The pigeon handi-crafts project(s) page: crafting pigeon folk art. (Updating)

Those of you who visit my blog, here, regularly, would easily recall some of the latest iPigeon pigeon fan art I've posted, over on my "History of Art" (with pigeons included) slight art exhibition page. I'm making attempts, or beginning to, at least, towards making some of these generative AI visions and aspirations, in art: folk art, for real. This means that I'll have to whet my chops on some new, to me, craft genres, such as crocheting, which I've already begun, having obtained a practice loom, to up my skills in weaving, in general, along with some fancy feather-ful yarn, which I just now found online, after coming across some chenille yarn pumpkins, which I found to be both amusing as well as inspiring, within this context. Who knows how far this crafting could go, and what would it look like, if I never did any of it, myself? I figure, I'm in a good place to start, somewhere, and I procured some messy, fanciful yarn, as a gesture towards equipping myself with some necessary interpretive tools and material resources to work with, for dedicating myself, and some time invested, in to creating these crafting folk art projects, which, hopefully, end up looking like birds!

My project practice loom, which I obtained from Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D6R7PCSH

An adorable assortment of feathery yarn, discovered via Google Shopping, after browsing some yarn inspiration found on Amazon. Apparently, a 90% discount off of the regular price, on Temu!

The pumpkins that inspired it all (nearly; I'd been on a folk art kick, recently, and I was attracted by this product on Amazon, and I almost picked up a set, myself, for analysis).

A closer look at the material I'll be acquiring; I purchased three sets, and got free shipping, on Temu, with an exclusive buyer's offer!

There'll be more to come, as I document my progress in creating these handi-crafts, over time. It'll give me a productive and neat creative project to work on! So far, I haven't really found any sort of template I can work from, so I have to gather sparse resources and work on my raw technique, developing skills that, hopefully, some day, equate to that I can create pigeon yarn-crafts (I thought, initially, that I would work with raffia, mimicking the initial folk art pigeons I had generated on my art history page, on this blog). I had even procured a clump of dried hay grass to work with, which I found, while out buying food for the birds' next day's meal, one night.

A clump of tall hay grass that I found; perhaps suitable to try my hand at creating raffia folk art work, I felt. I took it home with me, since I found the notion serendipitous.

I'll keep this blog article updated, in due time, as I work on these projects, and hone my skills in this craft genre.

Twice the number of pigeons showed up at the DTLA Central Library, today.

Today, when I showed up to feed the pigeons at the Los Angeles Public Library's Central Branch, there was a longer-than-expected line of pigeons perched at the ledge, where the typical flock of pigeons hang out, while they wait for their meal. Not a huge problem, since I had a whole loaf of buttered bread, enough for two flocks, or more, already, along with me, for the birds' daily meal.

Today, at the library, there were nearly twice the amount of pigeons that had shown up. 

Some of the long(er) row of pigeons that I encountered, while visiting the library, today.

I had initially encountered this influx of refugee pigeons several blocks over, on Broadway at 7th, where some new street construction had just cleared, and the streets had opened up with new bike lanes. Being that the birds were there, they were potentially seeking out better meal accommodations, and I'd fed them some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I recall, possibly giving the birds there an inclination of that they could spot some better fare in a different part of town, being that they had gone searching, to begin with. These new birds had ostensibly discovered the flock already perched at the Library's famous pigeon ledge, and, collectively, saw an opportunity - a possibility for a tastier meal ticket, to come, if they wait, alongside the birds, and figure out why the flock sits perched, there: which, of course, would garner them access to my feeding services, and hence, I gave them all a meal, and a drink of water.

"Snooker," the resident Pakistani High Flyer pigeon of the library (in white, below), was a bit visible anxious, being that a near-doppelganger, similarly white, (but not quite decorated with a Pakistani High Flyer's mottled plumage), was amongst the new faces in the crowd, and, as such, he was the first amongst all of the birds present to swoop down, in order to receive the day's meal.

Snook, snook! With all of the new birds present, some of the birds (including Snooker, the Pakistani High Flyer, pictured here), experience some anxiety over whether or not they'll all be fed the same amount of food.

Quickly, a crowd arrives, awaiting a meal, along with some water, provided along with the buttered cinnamon sugar bread I had prepared, for the day.

Being the only Pakistani High Flyer pigeon, amongst the darker-feathered pigeons, it may have been a bit unnerving that a similarly-colored pigeon had shown up, causing Snooker to be a bit neurotic. Nonetheless, I made sure to feed all of the birds present a sufficient meal and drink to fill their bellies. There is also another bird at crisis' amongst the regulars in the flock. He has a swollen face; I'd suppose that he got some kind of skin condition, or perhaps he was picked on, although that started a couple of weeks ago, and he's doing better, now.

