Inspiration Wall » Humor

Anti-theft device for urban parking

Lisa Town — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:52:04 +0000

I came across this car recently that had an interesting idea for an anti-theft device when parking in an urban area where theft could potentially be an issue. Simply post a sign on all major windows letting people know that you in fact do not have any valuables in your car so there’s really no reason to bust through the window. Of course, do make sure you laminate it first.

Potted Plant Turns Tree

Lisa Town — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 02:59:20 +0000

After a weekend that left me fairly drained of energy, I found myself staring for far too long at my potted plant…highly amused at the thought of it as a little tiny park that I could look down on. I figured somewhere out there someone must have thought of this as a product…sure enough, Tristan Zimmermann has done just that. His Park Planters choose to explore, however, the darker side of the urban park, the side that comes out when the sun goes down.

Drawing inspiration from the bonsai, the Park Planters were created to elevate the common household plant to the status of full grown tree. The potted plant becomes the backdrop for an urban park scene. This is the first in a series of two different park scenes investigating the dark side of the park, the stuff that happens when the sun goes down and you’re not supposed to play in the park any more. You’ll find a lost salesman, a flasher a gay couple and a mugger, with no two scenes being alike ensuring the autonomy of each piece. Beautifully crafted out of porcelain each set contains a plate, the planter base and two parts of the lid, one blank and one with the scene of your choice.

images via Science & Sons

And then I came across this guy who decided the Park Planters were too expensive and made his own. I have to say, these are pretty fun…

And then made more…

Invasion of 80′s Style Video Game Graphics

Lisa Town — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:15:59 +0000

80′s style video games arrive and begin the attack, ultimately conquering the planet and turning it into one giant pixel. Video by OneMoreProduction.

Respect Our City

Lisa Town — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:06:31 +0000

image (c) Lisa Town

Spotted while enjoying a day at the beach last weekend on the Oregon Coast.

They didn’t straddle a Harley, or a guy named Harley.

Lisa Town — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:15:11 +0000

It’s a new year and that means different things to different people. For some it seems to mean leather pants. I often find leather pants a rather interesting piece of culture and amazingly, a piece of clothing that has somehow stood the test of time.

When I was living in Europe I noticed that leather pants seem to be acknowledged as normal daily attire. I saw people wearing them like we wear jeans…out about on public streets with tennis shoes or boots and a t-shirt, walking a dog or getting some lunch. Or there was the other look of lots of leather paired with lots of fur. Hardly ever did I go a month without seeing leather pants. I even saw a particular individual who liked to where them several times a week. It was too much leather, much too often.

Here in the states leather is not typically seen as a staple but more often motorcycle gear, a sign of either a midlife crisis or a daring choice of party attire. The latter being the reason leather pants seem to appear on the city streets around the time of the holidays. Trying to stretch them out perhaps?

I’d like to share an old ebay listing by an experienced author who’s name I’ve forgotten that gave me a laugh earlier this decade, preserved via a very old email. This is for those daring individuals that strutted the city streets and rung in 2010 in leather pants.

——-

You are bidding on a mistake.

We all make mistakes. We date the wrong people for too long. We chew gum with our mouths open. We say inappropriate things in front of grandma.

And we buy leather pants.

I can explain these pants and why they are in my possession. I bought them many, many years ago under the spell of a woman whom I believed to have taste. She suggested I try them on. I did. She said they looked good. I wanted to have a relationship of sorts with her. I’m stupid and prone to impulsive decisions. I bought the pants.

The relationship, probably for better, never materialized. The girl, whose name I can’t even recall, is a distant memory. I think she was short.

Ultimately the pants were placed in the closet where they have remained, unworn, for nearly a decade. I would like to emphasize that: Aside from trying these pants on, they have never, ever been worn. In public or private.

I have not worn these leather pants for the following reasons:

I am not a member of Queen.
I do not like motorcycles.
I am not Rod Stewart.
I am not French.
I do not cruise for transvestites in an expensive sports car.

