Personal Letter to TinyMeat

Melissa, remember that entry you made about the "grown up aesthetic"? I have been practicing, but can't I just grow up with my favorite creators and continue to acquire the things they make for me? Such as:

Dear TinyMeat,

I love you. You make my favorite wallets in the world. It feels like just the other day when I drunkenly stumbled upon you in the Etsy bar to get a case for when I first received my passport.


You were sitting next to SEIBEI and had been flirting all night with Joined At The Stitch, they thought they were so grown up changing their name from Vagrant Aesthetic (we are all so proud).

but here's the thing, once a year I indulge on nabbing a new one from you kids and one for Melissa because ours have gone through a year of the natural disaster that is our ass and require replacement, plus the plastic and stiching start breaking and tearing.

They all started out so great:


Do you think you can make a grown up wallet? We, your early fans are growing up and sometimes we cannot pull out something as wicked as that last Zeptonn wallet in inappropriate situations like business dinners, funerals, turkey hunting, and Babylon 5 theme parties.

Yours Truly,

Joe

dear joe

i really think you should take an evening and read my 3 issues of Eye of the Magnificent Creature


but they are printed on newsprint, and i am afraid
1) your cat will piss on them
2) your cat will eat them
3) you will grudge them up
4) all of the above

so

can you either promise not to destroy them, or
go to
HERE HERE HERE and drop the $8 and buy them yourself. They come in a lovely christmas-like package, with a little OMG button. perfecto.

really, these are FREAKING great.


ps also let's try this blog shit again.
pps also let's start the mailing list up again. i promise not to suck so much this time
ppps i love u

For Blogs Sake!

Sitting down to blog has become a grueling task. Melissa shared with me some info the other day that made me shake up my thinking. She has decided to reject the net obsession. Between her and the latest South Park episode I think it has become fairly clear how nasty addicted most of us are to the web.

Therefore, she told me, if she finds herself bumbling around for more then five minutes with out any specific direction she shuts down and makes something with her hands. This seems like a pretty simple solution, too simple. However, I think it is a great idea. Unplug and write a friend a letter, make a mix CD and mail it off or randomly drop it off in the produce section of your local grocery store, or draw pictures of food, color them, and sell them for $0.25 online.

Like this:
I want to talk to you all out there more and with my departure for the west coast creeping ever closer I am reaching out to some of my neglected projects to get some motivation.

Buy my paper produce!

Joe's Paper Produce Shack

CC6: Metal Gods & Back Home Tunes

Hi I'm Melissa and I'm starting the blog for Canned Culture Episode Six! Hooray! Joey will chime in later with his two bits.

Thanks Melissa for getting us started. Hope you all enjoyed our holiday spectacular episode. Get ready for crops and crop loads of new gitchy stuff in the next year. Also check back here to find out more about DIY.

And now for musica...

Mason Jennings
Mr. Jennings has got a super voice. The footage seen in this episode was taken by myself at a Block Party Concert on Lincoln and Addison Summer 2005. We were right up next to the stage and I was able to get nearly the whole concert on tape. For those of you who dig some relaxing midwest folksy music (though Mason is really from the West) you'll absolutely enjoy his lyrics and dynamic acoustic love. More footage can be found soon on the youtube with the rest of our episodes. A little Christmas yummy for you.

Until then visit his site cause he should be coming to this town again soon.

www.masonjennings.com

We had a good time filming this one, and we hope you liked watching it. Here's some things that I personally want to continue to babble about:

Drakkar Sauna!!!
http://www.drakkarsauna.com
http://www.myspace.com/drakkansasauna

love love love this band. They opened up for the final Split Lip Rayfield show at the Empty Bottle, and rocked many socks. With a tambourine shoe and two bangin' guitars, they are bound to have your little toes tapping a two step. Give them a listen and buy a cd - I bought all 3 on their website after seeing them at the SLR show, but if I had to recommend one it would be drakansasauna. Check it out!
(dont forget to check out Split Lip Rayfield too - it's not too late to pick up a bad-ass cd, even if you can't see the band - and the profits all go to a great cause. There's a DVD in the makes it looks like, which is the best news I've had all night! www.splitliprayfield.com! I've got tickets to the january Scroat Belly show at the Empty Bottle, do you?)

