I was allowed to sit by the window today. It was early and the diner was relatively empty. There I was, looking at the Bus stop, and at the man in front of me in the other booth. Behind him was a mirror and in the mirror was an older version of myself, staring back at me with tired and sad eyes. I just got the usual, did not even have to order. The food just came. I waved to the owner. The friendly waitress had her second baby about 10 months ago. She showed off the pictures to this couple on Sunday. Now she was back on the early shift. The guy in front of me got really upset because she forgot his bacon. He then stared at it as if it were about to heal the world.
A family of four arrived and the tried to explain to his boys how much he is a real New Yorker. They must have moved out of town when the kids were tiny. He used the word Schmier in every sentence now. I thought how I could schmier him one if he said it one more time, but I just smiled, I would never ever.
“Schmier is Cream Cheese on a bagel. You do not order Cream cheese on a bagel, you get schmier. Like schmier, you know.” The boys just listened. They must have not looked as if they listened because he had to say it again and again. The friendly waitress came to take their order. The ordered “scrambled eggs and home-fries, and instead of toast, a bagel with schmier.” He got it. I left soon after but counted maybe 15 more schmiers before I paid. The man in front of me finished all of his bacon. The older myself in the mirror just sadly left with me. We did not speak. We never do.
July 2002 Archives
THis is not really a new link, but it is an excellent one. colors magazine. Make sure to check the Archives. Thank you for the link, Shu.
I got a tiny package from Sarah Trott in the mail. It was heavy, it looked very nice, it was addressed by hand. It had a bright sticker on it: Contents: ( ) Liquid, ( ) Fragile, ( ) Perishable, ( ) Hazardous, (x) None of the above.
I knew this was Chief. My very own personal chief.
I was late for the Subway so I did not open the package until on the Number (1) Train. The train was packed, but I had my Swiss Army Knife which i used to open the little package. As soon as I opened the (little) blad of the knife, there was a little more room for me in the last car. I then pulled out the little guy, who looked like a fragile chicklet, in his red cutoff sock. In fact, the Chief is a full plastic “toy” he looks cute, but I had to put the sock over the one I have here, because he is really dangerous. He almost pecked a hole in my head when I tried out the beak. A serious piece of plastic. And it is the only Toy I own that has no © signs, on it. I mean, even Lego is filled with branding. Not so the Chief. And he comes with a little story that was printed on blue paper and stapled by somebody who used tools like a stapler for the first time in their life, apparently. But it must have been the same person who painted “the chief”, because there is some red paint on “the cover”. I will not give away the story of the chief here. If you would like to read more about him, you will have to buy him. I know he is expensive, but he basically costs as much as 4 Starbucks Coffees and he is here to stay. I know that chief will survive me.
It is a good toy. He is dangerous, but really cool. Created by Sarah Trott, Devin Vagt and Phil Green. Great job, guys.
We did a lot of “model-walking” in Chinatown this afternoon. Model-walking is pretending to walk and talk and do things that might end up looking natural, but certainly are not. And it was HOT and HUMID in Chinatown today.
I was given a drink and a camera was put around my neck. It was a Silver G2, just like the one Ziya Danishmend was nice enough to let me use for quite a substantial while. So we talked and “model-walked”.
I am a Mentor with the AIGA and with the New York Department of Education for two years now and very happy about being one. The program is quite excellent, the young man I had the chance to meet in the last two years or so is very smart, he has great talent and he will certainly succeed at what he wants and he certainly knows what he wants. He will now go on to Stony Brook and study Math and Physics on a full scholarship. He taught me a lot in the last two years. I feel very lucky to have met him. Stefanie Aaron of Aaron Design, Inc. decided to have a picture of him and me in the next Brochure which will attract mentors to participate in the program. So there will be a brochure about the mentoring program next year and we will be in one of the pictures. We will be sipping drinks and I will have a silver camera around my neck.
Everything will look quite natural. There will be other people in the picture. The photographer was a real pro. A true, quiet hunter, not the flashy loud kind. She was so incredibly focused. It was a true pleasure working with her. I just found some of her work online and I think that it is quite stunning. Take a look at some pieces by Susan Wides.
After a Photoshoot in Chinatown, we managed to walk over to the new Apple Store in SoHo, and because all macs are wired here, it is possible to just blog on this iMac (it is a 15" one).
Hmm, feels a bit like the future...
db-db is one of the stranger Chat environments. All tiny pixel people walking and talking and even doing dirty little things. oh boy.
You still have time to participate in the YoungGuns International Advertising & Design Award. You need to be under 30 to be seen as a “young gun”. I used to be a young gun, now I am just an ornate old club.
Here we go. About one hundred dollars later, I am in the same place as this morning, using the same IBM Travelstar 48GH drive and using a Powermac G3 (300MHz, SCSI), which I bought from Organic, Inc. for about $150 a year or so ago. My friendly little PowerBook just decided to start up again, as if it did not want to go to the hospital tomorrow. But it needs some therapy, so we will go.
