Wanna Make An Animatronic Bird for Halloween?
Friday, October 31st, 2008
Lot’s of time left! Go to Brian Albert’s post on MyHome2.0.
Technorati Tags: Innovation, MyHome2.0, Animatronic Birds
Archive for October, 2008
As Winter Descends on New York City…
Monday, October 20th, 2008
“Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining members of the wild species into zoos or to extinction; if we pollute the last clear air and dirty the last clean streams and push our paved roads through the last of the silence, so that never again will Americans be free in their own country from the noise, the exhausts, the stinks of human and automotive waste. “
– Wallace Stegner, 1960 (see his note)
Technorati Tags: Campfire, Wallace Stegner, Wilderness
A banana-based success story.
Friday, October 17th, 2008
As you can see from the post preceding this one, early in the week I set out with the mission of ensuring that every banana was given the opportunity to fulfill its given purpose of providing nutrition. As I am sure you would all agree, there is nothing sadder than a banana without purpose. As soon as they realize that their existence was for naught, they quickly brown, whither and die. Sure, a small percentage of these dying bananas are miraculously saved via osmosis with bread but most aren’t afforded that luxury.*
ANYWAY, to try and curb the dangerous epidemic of dead bananas that was becoming all-too-commonplace within the Campfire walls, I highlighted four banana benefits, or bananafits, and posted them in sign form above the bananas in our kitchen. As you can see from the image above, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!! Now, someone needs to do something about those lonely, lonely apples.
*I used to bag groceries at a supermarket in Weymouth, MA as a youngin called Johnny Foodmaster (I swear, that was the real name.) One day, a sagely woman came in and bought up all of the dying bananas. GREAT! Tons of deliscious banana bread, right? Wrong. You would be wrong to think this. In fact, she was buying them all to feed the local raccoons in her neighborhood. Apparently, raccoons have an affinity for bananas as well. Clearly, this animal is blessed with a dangerouly high intellect.
Please, will somebody PLEASE think of the bananas?!
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008With the dawning of every work week comes a visit from our buddy at Fresh Direct with all kinds of grocery items to keep us snacking for another five days. Nuts, pretzels, coffee, cereal, bananas….we roll deep. Kind of like how a shopping cart rolls deeply through….aisles of a…..supermarket… OK. Maybe the metaphor falls flat. Where the hell was I going with this…..
Ah yes, bananas! I am a fan of them and, sadly, noticed that a segment of our banana population was ignored last week. Instead of serving their ultimate purpose in life by supplying we primates with sustenance, they browned and became nothing more than a magnet for fruit flies. A sad and unfortunate fate, I know. Today, I set out to, like Obama, initiate change and ensure that no bananas are left behind by drawing attention to all that our banana-y friends have to offer.
So, why should you eat bananas? Well:
1) They are packed with B6, which helps fend off weakness, irritability and insomnia. All of these are bad. Thank you banana!
2) Feeling lethargic? Well, bananas have a ton of carbohydrates in em, which is your body’s main source of energy. Booyah!
3) Not into strokes? Neither are bananas. That’s why they come filled with blood pressure-regulating potassium. Potassium will also fend off cramping! Git er done, potassium!
4) Not in a great mood? Bananas have you covered! The serotonin and norepinephrine found within their yellowy innards have been shown to kick some depression ass!
Here’s the sign in action. I’m not sure anyone here has actually noticed it yet, so, surprise!
I Hate Mondays, said the Chimp.
Friday, October 10th, 2008Back in college, I worked as a barista for a local coffee shop. One afternoon, a co-worker who also worked part-time at a slaughterhouse, came on shift particularly frazzled and stressed out. When we asked why, she explained how earlier that morning, she stunned and slaughtered her first cow. We all had our reactions of course, and the slaughterhouse girl said matter-of-factly, “Where do you think your meat comes from?” Another co-worker replied, “We just get our meat from the supermarket.”
