I'm told real men drink beer, poured out of a ceramic-top growler, into a horn (only if the empty skull of your defeated enemy isn't close by). This was the scene that greeted me at this year's Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby at the end of May (yeah, yeah, I have some catching up to do from all the wedding stuff I had going on). This was the first time I had made it to the derby since the first one 4 years ago when I was working one of the tables.
The crowd was massive, ten times what it was when I was there last. I'm told the crowd has doubled each year since and I believe it. There were some of the old teams in the actual derby and tons of new ones. The creation of a new beer company in town happened since my last visit and they've been a major part of the derby as sponsors of the event. They came through this year with a steam engine. It was ginormous.
But this was my favorite kinetic sculpture of the day. The guy described himself as a 'flying sack of manure' – how do you think up that one? It was awesome. Below is a flickr set of a bunch of shots from the day. It was cloudy and it sprinkled for a bit, but that didn't deter the crowd or the kinetic sculpture riders from enjoying the fun.
Way back in May [yes, I've been busy getting married (June 19th!)], I went to an awesome art show. It wasn't just any art show, it was the culmination of 10 years of work and thousands of miles traveled across America and beyond. I'm proud to call Zoe Strauss a friend and I'm incredibly fortunate to have gone to several of her I-95 shows during my tenure here in Philly. That's Strauss above getting her photo taken by Manny Dominguez, another great Philly fine art photog. She's posing under the stream of light that is present under the I-95 overpass right around 1.05p and lasts all of 10 minutes. For a few hundred yards, the stream of light magically appears, like a rainbow, but you can touch the 'pot of gold' at the end of this one.
And here's me taking in the ray.
It's always fun to go down for the show and see how the space changes from year to year. At some point since last year's show, some kids poured some concrete to make a ramp up one of the pillars. Zoe's print hangs just below the high points on the pillar. You won't see that in a stuffy museum.
Here's Jorj with a TLR (which was unfortunately stuck at f/22 or something all day) about to take a shot of the shaft of light coming through I-95.
Another of the country's best photogs was at the show, none other than Kathleen Connally whom I'm also proud to call a friend. She brought out the grapefruit and showed us what bokeh really looks like.
This has been one of my favorite shots of Zoe's for ages. I'd really love to have it, but my wife (how weird is that) would never allow a bunch of Mummers pissing hanging on one of our walls. Woe is me.
When it got to the end, the usual happened: people staked out their favorite shot and guarded it for the 4p riiiiip. This time around, people gathered earlier than usual. I guess the word was really out for the last show so tons of people were there. The vibe was a little different from previous years. It was more opportunistic. That's a good and bad thing I guess. It shows the continued popularity of her work. She hasn't diluted her work for the masses though, more people are being exposed to the realness and they like it.
Here's the rip in action.
Andy demonstrates one way to get a Strauss print home safely – on your shirt!
Here's my friend Haley showing off two color copies she bought at the show.
Here's Zoe signing away. Since it was the final show, she said she's stay as long as it took to sign anything people brought to the show to get signed. I didn't see any babies being signed, but I wasn't standing around waiting to see it go down.
But like all good things, the show had to come to an end. People left on foot, on bike, by car and by public transportation. Philly came out for the last hurrah of an amazing 10 year project. What's next up on Zoe's horizon? Documenting the BP oil cluster fuck in the Gulf Coast. Help her get there.
