Let me tell you about my love/hate relationship with the Valencia Street Swing. I love how elegant it is, and hate that I didn’t think of it first. A few weeks ago, some folks hung this swing from a tree branch across the street from Summit Cafe and it somehow managed to survive until late this afternoon.

I always seemed to see folks enjoying the swing, and was often happy to make eye contact or share a smile with them. Sometimes people would even ask for a push. It was awesome. When walking, I’d often go a block or two out of my way just to see folks on it. As a matter of fact, I even spent my New Years morning hanging by the swing taking pictures and chatting with strangers, it was great.

I’m bummed to see it go, but wanted to share some of my favorite iPhone shots of the swing. I also wanted to remind folks that art doesn’t have to be complicated to connect with people. Thanks to the artists who put this swing up and hopefully you’ve inspired other acts of guerrilla goodness!

My son is amazing. He built this in five minutes after Thanksgiving dinner. Didn’t get the picture of the semi he built and filled it with Lego people, opened up the back and said, “and these are protestors that are going to jail.” Where’d my kid find Lego pepper spray bottles? I love this scene…have comments about it on Facebook. Proud mother.

photo and quote by gmack

Though I often disagree with the sentiments I hear by folks at Occupy Wall Street encampments, I strongly support their rights to say them peacefully. So when I see so much footage of police using heavy handed tactics on non-violent protestors it not only makes me more sympathetic to OWS… it makes me feel sick.

I’ve been wanting to do some sort of installations inside of the abandoned newspaper receptacles spread throughout our city, so I spent most of Thanksgiving creating a diorama of the UC Davis pepper spray incident which was installed in an empty newspaper bin on Market Street this morning (Black Friday). My hope was to install a piece to get people thinking about recent police violence while they were trying to do their holiday shopping. If I had more time I would have created many more dioramas based on scenes from New York and Oakland.

I didn’t set out to create a Lego diorama, but it turns out that their “City sets” contained almost everything you need to create a protest scene. Seriously though, are the cities in Denmark filled with cops? There’s like a 2 to 1 ratio of police to civilians in these kits. With the help of my friend Jon, we modified the helmets and police gear to be a little more “riot”. I actually took a considerable amount of time customizing Lt. John Pike, the centerpiece of the diorama. Even going as far as to paint him with a matte black finish.

Jon also assembled some blinky LED throwies, which acted as an “attract mode” to get people to notice. I installed the piece at 8am and it appears to already have been removed by noon. I even saw some bomb squad cops on Market Street so I wonder if maybe they were involved somehow. So we spent 7 hours working on this piece that was installed for less than 4 hours and it was totally worth it. While cleaning out the bin and putting in my diorama, several people approached me and asked what the piece was all about. We had great conversations and my little project put big smiles on each of their faces.

My chats with Peter S. Conrad are becoming the highlights of my yearly visit to the SF ZineFest. Each year Peter has a new comic book that plays around with the comic book format. Last year I blogged about his wonderfully detailed cassette-tape comic, and this year I had a chance to talk with him about the newest issue of his Attempted Not Known comic, which plays around with the idea of a lottery-ticket comic.

Here’s Peter showing off the denim-pen-case he bought from my table last year.

For this years Maker Faire, my good friend Jon Foote built these 5 awesome Luxo Jr inspired set of robotic desk lamps. The lamps have several articulated points that can either be controlled by a joystick or from pre-programmed patterns. Jon calls this piece C.A.R.D.L.E, which I believe stands for Completely Awesome Robotic Desk Lamp EXTREME! Can’t wait to see this project continue to get better.

Every time my friend Paul Nosa is in town, I try to get him to add more embroidered artwork to this brown shirt of mine. When I bumped into him on Valencia street a few weeks ago, I asked him to do a “Sunday Streets” theme.

Mr. Nosa will also be at this weekend’s Maker Faire in San Mateo.

A few years ago I became a tailor for Self Edge denim in San Francisco. Through my experience there I learned to appreciate high quality shuttle loom denim that was coming out of Japan. Through working this intimately with denim I learned to ditch polysynthetics and embrace cotton, wool, and leather. Not only do these materials breath better, but leather and cotton have the bonus of getting better looking with age.