As most readers of this Blog know, my PowerBook is in trouble. What I will attempt today is to deliver my sick PowerBook to Tekserve on 23rd Street.
Because I know that it will take a while to repair my computer I will need to swap the Hard-drives first, then prepare my old G3 Tower for work, get a fire-wire USB combo card for the tower, and connect everything so I can surf and blog and live again. This is why there will be no more posts today until all the work is done and this is why many emails will go unanswered. Sorry for that. I will not proceed to get things done. Cheers.
I can not find a link to this foam that comes out of a can and then grows in size by a hundred times or so. The foam is used construction a lot because it can fix items in a place very easily and very quickly. One just sprays the foam into a place that needs help, the foam grows like crazy, items can be moved around for about 3 seconds or so and then the foam hardens to stone, everything is fixed in place within an whitish alien stone cloud.
My just called me and told me about his accident. He was fixing something in a narrow space under some swimming pool stairs. He had to use the foam to fix something in place. The foam-can exploded on him. It might have been the hot weather, or who knows what it was, but the can just exploded in his hand. The entire container of construction foam emptied itself onto my and the walls of the narrow space he was now trapped in. Within seconds the area around my was filled and my was fixed in space within a whitish alien stone cloud.
He obviously got out. He also was wearing his protective glasses, so nothing happened to his eyes. As we were talking he was still tearing off pieces of the hardened foam off his hands. “It tears out all the hair”, he said. The things that happen to us.
Boy, was I late. I was tired and late and not happy at all. It took the elevator a long time to arrive. There was nobody in the elevator, but somebody had pressed the (B) button, so the elevator would go to the basement. Not with me. I was in a rush. I was maybe already late by 30 minutes or so. On the ground floor an old lady and a big delivery guy entered. I was in a rush, but I should have warned them, right there and then. I must have looked like a madman, running out of the elevator, in a rush, in a rush. I almost ran over a man in scrubs. The expression in his face was already so devastated. In the glimpse I got from him I could have sworn that somebody must have died in his arms the night before. I ran into the street, ran for the Subway station, past this attractive woman dressed in a 50’s dress. I liked the dress. I smiled. I was in a rush. I turned around the corner, I reached for my Metrocard. There was no metrocard. I reached for my money. No money in pocket. I left everything upstairs. I was late, I was in a rush. I had to go back. Back through the door, back into the lobby, back for the elevator. The guy in scrubs was waiting there and so was the girl in the 50’s dress. She seemed surprised that I had followed her into the building. I had not followed her, she just must have not seen me come out. The doctor stared at the wall and exhaled. The elevator arrived. Inside was the old lady and the big delivery guy. They were on their way back from the short trip to the basement. The old lady looked at me with a s haze of confusion. We packed the elevator. I pressed my button, I looked around. The lady was staring at me. I felt really bad that I had not warned her, or the delivery guy of the (B) button, I was in a rush. And there I said it. I looked at the old lady in a conspiring way, because only she would know what I mean, but I said it with a loud voice, because I somehow thought she might not hear me.
“I had not pressed the button.”
It was probably right when I said “I had...” that I realized that this was not the place to clarify the situation. “...pressed the button” had to be said, but it was the completely wrong thing to say. I was now, officially, the crazy man in the elevator. The elevator used to be crowded, but not now, and not for me. Everybody just took a step back. The lady pressed her body into the corner. The big delivery guy just opened his eyes a bit and moved his heavy bags strategically. The surgeon just barely moved, yet he moved, which seemed like a lot for a man who had just seen death. The girl in the 50’s dress just began to laugh nervously. I was the crazy-man. It was official. I had the elevator all to myself. The other people were now decorating the walls. The surgeon left and so did the delivery man. They squeezed themselves behind me.
And instead of just shutting my mouth and getting ready to make a run for my money and cards, I stared at the old lady and glanced at the girl every now and then. I wanted the old lady to relax, to explain. I was not a weirdo, I just forgot to tell her that the button was pressed. It did not even matter now, actually. I just wanted the situation to relax. So I made the second mistake. I began to explain. Not only did I break the silence a second time, I shattered it. “...you know, the elevator went to the basement. The button was already pressed. I had not pressed the button...” I had to stop right there. The old lady turned into portrayal of fear. I did not want to harm her with my stupid words. The 50’s girl was now pressed against the wall in the other corner of the elevator, silently giggling. I was her morning New York encounter. It was my floor, I had to leave. “Have a nice day” I said. There was no answer. It was ok. I was so late.
Nice and customizable, three channels at once, full news feed watch them tell you what is good. They might be right, you know. Take a fresh look at stereotypography :: all your favourite news__. indeed.
WHy am I enjoying “The Hydra of Madison Avenue” so much? Does Todd Schorr remind us that Paintings can be as complex as a Movie Production and as dense as... not sure. There is some crazy stuff going on in Los Angeles.
