Pack Rat believes in the power of the stars

Good thing I checked my Facebook email today, or else I might have missed this awesome opportunity to tell anyone who’s in the Toronto area this weekend to look for the Toronto Church of Craft at the annual Trekzac Festicon, a.k.a. the Toronto Star Trek convention. These crafters are boldly going where no crafters have gone before. They will be using their prowess to construct Tribbles! Shatner toupees! And plush Borg cubes! Oh the humanity! Not Borg cubes! Don’t they know about the collective? Other then helping an alien entity steal our very souls out from under us, the C.O.C. booth should be a good time.

photo copyright: Toronto Church of Craft

Pack Rat saves the date, every date

Hullo Pack Rateers. We are fast approaching the first anniversary of the magazine and in celebration I think I will order a set of these clever Circle the Date patches from Chakra Pennywhistle. Only $7, these patches help you commemorate with love all of your most important events. Made from thrifted tea towels and embroidered with love (literally, a heart), these patches are not just a fanciful graphic element, but also a way to subtley remind friends and family about impending special events. This way you can make sure no one forgets Arbor Day again.

photo copyright: Chakra Pennywhistle

Pack Rat loves nutmeggers!

If you live in the Connecticut area, or are visiting for the fall foliage (and I recommend it. Connecticut has some great color and you don’t have to fight for room in a Bed & Breakfast the way you do in Vermont) in the coming weekends, then you are going to have your plates full will fun, indie stuff to do.

Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of the New Haven Underground Film Festival, which, according to their website, is so underground that it’s not even in New Haven. Yeah, it’s in West Hartford, about 45 minutes away from New Haven, so I guess they’re not kidding. Stepping in where the sadly defunct Film Fest New Haven left off, this is your CT stop this weekend to see some great indie films from all over the world.

image copyright: New Haven Underground Film Festival

If you are craving more arty stimulus, then check out City Wide Open Studios the following weekend, October 2-5 (and this one actually is in New Haven). City Wide Open Studios (or CWOS) has been running for over a decade and it’s easy to see why. With an ever-expanding list of contemporary artists, this is the premier place to see edgy, innovative pieces in Connecticut.

Unlike many other visual arts festivals in The Constitution State, which seem to run rampant with water colors of landscapes and boats, CWOS is fresh and full of vitality–it neither takes itself too seriously, nor simply lets itself go in the sweat pants and Mickey Mouse t-shirt kind of way that a lot of CT galleries and shows have.

Held in both the private studios of the artists, as well as non-traditional locales, such as an abandoned school building, CWOS takes the stuffiness and rigid conservatism out of small-town New England and injects it with vibrancy, color, and life. Featuring everything from jewelry to t-shirt design, to painting, photography, sculpture,  woodworking and other modes of fine art, CWOS is the most eclectic, biggest free-for-all I’ve ever encountered in the art world.

Affordable (I paid $5 to see, probably close to 60 artists last year), accessible (it runs for four days and has multiple locations, as well as tour buses that can take you to each stop) and just plain fun, CWOS is a don’t-miss event for anyone in Connecticut in the month of October.

For a full listing of showings and events visit the New Haven Advocate, the local alt-weekly that publishes the event guide.

image copyright: Artspace New Haven

Pack Rat has a soft glow

If you have some paraffin wax laying around, then checkout this tutorial from CandleTech.com to make some striking luminaries using a water balloon. Great for outdoor dinning or indoor romance.

photo copyright: candletech.com

Pack Rat loves you for your braaaains

You know, as society goes to hell in a handbasket for us Americans, a nightmarish existance that we never thought possible seems to be becoming more and more likely. So it seems reasonable that with the way things are going, we may just bypass a depression all together and go straight into the zombie armegeddon fortold by the prophet George A. Romero. Assuming that this will is the case (and really, at this point what other choice do we have) you can prepare for your inevitable battle with legions of the undead by buying your own Zombie Survival Pack from ElectricNomad. Thirty dollars is a small price to pay to keep your brains from being eaten.

photo copyright: ElectricNomad