Friday, July 23rd, 2010
There’s a new and nifty and incredibly awesome resource in Long Island City these days: a LASER!
Designglut in association with Length Width Height (a fabrication lab in the “incubation” center at NY Designs), hosted a laser party last night and invited designers and artists to try it out with some free etching & burning time. Awesome!
All projects were cut on a Trotec laser with double gull-wing doors – made it look like a DeLorean when both the doors were up! This thing is proper, and capable of some really remarkable and remarkably precise cuts. Some people cut out little keychain shapes; a piece of fabric with a lattice-like design; or some flexible wood made into bracelets. Like I said, AWESOME!
Big ups to Ben W-R from LxWxH for organizing the event – there were some great people there, and I definitely need to organize some shop time myself and get involved.
super-duper punters:
the exhaust vent needed to keep the laser cooooooool:
Monday, September 7th, 2009
because we never forget (how to party), this Friday, 11 September, Flux Factory will be throwing a FundRager on a 140-foot 3-deck boat in Brooklyn. Click here for details on how to RSVP.
I’ll be bartending, so bring tips and stimulate my personal economy!
(also this weekend be on the lookout for Mucca Pazza who will be playing at the Knitting Factory (Brooklyn) and the Mercury Lounge (Manhattan))
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
October and November are always a whirl. since 2001 I can’t remember an October or November that had any breathing room. Ever since I moved to London on 3 October 2001, jump forward 7 years 1 month and 1 day and I can’t wait for this November to be over. And I’m not only – but I am surely – talking about the election.
With the Flux Factory’s recent eviction, starting in early October, I completely boxed up my life and put everything I own into storage, in a shed at an undisclosed location in New Jersey. To be honest even I don’t know the location of said shed; but I would like to incredibly thank my friend Angie for her assistance with my upheaval. I haven’t produced a piece of art in over two months due to the eviction, and I’ve had to spend most of my time consolidating my life, including throwing away a fair number of tools, clothing, raw materials, incomplete artworks, etc. A fitting end to life at Flux Factory.
The month of October also saw me quit my job of 3 years, as I had to make a decision, to continue with life in NYC would require my income and creative control to move up or move on. I made my decision.
This decision was encouraged by some recent family health and grievance issues, which being in NYC I had no control over to either guide or invigorate. Also made problematic that my job didn’t give me much flexibility in terms of vacation, travel for health, time off, etc.
Knowing an eviction was imminent, and my employment would end concurrently, I’ve decided to go nomadic. I’m blogging from a cafe in Flatbush, Brooklyn, currently homeless and crashing on couches throughout the borough. At the end of this calendar week I’ll be travelling by train to my hometown of St. Louis, which I haven’t visited in over two years now (see this link).
But I’m by no means complaining. I’m loving these weeks, these moments with friends, the way in which one survives on coffee.
I’ll go back to about mid-October, when I took a trip upstate to the Farm, and spent some time with the frost, the leaves, and some new family including Pepper and some chickens Americano:
A sign of things to come, the end of Flux Factory’s residence-arm really began with Ian’s departure. He’s on a BMW motorcycle now, somewhere in Georgia or Florida (don’t worry he cast his absentee ballot!) en route out West:
With Ian’s departure, I also become the most-senior member at the Factory. This, I actually didn’t realize until nearly a week after Ian left and someone else pointed this out to me.
Even with an eviction pending, the Flux Factory staff continued to work hard, planning for our final ever party:
Chen works, sans desk, surrounded by boxes and piles of crap:
I love the doors ajar, the box that can’t close, the ad on the floor, the blue fork. Just throw it all away already!
Flux Factory knows how to make trash. We went from this:
To this, on numerous ocassions:
At the same time, we know how to turn a shitty DJ booth:
into a most-awesome DJ booth for one of the most-awesome parties ever:
The Flux Factory’s final party, the End of the End of the End (To Be Continued…) was definitely most-awesome. Props to Shalin for organizing over 50 performances for the evening. Although the true success of any party is when your six – yes, six – kegs run dry and you need a 2am beer run:
Me and Tyler at the Pathmark at 2am.
