So today, along with washing the dishes, vacuuming and other housework I also did some housework on my site. First off, I’ve decided to move all the IT & geek related stuff off of the personal blog, and will slowing be finishing my setup of DotNetNuke over at Pavleck.Net.

Secondly, I updated Wordpress to it’s newest version, got all the little extras working and you may now notice my little phoenix up by the URL - yes, I finally added a FavIcon.ico. After looking around for various way I found the absolute easiest way to do it - check it out. Couldn’t be simpler.

I’ve also installed an OpenID plugin, so from now on when you click to make a comment, you can throw your OpenID URL in the website section and bam, that’s all there is to it.

Don’t happen to have an OpenID? You might be surprised - if you have an account with Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, or one of these other guys you might actually have one¹. Still don’t have on? I use MyOpenID.com, and it’s worked great - highly recommended.²

And lastly on the website update - I’ve been toying with removing my TwitterFeed for my website from my normal twitter feed, and as such I’ve created a new one - Pavleckcom - where all my website updates go to. Feel free to subscribe - if enough people switch over to it, I’ll go ahead and get rid of the updates from the primary feed.

I never thought of myself as being “well-read”. I doubt I’ve read 3% of the titles listed in “1001 Books to Read before you die“. I read what interests me. In my youth, that was a lot of Orwell, Asimov and London³. These days it’s a wide variety of authors and topics, as I noticed when I was cleaning up the bedroom a bit - see for yourself.

As you can see, at the top there is a bunch of Bukowski - my newest favorite author and the fault of Mishka’s father⁴. He gave me “Run with the Hunted” for Christmas and it stoked the literary fire within me. I’ve already read Post Office, am currently reading Women (Not pictured, cause I’m carrying it around with me) and Factotum is next.
After that, you see one of Chomsky’s newest books, “Failed States” - so there’s some politics.
Continuing onward, there is Man Ray’s Montparnasse. Man Ray is my favorite photographer, and his book Montparnasse explores his life with stories and anecdotes about his friends and lovers in Pre-WW2 Montparnasse, France - just when the Dada & Surrealism movements were taking hold. Excellent book, if you can find it pick it up.
And then there’s another pseudo-political book, Stephen Colbert’s “I am America (And So Can You)”. Not much to say about it. It’s a very interesting read, but isn’t meant to be a heavy hitter. I don’t think I’ve actually finished it yet, even.
And finally there’s “Naked Economics“. It’s subtitle is “Undressing the Dismal Science” and it does it well. It lays out the principles of economics in an entertaining and easy to follow way. After reading it I’ve got a much better understanding of why we pay what we pay and how the world in general works. If you have to read one econ book, then this is the one for you!
Not pictured, because they’re on the floor: Spook Country by William Gibson, My 230th copy of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson and several electronic and microcontroller books)

And awesome news that I just learned about less then 2 hours ago - one of my photographs sold!
I knew some would sell, but had no idea that this one was going to sell. It was my experimental photograph, “On” seen below. It was printed up at MPIX.com, and since I was there I let them do the matting and framing too. The frame is nothing special, just a basic kit frame with tensioners holding the photo in - there isn’t even any glass to speak of. This was an experiment, not expected to sell. Yet it was the first one. I’m sort of stoked about it, and sort of curious - I always wonder where my photographs go, and how they end up being shown. It’s like a part of me is now with someone else.

And that’s it for today’s update!

1. You really should think about getting one, especially if you use FireFox - FireFox 3 brings strong support for OpenID [↩]
2. If you don’t even know what OpenID is - Wikipedia can help you there [↩]
3. Jack London, that is [↩]
4. Her father taught a class about Bukowski and the other beat poets. [↩]

Digging through an older hard drive, I found a play I had written awhile ago. It was meant to be in the Fringe Fest, but things didn’t work out. So for you, gentle reader, I’ll post some of it here. I actually think it’s fairly good for a first attempt, no? Forgive the formatting, it isn’t very easy to format a play inside of a blog post, but I’ve done my best. Perhaps I’ll post more, if it is received well. Oh, and Queen Achtland is from an Irish Myth.