Joe Pogan

Joey, did you buy me a Joe Pogan sculpture for chistmas? Hmm?

Working on getting that to you right away Melissa. Had to lease my soul for a bit in order to get a special order. This stuff is incredible.

So you go into your garage and you find a whole crap load of metal things in your junk drawer and its time to clean house. Don't throw that stuff away, find your best old watch piece, spoon, or random tool and ship it off to Mr. Joe Pogan so he can turn it into something amazing like this:

You can also check out a short clip of what it looks like as Mr. Pogan creates these works here:

Power to Forge Life Out of Metal: GO!

Cosymakes. Cosyknits.

Cosy does lots of things, and does them well!
http://www.flickr.com/people/cosymakes

I'm a crocheter, not a knitter, so i'm not naturally drawn to like knitted pieces, but there's something special and glowy about a cosymakes hat. She's got a great eye for color and design, with perfect little embellishments and embroideries. aaaaaaand it's all recycled, which is my favorite way of working /buying! Speaking of buying, check out her shop: http://www.cosyknitsliterally.etsy.com

Speaking of etsy, something I wanted to mention in the show but forgot, was that the other end of the wonderful yarn spectrum was handspun wool. What I'm talking about is delicious, smoshy, gorgeous handspun (on a Spinning Wheel!). My favorite is of course: Applefaerie. I have a big big big custom order coming from Applefaerie that is so pretty I can't even talk about it. Check out her stuff at http://www.applefaerie.etsy.com. More on this type of yarn in future episodes, posts, if Joey will let me. Sometimes I get a few drinks in me and I can't shut up about yarn...

Oh! One more yarn tidbit: for those that want to try their hand at recycling yarn, check out this link:

http://www.neauveau.com.recycledyarn.html - go make a scarf for someone you heart.

That does it for this show folks. Enjoy what you saw? Come back for more, let us know by leaving a comment and we will see you back in 2007. Dont forget on MySpace you can find some of these great friends to share with yours as well.

Happy Holidays!

Canned Culture Episode 5 - DIY & Cartoon Fever

Able to work out the bugs and cover a couple more logistical issues

Im back...or should I now say, we're back.

Canned Culture welcomes Ms. Melissa Stanley to the show as our new co-host bringing in her wit, DIY sensibility, and long lineage of creative ware.

Lets start by correcting a few minor errors in information from the show.

- The Andrew Bird concert will NOT be at the Empty Bottle Venue, it is an Empty Bottle sponsored show. The concert will be at Logan Square Auditorium, tickets can be purchased via ticketweb.com and tickets cost $16.

- Bill Plympton did not make commercial for American Airlines they were United Airlines commercials.

And now on with the show:

This month's episode we touched upon some things new and some things old and prepared ourselves for various revolutions.

This blog will now be co-authored by Ms. Stanley. While my text will remain in black her's will be posted in any other color she desires.
joey, your text is in greyish. just fyi. you silly. Hi i'm melissa and i'm picking my color to post in now.
Oooo is this color pretty?
how about this?
olive juice!
fuck it
i'm going to start wearing purple for you now.

: : : : : : : : :

Etsy.com

Etsy.com is your onestop shop for everything handmade. It's a giant online store featuring hundreds of unique, orignal, artistic items such as jewelry, clothing, houswares, whatever! Everything is handmade - and you can also buy materials to make your own stuff, such as yarn, paper, cloth, so on and so forth. If you can't sew or crochet or knit (yet!) you can still look hip and home-made with some etsy-gear. And I'm not talking about your grandma's crocheted shawl and that vest your mom made you in grade school - I'm talking some bad ass fashion-forward stuff. So check that out. My last purchase was matching Tim Gunn necklaces for me and my BFF.

Craft Magazine

I love the blog at www.craftzine.com. Everyday there is something marvellous to look at. I like making things. When they say "make your life better by simply making your life", i think "hell yea!". Stop blowing your wad at Urban Outfitters and god forbid - Anthropologie - or even Target - wherever - it's not that difficult to sit with some bad-ass movies or music and make something that you can enjoy and that's uniquely you. Make yourself a hat, a purse, some pants, a skirt, just do it! Thursday nights are great for having a friend or five over to crochet / sew / craft while watching The Office and drinking beer. Don't forget christmas is coming, and handmade gifts show more love and save more dough - especially when they're made from recycled materials.
What I'm saying is go to www.craftzine.com, check out a copy of CRAFT: at your local bookseller, and feel the burning inspiration! I have stacks and stacks of craft and crochet magazines in my house, and CRAFT: is the first one that spoke my language and showed me stuff I wanted to see / learn about / whatever.

note: i totally shop the sale racks at both urban outfitters and anthropologie. and they have cute stuff. but dude, don't buy things you could totally make!

