_{[Behold, as I shamelessly steal Brent Gohde’s text, add a poster image, make a few changes, and act like it is a blog post of my own making!]}

WYGWYC!

It’s about time: there hasn’t been a Cedar Block event since November of last year. Next Friday, August 15th, we return to the Milwaukee Art Museum with a program six months in the making, “What You Get When You Cross…”

(Use Facebook? Click here to view the event and RSVP!)

What do you get when you cross an elephant with a rhino? ‘ell if I know. And what do you get when you cross a metal sculptor with a figurative painter? Find out at MAM next Friday as 23 pairs of artists pay tribute to the wit and satire of Gilbert & George, subject of a major exhibition at the Museum, now through September 1st.

The Cedar Block event, however, is one night only, from 8PM-midnight. After four successful collaborations with us, the first since November’s “The Ramirez Box”, MAM once again opens its galleries to Milwaukee-area artists from diverse backgrounds, this time asking them to pair off in tribute to the process of Gilbert Prousch and George Passmore. Each duo was assigned a joke submitted by the public, as a trigger for a new piece, in recognition of Gilbert & George’s brilliant sense of humor, which aids in conveying their commentary on such serious subjects as religion, politics, and sexuality.

The following artists welcomed the challenge to work with another member of the community, taking a step outside of their own personal creative processes. These provocative pairings will have an original work on display on the 15th:

Katherine Biehl & Jenny Bohr
Luke Chappelle & Tom Stack
Monica Drake & Kelly Hillard
Max Estes & Ann-Sofi S Emilsen
Emily Gormican & Kevin Soens
Todd Graveline & Jan Graveline
Karin Haas & Katie Kraft
Sonji Hunt & Cassandra Leopold
Paul Kjelland & Joe Quinn
Little Friends of Printmaking
Luckystar Studio
Kristopher Pollard & Kat Berger
Mary Beth Ribarchek & Kristin Nelson
Cassandra Smith & Jessica Steeber
Soar Studios
Jenipher Sob & Allison Vallerga
Steve Somers & Adam McKee
Damian Strigens & Mark Waldoch
Eric Von Munz & Harvey Opgenorth
Mark Winter w/ Beth Bojarski
Milan Zori & Brent Gohde

In Windhover Hall, Mike Neuman will present his sequel to the legendary Baconizer (there’s a species of ‘za at Classic Slice named after the project, for crud’s sake!), as he teams with Toby_{(emphasis mine)} and Chris Sobotkiewicz to put attendees into a customized Gilbert & George environment. Joe Kirschling will make some of you lucky folks an instant celebrity, in tribute to G&G. And Mike Winkelmann of donebestdone will be providing visuals throughout the evening. All while DJs keep the party going along with a cash bar and free appetizers!

A film program in Lubar Auditorium will run twice during the evening, with works by Anna Helgeson & Bernadette Witzak, Travis Huss & Ryan Laing, and the aforementioned Mike Winkelmann running alongside MAM-produced shorts featuring Gilbert & George in Milwaukee.

And last, but not even close to least, the brilliant men of The Midnight Show will step out of their sold-out ComedySportz arena and into the world of art to answer the question, “What happens after the joke?” Yes, some of the funniest members of the funniest group in town perform live. Is it a treat, though? My friends, it is indeed a treat on par with a box of Drumsticks (vanilla with caramel filling) on a hot August day.

Oh, and the actual Gilbert & George exhibition will be open until 11PM to all who pay the $7 admission for the night ($5 for MAM members).

See you there!

I’m stealing this text from Cedar Block’s more official invitation email, but first I’ll give you the short version: a bunch of people did some art inspired by Martin Ramirez’s works, there’s a party-time event at the Milwaukee Art Museum to show it off, and I’m involved. It opens at 8pm on 11/30/07.

