The Pie Extremist Group and 111 Minna Gallery invite you to join us for a unique celebration of St. Valentine’s Day:

Second Annual St. Valentine Sweetie Pie and Art Fest!

Saturday, Feb 12, 5-9pm – Age 21 and over – Event is free and open to the public.

111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco – 4 blocks from Montgomery St. BART Station

Facebook Event Page

The Pie Extremist Group has a single mantra: Pie=Love

Since 2004 the group has been meeting in bars, pizzerias, parks, bakeries, homes, and any other place that would have them. It starts with a call to arms where someone in the group says, “It’s time for a pie party.” It ends with tables full of pies, hands full of forks, mouths stuffed with culinary delights.

Says Erin Shannon aka Exalted Ruler and Queen of Pie, “There needed to be a unifying concept that went beyond the ways we assume we are separate. So Pie, being round and something we can ALL share seemed to be the perfect answer.”

There have been attendees who have tried to be subversive and have shown up with cake… only to be met with hugs and cheers of delight. Pie=Love… but all treats are welcome!

This year 111 Minna Gallery is hosting the group’s Second Annual St. Valentine Sweetie Pie and Art Fest.  That means:

Pie. Art. Bar.

A fabulous combination of fun! Join the Pie Extremist Group and share your pie baking/buying/eating skills with others! Attendees are welcome to bring pie or other things to eat.

A variety of artists will show their works including:

Babushka Designs

Beebalalou aka Jen Rowan

Carrie Galbraith Handmade Books

Dawn Stott- Virtual Genius Design

Erin Crociani paintings

Gabriella Designs, by Maryann Gabriella Peper

Jen Oaks Illustration

Joe Kowalczyk- Ceramic Skulls

Nidhi Chanani – Illustration & Design

Political Gridlock

Sebastian Hyde

Velvet Otterhound

watflooswing

Winston Smith  

History

St. Valentine (actually, there were two Valentine’s, martyred around the same time) was a priest and a physician in Rome , who was martyred around the year of 269, during the reign of Claudius Gothicus.  According to legend, when Valentine was in prison, he sent notes of love and encouragement, and possibly pies, to the people of his community, who lived in fear of persecution.  He was beaten with clubs and stoned, and, when that didn’t finish him off, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate.  Later, in the Middle Ages, people believed that birds began choosing their mates on this day, for the springtime.  So Valentine’s Day came to be thought of as the perfect day for sending tokens of love and for choosing a special sweetie pie.

Flickr user gotoAndLego has an amusing set of photos of the Crimson Permanent Assurance building from Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life constructed from LEGO!

photos by gotoAndLego

Artist/DJ Bruce Boyd (drummer of the old San Francisco band Grotus) pointed me in the direction of “Whole Lotta Sabbath”, a really great mashup by Wax Audio of “War Pigs” (Black Sabbath) and “Whole Lotta Love” (Led Zeppelin).

The Big Picture has posted a collection of wonderful color photos taken between 1909 and 1912 by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, best known for his pioneering work in color photography. The series was commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II.

A unique camera fitted with red green and blue filters captured images in quick succession and were later combined to produce the effect. The quality of some seem almost contemporary and answer the childhood question “were things black and white in the olden days”

More links and information:

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/prok/

Twisted TV Intro #1 – Three’s Company meets The Shining

Twisted TV Intro #2 – The Incredible Hulk meets Pee Wee’s Big Adventure

Twisted TV Intro #3 – Charles in Charge meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Calgary-based multi-media artist Jeff de Boer created ornate and gorgeous sets of armor for mice and cats!

François Vautier installed an ant colony in a scanner, scanning it each week for 5 years to create a time-lapse video.

photo by unknown

At Burning Man 2006 the Sugar Cube structure was built in three days by volunteers using a new architecture design technique.

This year, that design technique was used to construct multiple buildings in California by Avava Systems.

David Wilson, a civil engineer, and Michael Kozel, an architectural designer, both of Berkeley, California, originally designed and tested the system in 2006, the same year they created a Burning Man art project called the Sugar Cube using their sustainable construction technology that creates a structural shell from economically assembled renewable plywood components. You can watch a video of the pre Burning Man Sugar Cube construction test.

Sometimes we view art and its creation as a temporary exploration. Occasionally that exploration can be a testing ground for real world applications.

Creative Growth Art Center Benefit

Saturday May 29th 7:00pm-10:00pm
Rhythmix Cultural Works
2513 Blanding Avenue, Alameda

On May 21st, Tara Evans turned 40 years old. Instead of having a large birthday party, she decided to turn the party into a benefit for the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland… and she has invited the world!

The Creative Growth Art Center has served adult artists with developmental, mental and physical disabilities, providing a stimulating environment for artistic instruction, gallery promotion and personal expression for over 35 years.

Artwork fostered in this unique environment is included in prominent collections and museums worldwide. In June 2008, the Creative Growth Center opened Galerie Impaire in Paris exhibiting the artwork of artists with disabilities, self-taught artists and contemporary artists from around the world.

