David Galletly's Jaggy Nettles, a terrific name for a show by a terrific artist. The show, composed of new works by David, opened last night at Amble Gallery in Philadelphia.

Forever and Never, a collaborative project between Michael Sieben and Nat Swope, tonight at Fecal Face.

Fantagraphics talks about Dan Clowes on the cover(s) of this week's New Yorker, as well as his upcoming special-edition Ghost World.

Yesterday's Fresh Air interview with Jonathan Paskowitz, son of surfer Doc Paskowitz. There is a ridiculous portion about 5 minutes in where Jonathan talks about briefly moving to Rhode Island.

We've got a crazy project debuting on Tuesday that involves thermal kiss cuts. You want in? Sign on up for the Tiny Showcase email list and we'll see what we can do. Until then, have a top notch weekend.

Mingus live in Oslo, 1964.

The signed Ray Fenwick books just cleared customs and arrived back at TS HQ covered in dozens of very official-looking government stamps. We should be shipping them out within the next few days.

The signed Little Friends prints should be shipping out towards the middle of next week.

Leah Giberson's "Poolside" is packaged up and ready to go. Joel is putting the finishing touches on the framed copies. Unframed copies are shipping out as I type. Framed copies will be heading out the door early next week.

Ben Kehoe's beauty of a beauty will be making its way into archival sleeves this weekend.

Be sure to take a peak at "Constant Star", Ben's contribution to Unicorn Mountain - Volume 2. It looks terrific.

We're busy here at TS HQ preparing for tonight's unveiling so I will fill the news void by telling the RIers about our buddies at Providence's Steel Yard and their upcoming Works in Progress fundraiser, which takes place from May 15-18.

"This year's adventure will offer an exciting and unusual menu of opportunities with something for all ages, varied interests and any ability to pay. From the no-fee Iron Chef: Junkyard Edition (torch wielding metal workers take on the secret ingredient) to Spectator Sport Sunday (competitive welding and wheel-throwing), the creative spirit of the Steel Yard community will be in full gear."

Peep the full schedule and get your tickets right here. If you are even wondering whether or not I am going to buy tickets for "Smokin' Steel Yard" then you clearly do not know me.

Here's another one for you: Are you on the Tiny Showcase weekly email list? IF YES > We will see you tomorrow afternoon for a sneak peak at a brand new artist. IF NO > You are missing out!

Chris Ware for This American Life Season 2, which debuted last night. I stole that link from Kempa.

How to airbrush skulls onto helmets. Related: Learn to airbrush with Ed Hubbs.

Sold out but pretty neat: An updated version of Massimo Vignelli's 1972 New York subway map, signed by Mr. Vignelli himself. Edition of 500.

The Pawtucket Foundation Prize Exhibition show opens up this weekend at 245 Main Street. The winners will be announced at the opening on May 3 sometime between 6pm and 8pm. The artist lineup is huge, featuring some of Rhode Island's greats, including Tiny contributor CW Roelle.

Friday afternoon video: Esther Pearl Watson and Mark Todd talk about creating mini comics and other fun stuff on KCET.

So that's that. Will you be joining us again next week? Tuesday marks the debut of a brand new print by a brand new artist and it's a beauty.

I leave you with two black and white performances of what is currently my favorite song, "Stagger Lee."

We've been getting lots of fan mail about this print. The emails, combined with the sun, free coconut superbrownies and my restored health, are making this a good week at Tiny HQ.

Deer Tick, Two Cow Garage, and Six Star General will be playing tonight at Jake's in Providence. That's one heck of a lineup, right?

Circus!, the work of Kelly Tunstall and Ferris Plock, opens tonight at 111 Minna in San Francisco. My blogofeed tells me that Jay Howell is DJing the party.

Sacred Spring, new works by Betsy Walton, opens tonight at Rare Device in San Francisco.

Stream the new Les Savy Fav. Those dudes used to live in Providence. Yup.

You can see much, much more of Leah's work on her portfolio site. The bad news is that one lucky Tiny Showcase shopper was astute enough to notice that the original "Poolside" was up for sale on Leah's Etsy shop and bought up it right away. The good news is that Leah has a few other beautiful paintings up for sale.