Andrew Bird

Andrew Bird, aside from being a pretty cool cat makes incredible music through a variety of sound compilations. Including is token whistling, which has become a staple in all of his music and in how fans identify him. Beyond that he plays every variance of stringed instrument on stage. It is an impressive dance he creates during his solo performances in balancing between all the instruments he uses. Though he has, at times, engaged with other artists in duets both vocally and instrumentally, always keeping an original taste and feel to the finished design.

Andrew Bird comes highly recommended as great music to listen to while travelling, making the whoopie, and mostly in cooking.

And he's a mad crazy bad-ass whistler.

To see more on this fantastic performed check out his website:
The Mysterious Production of Eggs


Curtico's Musical Excelcior

A little information on the musical guru that is Curtico.

Curt has remains a dominating force in the underground musical spectrum. Constantly digging his hand into a scene that is not nearly ripe and testing it out for the rest of us. During the regular working hours Curt works doing video game design. He also has extensive work with photography and photo editing. His work is a testament to the long line of diverse tastes he exhibits audibly. When you feel like grabbing something new and juicy with great bite and a happy music belly, it's time to swing by your friends at the record store, Curtico's Last.FM.

Bill Plympton

THE TUNE was animator Bill Plympton's first full-length feature. His short films have been seen widely around the country, highlighting many animation festivals. His oblique, off-center sense of the ridiculous in everyday life has made the "Microtoons" and his other shorts a popular MTV offering. His distinctive style has even invaded the world of advertising. Commercials for both Trivial Pursuit and Sugar Delight make us chuckle and gasp. But it's been a lot of hard work. When Plympton first moved to New York City, a recent college graduate with a B.A. in Graphic Design, he tried selling belts on the street. "It was January, about 25 degrees outside. I couldn't sell a one!"

To find and see more of Plympton's work search his name on YouTube or just check out his website Plymptoons.

Lucy Lou

Lucy Knisley is Canned Culture's very first FEATURED ARTIST - Yeehaw and rockout. Here's why: Lucy makes bad-ass comics. I love Stop Paying Attention. It is beautifully drawn and introspective and personal and heartwarming and funny. Beyond that, on her blog she posts doodles and doo-dads that are always a day-brightener. Lucy can be found at www.stoppayingattention.com. She blogs at LiveJournal (user name: lucylou) and also myspace (see Joey's myspace top 8 - at the bottom of this blog entry.)
The comic that I'm holding in the show is Letters From The Bottom of the Sea - which is one of my favorite things ever. I like the idea of sending letters to people who have had profound effect on your life - even if they never get the letters. Who doesn't have someone in their past like that? I think you have to read it to understand: give a click to the bottle above to take a look.

Lucy's 24-hour comic (which you may have to enlarge to view)

Resonant Fish

Which brings me to the Artist Shout-Out: Collin David. You saw some of his work in the show, and what made me interested in his work was his 24-hour comic for 2006 - found here:

Owl & Ghost

I think we speak the same language. Or at least I understand the language of owl and ghost. In any case, it's a good time, and Collin is a scholar and a gentleman.

That's all for me. I wanna totally thank brian for buying me delicious tequilla lime chicken at applebees, and then making me instantly regret it by going to see Fast Food Nation. I'll let joey do the babbling about that flick later.

Until next time you slap happy mooks. We will be here, so keep us company. Send comments, questions, concerns, suggestions and/or your social security number. We'd be much obliged.

Dont forget to check out the show over @ Joe V You Tube

And be sure to check out Ms. Stanley's and My MySpace where you can look under our Top 8 to find Lucy Lou, Curtico, Andrew Bird, Resonant Fish, Craft Magazine, etc. Every month there is a lot more there, so come back soon before the can drive starts, we may be short then.