Canopy store, DAMAGED series & Milton the Friendly Elephant!

As I've alluded to in a few different places on social media, at the first of this month my badges became available for sale in their first retail location! "Canopy" is located at 3910 Lorain ave. in Ohio City, in what was formerly a gallery folks knew as "Buck Buck". Canopy is home to all kinds of neat gifts (antiques, mid century housewares courtesy of my mother (kitschykoopark) , and hand crafted).
She is owned and operated by my friends Erika & Anthony, not only as a storefront but also creative studios in the back called "The 1090 Club". The 1090 Club hosts gallery shows, classes and other events as well.

  http://canopy-collective.com/

If any Cleveland locals are interested in checking out some of the late badge creations and come other things of Memorabilia, stop in there! Also for more general inquiries into what I do or any special requests you can find my new business cards in there and in other random spots!

I can't forget to mention as well that I've been taking part in a cool little event in the Canopy storefront every other Saturday called "Penpal Social Club".  PSC is the brainchild of my friend Brandi Woodward who runs the blog "The Red Heart Press" & co-produces a neat weekly podcast about local goings-on "Two Girls With Glasses", the event is a free little letter-writing & mail art creating party. Really laid back, we have tables covered in all kinds of paper, stickers, stencils, and donated cards, stamps... anything really that might contribute to creating a card or letter and don't forget snacks! Make a list of folks you'd like to send something in the mail to. Think about the joy you'd feel getting something personal in the mail, a friendly reminder that isn't a bill or a credit card offer! The last one was May 16th, so check out Canopy's facebook page to stay informed on when the next few will be!

 http://www.theredheartpress.com/

If anyone has stopped in Canopy and taken a gander at my display or kept up with photos I post of buttons on facebook or instagram you may be familiar with my "DAMAGED" button series. To some people, the concept is completely familiar, no need to explain, but since I've heard of inquiries through the grapevine I thought I'd use to blog to talk about it a little.

Now... DAMAGED. What do you think? How does the word make you feel? With my buttons I've created a sort-of hall of fame for this idea. No, it does not mean these buttons are broken or defective in any way, or that the subjects in questions are either. To me, it's a way of highlighting folks or characters in pop-culture who provoke thoughtfulness in some completely eccentric way. Figures who seem to be in on the joke of life or existing in a universe all their own, you know... playing to it. Serenading the cosmos, poking holes, sewing them up, empathizing, realizing, manipulating creativity, redefining reality. "Damaged" is a term of endearment, a celebration. It's realistic, and humorous. What is "real" anyway? I don't know, you tell me! Trying to explain this is a little exhausting. Do you get it yet?

Well... either way. Here's a showcase of my DAMAGED pals. Maybe seeing them all together will help you grip some idea. "DAMAGED" I designed and hand-carved into my own stamp. I'm presently also working on custom paper & a fabric pattern. But... buttons for now!

Crispin Glover's "Layne" from River's Edge

Elijah Wood & Macaulay Culkin from "The Good Son"

Nicolas Cage from "Con Air"

Tim Curry as The Grand Wizard from "The Worst Witch"

Dennis Hopper as "Frank" from Blue Velvet

Paul Williams as "Swan" from Phantom of The Paradise

Willem Dafoe as "Bobby Peru" from Wild At Heart

Jeff Bridges as "Jack Lucas" from The Fisher King

The Mac again as himself

Alas, Milton the Friendly Elephant. Milton is a character/figure/symbol/concept inspired by the Barry Levinson 1992 film "Toys" starring Robin Williams, Robin Wright, Joan Cusack, & L L Cool J. Milton is referenced by name in Robin's monologue addressing all of the toys around the climax of the film.

"We have a tradition of whimsy here at Zevo toys. Dad began that tradition with Milton the Friendly Elephant and it carries all the way through the new line."

Elephants seem to provide a huge amount of symbolism in the movie. Milton the toy, and on employee "Zevo patches". The Elephant on the Zevo employee patch is happy. The Elephant on the intense new military-like personnel is angry and a little scary looking. I think it kinda illustrates how there's a dark side and a lighter side to everything, especially in human beings. Elephants are compassionate and very smart creatures, but they're also enormous and powerful.

