Selkie Strawboys Are Exposed at Celtic Classic... In Grande Fashion.

By Jeffrey Riedy

So, many of my relatives and friends have been asking about last week's debut of the Selkie Strawboys at Celtic Classic, as part of Celtic Crossroads, which was sponsored by Eastern Pennsylvania Arts Alliance. Let me first just say what an honor it was to present at Celtic Classic. For weeks leading up to the Festival, Selkie scrambled to gather a cast and rehearse The Mummer's Play, and also to create the costumes and masks worn by the Strawboys.



A bit of Irish Mumming history first... Mummer's (or Strawboys or Wrenboys) have historical significance in Irish Culture. Though the details of their origins are at best sketchy and subject to opinion and facts, Strawboys have long served their communities, as entertainment and mystery. Many accounts tell of the goings on of St Stephen's Day (December 26), and how the Mummers would visit house to house, requesting to be invited in, and then to entertain under a cloak of anonymity, with masks of various materials; from gauze drapes, to wicker masks, to masks made of shafts of grain. Other accounts tell of Mummers crashing weddings, entertaining the wedding guests, and even sometimes raising money to help the newly married couple. And the tales go on... The bottom line is that our Selkie Strawboys want to embrace the Irish heritage, celebrate Irish Culture, and along the way educate and entertain.


Over the past week, we have received links to various photos and videos FEATURING our Strawboy Mumming at Celtic Classic. Below I am accumulating all those links in one spot. You can also view many of the videos from our website, , and also from Celtic Classic's Facebook Page, viewing their photo and video collection. ENJOY!

RELATED LINKS:
"The Mummer's Play" video
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfA0Tt2yA7Q&feature=player_embedded
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYlGZHVFIkI&feature=player_embedded

Strolling the Festival:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=444487024900
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/8302562/22143360
http://www.facebook.com/CelticClassic?v=app_2392950137&ref=search#!/video/video.php?v=10150292452845192

Photos on Celtic Classic Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/CelticClassic?v=photos&ref=search#!/album.php?aid=514880&id=235507580056

Other Photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2066747&id=1162521146&fbid=1477122925699&ref=mf
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=504625&fbid=160679520625445&id=100000501944386

And a REALLY huge thank you to Celtic Classic, Celtic Cultural Alliance, and Eastern Pennsylvania Arts Alliance and its members, for making it possible for Selkie to present the Strawboys at this year's Celtic Classic.

If you like what you see, and are either interested in joining our troupe of Mummers or would like to inquire about booking The Selkie Strawboys for your next event, Festival, party, parade, or who knows.... read more on our website: http://selkietheatre.org/?page_id=446

Su Blackwell

Ok, I want to meet her...

Her artwork brings to life and sets free characters that have been trapped inside of books.

http://www.sublackwell.co.uk/index.php

Currency Art

Mark Wilde
His statement, from: http://www.smokeinmydreams.com/
The one dollar bill is the most ubiquitous piece of paper in America. Collage asks the question: what might be done to make it something else? It is a ripe material: intaglio printed on sturdy linen stock, covered in decorative filigree, and steeped in symbolism and concept. Blade and glue transform it-reproducing the effects of tapestries, paints, engravings, mosaics, and computers-striving for something bizarre, beautiful, or unbelievable... the foreign in the familiar.

C.K.Wilde:
http://www.alternatingcurrency.com/portfolio-ckw.html

Human powered Cardboard Record Player

http://www.ggrp.com/making-noise

BIG ASS MESSAGE!

http://bigassmessage.com/7d253

http://bigassmessage.com/

Type in your message, pick a style, get a big ass message. That's it.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

I want to see this, feeds right into current slight obsession with street art:

A new trailer is out for Exit Through the Gift Shop, the documentary about everyone's favorite mystery-shrouded street art superstar, Banksy.

Read more: http://www.good.is/post/watch-the-new-banksy-trailer/#ixzz0kNKTJi3a

Johnny Cash Crowdsourced video

Aaron Koblin in collaboration with director Chris Milk for Lost Highway recorded: The Johnny Cash Project, a global collaborative art project constructing a music video for Cash’s final studio recording, “Ain’t No Grave,” from hundreds of user-submitted one-of-a-kind portraits of the iconic artist.

