Jack Flash Signs: The Wall-blog

2008-07-30T21:57:00.003-05:00

How does a thing such as this come to an end? Does it wind gracefully to a close, inching in to that perfect summarizing statement? Or does it cut off mid-sentence... like the Sopranos.

So, the meet ended several days ago. The mural was done Sunday afternoon. The Martin Luther King sign was up that evening. We took an easy night, relaxed, enjoyed some time winding down, Julia got a tattoo. It was all very mellow.

Monday, I spent a bit of time with Franco, master hypnotist. We visited a magic shop in Saint Paul. As Eric affectionately put it, "I rode bitch with Franco". I don't know if he hypnotized me while we were out that day, but I came back a new man. Or, at least, a new magician.

That night, we enjoyed a final meal with Carol, Bob, Sarah, and Nathaniel. Eric joined us afterward to hang out. It was pretty much the perfect blend of hilarious fun and total relaxation.

The next morning - the road.

And I guess I don't have much I want to say about that. I began this blog with a little nod to Hunter S. Thompson: just the sense that I was out looking for something... perhaps it was the heart of America. If I found it, it's in these pictures. If I didn't, these pictures still say a lot about my heart.

There's no way I could've known at the time, what significance the faces around this table would come to have.

Shirtless man.

I don't know if I ever mentioned Brian. This man has a heart the size of a turnip truck.

Eric. What an incredible guy.

Sandy and Karen, our endlessly helpful site managers. I can't say enough good things about them, so I will simply say that this picture will bring me joy for a long time to come.

What a crew of people to have in one picture. Amazing.

This is the only picture I have of Sarah Linnes-Robinson - SLR. Given the oppurtunity, she could easily rule the world. I firmly believe that. And it would be a better place to live.

Aww, Kelly.

Erin and Louise.

Bernie's daughter. I just love what she drew.

Dave "Peach" - nicest man in the world.

If I were to tell you that Franco's act will no doubt put you to sleep, it would be a compliment of the highest order.

These ladies literally rock the party.

Bob Parsons. A genuinely good man. He taught me many valuable things in a very short time. I hope to visit him in Alaska someday soon.

Some would say that this is what the whole trip was about.

I'm not so sure about that. I guess that's all I want to say.

One more thing...

2008-07-29T22:09:00.004-05:00

Remember that... from Columbo... right before he called out the bad guy for what he'd done and how, he would always head for the door, turn around, and say, "one more thing." Anyway, that's what that was all about.

As for things more "wall" related, I have for you a shwack of photos. "Shwack" is, of course, a technical term, meaning "lot" or "many".

The finished product.

Love the aerial photo - thank you once again Beaupre; your Skyjack served us well.

This is Tammi. Tammi is wonderful.

Here are some of the artists who worked on the mural.

Here are some words, which attest to the above.

This is a monkey butt.

Julia is a painter now.

Steve works on some finishing touches.

Bill was a very dedicated, hard-working volunteer... not to mention a lovely person to be around.

Franko - master hypnotist and magician. He proceeded to hammer that nail into his face. For serious. It was incredible.

This is a cute puppy that I saw one day. She was a total ham for the camera.

Who rocks the party? Perhaps Martin Luther King. Or, perhaps Dawn and Bob, who painted this wonderful rendering.

And isn't this beautiful?

Two places at once

2008-07-26T12:13:00.002-05:00

While the time-lapse was going on, with a little help from my friends, I was able to have an adventure down Nicollet. Here's what I saw:

The Long Haul...

2008-07-26T11:09:00.002-05:00

This post is going to be a little different. Andrew is going to make an animation of these photos later, but I'm going to post all 44 of them here, for your viewing pleasure. Here you are folks - 10 hours of painting, at roughly 15-30 minute intervals:

10:15:12 AM: It's raining. We can't paint. Luckily, Sandy sets up a tent where I can keep my camera.

10:15:36 AM: Several seconds later - still raining.

10:25:15 AM: Several minutes later - still raining.

10:25:13 AM: I realize that this is going to make a pretty boring timelapse.

10:38:55 AM: No more rain!! Volunteers ready themselves to commence.

10:51:43 AM: Dawn paints the first stroke of the day.

10:51:45 AM: So satisfying.

10:52:02 AM: And of course everybody wants a turn now!

11:01:12 AM: Which they all get.

11:18:16 AM

11:24:12 AM

11:30:57 AM

11:52:41 AM: In comes the Skyjack.

12:21:23 PM: Notice Louise standing on the tire of the Skyjack, painting the two girls in the water.

12:21:50 PM: Notice the lens cap in my hand.

12:21:08 PM: Okay, notice whatever you want to notice.

2:18:49 PM: So I go for lunch, come back, and all of the lettering is done!

2:42:57 PM: Scaffolding up.

