Posted by joshuapreston on May 4, 2011 · 4 Comments
For as much as I enjoy hyping up the website I must say that this post marks a great turning point in the history of Pretty Awful Giraffes; it marks the first time we have ever actually been contacted by someone who should not be drawing a giraffe. So it was with great joy I … Read more
Posted by joshuapreston on April 20, 2011 · 2 Comments
The following comes from a good friend of mine, Andie Whitaker (twitter), who besides being active in the Twin Cities political scene also runs a blog called Goodbye Disposable Hello Cloth. After running into Gene Larkin at a hardware store in Blaine, MN, as he was there promoting the store and signing autographs, Andie was kind … Read more
Filed under Athlete · Tagged with 1989, 1991, andie whitaker, awful giraffe, bad art, baseball, blaine mn, blog, cloth diapers, gene larkin, goodbye disposable hello cloth, hardware store, josh preston, major league baseball, minneapolis, minnesota, minnesota twins, mlb, modern art, pretty awful giraffes, promotion, sports, st paul, submarine giraffe, world series
Posted by joshuapreston on April 19, 2011 · 1 Comment
Late on Thursday (or was it a very early Friday?) I was surprised to find a mention to the @AwfulGiraffes twitter account (a mention and its context now lost to my ignorance of the site’s functions) from @SFriedScientist from SouthernFriedScience.com, a science blog run by three Carolinian graduate students with an interest in marine biology. … Read more
Filed under Blogger, Scientist · Tagged with bad art, minnesota, awful giraffes, josh preston, southern fried scientist, sfriedscientist, whysharksmatter, why sharks matter, marine biology, carolina, blue grass blue crab
Posted by joshuapreston on April 18, 2011 · Leave a Comment
Sam Lipsyte (facebook) is a writer whose writings have appeared in a wide array of publications including Slate, The Washington Post, GQ, Esquire and Playboy. Hailed for his creative use of language and black humor, Lipsyte was in Minnesota recently as part of a tour for the paperback release of his 2010 novel The Ask (Amazon; … Read more
Filed under Writer · Tagged with bad art, minnesota, awful giraffes, josh preston, sam lipsyte, the ask, book tour, magers and quinn booksellers, bret easton ellis, chuck palahniuk, book signing, new art, postmodern writing, literature, new york times, slate, the subject steve, home land, venus drive, new york times bestseller, book review editors choice, roman a clef
Posted by joshuapreston on April 13, 2011 · 2 Comments
[The following story comes from fellow Editorial Board Member Lucas Felts.] Eboo Patel has been a member of Barack Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Relationships since 2009. He is the founder and Executive Director of Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based international non-profit dedicated to the promotion of interfaith cooperation. Eboo Patel is a truly … Read more
Filed under Blogger, Writer · Tagged with 2011, Acts of Faith, bad art, barack obama, Building the Interfaith Youth Movement, camel, drawing, eboo patel, faith, forum, giraffes, Hearing the Call Across Traditions, lucas felts, minnesota, nobel conference, nobel prize, religion, rhodes scholar, The faith divide, washington post
Posted by joshuapreston on April 11, 2011 · 1 Comment
Arron Olson is the former chairman of the Minnesota Young DFL, a constituency caucus within the larger Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party designed to organize around issues pertinent to young people. He also apparently believes that giraffes wear kneepads. (Spoiler: they don’t).
Filed under Political Figure · Tagged with minnesota, morris, josh preston, secretary, dfl, arron olson, mydfl, democratic farmer labor party, young people, young college students, minnesota young dfl, tuition, grassroots organizing
Posted by joshuapreston on April 9, 2011 · 3 Comments
Normally we like to try our best to post a new giraffe every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but unfortunately we dropped the ball yesterday. Instead of scheduling a new giraffe I found myself bumming around the Twin Cities visiting friends, writing, walking DinkyTown and giving Michio Kaku‘s powerpoint presentation to a crowd of 500+ at … Read more
Filed under Updates · Tagged with giraffes, bad art, minnesota, morris, university of minnesota, pretty awful, us congress, tim walz, minneapolis, sam lipsyte, the ask, al franken, us senate, congressman collin peterson, philip glass, music, michio kaku, astrophysics, physics of the impossible, physics of the future, lecture
Posted by joshuapreston on April 6, 2011 · 6 Comments
R.T. Rybak is the current mayor of Minneapolis, MN, (serving since 2002) and a former writer for the Minneapolis Tribune who has also contributed to MPR. More importantly, he’s been known to crowd surf at First Avenue concerts. Yeah, that’s Minnesota for you. So I will start by saying that I have nothing less than … Read more
Filed under Political Figure · Tagged with giraffes, bad art, minnesota, morris, josh preston, lucas felts, university of minnesota, Democrat, dfl, minneapolis, st paul, horse, pretty awful giraffes, rt rybak, president obama, barack obama, midwest, governor
Posted by joshuapreston on April 4, 2011 · 3 Comments
As you will find on his Wikipedia page, Bruininks has been working with the University of Minnesota since 1968 and was named the 15th president of the system in 2002. In May 2010 he made his intentions clear that he would be stepping down as president, which led the creation of a search committee that … Read more
Filed under Political Figure, Educator · Tagged with bad art, minnesota, morris, politics, josh preston, university of minnesota, minneapolis, st paul, college, president, robert bruininks, president bruininks, board of regents, education, school, horse, amoeba, awful giraffe, pretty awful giraffe
Posted by joshuapreston on April 1, 2011 · 4 Comments
I made my way to the 2011 DFL Business Conference in Cokato, MN, in February because I am the the associate chair of the Chippewa County DFL, and for those not familiar with the workings of a political party this is where activists from across the state elect the chairman, secretary, affirmative action officer, and … Read more
Filed under Political Figure · Tagged with giraffes, bad art, minnesota, josh preston, lucas felts, pretty awful, bad drawing, congressman, us congress, house of representatives, united states, tim walz, district 1, dfl business conference, 2011