TONIGHT!!!The 12th of June 2013 from 9pm until midnight or later at Akbar, it’s CRAFTNIGHT!!!
Project: GRAB BAG CRAFTS!!! 
$2 Donation Por Favor
$4 Cosmopolitan Drink Special! The Akbar Cosmo: Thirst knows no season. 
Special Guest Stars Jason Myers and The Ukelele Orchestra of the Western Hemisphere will visit us maybe ’round 10 or so!
I think Yelena’s bringing a Piñata because it’s her BIRTHDAY!!!
OMG OMG OMG!!!!

A bevy of grab bag crafts awaits you, a selection of greats that maybe you did two years ago, or even never. Time to come in with yourself or your friends, hang out with us and enjoy making something. See you tonight!

JP Craft Captain

www.crafthead.com

www.akbarsilverlake.com

With the LA River now hosting boating expeditions and fences around Echo Park Lake coming down for the great unveiling on June 15th, the last thing CraftNight wants is for you to be stuck rudderless on the open waters! Pick from THREE different watercraft made from wood that you will assemble, paint and name for your glorious adventures in the tub, the pool, the river, the lake, wherever there’s agua! I have a garden variety sailboat, a schooner-type thingy with three sails, and a battleship for when you mean business. Ship supply is limited, first come first serve and first choice. If you get here too late for a ship… there is always an auxiliary craft! Come and play!

Remember now: Before Stonewall and the stiletto heard ’round the world, we who are just fine were deemed anything BUT that by the dull myopic majority of fear and bigotry. Even now we’re still fighting the good fight for our rights as old castles crumble and new ways that make the human race just a bit more bearable are seeing victory. To those who came before us, we salute you. Cor Cordium 

A very packed weekend FULL of wonderful LGBTQ activities awaits you! Here are a mere few:

FRIDAY
Akbar is hosting MIX TAPE with DJs Rudy Bleu and Kimberly Kim from 5pm – 10pm (check the FB page to see what else is happening this upcoming weekend, the dance floor is going to be packed with hotness!)
Mugshot at the Airliner Celebrates Eastside Pride, see LaMuff, High Fashion, Lady Tragick and MOARRRRR 9pm – 2am

SATURDAY
DYKE DAY at Barnsdall Park from 12-6pm features family fun in the sun with music, games and a place to place your picnic! David LeBarron will be telling some stories to the kiddos, and I’ll be there painting faces and drawing animals!
8pm Ian MacKinnon’s Gay Historgy 3 at Silverlake’s Spirit Studio uses his time-traveling chaps and sexy genie guide to school you about gay history in the way you’ve always wanted!

SUNDAY
Get your ass out of bed, shake off that hangover and get to the GAY PRIDE PARADE! 11am

And you know, all weekend all that Weho stuff will be flaunting and flirting with you, so have at it, get out there and be a boozy floozy, just don’t forget to be choosy! If you want some Eastside love, Akbar, the bar that knows you best, will be here holding the cocktail with your name on it.

See you at the Craft Table,

JP Craft Captain

www.crafthead.com

www.akbarsilverlake.com

My wallet is totally falling apart, I put things in it, and it just lets them go, which is highly disconcerting. My wallet is also a very sensible brown color, which means it gets lost easily, is hard to find at night when I’m heading out the door, it’s the same color as the table, I search for it while it’s right before my eyes. So I thought I’d make a new wallet for myself out of COLORFUL DUCT TAPE! But that’s not all you can make at CraftNight this week with such fun sticky stuff, did you know you can make all kinds of crazy things like bowls, baskets, key fobs and frames?

Duct tape is AMAZING, it’s made from three layers: the top layer is plastic-type stuff, the second layer is fabric mesh, and the last layer is a rubber-based adhesive compound. This means it is CRAZY STRONG and when you double it over itself, it can pull a stuck car out of a ditch. It actually um… truly sucks for duct repair, in fact, it kind of fails miserably at it, so don’t use it for that! Duct tape has, however, been proven to be more effective in removing warts than cryotherapy AND it’s way cheaper than cryotherapy and has fewer adverse effects than cryotherapy! BOOM! AMAZING.

Duct tape was used on Apollo 13 to help make a seal in an emergency makeshift device used to remove CO2 from the crippled ship. Duct tape is brought on all NASA flights! Seriously, you could build a yurt out of the stuff and stay in it half the year.

And I don’t know about you, but I really want to check this out sometime: The 10th Annual Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival in Ohio is coming up June 14-16!!!

Come on over and belly up to the bar, I’ll bring rulers, scissors, tape (duh), and some templates to get you started on making something that will go with your summer.