3:10:01 PM: All of a sudden there is a recycling bin nearby. Yay for recycling!

3:22:14 PM: This is Hamil, our loyal videographer.

3:22:19 PM: This is pepper, our loyal Wall-dog.

3:33:33 PM: Check the time... weeeeiiiirrrdd! Ah, just kidding, the real time was 3:33:06 PM. But boy that would have been cool.

3:46:53 PM: Featured in this photo are Bill, Charles, Dale, and a wonderful volunteer who I was not introduced to. If you know her name, let me know in the comments!

3:57:41 PM: It's a baby!

4:03:47 PM: That's Andrew on the left of the scaffolding, painting a tan line.

4:13:13 PM: It's getting increasingly hard to think of commentary for all of these!

4:24:36 PM: Where did the lawn chair go?

4:40:31 PM: "That right there," says the disembodied arm, "that's a heck of a wall."

4:53:50 PM: Whoa, whoa! Why is this mural out of focus!?

4:53:52 PM: That's better.

4:59:58 PM: Check out that green on the far right. A little addition to the original design, and it looks awesome!

5:24:14 PM: That's Charles!

5:29:34 PM: Seven hours into the day. Wowza.

5:41:11 PM: Steve has his head in the clouds... if only literally.

6:29:16 PM: Almost an hour passes between photographs... look at the change in lighting.

6:45:33 PM: This one zoomed in a bit, apparently.

6:45:39 PM: And apparently, I realized it moments later.

7:08:44 PM: Dale!

7:16:35 PM: And the lighting is so cool.

7:48:45 PM: How much more can we pack in before we have to pack it in?

8:21:00 PM: Steve takes a final pass, checking out the day's work.

8:21:06 PM

8:21:11 PM

Sleep!

2008-07-26T01:07:00.000-05:00

After re-reading what I wrote to introduce Dawn's photoshoot, I've decided to hold off on doing a full blog tonight... I'd rather try to do justice to Franco's incredible Hypnotism show when I've had a bit of rest.

But worry not! Here are some pictures to tie you over:

Here are shots of the mural at the beginning and the end of the work day... stay tuned for a time-lapse animation of the action that went down in between:

And Franco seriously rocked the party:

Dawn's Photoshoot

2008-07-24T22:21:00.000-05:00

Well, not so much her photoshoot as in she's in the pictures... as much as she took them. And they're lovely.

Carole - the meet is underway, she's being pulled in a thousand different directions, with a million things to do in each of them, and she still manages to look fabulous at the end of the day:

Bob Parsons agrees:

The Butlers Did It...

2008-07-24T20:43:00.000-05:00

...on Nicollet, with a brush.

Question:

Answer:

We do. We rock the party. Full stop.

As appears to be the usual trend, the day started with a trip to the HQ. Correction, a full out breakfast at the HQ:

Then on our sweet little way.

A day of painting in 8 pictures:

Meanwhile, at the Salvation Army:

An awesome mural and a shirtless guy, of course. He's in the middle of what some folks affectionately call a "Minnesota Shower" - in this heat, a shower isn't going to keep you clean for very long. Might as well just change your shirt. (Definition courtesy of Bob Parsons)

And a block over, at B-Squad Vintage:

Now, I may have mislead you with the title of this blog... BEWARE, the Brush Bandit is on the loose:

After the day's festivities... MORE festivities! Including (but certainly not limited to) a tiger-shaped bounce-house. Of course, someone from our team had to try to get inside. Today's candidates: Andrew and Sarah.

Based on Andrew's reaction shot, I'll let you guess how they fared.

Two of my favourite pictures from today:

(notice how I spelled "favourite"... I betcha didn't even know that I've been writing in Canadian this whole time! Dawn didn't know until today... and she doesn't look too pleased about it.)

On final note, this car had some awesome decorations. Not precisely mural-related, I know. But awesome.

As per a previous blog post... "discovery channel awesome".

The beauty is in the details

2008-07-24T00:27:00.000-05:00

Every morning for the last several days, I've noticed a hummin and a hawin all about me, come 8 or 9 am. That doesn't mean I wake up, though. Think of it as a first alarm, followed quickly by a snooze button. Only there's not so much a button, per se, as I just care more about continuing to sleep than paying attention to the morning sounds that begin to fill the space around me. With an extra half-hour or so... I'm good to open my eyes, and make my first contributions to the day. Ideally, I like my first words of the morning to be completely unexpected, yet, helpful in a time of need. If I can, I try to let those around me know that I'm awake by answering a question one of them has openly posed.

Then, I join these chaps for a cup.

On such a fine and important day as today, we begin with a meeting. A plan of approach, as it happens, needed eking out. So, we did just that. We eked. Oh, did we ever eke.

Eke.

Then lunch, and, much to my surprise, a bit more ekesomeness, as we met up with other artists at the headquarters.

