spudart.org

My top five favorite artists: Jay Carlson, Jake Bronstein, Todd Webb, Chris McVeigh, Erik Maldre

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 05:58:03 GMT

The Museum of Contemporary Art recently asked on twitter, "Who are your top 5 favorite artists of all time, and why?" Great question. Immediate thoughts came to mine was Joseph Beuys, Edward Hopper, Paul Cezanne, Jackson Pollock. Pretty standard art history picks. Ok, what if I broke out a little bit more and picked the likes of Christo, Jorg Immendorf, Starn Twins, Laslzo Moholy-Nagy. Still pretty standard historical stuff.

Honestly, they don't inspire nearly as much as current artists do. Really. The art produced now is so much more interesting. Don't get me wrong, I love going to museums and seeing this classic work. But when it comes to creativity, these older artists aren't simply in comparison to what artists are producing now.

Here's five artists off the top of my head that are producing work that inspires me.

Jay Carlson
Creative projects inspire me to do fun things
theplug.net @theplug

Jake Bronstein
Love his "50 cents per idea" project. Has many other great ideas.
zoomdoggle.com @jakehimself

Todd Webb
Optimistic cartoons always inspire me to do a comic strip
toddbot.com @toddbotdotcom

Chris McVeigh
Wonderful photos of LEGO minifigs
chrismcveigh.com @ActionFigured

Erik Maldre
Conceptual art, 2d and 3d doodle master
unlikelymoose.com @unlikelymoose

In the coming months I hope to write longer reviews about each of these artists, but for now here's a quick teaser for my top five favorite artists of all time.

Who are your five favorite artists of all time? Please leave your list in the comments below. Thanks!

August 2010 Chicago's Lincoln Square photo gallery

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 04:13:32 GMT

Every month I make a gallery of photos taken by others of my neighborhood. Here's August 2010.

Yeah, a bunch of fountain photos. But I like the Blago graffiti. And the word mobile.

Top five tweets of August 2010: Jawa hugs, answers, Tribune Tower fire, p-mail

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:08:47 GMT

For August's top tweets, here's one hand-picked tweet from each account that I use regularly in the past month.

Would society be more apt to write or create if we all wore pens over our ears?Tue Aug 10 02:41:26 via MixeroMatt Maldre
spudart

Please give a hug to @the_jawa and @java_jawa #ffFri Aug 20 13:22:50 via HootSuiteEwok Lumat
EwokLumat

Sometimes when I have the answer to a coding problem I'm working on, I'll sit at my desk and raise my hand. "I have the answer!"Thu Aug 05 20:20:09 via TweetDeckMatt Maldre
tribunematt

Security came up to our floor for the fire in our microwave. Hall full of smoke (@ Tribune Tower w/ 3 others) http://4sq.com/5LqIMdFri Aug 27 18:12:56 via foursquarespud foursquare
fourspudart

I've been peeing so much, I should just bring my laptop into the bathroom and work there. Then I could send p-mail.Tue Aug 24 21:14:23 via Ping.fmMatt's Health
mattshealth

Interpreting 50cent's tweet about Gunnar sunglasses

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:00:09 GMT

50cent recently tweeted this nonsense:

Tweetin with my gunnar glasses on trick! u aint got these suckas. get ur money right ima get like 50 new hoes wit http://twitpic.com/2jrqrfMon Aug 30 21:38:50 via Twitpic50cent
50cent

His tweet doesn't really make much sense. Let's break it down:

-- Tweetin with my gunnar glasses on trick!
He's got Gunnar sunglasses on. He's tweeting. He puts in "trick" cuz he's especially excited. Or I'm assuming that's what "trick" means.

--u aint got these suckas.
He's bragging that nobody else has these sunglasses. Oh, aren't you special. You get to have sunglasses that other people don't have. Oh, i'm so jealous.

-- get ur money right
He's telling us to get our money right. So I'm supposed to get my money in order. He's telling us if you only had a better money software managing system, then you would have enough money to afford Gunnar sunglasses. Get ur mint.com ons to git yr Gunnars and yo hoes.