Paper Forest on Tiny Showcase contributor Wilson Swain's upcoming pop-up book, The Castaway Pirates.

Giovanni Schiaparelli's maps of Mars.

The Clue Premier Edition.

I went to bed at eleven because I think staying up past midnight ruins the surprise. Like any holiday, I like to wake up into it, not sit around watching it sneak up on me, while non-holiday feelings linger in the air.

Then I woke up at three because - who goes to sleep that early? I was feeling generous; I played with my cats. They were PSYCHED. I heard them whispering "Is she FOR REAL?"

The next time I woke up was to a solid number birthday wishes that each individually made me cry because I am SENTIMENTAL (TO A FAULT) TO THE POINT WHERE last night my friend (and I am paraphrasing here) leaned over in a hilariously drunken stupor to my mostly sober face and said something like "FINCH, we all know you are sentimental, but don't let that dictate your birthday."

But how can I not? A text just came through and tears leapt to my eyes. The only thing I effortlessly succeed at is: feeling. Like how what I effortless fail at is: not letting things 'get' to me.

So in light of my sentimental and comedic nature, was this not THE GREATEST LINK that someone could have ever sent me for my birthday? You KNOW I laugh/cried for 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

Honestly, I've watched it at least four times. It's worth it for seconds 2:06-2:08 alone.

Joke's on me, cuz now the song's stuck in my head and I've had to accept how much I like it. This is the second time within weeks that joking about 80's love ballads has forced me accept to how much they actually move me/retain their power over me. Is it nostalgia? Is it for real? I remain uncertain.

As if my birthday wasn't enough,

Grant Barnhart has his first solo show opening in Luxembourg on the 2nd of May at Leslie's Art Gallery.

Howell Golson's site is fresh as in fresh and as in fresh.

There's a Geoff McFetridge show at Mollusk Surf Shop in SF.

But right outside Providence THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE, RI, everyone's favorite photographer Scott Lapham has a show opening from 5-7 this very eve. I will quote from the site, because I've lost my skills of summary.

The Slater Mill Historic site has an original collection of Lewis Hine photographs taken in northern Rhode Island in 1909 and 1912. You can imagine how I felt when Slater Mill contacted me (Scott Lapham) saying they had a grant to create a show of the original Lewis Hine photos with a modern update to be shot by myself and Photographic Memory assistants. The Opening is April 25th from 5-7pm at the Slater Mill gallery at 67 Roosevelt Ave in Pawtucket RI.

Ok.

In my last post I predicted introspection and verbosity on my birthday. And oh, I've got it, but as a birthday gesture I'm sparing you. Instead, also as predicted, I'm going to eat some semi-sweet morsels and just head outside.

It's a beautiful spring day, I've gone twenty-nine years under my skin, and no regrets.

Yes.

So Jon and I are both sort of phoning it in this week on posts. I gave Jon my infinity-sickness and then I came down with a bad case of the allergic-to-the-computers. It's a common disease that occurs once it gets warm enough to sleep with the windows cracked and light enough later to chill on the stoop with the homesters and the neighborhood rats catching the rays rather than in front of glowing screens catching digital tans and hurty fingers.

Luckily the Little Friends of Printmaking saved the day. We love these dudes, this cosmic duo - we've never hung on a stoop but when we do it will be EPIC. The prints are sold out, but totally ridiculous print-sized stickers of the digital image will be available in our shop in May. (They are limited and so the mailing list will have first dibs, as always.)

Today I got some really awesome news that Evan P. Schneider of Bus 66 fame will be publishing a section of my last TS weekly newsletter in the first ever issue of Boneshaker. Boneshaker is a pocket-sized literary bicycle almanac, presented in good conscience, that provides relevant, interesting, and useful considerations of bicycle commuting.

What I wrote wasn't even about bikes, just about living the good life, which is basically about bikes, and now it's getting called a poem and printed.

How rad is that?

Ok. That's it. I'm not feeling very write-y this afternoon and my typing finger hurts. But tomorrow is my birthday and I anticipate what might be the most epic and introspective TS post of all-time coming on. After all, I'm embarking on my last year of twenty-something. It deserves something. Something verbose and distracting, suited for a friday afternoon read in the office when it's so sunny and the sickly sweet scent of toner wafts from the printer in the warm over-circulated air.

