Here I sit lamenting this blog sitting dormant for oh so long . . but I shan’t dwell on it for too lon. . .
. . . hey guess what! I have a new project to announce (see, not dwelling!)
Introducing project Danger!
I have always dreamed of being one of those people in charge of making road signs or other informative signs, imagine the fun and mischief you could make with the power of public signage in your grasp! Since I don’t, I find great joy in finding the especially weird ones, and so does my sister Ady.
Over the past year or so the two of us have found ourselves in a little game in which we snap and collect photos of warning, caution and danger signs. We are especially keen on finding signs that gross us out, make us scratch our heads, or otherwise incite fits of laughter. Most recently I happened upon one that has been under my own roof and in plain sight for many years, but that I had never actually noticed. Of course as soon as I spotted it I immediately texted the photo to my sister and we laughed, mocked it, laughed some more, and then I eventually posted it on facebook. The laughter continued and friends started captioning it (I think Brandon won with his cooking tips!) This lead to more discussion and Ady and I decided we needed to turn this into a global Mental Beans photo project once and for all.
Enter, project Danger! Want to join us in the hunt for freaky warning signs? Over the next three weeks we will be collecting photos from Mental Beans readers in hopes to build a collection of danger signs from points around the globe. After the collection period, all photos will all be posted here on the blog together. Let’s see where in the world the weirdest danger sign is located!
To make up for the recent dormancy of this blog (oops, I remembered again) let’s make it even more fun. One randomly chosen participant will win a digital print of one of my illustrations and one of Ady’s live music photos of their choice!
And now the details:
Danger! Project Guidelines:
Submissions:
Find and photograph especially outrageous looking danger, caution and warning signs. Submit as many as you’d like and as many as you can find!
Include with the photos your name and your location (and your interpretation of the sign if you wish)
Email photos to mentalbeans (at) tuliptreestudios (dot) com for inclusion in the final group exhibition
Deadline:
You can send them as you find them now through Saturday, April 13, 2013
Project is open to anyone, please tell anyone you know who may be interested! Share this project and spread the word!
Archives | Joe Strummer tribute shows from 2012, 2010 and 2009
On Tuesday of this week Joe Rebel presented his annual tribute show in memory of the late great Joe Strummer. It was a pretty special thing to be able to tune in live with friends all around the globe, and we gathered together in a remembrance set to the backdrop of a two hour journey through his musical legacy. This show, along with two other Strummer tributes from 2009 and 2010 is available for you to listen here and you can scroll below to access the links.
Strummer, who remains a powerful uniting force, continues 10 years on to bring like-minded folk near and far—people who would otherwise never know of one another—together. Around the world many memorial events are being held in remembrance of the day the world woefully and tragically lost one of its heroes on December 22, 2002.
For me on a personal level, when Joe was alive, the world felt brighter. I miss that feeling of knowing in the back of my mind that he is kicking around somewhere out there in the world, that feeling of excitedly waiting for more of his music to emerge. I’ve written more extensively about my thoughts in year’s past on this blog, but very simply put, his presence on the earth always made it feel like everything was going to be alright. One way of paying tribute to him this year is for me to be able to share some space on this site to make available 6 hours of the music of Joe Strummer thanks to the tireless and devoted efforts of Joe Rebel, who puts his heart and soul into Trash City Radio Show. Joe very recently posted this to his listeners via his page for the show:
“When I was younger and discovered The Clash, it became over time like being possesed by a good spirit. The power of the music, lyrics and live shows was unsurpassable. I followed Joe through all the post Clash ups and downs too. I even got involved in brawls defending Joe from the ignorant and blind. It’s been 10 years since Joe died, and as people rush around with the expectation of Christmas, My thoughts are of Joe and how he touched my life and continues to do so. Trash City wouldn’t exsist without Joe and I would probably be singing a different tune. Joe Strummer RIP” – Joe Rebel
So if you, like me, will be raising a glass, lighting a candle, or spending a moment in thought on Saturday, here’s one more way to spend the day, by listening. Contained within these three two-hour shows (2009, 2010 and 2012) are live tracks, alternate versions and other rarities reaching back from Strummer’s days with the 101′ers, with The Clash, Latino Rockabilly War, soundtracks to movies (Sid and Nancy, Permanent Record, Walker among others), solo work, and with The Mescaleros, all the way through the moment he reunited with Mick Jones in December of 2002, all hand-selected with care. If you missed this week’s show or the previous year’s tribute shows when they went out live, this is for you. Thank you again, Joe Rebel for making all of this possible.