-- ima get like 50 new hoes wit these
Apparently women will date a man because he has cool sunglasses. Hmmm. And not only will women go after a man just because of his sunglasses, but he will get 50, that's right, FIFTY women. But if there are fifty women in one room, they won't all be able to see his sunglasses. There will be too many women. Will he sit them all on a bus, and then he'll walk up and down the aisle with his Gunnars?

Andy Rooney calls modern public art "pretentious nonsense"

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:34:28 GMT

I love Andy Rooney for his straightforward honest opinions. In this Youtube video Andy critiques modern art for being "pretentious nonsense." However, the thing Andy has to understand about modern art is that it's meant to be simple. Don't overthink it.

The sculpture "Two Indeterminate Lines" is about two lines. And what can two lines do? Here you have two lines forming a tunnel. Rather simple. Andy is a man who can enjoy the simple things in life. So you'd think he'd understand simple artwork.

I think perhaps he has a very high expectation for art. He wants art to simply show talent and craft. And so be it. I'd rather someone have a high expectation for art than none. Or at the very least he wants to know the artist has some talent. He asks that artists be able to produce something tradition first before making some crazy stuff. Good point. You should be able to master your tools before showing some crap to the public.

What do you think of Andy Rooney's comments on modern public art?

[full disclosure, I work for Tribune Media Services where we syndicate Andy Rooney's column. BTW, I love reading his column. I do. As I said before, I like his honest, simple insights. Plus the man is just really funny.]

A smiley face takes two pinky fingers to type :)

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:41:01 GMT

:) the smiley emoticon. It's fun to think that it takes the simultaneous effort of both your pinky fingers to type a smiley face. The left pinky holds down the shift key, while the right pinky finger presses the colon eyeballs and right parentheses smile. :)

And speaking of typing, did you know that Spongebob Squarepants can teach you how to type?

I love how of he's typing out the TOP SECRET Krabby Patty recipe. Of all things to type. If Plankton only knew he had to spend $14.95 to get this DVD, and he would have his hands on the Krabby Patty recipe. Then again, does plankton even have ten fingers? I think he's just got two pointy hands.

Official websites for every country in the world

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:17:59 GMT

It would be cool to see a gallery of every official country website. I'm thinking of every year I'll take a screenshot of these websites. Ten, twenty years from now it would be interesting to see how they evolve.

Can anyone find a list of all the official government websites for each country? If possible, I only want THE one official website for each country. Right now i'm using Yahoo's Directory for Regional Countries. But that's not a handy list of the main government website for every country on the planet.

Etsy allows obscene seller to remain online

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:33:06 GMT

A shop named "sexoffender" has been on Etsy since 2009. It's clearly wrong to have a store with this name. Etsy is not taking the store down. Please please please report this store to Etsy. If enough people complain, then hopefully, they will take the store down.
------------------------------------------------
HOW TO REPORT THIS STORE:

Go to: http://www.etsy.com/shop/sexoffender
Click on the link "Report this shop to Etsy"
In the drop-down menu, select "Username or avatar have mature, profane or racist content
In the text box it says, "Type a brief note if you'd like..." In this box, I suggest telling Etsy that this store is in violation of 5.7 of their Terms of Use.
Click Submit.

------------------------------------------------
ETSY SAYS SEXOFFENDER IS OK

It's shocking that Etsy thinks having a sexoffender on their website is ok. On the Etsy bulletin board today an Etsy admin said:

Please avoid discussing specific sellers in the Forums in less than positive lights. It is not ours to police anything other than our terms of use, we do not moderate content based on taste (or lack thereof).

If you find any items on the site that are not in keeping with our Terms of Use, please flag them for review. Thanks.

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6609014&page=11

(Those are the words of an Etsy admin.)

Sexoffender is not just a lack of taste it is obscene. Sex offenders are obscene. It Etsy thinks sex offenders are not obscene, then they welcome sex offenders on their website. It's a clear violation of #5.7 in Etsy's own Terms of Use.

