If you're around De-twa, or more specifically Hamsandwich, HDL has a new installation opening at Public Pool at 7 PM. Details here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=155942394488757 . It runs through October 22nd. 

They also just released a new video called "Creation of a Brand II" which gives a glimpse into their corporate hierarchy of Executives, Extractors, and Transporters: http://youtu.be/FLr94ys0R9A . 

Don't even play. You know all ur golden birds are belong to them.

Love and extraction,

inchy & Team LOVELAND

Aloha Backers!

Tomorrow, Saturday the 20th, at 5:07 PM, the Hygienic Dress League will have a short public activation ceremony for the No Vacancy billboard. Please spread word and join us at the Roosevelt Hotel to see the fruits of your inchvestment come to life (be there on the early side of 5:00 PM).

Afterwards we'll head to Cafe d'Mongo's downtown which will be open until 9 just for the occasion, and we'll finish off the night at PJ's Lager House.

•The Roosevelt Hotel is 2250 14th St (google map: http://bit.ly/9ud818)

•Cafe d'Mongo's is 1439 Griswold St (google map: http://bit.ly/9FLUaH)

•PJ's Lager House is 1254 Michigan Ave (google map: http://bit.ly/cRxOZ8)

Make sure to check out some of the media coming out about the project:

•Detroit News piece with video on HDL and No Vacancy: http://detnews.com/article/20101114/OPINION03/11140307/Street-artists-put-unique-brand-on-Detroit

•WDET radio piece on HDL and No Vacancy: http://www.wdetfm.org/article/artist-profile-hygienic-dress-league

We'll see you there! Call me if you have questions: 908-343-1981.

Jerry, Team LOVELAND & Friends

Wow. To all of you that backed No Vacancy congratulations, you have done something really cool, like unbelievably, and totally cool.
I've got two big updates for you.

One, a rare and exclusive opportunity to spend an evening with the husband/wife HDL duo! The official unveiling of No Vacancy with a VIP (Very Incheresting People) after-party at Cafe D'Mongo's from 6-9pm. So check out the press release below. And I'll see you all next Saturday on November 20th!

Two, those impostors ;) the Clean Clothes Club have released the designs for the shirts they've put together using iconography appropriated from HDL. I've included those images below as well.
As bad as we at LOVELAND feel about using products that so blatantly copy another group's style, we have to reward our generous backers with something and HDL does not create a product. And let's face it, these shirts are pretty darn cool.

Thank you, again to everyone who backed No Vacancy! It will be lighting up Roosevelt Park as of November 20th, come down and see the solar-neon-awesome-sauce that you built!

Thank you!

Mary Lorene and Team LOVELAND

Hello 89 Backers! You did it!

Because of you, the funding is now in place for Hygienic Dress League to complete the "No Vacancy" installation on the Roosevelt Hotel in Detroit. High fives all around!

Installation of the billboard is now well underway. Check out the attached pics from today (more documentation to come throughout the process, as well as an invitation to the official opening). The frame is in place, the tiles with graphics will be up soon, and the solar panels and batteries will be up next week now that there's funding to buy and set them up.

Apologies for the outdated email from this summer's Big Inch Block Party that got sent out when your LOVELAND accounts were made this evening. That was a glitch in the matrix. But! The moral of that glitch remains: if you go to http://makeloveland.com/login and put your email address in the "first time here?" box you'll be able to log into your inches in the growing microhood. :-)

We're building out this system for entertainment fundraising and social ownership projects in Detroit where people from around the world can drop dollars in the machine to be a part of great things happening in the city, over the network or in person. Engage as much or as little as you like, and definitely feel free to send us feedback on your experience or ideas on how we can improve. It's an open-minded project with a lot of possibilities for where it can go, and we love to constantly evolve it.

Rewards will be packaged and mailed as soon as we can, so send us your address through the Kickstarter form if you've got something coming.

Many thanks and much love from Detroit,

Team LOVELAND
http://makeloveland.com

Hello 72 Backers!

Today is the last day of fundraising. At 3 AM this Kickstarter goes poof and closes.

We're all on the road to victory together. The link for sharing is: http://kck.st/abS2Bg

If anyone needs a motivational speech today, I turn the mic over to Al Pacino who explains how life is a game of inches: http://www.youtube.com/watch...

The installation started getting snapped together yesterday. I've attached a few pics of neon bird pieces (and a real bird in the same shape -- total copy cat), peeps on lifts, and the frame being assembled. When this round completes, HDL will immediately purchase the rest of the solar and electrical equipment, and this puppy will brighten the Roosevelt and Detroit.

High fives,

ｷﾀ━━━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━━━!!!!!

♪┏(・o･)┛♪┗ ( ･o･) ┓♪┏ ( ) ┛♪┗ (･o･ ) ┓♪┏(･o･)┛♪

Hello 41 Backers!

I've had a phrase stuck in my head the past few days when describing this project, as well as work happening in the surrounding area: world-class. It sort of sounds silly, because of course that's the way it should be, but it's a nutshell way of reinforcing that this installation can be held side by side with any ambitious work of creativity (and engineering -- that's a lot neon tubes and solar panels!!) anywhere in the world and stand as tall if not taller.

I'm going to go on a little shpiel here, but before I do, note that there are 53 hours to go in fundraising, and in usual Kickstarter style there's a ways yet to travel. We need to transition potential supporters from rubbernecking to traction, or it's forever hold your piece time. The short link for sharing is http://kck.st/abS2Bg.

Now, please allow me to shpiel.