And now, on to the long version: (click poster for bigger)

“The Ramirez Box”
Friday, November 30, 8PM-midnight
Milwaukee Art Museum
700 N Art Museum Dr
$5 members/$7 general public

This is the fourth collaboration between MAM and Cedar Block, happening in conjunction with the Martin Ramirez exhibition, now on display through January 13.

Cedar Block supplied each of thirty area artists with a box of rudimentary supplies, not unlike those to which Ramirez might have had access as a patient in psychiatric institutions. The boxes’ contents were all they were allowed to use when creating a new work of art. Ramirez made masterpieces. Did they? Find out Friday.

Mary Louise Schumacher, Art Critic for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, kindly stated on Sunday

“Every one-night art party that Cedar Block puts on at the Milwaukee Art Museum seems better than the last.”

We have every intention of following suit with this one. Things are shaping up very nicely.

Scheduled to participate:

With interactive projects by:
- donebestdone - Those guys from “Milwaukee Street Milwaukee”? They’re back, with a Ramirez Box performance, film, and exhibit.
- M. Neuman & M. Falk - They of “The Baconizer” unveil “The Ramirezone”.
- Paul V./ Toby C. [that’s me! emphasis mine] / David K. - Cedar Block Hall of Famers take you inside a Ramirez work.

DJ’s Tom Crawford (WMSE 91.7FM) & Von Munz will provide music from 8-11, at which point dbd will take the stage.

Free appetizers and a cash bar will be provided. The Martin Ramirez exhibition will be open until 10PM at no additional charge.
Thanks for reading.Bundled up,

Brent.

Brent Gohde
Director - Cedar Block
 cedarblock.com

I interrupt this blog full of nonsense about running to make an announcement: I’ve made some updates. Our little weblog’s version of WordPress has been upgraded to 2.2, and I also updated Akismet (the oh-so-lovely spam comments filter) to version 2.0. Also, after a quick glance around the Internet, it seems that the gallery software we’ve been using is not (yet) compatible with this new version of WordPress, so the “random image” has been removed from the sidebar for the time being.

Speaking of image-related things, I made one more change. Now images can be viewed right on the page !

Oh, and a note on using sIFR with Lightbox 2.0, for any poor sucker who stumbles across this post while looking for information: if your sIFR text is sitting on top of the lightbox-displayed image, you need to set sWmode (or wmode, if you’re using sIFR 3) to “transparent”.

Like so:

sIFR.replaceElement(named({sSelector:"#blah",sFlashSrc:"http://url.com/swf/font.swf",sColor:"#000",sLinkColor:"#111",
sBgColor:"#222",sHoverColor:"#333",sFlashVars:"textalign=center",sWmode:"transparent"}));

Ok…so here is the closure:

I wake up on marathon morning to piercing blue skies and not much sign of a breeze and think ‘Come on cloud, you know you want to make an appearance today!’ As I leave my flat at 7.15 am it’s already quite warm in the sun and I walk along trying to keep my breakfast down whilst trying to convince myself that my leg doesn’t hurt at all - in reality it didn’t feel too good but today was the day and I just had to get throught it. When I arrived at my start I slathered myself in suncream, sprayed my calfs with this ‘no-pain’ stuff and took some painkillers. At 9.15 I walk to my starting pen and think how hot it is already. I’m standing next to a couple of girls from ‘up-north’ who are really worried about the heat. Understandable really as up there they only get about 1 day of warm sunshine a year!

The gun goes off and it takes me about 2mins 40 to get to the start. I was expecting my first mile to be around 10/11 mins because of the crowds but I take just 8.40 which I’m really pleased with - my target pace for sub 3.45 was 8.34 per mile and I’m still hoping for a miracle. As I’m running I’m aware of no pain (my god it works!!) in my calfs but some tightness in my quads - I never ever get tight quads so I was a bit confused / annoyed by this. I run my 10k in 51 mins - well on track for sub 3.45. I’m starting to feel that maybe, just maybe, I could do a decent time. I do my half in 1.51 and I’m still on track. After that things started to get interesting - the heat started to have an effect (as it had with most people - I saw 2 elite athletes passing me when they had done 21 miles and one was walking and the other was pulling out!) and my quads were causing a lot of pain. I got to 14 miles in 2 hours and realised that I could ‘snail-it’ in 10 minute miles and still do a 4 hour marathon. So I keep running, albeit slowly at times, and I don’t let myself stop because I know if I stop just once then there was no way I would come in under 4. As I get to 22 miles, I’ve got 42 mins to crawl the last 4.2 miles and I was so determined. I get to 200m from the finish and I manage a sprint finish (I say ‘sprint’ but it was probably just a fast jog!) and come in at 3.57! I get through the finish and burst into tears. What a girl….

