Descending Ashtray

Not to become known as a maker of weird, kitschy objects, but I recently come across this movie featuring yours truly in the process of building a custom XBox case about 18 months ago. It was a major group project by the staff at Curiosity, something we did as a gift for a good friend and co-worker who had cancer. I came up with the concept of old school fuel pump and built the case. Drew Anderson did all the wiring (and there was a LOT) and “hosted” the show, a parody of MTV’s “Pimp My Ride.” Many, many others helped out with the painting, film-making and acting. Scott passed away a few months later, but it was a way for us to pay some small tribute to him through this homage to his chief interests: classic cars and video games. It’s cheesy, but fun. 12 minutes or so.

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The dial on the front is a dashboard dial pulled from a 1950s Cadillac, and the light on top is a replacement for a 1958 Cadillac. The gas hose on the side of the pump is actually the power cord.

I guess we’ll find out. I had an eye exam about two weeks ago that identified me with astigmatism. Basically, my eye is shape d more like a football when it should be round like a basketball. Sarah helped me pick out some frames (made right here in Portland), and here I am.

I am getting so old.

Question for discussion: Did any famous artists have glasses?

Also – I watched “Modigliani” this weekend in preparation for my upcoming post, “Top 5 Films About Artists.” This will not be in the top 5. Pretty interesting story, but very spotty acting and the premise of it “not being a true story” from the get go seemed to color things negatively for me. That and the slowness. The end was more exciting, but the first 100 minutes dragged on a lot. Horribly uneven soundtrack, too, from period jazz to techno opera in the space of 10 minutes. Bleh.

This Old House magazine has posted two galleries full of “worst practices” (I, II) in remodeling/home repair projects. I found some of them laugh-out-loud funny, and others all too true. My friend Dan had a virtual garden similar to this one growing in his gutters a couple of years ago.

I’ve spent all weekend applying finishing touches to the Labyrinth. I will post more photos tonight or tomorrow, but it’s been too much work to post! Here’s about 45 minutes worth of this weekend’s work compressed to 2.5 minutes. Enjoy.

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For any readers (hello?) in the Portland area, PICA’s TBA:06 festival begins tomorrow. I am planning on checking out the visual art exhibits, perhaps the opening music performance by John King tomorrow, as well as the Scout Niblett show.

Gabe sent me this amazing video last week with the following note attached:

Dave,

Gabe

I love this blog. Click the thumbnail above to download Gabe’s movie. It’s a 51 MB Quicktime movie.