Carl, from halfproject :: designers communicate pointed to this site yesterday. It was a tiny News item that sent a flurry of qualified traffic to the site. HalfProject looks very interesting. I have the feeling I will return often.
Just added two little buttons to the sidebar of this page. True radio buttons. By clicking on them and then a bit further, you will be able to listen to 
, the quite excellent National Public Radio (for our non American readers.)
If you are in the States, take a look at (or lend an ear to) the quite excellent programming available via 
I have been listening to some Peel Sessions on BBC1 earlier and am now listening to BBC3 and their “Discovering Music” broadcast. (This Week’s Broadcast is on Igor Stravinsky’s ‘Firebird’, and it is very entertaining.) All highly recommended. Since the Stock market feels a bit like 1929 anyway, why not turn your computer into a radio imagine it is the good old Radio Days again. Cheers.
Yesterday turned into a day so packed with subtle events for the intellect that the dreams that followed were some of the most complex and enjoyable stuff I have encountered in a long while. It is not that my body had been traveling yesterday, it was my imagination that had been jetted from place to place to place. I really traveled with the stories and encounters of my conversational partners. And I traveled so far and quickly and quite completely every time. The journey began in Poland in the morning, then continued vividly in New York, around lunch time our conversations went to Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, then to Brazil and from there to a very vivid twin event in San Diego. The evening started in Oxford, went to Hartford, moved to Vienna, brought back the border of Romania and the Ukraine and went all the way to Alaska at times, just to get some rest in Philadelphia.
I am not sure if I should just write everything down before it all merges with memories already resting in my head, or if I should just charge forward and expect an even wilder, more eventful day today.
I have the feeling that today will be somehow an even greater adventure, and maybe I will have time to return to yesterdays places and expand on some of the stories.
It made the front page of the New York Times this morning. A new little New Yorker, a centipede, a “totally mindless killing machine” a new species, a new genus and new animal. It is now called Nannarrup hoffmani (Hoffman's dwarf centipede) and is is 10.3 millimeters long, or about four-tenths of an inch. (Centipedes generally range from 3 centimeters, or 1.2 inches, to as long as 14 inches.) Read about it: A New Kind of New Yorker, One With 82 Legs
reFresh : reLoad ® - Inactive Exhibition Space offer a screen saver application for windows and mac (os9, osX coming in August). The screensaver is a bit like the SETI screen saver, except it does not look for extraterrestrial life but internet savvy creative talent.
Artists, designers, illustrators and others can submit their work and if it is liked by the people who invented reFresh-reLoad, it becomes part of a database. The screensavers then pull images from this database, bringing random images to the screens of those who want to be inspired, intrigued, educated. And the whole thing is a bit interactive too. If the Screensaver user likes a particular image, she or he can just press the spacebar and the screensaver will bring them to the website of the artist. A great idea, isn’t it? Thank you for the link, John
What if one, or maybe some buildings around the World Trade Center Site “remembered” the reflection of the Twin Towers? The windows in these buildings would be replaced with the pieces of a Twin Tower reflection.
Visitors could then still experience the dimensions of the towers from certain specified points and could be reminded of this overwhelming size of the buildings and the dimensions of the catastrophe that happened in New York City on September 11th 2001.
What if there were more of such works around the city?
What if such reflections appeared on façades around the world?
Maybe some would be just temporary. Some would be there to stay.
Some would be tiny and private. Some would be large enough to give visitors a feeling of the presence of the two buildings.
go, walk, run, move on, don’t stop, figure it out, do not think about looking back, forward, forward, ahead, ahead, head forward, move on, move on. repeat.
i talk to in the center of his circle. we talk about the east indies and how they turned into this really important place. we like the work of durell stone. it is good work. it feels like a well tailored white dress. no need to open it up. it is a beautiful palace just the way it is. especially the snowy northern face. i strech from here to greenwich village. pick up a drink at the hudson hotel. you know what, things are not quite as bad as they seem. close the windows, open an eye. write down some numbers and meditate about their origin. think about the sun how it was put into the center of things for a while, how we all floated in ether, how we all know nothing and believe to know it all, how we dig out the dead, unharmed for thousands of years and put them into freshly built museums. Into refrigerated chambers.
i shrink back to the size of a single point and return to here. right here, right now. just for this tiny little moment. less than a blink of an eye.
tiny cube of jello over midtown. high above. the skyscrapers can not touch it. they look like spiky hair from here. the cube floats on its own field of imagined energy. there they are, people, tiny people, there is it carnegy hall. there is broadway, there is the park. the cube floats towards the park, enjoys a stream of good will. layers upon layers of good intention. slowness. it will stay here. slow motion. no hurry, no gravity. move on city, move on.
Kimm Saatvedt is a photographer with a good sense of humor. He was educated in San Francisco and he takes his funny and sweet photographs in Oslo, where he and his girlfriend kjersti live. The Site is definitely worth a visit or two. And the Friend of the Month feature will have me coming back for more many times. (Kimm will be added to the photo category in the slowly growing links section of this site, of course.) Oh, here is the link to the site. I put it last, because it will now take over your screen. Enjoy.