Running order:
PASSPORT TO DETROIT / JOE STRUMMER
THE MAGNIFICENT 7 / CLASH (LIVE, US FESTIVAL ’83)
BRAND NEW CADILLAC / JOE STRUMMER AND THE MESCALEROS (LIVE FUJI ROCK, ’99)
CORNER SOUL / CLASH
GET DOWN MOSES / JOE STRUMMER AND THE MESCALEROS
POLICE AND THIEVES / JOE STRUMMER AND THE MESCALEROS (LIVE, JAPAN, 2001)
YALLA YALLA / JOE STRUMMER AND RICHARD NORRIS (ORGINAL VERSION)
JULIE’S BEEN WORKING FOR THE DRUG SQUAD / CLASH
WHITE MAN IN HAMMERSMITH PALAIS / CLASH (LIVE, AMSTERDAM ’81)
SHAKTAR DONESTK / JOE STRUMMER AND THE MESCALEROS (DEMO)
THIS IS ENGLAND / CLASH
X-RAY STYLE / JOE STRUMMER AND THE MESCALEROS (LIVE, US. 99)
KOKA KOLA / CLASH
I FOUGHT THE LAW / CLASH (LIVE, SHEA, ’82)
OVER THE BORDER / JIMMY CLIFF AND JOE STRUMMER
SAFE EUROPEAN HOME (REMIX/RADIO EDIT) / CLASH
THE HARDER THEY COME / JOE STRUMMER, TIPPER IRIE AND THE LONG BEACH DUB ALL-STARS
BURNING STREETS / JOE STRUMMER AND THE MESCALEROS
LONDON’S BURNING / CLASH (LIVE, OHIO, ’79)
BURNING LIGHTS / JOE STRUMMER
COMPLETE CONTROL / CLASH
COMA GIRL / JOE STRUMMER AND THE MESCALEROS
CLASH CITY ROCKERS / CLASH (LIVE, TOKYO ’82)
SWEET REVENGE / 101ERS
REDEMPTION SONG / JOHNNY CASH AND JOE STRUMMER
SLEEPWALK / JOE STRUMMER
FOLK RIOT . JOE STRUMMER AND THE MESCALEROS (LIVE, DOCKLANDS 2000)
WILLESDEN TO CRICKLEWOOD / JOE STRUMMER AND THE MESCALEROS
46664 / MICK JONES (last song Joe Strummer wrote)
Elsewhere Tim Merrick, friend and blogging comrade of several years, will be posting his always thoughtful thoughts as well as a comprehensive list of other Strummer memorial events that are be taking place around the world. Please take a moment to see what he’s got going on over on his The Clash Blog, which just hit the 1,000 post mark. Thank you Tim for your tireless devotion and your way with words!
Mental Beans Joe Strummer tribute MI photo event
On the local front, Mental Beans will be holding a special Mondo Instante event, MI23: Yo te querio, (mondo) infinito, on Saturday. It’s an all day event. It is my plan to post up a gallery of photos that pays homage the incredible life force that Joe Strummer was, and still is. However you interpret it, take a photo and then please share a few words about what Joe Strummer means to you. For this event please post photos directly on the MI23 Event page on Facebook for immediate viewing! I will then collect the photos in the following days and post them all together on the Mental Beans blog. If you cannot post directly to facebook, you can email them to mentalbeans (at) tuliptreestudios (dot) com within 3 days and they will be included here. Please check the Mental Beans Facebook page for further details.
Well ok! It’s been quite a long time since I’ve posted up a random group project for us to play with. I’ve been so busy these days it seems that whatever part of my brain that causes me to daydream my way into some project shenanigans has fallen asleep lately. For a long time…like Sleeping Beauty long. However, while walking up some carpeted steps today I was hit by some (fiber-induced?) inspiration. This is what came to mind and I hope you will play along. I think we could end up with a pretty wild post if we get some entries!
In a nutshell, the concept behind the project is for participants to create a fictitious character and bring it to life via an image and text. And it’s meant to be 100% pure satire/comedy. No serious portrait studies. The guidelines are pretty simple and open so that you can have free rein in the creation of your (hopefully flawed) person. I want to post these up on New Year’s Day so you will also need to give this person a New Year’s resolution.
Official guidelines and deadlines are as follows.
Mental Beans Group Project: Character Flaw
Project guidelines Create a satirical ficticious character and include the following:
Character name
Write a mini bio (short or long) with whatever information you want to divulge about your character
Create a physical representation of the character(any medium: illustration, photo of you or someone else dressed up as your character, collage etc etc)
A New Year’s resolution for that person
Submissions Email all of the above to mentalbeans [at] tuliptreestudios [dot com] and please label your image with your name and CF at the end (example: shanCF.jpg)
Deadline Email all of the following by December 27, 2012 and they will be posted here on Mental Beans on New Year’s day in a group post!
I have always dreamed of being one of those people in charge of making road signs or other informative signs, imagine the fun and mischief you could make with the power of public signage in your grasp! Since I don’t, I find great joy in finding the especially weird ones, and so does my sister Ady.