Flux Factory knows how to party:
White Limo gave a smashing closing performance:
are those Ironclad’s he’s wearing?
Unfortunately our partytude nearly made Seb cry:
and put Daupo to sleep:
it’s a shame I didn’t make a video, but the soundsystem was bumping at this moment.
And my costume, no doubt, was a hit:
me sitting on a couch-costume.
What will come of Flux Factory now? There’s a thought:
So starting this Sunday I’m on the road. Going to St. Louis via DC and Chicago on Amtrak. I’ll be in the Midwest by early next week for at least a month, if not two. My Flux Factory address is dead. Long live Flux Factory.
I’ll be around. My wifi is about to expire. Gotta press publish.
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
plain and simple, Flux Factory – the non-profit doing innovations in things I’ve long been associated with during my NYC tenure – is coming to an end. The building we’ve occupied for the past six years and the space I’ve lived in for over three is being claimed by the city’s transportation network, the MTA, via eminent domain, to make way for the East Side Access Project.
That’s the major reason I haven’t been posting as proficiently as I used to, as I’ve been busy packing up and preparing to depart the city for two months while I re-align my life and my priorities.
But the most-pressing priority really is this Thursday, two days from now. Flux Factory will be hosting our last-ever party at the current 38-38 43rd Street space in Long Island City. The party will be a performance-blowout, featuring more than five-dozen acts, performers, bands, DJs, happenings, stages, presentations, screenings, talks, poetry slams, etc. It’s chock frickin’ full. The night will breakdown something like so:
Potluck begins at 6pm.
DJs and party begins at 8pm.
Performers begin at 10pm and run until 2-3am.
Party keeps going until 4-6am.
Then we sweep and clean up and the following morning hand the keys over to the Man. seriously.
The evening will include the following performers:
Abigail Ohlheiser presents “Come Get Washed in the Blood”
A drag king and a puppet show
Andy Gilliss
Bright Mares
Brooke McGowen’s “Action for Iraq”
Campfire Stories
Carlos Rigau
Cathy
Cave Bears
Caylie Staples
Children of Terminator X
D.A. Meeks
David Felix Sutcliffe presents “There’s a Gerbil in my Asshole”
The Danger presents “In the Wake of the Serpent’s Tattoo”
Ducktails
Flux Factory Fashion Show
F/M presents “Drone to Dance”
The Genderless Siblings from Yellow Bizarre
Greg and Ted’s Satisfaction Factory
Golden Times / Giggle Town
The Hemlock Society
The Heuristic MC
Igor and Tony Have a Spat
Jeremy Chance
Jeremy Williss
Kate Ferencz
Kitlace/The Stink
Konnichiwa
Lady Firefly feat Wolfgang von Stuermer
Lily Maase
Manburger Surgical Presents “The Final Incompetancy”
Mary Ivy Martin’s “Communidate”
Miss Scarlett
No Sound
The NYC Minutes Confessional Booth
The Oracle of Random Quotes
Peter Bonos
Poetix on Da Rox
The Play Party
Rosa Rugosa
The Spirit of a Century (Junk or chains pressure neglects Rogers-in-cranks) GET LOST
SURPRISE!!!
Soul 45’s from Jonathan Toubin of New York Night Train productions
Taliesin
Tarot
Ted Lee
The Mob
Tiger Mouth, Timothy Hospodar and 0H10M1KE present “Omnium-Gathera”
Unicornholio featuring Sebastien Sanz de Santamaria + Marie Losier
Bernard Losier (dad) and Coco (his wife)
Vardi plays Skyboxx feat. Anne Herzog
The Venn Diagrams
White Limo
The Wonderland Collective
Zebu
Zenith Foundation
and Zuvuya Collective presents “Twilight” and “Ladies Room”
HOLY SHIT that’s a lot of entertainment for one night! It’s $10 to get in, oh, and it’s a HALLOWEEN DANCE PARTY! the Hunter College MFA program are helping us decorate. This is the party you don’t want to miss!
get directions from the Flux Factory website.
