March 2011
1 post
Support Something
Lately we’ve been getting into all sorts of trouble.
Maybe you’ve heard, maybe you haven’t of the Imagination Station’s recent efforts to build a statue of RoboCop in Detroit. So, yep, that’s us.
We recognized early on that this was a project with more energy than anything we had really ever seen. And to reach our fundraising goal in just 5 short days, that was...
January 2011
3 posts
Logging Into Detroit (A Teaser)
greatamericanpixel:
LOVELAND is very close to releasing version 1.0 of our map of Detroit, dubbed Living in the Map. Larry’s been hacking on it hard like a drunkard with a broadsword and stitching it up sweetly like a hummingbird after heart surgery (sorry, been drinking coffee). If you’d like to take an early look and let us know what you think, email me at jerry@makeloveland.com and I’ll hit...
Something Good out of Something Scary
First, I want to thank everyone who sent good thoughts, vibes, words, and prayers my way.
I heard back from my doctor at the University of Michigan yesterday and I received the best news possible. No signs of ongoing renal inflammation. This means I will be operating at full capacity. AWESOME.
Here’s a photo Jerry snapped of me in recovery:
I’m also going to share a small...
I Do Something Scary.
I generally keep my posts centered around the projects that I work on. And though I recognize that there may be a few incriminating photos of me on Facebook I try to use social media to promote interesting things and not personal ones, this is a rather personal post. So continue reading at your own risk. It may or may not be graphic in content and inappropriate for children, and the squeamish.
...
December 2010
1 post
Ketchup.
Jerry’s jumped back on the blogwagon. And inspired me to follow suit.
Lately Jerry’s brain has been consumed by possible vectors of LOVELAND evolution. I’m gonna go ahead and say that I’m partially to blame. We’ve been talking about these things a lot but never really getting traction. Until I (of all things) made him watch the Social Network.
In his former life...
September 2010
2 posts
Something Awesome at the Imagination Station!
Today we had a fantastic day at The Imagination Station!
We’ve been trying to get 2236 (Lefty) torn down for quite sometime… not quite there yet (more on that soon). But today we had a workday that we left feeling completely exhausted, damp, filthy, and oh, so good!
We were one of a couple sites for a large network of volunteers and ended up with about 50 people at the Imagination...
August 2010
2 posts
Something Exciting!
Here’s something.
A few weeks ago Jerry spoke on a panel at a PSFK event. At a pre-event meet-up we were introduced to another speaker for the event named Catie Newell.
Jerry and I were really impressed and excited by her work, so much so that we asked her if she would create the second art work for the Imagination Station (the first being Marianne Audrey Burrows painting). What’s...
Making Parties, Making Progress, Making Faire,...
I feel like I’ve been neglecting my blog… even though it’s quite likely my only readers are Kyle, my Grandma Pat, and my Aunt Ruth. Still I don’t want to keep them in the dark….
About 2 weeks ago (July 17th) was the Big Inch Block Party, and it was an outrageous success! THANK YOU to EVERYONE who came out! Thank you so much to our sponsors: BetaWorks, McClure’s...
July 2010
1 post
A Couple of Somethings.
Shwoo! We’ve been so busy that by the time I get anything drafted to post something else has happened and what I just wrote seems obsolete! :p
So real quick I gots a rundown for you of some of the stuffs going on….
Tomorrow Jerry and I are gonna jump into the Funzone and make the drive out to Akron to give a talk at the Arkon Art Museum. Cool? Very.
Then we race back to the D!...
June 2010
2 posts
Something Monumental.
LOVELAND had it’s Season 2 launch a few months ago, and we’ve been busy updating things and making a few changes. Today we did some big site updates and launched a new round in KICKSTARTER that is dedicated to funding our first grant!
Monumental Kitty is a sculpture designed by Jerome Ferretti, and the first of 7 grants that LOVELAND is giving out in Season 2. When completed it will...
I Do New York. part 2: The Imagination Age.
****This post is waaay overdue. I’m actually now *back* in New York. So, expect more on that later. Even if it is almost a month late, it’s important to chronicle my first visit.****
Friday morning, Alan left us to attend a family wedding in Rhode Island. So, Marianne, Jerry, and I wandered into Manhattan to see what kind of trouble we could get into.
We avoided Time Square as...
May 2010
2 posts
I Do New York. part 1: The Arrival.
I’ve never been to New York. People say “You’ve never been to New York?!”, and I say “I’ve been to New York state, but I’ve never been to New York city,”. To which they respond: “You’ve never been to New York.”
Since I met Jerry he’s been trying to drag me out there with him, but I always had other obligations. And last week...
You Wanna Start *Something*?
I’ve been threatening to do this for a while… and now I have. I started a new blog: Mary Carter Motor City Bad Ass.
Several months ago, Jerry snapped a photo of me with my arms crossed and looking generally, bad ass… or at least as bad ass as a young skinny white chick wearing a cardigan can look.
So here’s a gif of the series of Mary Carter Motor City Bad Ass that...
