shifts in two weeks, to cover the art-fair happenings in Ann Arbor. If anyone was going to pop by that week, I'm going to need some seriously advanced notice.

The weekend after that (July 27-29) cousin Phil will be dropping in for a little R&R in this scenic northern paradise.

Not too interesting, I know. Ah well, it is summer after all.