ALL CRAFTNIGHTS:
Akbar • 4356 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90029
Vaxxed and Masked REQUIRED, no exceptions
Oct 27th – 9pm – COFFINS-N-OCCUPANTS
Paint and decorate a miniature wooden coffin AND THEN make a haunted clothespin creature friend that sleeps inside of it!
Nov 3rd – 8pm – CRAFTAOKE! • Fall Apple Crafts
First Wednesdays of every month are now EARLY BIRD crafts with Karaoke alongside! JP Craft Captain and KJ Teri are here to give you a night of art and song!
Nov 10th – 9pm – Nerdy Fall Critters
Assemble your very own woodland creature and then embellish it to your whim, adding features to make it truly yours!
Nov 17th – 9pm – Fall Sand Art
A “peel-n-sprinkle” type of craft that doesn’t ask very much of you. I think that’s appropriate since a lot is going on around this time of year and sometimes it’s all you can do to just sit down, have a cocktail, and make something that is free of complication. Leaves, turkeys, pumpkins, first come, first serve.
Nov 24th – NO CRAFTS! It’s Akbar’s Annual Pre-Thanksgiving Dance: PIE!
Starting THIS WEEK Oct 6, 2021 CraftNight is BACK!
I have missed you so much, you don’t even know.
Please come in and craft, it’s been a long season of burning patience, and the googly eyes cannot wait to see you. xoxo JP Craft Captain
- Project: Ghost OR Spider Puffball Wreath
- $5 CraftNight Admission
- 9pm ’til midnight (or later)
- Entry: Vaxxed and Masked ONLY!
WHERE: Akbar! 4356 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90029
(corner of Sunset and Fountain)
Other Things Going On:
- Visit Gothtober.com to get a daily trick or treat for the ENTIRE month of October! 31 artists, 31 days! Pandemic-proof internet together-art!
- Bet Your Bottom Bingo is back at Akbar starting 7pm on OCT 17th! Prizes!
- JP Happy Hour Tuesdays! 4pm to 8pm Come on in to Akbar and say hello! I’m serving up tasty $6 Drink Specials until the clock turns into pumpkin spice (8pm).
Will there be a SparkleBlob holiday puppet show in December?
Due to covid’s continuing stealthy and unpredictable ways, we’ve opted not to do the holiday puppet show this year.
We want to do some kinda thing, but it’s got to be something everyone feels relaxed and safe to both perform and attend.
Updates and details shall be forthcoming ASAP.
Enthusiasm and perseverance shall continue inordinately.
CraftNight, Gothtober, and the Annual Holiday show are all run by SparkleBlob, a 501c3 that cleverly tricks people into making and doing art in the city of Los Angeles.
Hello, happy day whatever, welcome to NOT CraftNight!
In lieu of our usual in-person soiree of cocktails and crafts at Akbar, I’m sending you vibes of bohemia and great cordiality through my computer monitor to yours. Get yer crayons ready…
Here’s the very latest coloring page I made for you JUST NOW that you can print, color and enjoy in your habitat. It’s PeeWee Herman riding a jaguar, chest hair out, space boots on, jaguar blowing bubbles from corncob pipe. CLICK HERE GET IT NOW!!!
How ya doin? It’s been a weird moody week. When things are not going my way, one or more of these three things solves up to half of every problem:
- Drink a BIG glass of water
- Take a nap
- Eat an apple
These actions/findings are not scientific or proven, it’s just a personal at-home philosophy currently in development. Lemme know if any of these remedies have worked for you.
Sending artsy fartsy love,
JP Craft Captain
On with the distractions, because life inside is LIVING!
The Introspective Option <<< Daily Creativity Pact? Suleika Jaouad started the Isolation Journals project. Sometimes I just read it and then I don’t do it. But sometimes I do it, and I like it!
Matt Damon <<< adopted by a small seaside Irish village! Remember Contagion when he played a Hollywood pandemic dad? Now he’s a real pandemic dad kickin’ it with his fam in the land of saints and scholars!
The Louis Vuitton Foosball Table <<< Unveiled just last week, and at only $93,000.00!!!! Get yours today! Perfect timing!
Super Fun Music Quiz <<< Okay so you meet someone who has never heard of Ella Fitzgerald… or The Byrds… or Van Halen. What songs do YOU remember?
Four Leaf Clover in Resin? <<<< YESSSSS! MAKE IT! It’s toxic be careful, but you’ll be SO LUCKY!!!
The Spy Who Loved Me <<< 1977 Roger Moore Bond, skiing, Egypt, the ocean, startling/arresting fashion, antiquated ideas, and so many wonderful old-fashioned telephones. And the villain, Jaws… remember JAWS????
