The ever-changing art walk seemed more subdued that normal this month.  However, I noticed drops in participation last fall as well.  I think people are less willing to bustle about in the windy downtown when the temperature drops below 55 degrees at night.

But I did.

And here is what I saw:

There were at least three separate parking lots reserved for food trucks.  Some of the food truck parking lots had local radio stations and/or DJs playing music.  For the first time I also saw a few folding tables set up so customers actually had somewhere to sit and eat the food.  The Jose O Malley’s truck (above) had a karaoke “booth.”  Another parking lot had a DJ in the back – but nobody was paying attention to him.  One day I’ll put out an album and call it “the lonely DJ.”  That’s him way back there by the porta-johns under that UFO.

The hip-hop skateboard/tagging Crewest gallery actually had some interesting stuff this time.  They had an entire show dedicated to skulls.  Each artist had to start with the same skull model (I want to know where to get one of these myself) and then went crazy from there.

Octoskull…

Here is a video of most of the skulls:

There was also a very futuristic machine skull thing hanging on the wall (you can see it on the right just before the video ends) that was cool.  It looked like it had been printed by one of those 3D printers – but it was a very complex piece with lots of little mechanical arms and things.  I found a photo of it on the crewest Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/crewestman/5166441222/ But even there it is hard to make out the little bits and pieces.

Later I passed under the Regent’s sign and had a giggle:

I’m sure they meant that the year should rest in peace – but to me this looked more like the Regent’s own tombstone – since 2010 was the year they attempted to get really commercial with their art show and it apparently put them out of business.  I love irony.

As always there was music everywhere:

And, as always, there were new businesses trying to sell merchandise under the guise of  “we’re an art gallery that um..also… sells purses and dresses and whatnot.”

and random stuff

Bang gallery was once again misguided in the attempt to display art.  They had two different musical acts.  One consisted of a girl sitting at a keyboard and playing something slowly and quietly but getting interupted.  This was, of course, next to a room that had an “art piece” that looked a lot to me like someone got some furniture and tore it apart.  A frantic hipster (wearing a dreadlock wig, no less) came up to me and said “hey man, when they opened that piece it had a nug glued to the wall – it’s already gone man!  it’s already gone!”

(for those who don’t know – Hi Mom! –  “nug” refers to “nugget” which refers to a small serving of marijuana)

On the “big stage” at Bang was some kind of hippy rock band that was off in their own world.

The Temple of Visions had the same art from last month.  The Hive had a sculpture showcase (so I had nothing in the show).

There were also, way in the back, some masks made out of interesting materials like sea shells and leaves.  Unfortunately I didn’t see any photos of them on the Hive website.