Photos February 07, 2009 IKEA hack I needed a laundry hamper. IKEA trip! But looking around, they only had crappy metal, bright plastic hampers, or ugly-ass rattan things. I did find a few things that were close, so I hacked 'em together. Here's how: So I got two items, a small VACKER shelving unit and a NATURLIG laundry basket. The VACKER had the type of framing that I wanted and the NATURLIG had a nice canvas bag. Step 1: Tear up the instructions. So problem number 1: I was going to use the shelves as a front and back. The top and bottom of the VACKER are supposed to go as shown, but the top and bottom and shelves weren't square, which meant that for the shelves to fit ... ...they'd have to go like so. But, the rails of the front going perpendicular to the ground while the rails of the sides going parallel to the ground didn't look so hot to me. Everything works if you turn the top and bottom 90 degrees, but you'll have to drill all new holes. Not a problem. Here's a little tip on lining up new holes. Just drill through the first piece and insert the screw so it just pokes out. Put the two pieces together how you want them, and squeeze them together. Now the second piece has a mark where you drill. (This seems obvious, but I'm amazed how often I'm working with folks who hadn't learned this.) Sides together. Front and back together. The original unit had a top, bottom, and two shelves, which meant I had one shelf left over, perfect for a lid. The lid was just hinged with two screws, but we needed a stop for the front. The unit came with a few dowels for the shelves, so might as well use them. I placed the lid in the flat position, and drilled where the dowel needed to go. Dowel hanging out. And seems to hold just fine. But it's bigger than it needs to be. Cut that mofo in half. Fill the holes with glue and put each half in, cut side in, so it looks all professional like. Open up the NATURLIG and pull out the canvas bag. (We assembled the NATURLIG sans bag and are using it for recycling.) Tuck it in under the lid stops in the front... ...and take the tiny bit of slack in the back. Badda bing, badda boom, you got yourself a hamper that doesn't look like ass. Took about 30 minutes. October 29, 2006 Happy Halloween I followed this guy's tutorial to make this year's pumpkin. Took about two hours. Anyone know how to preserve something like this? (Although part of me wants to put this guy out of his misery as soon as possible. Any cool ideas for how to send him off?) May 08, 2006 The time was yesterday Leslie and I went to the annual Mayday Festival in Powderhorn Park yesterday, and made a little audio piece about the parade. Take a listen. February 06, 2006 Scattergood Last week, I had the fortune to participate in an artist-in-residence program with a Quaker boarding school in Iowa. My partner and I drove down to West Branch (birthplace of the 31st president of these United States, Herbert Hoover) last Saturday where I performed my Gummi Bears show. We then spent the following week adding what we could to discussions in drama, African-American literature, and senior composition classes. Then, my partner performed a small music concert. Five days later, we drove back to our lives in Minneapolis. Doing things like this are great for so many reasons. It's always great to meet new, nice people. I believe in the message of the show I do, so it's great to spread that. But it's also great just to do things you don't usually do. West Branch is a tiny tiny town, and the school isn't even in West Branch, but about ten miles out. Point is, it's out these. It's not exactly the middle of nowhere, but residents have relatives there, and they say it's not that different. It's Iowa, so it's mostly farm country. The school has its own farm where they raise crops, chickens, and I think I saw a few sheep. The school itself is closer to a hippy colony than a high-school (which I mean in the best sense - it was way better in terms of attitude and academics than any high school I've attended either as a student or as a guest.) Everyone (around 50 students, 20 faculty) gathers at 8:20 sharp every morning to sit in silence for 15 minutes. Then everyone goes off for a few classes, which include everything from the standards of math and English, to glass blowing and book binding. All meals are served in the cafeteria, communal style, with assigned seating that rotates around so everyone sits with everyone else. Then everyone goes to "crew" which is assigned clean-up duties around the entire school. Crews also rotate, so everyone gets to clean different parts of the school throughout the year. A few more classes, a dinner, more crew work, then evening activities. While we were there, the evening activities included choir (which was closer to singing around the campfire, except done in four-part harmony), basketball, and of course, my show. Somewhere in there, students do homework (oh yeah, the entire school is wireless and every student gets a personal laptop) and sleep. Most students stay on campus