Dating Achtland

A play by Jeremy D. Pavleck

Cast of Characters

Achtland - An urban harried mid/late 30s divorced mother. Intelligent and stressed.
Felicis - The ‘manic’ personification of Achtland, as seen by Dante
Tristis - The ‘depressive’ personification of Achtland, as seen by Dante
Dante - a 28 year old man, intelligent but scared of what 30 will bring
Animus - The mind, or analytical side, of Dante
Pectus - The heart, or emotional side, of Dante

The play takes place over several months in various suggested settings of Minneapolis and St. Paul

SCENE 1

At RISE:
(A coffee shop somewhere in St. Paul. Early evening. Light shines
through dirty windows. Local art for sale hangs on the wall.
Hipsters man the counter, one hand grinding coffee - the smell permeates.
DANTE is sitting in the corner opposite the door, a large glass of
coffee in front of him. He fiddles with a camera he has brought,
attempting to make it look as though he isn’t waiting for someone)

DANTE:
(Sighs loudly. Beat)

(Lights dim, Animus enters left, spot on. He approaches center with an
aggitated gait. He runs his fingers through his hair and paces a moment
before facing the audience)

ANIMUS:
(Spitefully)

Ah! And there we begin. Look at me. Sitting there pretending to pay attention to that camera.
I’ve been here forty-five minutes already, my own damn fault for leaving so early. I was so
broke, I had to cash in my change to buy this flower for her. Hell if I would of known then
what I know now I’d –

PECTUS (Off):

You’d what?

ANIMUS:

I would have stormed out of there and saved myself a lot of frustration!

(Pectus saunters in right and stands before Animus)
PECTUS:
(Calmly, soothingly)

You would have done no such thing. I wouldn’t have allowed it to happen.

ANIMUS:
(Hotly)

And who the fuck do you think you are, that you can tell us with such certainty that we wouldn’t leave.
You were the one most affected by this whole thing, and yet here you are, saying you would do it again!

PECTUS:

Indeed, I was. And indeed, we would. My friend, as intelligent as you are, some lessons are better learned
by actually doing, as opposed to actually reading about it. In time, you’ll see it my way.

ANIMUS:

That’s such utter bullshit!

(Produces a notepad, flips through several pages)

Just listen to these grievances! I’ve written each one down in detail, and you would be a fool to continue on
after but a third of this list has been read!
First and foremost, she –

PECTUS:
(Holds up his hand palm out towards Animus, Chuckling)

Ah, mon ami, you know as well as I do that I don’t listen to such things

(Pectus Off. Animus off. Lights rise as Dante sets the camera down
and begins to drum his fingers habitually against the table)

ANIMUS: (Off)

There is still time, let’s end this before it starts!

PECTUS: (Off)
(Reassuringly)

Hush, old friend. It’s time you let me take over. Here

(SFX: Rustling bag)

take this.

ANIMUS: (Off)

Oh! A rubik’s cube! I can handle this no problem!

(Dante stops drumming his hand against the table. He straightens up in his chair,
and a look of quiet confidence comes over him)

Well, the Bent Festival is over. It was an amazing event, I met a lot of awesome talented people, and took a metric ton of pictures - over 1700 in all. Here are some of my favorites, starting with my absolute fave!

Albino Ghost Monkey from Rice Lake, WI

Tim Kaiser from Duluth, MN plays his homemade instruments

The custom hacked and bent keyboard played by Albino Ghost Monkey

Closeup of one of the hacked synthesizers connected to a stationary bicycle

Hacked Nintendo, used to display odd visuals of classic games

DJ Tendraw from England gives us his hardcore renditions

Memory Selector from Chicago/Minneapolis plays a chill set

Creme De Menthia of Illinois waxes his bending skills

Mike Rosenthal of “The Tank” cooks for the group at the Bent BBQ

Datura 1.0 and Tim Kaiser discuss their art over Bratwurst

Ronald Schleper teaches a drum machine bending workshop

Beatrix*JAR pumps up the audience at the end of day 1

There really are to many good pictures - it’s hard to choose. If you’re feeling brave, feel free to look at the over 750 shots at my Flickr set.

Really looking forward to next year! And thanks to Wired’s GeekDad for asking me to shoot it!

There’s a lot of neat things going down in the TC this weekend, and here are some choice ones to check out!

The Bent Festival - Happening yesterday until Saturday, the 5th annual Bent Festival makes it’s last leg stop here in Minneapolis. Check them out at Intermedia Arts, on 28th and Lyndale. You’ll meet & greet and listen to some of the most interesting music in the world of DIY circuit bending. From soft soothing melodies to a brash jarring cacophony of sounds - you can find it there. At $10 per concert, it’s your best choice for 6 solid hours of music, and on Saturday there is a wealth of workshops to show you how to do it yourself and a barbecue to help you keep going! Please Note: They don’t like credit cards, so bring cash. And some of the workshops have a fee, so keep that in mind.

