I put this sign up the other day at a coin-op car wash in Silverlake, Los Angeles. I’m going to start making a bunch more signs of phony historical facts and putting em up all over town.
mmmmm… What’s next???
please, give me some suggestions. Thanks.
Filed under 001 Imagination, intss blog by on Jan 31st, 2006. 3 Comments. 
My friend Jon took a break from his San Francisco bee-keeping experiment to visit me in the hills for a show I was having in my RV. He ended up guzzling a dozen or so beers while I was preparing for the show. Inebriated as hell by midday, he felt the strong urge to put on his best cashmere sweater, take his pants off, and run through the tall grasses and thistles in his underwear.
Here he is taking a little breather.
It was kind of scary; I had no idea he wore bikini briefs.
Despite Jon’s fashion show, my RV show happened with much success. Seven artists of completely different backgrounds each to give separate performance inside the RV. It started with a bang when a traditional composer, HK, played an original score on a Casio tone-bank keyboard I found at the San Francisco dump. A few keys don’t work; she counted them as silences.
It swiftly moved to an improvisational dance routine performed by Meg. The music was none else but the heavy metal group Mastodon!
It was brought back down to earth with some poetry, prose, and…
yoga in the galley.
Afterward, I made some fajitas for everyone. I’ve never done this before, but they were quite tasty.
I’ll post some video once I’m off this dial-up connection.
You should try having a show in your car, van, truck, RV, boat, or even your office. I think a show in either a mini cooper or in the breakroom at work would be quite exceptional. I would love to see some pictures of your show.
Filed under 001 Imagination, intss blog by on May 8th, 2005. 1 Comment.
Today I thought I should label and photograph everthing I pick up in a day. You should try it; place a label (mine are red dots) on the object just as you are ready to pick it up and take a photo. Do it for everything you pick up in a day. It’ll make you think. These are only two things of many, many that I picked up today.
Please, please send me your photos.
Filed under 001 Imagination, 030 Everything I Pick Up in a Day, intss blog by on Apr 28th, 2005. 3 Comments.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH EVENING MAGAZINE’S STORY ON COFFEE IN THE PARK (I’M REALLY GEEKY HERE
For Coffee in the Park, I daisy-chain 1500 ft of safety orange extension cord and string it from my kitchen to the eastern end of alamo square park, where I power my Mr. Coffee. The coffee is hot and tasty, but a bit slow to brew due to the electrical resistance. The first saturday, I met some very interesting people and acquired an entire band from all four corners of the park. Initially, I was doing CIP every Saturday, but that got to be a bit much for me, so I started doing do it once a month.
This is a piece that CBS’s Evening Magazine did on Coffee in the Park.
Filed under 001 Imagination, 007 Coffee in the Park, 037 Video, Events, intss blog by on Aug 17th, 2004. Comment.
This self-funded project stemmed out of years of eating dinner out, all the life-changing conversations that have occurred and passed, and celebrates our wonderful and vast system of countless restaurants.
For the project, I will travel to four locations and take people, mostly strangers, out to dinner at a restaurant of their choice and pick up the tab. I will meet these people either in public, through Craigslist, or via friends. Below are the dates and places that I will visit on my tour.
dates and places:
Chicago :: Monday, April 12 – Friday, April 23
Los Angeles :: Thursday, April 29 – Friday, May 7
New York, New York :: May 13,14,15,16
Saint Simons Island, Georgia :: May 17,18,19,20
Filed under 001 Imagination, 002 National Dinner Tour, Events, intss blog by on Apr 12th, 2004. Comment.
Filed under 001 Imagination, 010 How Much Was Your Flight?, intss blog by on Mar 27th, 2004. Comment.
This is an idea for a new reality show. Have a fued in your neighborhood? Well, here’s your chance to settle it the old fashioned way. Give each house a canon and have them fire on each other til one house falls. That’s easy and simple enough!
CLICK HERE TO SEE A QUICK VIDEO EXPLAINATION AND ANIMATION
Here are the rules of the game:
HOUSEWARS: Fuck Your Neighbors Up…For Life
“Imagine if you could fire a cannon from your house across the street into your neighbor who you’re feuding with, so then you could resolve this combat you have been having for the last twenty years. You could have this legitimized fight with real cannons firing real cannon balls.” Ian Treasure
HouseWars is a 30 minute extreme-reality-based-tv-show intended for a live audience that was created by Marc Horowitz and Ian Treasure. It is currently being presented to major television networks for production – ABC, NBC, Home and Garden Network, Comedy Central, MTV, etc. This could either be staged, or, if there are willing and applicable contestants, be a legitimate documentary.
