We were psyched to hear that our favorite blog, Chandrasutra), who calls Oral Fixation the Boing Boing post:

Oral Fixation mints are cleverly packaged mints with clever names (Sugar Free Tibet, Mojito Mint, etc). Never tried ‘em and who knows but they may taste like hell, but they sure make a pretty picture.

No matter who you are, or where you live, we are quite sure that our neighbor is much cooler than yours. Richard Speedy lives next to us, with his lovely wife Mara, in the other half of the Chocolate Factory, and he is one cool guy, in that wonderful dusty, windburned Clint Eastwood Man With No Name sort of a way.

Richard lives a double existence, spending half his time at the Chocolate Factory as a professional photographer, and the other half of his time deep in Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains, riding in on horseback and staying with his friends there, who include Peyote healers. Richard and Mara have set up a fair trade jewelery business with local women from the Sierras, whose gorgeous designs they sell in the U.S., sending the profits back to the villagers who make the jewelry.

Take a look at Richard’s Mexico photographs—they’re really beautiful. In Richard’s words:

“It was early April. Snow was falling. Large flakes blanketing the rocks unlike any rocks I had ever seen. I could only imagine what lay ahead, but I had a sense that something would happen, that this first visit to the Sierra Madre would not be my last. Falling asleep that night I could feel their calm and ancient presence all around me. The mountains, the barrancas, and something else. Life as old and vital as the mountains. The Tarahumara.

My intent with these photographs is to convey some impression of this spirit choked landscape, and possibly to preserve in time a thing that powerful forces, human, political, and otherwise, conspire even now to alter forever. They may succeed in some measure, but they will never subdue the entities that inhabit every rock, every tree, every shadow of this mysterious and fascinating place. They are legion.”

Here are some of Richard’s photographs:

If you live in New York City, you might have seen some saucy Oral Fixation postcards popping up in bars and restaurants around the city, in those racks near the bathrooms and phone booths. We recently set loose 40,000 Oral Fixation “Go Cards” into some of NYC’s coolest bars and restuarants, and they’ll be there for the next few weeks. There’s one with King Kong sucking on the Empire State Building, and one of a sexy Lady Liberty sucking on her torch. If you want to go grab some free Oralfix postcards, here’s a list of the places you can find them. The designs are below. Enjoy!

We rolled into the Chocolate Factory bright and early this morning and were astonished to see a CRAZY amount of people had just ordered mints—Florida, Missouri, Texas, Maryland, New York, London, and the orders just keep flying in from all over the country—and it’s not even 10AM!! Then we found out that Yahoo! chose our site as one of its featured links today, which is a great honor! Thanks Yahoo! people, and enjoy the mints! Woohoo!

When Henry and Eric aren’t pressing mints and running the biz, they play in a couple of bands, one of which is called Rackett, a six-man endeavor led by Pulitzer Prize winning Irish poet Paul Muldoon’s astonishingly good lyrics. Rackett played last night in Williamsburg, Brooklyn at Pete’s Candy Store, a venue that resembles an old train boxcar, small, narrow and warmly lit. The crowd, filled with literary, bespeckled grad student types, nodded along knowingly to rhymes like “Polenta / Oscar De La Renta”, and “Gucci / Pucci / Balducci”.

Golden tickets in hand, mint lovers from the streets of New York, the swamps of New Jersey, the forests of New England (and at least one person all the way from Istanbul, Turkey!) came out to party the night away with the Oral Fixation crew Saturday night at Cielo, in NYC’s meatpacking district. The good people at Rhum Clement kept the free Mojitos flowing, DJ Nicolas Matar laid down some great beats, we laid down some free mints, and there were good times to be had until the wee hours. Here’s the evidence:

If you’re in the New York City area, you might enjoy coming to this great party we’re planning on Saturday, May 14. The party will be at Cielo, one of NYC’s hottest clubs. There will be an open bar courtesy of the good people at Rhum Clement from 10-11pm, and great music well into the early hours. If you’d like to come along, please RSVP here. Hope to see you there!

A few days ago was May Day, and Spring was in full swing at the Chocolate Factory! On a lazy Sunday afternoon, we celebrated the coming of Spring with Jack (a.ka. “The Proud Prince of Hopewell”). Jack is Oral Fixation’s dog, and he keeps careful watch over the Factory when we’re inside at work, making sure no ruffians try to breech the Factory walls! Jack is particularly militant towards Henry’s bandmates, especially the drummer, because Jack doesn’t like loud noises, and drums are noisy. At band practice, Jack trots along behind the drummer and nips at his heels, growling to himself with satisfaction. Long live Jack!

Today the winners of the 9th annual Webby Awards were announced, and I’m thrilled to report that 10×10 and WordCount, two online art projects I made while at Fabrica, each won an award. In an upset of Hoosier-like proportions, 10×10 edged out Google in the "Structure and Navigation" category, and WordCount took home the People’s Voice Award in the "Arts" category. The People’s Voice Award is especially meaningful to me, so thank you to everyone who voted! Below are some images of 10×10 and WordCount.

Saturday night was the rockin’ second gig of Rich & Royal (Henry and Eric’s band) at the Old Bay, in lovely New Brunswick, New Jersey. About 200 people showed up to hear their favorite neighborhood mintmasters rock out. Highlights included R&R favorites “Lodestone” and “June”, a tight Bowie Suffragette City, and Henry, in a moment of exultation and extreme lucidity, proclaiming, “YEAH!!!! NEW BRUNSWICK!!!! BEST CITY IN JERSEY!! (apologies to Trenton and Newark). A few snapshots, for your viewing pleasure (note the Sigmund Freud action figure in Henry’s pocket)...