I enjoy Zack’s writing, and I also enjoy pictures of crazy people’s inventions, so I’ve been interested in this since it was announced. To support his endeavors, I swiped this from the somethingawful.com forums and altered it a tiny bit for promotional purposes.

I am pleased, and a bit nervous, to announce that My Tank is Fight! is now available for preorder from Amazon.com. Who the hell preorders a book? You, hopefully! Ever preordered copy of My Tank is Fight! boosts our sales stats through Amazon and will increase the exposure the book receives. I’m not expecting a number one seller from this book, but I’d sure like to beat out “A Grandmother’s Guide to Fonts and Borders”.

My Tank is Fight! is a humorous pulp-history look at more than 20 unusual or insane inventions of the Second World War. Each chapter features a detailed examination of the real history and technology behind each invention and all 19 chapters are linked by fictional narratives. The book is also lavishly illustrated, with 18 full-color illustrations by Josh Hass, and more than two dozen detailed black and white illustrations by Mike Doscher. My Tank is Fight! is not a dry analysis of the forgotten weapons of war, it brings those weapons to life.

My Tank is Fight! will be released on October 3rd and is available for preorder through Amazon.com. Amazon ships internationally so you foreigners should have no problem ordering a copy.

Please show your support and order the ultimate bathroom book for war junkies. My Tank is Fight! is also a great gift for:

• People who like tanks
• People who like airplanes
• People who like Hitler
• No, not that sort of people who like Hitler
• Single moms
• Single dads
• Single Hitlers

Remember, pre-order your 20 copies today! Get the word out!
Order it here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806527587/104-6804011-8993544?n=283155

International Links:

Germany
UK
France
Canada
 Japan

Captured! By Robots is a band of evil robots from space. They captured and experimented on the unfortunate human now known as J-Bot, and he is now forced to take the robots on tour to deliver the message of their hatred for all humanity through the medium of music. The tours are themed, and past tours have included a funk show, a reenactment of The Ten Commandments (the movie), a Death Metal Star Trek tour, and even a Richard Simmons-esque workout theme.

This year, the theme was “I got married by Captured! By Robots;” J-Bot is ordained by the Universal Life Church and is performing marriages at the concert. Bridget spotted the tour announcement email and suggested we get married by robots, and I enthusiastically agreed.

On May 21st, 2006 at the Cactus Club in Milwaukee, Bridget and I were married by Captured! By Robots… and oh, what a wedding it was.

The place was packed, and a surprising number of our friends showed up to see us get hitched. The show was definitely one of the better C!BR experiences I’ve had — the music was awesome, and the banter between J-Bot and his verbally abusive mechanical captors (and occasionally the audience) was entertaining as ever. J-Bot even brought a wedding cake! What a guy.

Pictures
A short video clip [8MB]

If you see C!BR coming through your town, I recommend you check it out. Tell J-Bot that Toby from Milwaukee sent you.

We went to the zombie bar crawl last night, and it was a great time. The Palomino (apparently, the bar doesn’t have a website, or at least not one that I can find) was good enough to host the beginning and ending stages of our groaning shuffle, and while I can’t clearly recall the names of the places we hit on our route, I do know that Cafe LuLu was my favorite stop. Have you ever seen a zombie hoarde doing the twist?

I got a few pictures, check out the gallery.