5. Prohibited, Questionable and Infringing Items and Activities
Restricted Activities: Your Content and your use of Etsy shall not:
(7) Be obscene or contain child pornography

http://www.etsy.com/terms_of_use.php

------------------------------------------------
PLEASE REPORT THIS STORE

Please help set Etsy straight and report this store.

I hesistated in giving out the link to the store, because I do not wish to promote it in any way. But the store must be reported. I used to love Etsy. I really hate seeing that Etsy has allowed this store to remain online for this long. It really makes me question if ever want to use Etsy again. If Etsy gets enough feedback, they should start thinking clearly and take this violation down.

Please share this post on facebook.

The median Twifficiency score is 41%

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:00:35 GMT

You may have seen a bunch of people tweeting their Twifficiency score.

twifficiency.com explains:
--------------
In a nut shell, Twifficiency calculates your twitter efficiency based upon your twitter activity. This includes how many people you follow, how many people follow you, how often you tweet and how many tweets you read.
--------------

It gives you just one number for your twitter account. @spudart my twitter account got 39%. What in the world does that mean? I would like them to break that number down. How did I get 39? What is inside that number?

In a quest to see what 39 is, I took 1,000 tweets that mention twifficiency and made the above graph. The median is 41%. Ok, so i'm just a bit below average. But to make the twifficiency score more effective, it would be nice to know what specific areas I could be doing better. Do I need to retweet more?

Philip Johnson destroys Mies van der Rohe

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:51:28 GMT

Unlikelymoose has pitted pinnacle architects Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson against each other in a Faceoff Friday. Who will win? My choice is Philip Johnson. To prove my point, I made a collage of all his menacing photos.

For the full details on how and why Philip Johnson will completely crush Mies van der Rohe, head on over to see their battle unfold at Faceoff Friday: Old man modern architect style

Flickr firsts, your flickr birthday, flickrversary

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:00:51 GMT

What is your first photo posted to flickr? Here's all the first flickr photos of my flickr contacts:

And my first photo on flickr:

I like that it's a set of stairs that I climb every day. To think those stairs have not been painted for five years. I should do a series on this set of stairs outside the Tribune Tower at Michigan Avenue and Illinois Avenue.

Wrigley Field rooftop club discounted tickets

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:00:07 GMT

The Wrigley Field rooftops are struggling financially as the Cubs suck. "There's a lot of money going out and only some coming in," said Rich Zasiebida (in a Tribune interview), managing partner of the Skybox on Sheffield, 3627 N. Sheffield Ave. "People have got hefty mortgages. We're busting our (hump) over here." The Chicagoist also reported on Wrigley rooftop clubs are striking out. Here's a comment I left on that post:

It's about time that the prices go down on the rooftops. Pure logic would say that a rooftop ticket should be cheaper than a Wrigley Field ticket. I love the idea of rooftops. They are great. Don't get me wrong. Rooftops. Fantastic. Neighborhoods. Fantastic. It's part of Wrigley's charm. But spending over $100 for a ticket to sit on the rooftop outside the ballpark? I always thought it was crazy. But corporations can be crazy with how they spend money for their top executives. I'm happy to see that corporations are being a little more wise with their money.

I'd like to see the rooftops go back to the day when they were simple and innocent. Of course, those days are long gone and I should accept the commercialization of the rooftops. I wish the rooftop owners well, but I'm sorry, things have gotten out of hand with the price. It's kinda like the housing market. Things totally exploded like crazy. And now people are struggling now that prices are starting to come back to reality.

Welcome to reality.

Urban dictionary rejected my word submission for noodlefoamtubeannihilate

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:00:30 GMT

Urbandictionary.com is the alternative dictionary for slang, subculture words, phrases, and phenomena not found in standard dictionaries. I love the site, because users submit totally crazy definitions for words--both existing words and totally new words. All my submissions for new words in the past have been approved. Words such as super-fragglistic, amehzing, IHYDM, whoat!, and doublerainbow.

