By Jordyn O’Brien, age 4.

Is that Snowcat shooting a torpedo?!

This is the story of the original, plastic Hipstamatic 100, as told by the inventor’s brother on Hipstamatic.com

In the summer of 1984 my two little brothers, Bruce and Winston were struck by a drunk driver at 4:13 PM June 21st on HWY 17 between Merrill and Wausau, WI. That day forever changed my life. I am setting up this website as a way to remember my brothers and the passion they had for art, photography, and their ability to make things happen.

Just two years earlier, Bruce and Winston had been attending Art school part time and had come up with what they thought was a million dollar idea for bringing photographic art to the masses cheaply. In the winter of 1982 they had developed a camera that was made entirely of plastic, including the lens. They molded and manufactured the camera under the name Hipstamatic out of their 650 sq ft river front cabin on the waters of the mighty Wisconsin. We all referred to the molding area as the ‘Animal Room’ because the smell reminded us of burning rubber and roadkill.

The Hipstamatic was born out of a love of the Kodak Instamatic and a desire to make it something even children could afford on a small allowance. My brother Bruce once said, “It doesn’t matter if the photos aren’t prefect — as long as people are capturing memories I will be happy.” At the time I didn’t agree, but now in my fifties I finally understand what he was talking about.

It sounds like we would have loved them.

Unfortunately, under 200 Hipstamatic 100s were made, ever–but after the Hipstamatic’s story got a little bit of a web following, an iPhone app, the Hipstamatic 110, was born, intended to simulate pictures taken from the original Hipstamatic 100. Now, the app has been upgraded to the Hipstamatic 150, and includes a variety of absolutely insane lenses, flashes and films, which you can mix-and-match to your heart’s desire. I took a few pictures around the new Spacecraft office as an example of what this can do:

It also features direct Flickr (camera info will say “Hipstamatic 150,” not “iPhone”) and Facebook uploads.

The “world’s first street art disaster movie” is playing tonight only at the Harvard Exit in Seattle at 1:00, 3:10, 5:20, 7:30 and 9:45.

Famed anonymous street artist Banksy has avoided any appearance on camera–until a couple of filmmakers attempt to befriend him. It’s going to have tons of footage of notorious street artists at work. More info at and tickets are available at banksyfilm.com.

We recently received some photos of our Bali production manager Dewa’s beautiful wedding in Bali.

Dewa gave me a few insights into the ceremony, which took place in December at Dewa’s parents’ house.

As the usual the Balinese person gets married (pawiwahan or nganten) it must be done the ‘proper way’ which means in front of the whole village. If a man is living in his own place it will be at his house, if not at the home of his parents, the new wife moving in immediately. When people get married in Bali, the man takes responsibility as a member of society. He gets the right to speak at a Banjar (the community body) meeting and must take on social duties, such as attending the temple ceremonies and taking part in the community activities. In this way other members of the Banjar will come to recognize him as an adult and he will have the opportunity to take on more responsibility in the Banjar.

Hindu wedding ceremonies are rich in tradition; between elaborate entertainment (with storytellers!) ritual and food, it sounds like magic. Dewa provided me with a few highlights:

- The wedding ceremony begins with a Memadik process, where the groom’s family meet with the bride’s family to ask the bride if she wants to marry the groom. If the answer is yes, the bride will go with the groom to his family’s house.

- The groom’s family arranges and pays for the wedding; the date set well in advance on a propitious day. Wedding guests are often entertained by professional storytellers and musicians. Enormously detailed rules govern dining and seating arrangements.

- Usually the bride and groom offer food to one another, then simulate such domestic duties such as washing, cooking rice, and cutting bamboo. Prayers are intoned, and then the couple eats together in public, feeding each other. This is an important symbolic act, as in former times only married men and women were allowed to eat food together in public. The priest then performs a ritual purification and blesses the couple.

- With the wedding process in Bali, both families will unite, not simply the bride and groom… This is why there is always many people attending a ceremony.

Devi takes part in the family business in Bali that makes our magic hand-knitted hats, making her an important part of the Spacecraft. Congratulations to Dewa and Devi for making it happen.

Two snowcat envelopes from Konnor and Kurtis, respectively, in Reno!

We’re really stoked this is catching on. Remember that if you make your sticker request into an art project, we’ll throw in a few extra.

Templeton at The Skateboard Mag put up a post yesterday about Chicago skater David Thomas, who was dropped from his insurance company after finding out he has testicular cancer.

The good news is, he has a lot of awesome friends who are doing a ton of fundraising to help cover his medical bills. You can help out The Nicest Man in Chicago online, or if you’re in the Chicago area you can head over to the Empty Bottle on Wednesday the 21st for a pretty kickin’ fundraising party:

There’s also going to be a raffle and auction for some “sick merch”–should be pretty sick, and it’s for a good cause.

John Rogers posted this to our Facebook yesterday:

“Got my deer back from the taxidermist today so I thought I’d spice up a bit.”

This fan art came with a sticker request from Tim in Seattle. You kids are catching on about the getting extra stickers for art thing.

During halftime at Ride Shakedown 2010 in Quebec, a bunch of riders took out their skateboards and went to town on the snowboard rail. Dan Mathieu has this video on Vimeo:

Half Time Show - Shakedown 2010 from dan mathieu on Vimeo.

ESPN.com has this feature on how professional BMXer Brian Hunt spends his long, snowy New England winters with a cameo from Eastern Boarder Danvers.