I’ve been too busy either living it up, or stressing over the work that needs doing, to spare a moment in a while. Let me see how quickly I can recap.
May was dominated by commencement, alumni reunions, and the raucus kickoff of Artisan’s Asylum, a new maker-space in Metro North. That project has since gained a lot of attention and momentum, and I’m proud just to say I’m friends with these people, given what they’re achieving. Whether or not I make much use of the power tools, I think the Asylum as a community is a resource with immediate value.
I’m biased, of course. More on that in a moment.
June has been largely spent with my beak in the sand, just trying to get product out the door, and being frustrated that as a result my delivery timetable hasn’t sync’d up more cleanly with everyone else’s. But even with that, and all the stress of the anticipated move to Inman Square, I can’t help but smile these days. My blood counts are holding steady and I am awash in community.
If you use Facebook, there’s a public photo album for the month of June here (at some point I’ll hopefully be putting the complete albums somewhere that allows hi-res images); you can also find highlights in my photo stream on TwitPic. June 11th is the date of the Relay For Life at CBA, one of the major ones in the Albany area. June 12th is the date I set to get my leukemia survivor tattoo at Tom Spaulding, and June 13th was this year’s capital region pride parade, to which Kate and I were spectators in solidarity. All in all it was a packed weekend, and it set the tone for the month.
I have since learned that tattoos are mostly a test of my tolerance for mess and maintenance. The first two weeks involved a lot of babying and some icky drainage. Well worth it, though.
More recently, the Asylum opened its newly-acquired main space, a massive studio near Washington and McGrath. I got in on the ground floor for the community’s first big project, the Rubber Duck Brigade. Gui has lots of photos posted on Facebook, and Olin’s Mike Maloney is covering the event through its various stages as well. Photos should be making their way to the Asylum website eventually. Basically, we’re going to show up everybody else who attends the Boston fireworks by riding in on behemoth pontoon ducks.
I love everything about this project, even though it’s requiring me to do work I am not good at. To me, it epitomizes the statement “We have lost our minds. Come join us!” which is roughly what Gui said when he and Jenn began Artisan’s Asylum. It’s wacky, it’s a chance to do something with our hands, and it will either succeed spectacularly or fail spectacularly. The most recent reports indicate success is very likely, but either would be fun and interesting.
Those of you who will be in town for the 4th of July and want to see what the fuss is about, the most recent word I know is that we’ll be putting in around 4PM from one of the Harvard/MIT boat launches, alongside Anthony’s Project Best Idea Ever crew. Look for us and I imagine we’ll be hard to miss.