Urbandictionary silly words
To give you an idea of the range of silly words urbandictionary.com has accepted in the past, here's some words that come up when you search for spud:
-- spudarnold: A case of spudarnold is someone that improvises novels and converts them into untold myths.
-- spuderromany: a spud is someone who is a potato headed frizz ball with stups for legs and who often falls over due to a smal surface area in the feet.
-- spudonkulous: whatever you want it to mean, with a positive interpretation. it could mean exciting, interesting, fabulous, etc.
-- spudunkle: A way of describing something.
I'm not even going to include the definitions or links for the words Spudwank and spudenda. They are definitely rated R.

Rejection letter
Urbandictionary, land filled with crazy words has DENIED my word of noodlefoamtubeannihilate. They emailed me a rejection letter stating, "Editors reviewed your entry and have decided to not publish it." Here's what I submitted:

noodlefoamtubeannihilate

Definition: to utterly destroy (or annihiliate) someone in a duel using noodle foam tubes

Usage: Whoat!? This guy overthrew me as mayor of Walgreens? If I ever, EVER see him in Walgreens, I'm gonna challenge him to a duel. I will so noodlefoamtubeannihilate him.

THE authority
I'm still a huge fan of urbandictionary.com, I just never knew they had such high standards for words. Apparently noodlefoamtubeannihilate is just too crazy. I know, I know; the word is too long. But that's part of what makes it so fun. It's rather funny that the New York Times reports, One of the first definitions on the site was "the man", referring to "the head of the establishment put in place to 'bring us down.'"

Urbandictionary has now become "the man." But I will continue to noodlefoamtubeannihilate anyone who thinks it's not a word. C'mon, I dare you to tell me it's not a word, I'll totally noodlefoamtubeannihilate you with some noodle foam tubes from Walgreens.

My first tweet

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:33:35 GMT

Curious about what your first tweet is? Just head over to mytweet16.com and they'll show your first 16 tweets. (However, if you have over 3,200 tweets, they won't be able to retrieve your first 16 tweets.)

Signing up for twitter, duh.Mon Apr 09 09:07:03 via webMatt Maldre
spudart

Just for fun, here's a few of the first tweets by some of my friends. Click the comments to view all 37.

Has decided to create a twitter, yes I am following the trend.Sun Jun 21 19:06:51 via webPeter Kreten
pkreten

Hello cruel world! This is my first tweet! Right now: Drinking a General Foods International On The Go Vanilla Latte.Tue Mar 03 17:52:15 via webLisa Schryver
RebelliousBird

slicing meatWed Mar 28 20:45:51 via webErik Maldre
unlikelymoose

Ewoks home of Endor discovered on Earth

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:00:38 GMT

Ewoks have been known to live on the forest moon of Endor. But it was only until recently that Google Maps has discovered that Endor is actually a small town in South Africa. According to this satellite imagery, you can see the village where ewoks live on earth. There's even a road to get to their village--Highway S469.

One of the ewoks tweets regularly on twitter, you can read his antics at twitter.com/ewoklumat.

Now that we know ewoks live on planet earth, do you think ewoks should be in a zoo? Or should they be given equal rights as humans?

Dr. Suess, Walt Whitman, Matt Maldre

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:48:40 GMT

It's really cool when one of your quotes appears alongside quotes from people such as Dr. Seuss and Walt Whitman. Quotesdaddy.com so far has published 22 of my quotations.

Angels can wear Buerhle jerseys

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:24:22 GMT

Today is the second day in a row that I saw someone walk by and then the EXACT same person walked by a minute later.

The first experience was sitting at the first floor cafe outside Nordstorms on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. I saw some college kid with his parents walk by. That guy made me specifically think about memories of walking in the mall with my mom. Then a minute later the same guy walks by again. Going the same direction.

The second experience involved a girl wearing a 56 BUEHRLE White Sox jersey on the red line. She stood by the doors waiting to get off the next stop. It's a bit unusual to see someone wearing a White Sox jersey on the north side of Chicago. As she stood there, it made me think about how people follow sports like a religion. Granted sports are good, because it gives us common ground to have something to talk about. Conversation is good.

But sometimes people find their true identity in their sports team. c'mon, it's a bunch of guys playing baseball. What if the conversation was about something more important? What if instead of the game last sunday, we talked about the sermon last sunday? Instead of stats, what if we talked about verses?