April 2010
7 posts
Something Nice
We (Jerry, Alan, and I) had the chance to spend some time with Phillip Cooley. He’s a friend, Inchvestor, and general man about town doing awesome things in the city of Detroit. The rest of his family is also very active in the city. I’ve seen his parents at Corktown Residents’ Council meetings, and recently the New York Times wrote a very nice article about them.
ANYWAY! We had...
Something *ser·en·dip·i·tous*
Keeping Jerry in Detroit for more than 2 weeks lately has been a lot like trying to nail a shadow to the floor. Monday morning he was on his way back to NYC to attend and speak at the 140 Characters Conference. The conference is meant to be one of the largest gatherings of people using real-time internet for business, media, art, and personal life. Jerry was supposed to speak on a panel of...
Something *Hot*
So I’ve been saying it for awhile and finally someone agrees with me.
Sarah Kornfield took a moment to write a little about a couple of futurists she thinks are *hot*. Guess which Giraffendork is on the list? She also writes about our friend Stuart Candy. You can read her blog here.
And just to drive my point home here’s my favorite futurist posing for his TigerBeat centerfold photo...
I do Something *Ground-Breaking*.
As most of you know, 5 months ago Jerry bought a property for LOVELAND at auction. The property, located at 8887 E Vernor, gave PLYMOUTH a home and turned what we had been calling *Future Inches* into *Actual Inches* for You Guys, our Inchvestors!
Friday, before heading to Battle Creek for our friends’ Lorraine and Floyd’s wedding, that I mentioned in my last post, we went to...
*Love* in LOVELAND.
Not LOVELAND, but Really *Something* …..
I am wildly happy to tell all of you that last Friday, April 9th, 2010, Jerry and I made the long drive to Battle Creek, MI to witness the marriage of my best friend Lorraine and her Floyd (p.s. one of the very best guys evar)! It was a very intimate ceremony, and obviously, Jerry and I were ridiculously honored to be invited.
So, Interwebs, may I...
7 Billion Friends: Upcoming LOVELAND Parties &... →
Oh man, we got event LOVELAND stuffs coming up in San Francisco, New York, and Detroit (The Third Coast!). On the presentation end:
☛ On April 20-21 I’ll be speaking on a panel at the 140 Characters Conference in New York. As they say, “This event is shaping up to being the largest…
Don't Bring Short To A Tall Fight.
It feels like things have been going 63,360 Inches a Minute! Jerry and I have been *ridicules* busy, it’s difficult to say where the time has gone! We’ve been meeting with tons of great people, getting going on breaking ground at PLYMOUTH, preparing for talks we’ve been invited to give, and planning a LOVELAND party trifecta (for more info on the talks and party trifecta check...
March 2010
7 posts
SRSLY, Season 2.
Spring has Sprung and so has Season Two! The new website is up and we’re trying to finalize the property.
Over the last week or so Jerry and I have had the opportunity to catch up with the projects we want to grant. We also had some really nice talks with
John George of Motor City Blight Busters:
And Mark Covington of Georgia Street Community Collective:
We have been ridiculous busy...
A Perpetual Parade Of Awesome!
This past week LOVELAND, was such a wonderful blend of work and play!
Jerry got back to Detroit around midnight last Wednesday. I decided that I wasn’t mad he had checked a bag (that we had to wait 4-EVAR for) when he revealed that he had brought me a super-awesome gift from San Fransisco. He also brought one back for our friend PJ Ryder’s birthday, who says he’s for sure...
Farewells.
There are so many important and exciting things going on in LOVELAND.
However, I want to take a moment to say a temporary farewell and Good Luck to my dear friend, Kelly Scutchfield!
Kelly is a LOVELAND studiomate, who plays some bad-@ss funk bass and is more popularly known for The Detroit Ice Potato Rap!
She’s off to LA for at least a month, and may be making an appearance at SXSW...
Websites, frozen food, and migration.
Brainstorming with Jerry, is always a somewhat chaotic experience. Brainstorming with Jerry over the phone at 3 am, is just plain ridiculous. We’ve been talking a couple times a day, trying to keep track of where things are moving, keeping busy with a few projects, and running general *crowd control* (p.s. Inchvestors, you guys are awesome! Welcome and Thank You to the, as of current, 100...
Snailings and House Hunting for Inchy.
Thursday was been super fun, exciting, and productive! After sending out a few emails and spending about a million years getting myself organized I finally got to the George W. Young post office at the intersection of Trumbull and Fort St. Where I had the opportunity to stand in line for about 20 minutes to buy the 3 stamps I still needed for the inchvestor snailings. And they’re off!
...
LOVELAND on NPR!
Okay, so this is *something*!
NPR’s All Things Considered ran a story on LOVELAND Thursday.
I thought it sounded great. Jerry couldn’t get it to stream properly on his computer, so I had to give him a play by play over the phone.
There was a *hater* interviewed, who I am going to reach out to right here and say.. “Bill, if you want your concerns addressed or the concept of...
I start something.
I give you fair warning now, I am terminally inarticulate. Still, I want to talk about LOVELAND, among other things. I was hesitant to do so for a long time because LOVELAND is not my brainchild. I was also concerned about approaching the project from an angle that is not the image that my collaborator and LOVELAND’s creator, Jerry Paffendorf, wants to project. However, because, as we say in...