mykle systems labs

Hello universe … nice hat! Please lend me your undivided attention for this Public Service Announcement!

There once was a band of malcontent street musicians known as The Bad Mintons, who embarked on a noble quest to serenade drunk people out of their spare change and cigarettes. The Mintons earned their money the hard way, and they spent it on the hard stuff. Whiskey was their muse, tobacco was their breakfast, and the Devil was their personal friend.

And lo, this band of neer-sing-wells minstrelled to and fro across the face of our great nation, bringing joy and laughter wherever they did play. Their friendly, cheerful music kicked sorrow in the face and crushed the windpipe of unhappiness. And they did this, and they did that … blah blah blah, time went on, et cetera … now they’re old and boring.

BUT! They made a music video, which will be released this month! It’s the video for their superhit megasingle SNAZZY PORTLAND — shot in the streets of Portland, Oregon! Staring the people of Portland! Co-starring the streets, buildings, and inanimate objects of Portland! It’s a song about our city: why we love it, what’s great about it, and how much other cities suck.

We’re very proud of our little film, and we want to show it off to you. In the next two weeks, we’ve organized three — three! — special chances for our Portland neighbors to watch this video on the big screen, in advance of its internet small-screen release.
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Freezing Greetings from the 2011 Art Shanty Projects!

This is the first moment I’ve had in six days to pause and document stuff since I landed at MSP last Tuesday and dived immediately to work on our contribution to this biannual festival of art, architecture and strange behavior on frozen Medicine Lake in Plymouth, MN.

Despite all our long-distance planning we got a severely late start on the actual construction of our shanty. By the time I arrived Brady had organized a workspace, tools, materials and a lovely recycled platform donated by members of the 2010 Vista Shanty team. The two of us worked around the clock for three days straight, and with the aid of some very helpful volunteers our Audio Adventure Shanty just barely squeaked in under the official Friday night deadline for installation on the lake.
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In two days I fly off to my home town of Minneapolis, Minnesota for ten days of bone-chilling, back-breaking, ear-warming good times with my pals Brady Clark and Kelly Peach. Together we are making a piece for the Art Shanty Projects, a recurring winter arts fest on Medicine Lake that I’ve been wanting to see for years.
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UPDATEDZ! Core77 now has a ton of photos online, some video too. Here are great pix and a play-by-play of the complete fab process (trés fab!) and here are a bunch more action shots of the float conquering Portland.

I haven’t blogged about this much, but last month I was tangentially involved in helping the good folks over at Hand-Eye Supply light up their float for the Starlight Parade with about 1000 feet of animated extra-thick electroluminescent wire.

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Everything needs a name, deformed things moreso. “Wuholic” is what I’m calling the new theme on Gesine Kratzner’s website. It’s a fusion of Jeff Ngan’s lovely Wu-Wei theme for WordPress and the Flash-based design of her old site, courtesy of Picaholic.com . It launched today, just in time for Gesine’s big TV moment.
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Here’s one more plea for LIGHTBAR help … but you don’t even have to step away from the screen this time.

I’m going to be delivering a slideshow on the history, theory and technology of LIGHTBAR at Portland’s next Pecha Kucha night, as part of a great bit light-arts symposium at PSU called Illuminated City How cool is that?

A Pecha Kucha is a kind of slideshow-on-crack public event first invented in Japan in 2003. Presenters get to show only twenty slides and you get ONLY TWENTY SECONDS PER SLIDE! Picture it as 50% arts-n-culture, 50% used car sales. A group called Project Cityscope has been putting them on in Portland for a while now. This particular episode of it, Volume 9, has a theme of “spectrum,” so of course I had to apply … and today they gave me the green light! Color me excited.
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Congratulations, Portland! You have successfully summoned spring. There’s a big pink explosion of plum blossoms out my window, the same gorgeous color as the last evening of LIGHTBAR. For those of you who missed Pink Night, here are some highlights:

Just to make it official: LIGHTBAR season is over for this year. It was grand, epic, successful in so many ways. Now I just need to get on with the rest of life. Boat Night holds fantastic promise, and we will do it, definitely, next year.

If there’s any way I can possibly thank or repay all the excellent volunteers who came out to play LIGHTBAR-games with me, please suggest it here! Ross, Maitland, Dan, Gabe, Tom, Jean-Margaret, Chris, Brian, Jake, Zed, Buffalo, Gordon, Paul, Katie, Nick, and everyone I’m forgetting because it’s been a long month — you are rad! LIGHTBAR is your creation, as much as it is mine! Congratulations on a job well done!

Q: Is it really tomorrow night?
A: Totally! Saturday Feb 26th!

Q: What is it called?
A: Variously: LIGHTBAR, PINK NIGHT, BIZARRO NIGHT, HIGH CULTURE NIGHT, NIGHT OF EVENTFUL EVENTS!

Q: What is The Bizarro Hour?
A: Bizarro-flavored readings and outfreakings by Eraserhead Press authors Jeff Burk, Cameron Pierece, Carlton Mellick II and Mykle Hansen! 8pmish!
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IN 2009 there was a ton going on at LIGHTBAR and I managed to document quite a bit of it.  This year I’m way behind. In all honesty, I’ve felt a bit rushed until now, just getting the building done and set up, and organizing things and people, and finding good locations … in fact, up to the afternoon before opening night I must admit to some serious pre-party anxiety.

I shouldn’t have worried.

Click the photos for lots more photos! LIGHTBAR loves Flickr!

LIGHTBAR, in association with Eraserhead Press, presents …

WHAT TO EXPECT: Fine wine, challenging hors d’oeuvres, bizarro literary hijinks, high-speed competitive performance art, Japanese pop, weird movies, physical culture and dancing, dancing, dancing!

WHAT TO WEAR: Pink! Hoity-Toity!  Extra points for monacles and snoods.

WHAT TO BRING: Something to drink!  Something to share!  Your favorite camera!  And a five-minute performance art piece of your own devising.

WILL THIS GO DOWN ON MY PERMANENT RECORD: yes.

SHOULD I WATCH THIS SPACE FOR MORE DETAILS: probably.