The drawings are crowd sourced using an online tool which randomly selects three frames for the contributor to choose from and draw.

Sean Hayes Music Videos

Beautiful imagery


"When We Fall In"


"Garden"

WebKing Remix

http://home.moravian.edu/students/m/stknm16/WebKing/index.html

Dreamlike animation illustrating Fibonacci sequence, Golden Ratio, and more

Good Blog.

http://www.designspongeonline.com/

http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/

http://www.goodlifer.com/

http://www.cardoncopy.com/index.html

http://threeframes.net/

http://www.jrvelasco.com/

http://www.gomediazine.com/

http://www.mrdiggles.com/

http://cssremix.com/visit/frank-chimero/

I just want to see one of these work...and then have an apartment to put it in...

From Resource Furniture, Doc Space saving sofa/bed: http://www.resourcefurniture.com/space-savers/bunk-beds/doc

Adventures of Helvetica man...

http://www.fubiz.net/galleries/set/adventures-of-helvetica-man/

Cool...

Thomas Allen

“Red,” 2002, by Thomas Allen.
All photos © Thomas Allen
Minnesota artist Thomas Allen’s photographs are inspired by his childhood experiences with pop-up books and viewmaster reels. He cuts two-dimensional figures and images out of old books, and combines them with vintage pulp fiction novels, to create three-dimensional scenes.
“Swell,” 2004

Once he's formed the 3D art, Thomas reinvents them again as two-dimensional in his lively photos.

Found Numbers Wall Calendar

The Crevasse- Making of 3D Street Art

http://www.fubiz.net/2010/01/20/tree-house/

Reaction to Bill...

I liked him. Of course I liked him before, when he willingly wore the Haggis t-shirt...

His ideas about creativity and methods for presenting ideas and educating the client were especially helpful, especially the idea of preselling your concept before even showing the client your work.

Homepage Mock up...

In Class Trial 1.25.10

Web Redesign Mock-ups...

Original Poster Design

Critique it...

1. http://www.etsy.com

Opening page images change every few hours, selected by the users, usually following some kind of theme-items, color, etc. Making it kind of compulsory to check several times daily. Categories are well organized, and break down into subcategories once page is accessed. Hierarchy makes sense.

2. http://www.textsfromlastnight.com

Self explanatory site, sole purpose is humor and humor is accessed easily. Hierarchy makes sense and is easy to figure out.

3. http://mikedempsey.typepad.com

A blog about graphics and living...by a Mike Dempsey. It's engaging, he has many categories and lots of pictures. Blog posts are broken down into categories, and the posts themselves are well written. Everything is easily accessed.

4. http://www.r5productions.com

The site is not nearly as engaging as it should and could be...the images are small and hard to see and the whole site feels like it was put together in a hurry and just never updated. For the shows that they put on I feel that it should have a different atmosphere, and definitely updated.

5. http://www.bigplastichead.com

Portfolio/blog website with almost daily or at least weekly inspiration posts. Very engaging, very shiny, lots of animation and cool poster designs. Information is all organized on the right, with his portfolio options at top, then the new blog posts right under. Everything makes sense.

6. http://www.sportsforkin.com

Website actually matches bands personality, as I know them personally I will attest to that. Well organized and engaging with the music starting up as soon as you open the page. Nice pictures too.

7. http://www.pfs.org/PFF.php

The Philadelphia Folk Festival's website is an overload of information, but sometimes you can find the right information...The overall design of it matches the event though.

8.http://www.jlern.com/

Whee...portfolio site for designers. We talked. I find it well organized and with some playtime easy to figure out, but it does take some playtime.

9.http://www.adamgustavson.com/

http://adamgustavson.blogspot.com/

A friends web portfolio. He is a children's book illustrator with a wicked sense of humor and huge imagination, and this site reflects that. Very well organized, with important contact information front and center and categories clearly defined. The flash animation is subtle but fun. His matching blog is fun to read and follow as he is finally updating it regularly...

10. http://partnersdesign.net/index.html

Lots of fun portfolio website for a design company. I think the partners from partners design graduated from Moravian awhile ago. The site is well organized and clean, with information easily found and pictures nice and big.

First post

art346 all the way...