See you at the Craft Table,

JP Craft Captain

www.crafthead.com

www.akbarsilverlake.com

This Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013 from 9pm to midnight (or later!) at Akbar, it’s CRAFTNIGHT!!!
Project: Sleeping Masks
$2 donation situation
$4 Cosmopolitan Drink Special >>> The Akbar Cosmo: Discover a cocktail that defines a new dimension of sassy (or trashy, depends on how many you decide to drink…)

CraftNight Lieutenant, Elaine Walker, has procured for us an entire BAG of awesome sleeping masks, you know, the ones they give out in airplanes, the lacy pink ones you see in technicolor movies in the froofy boudoir of a female protagonist? This is your opportunity to get one of these masks and make it YOURS through the adornment style of your choice. And then it’s time to nap.
I’m not only a romance activist, I am also a staunch nap activist. I BELIEVE IN NAPS. And before you get all “I can’t take naps, blah blah blah” here is what we know so far from years of studying napping people with electrodes stuck to their heads:

• THE 2-5 MINUTE MICRO NAP = Effective at shedding sleepiness
• THE 5-20 MINUTE MINI NAP = Improvement in motor performance, alertness and stamina
• THE 26 MINUTE “NASA” NAP = A 1995 NASA study that found a “26-minute nap improved performance 34% and alertness 54%.
• THE 60 MINUTE NAP = Improves alertness for up to 10 hours

Nothing zaps stress more than a nap, your heart rate and overall health is improved by napping, and every non-human mammal in the world naps, we humans just adjusted those naps to fit into one full night, which isn’t actually all that natural or workable for some of us. When you catch yourself feeling super sleeping between 1-4pm, that’s because you’re actually programmed to feel that way at that time.

The protestant work ethic (largely the Calvinistic variety and tied heavily to American capitalism) is outdated, folks, just like how ye olde having one 9 – 5 job for 40 years (unless it’s a county job, woop woop!) is NOT THE NORM, some of us work 10 – 14 hour days to make deadlines! It’s time to stop seeing a nap as “lazy” and look at a naps as “opportunity.” For some, napping just isn’t available, or easy, but if at some point, those variables change, give it a whirl, the benefits are vast. No matter what hours you’re working, or vacationing, getting a bit of snooze time is overall good for you and the rest of the world.

If you want to know more, check out the Boston Globe’s guide to napping!

And yeah, even whales nap, here’s some video… 

See You at the Craft Table,

JP Craft Captain

www.crafthead.com

www.akbarsilverlake.com

It is CraftNight TONIGHT! • 9pm – 12am • $2 Donation • AKBAR • $4 Cosmopolitans!!! Strong!!!

Oh my goodness last week, to save myself time, I wrote an awesome post about “make-a-mugs” tried to schedule automated publishing, and not only did it NOT publish on the scheduled date, WordPress erased that post and the week before’s… which leads me to believe I didn’t quite press the right buttons when I tried to save myself time. It’s that thing where technology is not always the easiest solution, “user friendly” is always up for interpretation, and writing posts and trying to schedule them at 3am is maybe not the wisest time block to do logistics.

Yadda yadda who cares about that though because COME IN AND MAKE A MUG! Holds hot or cold drinks, practical for “National Nursing Week” or Mothers Day or any other May holiday where you have to give a gift that is timeless, practical and custom built for those you care about and love.

I’ll see you at the Craft Table Tonight!!

JP Craft Captain

www.crafthead.com

www.akbarsilverlake.com

Over 10 years of CraftNight means that I have more crafts in storage than you can shake a pipe cleaner at, so I’m continuing April’s “craft spring cleaning” by bringing a variety of projects for you to explore! Come in, get a cosmo, sit down, hang out, enjoy!

See you at the Craft Table,

JP Craft Captain   • www.crafthead.com  •  www.akbarsilverlake.com

CRAFTNIGHT SPECIAL HELP-A-FRIEND BULLETIN>>>>>

Back in the day at the C.I.C.L.E. booth, Shay’s on the right, her partner Liz is on the left: true high school sweethearts! The other photo is Shay rockin’ her electro wheelchair when she was able to sit upright.

Shay Wiessler-Sanchez and her partner, Liz, are good friends of mine. They started  Cyclists Inciting Change thru LIVE Exchange (C.I.C.L.E.) they have been a dynamic duo for the Los Angeles community, leaders, do-ers, truly awesome women.

Shay is super arty, she draws and makes stuff, but all of that has been taken away from her, along with her beloved bicycle riding. Here is Shay’s story in a nutshell, written at a time when she was doing better.

Liz and Shay have an opportunity to go to the famous Mayo clinic, where they have secured appointments with specialists to hopefully help save Shay’s life.They need to get to Minnesota (Shay needs to stay flat on her back the entire time they travel, so it’s a road trip.)

To help with their journey to the Minnesota Mayo Clinic, please send your donation to Shay’s fund. 

