Life Lesson #1: Burnt Toast

This is what happens when you burn your toast and start playing with tin foil letters, cut with excruciating care using an X-acto knife, and a very old, very vivid memory. I went through a lot of toast getting the lettering to work. Now I may or may not start playing with burnt toast and tin foil stencils, but for the moment the urge is satisfied.

How to Create an Ad Hoc Protest Organization

Remember when folks used to march against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? That was before we elected Obama, he increased the troop count, and somehow the whole anti-war movement seemed to just fade away. Back in the protest days I created my own little anti-war organization on a whim before I went to an anti-war rally in San Francisco. I designed the logo, ironed a printout onto cloth, and sewed it onto the back of a shirt. During the march, various women of a certain age came up to me to ask how they could join CAW. I had to tell them CAW didn't really exist, it was just something I made up.

What does all of this mean? The yuppies were right: it's all about marketing and branding, something the antiwar movement could benefit from right about now. Come to think of it, so could Obama.

Chaos Theory: Part Two

This is the second of a two-part posting. Click here to see Chaos Theory: Part One.

As indicated by the text, the original publication included a mail-in form for use in reporting the results of your own experiments with chaos. I'm not including the form in this post, but feel free to leave comments about your chaos experiments.

Chaos Theory: Part One

Here is a little art book I produced a while back. Actually it's not so little, so it will appear in two posts. Here's the first.

Stay tuned! In the next  posting you'll find the actual chaos experiment instructions. It should appear right above this post (in the upside-down logic that is blogging), or click on Chaos Theory: Part Two.

Have a Happy War

Today is the 9th anniversary of the U.S.-Afghan war (with Iraq coming in at seven years and counting as of March of this year). On the first anniversary of the war I produced this art mailing, inspired by the war, the Patriot Act, and the loss of basic constitutional rights on the home front. Who knew this would all still be going on nine years later? Have a happy. You can download the PDF (for free of course) and print out your own little Happy War booklets by using this link: Have a Happy War.

Teach Your Baby to Fly

A how-to manual from the Bureau of Common Sense (for those who don't know, the Bureau is my corporate empire).

Click on image to see larger version

Click on image to see larger version

Click on image to see larger version

Click on image to see larger version

Click on image to see larger version

Click on image to see larger version

Click on image to see larger version

Fun with Protozoa

Ever had giardia lamblia? If you have, you know just how much fun it can be. When a friend and I contracted it after a trip to Costa Rica, I came up with the following design and transferred it to T-shirts to celebrate our altered state. Feel free to lift it for your own giardia lamblia celebration. Source for the female in this design is a vintage photo circa 1950 dug out of a box at the old downtown YWCA in Oakland and heavily doctored. The creature she is playing with is a microscopic view of what giardia lamblia actually looks like.

Reverse Archeology

Welcome to the Reverse Archeology project, an international, participatory effort to plant false evidence of civilizations that never existed.

The first step: Decorate stones with evocative markings. See samples below.

Click on images for larger version.

Step two: plant the stones in your environment—on the beach, near a path in the woods, in an urban gutter. You are creating the opportunity for a moment of discovery and wonder.

Step three: spread the word. Reverse Archeology mailers have already been sent out across the globe. You may download your own mailing packet, with which you can print out and send Reverse Archeology greeting cards. To download a free PDF of the Reverse Archeology project card go to the site below:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/stuffyoucanthave-downloads/OzEWYdbea18

Here's what your mailer will look like:

The final step: When you create and plant a stone somewhere on the planet, e-mail me at the following project e-mail address, stufnot@aol.com, and your false evidence will become part of a Google map that will be displayed on this blog in a month or so. See example of a Reverse Archology map and a few stones I've planted in my vicinity below.

View Reverse Archeology: Stone Map in a larger map


Welcome to the project, and be careful out there!