Balloooooooooooons

Ok, speaking of balloons, here is an amazing photo I found. I don’t know who made it (is it a friend of the guy who made animal costumes from household stuff ?http://norulesnoshame.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/its-like-the-phantom-of-the-opera-but-dressed-like-a-moose/). Somewhere in there are either too many punctuation marks or not enough of them. Sue me, I don’t know how to write html in wordpress so it hides a link within text. Don’t sue me. Email me, and tell me how to do it. I really like this balloon lady. I hope there are more. Who did this?

Mike Shea

I’m only posting this because Mike is always telling me how much he loves the blog. No, of course I’m kidding. He’s never used the word “love”. Yet. Check out his beautiful drawings/comics at http://www.mikeshearules.com/. He also had a genius rapping career, and recorded several songs (three that I know of): http://www.myspace.com/metrognomeandjustmaurice

Big Trend: Duh, balloons.

I have to be honest. For someone who has several part time jobs, an artistic practice, a busy family life, and a mild party habit (very mild), I spend a huge amount of time on the information superhighway. It’s really great because there’s so much out there, and I never have to make small talk, or stay in one place too long because I feel rude walking out. That always bothers me about parties. You can’t just walk in, survey the people/food/ratio of moustaches to girlfriends/toilets and walk out immediately. That would be my dream. Sims party. Make it happen. Much of my online prowls include contemporary photography updates (websites, blogs, galleries, etc), and I love picking up on trends (because no one lives in a vacuum… or do they? Make it happen). A mega uber huge trend is to include balloons in one’s artwork. Okay, it also involves acting as if you invented balloons and no one even thought to photograph balloons until you came to the scene and shouted, “Ballooreka! I’ve got it! A horse with balloons! They’ll never know what hit them!” Don’t get me wrong. I love the photos. I also love the up-yours those little colorful balls of plastic say to gravity. Up yours, gravity! You ain’t nothing! I’m free! I’m flying! I’M FLYYYYIIIIING! Damn. I’m caught in a tree. Leaking air. Back to you, gravity. I’m sorry, baby.

Websites (by the way, some of these people have great portfolios. Guess which ones! Just kidding. They’re all great.):
Andrea Galvani: http://www.andreagalvani.com/
Laurel Ptak: http://www.laurelptak.com/
Catalina Bartolome: http://www.flickr.com/photos/catrin/
Angela Strassheim: http://www.marvelligallery.com/Strassheim1.html
Jimmy Limit (I want a cool name, too): http://www.jimmylimit.com/
Kate Bernauer: http://katebernauer.net/
Miami Horror Band: http://www.myspace.com/miamihorror
Sannah Kvist: http://sannahkvist.se/
Tiara Mia: http://tiaramia.deviantart.com/art/sunset-balloons-92971057
Tim Steer: http://www.timsteer.com/
Ugne Straigyte: http://holdmetiger.com

UPDATE: The balloon dress is NOT by Jack Crossing. Sorry, Jack! I don’t know how that happened. In other news, now the balloon dress is left nameless.

Sibling Rivalry

One of my favorite things in life is spotting D, G, Q, and S-list celebrities happily going about their lives at events I happen to be at. I say “events” like I’m some sort of social networking butterfly with a busy schedule and rolodex of important people that I must “pencil in” to said schedule. In reality, these events are usually just plain ol’ concerts, since that’s the only thing I tend to leave my house for. Music, food and art…that’s about it. Sometimes these things are all in the same place, and then I’m lucky enough to spot one of my favorite character actors and all hell breaks loose! I pee my pants, run up to the person with a mouthful of cocktail weenies and go on and on about how sorry I am that their shows got cancelled or their film flopped. They usually look at me like with confusion and fear, and if they had the kind of fame that required bodyguards, I’m sure I’d get punched in the face.

On my list of celebrities I would like to one day awkwardly encounter are the D-List siblings of A-list actors. The great thing about them is that when you spot them in a film, you can’t help but mistake them for their more famous brothers, but only if that brother was in some sort of accident that mangled his face. That’s when you realize it’s not Matt Dillon, it’s only Kevin. And even though Kevin has become his own celebrity with the male version of Sex & The City, Entourage, I have a feeling people on the street still mistake him for Matt’s skeleton.

Kevin Dillon

Brian Doyle Murray

The Better Howard : Clint

Don Swayze

Frank Stallone

Images found via Google Images Search

Luchadorable

Sorry for the bad pun but I couldn’t resist.

Salomón Huerta makes me want to abandon any goals I have set for myself, spend the next couple of years in the gym, and change my name to La Gordita Gigante. That’s kind of an oxymoron, I know, but it sounds good.

Luckily, the anonimity of Huerta’s luchador series doesn’t require I make a drastic lifestyle change. I can imagine myself as any one of his subjects and be triumphant, bombastic, extraordinary, hungry, exhausted, and a little sweaty…all at the same time.

Images found via Google Image Search.

Origamic Architecture

Check out some paper architecture (and more) by Canadian Artist Yee (it’s like Cher, I guess).

Website (you can order Wayne Gretzky paper silhoettes here!): http://www.yeesjob.com/index.htm