House of the Sugar Rush Fairies
I’ve never made a gingerbread house in my life. They were always this mysterious thing that was never really talked about, but somehow I knew of their existence. In fact, I don’t even think I had seen a gingerbread house in person until I emptied the box onto the table. So knowing my niece was coming in for Christmas, I decided that she would not be deprived of the magical gingerbread house like I had all these years. So with her help, we constructed this beauty.
This entry is part of 2012’s Project 365 – A Creative Thing a Week.
A Gift Emitting Deano
Break out the wire, solder, and fancy cardboard, it’s time for some down and dirty electronic gadgeteering! I knew I wanted to give some of this year’s creations away to friends, especially to Charlie who I blame for who inspired this whole project in the first place. So, inspired by my late aunt who gifted hand-made Christmas ornaments every year, I decided it was high time to continue her tradition and to created some of my own.
A roommate had given me a breadboard with a bunch of LEDs, switches, and capacitor do-dads, so I took what I had, bought some more, and fired up the soldering gun. After I figured out what I was doing, I quickly painted some scrap cardboard, added my circuitry, and flipped the switch that brought to life what Christmas means to me — selflessly sharing one’s self.
01101101 01100101 01110010 01110010 01111001 0100000 01100011 01101000 01110010 01101001 01110011 01110100 01101101 01100001 01110011
This entry is part of 2012’s Project 365 – A Creative Thing a Week.
to be
Poetry. This masterfully magical mingling of words has teased my creative spirit for as long as I can remember. I have attempted to construct poems a few times in my life. Most collapsed and were lost to the fog of my past. However, recently I constructed one that didn’t fall, was not lost, even if, in the end, it was abandoned. chaos to be was a beautiful reaction to the most powerful emotional whirlwind that I ever had the pleasure to rip through my life. One that left my emotions caught in the undercurrents of its riptides — taken out to sea, drown, and reborn.
This is the first poem I have written since. As a first draft, I let it simmer here, for now, a home for my thoughts on this overcast Saturday morning in December.
to be
by DAEthingtonExplosion.
I blaze into a scorching light,
I am everything I ever was.
I spill.Reverberation.
I spring into a brilliant harmonic,
I shatter everything I have ever known.
I absorb.Exhalation.
I collapse back into the darkness,
I am everything that is new.
I spark.
This entry is part of 2012’s Project 365 – A Creative Thing a Week.
The Hudsucker Proxy Is My Jam
As this year’s project nears completion, I wanted to get together with my friend Charlie Visnic who, as I’ve mentioned before, help inspired this whole adventure with his year-long creative thing a day. After a quick interview, he hooked up his monome and fired up some of the experimental software he wrote.
This software is quite amazing, it basically plays back and loops various video clips (that Charlie curates from his favorite films) with a press of a button or two. This sounded a lot easier before he placed the monome in my lap and said go. I sat there looking down at this beautiful wooden box with a matrix of unmarked buttons evenly distributed across its face. As I pushed my first button it immediately illuminated as if to say, Thanks! It then proceeded to play its assigned clip that Charlie had loaded into the software. I randomly pressed different buttons and they too lit up with joy, playing alternate clips. Charlie, of course, records these video mixes. They become almost like abstract music video art, Charlie was amazing at creating these, me, not so much. I included one of my better mixes below.
This entry is part of 2012’s Project 365 – A Creative Thing a Week.
The Totally Mellow and Chill Charlie Visnic
I’ve never interviewed anyone before. I’ve edited audio only a handful of times. So, I decided to interview my buddy Charlie from The B-Roll. And cut it all together with some of his music. Check it out.
This entry is part of 2012’s Project 365 – A Creative Thing a Week.
iFelt
I like simplifying my life where ever I can. So when a co-worker came in with his amazing phone wallet made of felt, I knew instantly I would have to attempt my own. The act of designing something even as basic as this was exhilarating. New possibilities and improvements hit me at every step. Even after it was all completed, I was a bit disappointed with how the phone didn’t slide out as well as I hoped. So, I played with the idea of cutting the opening down to expose the top of the phone but then got the idea to have a ribbon to pull the phone out. It worked out brilliantly and brought that splash of color which brings it all together.
It’s only been a few hours and I already have a flood of ideas to improve upon it. So, for now, I’m putting my paper wallet aside, digitizing its superfluous contents, and going felt.
This entry is part of 2012’s Project 365 – A Creative Thing a Week.
Roger, Roger
Digging through my junk box for parts for my lightsaber project I came across many discarded gems that didn’t quite work for the project at hand. So I came up with this idea of creating something strictly from the parts in that box. Nothing else but random, broken, abandon parts with the exception of binding agents like Sugru, glue, and epoxy. The obvious emergence was some sort of robot. Roger was completed and activated in just two days and features articulated arms and a turnable dial on its front panel.
This entry is part of 2012’s Project 365 – A Creative Thing a Week.
Alone with Jack
How can you not love this time of year — where we witness the last sighs of summer as autumn releases its first cool breeze washing over us while brown leaves crunch underfoot. October signals the first of three very uniquely themed holiday months. It brings with it the magic of the holidays, a time where the year is growing old and we interject a few very special days to remind us to not take life so seriously, to come together and celebrate our creativity.
Halloween manages to bring out the creative spark in so many of us, from decorations to costumes and of course the classic carving of the pumpkin. The Jack-o-lantern was the first project I slated at the beginning of this year. It was also one I almost didn’t do.
You see it was the night before Halloween, I was exhausted from a long day’s work and I had no pumpkin, no design, and no gumption. It was a random playing of a song that finally got me in the spirit and to that pumpkin patch. Then, I did something I had never done before, although I didn’t realize it right away.
Alone, I sat at my kitchen counter after quickly sketching out a face to carve. Soon an odd and strange feeling began to creep over me. As I started to plunge the blade into the pumpkin a feeling of melancholy oozed from my brain. What was going on? Then, like the knife slicing through the soft flesh, it struck me — I have never carved a pumpkin alone. I was disrespecting the spirit of the holiday, of the togetherness it embodies. After I was finished I looked at my creation again with new eyes. Its expression, frightened and alone, mirrored my own experience.
This entry is part of 2012’s Project 365 – A Creative Thing a Week.
Paranormal Family Portrait
In every home, behind every closed door, lies a darkness and terror that you can not escape — family. And every family has their dark side. For many, it slithers to the surface as the holiday season creeps near. So what better way to bring horror to the home than demonizing the ones you love? Hence why I sliced out the eyes out of my mother, brother, and myself and made our empty sockets burn glow with the fires of hell.
This entry is part of 2012’s Project 365 – A Creative Thing a Week.
The Invitation
A long time ago a very sweet girl introduced me to this poem. It found its way back to me and I'd like to share it here.
The Invitation
by OriahIt doesn’t interest me what you do for a living
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.It doesn’t interest me how old you are
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dreams
for the adventure of being alive.It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon…
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your
fingers and toes
without cautioning us to
be careful
be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand on the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after a night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the center of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.