Now accepting OSCAR GOODIE BAGS.
I just found out they are worth 71 thousand dollars!!! My first impression was *F*U* but then I thought, I sure would like to get one myself.
So rather then lambaste the whole assembly, I would like to offer the celebrities an opertunity to donate their unneeded gift bags to me.

You all seem so serious about the "Make Poverty History" campaign, why don't you?

Gift your bag to me, get priceless good karma points in the media, and I'll use the luxury products.
OR I could auction the gift bags as celebrity pop art objects and split the profits with some organizations I find to truly help people. I'll get way more then $71,000 for them. The fact that YOU give your Oscar Goodie Bag to ME, for free, is what makes it ART!
I only need one, but wouldn't it be cool to be a movement and raise millions of dollars?
PLEASE contact me at my damn email.
Seriously. Thank You
*RR

Homeless Millionaire

Here's a funny little story.
I'm sitting at a bus stop all sad faced, eating some potato chips I'd bought with EBT. And I see this homeless guy off in the distance, on the corner with the sign. I zoomed in and tried to get a photograph, to see what his sign said. Couldn't really see it, and I got distracted by the awesome looking sunset.

I started taking pictures of the sunset clouds, and the dude came walking up.
He said, in an instructive tone, all you have to do is have a sign, and a smile. Sometimes do a little wink and nod. He introduced him self as "Whitey".
The bastard had made 50 bucks in 10 minutes right in front of my potato chip eating face. I was kinda envious, but whatever. He gave me a beer that some Mexicans driving by had given him. I took his picture and made some videos. He didn't even notice.
I walked with him to Rainbow foods, just to chat with someone. I went inside and got him some rolling papers. His money. I was 100% broke sub-poverty suffering. He gave me 3 bucks. Papers only cost 99 cents. So I made 2 bucks off him. We sat outside on a bench chatting, but the store manager decided to be a fuckhead and called the cops for no real reason. Maybe he knew Whitey from some other time? I don't know. Sitting there for 5 minutes wasn't really loitering or anything. We obviously did look like homeless guys, so anyway the cops came and we left. It started pouring rain and I departed from the dude, to use McDonalds wi-fi, since I could now afford a dollar menu item. I waited for it to stop raining then rode back to my RV to go to sleep.

Ok, so he wasn't really a millionaire, but he was richer then me, and probably richer then you.

Homeless Kids/Students Increasing.

Hire me! (Or just click the sign)

Still no work. “Poverty is the worst form of violence.” Mahatma Gandhi

Anyway, click the sign and you can drop 10 bucks in my hat?

Homeless Middle Class Becomes Mainstream.

Well, what can I say. People are loosing their homes faster then I can gain ONE. Join me for tea on the lawn wont you?

Personally, I've been biking around planting little guerilla gardens. I'm not even worried about it.. If some one finds them, I hope they'll have a snack.
Unlike this guy I saw the other day at the "official" community garden plots. He was putting up super BLAZE ORANGE plastic fencing around his two plots. I guess no one is going to steal HIS crops! But I wish he could have just made a simple sign or something. He made the whole garden look like a construction site.

I found out I can buy seeds at Walmart with foodstamps, so when I get my community garden plot over there, I'm putting up a sign saying "this food is for the survival of EVERYBODY! Please help me grow more so we can all live longer!" I cultivate trust in my community.

Anyway, yeah, you're all becoming homeless. Good Luck.

Abandoned Detroit Building Converted To Apartments For Homeless « Abandoned Detroit Building Converted To Apartments For Homeless « CBS Detroit

The old Michigan Bell building in Detroit is being converted into an apartment building for the homeless
Abandoned Detroit Building Converted To Apartments For Homeless « Abandoned Detroit Building Converted To Apartments For Homeless « CBS Detroit

Good Idea. Maybe I can get a job working on re-finishing them?

I'm going to temporarily post a few notes here. Even though the last real post was 2 years ago. I still get a fair enough amount of traffic that it might be worth trying to jump start.
BLAWG! JUMPSTART! START DAMMIT START! NEh.. it's dead..

Oh well, like I said, I'm just going to post virtual homeless signs.

Previously, I thought there was some kind of virtue in honest story telling and documenting a treacherous path through poverty. But, I assumed it would end. When assistance is rare, and it's just a never ending tail of woe, it's just to damned depressing. Definitely not working out to my complement.

However, I've got the google ads working, so that I can almost pay for a coffee every other day. So that's cool. I'm going to stay away from TMI and just post the virtual homeless signs soon.

