You know they're having a bad season when. . .

from the afternoon paper here in Pittsburgh.

The Zero Sum Art Project

I've started a new little thing called the "Zero Sum Art Project", exploring the strange alchemy involved in turning base materials into art. If you want to learn more, or be on the ground floor and own the first little Zero Sum drawing, visit my new eBay account made specifically for this event, at zero_sum_art.

Update: I've created a separate Zero Sum Art blog to record all of the ins and outs of this project in absurdly obsessive detail, for your blogging pleasure.

Hey Mom and Dad!

If your kid really wants a Sony PlayStation for Christmas, and the store is all sold out, DON'T try giving him a Home Weather Station instead:

Surprisingly enough, most kids can tell the difference.

And More Looking.

Looking, again

Collaboration through Containment

The old Lockhart prison was built in the early 1900's and was still in use until the mid-1980's. The most interesting part of the building is the graffiti still on the walls from the prisoners who were incarcerated in the small prison. I like how the craquelature of the paint adds an association with historic oil paintings - thus unconsciously elevating the perception of the graffiti to that of traditional "high art." Additions from different prisoners over time creates an interesting collaboration and conveys the passing of time in the small cells as writings and images add to each other and start to overlap.


I think the art work is fascinating - what would you paint/draw/carve into the walls if you were locked in a small iron cell?

More photos from the prison can be seen here.

FIMP at the Literary Marathon.

If you're in Pittsburgh Monday night, you might want to stop by the Gypsy Cafe at 1330 Bingham Street, South Side, for the Literary Marathon, the kickoff event to the Creative Non-Fiction Festival taking place this week. I'll be there between 10 and 11 pm with a "tiny book buffet", a bunch of FIMP's books available for your viewing and reading pleasure. Looks like fun!

Prof the linocut and Prof the book.

Still giddy from yesterday's "Howl" celebrations, I put up a new auction on eBay for both the "Prof" linocut you can find in the previous posts, and the first edition "Prof: one guy talking" by Bob Kunzinger that reproduces the linocut on the cover, and being in such a festive mood I started the auction at one measly cent.

It's a really great book, by the way. If you don't buy it from me with the original artwork, buy it from All Nations Press.

Howl is 50!

Today is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" by City Lights Bookstore! To honor the occasion, here's my linocut "Remarkable Collection of Angels".


First row: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Rexroth
Second row: Jack Kerouac, Philip Whalen, Michael McClure
Third row: Robert Kaufman, Richard Brautigan, Neal Cassady
Fourth row: William Carlos Williams, Robert Duncan, Gregory Corso, Kenneth Patchen, Gary Snyder
And on the far right, the City Lights Bookstore

And here's something else you gotta see. . .

Allen Ginsberg & Paul McCartney - Ballad of the Skeletons