Too much time on their hands: the fine folks at illegalsigns.ca
The project: "Everyone should have a hobby. Our hobby is destroying illegal billboards with the rule of law."
Time to complete: their work is, of course, never done. Their blog archives indicate that they've been at it since January of 2007.
Illegalsigns describe themselves as "a team of volunteers who fight illegal billboards," specifically in Toronto, Canada. They maintain a blog at http://illegalsigns.ca. Their statement of purpose/call to arms:
"The outdoor advertising industry has a global culture of non-compliance with the law. Advertising companies are erecting illegal billboards all over the world, wherever they can get away with it. In Toronto, this renegade, lawless industry has been acting with impunity due to bureaucratic negligence.
Our Streets are where civic capital is created. Illegal billboards monetize our civic capital, under no colour of right, by treating citizens as consumers first. Illegal billboards commodify what is unique about our neighbourhoods by turning our Streets into pages of a mass-market magazine, without regard to the law. Join us as we fight to legalize and democratize Toronto's visual environment. Join us as we fight to Reclaim the Streets."
As it turns out, Toronto already has someone in charge of enforcing regulation of signage: Municipal Licensing and Standards. Unfortunately, according to illegalsigns, "Toronto's Sign Inspectors don't know what they are doing - MLS has decided that hundreds of illegal signs are legal because they haven't a clue how to investigate billboards."
Fortunately for the citizens of Toronto, illegasigns are watching the watchers.
They're not fooling around, either. They have a section on their blog called "before and after," where they detail successful billboard removal campaigns. They have a map showing the locations of illegal signs. They have detailed descriptions, which they call "street studies," wherein they take readers on a virtual walk down a street and point out the various illegal signs. They have an amazing understanding of the convoluted chains of ownership, leases, licenses, etc. behind the billboards of Toronto. And they have, collectively, too much time on their hands.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
daft hands
Too much time on their(?) hands: Fr.Eckle Studios
The project: finger choreography for Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger."
Time to complete: the video is three minutes and forty-four seconds long, and the person who posted it indicates that the video is one, unedited take - hence the time needed to perform the choreography is only 3:44. However, it must have taken an inordinate amount of time to learn the lyrics/choreography well enough to film the song in one take.
This is one of those things that causes us to inquire, rhetorically, "Who thinks of stuff like this?" The answer, of course, is "people with too much time on their hands."
The project: finger choreography for Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger."
Time to complete: the video is three minutes and forty-four seconds long, and the person who posted it indicates that the video is one, unedited take - hence the time needed to perform the choreography is only 3:44. However, it must have taken an inordinate amount of time to learn the lyrics/choreography well enough to film the song in one take.
This is one of those things that causes us to inquire, rhetorically, "Who thinks of stuff like this?" The answer, of course, is "people with too much time on their hands."
Monday, September 29, 2008
sticky note slinkies
Too much time on their hands: Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz, aka EepyBird.
The project: experiment/art installation made of cascading sticky notes.
No blog dedicated to people with too much time on their hands would be complete without a mention of the EepyBird guys. The birds are best known for their highly-choreographed Diet Coke and Mentos video, but their more recent work with sticky notes is also worth seeing (for certain values of "worth").
The "experiment" used 280,951 sticky notes, and was apparently subsidized by Office Max and ABC.
The project: experiment/art installation made of cascading sticky notes.
No blog dedicated to people with too much time on their hands would be complete without a mention of the EepyBird guys. The birds are best known for their highly-choreographed Diet Coke and Mentos video, but their more recent work with sticky notes is also worth seeing (for certain values of "worth").
The "experiment" used 280,951 sticky notes, and was apparently subsidized by Office Max and ABC.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
LEGO aircraft carrier
Too much time on his hands: Malle Hawking
The project: LEGO replica of the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), a Nimitz-class supercarrier of the United States Navy.
Time to complete: "the better part of a year," according to Geekdad.
Truly an amazing feat, the Truman is made of 200,000 LEGO bricks and weighs 350 lbs.
The parts cost more than $20,000. The model is complete with electrical lights, moving radar dishes and elevators, LEGO aircraft ...
... and a LEGO crew to direct air traffic.
What good would a LEGO ship be without LEGO anchors?
I have no idea what all this stuff is, but at this point I'm willing to bet that it's actual stuff that you would find in/around the sides of the actual aircraft carrier.
You can see lots more pictures where these ones came from, at Brickshelf.com.
The project: LEGO replica of the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), a Nimitz-class supercarrier of the United States Navy.
Time to complete: "the better part of a year," according to Geekdad.
