Pack Rat Magazine likes to stir the stew

Well, we here at Pack Rat are pretty much across the board omnivores, but we have our misgivings about the meat industry and have nothing but love for our vegan brethren and sisteren. So, coming across the Post Punk Kitchen, a public access show devoted to tasty vegan meals even made me excited. Delicious sounding recipes like black bean and sweet potato stew, brown sugar fruit cakes, and roast squash pasta have me drooling. If you’re vegan this sounds like a sure thing, and even if you aren’t, who can resist a yummy new recipe?

Pack Rat Magazine loves its readers

It’s easy to think that the statement “You are beautiful,” is just some cheesy attempt at self-love, an affirmation mantra a la Stuart Smalley.  But it’s actually an artistic movement encouraging people to let go of the constant external and interal doubts.  The concept is simple: if a barage of advertisements can make us buy things like soda and laundry detergent, then they could also be put to good use, like making us realize our own self worth.  Repetition, bright colors, and visibility are all tactics used in this consumer driven age to convince us of the things we need. This artistic movement employes all of these strategies, and also tries to catch people in a moment of unawares and penetrate their cynacism through the unexpected.   Does it work?  Who can say, but there’s certainly something to be said for trying to bring a bit more positivity into the world.

Pack Rat Magazine is people!!

If you are in the Wisconsin area on May 17th and 18th, take a trip to Milwaukee for Bitchcraft, the arts/crafts/feminism extravaganza brought to you by Bitch magazine.  Here’s the blurb that sold me:

“Bitchcraft, a weekend of music, arts, crafts, and words will take place Saturday, May 17–Sunday, May 18. All events are free—donations are very much encouraged (and appreciated!) and benefit the nonprofit project you know and love as B-Word/Bitch.

Bitchcraft kicks off Saturday, May 17, 5–8 p.m., at Woodland Pattern Book Center, 720 E. Locust St., with performances by singer-songwriters Heidi Spencer and Stephanie Rearick; a sneak preview of “Devotion to Thread,” an exhibit curated by Faythe Levine; and some brief comments from me about what we’re up to at Bitch! 

Part two of Bitchcraft takes place Sunday, May 18, 4–5:30 pm. I’ll facilitate a special session of the Femiknits discussion group—open to non-knitters!—at Broad Vocabulary Bookstore, 2241 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. Our discussion will focus on the ways in which feminism can be re-imagined in our communities. Even if you don’t knit, please come and share your ideas, stories, and struggles. “

Pack Rat Magazine wants to know; where my girls at?

Well, ask for recycled craft blogs and you shall receive them. I came across two different blogs that occupy opposite corners of the recycle movement spectrum. One called The Visible Trash Society, the other is Haute Nature. Visible Trash Society takes a look at what artists in this country are doing with refuse and waste. They scout out a lot of street art and side of the road finds, like the picture of street artist’s Joshua Allen Harris’s Air Bear below. Most of what they hone in on is perhaps more “folk art” where as Haute Nature, as the name implies is the more high end, sheeshy poo poo version of recycled crafts. Both are fantastic sites for inspiration, and Haute Nature actually has some d.i.y. tutorials, like the one for this dollar bill koi fish pictured below. I don’t know about you, but I’m endlessly facinated by how people can reinvent waste into something people want to see. I also love thinking that the art materials people are using have a history, a past, some kind of story. So, check them out. Compare, contrast and over all, enjoy!

It’s Pack Rat Magazine, b*tches!

Okay, so I know I’ve been awol recently and I’m sure you’ve all be struggling to find the will to live without my sage words of advice (JK) but I’m back and the reason for my prolonged absence and subsequent return is that I’ve been working diligently on producing for you all (or y’all where appropriate) issue numero quatro of Pack Rat. This issue we help the Earth in the spirit of Earth Day by doing what we do best: recycled crafts and lots of them. We also talk with jewelry designer Becky Houle, a.k.a. The Vicious Kitty, look into what this whole letterbox craze is all about and, with the help of Cat Morley from Cut Out + Keep make our own letterbox stampers, hit the thrifts for some inexpensive crafting supplies, and just about a zillion things more. Head over to www.packratmag.com/zine to get in on the action. I missed you all and I’m glad to be back. Happy crafting!

Pack Rat Magazine invites you to choose cake or death.

‘Ello mates. Welcome to a lovely Monday morning. The sun is shining and the air is warm in Bean Town today, I hope you can say the same wherever you’re located. Today, we’re going on an open house tour. Please wipe your feet as you step inside the Scrap House. Built over the course of two months in 2005 by San Francisco based artists, architects, and designers, designed and built this single family home made entirely from reused and reclaimed material. I don’t know what I like most: the wall made from phone books; the chandelier made from assorted lamps; the other wall decorated with keyboards; or the bedroom decked out in street signs. And it gets so much sunlight! I want to build my own. Now, if only I had the slightest clue about architecture…

Hi kids!  the Feb/March Issue is finally out and rarin’ to go.  Click on the pdf link below!  And remember, if you think you could do better, you’re welcome to show us what you’ve got. Submission deadlines for next issue will be March 20th.  Happy reading.

issue3.pdf

Looking for more recycled craft mayhem? Check out Pack Rat Magazine

I have such good friends. They know to send me all the the weird chain emails that cross their paths. I received this one a few weeks ago about a condom fashion show held at the 4th annual China Reproductive Health New Technologies & Product Expo in Beijing on July 11, 2007. Condoms of all shapes and sizes were used to make dresses, hats, clocks, lollipops and more. Don’t they look good enough to actually wear? Yowza. For more, check out this news article from China Daily.

Obviously, if you know anything about Pack Rat you know we are all about upcycling, i.e. taking “trash” and recycling it into something of greater value than the original. So, once you visit Remarkable Pencils Ltd, a UK based company concerned with recycling plastic cups, juice cartons, plastic boxes, car tires and more into cool office supplies, then you’ll know why I’m in love. Of course, their commitment to environmentally friendly practices, not only in recycling but in their active effort to keep their own environmental footprint as small as possible, is admirable. But I gotta tell you, it’s looking at those little pencils, trying to figure out how they used to be disposable plastic cups that really has my imagination going. Just look at them. As Will Ferrel in Blades of Glory would say, “It’s mind bottling.” Plus, I love their little slogans. The “I used to be a car tyre,” speaks to my love of things that have labels on them, such as mugs that say “mug.”

If you’re feeling a little old these days and you want to get in touch with your inner punk rocker (circa 1982), then check out the DIY Survival Guide(”There is no subculture, only subversion”). Their website describes it thusly: “DiY SURVIVAL is a compilation of cutting edge strategies, methods and techniques of DIY art, delivering a wide range of practices, actions, events, enterprises and issues which all have to do with the art of DIY, with forms of media subversion and the intelligent sabotage of cultural markets.” If you want to buy it, it only costs 4.99 Lbs. (oh those crazy, anarchist Brits), but why not check it out for free? Just scroll to the bottom of the page for a .pdf copy of the book. Includes: “pissing on monument as form of urban intervention; how to create a wireless node; mobile art gallery; Strategies of audience engagement; techniques of mobile phones hijacking; the creation of subversion in the supermarket; brandalism and street art; Trashware; street Television; collaboration as art practice, plus essays on avant gardes, Media Pop Art, net art, the hyperconnected multitude, teaching cultural activism and much more.” Don’t you love things that promise you much more?