Maggie Heinze is a fairy-princess from Queens, NYC. She documents her excursions into sherbet-colored dimensions with sweeping line-work, obsessive stippling and liberal use of bubbles. She is currently lending her talents to help build and decorate a gypsy caravan made of found, industrial parts. A project headed located in the wilderness of Long Island and headed up by internationally recognized master printer, Dan Welden . Like any proper Irish fairy-princess, Maggie enjoys guzzling beer and recounting obscene stories. In life and in her work, she straddles the line between whimsy and maturity.

Lets Hear what Maggie has to Say for herself:

If your art was music/food, what would it sound/taste like?
I like this question. If my art was food it would definitely be strawberry yogurt with raspberries and orange slices mixed in.

What is your favorite place in NYC for finding inspiration?
For me, inspiration comes and goes unplanned. Usually when I get an inkling of inspiration I am in a position of spacing out. This can happen on the subway, on my walk to the train, or sitting in Washington Square Park on a beautiful afternoon. In moments when my mind goes blank is when I unintentionally start considering my artwork.

What is your favorite petting zoo animal?
Goats. Definitely goats. Emus are too aggressive.

What is the best/worst advice you ever got from your mom?
Best advice: Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

What is your ideal breakfast?
Two hard boiled eggs chopped up and mixed with garlic chili sauce and a cup of strawberry yogurt. Mmmm and coffee.

What are your favorite materials to work with?
It depends. Lately I’ve been building and decorating a gypsy caravan with found industrial parts, and that has been really amazing. If I am illustrating, I generally like to work with pen and ink, watercolor, and anything else I think i need in order to finish the piece successfully.

What person influences your work the most?
Winsor McCay.

What artists/musicians/writers influence your work?
Winsor McCay, Murakami Haruki, Sigur Ros, and Iron and Wine.

What themes repeatedly haunt your work?
Swirls, twins, symmetry, and sweeping compositions.

Whose opinion influences you the most?
My mother’s opinion. She’s a smart lady.

What would you be if you weren’t an artist?
A writer maybe. Journalism.

What roles do escapism and reality play in your work?
Escapism is really important to the majority of my work. Reality, maybe no so much.

If you could only draw one thing thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Circles! You can do so much with circles.

If you were a bird, what kind would you be?
Hard question. Somewhere in between a love bird and a humming bird. Definitely not an Emu.

Thank you Maggie for playing along! See more of her work here , and see updates in her life and work on her blog

-Emma Onstott

 No, not than you dirty bugger. I’m talking about the little things in life like triple coupon weekends at the grocery store and free cone day at Ben and Jerry’s. Whereas most promotions involve giving away your email address, your precious Washingtons, or your soul, once in a while, an easy opportunity comes along. This is one of those opportunities where a little goes a long way: getting mammograms to women in need with the click of a mouse. You literally press one button and then close the browser on National Breast Cancer Foundation’s site where 100% of advertising sponsor’s money goes to buy mammograms for low-income, inner-city and minority women whose awareness of breast cancer and opportunity for help is often limited.

!!CLICK HERE TO HELP!!

Then refresh and click again to your heart’s desire. And don’t forget to return to BUST, your feature presentation. ~Hannah

Photo courtesy of keetsa.com

 I can’t even begin to describe the awesome that is this wind powered knitting factory.  An oldschool sock knitting machine is hooked up to a windmill  to routinely bust out a classic knitted tube that feeds into a building. Every now and then the people inside section it off to turn into scarves to sell. Each one has a label saying how long it took to be created with solely wind energy and on what date it was completed. I want one! -Celeste

Photo courtesy of Craft Magazine

Sports channels will be having a field day this Saturday, July 4^th as Venus and Serena Williams meet up in their fourth all-sister Wimbledon final in eight years. These meet-ups come around as rarely as the Olympics and promise an equally dynamic and exciting show. You know the Williams women are willing to play their hearts out, but who will win? Take a look at their records and decide for yourself:

-The sisters have met in the final at the All England Club three previous times. Serena won in 2002 and ‘03, while Venus won in ‘08.