The "symbol" of Milton also serves as Kenneth Zevo's headstone in the film. It's featured in many scenes as sort of a voice of reason I think. On Kenneth's grave is inscribed the epitaph: " May joy and innocence prevail." This message speaks so much to me, how I feel about life in general. A great way to sum things up for me. I grew up with this film. I grew up with Robin Williams feeling like a family member. And in light of Robin's passing, these words bring a great deal of comfort to me.

I had been baking this idea in my head for a long time. Creating some kind of little totem trinket of Milton the Friendly Elephant inscribed with that saying. 1: because I like designing little things like that, and 2: I simply have never seen something like that for sale anywhere. I knew I wanted to make it on the laser engraver at Cleveland Public Library down in Tech Central's Maker Space. The engraver does such a great job of making wonderful monumental looking pieces, and I also thought making it out of wood would feel really special. I have so many ideas for products and items to make on the Laser I don't even know where to start sometimes. But finally, at last I've created my very first that I can share with you all!

I took many stills from the film for reference, and picked out a font I thought fit well. I usually draw my own text for most things and have taken to vectorizing it myself too, but nothing quite satisfied me that I was doing this time. Down in the library I scanned my drawing at 600 DPI and plugged it into photoshop to mess around with the colors. The Engraver works best with high contrast black and white images. Then with the help of my friend, wonderful Jesse Mason, co-owner and ice cream maker at the great ice cream spot "Mason's Creamery" in Ohio City and his vast knowledge of illustrator, I was able to make Milton into a file that would not only engrave the wood, but cut him out precisely too. It's a little complicated for me, and I'm still working on getting the hang of it, but one day at time I say! On the engraver, your picture is a "raster" file, and the cutting line needs to be a "vector" file. But with a little patience and understanding, you can cut out really any wack shape you want.

 So now I've created a way to engrave and cut out a fine little line of Friendly Miltons. And it makes me feel like I'm making a lot progress in learning how to showcase my ideas and designs, and turn them into physical products. Another one for Cleveland Public Library! Love them. 

These Milton pins are my own tribute to my favorite film "Toys", Barry Levinson & Robin Williams. Toys was Barry's masterpiece work. He spent over a decade developing it. It was THE film he wanted to make. His earlier works were films like "Diner", "Good Morning Vietnam", "Rain Man" and others. It disappoints me to read negative reviews of it and hear of how it didn't do well at box office. From box office sales to books on screenwriting, I really feel like it's really all subjective. Like the Robin Williams film "Hook". So many publications slam that movie and how it was a flop, but most everyone I know around my age, some older, some younger, completely adore that movie. The same experts who condemn films like "Hook" & "Toys" are also existing in a time when Hollywood promotes pretty much nothing original. So... to the "film" critics and experts out there, thanks a lot guys! 

So.. sorry to spew my anger at the film industry on you, but thanks for scoping out my process! I'm really happy to create and release a little piece of "Toys" fan memorabilia when I couldn't find any, that people can pin on a jacket or purse or whatever! Feel free to request a magnet or keychain even!
I've been experimenting with color on some of them, and wood stains as well. 

Hallelujah to my first laser engraved product! More designs and ideas brewing, so stay tuned! 




Order your own Milton here thru my etsy shop!

PM me for any additional requests or inquiries!

Soon you can also pick up Milton The Friendly Elephant at Canopy here in Cleveland!

IMAGINEERS: What it means to me, and the WCSB HACIENDA 2011

"Imagineers",  Walt Disney copy writ the term in the 1950s to describe those with the job of designing and distributing his theme parks, staring with grand ole' Disneyland. Think what you want about the man, the empire, etc etc, but he accomplished what many folks only ever dream of... "imagine"!