For all practical purposes, HouseWars is a contest between two families–across-the-street neighbors–who loathe each other…intensely. So much, in fact, that they’re willing to completely destroy the other’s home and, consequently, ruin the other’s life; like Battleship, each household will take turns firing on the other until the first house is declared structurally unsound. The WINNER gets a brand new house in the nice part of town and an ever-burning torch, and the LOSER gets a set of duffel bags, a cursing parrot, Greyhound bus tickets out of town, and one free week’s stay at a motel to figure out how to put the broken pieces of their life back together.
PREPARATION: Each team has a week before battle day to “fortify” their respective home. During this week, each family is given a military strategist, a master carpenter, and a building crew. Additionally, they are supplied with an equal and set amount of building material. Most importantly, each home will be equipped with a cannon. It will be secured in a front room and pointed at their neighbor’s home. Monday at 0800 hours the teams go to work preparing their homes for battle!
BATTLEDAY:
Audience: There will be bleachers perpendicular to the houses. Immediate family sits in the first rows and general audience will be seated behind them.
Concessions: Food and drinks will be sold. Merchandise will also be sold.
Merchandise: In an effort to raise support and sales, t-shirts, hats, action toys, posters, foam hands, DVD compilations, and various tchotchkes and memorabilia will be available widely.
“Safehouses”: Each team gets a trailer-home for the day. They will retreat here when their house is being fired on, and will be able to watch the battle from here. The military strategist will be there for consultation.
Video Cameras: Cameramen will be placed in the audience, in each safehouse, in between the houses, and in the “canon room”. Several unmanned cameras will be set-up throughout each of the homes to pick up “hits”.
The Ref: The referee is the structural engineer. He determines the winner based on his professional opinion. He initiates the coin toss.
A representative from each team meets in the middle of the street for the coin-toss. The ref chooses who calls the toss, he then flips the coin, and initiates the contest. Trumpeteers sound and the games begin. The winner of the coin toss, Team A, enters their home and prepares the cannon. Team B retreats to their trailer. Team lights the fuse, and fires. The canon recoils and inevitably destroys part of Team A’s firing room. The ball then flies across the street and either hits or misses. If it hits, the ref must quickly inspect the house, and deem it safe or unsafe. If the house is safe, Team B prepares to fires, and Team A leaves their home for their safehouse and some consultation. Team B fires, and so on. At any point during the games, the teams can use one trump card each.
Trump card: These are to help the teams out in desperate or strategic situations. They consist of the following: 1) wheel in a line of tall trees to dampen the blow of the cannon ball. This is only for one turn. 2) instruct a bobcat operator for one minute to enter the opposition’s home and terrorize. The cannon cannot be touched. 3) Have a team hide several steaks in various “hard-to-reach” locations and then unleash several hungry German shepards. This is a strong psychological card, as the homeowners watch the dogs tear apart their home on camera in their trailer home.
The game is ended when the ref deems a house unsafe. The trumpateers sound and a heavy metal band strikes up a tune. The audience goes wild! The winners are congratulated and the losers consoled. They are given their respective prizes.
This could also be done with businesses, nameable gas stations as they are always across the street from each other. Follow up segments will occur, documenting the winners and losers of HouseWars.
[tags]housewars, house, home, destruction, battle, fued, realitytelevision, tv, television, show, reality, neighbor[/tags]
Filed under 001 Imagination, 020 Housewars, 037 Video, intss blog by on Mar 20th, 2004. 1 Comment.
