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Author Archives: jp

Pasta and Bean Mosaics • June 29th, 2016

undahwattah

This WednesdayJune 29th, 2016 from 9pm until midnight (or later) at Akbar, it’s CRAFTNIGHT. 
Project: Pasta Bean Mosaics    
$3 Processing fee, please
$4 Drink Specials at Akbar: The good life at a great price, guaranteed! 

Consider the lowly bean, and the lowly noodle.
Perhaps you’ve just been eating them mindlessly in a distracted way, but have you been really thinking about these food items carefully?
Perhaps you’ve just slurped ramen noodles into your face without a single thought about who made them, where they came from, and what they do for society.

You can keep walking past legumes and starches, or you can pause, and you can see these objects differently for a night, maybe even see them as ART.

Pasta and beans are usually unremembered, but not THIS night.

This won’t be the first time we’ve made mosaics with pasta and beans, and it won’t be the last. But even as I type this, in my studio, right behind me is a portrait of me that my friend, Kendra, made about 10 years ago, and it is one of the coolest things I own, and I cherish it. It’s not so much that it’s me, but the fact that she calmly sat there and put together a bunch of tiny, dried, perishable shapes together to make a visual idea.

I hope that pasta and bean mosaic-making interferes with your mind, and that your summer is enhanced by the experience.

See you at the Craft Table,

JP Craft Captain

Coming UP in Your Hot Hot City

JULY 3rd AKBAR 2pm: BEARS IN SPACE 7th Anniversary w/DJ Harvey!!!!
THE GRILLED CHEESE TRUCK• IRIS’ PETITE BAKE SHOPPE • HUNTEES T-SHIRTS • LAG VINTAGE >>>>  Here’s the FB Link to find out more

4th of July FIREWORKS (will be everywhere… but also here!) 
KJLH 4th of July Fireworks at Exposition Park Check it OUT 
Family fun, music and fireworks!! Food trucks, carnival rides and info booths!
Music Stages: Timothy Bloom, Joshua Ledet, Gourdan Banks, Andrew Gouche and Band of Brothers, Rory Darvel and the Ultimate Tribute to Prince, Shaun B, Zeia King and N’Sessions, Markees Williams and Divine Destiny and so much more!
It’s FREE and Open to the Public!!!!!

PARTY at the AUTRY (Start of the Summer series!) 
Autry Museum’s popular summer dance series, Thursday evenings July 7–August 18. All ages welcome, reservations recommended
6:00 p.m. Tacos and drinks available for purchase
6:00–8:00 p.m. Galleries and Autry Store open
6:30 p.m. Music begins
7:30 p.m. Complimentary dance lesson led by Enio Cordoba

 

 

Posted by on June 29, 2016 in Assembly Craft, Collage Craft

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Summer Craft • June 22nd, 2016

birthday_time

This WednesdayJune 22nd, 2016 from 9pm until midnight (or later) at Akbar, it’s CRAFTNIGHT. 
Project: A Summer Craft and Shannon Dedman’s Birthday!   
$3 Processing fee, please
$4 Drink Specials at Akbar • Akbar, the cocktail company

Now that Summer arrived and burnt all our faces off (a fun preview for what will surely astonish us further in months to come) it’s time to get going on SUMMER CRAFTS!!!
And it’s also the birthday of Shannon Dedman, one of our CraftNight Lieutenants. She is brave and true and circling the sun for another illustrious birthday celebration! She loves a good craft, so that’s exactly what we’ll do.
I’m not totally sure what the summer craft is going to be, I’m keeping it loose.
It’s going to be a great time though, because we’ll have birthday treats for all, there will be merriment and smiles, and we will absolutely have crisp, ice cold air conditioning!!!

See you at the Craft Table,

JP Craft Captain

JUNE_bingo_2016
June 27th • Monday • Akbar • 8pm to 10pm – It’s BET YER BOTTOM BINGO!!!

Your favorite night of winning spectacular prizes in a room full of your favorite people! Girls, Boys, Balls, Ink, Paper, Numbers, Yelling, Winning, YAY!!!

 

Posted by on June 22, 2016 in Mystery Craft!

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Love + Action • June 15th, 2016

rainbow-flag

This WednesdayJune 15th, 2016 from 9pm until midnight (or later) at Akbar, it’s CRAFTNIGHT. 
Project: Love + Action   
$3 Processing fee, please
$4 Drink Specials at Akbar

Re: The Shooting in Orlando

I cannot find grace, and I cannot find comfort. I’m cracked in half.

Fighting back with love, that’s what monks do, right? Where you breathe in all of the world’s hatred and breathe out something more palatable with every chant?
What if I’m breathing fire?
What if I can’t breathe?
What about smashing things?
What about never stopping crying ever, or being dry-eyed and catatonic with emptiness?
We’re going to address as many feelings as we can at CraftNight this week with varying activities:

1.) Shrinky Dinks = Creative outlet. If you want to make something for yourself, for a friend, for anyone, we will have the supplies for you to do it. It can be about something, it can be about nothing, it’s a shrinky dink, it’s just the most distracting and rewarding craft I can offer at a time like this. If you don’t know what a shrinky dink is, then that’s it: for you, CraftNight this Wednesday is mandatory, you need to know.

