Swarling Black Mable » Events

Blacklight Chandeliers DIM Video

blainegarrett — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:25:52 +0000

Here is a vid of us DIMmedia boys making our blacklight chandeliers for Shadow and Sound IV. I have to admit, for only a few hours of work and not really knowing what we were doing, they turned out slick!

Shadow and Sounds IV – Come See DIMMedia Artwork

blainegarrett — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:29:54 +0000

Doing anything Black Friday? Want to come see some great art, music, and help raise money for Cystic Fibrosis? DIMMedia is coordinating the art for Shadow and Sounds 4 going down at Aqua in downtown Minneapolis on Friday November 28th. Come check out out Shadow and Sounds 4

From the official site:

Shadows and Sound has proven that there is a voice to the next generation of artists in Minnesota and shown an untraditional way of showcasing the artists that are emerging from our community now. We feature local: Fine Art, Abstract-Modern, Sculptures, Fashion Design, Models, Live Video Projection, Refreshments & Food, Punk Rock, Progressive Rock, Experimental-Noise, World Music, Dance, Electro-Techno, Performance Art and much more. We are working to raise awareness of Cystic Fibrosis and to help fund a double-lung transplant operation for Eyva. (Ms. Kid). With your help and assistance from other organizations such as the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation & The Boomer Esiason Foundation, we can better inform the public of this terminal condition.

F1 Overnight Challenge from Sierra Bravo Returns

blainegarrett — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:47:41 +0000

Last year March, I participated in the F1 Overnight web challenge, a 24 hour+ programming comepetition to benefit Minnesota non-profits hosted by Sierra Bravo. My team had the pleasure of working with REDA (Riverview Economic Development Association). It was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to doing it again this year. Registration opened over the weekend for the event to be held February 28th. My team is the Polymorphin Power Rangers, lead by Jon once again. My profile is up here. I am the green ranger. hehe

Here is the testimonial from Brian of REDA… quite entertaining and gives a good idea of Brian’s energy and how appreciative of what we did!

Flickr Photo Pool from last year too:

DIMmedia at Hair Police, Uptown Minneapolis

blainegarrett — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:15:47 +0000

At our last planning meeting, DIM Media (Charles, Joe, etc) set some future goals – one of which was to try to do a public event every month. This hasn’t been too far fetched since we had our work up at 2nd Moon all summer with an opening for my work in May, Red Hot Art in June, 2 Shelter gigs in Sept, a Shelter gig in Oct, and Shadow and Sound in Nov. However, to further this goal, we need to persue more gigs.

Wednesday, Charlie and I met up with someone from Hair Police to talk about having our work up there in January. They found us through Myspace and really liked our work. It should be pretty rad. They need to approve everything with the owners but it sounds like there will be a reception and music and the whole nine yards. Sweet. Hair Police is sort of a big deal and this should be a cool opportunity for us. So stay tuned for more info on this and other DIMMedia outings!

Halloween and Shelter Recap

blainegarrett — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:48:11 +0000

I know this comes a week or so too late, but I figure I better get a recap up of Halloween since it very well could have been one of the best ever.

For the past few years, I have not done much planning for my Halloween costumes. When I was a kid I used to plan for months and make some really cool costumes (well for a little kid anyway). The last few years, I have just slapped on some makeup at the last minute before heading out for the evening. However, this year, Halloween was on Friday and DIMMedia had a live painting gig at Shelter downtown Minneapolis again. So well in advance, I knew I wanted to do something special. My friend Anya often teased me that I looked like Wolverine from the Xmen, so I decided that I might as well go as him this year.

In August, I started growing my beard and hair out. In the mean time, I ordered some “bling” in the form of a X-Men logo belt buckle and some authentic Canadian military dogtags. I fashioned the claws from plates steel. Originally, I planned to have the claws retract, but I waited until the last minute to make the mechanism and sorta gave up at the last minute and just ducttape the claws to a pair of gloves. Arika did my hair up based on Hugh Jackman’s portrayal. I even worked out quite a bit more to gain some extra muscle – hey Wolverine ain’t no scrawny dude with a pot belly. hahah.I’ll let you decide for yourself if I made a convincing Wolverine.

