Sand By The Ton, a grand opening and fundraiser for The Big Art Studios at American Steel, a new 250,000 square feet art space in West Oakland, takes place this Saturday, July 11th starting at 4pm and going until very late.

The event features 200 tons of sand and 5 swimming pools (swimwear is encouraged), along with 8 stages of music and a bunch of great art. Advance tickets are now on sale.

Big Art Studios is a project born of two Bay Area artists, Dan Das Mann and Karen Cusolito. Their need for a large, well–appointed warehouse with high ceilings, 10 ton bridge cranes and access to all the vendors they patronize led them to West Oakland, and the historic American Steel Building. In 2005, the pair began working in a small section of the 6 acre building, which was nearly vacant and greatly resembled a ghost town. Over time friends and other artists visited the warehouse and discovered they too needed a space like this. In 2007 Dan and Karen rented larger tracts of space, and soon the warehouse was populated with creative, productive, forward-thinking individuals.

On April Fools Day, 2009, Dan and Karen signed a lease on the entire property. The facility now includes a 250,000 square foot industrial warehouse, a 50,000 square foot pristine studio warehouse, a 14,000 square foot event space, and a suite of offices for a wide variety of uses.

Today, over 80 artists and small green businesses call Big Art Studios their home for creative endeavors, and this great variety of individuals and skill sets comprises a truly diverse and vibrant community, replete with inspiration and cross-pollination of all kinds;

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Sand By The Ton, Grand Opening & Fundraiser For The Big Art Studios at American Steel

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photo by Scott Beale

California Extreme 2009, an annual celebration of classic arcade games and pinball, takes place July 11-12 at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara.

California Extreme is the “Classic Arcade Games Show”. It’s an annual celebration of coin operated pinball machines, video games and other novelties you once found in game arcades. All games on display are set for free play, so leave your quarters in the ash tray in your car. You won’t need ‘em.

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California Extreme 2009, A Celebration of Classic Arcade Games & Pinball

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photo by Scott Beale

Stopped by to visit my nephew Chewie Fonzarelli.

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Chewie Fonzarelli

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TweetCraft is an in-game Twitter client for World of Warcraft. Coding4Fun has more info on how it works.

via Jeff Sandquist

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TweetCraft, An In-Game Twitter Client for World of Warcraft

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Jeff Goldblum interrupts The Colbert Report to let Stephen know that he’s not dead.

via Jeremiah Owyang

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Jeff Goldblum Interrupts The Colbert Report To Let Stephen Know He’s Not Dead

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“Fireworks”, another wonderful stop-motion animation video by PES.

This post is dedicated to Elli Kate who loves everything PES does.

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Fireworks, Stop-Motion Animation by PES

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Stop The War on Fun is a “group musicians, artists, club owners, club goers, entertainment industry workers and supporters of fine arts and live entertainment who want preserve and protect live music and entertainment in California”.

At a time when small businesses are failing left and right and Californians everywhere could use a lift, the ABC has decided to step up harassment of bars, clubs, dance halls and live entertainment venues of all types.

These clubs aren’t accused of serving alcohol to minors. Nor are they accused of attracting crime or violence. They’re attempting to present entertainment to all-ages audiences.

Here’s more info on how to help out.

via Joe Brilliant

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Stop The War on Fun, Help Protect Live Music & Entertainment in California

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guest post by Doctor Popular

photos by Plug1 (WHAT IM SEEING DOT COM)

Pez Candy Inc. is suing the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia over copyright infringement. The suit, filed last week, claims that the museum deceives the public into believing they are operating under the authority of Pez and asks that the museum’s 7 foot tall replica of Pez dispenser be destroyed. The lawsuit also takes issue with the museum’s sales of toy truck Pez dispensers which had been modified with Obama and McCain logos during last years elections. The museum has been opened since 1995 and is said to be the only place in the world were you can see every Pez dispenser ever made.

WHAT IM SEEING DOT COM has a great write-up on the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia from last December.

via The San Mateo Times

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Pez Suing Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia

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poster by Derek Yaniger

Tiki Oasis 9 “Tiki Surf City” is a 4-day weekend Tiki extravaganza taking place August 13-16 in San Diego. Organized by Otto von Stroheim of Tiki News and Baby Doe of The Devil-Ettes, it’s one of the largest and longest running Tiki events in the world.

Escape the stress of everyday life with a weekend getaway that is right in your own backyard. Within minutes you will be relaxing by a pool surrounded by tropical landscaping and watched over by a 10 foot tall guardian Tiki. You can order a tropical cocktail such as a Blue Hawaiian or Mai Tai without leaving the comfort of your chaise lounge. Or take a stroll into the secluded Tiki atrium, sit by the Koi fish pond, and listen to the soft waterfall serenade.