This poor bird, so far unnamed, was another recent addition to the Central Library's numbers of pigeons. He had shown up, from miles away (I believe; I had spotted another pigeon with nearly the same skin condition, the day prior to him showing up, here, under the freeway, with some other birds). It would be a miraculous thing, if he had somehow found his way to this flock, from out of being virtually blinded by the swelling on his face, now seen through to a nearly full recovery, at this point. 

At the end of the meal, all of the birds' anxieties and worries over being fed, for the day, end up satisfactorily dealt with, after a tasty meal had served them all.

Today's mealtime was more crowded than typical. Will tomorrow see the same new birds show up? 

It's a heat wave out there, being that it's summertime, so I guess I ought to touch up on these other flocks of birds, in town, as my focus, over the next and upcoming weeks, since I offer the birds water, along with their bread, when I feed them, to ensure that they get sufficient hydration in their food regimens.

The iPigeon.institute "Journey Through Art History" Generative AI Online Art Exhibition (annotations coming soon).

 It's the year 2024. 

We'd had several months' lead up time, to this place in time (February, 2024), in which conversational AI, Search Assistance with AI, and AI featuring Large Language Models had been introduced to the general public, alongside various generative AI platforms, some of which promised to shake up many industries and professions, with users' minds being given a vastly new and competitive margin in creating content, whether it be audio, video / visual, or code-based, in nature.

Personally, I let a lot of the headlines come and go, as I'd been preoccupied with healing up, from my months in being homeless (I'm now housed), for the most part. That being said, I've now come across a neat platform for generative AI at labs.google (it's called ImageFX), in terms of image generation, via text prompt. I thought of some humorous and idiot concepts, pertaining to pigeon'ry, or, which would ostensibly include pigeons, in the rendered image. 

To my delight, some of the renders come out just fantastic, to be honest! I was truly impressed by some of the images that ImageFX returned. After a few go-rounds with the web-based platform, I decided that I could compile a "History of Art," of sorts, with all art works featuring pigeons, in place of humans, or that just have pigeons present in the image. 

This article begins as simply an uploading compilation of images, and I expect to update the art exhibition, intermittently (hopefully soon, maybe later today) with annotations and art historian insight and allegory, as though the reader is brought along, on a tour. Here are the images!

Product Review: Geek Bar Pulse.

As far as nicotine vapes (smokeless inhalers) go, a relatively new geeky phenomenon has hit the streets (literally). The Geek Bar Pulse product line is a new, emergent brand that has various special features

A few Geek Bar Pulse vapes, one a Geek Bar Pulse X vape.

I finally got my room clean; it's midsummer, 2024.

 I have some undisclosed projects in the works and making, in here, and the management wanted me to do a way with my crumbs; I thought, "impossible, my crumbs, even?" But yeah, they were serious about it. I was laid up, in bed, since, like, the 12th, or something, but I finally got it done, come the 28th. I had a particularly hurt back, and it was a major undoing, since I would have gone to the hospital, yet I really could only barely get up to use the restroom, for at least a week. Thankfully, I got a considerate extension on cleaning up my room. It hadn't really been such a case, with former places, where I'd been housed. 

Anyways, I'm trying to maintain (or, establish) my standardized sort of outgoing performance expectation, for a given work day, which is generally every day, in many cases, because I have upkeep and novel distractive expenses pop up, and, on that note, I'll disclose a not-so-secret divertimento of my inner psychological aspirations - I kind of play mock-up pop up shop tables against my inhibitions, but this month's (upcoming month, that is) would-have-been (supposedly) opportunity, for a person to set up pop up shop stuff comes too early, before, well, every month, it comes early. I have to get used to that, but only "just maybe." I think that the local economy won't stomach that one, all that much - the street farers. There's brick and mortar establishments that are at feature, in this context. 

Anyways, I felt that I could use some help, bolstering my purpose and self-esteem, about someday doing a street side pop up thing, or, perhaps, it would be somewhere "outta town..." because, well, I just estimate that people would be like that, out here - otherwise preoccupied and taken care of, well enough to not entertain the local... hmm. What's my flavor of homeless person, now? I'd have to consider. "I still know that this guy is still, even recently, a hard-core trash-diggin'." A treasure hunting bum, still, lately. But I bought a new jacket, this past month - that's why things are different. 

This is the breakdown of my wish list of expenses; I'm mostly interested in the 5 major fragrance ingredients that I'll be procuring, ostensibly, for individual, small-container retail. But, actually, the zeolite is pretty exciting, also, if you know zeolite. I can't divulge the source, outright - perhaps you'll be fortunate in discovering it, in some way, as I'd also discovered it.

I've been in the habit of assembling a picky-picky wish list of expenses, month in, and month out, recently. This one is my latest.

What are you guys allocating your funds towards, this summer? For the welfare demographic, it's all about the day that the benefits come in, and, as for myself, I've been doing a fragrances haul. These would be a lovely scent experience, for the passersby <_<... something like that. If I could do some things better, I would, but I'm nearly just suitably "packed," or chock full of as much as I'd like to have, of fragrance resources, for my marketing persona development cycle to have run its course, in this sort of thing. I'll be better next month, I figure, and I'm getting there, little by little.