Daily Wellness on Spotify <<< A mix of music and wellness for your entire day, every day a new one! It can make things ploof along.
EAT A FOOD
The Kitchen <<< Akbar’s closed, but The Kitchen is still cookin! Serving take-out orders (limited menu, check our site for available items) from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Also delivery through Postmates. #TheBESTChickenSoup
Yuca’s on Hillhurst <<< Open for TAKE-OUT and DELIVERY! Order delivery via GrubHub. Call in your take-out order at (323) 662-1214 #cochinitapibil
Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles <<< Open, available for pickup or delivery. See? Sometimes we CAN have nice things. Postmates, UberEats, GrubHub, DoorDash #CarolCSpecial #ObamaSpecial
Elf Restaurant <<< Legendary tiny romantic veggie restaurant still in operation! Order food and natural wine via Caviar (free delivery) or call them: 213-484-6829 for sidewalk service.
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Hi! I miss you! It’s quarantine day #56. Akbar’s been closed since the 14th, today is National Cosmpolitan Day. How cruel is it that I don’t get to mix you a tasty, frosty cosmo during this springtime heatwave?!? DUMBNESS.
CraftNight’s on hold, as the Akbar Rumpus Room is quiet, like so many of your favorite places. But guess what? Tomorrow I’m gonna LIVE on the ProjectQ Instagram teaching a lil’ drawing workshop at NOON! It’s all part of the ProjectQ Virtual Community Center Programming, lots of great learning to be found there, including self-haircutting workshops taught by my wife, Coral!
I’ll be sharing with you some basic drawing skills and techniques, stuff you can do with any ol’ piece of paper, pencil, and pen. Please tune in if you’re inclined, and thank you for watching!
So how ya coping? Do you have enough beans? I have enough beans, but only recently. Shit is very serious, and I know you know that, so I’m not going to get into it. Can’t really get into it because never-ending screaming/exploding may ensue, and there’s already enough of that going round the mulberry bush. I’m gonna offer distractions, because I want you to stay inside if you can. Because science knows things.
MIDNIGHT GOSPEL – Netflix >>> It’s not for everybody, but it’s beautiful, poignant, a collaboration between Duncan Trussel and Pendleton Ward, and it was totally for me, so I thought I’d share.
LEARN SPANISH – DuoLingo >>> Why? Because LOS ANGELES. Also, your proximity to a country that has the most delicious food less than 3 hours away from you, when the gates are open again, go there and EAT. Already know Spanish? Okay, how bout Scottish Gaelic and Esperanto????
BECOME A SMITHSONIAN DIGITAL VOLUNTEER >>> Transcribe Astronaut, Sally Ride’s journals! Diaries, ledgers, logbooks, and MORE! People left behind historical information on all kinds of stuff, and it needs to be logged! You can help it be recorded for posterity, yes you!
PRESSURE COOKER TOMATO SAUCE RECIPE>>> Make it, freeze it, make your life just that much more fabulous. Freezer Arts & Sciences is an amazing way to give your future dinner-eating self fabulous gifts. Don’t have an instant pot to make this sauce? Just… browse around on Serious Eats, it’s a never-ending source of deliciousness.
BIG DESK ENERGY ON SPOTIFY >>> I dunno about you, my desk is the hub, where it all starts, where it all ends, where stuff is MADE. You need something that’ll keep you kicking butt. Here’s a mix for that big desk feeling.
Meanwhile, if you wanna color, just go into the last few CraftNight posts to get FREE downloadable coloring pages by yours truly! There’s Fish Police, Badger & Fox, Reality Bites, and Gandalf + Dumbledore in a Mini! Hmmm… there were no posts in April… the Archive of March 2020 should give you alll the links!
Until soon,
JP Craft Captain
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Happy Wednesday, normally I’d be getting ready to host CraftNight at Akbar, but quarantine continues, right on schedule. Thus, here’s another Covid-19 Coloring Page for you, fantasy edition!
In the past, drawing prompts on my FB page were sometimes used to make Xmas ornaments for recipients who may have only casually thrown an idea into the ring. Other times, the subject matter has been used merely as a personal challenge for making paintings or drawings. This is how the wizards, Dumbledore and Gandalf, ended up in a mini this week.
I have known Kendra since my first week of college, when I asked her if she’d be my friend. Guess what? We’re still friends!
Kendra did indeed ask for exactly this wizard-mini-drawing scenario probably a year or more ago, and the request was duly noted, but alas, time ran out. So when it came around AGAIN (see above) I just had to drop everything and draw it!
Upon drawing this particular vignette, two wizards in a mini, one wonders where two such friends could wander? Gandalf visiting Dumbledore at Hogwarts might be fun, but you can take the train there, no need to use a mini.
