David Erik Nelson's Blog, page 45
March 20, 2012
This Sunday: FREE Lantern-crafting workshop in Ann Arbor with FestiFools!
Every Sunday in March the folks behind FestiFools have been leading the public in building *awesome* illuminated lanterns to be used at the March 30 "FoolMoon" night-time parade (which is a run-up event to the April 1 daytime FestiFools Giant Scary Puppet parade). Come down, build some lanterns, and have an all-around good time with local crafting enthusiasts!
Free, Drop-in Sculptural Lantern Workshops!
DATE: March 25
TIME: 10am-5pm
LOCATION: The Workantile, 118 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104
BONUS: Free coffee and treats (while supplies last)!
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC! Suggested donation: $10
Here's a video demo of last year's luminary kit:
And here's the video demo of this year's kit (for sale both on the spot and in advance; click here for details):
And, finally, some pics from this year.
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FREE ALBUM: Richie Branson's nerdcore album "The Wing Zero EP"
THE WING ZERO EP: DOWNLOAD NOW! -- Uncategorized -- Richie Branson
This is Richie Branson's brand-new, zero-day, nerdcore hip-hop EP anthem to Gundam Wing. I'm gonna come correct: I've never really been huge on video games (not much for violence art, and most of the action titles make me sea sick), had no clue what the hell Gundam Wing was without Wikipedia (which informs me this is properly "Mobile Suit Gundam Wing"--or "New Mobile Report Gundam Wing" in Japan), and never heard of Richie Branson before he emailed us with a preview copy of this album. That said--and granting that I'm still kind of foggy on the baroque details of Gundam Wing--I just straight up like this album: I like the tracks (largely original compositions by Branson), I like his voice and flow, and am not really concerned that I don't have much of a clue what he's talking about. Which means, oddly, that I enjoy this in *exactly* the same way I enjoy the works of Jay-Z, even though I know *nothing* about the intricacies of dealing crack cocaine in the collapsing urban core of 1980s NYC (man, that's a suspiciously overly specific proviso, isn't it? "I know nothing about being a young black man selling cocaine derivatives in New York City between 1981 and 1995. I can also say, without a shred of doubt or hesitation, that I've never killed a man with a hammer while wearing shoes." It's not that I'm a bad liar; I'm just a totally awkward truth-teller.)
At any rate, the Wing Zero EP is FREE *TODAY*; download it and give it a listen.
March 15, 2012
Every "Itchy & Scratchy" *EVER!*: 48mins of our childhood wryly criticizing itself
This is the snake eating her tail, friends. Giver her a gander before she gets C&Ded straight to Hell.
Itchy & Scratchy cartoons from The Simpsons collected in a single video
March 13, 2012
The unborn children in my testicles and I think this political performance art is pretty hilarious
. . . but we're noted for our poor taste[1], so take that with as many grains of salt as you deem fit.
Nina Turner's Ohio Viagra Bill: S.B. 307 Would Regulate Men's Access to Viagra
Turner's proposal would require a man seeking Viagra to first attain an affidavit from a sexual partner attesting to his impotency, see a state-approved sex therapist, complete a stress test to assure he is healthy enough for sexual activity, and return to the doctor every 90 days to check on his cardiac health. The patient would also have to attend three outpatient counseling sessions within six months of receiving his prescription to ensure that he fully understands the "dangerous side effects" of taking erectile dysfunction drugs.
The Ohio Democrat explained her reasoning behind the eyebrow-raising bill to the Dayton Daily News like so: "Even the FDA recommends that doctors make sure that assessments are taken that target the nature of the symptoms, whether it's physical or psychological. I certainly want to stand up for men's health and take this seriously and legislate it the same way mostly men say they want to legislate a woman's womb."
1. *zzzzzing!*
March 8, 2012
TSA Bodyscanners Busted by Annoying White Guy
I agree with almost none of this guy's stated *opinions* and policy positions, and am put off by his tone--which, to my ear, is the outraged hysteria of the perpetually privileged--but I have complete faith in his findings, and agree in the broad strokes: Real-time full-body scans are an expensive and risky solution in search of a problem. Well-trained TSA agents, existing bomb residue detectors, and conventional metal detectors serve us better.
As an aside--because this guy also hammers the "pat-down molestation program" button: I've been searched by all sorts of law enforcement in all sorts of contexts (e.g., while visiting correctional facilities, in airports, while crossing international borders, during police stops, while under suspicion, while not under suspicion, while obviously guilty, etc.) Of all of these, the TSA's "molestation searches" were, in my experience, the most respectful. Yes, the screener touched my body in ways I'm not cool with, but he was also not threatening or degrading at any point, and fully acknowledged that this was not pleasant for me. The search was no different from being searched for drugs (where a finger run under the waistband of the pants and contact up the entire leg to the crotch is far from unheard of). Your mileage, or course, may vary. I've had the good fortune to have never suffered an assault--sexual or otherwise--that unpleasantly sensitized me to this sort of contact with strangers, and I've clearly been searched enough that the trauma of the novel was well in my past. But, that said, all I could think about when I was being politely frisked out in the open, in broad daylight, accompanied by my wife and son, was that a large percentage of my fellow citizens--disproportionately males a tad younger than me with darker complexions--are subjected to a much ruder version of this with depressing regularity. That the hubbub over "airport pat-down molestation"--hubbubing I disproportionately hear emanating from my fellow pale faces--has basically failed to extend to larger questions about the liberal use of questionable stop-and-frisk in our inner cities makes me really, really sad in that "I thought you guys were yelling about 'justice,' but I guess what you really said was 'just us'" sorta way.