I guess all of this is a roundabout way to say that I’ve never really had much interest in fashion, but have finally come to realize the functionality that can come along with some particular fashions. I went from total thrift store shopping to mostly thrift store shopping with the occasional high end jeans purchase. It wasn’t until recently that this interest in clothes really branched out beyond jeans and boots. I remember stumbling upon a post on the BoingBoinghole about a $75 merino wool tee shirt. Most folks who read about the shirt probably thought it was ridiculous amount to pay for an undershirt, but I was fascinated with it. $80 bucks for a shirt may seem ridiculous, but I used to think $300 for jeans was crazy.

After a few months of thinking about it, I started digging through Outlier‘s website for more details about this “wundershirt” when I found their “pivot sleeved” button shirts. These shirts were based on the classic men’s long sleeve button shirt, but the cut was specifically designed for bicyclists. The shirts are cotton with a stain resistant stain… and hella sharp. After trying one at the newly opened Mission Workshop, I fell in love. I love the way they fit, and really digging the pivot design for just plain everyday use. I’ve bought 4. Also: I blogged about this shirt a while ago and referred to it as my Zombie Shirt because of the way the shirt stays tucked in even when arms are outstretched.

BTW, I finally bought one of those merino wool shirts (after 8 months of thinking about it) and it’s become one of the best clothing investments I’ve ever made. They breath fantastically and can be worn several days without washing. So one shirt can be stretched out between washes if needed. Despite being wool, these shirts are knit very finely and feel just like a super soft and light cotton.

I’ve recently completed my “bicycle fashion” with a pair of Quoc Pham “Tourers” shoes. These classic leather shoes have a hard sole with a space for bike cleats. They are designed in London and manufactured in Vietnam. I’ve spent a few days riding in them and they feel better with each ride. I went for a tighter fit and the leather is stretching out nicely.

Until these last few years, I’ve never really given a damn about clothing manufacturers. Even as a teen, I used to rub the labels off of my shoes and clothes, but now I’ve finally found some clothes I can be passionately about. Flathead Jeans, Mr. Freedom, Outlier, and Quoc Pham make great shit… I’m glad I finally came out of my “anti-fashion” shell and found the stuff that works for me. I don’t even think of this as an interest in fashion, to me I’m just geeking out on design/construction/material just like I would geek out on a nice calligraphy pen or bicycle part.

My superpal Meredith was featured on one of MakeZine’s “Meet The Makers” videos. It’s a charming video with some scenes shot inside of Noisebridge. You may have seen some of Mer’s Scarf-A-Day Project here or on other blogholes as well.

Meredith Scheff, one of my oldest friends and conspirators, is gearing up for her next project. Through the month of January, Meredith will be making a new scarf each day. And not just ordinary scarfs either! If her North Skirt project is any indication, we’ll probably see some neat soft circuit scarfs in the mix. Her Scar-A-Day project has already reached it’s full funding on Kickstarter (but there are still 7 days left to support her more) and she’s been awarded the awesome Awesome Grant, which means she’s all set to spend one more month making art without the hindrance of a day job. You’ll be able to track her progress on her blog at www.ladycartoonist.com.

For a taste of some of her scarf wizardy, check out these pics I took of her Croc-o-dile Scarf:

Hey all, just wanted to drop a note about some new products and restocks in my shop.

First off, the physical copies of Beeps and Smudges (my album created with iPhone apps) are now available. You can either get them through DocPop.org/shop or from my bandcamp page. You can also take advantage of Unwoman’s “Twofer” offer and get her new remix cd AND my new album for just $17.99

I’ve also pulled out the last of my selvage denim iPad cases. I think these things are super sexy and a great item for folks who carry their iPad’s with them everywhere. These cases fit all iPads, but I over them in two styles: Fitted and Cuffed.

Boof!, a bizarre comic about when realities clash, is also FINALLY available for purchase. This comic was written, drawn, and painted all within a 24hr period. Get a copy here.