Wait a second. Something is a bit off here. Ellen Feiss. It is probably my favorite Apple Switch ad so far, but Ellen seems to be in a haze, or maybe she is telling an old story and only replaced the Dog with a PC. Hmm, in her Real Story all of her paper was gone, on film it was half of the paper, maybe if we asked a bit harder... Maybe because the story is a bit of a stretch and because it was probably originally invented to be an excuse for a non perfect grade, maybe this is what makes this story so real and funny. It is a true story as it is a story that is told so many times over and over again. It is not really about the PC anymore it is about turning lemons into lemonade. Anything works, find a reason, convince your parents, convince everybody around you, things will be better when you use an Apple. (The mac is actually the only toy that has never really dissapointed me)... Plippliplipliplip.... I still laugh. Great job, well done. A superb, truly true story.
It used to happen very rarely. The screen on my PowerBook would go blank, or flicker away. I would then try to restart, but it would not work. It almost worked. The power button would activate the little green under the Caps Lock key, but nothing more. So the PowerBook was getting electricity, but apparently not enough to restart. I would then connect the computer to the power supply and things would start up in a proper manner. Since yesterday or so, not even this works anymore. Being connected to the outlet does not help. I can press the restart button several times and the only thing I am able to control is the little green under the Caps Lock key. It goes on as soon as I press the power button, it goes off if I hold the power button for several seconds. It goes on again, and so on. I tried removing all batteries, disconnecting the computer for a while, reconnecting, various tricks. (Yes, I held the computer upside down for a while too...)
The mac restarted again. I am writing this on my computer. I am just not sure if it will stay on long enough for me to post this into the blog.
I will need to give this more thought. Could it be the internal battery? Maybe there is a problem with the power supply connector? Some shortcut must knock out the computer at random times. Not a pleasant situation. I am not ready for a new Computer.
This one is good. A life story told in 30 Seconds. Puppet animation about a three legged soccer player. Yes, that’s right. And England wins the cup too. A cute little movie.Coca-Cola Supersub Ad and I like his little friend too. And wait, there is more! Check out the Long Version or just visit the entire Coca-Cola Supersub site. I know the cup is over and I know that England did not win, but this little site makes me want to order some coke cases from England. Yey!
Very cute site, very nice illustration. Excellence from Barcelona. Too bad I do not understand any Spanish. Do you? Visit: MONDOTRENDY.COM
..::OGS::.. ..:: web design, flash animation, iilustrations, photos, anime, links, love ::.. or Olga Guzhevnikova is from Moscow. She really knows what she is doing. I especially like her 88x31 banner policy. (I like much more on the site, I just want to take my time to explore a little more. SO this post is likely to change.)
There is thunder and hale over Manhattan. Flash and thunder, no delay. And on Broadway there are joggers running up and down through water. Groups of people some with and some without umbrellas cross 96th street. The cabs have turned off their s. The bank across the street is accepting a delivery. Manhattan is an unstoppable working machine.
The site for Pink Floyd was developed by Bluish and it is a very different approach. I have the feeling that blogs will take over somehow. It is a Gutenberg Universe after all, and now everybody has a printing press.
björk’s new site looks very much like a blog. Blög.
And then there are layers upon layers upon layer upon layers of things. And when I am thinking layers and layers the word spells out in the back of my head with Björks voice and the rrrolling R... lllaaayyerrs and llaaayerrs of thiinks (with a k). Explore. You might find things unexpected and new.
So here I am, added to the list of blogs from the 60’s. You can find people by birth date or just add yourself to the exciting and interesting ageless project
The link from the last post was found on Wishbone Zine, a site that sctually feels like one created by a real human being. A friendly place to visit. I will go back. Oh, and there are many, many bunny pictures on the site. (Cute little bunnies.)
Just came across a list of 101 Reasons Why I'm a Vegetarian. I am not quite vegetarian, but for some reason the kinder people I meet in my life are. Which makes me think that maybe I should have stayed vegetarian (I was from 1990-1992), except maybe a better educated one. I try not to eat meat more than once in maybe 2 weeks. I do not eat pork really. I do eat plenty of fish.
I had no meat today. Did you?
(Yes, I know Chris, there was this barbecue on Saturday over at your house and I had more than one meat snack, I know.)
This one is in French, but it is actually in this other universal language, beautiful work. Every single time. Jean Giraud is
Mœbius. (If you have no time, just send me a little Card.
As I was looking through some of my older links, I came across this demotivational company. the 2002 demotivators® collection. Nice classics. One of my favorites is actually not even for sale: We can’t spell failure without U R A. There is no I in team.
Their homepage might not look very spectacular, but their work is quite amazing. Take a look at M/M (Paris)
i will have to stay home today. feeling sick and sad and weak.
