First off, say hi to our new backyard. It’s not big - quite the opposite really. Just a patch of concrete, a Weber grill, then forest - but it’s nice.

Secondly, with a gag purchase I’m now more then ever aware of my wedding, just 2 months away!

Pink & Black Bride & Groom Can Koozies

Thirdly, yesterday Mishka surprised me with my very own PSP: God of War edition! Yay!

PlayStation Portable: God of War Edition

And lastly - if you’d like to volunteer somewhere, the State Fair is a great place to do it. And the MN chapter of the ACLU is looking for people to staff their booth. I’ll be there, will you join me?

Just really really busy. I’ll get back on track soon, I promise. In the meantime here’s a time-lapse video of us moving out of the old place on the 18th. No music, no fancy editing, just quick & dirty.

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. [↩]

So far it’s been a fairly busy week, so I haven’t written. The ‘cool’ thing I was working on was another Twin Cities time-lapse and, although it’s done, it isn’t quite like I like it. I plan on getting more footage and making it more interesting.

Also, tomorrow morning I’ll be shooting some photos for the Twin Cities annual “Bike Walk Week“. I’ll first be in south Minneapolis to get some of the Commuter Convoys, then I’ll head back to St. Paul to grab some shots of the Rich Wieber’s Bicycle Stunt Show. If you’re curious as to just what goes on at a bicycle stunt show, you’re in luck, there’s an over-exposed video below which highlights what it is.

Hope to see you out there!

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 [↩]

I’ve been testing out the different places that print photos. The most recent one was MPIX.com

What’s MPIX? From their “about us” section:

Mpix… The professional online digital imaging lab for both the professional photographer and the advanced amateur.

Mpix is a division of Miller’s Professional Imaging. Miller’s was founded in 1939, and is the largest professional photography lab in the United States. The company has production facilities in Pittsburg, Kansas and Columbia, Missouri.

The swift evolution of the digital photographic industry prompted Miller’s to respond to changes in the marketplace with Mpix.com…a high quality online lab for all photographers.

With Mpix, a photographer is able to upload images to a secured website, store and share images in albums, and order professional prints, professional finishing services, and specialty products.

I’ve known about them for years, and have had an account there for almost that long - but I’ve never actually developed anything there, until recently.

I had submitted my work to the Black Dog months ago and had essentially forgotten about it. As such, I forgot to get the pieces I submitted printed. Imagine my surprise when I got a big “Congratulations!” email a couple of weeks ago. Opps, now I need to actually print this thing.

I’d always envisioned it to be a larger piece, 20″x30″ or so. So I decided to give MPIX a shot. I uploaded the photo, chose a 20″x30″ print, lustre coating¹ ,double matted and framed. All together it came to $80. Overnight shipping via FedEx was a very reasonable $9.75, so I opted for that as well - had it sent to my office. This was about 11am.

That night I received an email saying my package had shipped, and to expect it the next day. I eagerly awaited the email from the shipping department at work (God knows, don’t you dare show up until you get that email!) and hurry over to the other tower and pick it up, all aflutter. Get back to my cube, open it up - it’s stunning. They did such a superb job on the printing² - blacks were very black, subtle colors shone through and the tiny nuances I was attempting to capture came through loud and clear. All in all it was about as excellent as I could have hoped for - except I didn’t seem to get a frame.

So at 12:36pm I sent a quick email to customer service saying that “Hey, looks like you guys forgot to include a frame - can you just send it along, or how can we take care of this?”

At 12:46pm - only 11 minutes after I send out my email, I received this response:

Jeremy,

I apologize for this. I will have the order reprinted, framed, and shipped out to you ASAP. Thank you!

And damn it all, if they didn’t come through. An entirely reprinted, rematted photograph - this time with frame - arrived at my door the next day. They went above and beyond the call of duty to help resolve this issue, and I couldn’t be happier. Instead of just sending a $30 frame, which I would have been happy to get - they went above and beyond and ate $90 to send it all out to me again. Needless to say, they now have a customer for life. Thanks again mpix, and now I’m spreading the news!

1. Lustre Coating, according to the site, is an environmentally friendly, non-flammable coating which protects against UV light, finger prints and dust. Please note: Our lustre coating is not visible. It does not change the look of the image in any way. [↩]
2. They use Kodak’s professional Endura surface paper printer via laser photo printers which print using visible light laser to expose silver halide photographic media [↩]

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. [↩]

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