Studio Bricolage’s First Friday - A lot of people know about Leonardo’s Basement, an organization that helps boys and girls from 6 - 16 expand their minds with the help of music, art, robotics and more. But did you also know they hold an event every First Friday of the month at Studio Bricolage? Studio Bricolage is the adult oriented version of Leonardo’s Basement. For only $10, this month’s session will teach you how to melt plastic toys into bowls, crochet plastic bags together, create your own inflatables and a whole lot more. We’ve been here a few times, and it’s always a great time¹

Black Dog Exhibit Opener - If you’re not doing anything at all tonight and you’re in the St. Paul area, check out the Black Dog Coffee & Wine Bar for the opening night of their “Limitless Energy” exhibit - showing the energy that resides within the artist. Cost is free, and you can see some of my stuff! And maybe, even, buy it!² And remember, my art comes JACC approved, for that extra goodness!

And now for a few shots from last night’s Bent concert

1. Really looking forward to their Arduino workshops in June! [↩]
2. Yes, I’m a shameless whore. I’m learning that’s just the artist’s way [↩]

Just a quick remind, the 5th annual (2nd annual in MN) Ben Festival starts tonight, 7pm @ Intermedia Arts. If you’d like more information, check out my post earlier this week about it. It’s sure to be a blast, and I will see you there!

Last weekend JACC came to visit us during the Art Crawl. By a weird coincidence I was just coming out of the loft as he and his crew were emerging from the elevator - which was a good thing as he thought we lived in a totally different unit then we did and, well, he wouldn’t have seen me.

They stopped, chatted for a bit, drank a Shiner, then asked me 3 questions. Watch the whole awkward thing below - I look goofy, my hair is unkempt and the chair I sat in made my jacket ride up but, meh, it is what it is¹

Secondly, I hung my stuff up at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar in downtown St. Paul. The official opening for the show, Limitless Energy, begins on May 2nd - but feel free to stop in anyway. I submitted 3 pieces, and I think 2 of them have already sold. After the luke warm art crawl reception, I was nervous hanging them - but people absolutely loved them and, to be honest, they look quite sharp hanging where we put them.

I was most worried about “On”, which is a fairly experimental piece for me. I was worried that the composition was off, that there wasn’t enough happening on one side.  All 3 are below, “On” is the all dark light switch. Hanging in the neutral white of the hallway here it looked out of place, but on the large orange wall of the Black Dog it seems to ‘pop’ and looks pretty good. The biggest worry about the thing was the size. It needs to be a certain size, too big or too small and it would look off. I took a gamble, and went for 20″x30″. Didn’t work so well at the Art Crawl, works well here. Not so sure it will sell, but if it does I’d be happy!

1. Visit Side Note: Mishka came home from work exhausted, and immediately donned her robe. I rudely walked JACC and his whole crew in anyway, making her scurry to the bedroom to change. I’m an ass. [↩]

The 2008 Bent Festival will be making it’s final stop here in Minneapolis from May 1st - 3rd at Intermedia Arts¹. This is it’s 5th year, and it’s 2nd in Minneapolis - let’s show ‘em some love!

What is it? The Bent Festival is an annual art and music festival celebrating DIY electronics, hardware hacking, and circuit bending. Each year they invite artists from across the country and around the globe to perform music with their home-made or circuit bent instruments, teach workshops to adults and children alike, create beautiful art installations and to generally come together, face to face, and showcase the state of the art in DIY electronics and circuit bending culture.

If you’re the type that took your toys apart growing up, then this event is definitely for you! Like to learn more? Check out the Bent Festival on Flickr or YouTube, add them to your MySpace or Facebook, look at the workshops or check out the complete schedule. The 3 concerts are $10 each, and some of the workshops have a small charge for parts. Buy individual tickets, or a 3 day pass for only $25.

Local artists performing this year are: Datura 1.0, Caly McMorrow, Beatrix*JAR and Memory Selector.

1. Google Map to Intermedia Arts [↩]

Well another Story Slam goes off without a hitch. And they are seriously getting better and better with every iteration. The audience is larger and louder, the orators are more confident and the lines get delivered at the right time. It was absolutely great! This was seriously the best one to date, and gets me salivating when I think about when the next one will be. Talked to some of the regulars, met some amazing new Slammers and possibly made a connection that could get me into an underground I’ve been trying to get into for years - as a photographer of course.