This makes me feel uncomfortable. We get upset about other places on this planet where women are not taken seriously. Can we at least try to set an example for how it should be done? Lesson one: Do not compare a girl to a pet. Girlfriends are not pets. Girls are young women are human beings. Guys, you can talk to them, they have often better developed brains than we do, so don’t be shy, try a conversation, you might actually learn something. Under no circumstances get her the present found here: Moody Pet™.
What happened here? Did the moody people run out of funds? Did they have to cram the girls with the cats and dogs? Hmm.
Step away from your screens, I am coming down with a cold. It snuck up on me. And now I am hot and I shiver and my head is filled with something that will now take over, the sick little feverish autopilot. My nose is stuffy, I feel so incredibly weak. I drank a lot of orange juice, I ate some Echinacea. I chopped some ginger into tiny, tiny little fire-cubes and ate an onion. Raw.
Feeling a tiny bit better. I will now lie down, smelly, weak, confused.
I am surprised I did not get sick sooner, spending my days in a refrigerated, windowless room, and my trips to and from the office in cans with other human sardines (and dolphins, sharks and whales). People are dirtier, sweatier and smellier in the evenings. And more fit into a subway car.
looks like I have a problem. I am really bad with emails. I am falling behind. I can not catch up anymore. The number is not spam, it is actual, real email. This is bad. This is really bad.
The Invisible Chamber is a bit of a great little world on to itself. Clicking on the little bug will bring you onto a strange, semi analogue screen from there you will be able to explore, via a “buggy” interface, some really great drawings and some fascinating, quite beautiful insect photography, irresistible environments, time and sand frozen in time, movies...
There is so much to see, so much to explore. I will need to go back there right now. There is a special feature on the cover as well, which you will definitely find interesting. It describes, in several photographs, the process of screen printing. There is a description of the process and then the process beyond the process. What an enjoyable and inspirational ride.
Wow, thank you guys.
Let’s take a look at some of these “wonderfully” Outrageous Commercials. See how a cream can remove radioactive material off your face, see how cigarettes make the world a better place, enjoy the patterns of the universe by looking up in a convertible. “Fun”.
If you would like to focus your attention on Cigarette Advertising, you might need to balance your visit with one to thetruth.com.
Some of the movies on Pleix’ site are on the edge of what you might want to see. So, if you are disturbed by graphics and sounds and liquids that are made to look like blood and hints of inapropiate behavior, do not click the following link, or at least do not watch some of the movies involving actors. Some of the pieces are quite interesting though. I think I like Plaid:ITSU most. What do you think?
One of the strangest links i have seen in a long time. A remarkable story with a very strange, happy payoff. the chapman brothers skipping rope for the glory of god (with intro). Thank you for the tip, Todd
John Pilger, a commentator at the Guardian Unlimited Observer has a very strong opinion about the current global political situation. “The great charade” is one of those articles that polarizes and makes some cheer, while others will pound the screen.
I just signed up to be one of the 5000 citizens of New York City to vote on the redevelopment of Downtown Manhattan. You too can sign up. Listening to the city.
In September 1999 the population of this planet reached 6 Billion. A serious number, isn’t it? How can one visualize this number? If 500,000 people drew little pictures of themselves, tiny little stampsize pictures, these combined would make a pretty substantial book. Now imagine 12000 of these books on a huge spiral bookshelf in a large room. What you are now imagining at is the outcome of the online project called Youdraw. You can draw a little picture of yourself (online) and it will be included in one of the books that will be printed and then exhibited in an installation. Common, you want to participate. Before you do, take a look at the other drawings. They are like little online graffiti. Very interesting little project, isn’t it?
Be the curator of an art show. Take a look atthe work that nobody will like. Like the pieces you like. Select five pieces out of a total of 357 slides. Participate at Majority Rules! (Part One)
They look like pictures of very realistic dolls. It is not wax we are looking at, it seems more like bisque china. Serious, frozen, odd, composed, cold, magical portraits of children by the German Photographer Loretta Lux. Interesting.
They look a bit like tourists in their own city. Many actually might be tourists from somewhere else. What they seem to have in common though is their s otherness. At least on the 33rd street station of the 7 train in Queens. They are visitors to the MoMA QNS. It is a bit as if this large institution landed here with little warning. There is only one diner on the corner, and there is only one Hotdog stand. Many of the buildings around here seem to be a work in progress. MoMA is blue. Big blue building has landed. It is a factory building that has been re-purposed to now to present works of art so incredibly familiar that they now seem like old friends on vacation. The space is temporary. The entrance is through a large branded glass door and then over unexplainable ramps, on odd angles. The flow of visitors is funneled through several channels that unite and then separate again. There is a glimpse at some of the art we know. Then there is darkness again, we need to give money, or at least pick up our free tickets. Above all this, in bright , the store, suspended, , beautiful. I want to buy something now, something that marks my presence here now somehow, I want to leave a mark, sign something, and be it a credit card receipt. We never get to the store. We walk past a last barrier. Our tickets are checked by a man who is connected, via phone-wire, to the ceiling, the dark big ceiling, the night sky over all of what we will see. The intimacy of the galleries never sets in. There is no intimacy. It must be the subconscious perception of this space that makes me feel part of a trade show maybe? Are we looking at a car-show maybe? There they are, the cars, indeed. Auto-bodies. Less than 10 cars, beautiful, united in a room. This works. I am in a large hall with a concrete floor, and there are the cars. There are footmarks all over the "do not step here" marks on the white car presentation trays.