Anywho, the night of Halloween, Joe (who went as Andrew W.K.) and I made our way to Shelter and set up. We decided to pin a 9 foot piece of canvas to the rig I made from the previous shelter gig. We also had a small stretched canvas going off to the side. Since it was Halloween, we decided to do an amalgamation of monsters in our respective styles. We started off with quick charcoal drawings. Joe then switched to making the lines stronger with ink and I started filling in with the fluorescent. It was a really awesome dynamic working with Joe since we have never collaborated on the same piece before – something I always envied with Charles and Joe working together normally.

As the night progressed, the music and booze and general atmosphere kicked in and made working a blast. Unlike the last shelter gig, I had energy the entire evening and was actually a bit sad when 2am bar close rolled around. The Shelter had both rooms going with DJs and the place was packed. Also unlike last time, people were coming up to us telling us how much they dug our work. The whole thing was very surreal with everyone in costume and getting painty. There may have been a bit of body painting going on, but luckily I didn’t end up killing anyone with my claws, even though I did slash Captain America’s cardboard shield. haha.

Anywho, aftwarwards I went to an after party at Jobot‘s studio and chilled to some more techno djs. I finally made my way home at 5am or so and pretty much slept the next day until the Beastie Boy’s concert.. However, that is another story altogether. All in all, best Halloween ever!

A special thanks to Zak, Shelter, and Barfly for letting DIMMedia do their thing. Word.
Some related links:

Krapp’s Last Cast Episode 25 – We talk a bit about Halloween Adventures
DIMMedia’s Myspace
Shelter Myspace

Birthday Recap – My Big 2-5

blainegarrett — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 15:39:10 +0000

Well it is that time of year again… the sweltering dog days of summer start to dance with the cool autumn breezes. The leaves start to think about putting on their death masks. We come to the realization that all our goals for summer that we planned in May fell by the wayside.

All in all, it is a bit of a downer time of year, but it is all a matter of perspective right? Actually, the cool autumn breezes are nice since we can ditch the sweat soaked tshirt for some nice fashionable layers. The leaves are not dead and decrepit, they are colorful and beautiful. Oh, and your over ambitious goals were replaced with weekends lounging in the pool and grilling with friends. Look at the bright side! Another thing that comes and goes with the Labor Day weekend is my birthday.

25 years ago as of 8:30PM tomorrow, I came into this world. So the story goes, my mom’s water broke 6 weeks early and after being in the hospital a day or three, they flew her to St. Paul’s Children’s hospital to induce birth. Since I was so premature, everyone was preparing for the worst. But, when I came out, I was a happy healthy Blaine Flynn. Awww.

Anyway, it is my birthday. I’m feeling a bit bummed about it all even though we’re having a party tonite and I have a long weekend to get some well deserved relaxation. I guess the big thing is thinking about all the things I want to do and realizing how few of them I have done. Likewie, for all the stuff I do with Adamantine Arts, I can’t really play my age of as part of the novel nature of things. If things are not fully organize, it is no longer permissible as “wow, he did all this and is so young?” Rather it is ever growing simply dismissable as “Get your act together”. So that is a bummer. I’m also still bummed that I have not met anyone in the last year or so that really trips my trigger. A related matter that bums me out but will probably be best in the end is that I realized that I can’t settle for less than perfection. So in all of the aforementioned things, it is just a matter of time before they go from bumming me out to being something amazing.

Some goals just for goal sake :

Quit smoking this year finally – perhaps with the help of Zyban
Meet that special someone this fall to keep warm this winter
Catch up on making artwork this year for my solo show in May
Record some tunes with Jon
Work on my graphic novel with Josh
Go on a trip this year to somewhere relaxing
Get back in shape
Actually learn to play theremin now that I have had it for a year…

So yep. Anyway, Jon is coming over to jam. We bought some new headphones and studio gear to play with. I’ll keep you posted on the party tonite. wooo