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Come make tin foil hats at SFMOMA this Sunday. The future will be subsuming the space after the event, excluding all possibility of future partakings there (SFMOMA is closing for 3 years for renovations directly after the event)

Fulfill your destiny! Make hats! Bring them to the event.
Hat making supplies and instructional sessions will be held throughout the day!

(via)

(Previously, Close SFMOMA With Me)

About the Sunday 5:30pm procession (via):

As SFMOMA exits its current campus to build our upcoming expansion, artist Desiree Holman conducts a series of movements that bridge our present potential to our future tense. Drawing on eccentric histories of time and space, from New Age culture and extraterrestrial encounter to paranormal powers, Holman mobilizes extraordinary characters, costumes, and objects that can make the Museum’s and our own futures happen, now.

Four columns of agents will conduct our journey. The Indigo Children, a living and evolving humanity whose emotional and intellectual intelligence outstrip our own, lead us through sound from our current place. Ecstatic Dancers demonstrate how our focused present can always lead us to a visionary space. Time travel captains sport empowering sculptural helmets, built by Holman, that open portals to where we want go. And the public joins us, in your own key to the future, with a final column populated by your visions of time travel, goddess worship, spaceships, aliens, druids, additional dimensions, and alternative worlds.

We all have a key to the future, in each of our traditions and fantasies. Holman invites the Bay Area to bring all of these personal keys to her “Motion to the Future.” Inspirations for her work, and for your participation, are here.

I worked on making some ridiculous kinetic time travel headgear with artist Desiree Holman. They came out pretty sweet.  The headgear is part of an event that will close SFMOMA. Yes, my techno-hats will be some of the last things you see at the current SFMOMA space. They are closing immediately after our event and reopening in a new space spring 2016!

Join us!

Admission to the museum and event is free, but it can’t hurt to register online.

Update 5-30-13: SFMOMA wrote to me, “We expect crowds and long lines to be part of the experience. Insider tip: bring a fun friend or a good book just in case!Your RSVP helps us anticipate numbers of guests so we can plan accordingly, but it is not a guarantee of admittance. With free admission and limited building capacity, we thank you for understanding that we may not be able to accommodate all visitors at once”

I will be there from maybe 3pm-6pm this Sunday. People will be making Future-Perfect Tin Foil Hats  Sunday from noon to 5pm and then the procession into the future happens at 5:30. By 6pm we will have closed the place down!*

Oh and the event is  co-sponsored by BoingBoing, check out their post.

* unless the time travel hats actually work. In that case, Happy New Year!

This image has gone around Facebook:

So I wondered, “Do American’s worry about different things depending on who is in the White House?”

I found the Gallup poll mentioned in the Facebook post. It’s pretty interesting. Every few years they asked this question:

In your opinion, which of the following will be the biggest threat to the country in the future — big business, big labor, or big government?

The images were broken on gallup.com so I took the data in the full report  and made my own chart. Take a look:

This chart says a lot!

For instance, big labor? Look at that long slow slide. Nobody worries about  big labor any more.

“No Opinion”? No way! Everyone has an opinion now, which wasn’t the case 50 years ago! Maybe this is due to the increased connectivity of our country now (CNN, internet, etc…)

Look at the long slow trend of worry about big government. Is this trend based on the political affiliation of the president? Not really. Is it based on individual president’s actions? Sometimes, yes. For instance, people got more concerned about big government with Johnson’s big-government programs. And look at how Bush temporarily shifted worries toward big business. But there is an overarching trend of worry about big government over the past 50 years that supersedes any president.

Now to the question at hand, “is the federal government too powerful?” This chart can’t answer that question directly but it can say that for the last 50 years people have very consistently been almost exactly twice as worried about big government as they have about big business.

Compared over each president’s full term:
Johnson shifted the worries a little toward government and then it recovered after his term.
Carter, Reagan, and Clinton kept relative worries about even.
It looks like Obama is shifting worries a little toward government.

My initial take away is: Obama isn’t making people much more worried than they might otherwise be about big government.

Discuss!

After 13 years of having the same pair of eyeglasses (wow), I got a new pair this past week.

I think they look pretty rad. What do you think?

Thanks mom!

And now the weird part. A few minutes ago  I tried on my old glasses to compare them to the new ones and….. and they broke!  After 13 years they broke just a few days after getting my new pair!!! No… better yet… I’ve only worn them a total of maybe 2 MINUTES after getting my new pair! Yes, after 13 years, my old glasses broke 2 minutes after getting my new pair!

Deets on the new glasses: made by Silhouette. They’re the TNG shape 5227, 40, Color 6059 19, 145. Got them at  Meredith W. Morgan University Eye Center  AKA Cal Eye on University of California at Berkeley Campus.

Deets on the old glasses: Sferoflex darksteel, 160mm temple, cable temples  (which are awesome), 50, 19. I think I got them at Lenscrafters in Medford, MA in 2000.