 The great Jeff Bridges once delivered the line of Nietzsche " There's two kinds of people in the world: people who are destined for greatness like Walt Disney... and Hitler. Then there's the rest of us, he called us "the bungled and the botched." We get teased. We sometimes get close to greatness, but we never get there. We're the expendable masses. We get pushed in front of trains, take poison aspirin... get gunned down in Dairy Queens." So there's something to be said here about "greatness". What I'm saying is I'm hi-jacking the term "Imagineer", thanks. I've heard it all of my life, as growing up in the world of Disney. You might say that it isn't good to fill children's heads with illusions. But what's the real problem here? We're not all going to grow up to be royalty, this is true, but the kindness, the triumph of good.. what the hell is wrong with a message like that? So, some of the stories are borrowed, stretched, re-imagined from real history. Why the hell not? That's the "journey of imagination" folks! I think there's a deeper problem in a world that can't see that joy as a place we were meant to find, and in a world that likes to dictate what an adult is and what it isn't by how it defines joy. The final word on fantasy vs. reality.

So, now that I've gotten a little defensive on the case of the Disney empire and the entomology of "Imaginneer", the context I will put it in... There are people out there with a very strong vision, with an agenda somewhere outside of the normal "politics" we're smacked around by day in and day out. People whose motivation lies somewhere else than the system of checks and balances we're trained to find a place in in school. Or more.. not trained whatsoever... but that's another topic. We all need to survive, pay our bills, feed ourselves and our children. It's not that it's not important to make money. And some of these folks that come to mind sure made money. But they had a shred of integrity left, an impenetrable vision. Some of these folks were so "in-it", that they were even persecuted for their life-styles. You can say that's where it gets political and ridiculous. People might be shamed, murdered, driven underground, die in obscurity, left with nothing, but there's still that vision. I see existence as a power to see the world however you like, communicate with the universe, and rearrange it. Everyone can do that. It's so amazing to know the world really is your oyster.. but it's also terrifying. You could spend your life trying to get inside, you might never. That's some deep shit!

I'm losing myself here. But you see... "Imagineers". That's what I call folks like this. Imagination, engineering. Observing the world, taking notes, making conclusions, asking questions, offering suggestion, building something, creating a rapport with the freakin' universe! I'm not going to feed you a list of individuals, I feel like doing that, here would be redundant of the work I do. I'm no authority on some hall of fame or anything. You'll have your imaginneers, your heroes, and I'll have mine. In enough time, you'll know all about my favorites anyway!

I've started my "IMAGINEER" badge series on my etsy page. Not very populated at this point, but with some new-found time I'll be getting to that. The premier badge in the series is related to my next topic, The WCSB HACIENDA.
 
I mentioned in my last entry, vaguely about the "WCSB Hacienda". It was the radio station where I volunteer with many other Cleveland folks, 35th Anniversary, thrown on June 25, 2011. The Executive staff were all ears to station members for a theme and since I was trying to plan a Hacienda party anyway, it seemed like good timing. The Hacienda, for those of you who don't know was an insanely influential night club/venue opened by Factory Records of Manchester, UK in 1982. The club and the record label "Factory" have been much the subject of films, documentaries, and books since going under in the late 1990s. You could say at the helm of the project was Mr. Manchester, Tony Wilson. I'm not going to read you the wiki page on it, but he was a local broadcasting celebrity already in the 1970s when with friends he started the label starting with poster group Joy Division. Later it was mostly the sale of New Order records that kept the Hacienda club open. The club nearly wrote the book on club & rave culture, the aesthetic of the time, not to mention the cautionary tale that can be "authenticity". The look of the club legendary, a beacon of synth pop-dance-new wave-punk, the nerd in me dreamed of costuming a space to throw a party in celebration. General manager at the time Sara Corrigan thought it was a good idea and she let me in to co-direct it. Or more... WCSB became the producer. I recreated the poster of The Hacienda's 1 year anniversary party with the show details. I looked to my trusty "Factory Records: The Complete Graphic Album" for ideas. This book is an absolute must-have I think for any music history loving household!