Yesterday, Mike, Steve, Sean and I went to Banksy’s new installation show in the West Village, The Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill. Unless you are a die-hard Banksy fan, it is almost impossible to know that the work has been done by Banksy. There wasn’t a single painting or graffiti piece in the entire show. The only indications of a Banksy show taking place were these huge rat billboards that had been put up around the city a few weeks earlier. An employee of the petstore was nice enough to write out a list of all the locations around the city where the billboards can be found.
Banksy’s use of animatronics were subtle; clearly the animals in the window displays are fake, but instead of spinning in circles or waving at you like a santa on crack, the movements are slight and insignificant, much in the same way a caged animal would behave. My favorite of the window displays was the pretty little bunny rabbit wearing a pearl necklace, filing her nails and staring into a vanity mirror with globs of blush and lipstick on. I couldn’t think of a better way to demonstrate the blatant disconnect between people and understanding where the products they consume on a daily basis actually come from.
Inside the pet store were more animals on display, including a caged chimp watching two chimps go at it on the Discovery channel, an old and weathered Tweety bird swinging pathetically in his bird cage and various meats in reptile tanks.
One spectator remarked how “disgusting” the wiggling, sweating and worm-like sausages were but I found the actual packages of sliced cold cuts hanging next to the aquariums much more disgusting.
The show was entertaining and easy to digest, so to speak. The best part for me was standing outside and watching people’s reactions. Since the show is still fairly new, most happen upon it by chance and are curious as to why there are seemingly real chickens feeding next to little “chick” chicken nuggets. Hey, at least now I know where my meat comes from.
Abandoned and Found
Monday, October 6th, 2008
I was rooting around the October issue of Hemmings Motor News, the print edition of course…
…when I spotted this painful piece hidden away among the 674 pages of classifieds for antique, muscle, and classic cars and parts.
“She last saw him on the back of a flatbed truck, along with a couple other hitchhikers, after convincing the driver to take him West. All their savings in his pocket, he promised her he’d call when he reached California, and bought a house and farm large enough for their brood. They’d tried their luck in Southern Maine and only produced five children in their seven years there. She remembered the look on his face, stony and without the emotion she’d expected.”
“She knew now how foolish she’d been.”
“Shortly thereafter she took what was left of their meager potato harvest to trade for the local school district’s old Dodge bus, missing its grille, seats and with an old bent front right wheel. She traded some housecleaning for an old Ford grille that kinda fit in the empty grille shell, and her oldest, Jeffry, found a straight wheel along the side of the road. She didn’t bother asking Jeffry where he really found it.”
“She tore down the chicken coop out back – she’d already traded or butchered the chickens anyway, and used the lumber to build shelves where the seats had been in the back of the bus.”
“But a week without word from him turned into a month turned into a year. Jerffry threw stones through all but one window and the windshield and screamed that he hated Maine and he hated California.”
“She knew now how foolish she’d been.”
I contacted the writer at Hemmings, Dan Strohl, and asked if the story was true.
Dan wrote me: “The picture was submitted by a reader, though I don’t recall exactly who at this point… The pictures most often come to us with very little information - mostly just the location of the vehicle – and can sometimes be several years old.
I’ve been doing Abandoned Autos for four years now and I got tired of taking what little facts I knew about the car and its surroundings and presenting a straight story on it, so I simply started fictionalizing the stories behind the photos. A lot of readers don’t like that approach because it doesn’t tell them exactly where to go find the abandoned car (and then either pull parts off it or obtain it outright), but if I do ever hear about the fate of a vehicle depicted in Abandoned Autos, it’s usually gone from that location well before I’ve written anything about it.”
Reminds me of another wonderful project, Cassette from my Ex, run by Jason Bitner, a friend of Campfire’s — old mix-tapes from ex-boy or girl friends, with the story of the relationship, including their breakup. The big plus is you can play the the mix-tapes on the site. Jason also runs Found, another place you can follow stories about abandoned stuff.
2008 Mixx Awards
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008Campfire’s My Home 2.0 campaign won 3 Mixx Awards!
Find out more about the Mixx Awards along with a complete list of winners here.
