The Manor

I hate the idea of starting a new blog post by talking about something I'm NOT doing, but my e-mailbox kind of requires it. Just in the last couple of days, I've received many voicemail and email messages asking me about this year's Balloon Manor. I feel I need to save a lot of you the trouble of asking. After having to cancel the Manor last year due to funding problems, I decided it was better to take a rest, work on other projects and try to bring the Manor back after some time away from it. So, no, there won't be a Balloon Manor this year. It's insanely frustrating to have to answer each message I receive about it and yet, in a bizarre sort of way, a joy. I mean, I hate delivering the negative message, but it's fun and encouraging to hear that people enjoyed it enough that they're asking for more. Well, you'll be happy to hear the crew feels the same way. All of us want to do something large.  It will happen some time. I just dont have anything firm enough to talk about yet. I promise, I'll keep everyone posted on the status of the next big Airigami project as soon as I have something to talk about.

Swifty's Farm

My love of big community projects is great enough that I can't just sit back while I wait for things to fall in place for my next venture. I made a commitment to the folks on my crew in the past that if any of them made an attempt to try something as large as one of my projects, I'd do my best to be there as part of their crew. Allen Stay, from the Cleveland, OH area, has been putting on Swifty's Farm in Kirtland, OH for several years. Due to Balloon Manor and other similar things around this time of year, I've never been able to help on the project before.  I'm really excited to be able to join Allen's crew for a short time this year. The farm is open to the public October 2 - 17, 2010 at the Lake Metroparks Farmpark. Like Balloon Manor, it's a massive balloon art installation. I'll be assisting on the first two days of building next week.

Corpus Callosum

Wikipedia says:

The corpus callosum (Latin: tough body), also known as the colossal commissure, is a wide, flat bundle of neural fibers beneath the cortex in the eutherian brain at the longitudinal fissure. It connects the left and right cerebral hemispheres and facilitates interhemispheric communication. It is the largest white matter structure in the brain, consisting of 200–250 millioncontralateral axonal projections.

The Corpus Callosum Show is a weekly video podcast created by Tony Karakashian and Gary Jacobs. They are two of the people behind TEDxRochester. They talk about whatever strikes their fancy, touching on art, science and geeky new toys on the market, to name a few things. This morning, we hosted their show in the Airigami Studio. We had a blast.  I thought I had a hard time focusing on any given subject. Trying to stick to any topic with these guys was quite an adventure. We managed to talk about balloon art for a few minutes in the three hours we spent in front of the camera.  I can't wait to find out how it ends up being edited.