March 6, 2012
"Everything is a Remix" finally complete!
I've loved every portion of the Everything is a Remix series; the argument is graceful and concise, and really artistically important for us, as a culture of creators, right now (I'm especially digging Part 3, still). Watch these if you haven't already, and then go make something new out of something old.
(Part one is below; the remaining three--in chronological order--are after the jump.)
Everything is a Remix Part 1 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.
(Oooh! The filmmaker, Kirby, has a new project on Kickstarter! Support this!)
Everything is a Remix Part 2 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.
Everything is a Remix Part 3 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.
March 5, 2012
Must Read: Make Your Thing: 12 Point Program for Absolutely, Positively 1000% No-Fail Guaranteed Success
Most of Poor Mojo's "Must Reads" are about how thing have gone to shit out in the world. This bums me out, both because it is negative (duh) and because it leaves me with any overwhelming sense of helplessness; these are statements of *fact,* often divorced from *process,* which makes them feel inevitable.
This article, on the other hand, is a statement of *opinion*, and it's focused on process, and it instructs Us Folks Who Like to Create in how we can improve the world. SPOILER: We don't necessarily improve the world by making a head-on run at all the things in the other Must Reads; we can maybe improve it by keeping our hearts and keeping on making more, even when that seems at best quixotic, and at worst wasteful, selfish folly.
Also, I really like Thorn's read on the Insane Clown Posse--whose work he clearly doesn't enjoy, but whose achievements he certainly understands. It's probably the most concise and incisive thumbnail exegesis of "community" that I've ever read. Take *that* "social marketing gurus."
That said, I'd never call Faygo an "off-brand citrus soda." That totally ignores the rich diversity of the Faygo universe--and, let's come correct: Rock & Rye is clearly the canonical Faygo flavor. Citrus? Fuck that noise, Thorn.
I don't really think that most of what you need is born into you, though. Mostly, you just need to care, and try. You need to make something, and then make it again, a little better. You need to look around for money. You need to reach your hand out to meet someone when it would be easier to keep to yourself. You need to make something for you when it would be easier just do what someone else tells you to. All of these things are hard, but none of them require anything more than gumption. Which I bet you have.
March 2, 2012
Poor Mojo's Almanac(k) Classic issue #458 (published October 29, 2009) "Sometimes contains disappearing humanity."
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Poor Mojo's Almanac(k) Classic issue #458 (published October 29, 2009)
Sometimes contains disappearing humanity.
Giant Squid: Ask the Giant Squid: Pledge Your Allegiance to My Hat by the Giant Squid. . . How, you may wonder, have I come to be so enlightened? It was not by process of long self inspection, nor by having myself butterflyed and damp-roasted on a spit, nor by imbibing ibogaine toddies, nor through esoteric religious (or anti-religious devotions), nor even by way of a brief self-improvement seminar. Rather, Dear Readers, through the fleshy and faithful conduit of my sub-editorial staff, I have experienced the Coming of the Glory of the APE. . . .
Fiction: Les Brers in A Minor by Ray SikesLes Brers was the kind of guy we couldn't help but notice. Not too many kids show up halfway through ninth grade weighing well over two hundred pounds and sporting a full beard and shoulder length hair. When I first saw him in the hallway, I assumed he was a substitute teacher, one of those just-out-of-college hippie types who were sometimes called in to ride herd on us when the real teachers were away, but there was nothing collegiate about Les. He looked more like a mountain man who lived off the land and killed what he ate. . . .
Poetry: This Goddamn Society: Five Poems by Papa Osmubal by Papa OsmubalDon't just sit around.
Put that book down and wash up.
You smell like you have been marinated in beer.
Dammit, Kennett, pursue your dreams.
If you have none, create one.
Dammit, Kennett, you can be a CEO. . . .
Rant: The Philosophy of Furniture by Edgar Allan Poe. . . In the internal decoration, if not in the external architecture of their residences, the English are supreme. The Italians have but little sentiment beyond marbles and colors. In France, meliora probant, deteriora sequuntur—the people are too much a race of gadabouts to study and maintain those household proprieties of which, indeed, they have a delicate appreciation, or at least the elements of a proper sense. The Chinese and most of the eastern races have a warm but inappropriate fancy. The Scotch are poor decorists. The Dutch have merely a vague idea that a curtain is not a cabbage. In Spain they are all curtains—a nation of hangmen. The Russians no [do] not furnish. The Hottentots and Kickapoos are very well in their way. The Yankees alone are preposterous. . . .
February 24, 2012
Spread the Gospel of Universal Emancipation and unfettered robosexuality!
Hey All: It's the LAST DAY for regular Janes and Joes to get a FREE copy of my Nebula-nominated post-Civil War steampunk-sexpot novella, "Tucker Teaches the Clockies to Copulate"
Let's catapult the propaganda, monetize the eschaton, and show those Fat Cats in Richmond that we support Universal Emancipation and unfettered robosexuality!