So I sold my Honda Civic Station Wagon that I bought for $800 to Jon Rolston for a whopping $ 648 and a chocolate glazed doughnut. Additionally, he promised me that I could do whatever I wanted to his old car – a little mazda hatchback (above – comes with the eagle – free). So, I figured it would be a good idea to fill it with ice. Rolston suggested we sit in the car while it is filled with ice – fantastic. We might as well try driving it at that point – I’m sure we won’t get too far.
jon rolston
I set out this morning to find the best solution. I figured that blowing shaved ice into the car from one of the windows was a reasonable way to go. I hit the Yellow pages. So I started out with the San Francisco Ice Co. I have bought ice from them before to make a home made portable office/ home air conditioner (see below). I talked with them about the project, and they told me that the man who had a machine that blew shaved ice had quit a while back, so I would have to buy about 15 – 40lbs. bags of shaved ice and dump them into the car myself. This seems sort of anti-climactic. I pressed on, and turned my search into one for a snow maker. I did an EBAY search and found that snow makers are 1) DJ tricks for proms and 2) machines that make snow cones for kids. So I amped up my search, and set out for high powered snow makers that you would find at a ski resort – you can read about them at how things work. I figured that local snowboard shops would have the skinny on where to get these machines. There had to be a half-pipe snowboard contest in SF at sometime and someone had to rent a snow maker for it – maybe I’d get lucky.
So, I called several snowboard shops, and the general consensus was to call a ski resort. That makes sense, but what resort in their right mind is going to let a couple of dudes fill their car up with gangs of snow while their in it? I also wonder if we would get our heads blown off due to the pressure of the snow that comes out of the machine? I would open the hatch back and blow it in from there, maybe we could move the machine back at quite a distance?
I still want to rent a machine locally – it would be much easier. I called several rental shops, action rentals (415.826.1830), united rentals (415.642.1300), hertz, and more. The guy over at Action Rentals told me to call a refrigeration company. Okay? By the way all of these people have asked why I want a high powered snow maker. I told them exactly why – they immediately laugh, usually comment “that’s weird”, and wish me luck.
I called several refrigeration companies, Ace refrigeration (415.286.3829), Speed Refrigeration (415.826.8500), and Cool Solutions (800.664.4009) – they must have a solution. The owner at Cool Solution took to the project. He liked the idea, but had no snow maker, and no good suggestion on where to look about town. But he did say in all 30 years of operating his business, he had never received a request anywhere near this. I made his list of top 5 strangest requests. You’ll have to call up to find out about the other 4. He ended our conversation by saying, “good luck, and I hope you dudes don’t freeze your balls off.”
Time to call the lake tahoe ski resorts – heavenly, northstar, sierra, squaw, alpine meadows, and boreal (I know they have real big snow machines). I’m not really sure if the car will make it up there, maybe I could have AAA tow it up – I do have AAA plus, 100 miles of towing! We could play vanilla ice all the way up.
If there are any ice donors, people with snow makers, or someone who is skilled in the field of controlled ice experimentation, please contact me. Thanks.
yes, the first portable air conditioner – genius!
[tags]ice, car, icecar, rolston, airconditioner, snowmachine, funtimes, ski, skiresorts, mazda, custom[/tags]
Filed under 001 Imagination, 022 Ice Car, intss blog by on Feb 18th, 2004. 2 Comments.
Filed under 001 Imagination, 024 The Tradin' Post, Events, intss blog by on Feb 14th, 2004. Comment.
Friday the 13th! Snuggle up to some good Crystal Lake films. The weather looks pretty grim for tomorrow, so I’m officially going to call off Coffee in the Park. But, I’m going to hold coffee at my house tomorrow – let’s shoot for 1pm as I have a great deal of things to do in the morning. I live at 1343 Mcallister Street between Steiner and Pierce. This will loosely be a part of My Hallway series and serve as a good introduction to the project. So bring your ideas and questions.
I’ve spent the better half of this week researching the legal issues regarding running 1300′ of cord from my house to the park, alternative power sources, various other laws, permits, alternative coffee makers; and I’ve talked to the gamut of professions, including but not limited to lawyers, activists, police, gardeners, sustainable living specialists, boating and travel catalog sales reps, and artists.