-They’ve met 20 times in competitive matches, with each sister winning 10 times. But Serena holds a 6-5 advantage in Grand Slam meetings, including five wins in their seven clashes in finals.

-Venus, the two-time defending champion, needed just 51 minutes to dispense of the top-ranked Safina, while Serena needed two hours and 49 minutes to secure her victory against fourth-seated Elena Dementieva.

If you don’t want to pick a side, cheer on the duo and serve up some snacks while they serve up some heat on the court. ~Hannah

Photo courtesy of timesonline.co.uk

I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but this weekend marks the 233rd birthday of our lovely country. It’s also New York’s 400th birthday, so this year the fireworks are going to be bigger and better than ever! (And on the Hudson River!) We’ve all heard about the cruises and dinner ’specials’ that costs hundreds to partake in, but here are some cheap and free fun ways to celebrate in NYC.

1. Go see the fireworks, damnit. They’re sure to be awesome this year. And what else is better than shoving in amongst potentially millions of other patriots to ooh and aah at sparkly explosions? The show, lasting about a half hour and featuring approximately 40,000 fireworks, starts at 9:20. The best places to watch (if you don’t have a rooftop on the West side that is) are along the West Side Highway from 23rd to 59th, Pier 84 at 44th St, De Witt Clinton Park from 52nd to 54th between 11th and 12th Ave, or to venture across to Jersey.
2. Watch apparently bottomless humans shove hot dogs down their throats. I’ve never quite gotten the fascination with competitive eating (I think it was that scene in Stand By me that ruined it for me), but if that’s your thing, head on down to Coney Island by 10:30 to watch the action…and try not to puke.
3. Gorge and shop at the Great July Fourth Festival. One of the biggest festivals of the summer takes place today at the South Street Seaport, on Water St. between Fulton and Broad starting at 11 am. There will be hundreds of vendors to entertain yourself with for an hour or two, and this will probably be the best bet for scoring cheap BBQ if you don’t grill yourself.
4. Chill out with free tunes. There will be a scenic free concert from the River to River Festival today at 3:30 featuring Jenny Lewis and Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band.
5. Catch a sweet view from inside and old lady’s head. For the first time since 9/11, the crown of the Statue of Liberty is open to the public. There will be an opening ceremony in the morning but, let’s face it, you probably won’t be able to get in today.
6. But can you boogie? Louis Armstrong celebrated his birthday on the 4th of July, so the Louis Armstrong House Museum is holding a little celebration. Starting at noon there will be live jazz to serenade you as you wander through the exhibits, including a collection of collages by Satchmo himself. Admission is $6-8 and the museum is located at 34-56 107th St in Queens. 
7. Row, row, row your boat. The Downtown Boathouse always offers free boat rides, as long as you can swim, but a row along the Hudson would be particularly fun today.
8. Celebrate the artistic achievements of your ancestors. Today, the Whitney Museum is offering a special $4 admission, so there’s no excuse to go admire some wonderful American art.
9. Get your history on with one of two ways. One: New York’s Historical Society is having a celebration today featuring Revolutionary War reenactments, storytelling and arts and crafts. The fun starts at 10 am and is spread out between W54th and W96th st between Central Park and the Hudson River.
10. Two: The Museum of the City of New York is running a number of exhibits about New York’s 400th birthday this year. Take the opportunity to go see ‘Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: The World of Henry Hudson.’ There’s a suggested donation today at the museum, located  at 1220 Fifth Ave at 103rd St.
11. After all this celebrating, you need a cheap drink. The Rusty Knot, at 425 West St and W11th St, is running an Uncle Sam Special today, where Busch beer is only 25 cents a piece until 5 pm. -Celeste