Their artists have been featured in documentaries, books, and have recently worked on designing for Marc Jacobs.

One of the more well-known artists to come out of Creative Growth Art Center was Judith Scott. “Mistakenly branded in childhood as profoundly retarded, Judith was to spend thirty-five dismal years in institutional custody before the love of her twin sister intervened too obtain her release, setting her on that mythic journey from darkness into light, which would win for her international acclaim as an artist of exceptional talent and originality.”

Tara is holding an Art Sale and Dessert Fest Benefit at Rhythmix Cultural Works 2513 Blanding Avenue in Alameda this Saturday, May 29th, from 7:00pm-10:00pm. There is a $10 donation at the door which includes a raffle ticket. Raffle prizes include gift certificates for the Westin St. Francis Union Square, Andiron Seaside Inn and Cabins near Mendocino, Salsa with Juan, and Bead Inspirations.

The entire event has been a collaborative effort. Over 40 artists from across the US, as far as Ithaca NY, and notables such as Winston Smith have donated paintings, drawings, ceramics, jewelry, textiles, music, independent film tickets, soaps and scents, and various other forms of arts and crafts for the Art Sale. The sale will also include 20 pieces from Creative Growth artists.

Current Sponsors and Donations:

Ritual Coffee Roasters
Westin St. Francis Union Square
Andiron Seaside Inn and Cabins near Mendocino
Salsa with Juan
Bead Inspirations
Plumeria Flours
Last Gasp Books – Ron Turner

A list of participating artists can be found on the benefit website.

photo by Fred R. Conrad

New York Times recently wrote about Xtreme Ministries, a small church near Nashville with the motto “Where Feet, Fist and faith Collide” is trying to attract young male patrons with a steroid dose of machismo by starting a “fight club” style league.

Recruitment techniques include television viewing parties and lectures explaining that “Christ fought for what he believed in”. The goal is to improve Christianity’s image by Manning up. One of the pastors believes “The man should be the overall leader of the household” and that “we have raised a generation of little boys” concluding that the churches have become too feminized by promoting kindness and compassion at the cost of strength and responsibility…

The Society of Illustrators in New York is hosting a show featuring the incredible artwork of longtime bay area illustrator and teacher Barron Storey. The show “Life after Black – The Visual Journals of Barron Storey” displays the awe inspiring, legendary sketchbook journals along side paintings demonstrating how the journals act in symbiotic union as a creative laboratory/idea generator.

Barron’s influence has reached many artist and writers including Bill Sienkiewicz, Dave McKean, Kent Williams, and George Pratt. One of the most well known of his works is the cover for Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

This video is a humble simulation of what it is like to examine one of the impressive journals. A few San Francisco Cacophonists had the great privilege to study under Barron many years ago. Some of his aesthetics and ideas on art making garnished a few early Cacophony Society events.

Merle Becker interviewed rock poster artists around the country who are part of the rising “rock poster art movement” for his new documentary “American Artifact, The Rise of American Rock Poster Art”. The film features interviews with such renowned artists as Chuck Sperry and Ron Donovan of Firehouse, Stanley Mouse, Victor Moscoso, Frank Kozik, Art Chantry, EMEK, Tara McPherson, Derek Hess, COOP, Jay Ryan, and more, as well as fans, collectors, and musicians.

Our friend Winston Smith also appears in the film and is credited (via Frank Kozik & others) in helping to define a generation’s graphic style with his iconic illustrations for The Dead Kennedys and others. Smith notoriously used the streets as his gallery displaying flyers for bands (real or imagined).

The film will be having its world premier this Saturday, June 20th (5pm & 7pm) at the Red Vic Movie House in San Francisco.

By adding gratuitous lens flares & motion blurring, an old episode of Star Trek (“Space Seed”) has been rehabilitated to resemble the new J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek.

C. Nicholas Lynch, an old friend & roommate has assembled a few sets of ancient photographs documenting the first few two years (1990 and 1991) of Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert. The photos are great examples of early camp life on the playa. Other photo credits go to Sebastian Hyde, Ann Head, Julia Wharton and a few other roommates from that time. Nicholas and I shared a house (1907 Golden Gate) with many artist and Cacophonists, presided over by Miss P. Segal. It was the location of many Cacophony Society event planning sessions, including “Bad Day at Black Rock, Zone Trip #4” and home to the Marcel Proust Support Group.

photos by C. Nicholas Lynch

See Previously:

- Bad Day At Black Rock (Cacophony Society Zone Trip #4)

- Burning Man 1990-1995 Photos, The Birth of Black Rock City

Here is found unused footage of William S. Burroughs on the set of the 1997 U2 music video for “Last Night on Earth” where Uncle Bill defends his shopping cart of belongings with his sword cane! It was shot just a few weeks before Burroughs’ death.

Here’s teaser trailer for the upcoming film “The Whisperer in Darkness” by HPLHS Motion Pictures (H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society). HPLHS is the group that made the well crafted silent film adaption of Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu”.

See Previously: The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival