PATIENCE! LOADING>>>>
 
HANG IN THERE>>>
 We had been in Allentown for two days worth of teaching so far. Now it was time to stop encouraging others and lay down some tape ourselves. The location for our mural was a series of panels on a building in the heart of downtown Allentown. It kinda looked like a department store and there were hints of fancy decorations in the pillarwork and the remainders of metal ornamentation. We stopped people on the streets to ask questions about the building and were able to quickly construct a history of this once very, very famous department store - the Hess Department Store. The brief history of the Hess Department store, as told to us, was a remniscing frenzy with the nostalgia of people reflecting on the heydays of cross-Atlantic Zepplin travels, or times when things were "just better". It had apparently at one time been the Harrods of the Americas. It was a haven for famous movie stars. It boasted the best strawberry pies in the states - a speciality that was 4 inches thick. And if you ate this colossal pie in their restaurant you could watch super models run a catwalk past your table, sporting the latest expensive fashions. Every week they flew in one of each type of flower from around the world to create a virtual Noah's Ark of botany. But one of the things its founder, Mr. Hess, will always be remembered for, was his love for toys and the immense collection of toys the store always had. This historical information was repeated over and over again by the passersby who stumbled upon our mural. The question asked most often was wether or not the store was planning to open. Sadly, the answer was no. It may not have opened, but it did get to briefly live again.
 
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And women rustled cattle.
The end was near.
Ten years of idealism being relived in Singapore as you read.
Beach Blanket Bingo was written by Michael Townsend's great uncle!
The little girl on Inspector Gadget was the first time we saw a lap top.
The decade where xxx means - really, really, really exstreme.
Today I saw someone at the supermarket, talking on his phone and squeezing fruit.
Attention K-Mart shoppers...
The future is full of monkeys.
Actors paid 5 cents a day. You survive the turn of a century...you dance! Dance like the wind! Don't get your pearls caught in the blender. These are the model citizens of the beach. Mom and Dad left the kids home with the T.V., v.c.r and cable. This is not badly drawn, it is stylized. In the 1990's there were advertising campaigns aimed at one year olds. Modern mannaquins are inadequete, the future will be better. We will be able to solve the rubiks cube without touching it.
Pull my finger.
Vanna White was preceded by so many.
zrrrzrrrrrrrrrzrrrrrrrzrrrrrrvrooooooommmmmmm 
cha-ching
 
Beach bunnies in the latest fashions.
Work, my minions, work. 
Go home, my minions and rest. 
Back to work with ya. 
Have a good weekend.
 Some Surge Soda and away you go...
Cyborg children are scary, but fun to look at.
  
Reaching out will have to be redefined.
Before there were mannequins; there were people. Our thought with this window was that the figures in it were live performers 
sporting the advantages of different articles of refinement from hats to gloves.
Shoes. Crazy shoes. Fast swinging shoes. Shoes that move your feet. The shoes that make people meet. A wonderous feat, plaid shoes with pleats. At the store they greet with no intent of retreat. You sir, have a seat. These shoes are such a sweet treat.

The fifties and buying appliances were unseparatable. These are the first mannequins we represented in this mural. They were drawn with the little notches where their arms, wrists and head are meant to come off. The pop culture of commerce is in its infancy and growing quickly.

How was this panel created?
Under a highway overpass, in a concrete corner of 
Worcester, Massachusetts, was a wonderful old piece of graffitti that simply read: Bill and Muffy 4-ever. It was recently erased, but hopefully the prophetic love spoken of in that simple text has lived on. The two above are a reminder of a style and way of life that was also suppose to last 4-eva.
Less than a decade away and the nostalgia is strong. But not for the work. Business and fashion met and didn't necessarily get along. Miami Vice taught us how to solve conflict through peaceable acts. And the marching army of briefcase toters forever dated themselves as the money lovers with strange haircuts.
X-streme x-actions x-became x-the x-way 
x-to x-sell x-anything x-to x-an x-adventure x-starved x-conservative x-couch x-potatoes. X-this x-may x-sound x-cynical, x-but x-streme x-socks, x-streme x-chocolate x-and x-streme x-vacations have made us a little x-skeptical.
Near the end of this century the onslaught 
of advertisements geared towards children has reached an all time high. The arguably easily manipulated child-as-consumer lay helpless to an endless barrage of images and campaigns directed towards making them whine for the product in question. Technological products + children = techno/cyborg kids.
This is a display window in the not so distant future. The product they are selling is pure light. We sell bottled water right now, so, who knows what the future will bring. But, hopefully it will bring mannequins as exciting as these.
The collective result of ideas on this panel of the mural leaves us with yet another interpretation of the future. This one has people with glass bubbles on their hands and they wiggle their fingers to "type" in space and communicate. Not very convenient. Here they stand before a holographic projection of some female head... the future is very exciting.