If you like interactive art AND being woken up in the middle of the night, you might want to look into joining Call In the Night, an “experimental radio show and telephone network documenting the nighttime experience” created by Carnegie Mellon student Max Hawkins.
Here’s how it works:
1. Sign up and provide your phone number
2. Once a week, you’ll be connected to another member of the network sometime after 2AM EST and have the ensuing conversation (which can be more or less about anything, but they seem to largely be about dreams and nighttime activities) recorded
3. Select conversations are then included in the Call In the Night podcast
Now, I’m all for engaging in some good, clean dream analysis, but woe be to those who would wake me from my slumber. That said, here’s a recent entry from my own lobes:
I had a dream a couple weeks ago in which I was President Obama, but in the dream, President Obama is an anthropomorphic elephant (irony!) wearing a killer three-piece suit and tooling around the U.S. on a motorcycle in order to better understand the concerns of ordinary Americans and craft policy accordingly. You know, standard POTUS taking-care-of-business. It’s no Denim Chicken, but really, what is?
To our fans in the areas affected by Sandy: stay strong. Our thoughts are with you. To those that aren’t, please help if you can. Canned goods are great, but they’re generally not accepted as legal tender in exchange for blankets & such. You know things are rough when we’re operating within a soup-based economy. I mean, it could be worse…but you don’t wanna know about it.
I don’t ever get to just GO to a lot of the events I sell at — IF I’m lucky (unlucky?) enough to be working a convention or trade show with occasional lulls in foot traffic and wander around, it’s never enough time to fully absorb all that the conventions have to offer, and I can never do it concurrently with Meredith, as she and I switch off who mans the fort while the other wanders.
Which is why I was SO excited to hit the 2012 Small Press Expo this past weekend with Meredith — we got to see the WHOLE show floor, and take our time at each table/booth, engaging with the artists and chatting with friends.
Here are some of our favorite new (to us) artists from the show, and where to find them:
Text-heavy, but in the best way possible, with perfectly executed illustrations that support the hilarious rules and tips for seasoned time travelers and noobs alike.
Rutabaga is an adorably adventurous chef, forever seeking out the most magical and legendary ingredients, and feeding the denizens of the forest along the way!
At times cringe-inducing, at times hilarious, this auto-bio is expertly executed, drawing from the creator’s own romantic (and less-than-romantic) experiences.
Cute, funny watercolor illustrations of the absurd. Difficult to describe succinctly, as Scott’s themes are wide-ranging, but really well done!
****
Honestly, there were so many, many other awesome creators selling wares at SPX that Meredith and I found ourselves saying “I want to buy everything!” to one another countless times over the 4 hours we spent walking through the convention hall. Some other really awesome artists to explore include:
• Kudos for the sly nod to NOT drinking and driving
• Beer > heist money
• That’s a lot of off-duty cops in that bar
• “Made From Beer” is a slogan straight out of Idiocracy
In other drinking-related news:
I’ll be selling my wares this weekend (Saturday AND Sunday) at the Baltimore Comic Convention in the Baltimore Convention Center. Our good friend John at Ex-Boyfriend’s unofficial “sponsor bar” Bad Decisions is knocking a whopping 10% off the tab of anyone who comes in Saturday or Sunday wearing Ex-Boyfriend gear! A pretty sweet deal from the best bar and lifestyle label Charm City has to offer!
Admission to the con is super-cheap — just $25 for Saturday, $20 for Sunday, or $40 for both! If you’re a panicking Yankees fan, come out for the nerds during the day, catch the game across the street with us in the evening, and then get crunk at Bad Decisions to drown your sorrows after the O’s win! Just hop in the closest cab and say “Fells Point, corner of Fleet & Washington”!
Finally, if you’ve been itching to get a Fuzz Aldrin, Catnip Freakout, or Fidel Catro shirt for yourself or a friend, September is the month to do it. Why? Because Ex-Boyfriend has teamed with Jackson Galaxy and Spirit Essences to support the worthy cat rescue group Kitten Associates! Throughout the month of September, Ex-Boyfriend is donating $5 from the sale of tees & hoodies featuring these three designs to Kitten Associates, so snap ‘em up yourself, or help us spread the word!
First off, how insulting must this be for our human fighter pilots? Secondly, if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the last decade, it’s that human-operated drone strikes are not perfect. What makes Science think that putting drone strikes in LESS capable hands (or alpha waves or synapses or whatever) is going to improve that?
The class of 2012 is looking pretty rough right now, Science. Thus far you’ve given us mass-killing mutant rat brains and a Dorito-flavored taco shell, with NASA’s successful Martian landing two weeks ago as your only showing in the “Win” column. We’re already halfway through August, guys. Time to wow me.
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