The “Strategic and necessary” edition :: Issue #322, Rusty’s Electric Dreams





“You think because l’m kind that it means I’m naïve, and maybe I am. It’s strategic and necessary. This is how I fight.”

Waymond Wang, Everything Everywhere All at Once

An inbox zine for positive deviants and the people who love them
Issue #322 :: The “Strategic and necessary” Edition :: 04:20:2022

Strategic and necessary…

This past Sunday, while nearly everyone I know was getting their only-in-the-Bay-Area Easter on in Dolores Park, I was at the Jim Henson exhibit on a free ticket from my local library. 

I went seeking inspiration. (The daily routine isn’t going to break itself, you know?) And, don’t get me wrong, I was inspired. But more humbled. What a remarkable, and incredibly wholesome, body of work! 

My dear readers, I got to meet some really special childhood friends and I still can’t totally understand how they were both smaller and larger in real life. To be in the same room as real Muppets, well, big feels!


Ernie and Bert? WAY BIGGER THAN EXPECTED.

The exhibit also introduced me to some of Jim’s “deep cuts” like an experimental film from 1965 called “Time Piece.” Live-action, no puppets. 

Related: Through my work at Children’s Fairyland in Oakland, I have a light connection to this wonderful world. Jim Henson’s longtime creative partner and co-creator of the Muppets, Frank Oz, got his start in the park’s puppet theater as a teenager. In 1970, he even did shows with Cookie Monster and Bert inside Fairyland. That story is here.  

— Rusty Blazenhoff
P.S. When I listen to music, I almost always turn on familiar tunes, esp. 1970s pop/rock favs from when I was a kid. Recently an acquaintance posted a playlist of new music he made, and it’s all of artists I had never heard of. Long story short, I am really digging it! So I thought, what if all of us (stares directly at YOU) crowdsourced a playlist of new music—well, turn it up man

As seen on the Internets


Museum of No Spectators

Absinthia, a longtime Burning Man community member, and Architect John Marx are bringing the Museum of No Spectators to this year’s Burn. It’s sort of a blank canvas inside the bigger “tabula rasa” from which Black Rock City is born. Participation is required, ideally starting now with a donation to their almost-funded crowdfunding campaign (see what I did there?). 

:: Nic Cage’s AMA is pretty much as you would expect Thanks, Valree!
:: reddit.com/r/movies/comments/tzxev3/hello_im_nicolas_cage_and_welcome_to_ask_me

:: Visualizing creative struggle loops
:: twitter.com/OzolinsJanis/status/1420344259367030784

:: Affirmations don’t work for you? Try what if-firmations
:: tiktok.com/@drpatriceberry/video/7087408335095336238

:: Ai Weiwei’s “10 rules for art and living
:: wepresent.wetransfer.com/stories/manifesto-ai-weiwei

:: Walmart is testing drone deliveries in Kansas
:: tiktok.com/@reallifesarah918/video/7086966997430406443

:: Now we know: It’s pronounced like chariot, carry it, or marry it
:: tiktok.com/@thepointsguy/video/7078705355512876330

:: Live, love, get ready to laugh: “Welcome to Poundtown”
:: twitter.com/zillowgonewild/status/1516071586264141827 Thanks, Andy!

:: Ta-da, the Magic Castle has a new owner!
:: foxla.com/news/hollywood-magic-castle-bought-by-video-game-maker

:: Returning to an office? You’re gonna need these bingo cards
:: npr.org/2022/04/11/1091638971/back-to-work-bingo-play-cards-return

:: February 2028 issue of Popular Pandemics has hit newsstands
:: popularpandemics.com/product-page/fall-2028-issue-no-11

:: Laurie Anderson’s Norton Lectures (details)
:: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtxVM47qfVNCAPdgEesjlfIQX6rptwXDp Thanks, Biddy!

Real things you can actually buy: way!



John Fluevog has boldly gone into the Star Trek game with Starfleet Boots ($399).

Real things you could’ve actually bought: way!



This WWII-era Saf-t-Bra contraption is basically a hard hat for the breasticles of female war workers.

Featured Events



[Whittier, CA :: opens 4/23] If tiki is your game, you know that Oceanic Arts has been the name for many years. Closed last November for good, this weekend these purveyors of Polynesian pop are hosting a live auction from their Whittier warehouse. There will even be vintage clothes in the sale! Take a sneaky tiki peeky. Thanks, Allison!
 
WORLDWIDE
[4/28-5/1] Talk to God

[6/11Game of Shrooms is nearly here. Promise me you’ll think about playing this year, either as a hider or a seeker. Or better yet, both! 
 

BAY AREA, CA+
[San Francisco :: 4/21-4/30] Rachel Lark’s Coming Soon: A New Rock Musical opens this week at Z Space.

[San Leandro :: opens 4/23] This Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. is the opening event for Here is a Sign, my pal Brody’s exhibit of vintage sign photos. San Leandro Public Library.

[San Francisco :: 5/21] Fleetwood Macrame, a righteous Fleetwood Mac cover band, have some upcoming dates, including one at the Rickshaw Stop.

[Oakland :: 7/2 + 7/3] Mosswood Meltdown


DENVER, CO
[Denver :: deadline 5/31] Call for proposals: Silent Screen Supernova. “Musical weirdo and visionary” Beatie Wolfe is curating an outdoor exhibition of six digital screens in Denver. Artists (you?) have the chance to get your creation featured on a giant LED screen during the festival in September. The theme is “Activating Environmental Awareness.” Applications are free and must be received before May 31.

LOS ANGELES, CA+
[Los Angeles :: now] Lonesome Town‘s Nothing is Sacred at La Luz De Jesus Gallery

SACRAMENTO, CA
[Sacramento :: until 5/1] The Candy Store: Funk, Nut, and Other Art with a Kick at Crocker Art Museum. Thanks, Whitney!

SAN DIEGO, CA
[San Diego :: 8/3 to 8/7] Tiki Oasis

VENETA, OR
[Veneta :: 7/8, 9, 10] Oregon Country Fair 

WASHINGTON, D.C.+
[Washington, D.C. :: Opens 4/1]  One with Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn Collection



Now THESE are mutant vehicles: SFMOMA held a soapbox derby and the creativity was THROUGH THE ROOF
image of “Shrimp Car” via Beth LaBerge/KQED

Rusty’s Electric Dreams is an inbox zine by Rusty Blazenhoff for positive deviants and the people who love them. If this was forwarded to you, please consider subscribing yourself.

Described as, “One of the most inspiring, weird and off-kilter collections of curated kitschy ephemera for the big-brained.” People like it. Well, most people do.

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