All these thoughts crossed my mind as the girl with the 56 BUEHRLE jersey stood waiting to exit the train. Wanting to tweet these ideas, it would be nice to have a photo of the girl wearing the 56 BUEHRLE jersey. The photo app on my phone took literally about 30 seconds for it start up. Very strange. As soon as the doors open at North and Clybourn, she gets off the train and I miss my photo.

Oh well. Then two stops later at Chicago Avenue, who do I see get off the train? The EXACT same girl wearing the 56 BUEHRLE jersey. I just saw her get off the previous stop. Literally. I saw her get off and the doors close. How in the world was she on the train again getting off at the previous stop?

Factor in that my phone couldn't start up the photo app to take a photo of the girl, and it makes me think that maybe, just maybe, this person was an angel. We are told angels are in our midst. Maybe this angel was wearing a 56 BUEHRLE jersey. (And after all, Buehrle did throw a PERFECT game)

What would an ewok trade to get the Death Star's laser pointer?

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:58:05 GMT

The commanding officer of the first Death Star has a laser pointer. He's willing to trade it to you. What would you offer to the Death Star Commander?

Now, let's add another layer to this. Let's say you are an ewok. And you really want the Death Star Commander's laser pointer. What would you trade to get his laser pointer? Right now this is happening in real life on twitter.

I'm tweet as Ewok Lumat (the woodsmith of the ewok community). Wilhuff Tarkin (aka "The_Managment" on twitter) has been talking all about his super cool laser pointer. Now me as an ewok is extremely intrigued by this laser pointer.

Five reasons why an ewok would want the Death Star commander's laser pointer:
1) Ewoks, like cats, go crazy for laser pointers
2) The Death Star does hang out by the moon where the ewoks live
3) Seeing that the Death Star is essentially one really big laser pointer, it would be really cool to have the commander's laser pointer.
4) An ewok could pretend he is blowing up planets with the laser pointer
5) An ewok could build some McGyver-like contraption with mirrors and stuff to magnify the laser pointer's power and destroy the Death Star

Now, please answer in the comments the following question: If you were an ewok, what would you offer as a trade to get the Death Star commander's laser pointer?

Give birthday greetings in ewokese

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 15:00:47 GMT

Ever draw a blank for what to write on someone's facebook wall for a birthday wish? Draw a blank no more! Why not wish your friend a happy birthday in ewokese!? It's a real language with a dictionary on the Star Wars wikia. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ewokese.

Here's a greeting that I just left on a friend's wall today:

==========
I've summoned the ewok named Lumat to give you brithday greetings. Ready? Ok, you can go now, Lumat...

Allayloo Allayloo! [Celebrate celebrate!] May your birthday be full of Lulalar [singing] and Chiutatals [moons] and Drik [happy]. :)
==========

Feel free to just copy and paste that greeting. Or use the ewokese dictionary to craft your own. Oh, and while you're at it, I tweet as an ewok on twitter. Please follow ewoklumat.

New Music Tuesdays Podcast

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 16:54:12 GMT

Apple used to produce a weekly podcast called "New Music Tuesday." It was a nice 15-minute show that gave a quick overview of new music coming out. They played song clips and gave brief commentary about each clip. It was a great show, but Apple stopped producing the show in September last year.

I'm a total music moron, does anyone have any suggestions for podcasts that provide a nice weekly music overview?

Top four tweets of July 2010: paws, capris, cereal, laptops

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:11:16 GMT

For July's top tweets, I picked the one tweet from each account that I use regularly in the past month.

@DepressedDarth who needs chopsticks? me eat with paws. or just dunk my face into the plate.
http://twitter.com/EwokLumat/status/19670390993

When you roll up your sleeves, do you ever feel like you are wearing capris on your arms?
http://twitter.com/spudart/status/19690364728

Carrying home 4 boxes of cereal sans bag & foursquaring is trickier than I thought (@ Walgreens) http://4sq.com/bg7aLP
http://twitter.com/fourspudart/status/18569999865

Laptop rule: Every laptop has an 18-inch perimeter where no drinks are allowed to stand.
http://twitter.com/tribunematt/status/19859619454

Who will win the monster versus sushi fight?