2.) Send support: Many organizations have stepped forward to help, and here is the main fund through Equality Florida. I will have resource sheets for you to take home where you can find more ways to help.

3.) Cards and Letters for The Pulse: The Pulse is a community haven. They are in shock and mourning, but at some point, their doors will open again, the people need them. I’ll have pens, blank cards, paper, envelopes and more so that you can make and send healing, queer, sparkly, love-filled messages to The Pulse about how valuable and important they are, and how we stand with them in solidarity.

4.) Letters to Elected Representatives About Gun Control – I will have the letters, I will have stamps, I will have envelopes. Write one, and I will send it for you, or you can send it yourself.

5.) Curl up and watch the Akbar Jumbotron – If you want to cocoon and be in some pillows and hide and be comfy, we’ll have a dark space on the dance floor for you to be cozy and quiet. We will play promisingly distracting things on the screen, and we will have snacks.

6.) Have a cocktail. Sometimes a drink is a useful thing.

7.) Together Time: Akbar is a refuge for eastside queers over 20 years strong. CraftNight has been at Akbar for over 8 years now, we are part of the rainbow coalition, and these colors don’t run. It’s time to be together. Come and get your love.

See you at the Craft Table,

JP Craft Captain

 

 

Posted by on June 13, 2016 in Coloring Craft, Heat-based Craft, Multi-Variety Craft

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Birch Disk Amulet • June 1st, 2016

pizza_spawn

TONIGHT! WednesdayJune 1st, 2016 from 9pm until midnight (or later) at Akbar, it’s CRAFTNIGHT!!!
Project: Birch Disk Amulet for YOU!  
$3 Processing fee, please
$4 Drink Specials at Akbar: Akbar Cocktails, the taste of Silverlake! 

Today is my wife’s birthday! She’s coming to CraftNight! Pop in and give her a hug!
Coral was just in the mountains, she has just returned home.
To ease her back into the LA city lifestyle, we’re doing a birch disk craft that you can paint and wear around your neck.
It looks super rustic, you can either paint stuff on it, or just glue things to it, a super easy craft, you should do it, yeah.
Let the forest be your guide, dance with the mammal inside your mind.
Get in touch with the leaves and the sap and the branches, it’s almost summer!

See you at the Craft Table!

JP Craft Captain

JUNE IS HERE!  

art_out

THIS SATURDAY It’s DAYLIGHT CRAFTNIGHT at the ART OUT!!! Read More!!!

Saturday, June 4 at 1:00 pm in West Hollywood Park it’s a FREE public event!!! 

Bring the kids and the babies and anyone who likes parks, music, poetry, crafts, performance and fun, all in a queer-friendly environment for your fancy sunshine picnic !

 

Posted by on June 1, 2016 in Painting Craft

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Mini Birdhouses on Parade • May 25th, 2016

hi_guy

Notice: TONIGHT IS BINGO at Akbar from 8pm to 10pm!!! (details at the bottom of this transmission)  
This Wednesday May 25th, 2016 from 9pm until midnight (or later) at Akbar, it’s CRAFTNIGHT!!!

Project: Mini BIrdhouses!  
$3 Processing fee, please
$4 Drink Specials at Akbar: Cocktails, not politics! 

I can already hear you saying “What the heck am I gonna do with a mini birdhouse?!?”
I don’t have all the answers, but I do have some answers.
The best thing about fun is that fun doesn’t care.
Fun doesn’t do utilitarian purpose, uniformity, and obligation.
Crafts are fun because they’re not practical.
A mini birdhouse is a mini revolution, because it’s just sitting there serving NO PURPOSE.
The American way is to work hard, never take vacations, pretend we’re never in pain, and have moxie in the very worst of times.

BREAK THE CHAIN AND MAKE A MINI BIRDHOUSE!
Take some well earned time, and leisure the hell out of it.
We can’t be constantly be producing functional product and content, we have to have space and quiet and pockets of B-track songs running through our heads.
Over and over we’ve learned that periodical maintenance is the key to longevity, with machines, with public works projects, with the mind, and with the body. You can’t build a state-of-the-art anything unless you take time to chill the hell out.

We were meant to spend some time and think about things and paint useless items while sipping beverages in the company of each other’s finery. Keeping the stiff upper lip and always winning the game burns you out, changing gears and exploring other ways of creating fulfillment is totally valid.
Make America Craft Again.

See you at the Craft Table!

JP Craft Captain

MAY MADNESS!  

MAY_bingo_2016

BET YER BOTTOM BINGO • AKBAR • 8pm to 10pm • Six Action-Packed Games! • Girls, boys, balls and prizes for our big winners!!!! 50 Cents a card!!!

FUTURE ART THANGS: Masks, Metal, Druid Crafts…

 

 

Posted by on May 23, 2016 in Painting Craft

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