Here’s the skinny. First off, I talked to the San Francisco permits office to try and get a permit for the 1300′ of extension cord. They gave me the “No”. I then tried the San Francisco Arts Commission Public Artist Program, and they were not able to grant me permission. I then talked to an activist lawyer, Rick Young, whom I met through CIP indirectly. He had some very good points. There a re a couple of main concerns with the cord. 1) If someone were to trip on the cord, I could be REALLY, REALLY SUED, and 2) It is against the law to put things in the street, i.e. the 100′ extension cord that crosses the intersection of Steiner and Fulton. Even though the cord has never moved an inch from the cars that run over it, it “could get stuck in someone’s wheel and cause an accident”. So, what about running up over the street? Then you run into legal issues because of the power lines and trucks crossing, etc. All in all the cord crossing the street is an issue. He said I could just fuck the law and run the cords anyhow. The cops, since they have already reprimanded me could either give me a ticket or arrest me. In which case, I could post bail, no more than $ 2000 and then go in front of the district attorney to pitch my case. The case would be basically laughed out of court due to its nature and the fact that there is some really horrible things that move through the courts that need more attention. As I understand it, I would get my bail back minus court fees. Should I run the cord and get arrested? I never thought this project would come to that question. Rick’s last words were sarcastically put ” proceed with my own risk” and “stay out of trouble”.
Okay, maybe I should talk to the gardener of Alamo Square Park, David (who claimed to be “The King of the Park”) and compromise the 1300′ feet to about 350′ of cord, and run it from the garden house on the hill top. He wasn’t gonna have any of it.
I then decided I should go on a jog to blow off some steam and sweat out the 4 cups I drink a day. I wasn’t two blocks from my house, when I heard my name. I looked around, and sure enough, it was the two police officers that put an end to my 1300′ of fun. They reiterated that the cord was out of the question, and they furthered my dilemma by stating that in order to hand out free coffee in the park I need to obtain a “distributors permit” from the parks and rec department- what the hell is that? So next time you hand someone a $1 in a park or hand your friend a burger that you cooked in the park, remember that you need a permit to do so!!!!! So now I am in need of a distributors permit and a power source!
Right! So I return home and do some research on different types of coffee makers that don’t suck so much juice, so that I can run it off of my 80 amp marine battery, which I have placed so much blind faith in. I looked into coffee makers that you can plug directly into a cigarette lighter, which would work with a $5 unit that I could hook up to my 12V marine battery which I purchased from West Marine. You can buy the 5 buck unit from radio shack – it has two clamps, one negative and one positive, that lead up to cigarette lighter where you would plug the coffee maker into. The problem is that it takes nearly 45 minutes to brew ten cups and it draws 16.5 Amps per hour – this means that on my 80 amp deep-cycle marine battery, I would have 41.25 minutes of brew time, not even enough to get 10 cups off.
So why not just hook up the marine battery to the Mr. Coffee that I have been using? Mr. Coffee draws 900watts/hr, which is one of the most demanding appliances around. As a rule, you can only drain deep cycle batteries by 30% of its capacity. So the 80 amp 12V marine battery that I have can only put out 24 amps before it needs to visit recharchville. That’s not a lot of amps. You throw all this info into a formula, Amps * volts = watts. 24amps * 12v = 288 watts available. The coffee maker drinks 900watts of power an hour and I have only 288 watts available, so that means I can run Mr. Coffee for 288/900 = .32*60min = 19.2 minutes. That may give me 6 cups of coffee.
I called in the specialists. I talked to Vern at this little company in upstate New York called “Creative Energy Technologies” specializing in sustainable living. We talked at great length about renewable and portable power sources. Generators are out of the question – too big, too expensive, and way too loud. Solar power is out – expensive for one and the panels only operate at 21% efficiency, meaning that they only convert 21% of the sunlight that hits the panel. This in turn means you need several large panels to draw enough power out of our shining star to power a 900watt coffee maker for several hours – approximately 9’x3′ worth of panels.
More batteries???? My 80 amp marine battery weighs 49 lbs, so 19.2 minutes = 49lbs, for 4 hours I’d have to lug 12.5 batteries to the park weighing in at 612.5 lbs!!!!!!!! Plus I’d have to lug a 20lb 1000watt hardwired power inverter that costs $ 140. So 13 batteries and an inverter = $ 1180. That’s not so cost efficient to serve free coffee in the park, nor does it make sense to carry around 612.5 lbs of batteries.
I went on an errand with Mary Burnham today and she suggested Cold Brew Coffee. I could do that and lug a few gallons up and heat it on the spot.
In any case, it’s back to the drawing board. Maybe the propane stove and extra table is the way to go, or maybe I should get arrested!
Filed under 001 Imagination, 007 Coffee in the Park, Events, intss blog by on Feb 13th, 2004. Comment.
