As many of you know, Saturday was our grand re-opening, and boy was it grand. The day had already been busy. Because of the Cherokee Street Open House we had customers walking in by the dozens. A bunch of stuff was sold, and crazy cool people were met.

Matt Cipov joined us for his totally awesome opening in the basement at 7 o’clock, complete with Dj Robot Rock and his visuals, and the sweetest belly dancer! Plus, Lauren (Stimulus Baking Company) made the yummiest vegan cupcakes I have ever tasted.

Matt is the nicest guy ever, and besides being so outgoing and easy to talk to, his art is beautiful. It has this effortless and simple quality while still looking complete, like you wouldn’t add a thing to it. Matt’s characters are lovable outcasts. Monsters, robots, space creatures, animals that can’t decide if they want to be human or not… They’re serious, but we smile at them. There was a boy at the show who was standing in the same place for the longest time, at least a half an hour, looking at a couple of drawings. I really got a kick out of it. Later he explained that he was observing their unique personalities. He was sticking around so he could remember how Matt’s creations made him feel. The most affecting art is the kind that you have trouble walking away from.

Besides the amazing quality of his work, his prices are affordable! The prints start at just $6, and the average cost for them is probably about $20. His originals are a bit more expensive, but not at all outrageous. Also, he’s all about spreading his vision wherever he can. As he said to me: He’d rather sell six pieces for $25 than one piece for $150. I have great respect for artists like that. So, if you can’t live without something and it’s a little too expensive for your pockets, barter with us! And as long as it’s fair and we know you’re sincere, you’ll be in luck.

If you don’t live close enough to Cranky Yellow to grab some of Matt’s goods you should check out his store and purchase from there. In addition, he has many lovely photos on his Flickr page for you to browse/drool over.

Thanks Matt! We loved having you. Drive down from Milwaukee to visit us anytime.

Hello Cranky Yellow readers. This is my first Cranky blog post, and I’m so excited to get started.

Last night I went to the 7:00 performance of  May These Changes Make Us Light at New City School. I didn’t stop smiling the whole time. Here’s a little bit about exactly what went down:

Nick (super fun Mark Pagano), a man searching for the meaning of life and what life-path he should follow, decides to make a quest to the North Pole and talk with Santa. During his quest he meets the Snow Queen of the North Pole (the amazingly talented Kelsey LaPoint, who conceptualized the show). She tells him to always follow his heart. If he walks in the direction that his heart leads him, he will find what he is looking for – or maybe even something better than expected. She helps him understand that whatever he chooses to do in life will be the right thing for him as long as he uses his heart more than his brain. He also meets Atnas (lovely Lyndsey Scott), Santa’s rebellious daughter, who teaches him to look past the popular “giving-receiving” idea of Christmas that’s so ingrained into our minds. Unlike Santa who gives, Atnas, a free spirited environmentalist takes away things. For example, she might sweep away your sad thoughts, or dust away your insecurity. She’ll even clean your house. Atnas loves the animals of the North Pole, acro-yoga, singing, and giggling, and she eventually vacuums Nick’s soul, frees his mind and heart from feelings and thoughts of “I can’t” and “What if?”. Eventually Nick does meet Santa. They talk on Christmas Eve about the best gift – a gift for the soul. Santa teaches him a mantra. On top of this wonderful story, the audience got to experience mind-blowing performances by Celia’s Yuletide choir singing Christmas songs, FIRE DOG, Emi Hemeyer playing her dulcimer, a whole cast of animal acro-yoga experts, film snippits, animation by the extremely talented Sarah Paulsen, beautiful Tibetan music by Bradford Smith, and TONS more contributors that I can’t remember! (You are recognized and appreciated, I promise!)

It was really incredible being able to sit and watch a group of people come together and create something packaged with such a huge amount of sincerity and love. Not only was every single person on stage extremely talented, some of them were our friends. And when you see your friends come together and create something that meaningful and then show you what they’ve created, it inspires you to create too. To CHANGE. That’s how I felt leaving the show. I felt like I wanted to change myself and the world, and make things the best they can be. That must be where the name comes from.

Seriously though, there were a bunch of moments when I felt butterflies in my tummy, or had to clutch my heart because it was so full.

It ended exactly how it should have. As the choir sang it’s last few songs, the animals of the North Pole came offstage to dance with the audience, and soon most of us were bouncing around the theatre. The happiness that overwhelmed the room can’t even be explained in words.

I want to leave you with a short video I took last night. The quality is poor and it’s just a tiny representation of the vast brilliant production that was put on, but I still feel like I need to share it.

Oh, one more thing. Check out Alfalfa.