Our own Meredith Scheff be showing her art in a show tomorrow. It’s her first show outside of school and she would love to see you all there. There will be prints, originals, and comics. 

here’s the info:

http://www.missioncomicsandart.com/upcomming

Space Gallery: 1141 Polk St., San Francisco, CA 94109
on Friday 07/24/09 – from 9 PM to 2 AM

From the Mission: Comics site:

Mission: Comics & Art will be a retail book store and art gallery that specializes in graphic novels, monthly comic books and fine art.

While I continue to work on securing the right location for this venture, come join and celebrate the comic book art form, and enjoy artwork influenced by comic book or working with comic book themes.

DJs: Discobotic & twiita (myhouse)

Artists:
————————————————————
Audrey Welch
Betsy Lam
Chris Conroy
Eli Maness
Matt Delight
Meredith Scheff-King
telephone & soup
Travis Nichols
W.A.M. – Women’s Art Movement

Mer hopes to see you there! It should be awesome!

On a recent trip to Portland, I was introduced to Brandon and Heather, and their project: Bus-Zilla! The project is also known as the Mutant Bus- and it is crazy, it is ridiculous, nearly impossible- and totally f'ing cool.The makers are taking a duo of 70's VW vans- cutting, welding, splicing them into an articulated monster; with gas engine in the front and electric motor in the rear. They seem to be making quick progress, as well- it's inteded to premier at Burning Man this year.Their build blog is extremely detailed, chronicling much of what is certainly a technical Everest.

From the Build Blog:

"A self powered hybrid articulating Volkswagen transporter. Built from two (2) buses, it is approximately 40ft long with accessory trailer and lizard costume. Drive train consists of both electric and gasoline motors. The gasoline engine is used on the highway, and the electric motor “PlayaDrive” is used on the Playa a more green form of transportation. BusZilla II has a total of 6 wheels, with 3 axles, 2 of which are powered at any one time...The main construction feature of BusZilla II is that it articulates (bends) between the 2nd and 3rd axle, much like a large metropolitan mass transit bus."

(the also let me drive their uni-mog around their sleepy suburban neighborhood, thus fulfilling my tank-girl fantasy)

It's a busy weekend here in the SF bay. The incredible, annual, flammable Fire Arts Festival is taking place. It's put on by The Crucible, a "con-profit collaboration of arts, industry, and community". From the site:

"Each July The Crucible’s Fire Arts Festival celebrates creativity through fire and light with a spectacular open-air exhibition of interactive fire art, performance and the largest collection of outdoor fire sculpture on the West Coast. The Fire Arts Festival is our major fundraising event, and proceeds benefit The Crucible’s arts education programs for youth and adults."

Keep a special eye out for SPWS pals Alan Rorie, Jon Sariugate, and Dodger Stirling.

Also, this Friday there's a fundraiser for illustrious Neverwas Haul.It will be held at The Shipyard Labs in Berkeley.  From thier site:

"We will begin the evening with High Tea aboard the Neverwas Haul at 4pm, followed by drinks and h’ors doevres at 5:30pm, dinner on the various levels of the Haul at 6:30pm, and finishing with a rousing burlesque show and libations until the wee hours of the morning. "

Growing up near a lake, there were two types of boat people: speed-boat people and patio-boat people. As I sipped drinks from the comfort of a floating drunk-tank, I never really understood the appeal of speed-boats (especially on a lake without, you know, outlets).

Edison Marine, however, makes a damn sexy wooden speedboat. Not only that, but they make a damn sexy electric wooden speedboat. If you've never been out on a lake before, boats- especially speed boats and sea-doos- create a truly obnoxious amount of emisions. It's great to see an EV done so beautifully, and for the pocket-friendly price of $120k.

I can't believe I stumbled upon this. If there's any time the internet can come close to the joy of finding a discarded love letter or lost writings of a crazed man, this is it. It's $300,000 dollars worth of rare books supplemented by a 3900 word Craigslist ad fervent sermon. Holy cow.

From the ad:

"What was said by a contemporary historian of the 19th century could apply as well to America of the 1950's - that the "poor was striving in almost impossible circumstances of their lives to conform to middle-class standards of morality" Then in around 1960, something happened. Morality went the way of top hats and spats and the center would not hold as a result. Thereafter, cultural programming was generated - from BELOW, not ABOVE. Society began slouching toward today's CULTUREVILLE. As always, those who "control the international flow of money and information, preside over philanthropic foundations and institutions of higher learning - and ultimately MANAGE THE INSTRUMENTS OF CULTURAL PRODUCTION - AND, THUS. SET THE TERMS OF PUBLIC DEBATE. Even then, the "elite", it was generally thought at the time - didn't care for the world around them - and in the words of WORDSWORTH - "Getting and spending, they lay waste OUR lives" "

I would buy the whole collection just to meet this guy. Well, no I wouldn't, but this fills me with glee and a sad sympathy all the same. How can I put this? Everyone has obsessions. I have a lot. This guy has one, and he has seen this one love be mutilated, mutated, and molested into some poor sad approximation of his beloved. Now his hard times (im guessing here) forces them away, and with his one last breath and dusty finger, he is going to tell you what he thinks of it.

Also, can you imagine the smell of those books? A perfume of old leather, ink, and crumbling paper dreams.

Jake and I are having a bit of a discussion on the Discovery Channel's latest ploy to appeal to our nerdly senses. The show is called Weaponizers-in short, teams outfit vehicles with radio controls, fill them to the brim with gigantic (yes, real) guns, and then blast the living snot out of each other.

Jake says he won't like it unless they focus on the mechanical aspects. I say I'll like it as long as they focus on blasting the living snot out of each other.

I'll also like it because my friend Cowboy is in it. He's a pretty bad-ass Texan (aren't they all?) who I fondly remember as being the guy who finally got me into a proximity suit and within spittin' distance to this fire.

The living snot.

This thing is amazing, but seeing as how this is a family-friendly website, I have the full post over at my personal blog, ladycartoonist.com.

I've been spending the last couple hours flicking through this goregeous set on Flickr. It's been uploaded by the Library of Congress and is comprised of about 2000 images from the 1940's- in color. They're beautiful and entrancing- they range in subject from urban sprawl to wild west; from farmer to rosie-the-riveter types. Most of them are Kodachrome proccess, giving the colors that special detailed saturation that only that proccess could acheive. I can't get enough of it. Best: no copyright. Worst: idiots putting 10 million comment boxes on everything.

Just as an interesting side note: there is only one place in the US still proccessing kodachrome.

The news has just broken that JG Ballard, one of the most influential sci-fi (and otherwise) authors, died this morning after a long battle with illness. He was most widely known for his books Crash and Empire of the Sun, but his short stories are powerful and elegant.

I'm saddened immensly by the news. Almost all the artists I know were influenced heavily by his masterful, powerful, heavily cerebral works. BBC says:

"Despite being referred to as a science fiction writer, Ballard said his books were instead "picturing the psychology of the future".'

Link to the only news out so far.

Heh.