For those not familiar with this area of Detroit, the neighborhood is called Corktown, and its one of the more diverse neighborhoods in the city, demographically and terrain-wise. If you face east and start spinning in a circle on top of the Roosevelt Hotel where this sign is going up (see a google map here: http://bit.ly/d3vlMt), first you see the beautiful skyline of downtown Detroit looming above dense rows of historic homes. Rotating towards the north you see the flashing neon matrix lights of the Motor City casino which leads directly (and amazingly) into the urban farms and rural landscape of North Corktown. Due north and down below, you see the growing business on Michigan Avenue radiating out around Slow's BBQ, and west, at the foot of the hotel, begins Roosevelt Park, a large green space which is in the process of dramatic redevelopment around its main feature: the epic-ness that is Michigan Central Station. Beyond the train station is Southwest Detroit (AKA Mexicantown), and beyond that to the south (of all places!) is the Ambassador Bridge leading to Canada (which is, you know, a whole 'nother country right there to touch with your eyes). Tucked up against the south side of the hotel (literally, a roof touches the wall! -- they don't zone'em like they used to) is a new project called the Imagination Station where 2 homes and a field are being rehabbed into a public art, green redesign, and technology campus for the community. I feel honored to be working on that project as well, where just this past weekend another world-class art work opened up -- an installation called "Salvaged Landscape" by Catie Newell (check that out here: http://bit.ly/c5bPXW). "Salvaged Landscape" and "No Vacancy" will get along very well as world-class neighbors.

And just like with that project, where the art serves the positive re-imagining, reactivation, useful redevelopment of a space, "No Vacancy" is going to aid in the transformation of the Roosevelt Hotel from an empty, un-used, blighted building, to something attractive and constructive again. The hotel was recently purchased at auction and the new owners aren't entirely sure what to do with it, or when. The possibility that it could sit there unused for many more years is very real. But through our conversations with them about installing Hygienic Dress League's solar-powered neon billboard which will literally proclaim "NO VACANCY", they're understanding that something is going on in the area that they should be a part of and encourage. And that's a beautiful thing.

I was only 1/2 joking while talking with one of the backers the other night (you know who you are :-)) that part of the goal with this crowd-funding projects is to have the projects turn out so great, so phenomenal, so loved, that people who saw the fundraising happening but didn't donate should feel bad once its up and installed. Now, I say 1/2 joking because the point isn't to make people feel bad, it's to make people feel great. But the 1/2 serious part is that this is something really special, and it's going to feel very good for everyone who is a part of making it happen, whether they gave $1, $10, $100, $1,000, whatever, whether they made the design, crafted the neon, engineered the solar energy, or just told people, helped with the fundraising, and became a real fan.

Here's the link again to share: http://kck.st/abS2Bg

Many thanks, rock on, and feel great. Your support is essential, your support is loved, and what you are producing will be [...drum roll...] world-class.

Jerry & Team LOVELAND

PS See the attached pic below which shows another view of the Roosevelt where the sign will be attached, facing out onto Michigan Central Station and the park at sunset.

Well. It's all downhill from here, everyone (in a good way ٩♥‿♥۶). We're more than 1/2 way through final funding!

The billboard tiles have been created and are waiting for their friends Mr Neon and Mrs Solar to snap into place when this fundraiser hits its goal. Check out the attached pic.

Kickstarter is a lot like fishing. We've chummed the waters with awesomeness and are rowing around shooting off harpoons of awareness, and with only a few days left to go it would be very helpful if you opened your nets and spread some bait, too.

The link for sharing is: http://kck.st/abS2Bg

This piece is going to be incredible when it goes up next week. The mix of grand scale, technological innovation, aesthetics, mystery, crowd funded origins, and locational significance make this an absolutely world-class work coming out of Detroit. You will feel warm, and you will feel fuzzy, and not only because you are a mammal.

David Lynch gives the motivational speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch...

Let's do it! ❤

Jerry & Team LOVELAND

PS I swung by Third and Willis today to check out HDL's most recent piece. Pic also attached. Awesome.

Dear "No Vacancy" Backers,

Let's follow Kurt Vonnegut's 8 Rules For Writing*, rule #8:

"Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages."

With that in mind, go here to check out what the finished "No Vacancy" installation will look like (we've also updated Kickstarter with the pic, and attached it below): http://bit.ly/hygienicupdate .

The design and homework are done, the craftspeople are on the ball, and everything is in order to manufacture the neon and snap it into the solar. What's missing is the remaining lootsauce for materials. We're on track to hit the goal (Kickstarters tend to accelerate towards the end) but do need to raise $3,000 in the next 7 days, and need to stay on top of that.

We'll be working the phoneamabobs and internet machines to get out the vote, and encourage you to do the same. If it's in your heart, let's cast some nets together and pull some big and little fish up on the boat. Many hands, light work.

To drive home some of the satisfaction of this idea-->inchvestment-->installation process, the first art work we helped raise funds for, Monumental Kitty, is now up and running. Check it out in these process pics and imagine the joy of seeing "No Vacancy" installed and humming away, inviting passersby to approach and ponder a building they'd otherwise never go near or think twice (even once?) about, and knowing that you played an important part in it being there and, perhaps, the future activation of the space itself: http://on.fb.me/monumentalkittypics .

Too cool. Thank you and Godspeed,

Jerry & Team LOVELAND

*Vonnegut's 8 Rules For Writing (which are pretty awesome to digest): http://thoughtcapital.wordpress.com/2007/04/13/kurt-vonneguts-8-rules-for-writing