I should have been blogging about Ted Williams... oh yeah, and I have some posts at pimpthisbum.com that were worth the time. Those guys got me an amazingly comfortable and warm Magellan sleeping bag when I again had to cold weather camp outside. It's still treating me nice as it's not exactly warm at night yet.

Anyway, TMI. Look for my desperate crying for help and virtual begging for money to take on new levels of artistic reform, soon.

Perhaps you can be the one to help me buy a falling down foreclosure over north.

What a rough winter.
I realize that last post is no way to leave this blog. If anything I should fly a virtual homeless sign on the super highway. Or a bunch of different ones.

Homeless again, but this blog is discontinued. (Ambulance Driver)

Homeless again, but this blog is discontinued. I haven't posted here in 2 years. It never did me any good. I've yet to succeed. I'll just go sleep in the RV as it gets colder and colder.

Consider me not to have survived, and watch this wonderful song by the Flaming Lips.



Waiting for the ambulance to come
Hoping that it doesn't come too late
Hearing the sirens in the distance
Hold on, help (hell) is on the way

Mr. Ambulance Driver
I'm right here beside her
Though I'll live somehow I've found

Mr. Ambulance Driver
I'm not a real survivor
Wishing that I was the one
That wasn't going to be here anymore
The one that isn't here anymore
The one that isn't here anymore

Oh, we can't trade places
Our lives our strangely all alone
Mr. Ambulance Driver
Tell me for everyone that dies
Someone new is born

Mr. Ambulance Driver
I'm right here beside her
And though I'll live somehow I've found
Mr. Ambulance Driver
I'm not a real survivor
Because I'm wishing that I was the one
That wasn't going to be here anymore

Mr. Ambulance Driver
I'm right here beside her
And though I'll live somehow I've found
Mr. Ambulance Driver
I'm not a real survivor
Because I'm wishing that I was the one
That wasn't going to be here anymore
The one that isn't here anymore
The one that isn't here anymore
(Waiting for the ambulance to come, who who whooo)
(Waiting for the ambulance to come, who who whooo)
Mr. Ambulance Driver..

There is a new media technology convergence going on right now that is so epic in scale, I figured I would blog it. Perhaps only to track this strange realm of hyper learning and research I'm experiencing. Seriously, the knowledge gained in the past few days is astonishing.
But let me start with a simple test of my Google Earth broad casting system...

Powered by Google Earth Hacks | Map Details | Create your own!
Minneapolis City Hall.

If you hadn't much experience with Google Earth, you've been missing some fun! But I can understand. After all, it's only 3.5 years old.
Well just recently, they made it possible to embed a Google Earth window, right inside a browser. SO wow!~ Very cool. You can show people 3d places, just as you would show a photo. And the program itself is not required to load. It's just a super fast plug-in. Great!
(I'm still learning how to use the api, so thanks to GoogleEarthHacks, for enabling the code)

Street View is also able to be embedded in a page. They made this available last Chistmas. I really should have been doing cool stuff with it all summer, but other work was being done. Anyhow, you're getting neat directory type sites showing you all sorts of list of Street View locations, as follows...

There was something very interesting we Minnesotans found when street view came out. We found that the Google Driver had been mapping before and after the I35w Bridge collapse. The the extent that you can simulate a drive over the bridge the day before it fell. Apparently, they were spraying chem trails that day too, but thats another post.

View Larger Map
Click the arrows and pan to navigate across the old bridge. Notice all the construction vehicles and process.

So I'll put up more posts exploring other new visualizations and media tech with I'm finding amazing. Check back. In the mean time, Don't let the packs of "entertainment" robots hunt you down!
PEACE.

I've been writing on the Internet for 13 years! But lately, I'm serving content through YouTube more often then anything else. So this embedded player should keep things on this page fresher then a forgotten old post could.

Spring is trying to come through. It was 50 degrees for the first time this year. It was a short lived novelty as it's chilly again today, but at least it's not deadly anymore. This is the sort of weather I can live with.

I took a bike ride to French park on the north shore of Medicine lake. I was very disappointed. The city of Plymouth needs to re-think that whole area. First, you can't get there by simply riding around the lake because just when you think you've arrived, there are all these privatively owned rehab facilities. They own massive lake front and put up a bunch of fences so you can't continue through! You have to go way AROUND.

So once I finally DID get down into French park, I'm met with signs saying there are park rangers with riffles shooting dear. A "dear reduction" program. They tell you say on the designated trails. (Or the park rangers will SHOOT you and say they thought you were a dear!)
We'll pleasantly, there were no such rangers in the "wildlife district". All there were was closed trails and blocked playgrounds. Looks like they don't have money to maintain the area. They shouldn't hire people to play dear hunter either. I'd love to go walking in there and have it be a cool wildlife sanctuary. Sheez, I'd even volunteer to park the RV and provide night security. ;)

Anyhow, medicine lake is extremely unbikeable because of all the halfway houses and federal regulation on the north shore. But then the whole west shore is privet homes.. I guess it's not Minneapolis.. I just wanted to do a lap, ya know? Like a Minneapolis biker would.