We move on, away from here, back to the narrow space, into a brighter gallery, the Van Goghs are here and the Braques and the Picassos and the many visitors who came here to see them in their new temporary home. And it must be the sound, or is it the color of the high ceiling that extends above it all, indeed like a sky, that gives a feeling of work in progress. Are we in a camping museum under an artificial sky?
There will be plenty of exciting events at a store in SOHO. This sounds like a quote from one of my nightmares, but this time it is going to be an Apple Store and the events will be lectures by some quite interesting people. So I actually might go, even though it is going to be a Store in SOHO, the Apple Store - SoHo. Yeah
A screaming lady, high on something strong just walked up the block. She had her walkman on and screamed and then pulled her skirt up in front of some tourists. She then walked a bit further up the block just to bend over, pull up her skirt again, make some very rotating movements with her rear end. She is now gone, further uptown, her screams were swallowed by the sounds of Broadway. A true Broadway show.
"A smart, witty follow-up."-- Paul Clinton, CNN
Hello, and farewell to moviephone.
It used to be all very easy and a good idea. One would just “dial” 777-FILM from anywhere in New York, and a very unique male voice would say *HE*llo and *WELL*come to *MO*vie phone... Then, after a short commercial break, which apparently paid for the whole fun, an automated system, featuring the *fun*ny *VOI*ce would allow to find the *MOV*ie you would *LI*ke to see, the theater where is plays and then find out the times still available. One more push onto the phone touch-pad then reserved the ticket, a few beeps and whistles more bought the ticket for a Dollar more. Pretty nice. At the theater one would just walk up to a little machine, put in the credit card and the tickets were printed. A really nice idea. The service eventually was bought by AOL and renamed to AOL-moviephone. The website was made pretty nifty too, and I remember ordering the first tickets online and beating the phone system in speed and convenience. There was no man with a voice, but the tickets were still waiting, things that used to be easy were turning easier. Until now.
We wanted to see Men in Black II at a Loews theater in Kips Bay. It was very easy to find the page with the movie, the page with the theater, even the times. The only thing missing was the [buy it now] button. Hmm. At first I thought it was me. I clicked on a few links on the site, tried to find the place where AOL might have hidden this little gif-graphic that would pay for the existence of the site I was surfing. No luck. So I dialed 777-film, in the hope to order the tickets the “old-fashioned” way. *HELL*o and *Well*-come to *A*ol *Movie*-phone... *Ent*-ter the name of the *MO*vie you want to see... *you* have *selected* *MEN*... And so on... The system ended up giving me the location of the movie theater I already knew, with the still available show-times. No option for ticket purchase. At this point there are friends from Germany waiting for my call back. We are supposed to pick them up at the hotel, AOL just helped me to get sly frustrated... (I do not really get angry, you know...)... I understand that AOL liked the idea of buying tickets over the phone, and then brought it further by bringing the service online, but please don’t tell me they would then drop the ball and just remove the most important part of the deal. I decided to call the theater directly. I found a general number for Loews theaters, called the number and who picks up? *HELL*o and *Well*-come to *A*ol *Movie*-phone... *Ent*-ter the name of the *MO*vie you want to see...
At this point I felt betrayed, was ready to sell all of my AOL stock. (Except that I would lose too much money in such a transaction to make if fun.) I thought of Chris, who would at this point just slam the phone against the furthest wall. What was going on here?
Good thing I had thought of Chris in the moment of my frustration. I remembered this tiny company that had been founded by one of the early Google guys... (as far as I remember.) a system like 777-FILM, except with other funny voices and full fletched voice recognition technology. TELL ME... Please HELP ME, TELL ME...
I dialed 1-800-555-TELL... And was greeted by a happy *TELL ME* I did not care what the commercial at the beginning of the call would be... I just screamed into the phone...
Witold: "MOVIES!"
Tell me: you selected movies, what is the name of the movie you would like to see?
(this guy was clearly trying to sound like the man from 777-film without getting in trouble with the law...)
Witold: "Men in Black two"
Tell me: "sure, one moment please, you want to see Men in Black in New York, New York?"
Witold:"yes..."
Tell me: "the closest theater to you seems to be..." (this is how I remember it, do not quote me...)
After several "next" calls from me, I was eventually able to just order my tickets"
Tell me: "how many tickets do you need?"
Witold: "Four Tickets"
Tell me:" 46 tickets, sure."