To be clear, the site says it has $8,000.00 in it, but they’ve already gone through that in the last year just trying to keep up with all of the various hospital stays, doctors appointments and medications that Shay has needed. and continues to require. If you want to know more, I can put you in touch with Liz, who can tell you everything about Shay’s condition, donation info, etc. and if you EVER need a medical advocate, she is AMAZING.

These are real Angelenos in your town. You might not know them, but they changed this city for good with C.I.C.L.E. (which continues to kick ass, Hi Dan! (executive director) and now they could use some help from the people. Pass this on to anyone who wants to do some good today.

TONIGHT! April 17th, 2013 from 9pm until 12-ish, at Akbar, it’s CRAFTNIGHT!
Project: From the Vault: Special Selections hand-picked by your Craft Captain
$2 Donation Processing Fee so Graciously Requested
$4 Famous Akbar Comsmopolitans: The Power of Dreams.

It is Haiku Day
A National Holiday
Grab Bag Crafts Tonight

See you at the Craft Table!
JP Craft Captain
www.crafthead.com
www.akbarsilverlake.com

This Wednesday, April 10th, 2013 from 9pm until midnight (or later) at Akbar, it’s CRAFTNIGHT!!!
Project: Light Switch Plate Mod Podge Decoupage Collage
$2 Processing Fee Donation oh so sweetly suggested
$4 Drink Special THE AKBAR COSMO: Richness worth a second glass!

You’ve been staring at your light switch, haven’t you? Days go by, every time you see it you say to yourself “One day, I’m going to switch out that boring light switch with something REALLY SNAZZY.” I’ll be bringing the Mod Podge, some magazines, the gems and glitter glue you love, all the stuff that’s needed to make your light switch SHINE! Mod Podge is sort of like glue, except it’s waaaaay more exciting than glue, it’s also a sealer and a finish, it’s water soluble and it was invented in 1967 in a garage by a woman who decoupaged an entier Volkswagen Beetle. Therefore, I can’t find anything wrong with Mod Podge, a CraftNight decoupage staple.

Now then: where would we be without electricity? Your light switch is the unsung hero of the room, it deserves some appreciation. festoon it’s plate with a selection of collage items just waiting for your hands to implement! Guests will flutter their hands to their chest in admiration, family members will say “Ah, now I understand you!” pets will nod their heads in agreement that your living space is a place of royalty, your lovers will brag to all their other lovers that they have never been loved until they have seen your light switch plate. That is not a euphemism.

See you at the Craft Table, if you have some old magazines you can share for collage, please bring them!

And YES! April’s pin, affectionately deemed “Mr.T-Bone Meaty Eyes” is yours for the having when you come in this month and ONLY this month!

JP Craft Captain

www.crafthead.com

www.akbarsilverlake.com

This Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013 at Akbar from 9pm ’til midnight or later, it’s CRAFTNIGHT!!!
Project: Bean-n-Pasta-n-Sparkle Mosaics! 
$2 Suggested Processing Fee Donation
$4 Drink Special! The Akbar Cosmo: The Secret is Akbar’s Special Pouring Action, Just the Right (and generous) amount of real vodka! 

Arranging together small colored pieces of pasta, beans, sparkles, puffballs, tissue paper, colored foam pieces, beads and glitter in to ANYTHING YOU WANT is your idea of a powerful way to start out April, right? YES, correct! We are fully immersed in Spring, and we are action packed! 

This is the month where, if you want to eat a Reuben sandwich for breakfast: JUST EAT IT. If you want to watch Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon and Ed Harris in the 1998 movie Stepmom: JUST WATCH IT. You have the power, it is yours for the taking. Don’t let anyone stand in the way of what you want to do. Summon the power of your ancestors and BE A CHOICE!!! ™

The Greek word for “invincible” is “adamas” and the word “diamond” also came from the word “adamas” and the (very shiny pretty) diamond is the birthstone of April which means that the (practically invincible) diamond is YOU! CraftNight is here for you to manifest your goals and aspirations, your strength and your power though the dramatic and engaging power of bean and pasta mosaics. Make a likeness of your personal totem, your favorite snack, symbols that motivate you, creatures that  energize you, your family crest.

I’m also launching April’s NEW PIN! This one’s a doozy, not for the faint of heart, and terrifically weird. Where last month’s pin was a pressed shamrock for March, a sweet and cheerful traditional seasonal portrait, this one is just plain bizarre, and I can’t really say what inspired me to design it. It’s yours during the month of April 2013, never to be duplicated. Come in and get one while they’re HOT!

See you at the Craft Table,

JP Craft Captain

www.crafthead.com

www.akbarsilverlake.com

TONIGHT!  March 27th, 2013 at Akbar from 9pm ’til midnight or later, it’s CRAFTNIGHT!!!
Project: Spring Grab Bag Crafts 
$2 Suggested Processing Fee Donation
$4 Drink Special! The Akbar Cosmo: Untamed Elegance!