The Binary Circumstance

Today was a beautiful sunny and very hot day. A perfect afternoon to attend the Bellevue Arts and Crafts Festival.

There were many talented artists and craftsmen and women showing there wares. We saw spectacularly beautiful inlayed furniture and mirrors, paintings of all types including at least two booths devoted to encaustic painting (pigments in bee’s wax), similar to the technical used by Jasper Johns in his famous American Flag paintings.

There were scultures, hand puppets, jewelry, purses, photography and beautiful glassworks. But my friend John and I both agreed that one booth stood out from all the rest, just for sheer originality and ingenius use of materials.

They say that one picture is worth a thousand words so I’ll start with the pictures.

What are they? They look like wallets, you say. So what’s the big deal?

They’re wallets made of duct tape!

You know, that ultrastrong silver tape you can buy at any Home Depot or any hardware store for a few dollars a roll.

The folks at DBCLAY have taken this totally mundane but durable and utilitarian material and turned it into colorful, sleek, classy individually handcrafted wallets.

I didn’t realize that duct tape comes in so many colors and widths and I use it all the time. They also use gaffers tape, which is more clothlike, allowing them to silkscreen patterns on them. (Picture 3.)

They started out as DuctBills (you can see more pictures at that site), but are now expanding their line to include more products made from a wider assortment of materials. The new direction of the company will be reflected in their new website at DBLCAY.com.

The two guys working the booth seemed to be the creative geniuses behind this company which is based in Portland, OR.

Only the city that spawned Chuck Palahniuk and the twisted, ingenius realities of his novels like Fight Club and Survivor, could give birth to smart, stylish fashion accessories made out of duct tape.

Here’s a direct quote from DBCLAY.com: “When we think empires fall.”

I think that pretty much sums it up. Something fell when I saw these though I’m still not sure what it was. All I know is that my world is not the same.

I’ll never look at duct tape the same way again.

This is capitalism at it’s best. They use an incredibly inexpensive, functional material to create a beautifully designed variation on a product that almost every person needs. Sell at lower price point than traditional products (like leather wallets) in that market. It adds up to success for the producers and great value and pleasure for the customer.

The wallets are slim and not made to be stuffed with tons of credit cards or huge wads of cash. The creators of these duct tape wallets won’t be carrying their millions to the bank in one of these. They are perfect for a few bills, a couple credit cards and your ID card when you’re going out on the town.

Not only is each piece a fully functioning wallet, it is also a work of art that you’ll be carrying around in your pocket and sharing with others everytime you have to pay for something.

Each time you look at one of these wallets, you’ll be reminded of the value of real innovation. The poetry of it all is that it holds your money while being a testament to the creation of value.

Every duct tape wallet is a celebration of beauty, human ingenuity, and value. Hold one in your hand and it feels like your holding something much more important than a wallet, but at the same time they’re more playful than precious. They’re made out of fucking duct tape for God’s sake.

Forget about all the big name designers out there. A duct tape wallet reduces them to pretention holding a pencil.

As John and I found out, the hardest part was deciding which one to buy. We wanted them all. John, who is an architect and designer, says he’s not going to use his. He’s just going to put it someplace where he can look at it.

That’s not a bad idea. I’m no expert on collectibles, but I could see these becoming a collector’s item. Like Beanie Babies. I should have bought a dozen.

Here’s the one I finally settled on.

I think I need some more.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, I have to withdraw my Best of Show award. Turns out the idea of making a wallet out of duct tape is not exactly original. 3M/Scotch Canada has a website devoted to showing you how to make your very own wallet from duct tape.

I have also found several other sites on the Internet the specialize in duct tape fashion accessories and clothing. Duct Tape Fashion.com which also makes wallets in different models, ThinkGeek which sells stuff for “smart masses” has a duct tape wallet, and Duct Tape Creations has a wide selection of products also.

I still have to give credit to the guys at DBCLAY for creating some of best designs that I’ve seen.

Chris Holmes at Busker provides a list of English Signs in Foreign Locales.

Here are just a few examples:

• Doctor’s office, Rome: Specialist in women and other diseases.
• Dry cleaners, Bangkok: Drop your trousers here for the best results.
• Nairobi restaurant: Customers who find our waitresses rude ought to see the manager.”
• On the main road to Mombasa, leaving Nairobi: Take notice: when this sign is under water, this road is impassable.
• Poster at Kencom: Are you an adult that cannot read? If so, we can help.
• City restaurant: Open seven days a week and weekends.
• In a cemetery: Persons are prohibited from picking flowers from any but their own graves.

Giving directions in a foreign tongue can be dangerous.

The Canadian Government arrested Marc Emery in Vancouver, BC at the request of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. His business, which sold marijuana seeds, was shut down.

The U.S. Department of Justice is requesting Emery’s extradition from Canada.

The U.S. Attorney General alleges Emery conspired to manufacture marijuana, distribute marijuana seeds and launder money.

Rodney Benson, a special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, says the charges relate to Emery’s online business selling marijuana seeds.

Benson says Emery has sold $3 million worth of seeds – mostly to the U.S.

If Emery is convicted as charged, he faces a minimum penalty of 10 years in jail or a maximum of life in prison.

I didn’t realize that marijuana seeds were a drug.

I guess if an embryo is the same thing as a fully-developed human being then a marijuana seed is the same thing as marijuana plant. At least they are consistently stupid.

While the evidence suggests that God doesn’t love the Boy Scouts as much as the love themselves, our government thinks they are vital to national security and is willing to violate the Constitution to support them.

Doing a little reading this evening about the state of our government’s Boy Scout support, I discovered a few interesting things. First, I learned that a judge in the Northern Illinois U.S. District Court issued a ruling earlier this month which bars government support of future Boy Scouts Jamborees. The decision is available (in PDF form) from the ACLU’s website; it contains a thorough description of how the Boy Scouts meet the standard of a religious organization, and as such, how explicit government support thus violates the Constitution’s prohibition of a link between government and religion. Seems logical to me, and would seem to put this whole issue to bed. Oh, if it were only that easy.

[…]

Now you see why I find this so fascinating? It’s clear that the Constitution forbids our government from supporting organizations that mandate religious faith (like the Boy Scouts), and it’s also pretty clear that there’s no way the Senate would get the country to amend that ban out of the Constitution. So in order to get around it, the Senate is trying to pass laws that aim to prevent ordinary taxpayers from having sufficient standing to bring suit — “what we do might be unconstitutional, but you don’t have the right to file a court case to demonstrate that, so we can do it anyway.” And as the final straw, they did all of it by declaring that the Boy Scout Jamboree is vital for national security.

Read the whole article for the gory details and to follow links to referenced documents.

Just as the self-sacrifice of young males is vital to the survival of terrorism, the self-sacrifice of young American males is vital to the survival of the nation. Both place irrational values above human life.

Is a nation or a terrorist organization that depends upon human sacrifice for its own survival something worth preserving? Only a fool would fight for his own slavery and the “right” of others to sacrifice his life.

A nation is an irrational, inanimate entity, like a rock or the wind. It is not a living thing like a human being.

Is it a nation we should fight to protect or our own lives and freedoms?

Once protecting the nation becomes more important than protecting the lives and rights of the people who make up the nation, the nation has become nothing but an excuse for massive violations of human rights. Such an organization of humans–a nation if you will– is also in its dying days. A body that devours the cells that comprise it cannot survive. A building that crushes its own foundation will fall.

If nothing else, the Boy Scouts are certainly useful in grooming young boys for The Selective Service. That’s child abuse.