Photo courtesy of Hubpages

After nearly two centuries of legalized discrimination, Indian homosexuals are finally seeing some rights. Today, only a few days after India’s second Gay Pride Parade ever, their parliament overturned legislation that criminalizes consensual homosexual sex. Previously, one could get up to 10 years in prison if caught in the act (and that’s longer than most rape or murder sentences). The law had been in place since colonial times, when the British outlawed all ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature.’ Reactionary protests have broken out throughout the deeply conservative country. Unfortunately, the verdict can still be challenged by the Supreme Court, and the law is not binding beyond the capital of Delhi. -Celeste

Photo courtesy of CNN 

Fancy Fast Food is a blog that takes classic fast food meals and transforms them into snazzy looking dishes. Talk about trash to treasure! Take this picture of ‘tacobellini,’which is tortellini created from Taco Bell’s burrito supreme. How crazy is that? I’m guessing they don’t actually eat what they make, since they used the dark syrup from Coke to create faux-soy sauce for a chicken sushi dish from Popeye’s. It kind of makes me think about what else I’m eating just because it looks fancy…

Now excuse me while I go run to McDonald’s. I suddenly have a craving for hashbrowns. -Celeste

Photo courtesy of Fancy Fast Food

It all started when Chrissie Brodigan, a 32-year-old woman from Brooklyn, boarded the L train and her 15 lb pug got sick. The pug, who has not been identified, was taken out of his carrier at which point Brodigan was approached by  three police officers and instructed to put the pug back in his container. Depending on who you ask next, the end of this story is told in a couple of ways. Alternate Ending #1 as told by The Gothamist is that the pug has health problems and became overheated. When the cop tried issuing Brodigan a ticket for having her dog out of its carrier, she became upset and the officer said, ‘If you’re going to act like a woman, I’m going to treat you like a woman.’ The officer then punched Brodigan, handcuffed her, and grabbed and pinched her breasts. Outrageous, right!? And hard to believe? I think so, but the photos support this side of the story. On the flip side of things, there is the story delivered by the New York Post that it was Brodigan who instigated the altercation by yelling racial slurs at Joel Witriol, NYPD’s first Hasidic cop. According to a witness, Brodigan said, ‘You fucking Jew. You’re not even human.’ Brodigan says she ‘doesn’t remember’ saying this.

Many things are wrong with this. Wouldn’t you remember publicly shouting a racial slur? Shouldn’t there be hundreds who witnessed this objectively? I mean, I feel like if I tried to do something as subtle as picking a wedgie on the metro, at least seven people would notice.

So, clearly, someone is lying through their teeth and the only conclusion I can draw is that something ugly went down on the L train yesterday. Until the truth sets this story free, I can only feel sorry for the poor puking pug and say, let us bring back human decency to the MTA. ~Hannah

Photo courtesy of nydailynews.com

I just watched the trailer to the ladeez surfer movie Dear and Yonder and I have to say, I feel like I just came from a great yoga class. The trailer is like one deep, cleansing inhale. The music, by Vetiver is equally trancelike, calming, refreshing, and bright. In one clip, a surfer dives deep under the surface of the ocean with her board at her stomach with the ease of a porpoise. In another clip, a surfer dances back and forth on her board as she rides a wave, tiptoeing forward and back, testing her balance. All I have to say is that if the film lives up to the trailer, it’s going to be marvelous!

Dear and Yonder is a surf movie created by Tiffany Campbell and Andria Lessler, featuring a long cast of talented female surfers and their deep rooted connections to the ocean. From professional surfers Stephanie Gilmore, Sally Fitzgibbons, Coco Ho, Silvana Lima, and Sofia Mulanovich in the green caves of Indonesia to Kassia Meador, Ashely Davis and Prue Jeffries in the seaglass sea of Mexico, this film traverses the world, but resonates with a message of finding a personal sense of place and peace. As of now, Dear and Yonder has only a handful of stops on its tour listed here , so until hype spreads the ocean odyssey to a theater near you, postpone the tidal wave with an interview with the filmmakers . ~Hannah