Thanks for reading!

Local DTLA Pigeon Genetic Milestones - Academic Evidence

 As it's been around 7 years that I'd been visiting the local Downtown Los Angeles pigeon flocks and keeping this blog, several breeding seasons had come to pass, with some distinctions in the subsequent offspring of the pigeons that had been living back then now prominently mixing in to the general showing of the birds (I estimate that the local flocks' birds will see an average lifespan of up to 10-15 years, since they're cared for, on a distributed and daily basis). 

What does this mean? 

It means that the pre-existing birds (adults and wild pigeons) are seen, side-by-side, demonstrating what the University of Utah's Pigeonetics website documents as genetic variations, due to some or other particular conditions; genetic development conditions, as it were.

"Snooker," as I've named him (I've discerned that he's male, over time, due to his behavioral traits and his mating-act positioning of himself as the dominant partner), pictured here (below), earlier on, in 2024, with what could be his offspring (above); a more young and less developed bird, as the birds are capable of improving on their inherited genetics with suitable nutritional and conditioning support, during their lifetime. Snooker is perhaps a year and a half old, or so - I noticed him at the library beginning last year, in 2023. I was surprised to see his genetic likeness in this other, young bird, which left the flock, after some weeks. The genetic variant of this style of pigeon is perhaps known as as "Pakistani High Flyer," with various marks of genetic distinction being apparent, given a common wild pigeon.

The University's website does a fine and entertaining quick read on genetic variants, as well as some of the conditions under which some of these variations occur, in the birds' pedigrees. Some of the conditions require multiple breeding seasons, as well as chance and distributed mating efforts - keep in mind, pigeons are bound to relatively simple behaviors, given that their outdoor wildlife hobbyist environments are coupled with some challenges and strife, from naysayers to their well-being. This being the case, 7 years is plenty of time for these birds to have mixed, and - one can observe, on any given day, the richness in variety that the birds' plumage and other ornamentation, such as their eyelids, leg feathers (my mother would call this feature their "pants"), as well as frills and beak shape and size differentiations. 

I call this one "Redbeard," for his unique decorative facial plumage. Redbeard is a fun and friendly bird; I spot him sometimes breaking the ice, so to speak, on a day-by-day basis, by flying "at" me, excitedly, ostensibly, because I bring them tasty sweets, mostly pastry type items, and cookies. It's a sign of the promise of youth, of the birds, in renewing their numbers, year in and year out, of that perhaps we will see them though as someday hand-tame birds, under some circumstances, at least. It's happened before, at least, quite nearly so, but there's been a lot of other things going on, around their daily habitat environments. This being the case, I do make it out to feed them pretty regularly, nearly every day, given a month, or so, so that's good conditioning towards these local Downtown Los Angeles birds becoming tamer, over time. Redbeard is very sociable-curious, as the flocks of pigeons around him, since his upbringing, have been relatively large; anywhere from 25-100 birds, I'd estimate, show up for the feedings around him. I estimate Redbeard's age to be 1-3 years old; I just started noticing him, in particular, this year.

Given time left to themselves, (in a theoretical setting), pigeons will revert to their wild state, in appearance. These genetic variations are considered domesticated and fancy traits. My take on these flocks is that they can be fancy, moreso than domesticated, for beginners, given that there are still threats abound, for the birds, being likely. Beyond that, civic support for the birds would ostensibly grow, organically, given that they are wildlife, and, as well, being that they're taken care of, as best as they can be (I clean up, after them, on a regular basis, and other people provide them with water dishes regularly, as well). 

A prominent monochrome-colored black-feathered pigeon, which is one of the markers of genetic variance that occurs, under controlled care circumstances, here, amongst many other pigeons, for reference. This flock is situated just outside of downtown LA, but they're more free to perch and peck around, in their daily habitat environment, without being harassed. As a result, their behavioral traits and mannerisms are more gentle, naive, and open to sociability.

Check out the University of Utah's site, as the information there will assist most readers in understanding the sort of information discussed here, in a more pragmatic and straightforward manner of explanation, as it was the source of my realization of the developments discussed here, and there are simple, page-by-page discussions that are navigable, with pictures and or charts included on each page. It's really a well-done explainer site, that serves the purpose of demystifying some of the complexities of pigeon pedigree development and establishment. 

My favorite take, from out of Amazon Prime Day 2024.

This one just feels serendipitous to me, yet I can't share on other social media channels, from this hotspot. People have got to try this wacky UFO orb thing out! Yikes! 

Hint: look up "Dorom" on Amazon, whether it's the website, on a browser, or on the app. I had better luck on the web. Then buy one! If you don't see it's then it's probably done, his inventory. But the guy might be one of my buddies, from university days. Neat, huh? There's no deal like it...

My Android YY-35 Tablet's Chrome browser.