Witold: "no, four tickets, not 46." (I like messing with voice recognition systems"
Tell me: "Oh, four tickets, OK"...
We got the tickets, the rest of the experience was the same as in the “old days”. At the theater a little machine just printed the tickets. No waiting online, no problems, enough seats in a sold out theater. The movie was not quite what I had expected. But that’s a different story. Thank you, TELL ME...
The days have been a bit long for me recently. Now I find myself winding down just in time to go to bed. And I just barely manage to find my own pace and it is Sunday evening again. It is a bit frustrating how words start slipping away and how the focus on tiny things melts away and gives way to some sense of direction towards the next goal, the next end of the next project. I try to refocus from time to time, try to dig for the peace of mind somewhere inside, waiting. I remember listening to my heartbeat as a child, an exercise barely possible with windows directed towards Broadway.
I sometimes fold my hands as if for prayer. This closes an energy circle around me and allows to quiet down a bit. (This is the reason why so many religious traditions involve folded hands.) Once the energy can not flow away from me freely, I try to consciously “listen” to the fingertips. It is a very simple exercise and can be practiced anywhere at any time. Try putting the tips of both index fingers together, (if you do not have index fingers, other body parts will do), the touch should be just strong enough so you become aware of it. There should be this simple thought in your mind, something like the awareness that your fingers are touching. What you are feeling now is a sum of experiences. Try isolating the experiences. Try focusing on one of the feelings all by itself. Focus on the left finger and what it feels. Then try to put your entire attention towards the other fingertip. Can you feel a difference? Is it more difficult to feel one fingertip or the other? How easy is it to refocus the attention from one side of the body towards the other? Are you distracted by noise from other parts of your body asking for attention?
With enough practice, this exercise can be performed entirely without any physical contact. With even more practice it is even possible to feel the touch of another person from their perspective.
My eyes are screaming for attention right now. They want to be closed and want to rest for at least few hours.
Jørgen Geerds has posted a new gallery of photographs taken in New York City before September 11th 2001. The series of images contains shots of famous New York City landmarks, some pictures were taken from New York City Landmarks. What might at first sound like a collection of images that millions of tourists take of the City every year turns out to be a quiet and very intimate portrait of a melancholic New York. The images have silence in them and they have a sense of thoughtfulness that is often only visible to New Yorkers who not only know the city well, but who also take their time to view this complex organism with more patience. This is no action photography. These are well calculated and composed shots. Take your time when viewing them. Short attention spans will miss the whole idea.
Worth a visit: Jørgen Geerds’ Photo Collection.
Josh Dura listed the Flashforward Film Festival Winners.
Hello Friends, Eric REDD Feliciano, the man who built the Wearkstatt Bridal site just sent me this email:
Hello, everyone... I need a little favor... 'Would you go to the web-page
below and vote for our beautiful dress, please, please, please. The NBC
Today show is letting its audience select a gown for a bride, who will get
married during a live-broadcast. It would be amazing publicity for us, if
the Wearkstatt gown wins. 'Pass it on to all your friends. Thanks a lot !
Jonas
www.msnbc.com/news/todaythrowsawedding_front.asp
Let’s help these guys!...
What a great night! The Flashforward2002 NYC festival was interesting and the final ceremony was a really great event. Each one of the 60 Finalists had prepared a little movie about their project, or about their company. There were 15 categories and in each one of them 4 finalists. I was there to accept the award for Max Weber in the typography category. Max Weber is this really great online agency from Wroclaw in Poland. They could not come to New York, so they chose *me* as their representative to accept the award. And guess what? MAX WEBER WON! It was fantastic! The room was packed, maybe almost a thousand people, all excited. I explained that Grzes Mogilewski and Ania Trojanowska with the Max Weber team are the winners of the award. I suggested that everybody email their cheers to maxweber.com. I kept it real. I am really, really proud of Grzes and Ania and Leszek... It was a great moment. Really wonderful. The good stuff.
Oh, you want to know how we met? Hmm... Through this blog.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to represent you, Max Weber!
(can you tell that I am still incredibly excited?)
Some blogs just come to a halt at some point and we should probably be worried about what might have happened to our blogging hero or heroine. A link from my site brought me to the last page of .given. And I am a bit worried what might have happened there since. Hope Rudi is well.
It is one thing to make it to the Blog list of the Guardian. What makes me feel really special is when users like Monica and Robert put me on their Blogs list. I did not quite make it to the Favorite Sites area, but I will try. I might add that Robert does have an impressive collection of high quality links. Some are just the regular places we visit every day, but some are more obscure and good for research. I am really serious. I like their page and they seem like very nice people. I am very honored that they linked to me. Thank you so much Monica and Robert. (I also like the Monica & Her Dad in London story.)
I shall never blog while under the influence of Bordeaux. Sir Norman Foster designed this building in London. Please let me know if it is just me seeing things, or if there should be a Parental advisory sticer on 30 St Mary Axe. It is just me and the Bordeaux, isn’t it? Oh boy. (Oh, Sir.)
