State fair stuff, car stuff, new (free) bike!

Updates: My buddy N and I went to the State Fair, for the opening night. All was going well, until we both noticed we had some work missing (3 paintings for me, 2 for him). We must have spent like 2 hours just pacing back and forth through the Ellison Family Arts Building, and inspecting the walls. I found 5 of my drawings, and N found 1 of his paintings, and 1 of his painted furniture pieces. I must have asked about 5 staff members, who kept directing us in circles trying to find our stuff. We even journeyed down the (gasp!) Children's/Non-professional art section, to see if they had been banished from the Professional realm (not to put down any of the Kid's/Non-pro art, much of it was very good).

A glancing comment from another artist struck us as humorous, "Well, at least my stuff isn't hidden in the closet!" Little did we know...

We finally got in contact with someone who said that there were a few pieces which had NOT been hung, for some reason or another. Sure enough, our work was hidden away, in the downstairs storage closet. N's work had experienced some hanging malfunctions, mine was intact, and there seemed to be no reason the three paintings hadn't been displayed. I asked the lady in charge, and she surmised that the only reason could be that they were not framed, but were gallery wrapped (painted all the way around the edges, so as to be hung directly on the wall, sans frame). She even said that was not a valid reason not to hang them, as there were several paintings hung that were gallery wrapped, and as a working artist, she did this on occasion as well. Oh well. Something to remember for next year; the fair is very BIG on display/framing.

Other than that slight hiccup, being displayed at the fair has been a great experiece. It will be going on until the 22nd. I just came back from the fait today, I was participating at the Plein Air Day. I was there from 9am - 1pm (took a break, which I'll elaborate on later), and again from 3pm - 4pm. I drew the Gondola ride (Large Ferris Wheel) at the Midway, in graphite, and was awarded an Honorable Mention. I was a bit dissapointed with not getting a higher ribbon, but not too shabby for my first year participating. I picked a subject not well suited to the Plein Air style though, since it was very mechanically complicated, and I wasn't able to finish it to my satisfaction during the short time I worked on it during the day.

During the break I took today, I went downtown to check out the Mass Ave Criterium Bike Race downtown. I had read about it 2 days ago in NUVO. They had also mentioned a program called BikeTown USA, which was sponsored by Bicycling Magazine, and Jamis Bicycles. This program happens every year, where the organization travels to different cities, and gives away free bikes, to people who write an essay, explaining how getting a new bike could change their life. On a whim, I typed up an essay. It was mainly about how I had relied on my Walmart bike freshman/sophomore year to commute to and from work (3 miles when we lived at Park Place), after my first car had (catastrophically) died. Unfortunately, this bike got stolen, leaving me transportation-less. I walked/took the bus everywhere for a few months, unitl I saved up $500 cash, for my second (and current) car. I talked about how I missed the freedom that biking afforded me, in my day-to-day life, and that recently I had been getting into biking more, with another Walmart bike. I have biked around 200 miles so far this year, and have had some things fail ont the bike (and other parts in the process of failing), to mentioned that it would be nice to have an actual, factual, professional bike.

And, I WON!

I (along with 30 other essay finalists) was awarded a brand spankin' new (old stock) 2009 Jamis Commuter 2.0 (with matching snazzy helmet)!

(Fun fact: this bike retails for more than I paid for my car, lol)
So. this is a BIG upgrade from my Walmart bike. I will still keep that bike as a backup, but will be using the Jamis for occasional daily commuting (once my schedule changes to start at 10am, on the 23rd). This bike is SWEET! After I finish this post, I'm going right back out to ride around. It super smooth, like buttuh. The shifting is precise, the ride is comfortable, and now I see what I've been missing out on by getting the cheap stuff! :)

In other vehicular news, the 95 degree heat finally took it's toll on my headliner, causing it to completely seperate from the roof. I had been using thumbtacks and the staple gun (I know, tacky, but it worked...for about a year) to keep it attached, but it finally gave up the ghost. Anyone who has owned an older car knows the annoyance of a droopy headliner.

I looked around online, and found that I could replace this myself! So, I stripped the old vinyl out:

And removed the cardboard backing from the roof:

Here's what the roof looks like in bare sheet metal, visors and rear-view removed (notice the high-tech carpeting insulation glued to the metal, lol):

 

Had to scrape off all the deteriorating foam backing from the cardboard, and use some spray adhesive:

To attach the new fabric. What did I use? I decided to forgo the faux-zebra fur I had planned on, and go for a more tame tan vinyl faux-snakeskin:

Close-up of texture:

And how it looks installed:

Pretty snazzy, I think!

Well, I gotta go, Erin (K's sis) is picking me up, to go see K operate the spotlight in Ben Davis' production of Once Upon a Mattress. Later!

-Joe