Original

My re-created poster

Through correspondence, patience, and negotiations we found our headlining music group. Xeno & Oaklander, from Brooklyn, NY agreed to drive to Cleveland! They're dancey, dark, and have a lovely stage set up of many analog synthesizers. Sean McBride, of the group has even done entire seminars on synthesizers and worked with John Foxx, originally of Ultravox. Liz Wendelbo, the group's other half, hails originally from Sweden and gives the group a lovely exotic, ghostly quality with her vocals, sung both in French & English.

The whole station put it's butt into gear to throw this amazing production. Our lighting guy, Keith Newman really blew the place up with sick lighting effects. Keith and his team always do a great job with the free WCSB events, namely the annual Masquerade Ball at CPT.

Every little detail of the party was significant to the history of Factory Records and the Hacienda. There are so many books out there on the subject if you're interested. Peter Hook of Joy Division/New Order wrote a great book encompassing both "The Hacienda: How Not To Run A Club". Great title! We had the most perfect space to work with, the top floor loft of the late Spaces Gallery around the Cleveland Flats district. It gave us hardwood floors, faulted ceilings, and enough pillars to completely destroy with some Hacienda black and yellow/red hazard stripes!

I wanted the event to be educational of the Factory empire and history. With the lovely help of Peter Hook's book, I created these "FACT" sheets to hang all over the space. Pun absolutely intended thank you. I used a Factory favorite font as well, I think it might be called "Bodoni"? Here are some of the sheets, because I save everything, yup. One day I'll have a sad little museum of my life covered in Cleveland basement mold for future generations of my family to throw away. Sorry future generations!

I also wanted to highlight the origin of the "Hacienda" name. Tony Wilson was a fan of Ivan Chtcheglov's "Formulary For a New Urbanism" and drew the name from this quote:

"The hacienda must be built"

 I'd like to thank Martha Stewart Living for having amazing template guides for making paper flowers of all varieties! We had a few happy evening events at the old Boo Box making these. There was a fun story in Peter's book about how Morrisey, when the Smiths would play the Hacienda, or a particular time they did when he completely decked the place out in floral arrangements to juxtapose the stark urban design themes of the place. The whole idea of wacky themed parties like this is that you can really pick and choose whatever you like to make the experience unique, it makes it more personal! And hey.. a charming note: Many party-goers took home a flower or two as a souvenir. I ended up with a butt load. They've traveled with me to the Boo Box and now my new home as a delightful reminder, and pretty too! I often leave decorations from house parties up for months or longer. It makes me feel like every day is like a big fat birthday party. Streamers and balloons, pastel every where. That might be hell on earth for Delia Deetz, but chain me to the wall!

 We had local vegetarian spot The Root Cafe bake a giant birthday cake made out of cupcakes. Baker Cyndi did her best to recreate the cover of New Order's "Power, Corruption, & Lies" with icing.

Last but not least, I enjoyed Djing the party as well with other station DJs Beth Dilon, & Steve Peffer. This night was such a dream to me. Another case of being well supported for something I was so nerdy and gaga about. Being a station member at WCSB is such a wonderful thing in my life. Where else can I force people to listen to my different voices analyze the morals of my choice of film audio remixed with all of my favorite synth pop? It's a huge outfit of volunteers who started as students at Cleveland State. It's hard I'm sure for the Executive staff to take care of us and everything all of the time I can imagine. College, and free radio is so important today. I'd say it's one of the final frontiers in free-range self expression that's broadcasted to such a wide audience. It's always there guys, just turn on the radio! WCSB 89.3 FM Cleveland! Or streaming on wcsb.org. We even have archiving now. So listen to any show any time of the day! If you're a CSU student, think about joining the station! Radio is so unique, you can have any voice you want (literally), and we get to be on FM radio and not just the internet. I feel very lucky to have been apart for going on 5 years now.

Thank you to my Imagineer man Tony Wilson, scope the button here!

 

                                                       Tony Wilson Imagineer Badge!

Thanks to anyone for listening to the station and/or coming out to these fun events! My show is "Pleasure Leftists" Thursday mornings 9-11am. You can listen to my last show anytime at wcsb.org, and I'm considering making a podcast from my archives!

