Don't Bother Me, I'm Knitting an Atari

photo via Combray

Will and I went with our friend Jen O'Donnell last night to Esty Labs in downtown Brooklyn to check out a tech-no-music situation.

How do I explain?

Well, a bunch of guys (there were a few girls, but they seemed to be there to explain their guy's project) brought these.... devices? creations?... doo-dads that they had forged from spare parts (?) that made music-ish noise when you pressed a button/flipped a switch/waved it around/asked the guy to show you. We were looking for inspiration in different directions to make The Crush Project, which is slowly making it's way back from the near-dead, visible beyond the internet.

It was a little overwhelming for me and O'Donns, since all the machines seemed to be playing their music at the same time (NOISE JAM!!!) so we headed out to what seemed to be the gift shop. There, we found racks of purses, jewelry, beaded pens (to be sold as part of an upcoming trunk show) and a whole room knit out of yarn, including the knit Atari you see above. Turns out, Etsy is just about an exact replica of the UMASS Craft Center where I made many an X-mas gift at during my impoverished college years. Sewing machines, glue guns, lab coats (that's just added to make you look... scientific) and blinky shit all around that you can use if you become a member.

I'm en route there now. Maybe I'll come back with a handmade handbag. Or a very bedazzled labcoat...