Or I might eat semi-sweet morsels for breakfast and just go outside.

Who even knows about twenty-nine? Not me. Not yet anyways.

We'll make it up to you this evening with a brand new print package release. We're experimenting with weird art printing mediums this Spring and tonight is one of said projects. It is really fun to track down shops in New England who still produce weird specialty items that most companies have outsourced to far away lands years ago (say, gum-backed bookplates or thousands of square feet of Pantone-matched sun-resistant inks for example). It feels very olde-timey and pretty much as far from the internet as you can get. It makes me want to fill Tiny Showcase HQ with antiquated machines composed of trillions of gears. Our love of not being electrocuted while simultaneously having our fingers chopped off is the only thing stopping us.

Mailing list members will be receiving a preview of this evening's artist and artwork in just a bit. Everyone else will receive nothing. Not even a souvenir wooden nickel.

Keeping you insane until this evening: Slate on Subway's new five-dollar foot-long campaign. "We didn't want any blabbing," say Jerry Cronin and Jamie Mambro of MMB. "It was just, let's see how many times we can say 'five dollar foot-long.' Let's mention it as many times as possible without making someone hurt us. We wanted to make sure no one would miss the message."

Why, one might ask, would I be so excited on a Thursday afternoon? Is it the sun? The fact that tomorrow is Friday? My extremely comfortable choice of clothing for today? Well, yes, those all play a role in my good mood. But there is something far, far bigger friends. Sign on up for the mailing list and we'll let you in on the secret in the very near future (hint: tomorrow).

We noticed this a week or two ago but we were all "Is that Jordan Crane? Noooo. It couldn't be." But then we realized that it was amongst the most insane book packaging jobs ever whipped up and we were like "Oh yeah. Only Jordan Crane could pull that one off." Have you ever seen his Tiny Showcase 10 Beasts! contribution? Case und point. Design:Related takes a look at the beauty that makes us want to own, like, a trillion copies of Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends. I sent the link over to Dan Wood over at DWRI Letterpress and his response was "Man, that McSweeney's is sure keeping some high end printers busy..."

I'm kind of super into this shirt.

KUT's Retread Sessions.

You can peruse much, much more of Andy's work on his portfolio site. I would highly recommend swinging by and seeing the sites.

I would also recommend heading outside and enjoying some warm, fresh air. I feel like this might be the first official nice day of the year at Tiny Showcase HQ. BBQs and bike rides, here I come.

I was standing in the sun in the backyard with Deb about to water our newly seeded lawn when I lifted up the sprinkler and well, what was it named?

The Turbo-heart.

I pointed at it and we both cracked up. "That's your name!" she said. And we were still laughing and I was staring at the ground and thinking about what a strange name that was for a sprinkler when she said "I feel a Tiny Showcase post coming on."

Sometimes friends just know.

We had just concluded a business meeting over wheat-free, dairy-free, everything-free waffles and cantaloupe and coffee and grapefruit juice that made me think "Why can't every day begin with a business meeting?" And then think "I never thought I would ever think that."

It was the kind of business meeting that gives me chills because so many awesome ideas were around and about and I KNOW we say this quite a lot but man alive, my friends, we've got some sickk projekts in the works right now.

Have we ever failed to deliver? We fail at a bunch of stuff (comedic timing, punctuality, getting serious-ness, IKEA furniture assembly) but never at delivering.

So today someone sent me a link to a very funny clip of a very fashionable woman schooling me, the viewer, on how to "acquire" fashion. While thinking of a witty reply to the email, I happened to glance down and realize I was dressed entirely in gray.

Now, some of you may remember one of my New year's resolutions was to be more fashionable. And I do think that dressing completely in gray is a fashion statement of some kind, but it's a statement I don't feel ready to make.

It makes me feel sort-of non-existent, in a way I'm not ready to confront. I can't pull off 'dull' like someone with more attitude might. Instead I feel uneasy, like my clothes might overcome me and I might actually cease to be.

What.

Tonight we're coming at you with yet ANOTHER amazing Showcase for the ages. Why don't you sign up for our sneak-artists-peek mailing list why don't you?

This should cheer you up.

Or make you feel kinda bad.