Chip-in SUCKS

Chip In?

I'm experimenting to see if I can raise enough funding for a house. For Real.

I've read stories wherein the homeless guy on the side of the highway is making amazing amounts of money, just to blow it on booze or whatever. Well, I've never had the humility to stand out with a sign, even when starving, but a Chip In seems reasonable.

I've also read stories about "E-beggars". Save Karyn, for example raised $20,000 to pay off debt.
And you'll remember the guy who traded a paper clip for a house.

So this is my homeless art experiment. Can I raise enough to buy a house on the Minneapolis foreclosure market? I have the feeling I will be my own first investor. But if I can gain some momentum, I'll be sitting home making art for the foreseeable future. It'll be great to be in a position to help other artists struggling with poverty as well.

I truly appreciate investor level donations, but even a single dollar would be infinitely cool. Every dollar will dedicated to buying a house. Please chip in now.

EDIT> Chip in sucks. But PLEASE Look for my paypal donation link in my sidebar. PEACE!

Ice and Fire! Plymouth Oaks Burns Down AGAIN!

ICE AND FIRE!
I went to the bunny hop at art shanty city. Took a bunch of photos. Blowing snow made it an interesting environment. ASP was an oasis mirage on the blizzards horizon.

It was fun and I'll let the fotos do the talking later.

Thing is, when I got back to the apartment complex I'm currently stationed at, IT WAS BURNING DOWN!

As we rolled in, I saw the smoke, but thought it was blowing snow. I took as many pictures as i could, but the camera was out of power.

Bright orange walls of flame, pouring out into the ice clouds created from fire hose into -20 wind chill.

Although our apartment is in a wing far from the fire, the entire complex was evacuated by a collaborative slew of agencies arriving soon after we did. They said they were getting buses to take folks to a gym. Total police state. I hope they let people back in tonight.
The fire was out by the time we left. Just smoking. Still there were like 4 full sized fire trucks there and, I'm sure, every other disaster response agency from the area that got word.

*sigh*
Some guy was standing in our stair well looking all depressed saying "i fell asleep on the couch with a cigarette.." A nearby cop heard this and took him away.

Monetized Videos

After learning a bit with YouTube and gaining some experience, I'm trying to make a few videos good enough for the partnership program.
I've seen some fairly simple, yet entertaining videos making good money. Some Producers earn a fair living, by my standards. So I'm all about it.

I'll be posting as much possible. Please enjoy my videos and rate them highly. Thanks.

So to begin my testing, here is my most viewed YouTube video, "DO NOT ride this Rollercoaster". It's over 20,000 views.

EDIT 5-9-11
Hey! That roller coaster video has something like 811,000 views now! But I exclaimed "Oh shit" a few times, so YouTube declined to monetize it citing family friendly values. It's a shame. A million views is good money, I think.
Anyhow, I HAVE succeed in making two other videos earn a few cents for me. A Vampire Possum Video and a creative video of my city. The Possum video is fun because I've been posting it to "Heidi the Opossum"s facebook page. Thats good for a quarter some days.


The next video, I'm actually very proud of. I won a contest with it and am getting all sorts of new computer equipment. I save the details for an updated post, but it's pretty damn cool. I'm still trying to decide if I should make something of the face that a homeless artist won such a fantastic prize. I'd like to see if I can get real high level employment from it. But like I said, thats another post. For now just enjoy the video knowing by merely watching it, I benefit to some fractional percentage.

Hello. It is now January 2008. My birthday is in 2 days.

I never update this blog because I'm usually writing at mnartists.org where there is at least a tiny bit of feedback to work with. Here I'm writing blind. But I thought I would update it today. I have a half years story line to catch you up on...

Lets see... When last I posted, I was working as an independent labor guy for an awesome couple in Saint Louis Park. In my last post, I mentioned having that time lapse video, so here it is!


So anyhow, I had the RV parked there in that very safe spot, working until the end of August. I did a lot of interior painting and on call stuff and made more then a grand.
Of course, I was living the good life in Saint Louis Park. I was spending it well. Eating Lunds/Byerlys sushi for dinner every night, and drinking my Summit Northern Porter when ever I wanted to. I had free electricity and bootlegged wireless internet. It was quite a fine time. I never had a bank account and was carrying hundreds of dollars in twenties on me all the time.