Truly an amazing feat, the Truman is made of 200,000 LEGO bricks and weighs 350 lbs.
The parts cost more than $20,000. The model is complete with electrical lights, moving radar dishes and elevators, LEGO aircraft ...
... and a LEGO crew to direct air traffic.
What good would a LEGO ship be without LEGO anchors?
I have no idea what all this stuff is, but at this point I'm willing to bet that it's actual stuff that you would find in/around the sides of the actual aircraft carrier.
You can see lots more pictures where these ones came from, at Brickshelf.com.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
steampunk laptop
Too much time on his hands: Rich Nagy, aka Datamancer
The project: an HP ZT1000 laptop, modified to look like it was constructed using Victorian-era design and materials. (If you're not familiar with "steampunk" designs, you can get an explanation here.)
Time to complete: approximately two and a half months
Here's a shot of the exterior of the laptop. Beautiful, no?
Here's how Datamancer describes the project:
"This may look like a Victorian music box, but inside this intricately hand-crafted wooden case lives a Hewlett-Packard ZT1000 laptop that runs both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux. It features an elaborate display of clockworks under glass, engraved brass accents, claw feet, an antiqued copper keyboard and mouse, leather wrist pads, and customized wireless network card. The machine turns on with an antique clock-winding key by way of a custom-built ratcheting switch made from old clock parts."
Here's the inside:
The detail on this project is incredible. Check out the brass faces on the keys, and the tiny plastic "gems" placed over the original keyboard LEDs. The F holes are speaker grills.
Video of the winding key being used to turn on the computer:
Pictures and video are courtesy of Datamancer. You can view his page about the steampunk laptop here. He tells me that it took him "about 2 or 2.5 months" to complete the mod, and that "most of those work days were about 10-12 hours."
The project: an HP ZT1000 laptop, modified to look like it was constructed using Victorian-era design and materials. (If you're not familiar with "steampunk" designs, you can get an explanation here.)
Time to complete: approximately two and a half months
Here's a shot of the exterior of the laptop. Beautiful, no?
Here's how Datamancer describes the project:
"This may look like a Victorian music box, but inside this intricately hand-crafted wooden case lives a Hewlett-Packard ZT1000 laptop that runs both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux. It features an elaborate display of clockworks under glass, engraved brass accents, claw feet, an antiqued copper keyboard and mouse, leather wrist pads, and customized wireless network card. The machine turns on with an antique clock-winding key by way of a custom-built ratcheting switch made from old clock parts."
Here's the inside:
The detail on this project is incredible. Check out the brass faces on the keys, and the tiny plastic "gems" placed over the original keyboard LEDs. The F holes are speaker grills.
Video of the winding key being used to turn on the computer:
Pictures and video are courtesy of Datamancer. You can view his page about the steampunk laptop here. He tells me that it took him "about 2 or 2.5 months" to complete the mod, and that "most of those work days were about 10-12 hours."
Friday, September 12, 2008
eggshell art
Too much time on his hands: Franc Grom.
The project: Grom uses a small electric drill to make eggshell art based on traditional Slovenian designs. Each shell has an average of 2,500-3,000 holes, but some have as many as 17,000.
Grom has been featured at many websites. I first saw his work at the Rag & Bone Blog.
The project: Grom uses a small electric drill to make eggshell art based on traditional Slovenian designs. Each shell has an average of 2,500-3,000 holes, but some have as many as 17,000.
Grom has been featured at many websites. I first saw his work at the Rag & Bone Blog.
toothpick San Francisco
Too much time on his hands: Scott Weaver
The project: a kinetic model of San Francisco, constructed out of Elmer's glue and approximately 100,000 toothpicks. The structure's landmarks include Coit Tower, the Rice-a-Roni cable car, Lombard Street, the Chinatown gateway, Golden Gate Park, the Palace of Fine Arts, the Ocean Beach windmill, the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, the Maritime Museum, and Flyshacker Pool.
Time to complete: 35 years.
photos by St0rmz
It's really best if you watch the video. You can see it here, at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. It has also been featured at makezine.com and Laughing Squid.
The project: a kinetic model of San Francisco, constructed out of Elmer's glue and approximately 100,000 toothpicks. The structure's landmarks include Coit Tower, the Rice-a-Roni cable car, Lombard Street, the Chinatown gateway, Golden Gate Park, the Palace of Fine Arts, the Ocean Beach windmill, the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, the Maritime Museum, and Flyshacker Pool.
Time to complete: 35 years.
photos by St0rmz
It's really best if you watch the video. You can see it here, at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. It has also been featured at makezine.com and Laughing Squid.
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