For more great pictures of The WCSB Hacienda, check out this great flickr page by my friend Paula! There are plenty of gnarly shots of my doofy ass on the d-floor.

Paula's Hacienda Pictures!





- HM

UPDATE: Events, Job-quitting, & Wild Ambition

Oh blogs...

Everyone and their grandmother has a blog, and I have made at least 3 or 4, all in effort to try and categorize and showcase different works and thoughts. Just a manner of getting lost in the 21st century madness of self-promotion. It's hard to keep up!

In the fall, my music group "Pleasure Leftists" went on a nice little 3 week tour of the west coast. It was a great time, we took lots of great nature photos, played in some great places, saw old friends, made new ones, and even got to perform live on Seattle's radio station KEXP.

While I was gone I got to work co-planning another New Years Eve dance event at Cleveland's... or should I say Lakewood's bowling alley Mahall's 20 Lanes. It's a fabulous place, with a neat bar, insanely good fresh made pretzels, 20 pristine 1950s-60s bowling lanes, and a large concert room. Kelly Flamos, one of the owners is very supportive of a growing community of people with good ideas and the previous year she also let me plan the New Years Eve party. It was the "Enchantment Under The Sea New Years Eve Dance". I got to go hog wild and nerd out completely for it. I Dj'd with my sister who was visiting from Los Angeles, and picked out several key elements from the scenes in "Back To The Future" to recreate. The tissue fish hanging from the ceiling, the giant pink clam shell we made from paper mache' and was as tall as an SUV, tinsel curtain, and streamers galore. I like to think, we momentarily transported everyone to another time.

 I threw some ideas at Kelly and we settled on Twin Peaks & The Black Lodge as our theme this past NYE. It came to be "The Black Lodge Ball". And to hype it up we also started having Twin Peaks episode screenings every Monday that ran November until just a few weeks ago actually. A nice low-key way to get people to come out in the winter hell-scape we're going through. I want to say it's really wonderful to have someone believe in you so much that also is in a position to support you. Kelly and everyone at Mahall's gave me the okay to go even one step further with transforming their concert room space this time. My extremely patient boyfriend Terry and I painted the entire linoleum floor with the black chevron stripes (see: black lodge), and I picked one of the authentic native pacific-northwest murals from "The Great Northern Lodge" right out of the show and painted it spanning the entire western wall. I hoped the floor alone would make enough of a statement. What gave me the idea in the first place was that the concert room is separated from the lobby by these amazing red velvet curtains. So there you go... The Black Lodge.

My good friend Mark aka DJ Road Chief, joined me deejaying on NYE, and it was a freaking blast. Perhaps even more people attended then last year. Also my vhs guru pal known as "Snake Grimwood" was our Master of Ceremonies. It was a glorious night for me to collaborate with my friends, and watch friends and strangers alike enjoy the space, dance and have a good time. And on top of it, thanks to everyone for coming out I was actually able to pay everyone involved with executing the event, as if I was a professional or something! Gosh imagine that! The idea that being a complete nerd for detail could actually pay off. But the bottom line is, I would have done it for free. I really live for an opportunity to utilize all the time spent meditating on my favorite films and people. Just like making a space in a Lakewood Bowling alley look like a scene from a film. I love Djing, I love dancing, and I love a chance to bring it out of others. I applaud Kelly and everyone at Mahall's for allowing so much artistic freedom to those planning events and such things there.

It was The Black Lodge Ball at last, even after having done the "Enchantment Under The Sea" dance and also years ago co-directing WCSB, the radio station I work at's 35th anniversary party "WCSB Hacienda" (see: Factory Records), that motivated me to think of "Memorabilia" not only as this silly little button making business, or even simply products, but an entire production company. I suppose I alluded to that in the very beginning, but I usually tend to think big with few results. I do have big plans, and ideas for the Memorabilia outfit, but one thing at a time. This was just an amazing way to start the year, with so much positive energy! I hope if any of you made it out for NYE you had a smashing good time!

