On our way through Cincinnati we stopped at a Skyline Chili. I haven’t been to one in years. Skyline Chili was founded in 1949 in Cincinnati (it’s named after Cincinnati’s skyline) by Greek immigrant Nicholas Lambrinides and is known for their chili spaghetti, served five different ways with their unique secret sauce that includes chocolate and cinnamon. I decided to go all the way and ordered the 5-Way, which consists of spaghetti, chili, cheddar cheese, beans & onions.

There are several other restaurants that serve “Cincinnati Style” chili, including Empress Chili, Gold Star Chili, Dixie Chili and Camp Washington Chili.

In celebration of the International Day of the Ninja, the Ninja from Ask A Ninja will be answering questions from the audience next Wednesday, December 5th at “Ask A Ninja Live!”. The show takes place at The El Rey Theater in Los Angeles and includes special guest performances by Patton Oswalt and Hard ‘n Phirm. Advance tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster.

The International Day of the Ninja is an ancient celebration of deadliness and sneakiness. It is the only day in which ninjas appear in plain sight and don’t kill everyone that crosses their path. On Wednesday, December 5th, people of all skill levels are encouraged to dress as ninjas, engage in ninja-related activities, and tell people about their amazing and awesome ninja missions. Many have compared International Day of the Ninja to International Talk Like a Pirate Day. There is no comparison. Pirates are silly, drunken fops compared to the incredible and masterful Ninjas.

Here’s the wonderfully creative pre-flight safety video shown before Virgin America flights on their Airbus A320 airliners. Be sure to keep an eye out for the cameo appearance by a squid.

It was produced by Anomaly (NYC) with animation by Wild Brain (San Francisco).

“Our Favorite Things” is a new DVD/CD by the notorious experimental music and sound group Negativland, co-released by Seeland MediaMedia and Craig Baldwin’s Other Cinema Digital. The launch event takes place at 8:30pm this Saturday, December 1st at Other Cinema in San Francisco.

Twenty-seven years of the group’s “greatest hits” have become all-new moving pictures in this amazing, years-in-the-making package. Created with 18 other filmmakers from all over the USA (and one a capella group from Detroit), OUR FAVORITE THINGS is a collaborative project that takes Negativland’s sound explorations into the world of film and video. What emerges is a darkly cracked look at 21st century America, juxtaposing paranoia, torture, control, power, weapons, fear, suicide, cola wars, mental illness, and intellectual property issues with the lighter side of dopey advertising, cartoon characters, cleaning products and Jesus.

via The Art of the Prank

“Big Picture Pop”, a new show featuring the amazing art of our good friend Ron English, opens tomorrow Thursday, November 29th at the Opera Gallery in New York.

The show runs through December 20th.

Lipstick Kisses, a gallery show and fundraiser for The Flaming Lotus Girls, takes place this Friday, November 30th at SomArts in San Francisco.

FLAMING LOTUS GIRLS: FLAMING ART; LIPSTICK KISSES
A Gallery Show

Who: Those mavens of lipstick and accelerants, The Flaming Lotus Girls

What: A Gallery Show Fundraiser for the FLG’s!

When: Friday, November 30th, 2007, 7pm-1am

Where: Somarts Gallery 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco

Why: Because YOU want to see more super giant fire art!

Come join the hot ladies (and gentlemen) of the world-famous Flaming
Lotus Girls fire art group for an evening of art, flame and fabulous
outfits.

Over 40 different photographers and a handful of local artists have
donated their art for a silent auction benefiting the FLG’s, so they
can continue their quest for world domination through stainless steel
and kerosene.

The FLG’s are taking their spectacular interactive fire sculpture, The
Serpent Mother, on a World Tour to spread the gospel of fire art and
metalwork empowerment. The Serpent Mother was first seen at The
Burning Man festival in Nevada in 2006, but the FLG’s didn’t stop
there! The Serpent Mother went on to the 2007 Fire Arts Festival in
Oakland, California and slithered across the pond for the 2007
Robodock Festival in Amsterdam!

The rest of the world deserves to see The Serpent Mother in all of her
168-foot majesty. Come enjoy the all the art and make this and other
amazing projects possible!

The Flaming Lotus Girls are an all-volunteer, all-awesome San
Francisco-based group of female and male artists who work hard all
year round to create exceptional fire art and provide a resource for
learning metalworking and other mad essential shop skillz. The
youngest FLG is 18 months, and the oldest is 70 years! The FLG’s
enjoy creating fire art on a gargantuan scale, just as you enjoy
watching the fruits of their labor! Come support this amazing
phenomenon and have a fab time doing it!

See more at http://www.flaminglotus.com

The Blue + Green Ball, a benefit for Todd Blair who suffered a major head injury following the recent SRL show in Amsterdam, takes place this Saturday, December 1st at SomArts in San Francisco. The event features decadence & entertainment as well as both an art and talent & collectibles auction to raise funds for Todd’s recovery.

The Blue & Green Ball - a benefit for Todd Blair

Saturday, December 1st
SOMARTS
934 Brannan
San Francisco, California 94103
8:00 PM - $10 donation

Todd Blair suffered a severe head injury after the last SRL show in Amsterdam. He has a long road of medical bills, living and rehab expenses. Todd’s SRL, CCA, and other communities join forces presenting an evening of entertainment, bazaar, silent and live auction of many fine art, kinetic sculpture, peoples’ highly coveted skills, etc.

