JOYENGINE: cause sharing is cool

There’s a great interview with Stephanie Lee of Twinkie Chan, at Scene360. Her tag line is, “Eat your cake… and wear it, too.” The adorable San Fran resident makes some delicious apparel. Like anything baked or worn, it’s always best hand made with care; her’s creations obviously are.

Yesterday I swung by the record store to pickup Jimmy Luxury and the Tommy Rome Orchestra’s second album, Hotels, Limousines and Lawn Chairs, released September of 2007. I discovered that not a single person working there knew of these guys.  I wasn’t too surprised, but bummed that not enough people know of these two swing hop masterminds. You won’t find their two albums at most record stores or iTunes, but you can download their songs and purchase albums from their website. If you haven’t heard of these guys, take a look, I think you’ll enjoy their work.

Legendary toy customizer, Huck Gee has been takin’ some heat as of late over the high prices of his super custom toys.  Our pal Jeremy over at Toycyte got down with huck to get the lo-down.  Huck’s prices are totally justified, if not low.  Customized toys are art, just like a painting, or an inked illustration, or a more traditonal piece of sculpture.  Toy sales to some degree are driven by all the wild customizers out there, customizers like Huck.  If you can’t afford the best the toy-world has to offer, stick with the off the shelf models.  After all, even those are limited editions. Just don’t cry when an artist gets paid what he or she deserves.  Read the interview here…

The deadline for submissions into INDYINK’s Plastisol Free For All is comin’ up quick… August 21st.  All t-shirt design submissions will voted on by the public at La Rumba on September 7th.  The top ten finalists will win cash and have their tees printed.  Get the details here.

The infamous, mysterious and always elusive Lifter Baron was finally captured on camera while taking a snorkeling adventure off the coast of Florida.  Sources said he was a very strong swimmer.  Where’s the spear gun Lifter?

With all the SOFT&FURRY™ toys shipped out, I figured I would take some time to introduce the featured artists that will be customizing the toys.  We shipped TOKO the whole set, LOOFT, DOO and GROOND and can’t wait to see what comes back.  Based out of Syndey here’s are some highlights from their portfolio, you can check out the whole thing here.

The 3rd shipment, 2nd domestic, of SOFT&FURRY™ toys left the studio today.  We’re stoked to get these suckers off so Travis, RYC, Toothjuice, and Grant can get after it.  An additional 20 toys have been completed and prep’d for drop-off at the Plastic Chapel so all our arty pals in Denver can stop by and pick ‘em up!!!

“We’re not going to settle for what the world is, we’re going to strive for what it might be.” — Barack Obama.  And on thing that definitely will be - is one helluva frikin’ awesome art exhibition at Andenken Gallery (2990 Larimer Street) running Monday August 25 though Thursday August 28th.

The Manifest Hope Gallery exhibition celebrates arts pivotal role in creating cultural momentum and shines a spotlight on artists across the nation who use their voices to amplify and motivate the Obama campaign.  The gallery exhibition highlights 5 central themes of the progressive grass-roots movement: Hope, Change, Progress, Unity, and Patriotism.

While we’re super-stoked that this event is coming to Denver’s very own Andenken, we’re even more stoked to be participating in it and representing Colorado’s progressive art front alongside Scot Lefavor, Evan Hecox,  Josh Holland and Shannon Bonatakis, Mike Moore of tres birds, and Rick Griffith of Matter Studio.  The list of participating artists for the show is unbelievable, we’re truly honored and humbled to be involved.  Mark your calendars.  You don’t wanna miss this one!!!

The latest list of contributing artists includes:
Aaron Martin // Adrian Sanchez // Alexis McKenzie // Amy Martin // Amy Rice // Andy Howell // Alex Pardee // Cathie Bleck // Casey Ryder // Chanel Kennebrew // Chris Pastras // Chris Yates // Cydney Payton // Dan Monick // Date Farmers // David Choe // David Lanham // Deroy Peraza // Diederick Kraaijeveld // Eddie // Elizabeth Rosen // Emek // Evan Hecox // Frank Chimero // Franke // Gary Baseman // HVW8 // Irene Hardwicke Olivieri // Jason Alberto // Justin Alberto Garcia // Jason Giglio // Jeff Zimmerman // Jesselisa Moretti // Jude Buffum // Julie Adler // Justin Bua // Kate Luscher //Kay Tuttle // Keith Negley // Kofie // Leontine Greenberg // Lisa Anne Auerbach // Lisa Congdon // Lukas Ketner // MAC //Max Ginsburg // Maya Hayuk // Mear One // Mel Kadel // Melanie Reim // Morning Breath // Munk One // Nick Dewar // Pete Yahnke // Philip John Lumbang // Ray Noland aka CRO // Rebecca Berdel // Retna // Rick Griffith // Ron English // Ron Keas // Sam Flores // Sarah Hoskins // Scot Lefavor // Shannon Bonatakis and Josh Holland // Shepard Fairey // Cypher13 // Todd Lockwood // Tom Slaughter // Mike Moore (Tres Birds) // Van Taylor Monroe // Zara Gonzalez // Zina Saunders // Zoltron // Aaron Axelrod // Thomas Brodhal // Ginger Che // Catia Chien // Christopher Cox // Grotesk // Damon Locks // Zach McDonald // Tres Birds // Adrian Tucker // Arellano Harvath // Antar Dayal // Vincent Comparetto

51 toys have been delivered for customization.  9 more ship tomorrow.   Then we hit up the homies and distribute locally.  100 handmade custom toys, fully customized at the Plastic Chapel on September 13th, 2008.  Gonna be hot… Damn, did that Shitty kill that logo!!!

Our friend Chris, over at ChangeTheThought just released a stellar array posters.  They’re 24″ x 36″, on heavy 100lb True White Paper, and according to Mr. Cox, they’re printed to near perfection.  Get ‘em while they still last!!!