You probably like to keep your Facebooking moderately private. Here’s a tip:

As you go about your day, you sometimes allow Apps on Facebook access to your information. Some Apps get access to your posts or your list of friends. I would suggest that every now and then you remove any unused Apps because… well, there is no need for miscellaneous website operators to keep looking over your shoulder, unless you like that sort of thing!

Removing unused Apps is easy. Go here:
https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=applications

You will see a list of “Apps you use”. Just click on the little “x” to remove any Apps you don’t use any more. This will break the link between Facebook and the other website.

Last weekend was Maker Faire. I’m pretty stoked that I got to work at the Official Arduino Booth with Massimo Banzi, one of the main driving forces behind Arduino! :-)

Check out these offerings from Stanford University.
These classes are free and taught by experts in the field

http://online.stanford.edu/courses

Here’s a snippet of some of the course catalog

NOW IN PROGRESS

Wherein Brian Brushwood relays how he became a successful magician. It’s excellent advice for whatever career or avocation you are planning on!

What? Time Travel Hats? Yes, time travel hats!

I’m working with an artist, Desirée Holman, on part of a piece she is presenting at The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

My name is down there at the bottom, next to “time travel headgear” (tol’ja so!)
(via)

Special Event
Sunday, June 02, 2013

FAREWELL PROCESSIONAL: THE INDIGO AND THE ECSTATIC: A MOTION TO THE FUTURE

Date + Time
Sunday, June 02, 2013
5:30 p.m.
Location
Begins on the rooftop, then moves museumwide
Overview
As SFMOMA exits its current building to make way for the upcoming expansion, artist Desirée Holman conducts a series of movements that bridge our present potential to our future tense. Drawing on eccentric histories of time and space, from New Age culture and extraterrestrial encounter to paranormal powers, Holman mobilizes extraordinary characters, costumes, and objects that can make the museum’s and our own futures happen now. Help us bid adieu to our building by joining the processional as it winds its way from the museum’s rooftop down to the atrium and into the world outside.

Four columns of agents will conduct our journey. The Indigo Children, a living and evolving humanity whose emotional and intellectual intelligence outstrips our own, lead us through sound from our current place. Ecstatic Dancers demonstrate how our focused present can always lead us to a visionary space. Time Travel Captains sport empowering sculptural helmets, built by Holman, that open portals to where we want go. Our visitors are invited to join us in a final column populated by your visions of time travel, goddess worship, spaceships, aliens, druids, additional dimensions, and alternative worlds. We all have a key to the future in each of our traditions and fantasies.

Holman’s The Indigo and the Ecstatic: A Motion to the Future is commissioned by the Live Art program at SFMOMA. We are happy to invite back many of the performers from our 24-hour live art variety show, Future Countdown Live, for this important finale.

Co-presented by Boing Boing.

Participants
Featuring the Young American Patriots Fife and Drum Corps as the Indigo Children (director: Jason Giaimo; percussion instructor: Anna Cucciardo; fifers and drummers: Aditya, Anjali, Elizabeth, Jainam, Joshua, Mahika, Mayank, Nikith, and Surya; flag bearers: Jainav, Ishan, Namrata, and Nischay), Ecstatic Dancers (Dance Sanctuaryâ„¢ with Valerie Chafograck, a Soul Motionâ„¢ teacher, featuring dancers: Brittany Barrett, Maya Batki, Art Busse, Robert Carroll, Cas Casados, Joshua Cross, Ajay D Dave, Effie Dobbertin, Jacqueline Duhart, Timothy Earle, Byron Kawaichi, Teresa Lesko, Shana LoPresti, Alexis Miller, Samuel Shin, Ah Yavorsky, Natalie Zeituny, and others), and DJ Joshua Kit Clayton.

Admission + Ticketing
Museum and program admission are free and open to the public.

Image: Desirée Holman, Channeling Aura 2, 2012; gouache on paper; image courtesy Desirée Holman

Costumes for the Indigo Children designed and produced by Job & Boss.

Dancers’ costumes designed by Desirée Holman; fabric printing by Standard Flag and Banner, sewing by Golden Guild.

Time travel headgear designed by Desirée Holman with assistance from Lee Sonko and Malia Rose.

SFMOMA thanks our associate producers Christina Linden and Malia Rose.

This is a bit nitpicky, but hey… I sent this to BART today.

This note concerns the timing of when conductors issue the “Please stand clear of the doors. The doors are closing.” message on BART trains.

That message often occurs at inappropriate times, like when a large number of people are in the middle of boarding a train. Please ask your conductors to only give that message when the doors really are about to close.

It is unnerving to hear that message while a crowd is in the middle of boarding at a normal pace. I become somewhat worried that the conductor doesn’t see the boarding passengers and will close the door on us. Of course, that doesn’t happen but the purpose of the message isn’t being fulfilled.

Thank you for your consideration,
Lee Sonko