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Tiki Oasis 9, Tiki Surf City

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gdgt, the new gadget site created by Ryan Block (former editor of Engadget) and Peter Rojas (founder of Engadget & Gizmodo), has just launched.

gdgt (like “gadget” — or g-d-g-t) is a new kind of technology site — a social gadget platform that enables you to connect with the community through your gadgets, and connect with your gadgets through the community. It’s a place for you to engage with your devices and hang out with people who are as passionate about their gear as you are.

Here’s my account on gdgt.

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gdgt, New Gadget Site by Ryan Block & Peter Rojas

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photo by Scott Beale

Osama bin Laden “Missing” street art seen on Valencia Street in San Francisco.

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Missing

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“First Aid For Wedding Emergencies” is a hilarious series of videos by Kasper Hauser promoting their new book “Weddings of the Times”.

See Previously:

- Weddings of the Times & Obama’s Blackberry, Two New Books by Kasper Hauser

- Glinder & Glinder Will Fight For Your Rejected New York Times Wedding Announcement

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First Aid For Wedding Emergencies

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Fancy Fast Food features recipes and photos of fast food that has undergone an extreme makeover. For example the Tacobellini, which was made from a Taco Bell Burrito Supreme.

These photographs show extreme makeovers of actual fast food items purchased at popular fast food restaurants. No additional ingredients have been added except for an occasional simple garnish.

via Chris Glass

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Fancy Fast Food, Extreme Makeovers of Fast Food

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Using Google Earth you can view ultrahigh-resolution photos of art masterpieces located in Madrid’s Prado Museum.

Viewing a Velasquez or a Rembrandt in a place like Spain’s Prado museum is a unique experience. Now you can use Google Earth technology to navigate reproductions of the Prado’s masterpieces, delving even deeper into the Prado’s collection. In Google Earth, you can get close enough to examine a painter’s brushstrokes or the craquelure on the varnish of a painting. The images of these works are about 14,000 million pixels, 1,400 times more detailled than the image a 10 megapixel digital camera would take. In addition, you’ll be able to see a spectacular 3D reproduction of the museum.

Thanks to Mom for the tip!

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View Art Masterpieces In Madrid’s Prado Museum Using Google Earth

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No only does dumping endanger dolphins in the ocean, but also aliens in space.

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No Dumping, Drains To Space

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“The DM of The Rings”, a webcomic by Shamus Young that tells the story of The Lord of The Rings in the form of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign.

Lord of the Rings is more or less the foundation of modern D&D. The latter rose from the former, although the two are now so estranged that to reunite them would be an act of savage madness. Imagine a gaggle of modern hack-n-slash roleplayers who had somehow never been exposed to the original Tolkien mythos, and then imagine taking those players and trying to introduce them to Tolkien via a D&D campaign.

via Neatorama

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The DM of The Rings, The Lord of The Rings Told as a Dungeons & Dragons Campaign

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Flickr has just launched Twitter2Flickr which allows you to simultaneously upload photos and video directly to Flickr and Twitter via email. Links posted to Twitter use a special flic.kr URL shortener. I’ve been testing it out for a while and it works really well.

Kellen has posted more info on how to integrate Flickr and Twitter using the API.

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Twitter2Flickr, Upload Photos & Video to Flickr & Twitter at the Same Time via Email

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Comic book artist Neill Cameron is currently working on a wonderful series of illustrations featuring the A-Z of Awesomeness based on suggestions from his readers.

So for each letter of the alphabet I am going to let people suggest a character, and I will then draw that character, on a daily basis. Got it? You are also allowed to suggest what that character should be doing, with bonus points awarded for imaginative alliteration.

via Neatorama

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A-Z of Awesomeness by Neill Cameron

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Firefox 3.5, the long awaited upgrade to the popular open source browser, has just been released by Mozilla and with it comes a significant boost in speed and performance, as well as new and improved features.

Firefox 3.5 is the best performing browser Mozilla has ever released and delivers radically improved JavaScript performance, a new Private Browsing mode, native support for open video and audio, and Location Aware Browsing. The newest version of Firefox is more than two times faster than Firefox 3 and ten times faster than Firefox 2 on complex websites. With extensive under-the-hood work to support new technologies, Firefox 3.5 is the most powerful and complete modern browser and helps upgrade the Web experience.

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Firefox 3.5 Has Been Released

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Microsoft hired ad agency Bradley and Montgomery to create a bizarre series of online ads starting Dean Cain to promote Internet Explorer 8.

via idsgn

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Microsoft Creates Bizarre Series of Online Ads To Promote Internet Explorer 8

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