Finally, we got to our site. And, we were very pleases with the results of last nights projection party. This goes to prove that those who like to rock the party (such as ourselves) get more out of the purpose of the party, by the very act of rocking. It's basic science.

Andrew, Steve and myself climbed onto the Skyjack, and went high up in the air, where we did many important tasks.

(apparently, noticing how high up in the air counts as an important task)

Julia and I took a break, at a certain point, to explore the sights and sounds of Nicollet street. On our way, we visited "Peach" at the Sally Anne.

Then, on return to our site, I made the realization that despite a full day of completing important tasks, the mural (strangely) looked almost exactly as it had when we began this morning. But we knew. Oh. We knew that important - nay, crucial - tasks had been exxed off of our theoretical check list... even if those tasks had invisible results.

Yet another return to the HQ revealed Sandy (among others, like Carole and Mark Hinds) inside working, working, working.

And Dale (among others) out back working, working, working.

But it can't all be about work. Sometimes it's about Mexican food.

And sometimes, sometimes it's about a mariachi style band.

But it's always about wicked caricatures of Cisco, as drawn by Bob Parsons "his-self".

At the request of Mr. Parsons...

2008-07-23T10:39:00.000-05:00

Welcome to another blog.

Yesterday, Julia and I were in charge of making dinner, while the crew went down to nicollet to prime some walls.

On the bus, and off to Midtwon Global Market. We shopped, we shimmied, we stopped to play chess.

Erstwhile (that is, beforehand, Mr. B.P. himself was sketching out the Reverend Doctor M.L.K.

Later, back at the ranch, we got to chopping up our Quesadilla content.

And here's where it starts to get reaaaall interesting. We piled into a van, just as the sun was beginning to crest over the ol' horizon, and dusk was slowly descending on the Minnesota cityscape. We made our way to a park with a big ol' white wall primed for our brushes... or, in last night's case, our sharpies. We projected a line drawing by Mr. Steve Lane on to the wall, and got to drawing.

(with the projection)

(sans projection)

Though, I should correct myself a little. We didn't get started on putting sharpie to wall right off the cuff. There were some issues with our transparency. So, while Steve rushed off to save the night, we drew charcoal over the pinholes on our big pounce pattern.

This time we found it for serious...

2008-07-21T21:09:00.000-05:00

So, day two in Minnesota. Not yet painting. Well, Steve and Carole were painting all day... and I think Dawn, Steve, Carol and Bob were actually painting until the wee hours of the morning yesterday.

But we had a free day to explore this fine city.

It began with a walk to the light rail transit stop down the street. We decided to get off at a stop called "Downtown East/Metrodome" - and there was a thing that looked like Toronto's Skydome there. Or, The Rogers Center, as I believe it's called these days.

We walked for a bit, then ran into Lucy

And a very strange tennis match downtown. I mean, the tennis match wasn't exactly strange. Except for the pregnant tennis player, maybe. But it was in a very, um, unconventional location.

Across the street, there were these statues.

Why is this family so afraid? Tennis-related trauma in their past, perhaps?

And speaking of fear, pretty much everywhere we went, we could be certain to find one of these notices lurking about nearby.

I guess the signs themselves are more reassuring than anything... while I'm "on the premises"... but what does it imply about when I'm off the premises again?

Anyway, we went for lunch, and played a game of war. A game that never ended. I hate war. It's a beautiful bit of social commentary, when you think about it. There is nothing to that card game... it's all random, luck of the draw, bs. It is the most mindless card game you can possibly play. War.

Back on the light rail... we crossed the city towards...

The Mall of America!

And as soon as we get in the doors, we see this:

And there are Lego dinosaurs, and rollercoasters, and a animatronic moose - and I'm sure this is the beating heart of America.

You know those pictures they try to sell you after you get off of a rollercoaster, the one's of your frightened faces. Well, in the digital age, rather than pay for these sucker scams, people take pictures of the screens that they're previewed on. And I take pictures of people taking pictures of their picture.

Also, Julia was just tall enough to ride.

And there was this ice cream place that took basic ice cream flavours (well, as basic as "cheesecake" or "coffee" could be), then added ingredients and mixed them together in front of you. Trust me, it was weirder than that sounds.

Uh, and, Bubba Gump Shrimp apparently came into the picture at some point.

At a Gas Station called "Freedom"

2008-07-20T20:59:00.000-05:00

We fueled up and crossed the lines. The state lines. The states of Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota. There seemed to be a toll booth every other mile.

And I really did see a gas station called "freedom". We did not, however, fuel up there. No, we fueled up at "family express." And there was a dinner called "Harty..." somethin.

And that was the heart of America, for the time being. Until we saw this house:

Then that was the heart of America for a while.

I saw this somewhere:

Ooohhhh Phil.

At some point, we arrived... 3527 24th Ave. S. Bob greeted us. Carol came running down the steps. And we set up camp.

