K.C. event: Open House at Scott Fitness Center

Saturday Jan. 28, 2006 Scott Fitness will be celebrating their 10th Anniversary with an Open House party at their River Market location in the KC. There will be live music by Plaza Noise Ensemble (7 -9:30), DJ Sarahplease (9:30 - Midnite), wine, food, treadmills, beer, coffee, weights, gum and art by several artists, including the incomparable Chico. A sample of Chico's work hangs in my kitchen, as photo'd here.

Click here to see the large version (1014 KB) of the photo and observe the spooky details. (right click on link, open in new window).

Back in the Spring of 2005, Chico was visiting Columbia and chillin' at my place and he complimented me on some of the "art" i had collected on a recent trip to Omaha. This "art" was a bunch of old prints with cool frames i acquired at thrift stores at $3-$10 apiece. Chico was especially interested in a 15" x 29" still life that featured items displayed by a bird lover. Chico said, "Can i take this?" Thinking he wanted it for keeps, i said, "Sure, it's yours." "Thanks! I like taking these old prints and painting my own stuff over them," he added. "Right on, do whatever, that's cool, man" said i. i was proud that i could contribute something to help an up-and-coming young artist practice his craft. Besides, it only cost me a few bucks, and i had plenty of other low-brow prints from the 70's i could put in its place. I was familiar with Chico's work, so i was curious about how he would fuse the subtle and soft lines of this print with his decidedly bold and eerily dramatic style. i figured i would see it someday the next time i chilled with him in the KC.

Cut to a coupla months later, in the Summer of 2005. I came home to a dark apartment, exhausted from a long and satisfying vacation. I entered my kitchen, flicked on the light and there he was: Mr. Blue Zombie, incorporated into the context of the old print on the wall in my kitchen. "Mmmmm...berd brains" he grunts as his undead face glowers up at me. In the lower right, where the original artist had signed his name to the original art, there was a circle with a line through it and the words, "remixt by Chico." Genius! i had no idea Chico had meant to bestow this wonderful gift upon me. i reckoned he and his brother chilled at my place some night while i was gone, which is always cool with me, but extra cool when my visitors leave me something as deece as a genuine Chico remix.

i will always be proud and honored to display his remix in my home, and Mr. Blue Zombie reminds me every day how fortunate i am to know such a talented person.

Although many of Chico's paintings are zombie-related, his body of work encompasses varied subjects in oil, acrylic, pen & ink, sculptures, mixed media and many of his "found art" remixes like the one in my kitchen. Check out an interview and more pics of his work here.

If you're so inclined, join us at Scott Fitness Center at 200 Wyandotte Street, at the Kansas City River Market. Did i mention there'd be free food, beer and wine? Here's a map.
I'll be there taking lots of photos and enjoying the art, tunes, coffee, food and gum.

Other artists featured on Saturday night:
Jen Mellard's photography
Jon Bidwell's "art for people"
Krista Gagelman paintings and watercolor monotypes
Stormy Jackson - i don't know what he/she does.

"Why Is George Bush So Awesome?"

..That's the question of the day. Rocketboom Daily with Amanda Congdon has some answers given by real people on the street when asked, "Why is George Bush so awesome?" (quicktime video). My question is, why is Amanda Congdon so awesome?

In other news, the WaPo would like to tell you how un-awesome George Bush is with Harlod Meyerson's Jan 25 editorial titled, "Bush the Incompetent." Read.

Somewhat related: If you are like me (and who wouldn't want to be?), then you like to read full articles at online subscription sites such as The Washington Post, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The New York Post, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, et al. And if you're like me again (great minds think alike!) you prolly find it tedious to have to "register" at each site by giving them your profile info. And, if you're even more like me (okay you're creeping me out!) you prolly find it intrusive to give out your email address to who-knows-who at the whatever-paper in wherever-ville cuz one of your favorite blogs linked to an article there. Well. If you're like me even more (please, no!) then you have a separate email account specifically for such purposes and you give these inquisitive subscription sites a bunch of phony demographic info anyway. But if you're not like me in that way (thank god!) then have i got a site for you.
It's called bugmenot.com and this site has logins and passwords for all of the above news sites and more. Try it, you'll like it.

And stop copying off of me.

Harry Reid Preempts Bush's Bullshit...

...by calling him out on it.

Nevada Democratic Senator Harry Reid doesn't want to wait to give the opposition's response to W's upcoming State of the Union address. In a speech to be given to The Center for American Progress, he anticipates the tired talking points, the condescending propoganda and the empty slogans that Chimpy will surely read aloud on January 31st and premptively refutes them with facts.

"In his 2000 campaign, George Bush promised to bring 'dignity' to the White House… but we’ve since found that he brought Jack Abramoff instead. [snip]We have the White House, where an employee has been indicted for the first time in 135 years...There’s Karl Rove, who is under investigation… and David Safavian, the man appointed by President Bush to be charge in charge of hundreds of billions of dollars in government contracts who was led away in handcuffs because of his dealings with Jack Abramoff and others...And then, we have the Republican 'K-Street Project,' which has invited lobbyists inside our nation’s Capitol….as long as they are willing to pay the right price."

Reid also takes Chimpy to task on No Child Left Behind and The Medicare drug benefit and Katrina and WMD's and National Security and body armor and North Korea and tax breaks for the rich and federal spending and student loans and Big Oil... holy crap this President sucks.
Read the whole speech at Raw Story.