However, getting to Mordor has ALWAYS been a schlep, it’s not for anyone without serious adventure chops. A mini might be preferred for quick turns and zippy getaways.
Maybe Gandalf was like “Hey Dumbledore, take a drive with me to check out my old room mate, Sauron’s, realm! It’s CRAZY, it’s got a bunch of orcs, and trolls, and hobbits, there’s a volcano, and Sauron built a giant eye on a stick that we have to avoid so he doesn’t see us coming. Sauron’s kind of a grumpy guy, but once you get to know him he’s just a big softy.”
So thank you, Kendra, for being vigilant in your appeal for this drawing. The beards are flying out the windows as you wish… but… I cheated a little bit, I made the auto an ORIGINAL actual British mini to make the car just that much smaller. And this is a THREE wizard drawing, with the addition of Sauron… snooping with his obnoxious giant spying eyeball on a stick. They did start driving in town, but kept going and ended up in Mordor, like ya do.
The first three coloring pages were nice and easy, but this one’s one to chew on, it’s got lots of nooks and crannies for coloring! Hope you enjoy it, all of these are 8.5 X 11, by the way, suitable for any garden-variety home printer.
And please DO share your finished coloring pages with me, I love seeing how y’all use your hues and tints!
CLICK HERE to DOWNLOAD GANDALF & DUMBLEDORE in a MINI!
The Eye of Sauron! Middle Earth has many attractions… Mount Doom, kind of a warm spot Detail of Dumbledore (left) and Gandalf (Right)
Okay I’m continuing to make coloring pages per requests on my Facebook page, and this one’s for Beto, who was watching Reality Bites, the 90s comedy about love and… reality!
The bitter truth is upon us, and Reality REALLY DOES Bite right now. To keep you company, here are the Gen X archetypes of the times: Vickie Miner, Michael Grates, Leilana Pierce, and Troy Dyer!
Give ’em all mustaches, color fun backgrounds for them, enjoy coloring this in and then putting it up in your ROOM so you can emulate the slacker generation and practice intellectual one-upmanship on those around you!
Thank you, Beto! I enjoyed drawing all the “disaffected 90s youth” hair!
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Welcome to the weekend, as we’re cooped inside for a bit of a long haul, it’s time to read alllll those books you’ve been meaning to read! Or learn something new, like ukulele, or pick up that instrument and do some noodling! Or watch TV? I dunno… or COLOR! Yes, get your Fox-n-Badger coloring sheet here today!
I’ve received so many marvelous requests for coloring pages, but I knew when I read this that I REALLY WANTED TO DRAW IT!!! Thank you, Dalia, for fox and badger love.
I don’t really understand the mechanics of the Badger’s paw/fret placement, and the fox is on a ladder, not on a pile of books. Also this is coloring pages, so the fox MIGHT be red, but it’s up to the crayon-holder to really make that kind of decision. Hope you don’t mind those discrepancies, lol.
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These are unprecedented times. To keep both you and me busy, I asked Facebook for coloring page suggestions, and this is the VERY FIRST ONE. It was requested by a high school pal of mine who’s daughter’s betta fish just bit the dust. I would think that in the midst of being in quarantine, the untimely death of one’s fish would be even more bummer than usual. That’s why this is the first coloring page.
Also, in this fish tank I knew nothing about before now, they have an axolotl, and I KNEW I needed to draw THAT. Here’s the full story of how this happened, taken from my FB feed:
So… with the information I was given, I devised a scenario whereupon the police fish might meddle in the life of an axtotl. You know, the FISH POLICE. And now you can download your very own .PDF and color it!
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BEAUTY.—A sun which dwells in the souls of all…
~”A Chapter of Definitions,” Daily Crescent, 1848 June 23rd
| TONIGHT! Paint-a-Huevo! FEB 26, 2020 • 9pm AKBAR $3 – $5 sliding scale! 21+ You know what I’ve got? I’ve got some eggs, that’s what. They’re not supposed to be on the craft calendar until waaaaaaayyyyy down the pipeline, for a certain holiday that’s very egg-centric. But I thought I’d do things backwards. You know how they’re always asking which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Well, tonight it’s the EGG. They’re made of plaster, quite gorgeous, really, they have a bit of sassy scrumple all around them, festooned with ribbon-type terrain for you to paint. It’ll definitely keep you busy, even if you decide to paint yours one solid color. Come paint one, an egg is a reminder of possibility, consider an egg, and then paint it! Also: yes glitter glue, yes, googly eyes, yes gems! See you at the Craft Table, Craft Captain JP |
MARCH
HAPPY HOURS w/JP
4pm to 8pm
March 2, 9, 16
FEATURING:
$6 Old-Fashioned with Magical Orange Slice and Luxardo Cherry