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:00:58 GMT

(photo by ohalchemygirl)

It's a monster versus sushi smackdown! Who will be the last monster or sushi standing? My bet is on the tamago. I love tamago. (that's the rectangular yellow egg maki).

Please leave a comment about which character you think will win in this fight.

Share a list of all your iphone apps

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:00:42 GMT

Share your entire iphone app list with others. I'd like an app that can do that. And share the folders you use to organize your apps. While, yes, many would argue they don't want people to know ALL their apps. But then you could just "mark as private" specific apps.

It would be fun to have an automatically updated list of all the apps you own and whenever a friend downloads a new app, you get a notification. That way, when you see a new app a friend downloaded, you can ask, "Hey, how do you like that ABC app you downloaded?" And it would spur people to use more apps, and also creating more community with users of the iphone.

(btw, the image in this blog post features the super cool app, Star Wars: Battle for Hoth, available on the iTunes store.)

Crazy parking job in Chicago's Lincoln Square

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:12:48 GMT

Just a couple blocks from my apartment a car did a crazy parking job. jacklydon on flickr captured the moment with nine photos. After leaving a comment on one photo, I started to have fun leaving comments on other photos. It ends up that each photo in the series now has a funny comment. :-)

	I saw the aftermath of this, we were wondering what had happened. Now i know. Thanks! It looks like this car wanted to parkthere really badly.
	Nice parking job.
	The way people park these days. Sheesh.
	Only later did this person realize that this Subway is not a drive-thru.
	I know sometimes I have an insatiable craving for a cold cut combo and I'll say,"nothing will stop me from getting my cold cut combo" But c'mon, this is a little excessive.
	Someone gave this person bad directions. No,you're supposed to drive THROUGH the Lincoln Square gate, not INTO it.
	Google Maps FAIL. Don't park your car according to GPS coordinates, they may be a little bit off.
	Oh, this car had dreams of being a bicycle. Free to roam the sidewalks.

Do you have any funny captions for these photos?

Walgreens offers H1N1 shots in an ICEE machine?

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:43:38 GMT

Get your cherry-flavored H1N1 shots! Would you like your H1N1 shot to be flavored as blue raspberry, Coke or wild cherry? Walgreens has a bright yellow sign posted on their ICEE machine stating that people can get their H1N1 shots here at the ICEE machine. Sounds kinda gross.

UPDATE: Within an hour of sending my message, Walgreens called to tell me that the sign is now taken down. The woman on the phone was very nice and appreciative. See, Walgreens totally rocks!

Here's an email I sent to Walgreens about their H1N1 ICEE shot dispenser:

Dear Walgreens,
I'm a regular shopper at the Walgreens of 430 North Michigan in Chicago. For the entire year, you've had a sign up on the ICEE machine saying "GET YOUR H1N1 SHOTS HERE TODAY." Have you noticed that not many people are getting ICEE's at the popular Chicago location of 430 North Michigan Avenue? Chicago is having a hot summer this year, and it's a shame that your ICEE machine is being used to advertise H1N1 shots.

I bet many people, like myself, are afraid to get ICEEs just because it seems to be giving double duty as an H1N1 vaccine dispenser. All logic would say that an ICEE machine is not an H1N1 vaccine dispenser. We all shop based on feeling. Even if I have an urge for a nice cold ICEE, seeing that H1N1 sign makes me feel really awkward. I always have turned away from the machine, because of this sign. I bet many others do as well.

You should consider taking down the H1N1 sign off the ICEE machine. And then you'll notice a great increase in ICEE sales at this location. I know that for a fact, because I would certainly become a regular ICEE purchaser at this location. I'll buy enough to make the machine go dry.

I love Walgreens, so that's why I take the time to write this letter. I want to see Walgreens succeed, especially MY walgreens at 430 North Michigan Avenue. And please give Pilar (my favorite cashier) a little bonus. She's the best.