If you can find it in your hearts, call now. I know 99% of you will not repost this. It is something you rely on everyday and if you are not doing your part, it is almost like stealing. If you or someone you love is not reading Friday Props, you could be at risk. Common symptoms of Friday Props deficiency include feelings of sadness, doom, and a sense of bewilderment leading to narcolepsy and a craving for raw meat. Don’t let this happen to you. End your week with a healthy dose of Friday Props.

There is an ungodly amount of packaging in the word for all the material goods we buy. Like me, I bet you’ve heard a startling statistic relating to landfills and what proportion of the stuff is discarded packaging. Sure, I’m a hard-core recycler. I got a recycling bin bigger than my trash bin! That doesn’t make me as cool as Robin Frohardt. She makes an awful lot of stuff (puppets, sets, BOATS, RC cars and racetracks) mostly from cardboard and other ‘found’ materials. She is also an active member of C.I.T, the Cardboard Institute of Technology. One of the projects she worked on is called Fitzcardboardaldo, a short video piece based on the 1982 film, “Fitzcarraldo.” I haven’t seen that movie either, but this stop-motion bit demonstrates what a person can do with some time and a glue gun.

 Speaking of dreamscapes, Yume ("dream" in Japanese) Cyan takes remarkable long-exposure photographs. Finding information on Yume is not all that difficult....if you speak Japanese. Thankfully, the pictures don't require translation. I'm only going to include a few below, these of fireflies in the forest, but I recommend you take a moment to explore his other works here.

 Finally, like so many of our Friday Props, I turn to an extraordinary commercial from a company that has a larger marketing budget than the GDP of some small countries: Sharp. Built and filmed in 2011, I don’t recall ever seeing this commercial and you probably haven’t either. What are they selling? A wooden case for your mobile phone. Instead of using beautiful models, motorcycles or explosions, the advertising firm created a huge wooden xylophone in the forests of Kyushu that ‘plays,’ Bach’s Cantana 147, "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.” You may have no need for the kidney-shaped case, but watching the commercial will make you smile.