Lee.org

I felt a tiny earthquake just a minute ago at 1:08am. Maybe a 2.9. It felt like the whole room shook east-west a tiny bit like 3 times. Like a big truck on the street below had jammed on it’s brakes a couple times and wiggled the whole neighborhood.

Ha! I got the magnitude right!
USGS says it was a 3.2 with an epicenter between Berkeley and Concord!

My friend Ben is running a Kickstarter to do a run of totally awesome custom belt buckles and bottle openers. Get some!

View Ben’s Kickstarter

Whenever I talk to friends about all the terrific reasons they have to not go to Burning Man, I give the same kinds of responses. This article does a great job at capturing some of those responses. So read it and go with me next year! It’ll change your life!

55 Things I Learned At Burning Man

Funny thing, last month I went out drinking with Sean and Lara. One of their drinking buddies is Carter who built the original DNA Lounge sign! We got to commiserate over drinks about how many gyrations and how much time it actually takes to build a sign. Good times!
(via)

Megan and I are back from the northlands of Minnesota feeling much refreshed! We’ll have pictures and stories soon!

Here is a hint… Our home for almost two weeks:

and click to view it in 3D wigglevision!

If you like machine performance, Kal’s shows are always cool. Join me?

https://www.facebook.com/events/517752421649461/

Industrial ROBOTICS art PERFORMANCE in San Francisco

Friday, August, 23, 2011
8:00PM until Midnight
1043 Marin St.,
S.F., Ca. 94124
cross street Illinois St.

General Admission: $10 or what u can pay…
Students and Seniors: $7

Live Audience Experiments with Machines and Robots

WITH! Dj Big Daddy, tip him!

YOU VOLUNTARILY ASSUME THE RISK OF SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH BY ATTENDING THIS PERFORMANCE!

Here is some discussion about my work: http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/16/artists-on-artists-chris-johanson-on-the-apocalyptic-machines-of-kal-spelletich/?_r=1

and;
http://www.kqed.org/arts/programs/spark/profile.jsp?essid=4525

My dad has had his 1951 Packard 250 Convertible with Ultramatic transmission since 1986. It was an amazing luxury car then and it has only gotten more spectacular as the years pass by.

As times change, he is selling the car. The last few years, it has mostly sat in a garage waiting for him to come up to New Jersey, something he doesn’t do as often as he used to. So, here it goes, back into the universe. You can find the most beautiful car in the world for sale on Hemmings

The Hemmings listing reads like so:
1951 Packard 250 Convertible
Location: Hackettstown, New Jersey 07840
Mileage: 36000
Trans: Auto
Condition: Excellent
Exterior: Packard Cream (yellow)
Interior: Red
Description: Original 1951 Packard 250 Convertible

Solid car, Excellent condition, Packard Cream (pale yellow) with Red interior, All Power, Ultramatic, Boot and Tonnheau Cover, Radials
Second owner (purchased and restored in 1986)
Voted Most Beautiful Car of 1951
Price: $32,000

Melissa took this little Vine.co video of Dad driving the car in August 2013

We can be quite handy at the Crucible!

I’ve been teaching several classes in the last few weeks. Above is one project from a kid in my Radical Robots class. It works quite well for a prototype! And Thank you to  Peter Moore for the photo!

Other recent teaching:

• A very successful Workshop Weekend: Arduino. 7 teachers, 30 students, 1 intense weekend! See my bio.
• Flame Effects Intensive at the Crucible last weekend. 7 students: lots of propane!
• Arduino class at the Crucible. Ongoing for the next few Tuesdays. I asked if they wanted to go meticulously or burn their brains. From their slight deer-in-headlights expressions they are often wearing, sometimes I think they chose poorly ;-). They’re enjoying it and learning a lot though!
• Electromechanics for Everything at the Crucible
• Several rounds of Radical Robots at the Crucible

From WW:A in July 2013!

Groupme is a group-texting app for smartphones and dumbphones. I use it all the time to chat with Megan because it’s faster and more reliable than texting with my Virgin Mobile phone (ugh, I know).

I just sent a message to Groupme support with my biggest gripe:

Since the promise of Groupme is (from the homepage) “the best way to chat with everyone you know”… “works on every device”… It would be great if the emoji were similar on the 3 main platforms me and my friends use it on: iphone, android, website. It is frustrating when the emoji I send isn’t the emoji they receive.

Keep rockin