from Sunday evening to Friday afternoon, and then go home for the weekend. The closest "big city" is Iowa City which was about 20 miles away. My partner and I spent quite a bit of time in town, which included an okay sushi dinner, a visit to the opening weekend of a "cereal bar," some supper-yummy falafel, visits to a local chocolatiers and soap makers, and a walk through the "death star." On our last day, we stopped by the Herbert Hoover museum, which was fun, I guess, but not something I'd go back to. As we were planning out trip home, we had thought about spending some time in Clear Lake, the last place Buddy Holly performed before he died in a plane crash. His last show was on January 2nd, and we were coming through on the 2nd, and we knew people mark the date, so it seemed like stars were aligning to allow us to be a part of the remembrance this year. What we didn't know until just the day before was that since his plane crashed after midnight, the memorials happen on the 3rd, the day after we needed to be back. Because we had a little time, we instead decided to stop in Mason City and take a quick stroll through the Meredith Wilson museum. He's the guy who wrote The Music Man. I not really a fan (not that I have anything against him, I just don't think I've ever seen The Music Man) but my partner heard that the museum was interesting. It definitely was. The museum itself was entertaining, but there's a Meredith Wilson music-community-education-center-thing where they do tons of community work around school kids and music. One example - they get a bunch of instruments donated, which they then get repaired if needed. They then rent the instruments to "needy" kids for a dollar a year. If the kid doesn't like the instrument, they can just exchange it for another one. It seemed like a very cool place, and I'd love to go back and spend a little more time there. All in all, a very fun trip. Lots of learning. Lots of doing. December 29, 2005 Gingerbread is the hiz-ouse For years, I've had this fascination with contemporary folk arts. When we think of "folk art," we think of spinning yarn and sewing quilts and stuff like that. We don't really think of folk art as a contemporary thing. But of course, it is. Contemporary folk arts are things like jack-o-lantern carving and Easter egg decorating. Even Christmas lights on the house could be a folk art. Those that know me know that I go a little wild when exploring contemporary folk arts, so this time, I tried to stay small. I've never made a gingerbread house before, and I would definitely consider that a contemporary folk art, so why not give that a try? I came up with a very small design and kept to simple recipes. Here's the front: The back: And a detail of the front door: All of the decorations were done freestyle. I should have planned it out a little better, but I just wanted to get it done. Now, while this was my first gingerbread house ever, for full disclosure, my mother is a damn good cake decorator, so I already had some sense of how one decorates with icing. I'm not sure that I ever actually decorated a cake, but I learn a lot by watching, and I used to watch her work. All in all, it was a blast. I think it's very likely that I'll go nuts next year. December 12, 2005 Snap-shots from a bygone era The previous home page design for ochenk.com had a little area that displayed a random image made and/or taken by me. The new design doesn't have that area, so here are small versions of most of those photos, and a little explanation of what each image is. This is the "spring special" at Al's Breakfast in Minneapolis. It looks kinda gross, but is yummy yummy. A skyline shot of some college in downtown. The angles made me woosy. (Does "woosy" have an "h" in it?) My first vector illustration. Subject is Annie. "Artsy" I love the skies in Minnesota. This is from my living room window. Ironwork inside the cathedral in Reims, France. Kay Kirscht is a local storyteller/chalk artists. She did this outside a juggling show I did with Jay Gilligan. A friend playing accordion on the one-year anniversary of the death of Paul Wellstone. My very first pysanky. Walking through downtown Chicago, came upon a little incident. Bleeding hearts at the Como Park Conservatory. My very first stained glass piece. The Holidazzle Parade, 2003. The Minnesota State Fair A photo montage of a trip to the first Krispy Kreme in Minnesota, during its first week of business. Farmer's Market in Minneapolis. Scary mask hanging in the Bazaar at the State Fair. Mayday, 2002. Me and Maggie, one of my cats. Arial shot of Nicollet Island, where I live. (This shot is not by me. It's by the government. They have pictures of all of us!) Another Minnesota sky. A skyway. Do you know what a skyway is? A snap from the Art Car Parade in Uptown, Minneapolis. This guy kicked Snuggle down the entire parade route. Blurry shot of Jay Gilligan. I think this was from Tonight You Are In Pittsburgh. A sculpture at a cool place by a cool guy. I'll dig the info up. A "frozen tear."