Recently in The Arts Category

Last night's episode was one of the funniest episodes of The Office I've seen. I like to host awkward dinner parties but this completely tops anything I've ever done.

You can watch it yourself on hulu.com.

I love this remix of classic art.

My latest obsession -- stencils. No, not your grandma's country kitchen stencils. Check out stencil1 and stecil revolution and the Children's Media Project.

File this under, "Things I would buy if I had a place to put it." I love this chair that bends the notion of a claw foot chair significantly. There is more crazy wood furniture to check out on the artists gallery.

[Link Courtesy of boing^2]

I love a good love story. Check out "How We Got Engaged", by Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier. Being in love does makes everything in life seem "extra good".

I don't remember where I first saw Lindsay's Satellite Map Mural, but it a super cool way to decorate a wall. I love the way it is both abstract and super realistic at the same time. I would love to paint a wall like this.

I saw my third Coldfront show last night at Whiskey Junction. I work with a couple of guys from the band. I love to see the way they pour heart and soul into their shows. My favorite songs from last night were "Basket Case", "Back in Black, and "Faith". Yeah, that's right they perform skillful covers of heavy metal standards and one George Michael song.

One of these days I'll have to stay for the fabled third set.

One of my favorite Far Side cartoon shows heaven and hell. The punch line is something like "Welcome to heaven here is your harp; welcome to hell, here is your accordion. Whenever someone new joins a project I am part of, I explain to them that "we are, unfortunately, fresh out of accordions", just to see if they are among the Far Side cognesceti. If they are, they gain valuable project insight. If they know nothing of the Far Side, it serves to cement my reputation as a loon.

[Photo courtesy of JReid]

So when I saw this digital accordion on Gizmodo I immediately wanted to get one and start taking lessons. My awkward lack of rhythm and near tone deafness may make this one of my worst ideas to date. Still the idea of the all electronic accordion amuses me. You can plug in headphones and the device will appear silent. What a boon that must be to the parents of fledgling accordion players. Can you imagine seeing people playing these on the subway and no noise coming out?

This isn't related in any way, but I found this Larson/Goodal controversy funny. It would fit better into this post if a wild chimp had thrown an accordion at Larson, but we'll stick with the truth for now.

On our way back from the "Stone Arch Bridge Art Festival" Matthew and I passed a typical warehouse building with an odd sign out front, "Soap Factory Open". I couldn't resist investigating what that might mean. So in we went. It turns out that the "Soap Factory" is an art space for experimental art. We walked in and Matthew announced loudly to the volunteer/docent "It stinks in here."

Here is what appears to be an enormous knit shawl. It's easily 12 feet across. I would hate to see the size of the knitting needles.

This was easily my favorite installation. It was a rickety rube goldberg-esque ride where you watch a small translucent piece of paper. As the wooden cart moved around the room, the scene projected on the paper kept changing. Matthew seemed to have enjoyed it almost as much as I did.

Matthew isn't yet burdened with the adult notion that art needs to mean something, so he has always enjoyed avant-garde art.

PostSecret has been one of my favorite blogs for a long time. The postcards people send in make me laugh and laugh. Some make me feel so sad it takes my breath away. Some creep me out.

Some of the postcards seem so simple or truthful that it makes me sad considering the fact that the person sending the card in didn't have anyone to tell their secret to.