a creative whim...

Kelly went crazy tonight and randomly decided to update/redesign our website! 6 hours after initiation (and about 3 cokes worth of caffeine later) Kelly has finally completed the new face of bennykelly. Check out this very productive creative whim at www.bennykelly.com!

we must admit the contact page and home page are totally our favorites! What is yours?

a beloved queen

Today is a sad day for fashion with the news of Alexander McQueens death.  He was a true inspiration and one of the few designers left that continued to shake up the industry by creating wearable art, not just fashion.  We will truly miss this royals daring designs and one of a kind style!

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our awesome friends out there!   benny & I hope you all have a fabulously filling meal with those you want to be with most!!  And just in case the party needs some decorations or just some crafting fun, we have compiled a few awesome turkey crafting templates for you to enjoy...

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="479" caption="turkey name cards for the table!"][/caption]

two loves combined!

Today Thom Yorke's newest genius 12' Vinyl LP, FeelingPulledApartbyHorses/The Hollow, go on sale today and we couldn't be more excited.  Not only is Thom Yorke an amazingly talented musician but in his official video for this LP he pairs his music up with imagery from the street artist Banksy. Both are a sensory overload of social commentary...it was only a matter of time before their art found each other! Enjoy!!



Directed by Raymond Salvatore Harmon
www.raymondharmon.com

produced by Nigel Godrich
©2009 XL - www.xlrecordings.com

alameda adventures

benny and I sewed like crazy all last week to get ready for what was to be a fabulous photoshoot, to bring some new goodies to etsy.  Unfortunately kelly woke up saturday morning with her shoulders peeling from bad sunburn and that doesn't make for pretty poses.

Since our awesome photographer (Christopher Bennett) was ready to go and the day was warm and beautiful, we decided to jump on our bikes and take some pictures to share with you along the way.  We headed south and soon decided to head toward the always interesting Alameda base to do a little urban exploration!  With a little ingenuity, we were able to get into a sweet little abandoned warehouse on the more vacant side of the base. We would have explored more but with an unexpected bike malfunction and it getting later in the evening we decided to call it a day.

Maybe next time we can find the base's rumored underground bunker!!

more photos after the jump....

Etsy Summer Tour

Etsy is on a summer tour and their next stop is San Francisco!! A small group of Etsy admins--Maria Thomas (CEO), Sara Hicks (VP of Product), Chad Dickerson (Chief Technology Officer), Jesse Hertzberg (Director of Business Development) and Carrington Williams (Director of Strategic Finance)--will be gathering to do a little meet and greet at Crossroads Cafe tomorrow.  So if you have always wanted to meet the people that make etsy possible and other local etsy sellers then stop on by, say hello and grab some snacks and drinks on etsy!

Etsy is asking all that want to come to please RSVP HERE.  We hope to see you there!!

When:  Tuesday June 9th  6pm
Where:  Crossroads Cafe 699 delancey st, san francisco

Papergirl 3

benny and I are huge fans of random gifting, so when we ran across Papergirl's project we fell in love with the concept!  Papergirl is a project that barrows the style of traditional paper boys, by distributing rolled paper artwork by bicycle to random people walking the streets of Berlin!  Each roll handed out contains multiple pieces of art that has been collected (people sending in whatever art they choose to share) over the last year.

It is heartwarming to see this project spread art in a way that honestly is the most gratifying way possible, as there in nothing better than random gifting to make a person feel loved!  Below are some photos of the event and be sure to check out the sweet video papergirl made, documenting all the love!

Swine Flu = Street Art

As many in Mexico take the extra precotion of wearing surgical masks to prevent the spread of the Swine Flu, we are seeing creativity blosoom from these scared masses!  Check out these awesome photo from telegraph.co.uk showing people sporting decorated face masks bringing a little beauty to a fearful situation!

Happy Earth Day!!

Happy Earth Day!!  We love our planet and what better way to really show that then to do  everything one can to make life better for our planet.  Well if your in New York, The Lower East Side Ecology Center will teach you how to love our earth with a FREE indoor composting workshop. Learn how to set up and maintain a worm bin in your apartment. You can even get your own full compost bin setup kit for only $55 each (on a first-come, first-serve basis).  So get dirty and show the planet you care!

When:  Wednesday April 22nd  5pm - 6:30pm

Where:  Exit Underground at Exit Art 475 Tenth Ave, New York

LESEC is Calling for new Worm Corps Members!