These were not cheap leather pants. They are Donna Karan leather pants. They’re for men. Brave men, I would think. Perhaps tattooed, pierced men. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say you either have to be very tough, very gay, or very famous to wear these pants and get away with it.

Again, they’re men’s pants, but they’d probably look great on the right lady. Ladies can get away with leather pants much more often than men can. It’s a sad fact that men who own leather pants will have to come to terms with.

They are size 34×34. I am no longer size 34×34, so even were I to suddenly decide I was a famous gay biker I would not be able to wear these pants. These pants are destined for someone else. For reasons unknown – perhaps to keep my options open, in case I wanted to become a pirate – I have shuffled these unworn pants from house to house, closet to closet. Alas, it is now time to part ways so that I may use the extra room for any rhinestone-studded jeans I may purchase in the future.

These pants are in excellent condition. They were never taken on pirate expeditions. They weren’t worn onstage. They didn’t straddle a Harley, or a guy named Harley. They just hung there, sad and ignored, for a few presidencies.

Someone, somewhere, will look great in these pants. I’m hoping that someone is you, or that you can be suckered into buying them by a girl you’re trying to bed.

Please buy these leather pants.

——-

image via jolieny, another amused by those in leather pants on the city streets

When Santas take over the urban streets

Lisa Town — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:35:08 +0000

Santas take to the streets for the annual SantaCon in towns across the US and overseas in this lovely month of December. Santas have been seen riding bikes, boarding trains, eating and drinking in city pubs and gathering in public parks. Here’s a few street scenes from the event that took place over the weekend in Portland, including the initial gathering point at downtown’s newest urban park, Director Park.

Happy Holidays all!

images via ohhh_yeah808

Beware of the invisible dogs

Lisa Town — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:42:56 +0000

Improv Everywhere, the NYC-based improv group devoted to causing joy and chaos among the public streets, has been at it again. This time, they set 2,000 people loose in Brooklyn with invisible dogs on a Sunday afternoon for about an hour long walk. Participants spread out and acted as they normally would with a real dog, stopping at hydrants, picking up poo, chasing other dogs and even other people. Apparently the whole gag got started by a phone call from someone who happened to have taken over an abandoned factory to convert into an art space and the factory had 2,000 invisible dog leashes gathering dust. Well surely you can’t let those go to waste! Oh how I love urban gags. Check out the video above to watch people walking their dogs.

Things you don’t expect to see at the beach

Lisa Town — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:01:17 +0000

image via Lisa Town

When you go to the beach you expect to see things like lighthouses, sand, beach chairs, people throwing sticks out in the water for dogs, kids skipping rocks and other such recreational activities. What you don’t expect to see is two paramedics lounging on the sand and their ambulance truck in the parking lot with an “On Strike” sign posted to the back.

Giant Green Pipecleaners = Instant Green Wall

Lisa Town — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:43:24 +0000

On my drive back from my vacation up in British Columbia, I got stuck at the US/Canada border near this “green wall” outside the duty free store. I couldn’t see it very well at first, it just looked like pine branches sticking up behind some other vegetation. Then when I got right up to it, I noticed that it was basically giant green pipecleaners woven through a chainlink gate that opened to the service area for the store.

images via Lisa Town

Look Up More

Lisa Town — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:50:46 +0000

I have a horrible habit of not looking up but I suppose this is also something of a curse because of my profession, I’m generally paying more attention to what’s going on around me on the ground plane and perhaps a story or two above. A conversation recently with a relative who is a building inspector brought up the point that far too often buildings take this into account and only put the detail on the ground level. So it’s not just me, it’s society….as a whole, we don’t look up.

images via icopythat

Over the last couple years I’ve been trying to make it a habit to look up more and pay closer attention to what lies above me. I’ve discovered many interesting things. I even went back to my hometown and looked up only to realize that there was this whole world I had been completely unaware of for my entire growing-up life. What else have I missed?

This reminded me of a stunt my favorite public space shaker-uppers, Improv Everywhere, did awhile back in New York City’s Union Square called “Look Up More” designed to express this exact point…check it out….