I used to co-run events with my best friend and room mate Shannon in a shabby house on W.45th st. in Ohio City, called "The Boo Box". Our bedrooms on the first floor, book-ending two large living rooms where we had concerts, plays, movie nights, dances. It was an incredible 3 years experience I wouldn't trade for anything. Mostly I think we'd just get lumped in with any crusty college-aged-DIY-punk house venue. But hey... that's a loss to anyone who let that deter them. The events were always tasteful, never violent, welcoming of anyone, and we always made dinner! I like to think that the years spent in there are a large inspiration to me now. I like to think of them as a study.

I hear my parents, and other people who grew up pre-1990s/1980s talk about all of the neat things that were available for them to do, being young. Whether it was local canteens, dance halls, roller rinks, ice rinks, arcades, drive-in theatres, cheap movie theatres, carnivals, or whatever! Those things aren't completely extinct, but even so ... there aren't enough left per community to allow them to really thrive like they once did. People have their netflix, facebook, computers, video games, any thing to keep people from being around each other. By the time I was a teenager, even video arcades were mostly gone. Instead we enjoyed kazaa music downloading, teen chat, and AOL instant messenger. My junior high was decent enough to throw bi-monthly casual canteen dances. That was nice. This is also highly drives me to think of event ideas, and dances especially!  Even now, as an adult, I feel like there aren't even "clubs" I want to go to. The fantasies I had about being an adult as a kid growing up in the 90s are pretty much doomed unless I create these "dreamscapes". That statement also being amplified living in a small-ish metropolitan city.

Basically what I'm saying is that, what might be overstated by now, I am throwing/planning events under the moniker "Memorabilia". And as I slowly get more organized in my planning and executing that may for now only be represented by the triangle emblem being present on the fliers I make as a sort of signature. My etsy button store has sat on the back burner the last few months as the band had some heavy activity, and as I was busy planning some events.

Coming up I have planned a clothing swap at Mahall's bowling alley on Wednesday, March 11th in the same Black Lodgey room. I've attended many clothing swaps thrown by friends in the past years, and it's always a nice opportunity to make new friends and find a nice new piece or two. It's a laid back opportunity to chat with people without being drowned out by a PA blasting music too! I'll probably create a fun playlist of bouncy tunes for people to shuffle about to as they sort through each others piles of "gently-used-unwanted clothes".

Also with some excitement for any local Cleveland folks interested, I will have a retail outlet for my buttons and any other products I'm working on starting in April. Location to be announced shortly. It's going to be a really fun space that I'll be apart of featuring many neat products made or curated by other local vendors/artists, including my mother! She's been collecting mid-century and kitschy items all of my life. She has impeccable taste in my opinion and I can't wait to see how she fits her things in!

Finally, the most recent development in my "professional" existence is that, through a long time of simmering on the idea, I am quitting my current day job. It's hard to break out of the routine that supports you financially. I'm by no means in the place to survive off of button-making, but I can say that I have felt pretty unhealthy in a number of ways working in this particular industry with sorts of people. And whereas people say with starting your own business, or hobbies, or whatever they say ... "Don't quit your day job", I really think that if your psychological/emotional health is suffering at the hands of it, you might just be setting yourself up to fail. I've thought long and hard about these decisions, and I've tried to play it smart by picking the appropriate time to go through with it. I already like an enormous weight has been lifted off of my shoulders as I put it out of my mind. I can focus on creating stock, and allowing new ideas to seed in my head.  And I'm excited as well to be starting a new job part-time at another local business with lots of integrity. It's a place where I can acquire some new skills and also lend a hand and some input. Full steam ahead! I feel very positive about these decisions. It's risky. Making big changes and sacrifices like this is always risky. But I'd say in times like these, pressure is a good motivator. It's really important to believe in yourself and your ideas, your vision. That being said, it's important to know when to back off too! Maybe that's what I'm saying here. I'm backing off, or bowing out, knowing when enough is enough. I hope you all have confidence.

Well that's it, I'm off like a dirty shirt!