Worm Corps is a group of compost experts who volunteer to help spread the love of vermicomposting by teaching "wormshops" (worm workshops) to students at schools all over Manhattan as well as tabling with the worms and other info about LESEC programs at environmental fairs and festivals. New members will attend a two-hour training session and then will be contacted when volunteer opportunities become available. Interested? Please contact Carey for more information by calling 212-477-3155 or e-mail info@lesecologycenter.org

Feed Your Soul with IndieFixx

IndieFixx is spreading the love of handmade art through a new free art project called "Feed Your Soul".  Each month IndieFixx gives you free downloads of prints by participating artists.  In this hard economic time what better way to spread a little beauty and help artists promote thier work for free!

Check out some of these awesome prints/participating artists  below.  Then head on over to IndieFixx and download a snack for your soul!

Art by Mandy Sutdiffe

more artists after the jump...

Happy Easter

Wishing you all a Happy Easter!

stencil art by ABOVE.  check out the sweet video on this piece here!!

Music is always better when it's free!

Love going to great shows but low on money?  Well we have just the band or you.  Monsters are Not Myths will be rocking you silly tomorrow with a free show in San Francisco!!  They will be playing for a whole hour of folk, rock, economic stimulus and, most importantly, cowbells.  If anything, come for their love of burritos!

When:  Wednesday  April 7th 9pm

Where:  Grant & Green (North Beach)  1371 Grant St, San Francisco

The little bit of sunny...

We are back from our awesome little mountain vacation and just in time for the rain!  Our mountain trip was perfect, we had lots of sun (hardly any snow sadly...), beautiful scenery, and an awesome hiking adventure.  But what we really wanted to share with you is that we have found a sweet ass location for next winter shoot!  Check out these fantastic pictures, by the awesome Christopher Bennett, of a seasonal camp ground currently closed and abandoned right near Strawberry!

more pictures after the jump...

Flip the switch, cast a vote and join the cause!

Join the fight against global warming by participating in this year's Earth Hour.  Earth hour is a one hour event in which individual people, large corporations & businesses of all sorts turn off the lights in a show of love and commitment to make a difference for the betterment of Earth! This year's goal is 1 Billion flipping the switch, but in order to see this realized Earth needs your help too!!

when:  saturday march 28th (tomorrow)  8:30pm - 9:30pm

And to make your evening even more than just a boring hour sitting in the dark...here are a few ideas to fill your dark hour with fun!

• plan a romantic candle lit dinner & board game with your lover


• bring out the camping equipment and build a fort in your living room


• invite a group of friends over to play hide and go seek in the dark


• take a candle lit bike ride or evening stroll


• tell us what you plan on doing during your dark hour in the comments below...

We got sick...damn viruses!!

Here a bennykelly, we have been under the false amazement that we have yet to get this bad illness/cold that everyone seems to be getting. We did not even get sick when Kelly's boy, Chris, was stuck whining in bed for a whole week!! Well i guess we let it get to our heads because we both came down with a bad cold two days ago and are just starting to feel good enough to venture off the couch!!

We apologize for the lack of postings and will make up for it in the next few days...

The Parkway is closing its doors...

We were welcomed back home today with some extremely sad news, The Parkway Speakeasy will be shutting its doors this coming Sunday. We know times are tough, but we have been hoping to see our favorite independents be able to stick it out.  So as we say farewell to a local landmark and one of our favorite movie houses, we ask that you join the fight to save the Parkway!!

Join the Fight on Facebook...http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=57726393239&ref=mf

For those that tweet...http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%22parkway+theater%22+OR+%22parkway+theatre%22

the message sent out from the owners after the jump...

Make Your Band's Album Cover

We have all heard about or experienced this new style of chain mail that has been plaguing Facebook, most commonly know as "25 Things".  Personally we are not big fans of the trend, but when we were recently tagged in a new and most entertaining chain mail we had a small change of heart.  Did you ever take the name of your first pet and the street you grew up on in an attempt to figure out your supposed porn name?  Well this is just as silly and fun...we made our band's debut album cover!!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Kelly's...fyi. pantysgawn is a welsh cheese made from goats milk"][/caption]

**picture credit goes to flickr user yyellowbird

Make Your Band's Album Cover

1) Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random” or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2) Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations" or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3) Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4) Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.

5) Post it to Facebook with this text in the "caption" section and TAG the friends you want to join in.

We would love to see your albums as well so befriend us on Facebook or better yet email it to us and we will post it here!!

Random but oh so Awesome!

We stumbled upon this on Amazon...fantastic right?  We just didn't know we were so love!

Improv Everywhere gives a little love...

We throughly enjoy most every event that Improv Everywhere organizes, including their latest "high five" lovefest.  check out the video below...

Craftiness at its best!

we ran across this video on you tube and we just had to share it with you all for it is just an amazing feat of craftiness.  Guitar Hero bicycle format!!  Enjoy!



Video is by you tube user madflux.