Sure was nice. I could shower in the abandoned side of the duplex we were working on and stay healthy.

So when that job ended, and I bounced the RV between my cousins in Coon Rapids, and my mothers on the northside (Victory/Camden). I was doing some roofing work with my cuz which kept me in the cash. And at my mothers, I had to help her move out.
I had to move my own stuff out of storage, as well. Stuff that has been packed since I was 19. She had finally had enough of her bastard husband being a total loss. He had a jail stay during the summer, due to being a crack head and violating probation for some other offense... She decided to get all her stuff out of there, and move to an apartment.

In the mean time, I'd asked a neighbor down the street if I could park in their driveway and keep an eye on their abandoned house. The owner had fallen sick and was taken to the Anoka county medical facility. Her house went to foreclosure and abandon. I was able to get electricity from the garage. That spot was safe until moving day.
My brother rented a moving truck and we loaded most of my moms things while ex was out pawning shit and being a crackhead. Just as we were about to leave, he comes flying in enraged. He actually DID know my mom was trying to move out, and had changed the locks to lock her out! She had to have a window opened to get in. So he busts up calling 911 saying his wife and her sons are robbing his house. HA! Foolish crack head.
As we were about to drive away, I asked him what happened to my Bass Amp, knowing that he pawned it. I had it ready to move, but then mom was locked out and he stole it. I told him "I'm going to check the pawn shop" and we rolled off. In crack rage, He smashed up an old wooden chest that we did not have time to load.

I was supposed to go help unload at the new place. But I started to think, Is my RV in danger? I jumped out of the moving truck a few blocks later and walked back to my parking spot. Sure enough, when I got there, 2 of my tires were flat!

I couldn't have them repaired because it was a popped with a screwdriver to the sidewalls. Sidewalls can't be sealed. Especially on an RV. Lucky, I did have ONE spare! So, I'd only have to BUY 1 new.
Although I had enough cash to buy a new tire, it was hard luck finding one for a 1971 RV! Admittedly, I took my time. Trying to make my money stretch through the whole winter season.
Being stuck stationary, yet plugged into electricity wasn't the end of the world. I ran a space heater and stayed at freezing (30 to 40 degrees) for the most part. When I finally did find the rare sized tire/wheel, it cost me $170. ouch.
I did some more bouncing around. The roofing work ended cause it's to cold now. And I slowly drained my dollar reserves back to baseline. I've never eaten so well :)

So with my last few bucks, I've moved the RV to Plymouth MN. next to Medicine Lake. Good position to check in on the art shanty projects 2008.
Here is a video from 2004:


I've got some things in the works, but this post is getting LONG. Save me to say, I figured out how to put a shiny new paypal button in the side bar there --->
So I can accept donations!
I've not had much experience with random donation asking in the past. And I've been worse off in suffering before. But if you would like to pad my cell, it's pretty easy now. Please click the paypal button and donate 10 bucks. It will help me get some laundry done. Thanks!

Shoot. It's the end of JUNE 2007. I've got to put up at least on post a month doncha think?

Whats new.. whats new...

Getting paid. Yep, working homeless! I want to make a time laps YouTube video of my art/life house paint deal. Blah yeah, you'll see it and it will be cool if you understand fine + sublime concept art anyway.

Hey that BUNGE building I loved so much this spring is HISTORY. GONE. DEAD. I have videos. Stay tuned to my YouTube.
For some day I will post the ultimate urban exploration videos.

Anyhow, this dude will did me a favor and wrote an interesting article about me... http://www.mnartists.org/article.do?rid=148864

Thats news for now.....*RR

Live for one night only, I am screening an "Urban Exploration" video of the good old BUNGE.

This evening at the Uptown, I will project beautiful images of the BUNGE TOWER, and the graffiti art within,
onto Minneapolis band "They The Down Low" as they play a live soundtrack.

Theres no cover. Drop on by.
3018 Hennepin Ave South
Minneapolis, MN 55408
Tel: 612.823.4719

Please also see the GLORIOUS and shocking photos of it's demolished state here.


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WALKER IN GOOGLE EARTH!!

This is so cool. Check it out.

I love it how photography and digital models are converging.

Keep punching Joe... What happened to spring! It's snowing and theres 2 inches on the ground.

What is going on? I've been away from computational communication boxes. My artist friends tell me some critic had talked some smack behind my back then deleted it before I saw... So I still don't know what that was about. Frankly I don't care. I made an amazing video yesterday and thats all that matters to me right now.

Living in Northeast Minneapolis again. Fairwel Coon Rapids, I'll be back when the NorthStar Commuter Rail is up.