Cash bar + Food from Foodhacker Marc Powell and Crew
Hot dogs steamed by Neverwas Steam Car!

Art auction with pieces from: Stelarc, SRL, Lynn Hershman, Eduardo Kac, and more! One of the Sneaky Soldiers is up for auction!

Collectibles + Services for sale/auction:
Make: magazine collectors’ set
Neverwas Steam Car at your next party
Sewing Coaching from Melanie Miguel
Welding class from Kal Spelletich
more…

Holiday Shopping Craft and Electronics Bazaar

DJ Vordo + Joan Jeanrenaud
Gibson Pearl Belly Dancers with Kristen and Kyrsten
Also appearing Janice Solimeno and her Sol Studio Student Performers
Flaming Lotus Girls
SWARM
Flaming Art Bars from the makers of Alpha Fox
Extra Action Marching Band

see also: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/318454/

Please check out the Blue & Green Ball website for a preview of what is a going to be for sale and auction.

The organizers of the event are still looking for volunteers who are interested in donating art, talent or collectibles for the auction.

Lori and I are currently on a roadtrip from the Florida Panhandle to Ohio, visiting family and Laughing Squid operatives. Along the way I’ll be posting periodic updates to Twitter as well as uploading the occasional photo to my FL to OH photoset.

Regarding this blog, it will be fairly quiet through next weekend, however I will be updating our link blog as I check in from time-to-time and process my feeds.

Can Crest Gel Toothpaste save Toothopolis from the Cavity Creeps?

They must be out of Crest. Attack! We make holes in teeth!

So lately many of my friends have announced that they are expecting a baby soon. Well if they can’t come up with good name, you can’t go wrong with one of the wonderful names from the Sci-Fi Baby Names book by Robert Schnakenberg.

Babies are the courageous explorers of brave new worlds so why not name them after the most memorable characters in science fiction? Sci-Fi Baby Names compiles more than 500 distinctive names from movies, books, and television shows into a handy illustrated reference. Choose “James” to honor the captain of the starship Enterprise. Choose “Leia” (or “Leah”) to honor the sister of Luke Skywalker. Choose “Neo” to salute the ultra-cool messiah from The Matrix. Hardcore fans can go even further with exotic names like “Barbarella,” “Beldar,” and “Tron” (just don’t send us the therapy bills).

Arranged by category for quick reference with chapters such as Power Names, Feminine Names, and Intellectual Names Sci-Fi Baby Names is a terrific gift for expecting parents and a wonderful roll call of our favorite science-fiction characters

UPDATE: Veronica Belmont make an excellent point that this book would be great for naming pets as well.

Zune Arts is an impressive collection of animated music videos created over the last year to promote Microsoft’s Zune line of portable entertainment devices.

Zune Arts is a place where emerging artists collaborate on inspiring works of art; where sharing, connection, discovery and friendship is celebrated; a place that’s continuously growing, ever evolving and always open to new voices, influences and ideas.

The latest in the series is “The Masks”, a psychedelic battle scene animated by PandaPanther, with creative direction from 72andSunny, featuring the song “Young Dead Men” by The Black Angels.

Renowned New York animation geniuses Jonathan Gorin and Naomi Nishimura (a.k.a. PandaPanther) have created a Braveheart-meets-Care Bears battlefield drama in the new Zune Arts film, “Masks.” A war between angry robots and paunchy blue critters set to the dark, brooding sounds of Austin’s The Black Angels, the film explores how peace can be better achieved by trading perspectives, not blows.

Hi-Fructose Vol. 6 is out. You can order it online or pick it up at these retail locations.

It features a cover story on Yoko D’holbachie written by our good friend mikl-em.

Featuring: Yoko D’Holbachie, the art and interview with Jonathan Weiner, up all night wih artist Jordan Crane, the subteranean art of Marion Peck , Audrey Kawasaki, Jason D’aquino, and the amazing sculptures of Ron Muek.

Muliti-Page Exposes on Ken Keirns, Apak, Angry Woebots, Bob Dob’s Luey’s shot by Brian McCarty, Designer Vinyl, and much more!

Two new World of Warcraft commercials featuring Mr. T. and William Shatner.

See Also: World of Warcraft Toyota Tacoma Commercial

via Rudy Jahchan on Twitter

Behold the mundane magic of Daniel Chesterfield!

UPDATE: In the comments Nikolaas informs us that Daniel Chesterfield is one of the many characters played by Belgian comedian Chris Van den Durpel.

via The Art of the Prank

I finally made it out to one of the Beard Papa’s locations in San Francisco. For those of you not familiar with Beard Papa’s, it’s a series of stores based out Japan that specializes in all natural cream puffs, the kind that comes fresh out of the oven.

Known as the bakery of the “World’s Best Cream Puffs”, Beard Papa’s has been a household name since 1999 when Yuji Hirota opened the first Beard Papa’s store in Osaka, Japan pumping out this unique cream puff to happy people. Since that time, our mission has remained unchanged, to pursue uncompromising quality in serving the World’s Best Cream Puffs. By remaining focused in our quality commitment and attention to customer service, Beard Papa’s has courted a devout following of puff lovers who will attest that once you taste our cream puffs, there is no comparison.

My choice for my first visit was the curious green tea cream puff.