Once settled, we jammed like there was nothing better in the world to do.

On second thought, that's not a simile.

Somehow, I managed to throw out my back while sleeping. And avoiding mosquitoes. So I sat up in a bowl chair, with a neck pillow, and that was actually fantastic.

Except that as I was dozing off, I started to hear a loud clicking. And just as I was about to tell Andrew to cut it out... he told me to cut it out. So. We flicked on a light. And in the corner, an earwig was caught in a spider's web, fending for his life.

It was discovery channel awesome.

Sighted in America

2008-07-19T21:44:00.000-05:00

Sounds like the slogan for a disability support group, in a universe where being sighted is considered a disability. And why shouldn't it be? Seriously... list some reasons.

Which brings me to another point. What if no one is reading this. And no one is out there to list reasons why sighted-ness is not a legitimate disability in an alternate universe?

And perhaps no one is reading this. I mean, I think Dawn and maybe Steve are checking in periodically. And maybe we'll eventually round up some readers at the meet. But, entertain this with me for a second. Or. y'know, if I really am just blogging to myself, then, uh, I guess I have free reign here. So, yes, me, go ahead, and I will entertain this for a second.

So, let's say that this is an alternate universe... or at least an alternate blog... or still this blog, only I didn't (and never will) mention it to anyone. What if I were just writing. And posting it on the internet. Isn't that a bit like chucking a thought scribbled on a napkin out the car window into a ditch... or firing a beacon into space... or, to use a more common metaphor, floating a message in a bottle.

(message in a bboootttlleee... thank you Sting)

It is a bit like that, isn't it? Because it's out there. It exists. It is accessible to whomever happens to stumble upon it, should anyone ever stumble upon it (just like a beacon in space!).

So, if I am indeed speaking to you, whomever you are, in whichever alternate universe you happen to be in, then I suppose this was all worthwhile. All of this musing. If, however, you are not reading this, then, I suppose, I should not have bothered to write it.

Moving On!

Things I Learned About America

The only things to do in Michigan City, Indiana are get married and close down your business. As we drove down to the beach, the streets were lined with "for lease" signs in windows, intermittently peppered with bridal shops.

Strange sort of ghost town.

Here's some picture based storytelling, which details the events of our first evening on the open road

This sign tells me that somewhere between the guest rooms and the courtyard is the Holidome...

"Wwwwhhhhaaaattt??!!" you say, "What in the name of St. Sheraton is a Holidome?"

"Well," I reply, "A holidome is apparently very much like a swimming pool."

"But," you retort, "there is also a foos ball table."

"Yes," I concede, "In fact, there is."

Then Julia and Steve risk their well-being in order to retrieve precious warm clothing from the van!

And on to dinner. Dinner, at a spot we affectionately call Lucifer's, because somehow that's what we perverted out of "Damon's". Of course, I am using the royal we here.

Oh! I forgot to mention that before this holidome business, there was a girl asleep on a chair in the lobby, clutching her cell phone as though she were either text-messaging, or holding stead while she exposes a mobile deguerrotype photograph. There would be a photograph of this, but my conscience (i.e. Julia) prevented this.

Anyway, at dinner there were these hilarious devices so that each table could get the audio from whatever massive TV screen they wanted.

But our table was apparently moved closer to an electrical outlet by some burly men, an act which in turn ripped out the wiring for this device. Said wiring remained cozily at our feet throughout dinner.

Highlights from dinner includeL

Andrew shoots lettuce out of his nose

Andrew's food tastes like band-aids

When Dawn mentions this to our server, he hears "mayonaisse" and agrees that it is not a very tasty or agreeable product

Then we go to the beach.

It is beautiful, save for the nearby nuclear power plant.

We are agreed that the Lanes are an ideal fifties-type family:

On a final note, there was a carshow... I think. Well, there were fancy cars in a parking lot. And there were also people drinking and smoking in the parking lot. I'm pretty sure that's what an all-american car show is about.

Things to do in Minneapolis when you're... uh... there.

2008-07-18T12:47:00.000-05:00

Midtown Global Market

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Minneaplois Institute of Arts

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Guthrie Theatre

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And apparently right next door to the Guthrie is...

The Mill City Farmer's Market

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Minnehaha Park

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Finally, the ever popular, and presumably ridiculous...

Mall of America!

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That's enough of google maps for now.

And we walked off to look for America...

2008-07-18T10:49:00.000-05:00

Let's start this here adventure off on the proper foot, shall we?

Tomorrow morning, we ship off, we go looking for a land called America. I know the song makes it seem hard to find... but, I don' think Simon or the Funkel had access to google maps.

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Yeah... you if you zoom in a bit on that map, you'll see we're going through a little place called Kalamazoo. Oh yes.

Anything else I want to say? Oh yes... check these out: