Street Stencils from Argentina

I've been into making stencils lately and recently found this site of Argentine street art

here's some that blew me away or were just inspiring in some way

Deirdre Makes Faces.

I saw my good friend Deirdre while I was up in Minneapolis last week. Rest assured if you bring out a camera she WILL make faces. (and she will correct you if you misspell her name)

MLB: Characters of the Game

Baseball season is just a few days away. The game doesn’t hold me as it once did, growing up and playing at every opportunity. It used to be that I'd go to a newspaper's Sports section first, but that was a long time ago - a lifetime, really. I tired of reading about salary caps, trade deadlines and even designated hitters. This said, one particular player has kept some spark of my old interest in the game alive : San Francisco's young pitcher Tim Lincecum.

A few years back while in a hotel room flipping channels, I saw this kid throw one pitch and was immediately taken. His delivery was unlike anything I'd ever seen .. a stride that defied physics. In the two years since he's logged up two Cy Young Awards and a pot bust, and I'm a big fan. In truth, it wouldn't have taken much more than that first pitch. This long-haired, flame-throwing Freak (not just my word, but the nickname bestowed upon him by teammates) is something to watch. I'll leave it at that.

Back to baseball. Lincecum certainly isn't the only character to grace the game over the years. Being a Cubs fan ( a trait I inherited as did 99% of the population - by virtue of being my father's son), I have a soft spot in my heart for the likes of Joe Pepitone, Jose Cardenal, and "Wild Thing" Mitch Williams. But my fondness is not limited to former Cubs, and I also think back on Bill "Spaceman" Lee, Mark "Bird" Fidrych and Bo Belinskly (who pitched a no hitter in his fourth start for the '62 Angels and was soon up to his knuckles in Hollywood starlets.) Yogi Berra, John Kruk, Jim Bouton, Earl Weaver - these names all make me smile. I still have a video of Weaver, the Baltimore Manager, losing his shit after a first base umpire ruled against him. Watching this tape brings guaranteed laughs from me and anyone else in the room. The hapless ump ejects Earl and then watches as he retreats to the dugout at least a half-dozen times before spinning on his heel to march back out and deliver a few more choice words. Any fan of the game will tell you that the mere mention of certain names can bring back a flood of thoughts, emotion and memories.
White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen on the South Side is a character, as is the Cub's Lou on the North Side. (Though Lou's a bit more literate and therefore not quite as much fun.) For sheer spectacle though, Oz has the edge. A middle aged homophobic greaser pimp in a baseball uniform who will say anything is an indisputable entertainment value. Throw a twitterball into the mix and you got some good reading. That’s right .. Ozzie tweets. With this in mind let’s take a look into some of the all time best manager quotes over the years. Yogi Berra always merits first mention. "Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical" and "Nobody goes there anymore - it's too crowded" come to mind among many. But Ozzie is no slouch. And so, without further ado..


I call this game . . .

Ozzie quote or Not an Ozzie quote?

1. “Most ball games are lost, not won.”

2. “Good seasons start with good beginnings.”

3. “Going to get my chevy transverse dark blue grey interior nice wheels luck good for the summer”

4. “Win any way you can as long as you can get away with it.”

5. “Humanity is the keystone that holds nations and men together. When that collapses, the whole structure crumbles. This is as true of baseball teams as any other pursuit in life.”

6. “let's eat suchi now”

7. “The Yankees don't pay me to win every day, just two out of three.”

8. “Why I love this town so much very cool town very calm to bad is my last to game fort me hear for now lol”

9. “There is but one game and that game is baseball.”

10. “My fav you tube video is ced the entertainer on zab judah don't ever play with matchessss”

11. “People who live in the past generally are afraid to compete in the present. I've got my faults, but living in the past is not one of them. There's no future in it.”

12. “I want a corona polar presidente now please this trafic lord”




answers

1. Casey Stengel
2. Sparky Anderson
3. OZZIE!
4. Leo Durocher
5. Connie Mack
6. OZZIE!
7. Casey Stengel
8. OZZIE!
9. John McGraw
10. OZZIE
11. Sparky Anderson
12. OZZIE!

1940's picnic

I found an old negative in a shoebox here and took it down to the local library. Printed out 8 X 10's of sections on a microfiche printer then stuck em together.

stencils stencils stencils

here's a shot of the studio area with the stencils...bunch of self portraits, friends, thumbtacks, doilies, etc.

Digital camera

My good friend Tom Myers sent me a camera today. One week he's at the Academy Awards (nominated for Best Sound Editing) the next he's sending me a digital camera. YowZa!!
This is the first test.

old photos #37

Taken about one year ago in Soho as I waited for my Shwarma. A great day this was. Brooklyn Bridge, Chinatown, listening to music in Times Square subway station, etc., etc., etc..


(photographer: Sarah Stephens)

It's Frank's World, Ronnie. You Just Lived In It.

Still one of my all time favorite photos.
Ronald looking pathetic, Nancy can't be bothered and Frank's having a ball with it.
Never has a pecking order been so visually demonstrated.

Two or three things to know about Malurus cyaneus

The ship . . .it's. . .it's exploded!!

Postal People

I love the fact that the U.S. Postal Service put these 8 cent stamps out back in the day before postal people meant what it does now.

blobfish

believe it or not this guy has 380 friends on Fishbook.

Play CELEBRITY PARENTS!!!

Who did these two bring into the world??

The winner gets a prize of my choosing, probably.

watch out

RentAPortableToiletOnline@centralvendor.com

Just when i was getting used to emails with schemes from Nigerian bankers and Canadian pharmacies and the UK National Lottery Headquarters this ended up in my mailbox.



FROM: RentAPortableToiletOnline@centralvendor.com
TO: splurn@aol.com

SUBJECT: Find a portable toilet online for your next event.

two evening darkness thing

so what ya do is you put the first couple hundred words of the Bible and you mix 'em in with the first couple hundred words of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas.

duplex diptych

Earthquake in Illinois!

Today's Scores

Cubs 5
Mariners 2

Georgia Tech 3
Slim Pickens 8

Vanilla, vaguely 7
Rhymes with ouch 5

Your heart on your sleeve 5
Pigs in a blanket 9

Where all the ideas go that you
didn’t write down when you were high 7
Pittsburgh 2

Selling out 3
Buying a vowel 5

Dreaming about butterflies and waffles 6
Untitled art 2

Three blind mice 2
One horse towns 5

Thought police 1
Word balloons 4

Business school 1
Peyote 7

Flotsam 2
Jetsam 7

Starting guns 2
Endgame 3

history 3
The History Channel 6

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer 5
The Underpants Bomber 2

A.M. 7
P.M. 4

Lunar month 2
Freshman year 5

Religions we’ve come up with so far
that can be taken seriously 2
Your Tostitos Halftime Report 5

Charles Barkley’s backswing 4
Chalkboard fingernails 1

3 of the 5 senses 7
Don DeLillo 8

Grundies 2
Melvins 3

fast food 1
sloe gin 5

nosebleeds 4
The price of tea in Tampa 2

Gravity 7
Exact change 5

Prayer 2
Miracle Whip 3

Lunar tropic eyeball 4
Newsroom cupcake hammer 3

The ongoing Brittany Murphy death investigation 5
The guy we met at the Ten Cat last night 1

It's Santa Time!

Awwww. Children Love Santa Claus!

Actually this is probably a good thing. They love the idea of Santa more than some fat stranger in loud clothes.
(and in the case of the fifth one down . . .well this Santa has had a bad day I believe. OR he's half in his santa bag if ya know what I mean)

Spiritual Miracles In a Dog's Ass

Went to my first Atheist meetup group last night at a bar in the Loop.
Beforehand I stopped off for Free Tuesdays at the Museum of Contemporary Art which is about a three iron from the Hancock Building. It was snowing big flakes as i walked the eight blocks from the El stop. Got inspired at the MCA after seeing some Calder work and also a group show of a bunch of Italians. After the museum I felt the need to prove I was a tough guy and walked to the bar in the Loop (1.7 miles) instead of taking the El . At this point it was coming down pretty good and the wind along Michigan Avenue was whipping things up nicely. At one point, outside the Tribune building alongside the river, I actually had to stop and turn my back to the wind, just to take a break from it all for a moment. The Windy City. Sheesh.
Anyway, I met some good like minded folks at the bar and was shown a nice photo online I thought I'd share.

I'm THAT good

I generally don't talk about how damn good i am but I just have to say . . . I've only been in town for three weeks and already I've gotten Oprah to leave town.

You're Welcome, Chicago.

http://www.wordle.net

this is a fun site!





www.wordle.net

undeserving folks

I took this photo many years ago in my hometown of Elgin, IL.
I think it sums up the church nicely, don't you?

Superstitious

This morning I was looking through some old books and came across one I hadn't perused in quite awhile. Encyclopaedia of Superstitions. An old library book on British superstitions I picked up cheap a few years back .
Now I am not a superstitious person myself. Although I do have one superstition I have made up and it seems to work. It's a simple one. If I see a dog wearing one of those Elizabethan collar things, It's going to be a good day. However, if I see a SECOND dog wearing one it's going to be a bad day. Years ago while living in San Francisco I was having a great day and saw one of those collars on a pooch and it just took off from there. But back to the book. There's some pretty good ones in there...


It is unlucky to pare one's nails on a Friday.

A person born on Christmas Day will never be hanged.

Moss growing upon a human skull, if dried and powdered and taken as snuff, will cure the headache.

Bad luck will follow any fisherman who mentions the word rabbit.

For sore eyes bathe with rain water gathered on Ascension Day.

you get the idea. These are actually in the book! but they missed a few . . .


Prosperity comes to those who throw a pig over a fence on an overcast Wednesday.

To cure gout, pick the scab of a stranger wearing a hat .

Attending an amateur dance recital is bad luck.

If you see a midget eating link sausage you will get a promotion.

Rubbing the head of a Jew counterclockwise will cause neighboring villagers to go deaf.

To cure rickets punch a matador in the pancreas.

Rubbing your vagina during a theatrical play will give the lead actress mumps.

If you want an abundant harvest in the autumn throw a Texan in front of a bus in July.

A red headed hitchhiker is the sign of an early spring.

A clown in the rain is a sign your headmistress might be up for it.

Believing vague stories of past misfortunes and how they were remedied will make you superstitious. On a Friday.

If a priest gives you the wrong directions to the circus you'll die at sea.

Outer Space Fact # 37

The thing about flying past a black hole
is ya gotta remember to go WAY around it.