If you aren’t coming to this thing, what in the hell is wrong with you? It’s awesome! I better see you at the next one; eat, drink, laugh, cry and have your fill of some of the best¹ slammers the TC has to offer!

And speaking of art and what not - starting Friday and going on all weekend it’s the St. Paul Art Crawl!! Hundreds of artists located throughout lowertown St. Paul will be swinging open their doors and letting you in to peek at their wares - and liberate you of any extra Franklins you might be carrying around. So go ahead and print out the map and start marking off where you’d like to go. And if you plan on stopping by the Rossmor building², be sure to let me know. We can have a few beers and play Super Smash Brothers on the Wii. I might throw out a few things this time, but it’s doubtful - both my neighbors are photographers and both of them are also exhibiting. Too many cooks and all that jazz. Besides, my website isn’t fully done yet and I’m busy getting right for a gallery exhibition I have all next month at the Black Dog.

Hoping to see you there! (Or here, even)

1. And, yes, some of the not-so-best [↩]
2. Link doesn’t go to the real website, because for some reason it isn’t coming up for me. WTF? [↩]

I was messing around with code this week and a thought hit me - wouldn’t it be cool if someone animated the MN DOT traffic map? Hell yeah it would be! So I wrote a bot, called SnapShot, that sucks images off websites at a regular interval. Aimed it at the DOT website, and waited 24 hours. Then I took the 2100+ images and some Nekromantix and pow, there you have it - a neat little video. Check it out below!

It starts out slow and ends slow - but it’s traffic from Midnight to Midnight, so what did you expect? Also, you’ll notice occasional ‘glitches’ - this is when I’d be downloading a picture at the same time their system was generating one, so I’d receive half an image or less. Opps. I have ideas for another one, which might be a little neater looking.

Additionally, I’ll be have a small exhibition at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar in downtown St. Paul starting April 29th - come check it out

And by soul, I mean art. And by art, I mean my photographs.

The next St. Paul Art Crawl fast approaches - the 25th, 26th and 27th of April in fact. Now I’m not people-friendly enough to actually open my doors to let strangers paw through our goods and make small chit-chat whilst eating expensive foreign cheese and drinking San Pellegrino, but part of the reason we moved here was so that I’d be right on the art crawl circuit.

So instead I’ll be setting up a small display to hang on our front door with some of my nicer pieces¹, with a slew of business cards and a link to my shop. And I’d love for you, dear reader, to be on the ground floor of the Pavleck Art movement!

Indeed, I’m quite serious. I have a lot of money and time invested into my little photography side business, and I’d like to see if I have what it takes to make it with the big dogs. So I’ve setup an Etsy.com shop, and I implore you to check it out. There isn’t much there now, but I plan to add more to it over the weekend. I’d like to know what you think of my prices, especially - to high? To low? To purple?

When you’re done there, feel free to check out Pavleck.Com proper, and if you are really daring, feel free to crawl through the thousands of photos I have up on my Flickr site². I’d like to know what else you think I should put up for sale, and if you have any other ideas.

In fact, I’m so into this idea, that I’ll make ya a deal - if you give me some nice constructive criticism I will reward you! I’ll be ordering a lot of prints over the next several weeks, and I will give you one! A signed, framed photograph of my choosing³ will make it to your door! And they aren’t you’re average HP inkjet print either. Printed via a laser photographic process on Fuji Crystal Archive paper, it ensures a vibrant print that won’t fade, yellow, or bleed. They’ll last longer then me. I’ll contact you via email when it’s ready to go out, so be sure to leave a valid email address when you post. And if you’re post is really good, it might even be a limited edition run, that will never again be printed.⁴

Now let me have it! While you’re doing that, I’ll be busy mucking about trying to pretty up the main site and add some personalization to the Etsy site.⁵

1. So stop on by the Rossmor building during the art crawl - we’re on the 5th floor [↩]
2. 3,892 photos to be exact [↩]
3. Ultimately it’s my choosing, but if there’s one you really really like I might just be able to oblige [↩]
4. After I’ve printed a run, I destroy all digital traces of the photograph except for a low quality “for web” version [↩]
5. Thank God I’m a better photographer then I am a writer [↩]