New SHIFT | 068 is out. Do i need to say anything more? Oh yeah... this month’s cover is by attik (and it is allright...)
Curve is definitely one of my long time favorite groups. Their music has just the right amount of harshness and softness to it. What seems harsh turns to soft and vice versa over time and then the music is even more enjoyable. A bit like My Bloody Valentine with a tiny bit of Ultra Vivid Scene? (Just a pinch.)
I had no clue that Curve has a site, of course, and I am just exploring it now (a tiny bit) and look what I found: P L A S T A B A N D oh, enjoy. (if you want instant results, just press the beat button 10 times or so.)
And this is just the beginning, of course. The site is *packed* with quite amazing things like samples and mp3s and pictures and even a link to a Spiderman trailer. (Who knew that the music was by curve.)
I think I will have to buy their new CD. (Yes, I download MP3s, but I definitely buy CDs.)
David Crawford, the new media artist behind of Speed II has just published a new and exciting project on turbulence.org. The project uses low cost Stock Photography to randomly generate flash video clips for the 80’s post-punk band, Joy Division. David’s work is quite extraordinary every single time, and Dance to the Radio is again a very excellent, very intelligent and yet extremely enteraining piece.
It is not so long ago that I wrote about an almost visit of a dragonfly in my apartment on 73rd street a few years ago. Michael from ultramicroscopic replied with his dragonfly story from the office. Maybe it was not really a reply, but at least it was an awareness heightening inspiration. Suddenly there were dragonflies everywhere. I saw dragonflies in the streets, dragonflies in my dreams and then, of course, real dragonflies by a lake in Pennsylvania. I was not prepared to encounter them. I did not expect to see so many in one place, and also not such large specimen, flying around me, hunting, resting, even mating. I recognized at least four different species. It was impossible to take pictures of some, it was a bit easier with others. Their activity level really varied from species to species. I really wanted to take pictures of them. I really tried. Dragonflies are not very patient around cameras, so I have plenty of pictures with a large insect flying in or out of the frame. I had no micro lens with me, the tele-lens was just not the right tool for this task, so I ended up using my favorite Zeiss 75/1.5 Biotar. The lens is quite magical, it is very fast for a 50 year old lens and allows for a very shallow depth of field. Really shallow, basically just millimeters of sharpness.
I know by now that my camera body needs to be calibrated. Images appear superbly sharp on my ground glass, and the results are sly of by a frustrating few inchesf. I will need to find a way to correct this, because right how it is almost impossible to take really decent pictures. What should I do if images on the ground glass appear superbly sharp, yet the image on film is off by a few inches towards the camera. This must mean that the image as I see it, appears just a fraction of a millimeter in front of the film plane? Hmm... seems like my camera is short sighted?
This post is getting much too technical.
I somehow managed to get close to a few dragonflies at rest. I tried to take pictures of the largest species (large with black areas on wings), but all of the images are very out of focus (see first image). Two smaller species seemed a bit more relaxed. I could actually adjust the focus, somehow compensate for the camera flaw and shoot. The pictures here are not taken with a macro lens. This means that I was truly just inches from the insects in the pictures. Dragonflies are such beautiful animals.
Can you imagine that I spent the entire day indoors? The only windows I saw today were the ones on my screen. The views I saw today were beautiful, they were touching, they were soft, some were reminders that I should do other things. There are no windows in the room I am in right now. I am on a fourth floor, but I might as well be miles under the surface, or somewhere on a different planet. The air I breathe is filtered through large air conditioners, the temperature is adjusted by two thermostats on opposite sides of the room. I should go home now. I want things to be perfect. Again. Each and every time.
Thank you for writing to me. Thank you for what you have written today. I hope I will be able to reply. Resting for a moment. Typing this is a moment of rest. What are you doing today? What time is it? What is the weather like out there now? You told me there is rain?
It was on the New Jersey side of the Delaware river, off the road 521 going south. An old mill was now just an old house by a pond. The dam was still there and the pond turned into a tiny creek going south. A bridge over the creek led to an area with two benches. The creek disappeared into the forest. In the shadows of the trees, in a quite dark place was a large bird.
The bird was a focused, experienced hunter. It was a very quiet, majestic bird, hardly moving at first, then slowly, one quiet step at a time, closing in on a sly deeper area of the creek. Obviously hunting for fish. I did not know what kind of bird it was. It was very large, confident, beautiful. There, it rushed for a fish. Quiet again, the long tongue cleaned the yellow beak. The bird was a large heron, but what kind of Heron? I sat down on the edge of the bridge and shot with my old praktina, with the f4/300 Carl Zeiss Sonnar lens.
I then, later, walked slowly to the shore of the creek. I was maybe four yards away from the bird when I shot the the last shots. The bird knew very well that I was there, I think the sly open beak was a signal for me to stay where I was. I made sure not to cross the line. The bird kept hunting. I crawled back with as much respect as I had moved forward.
It was only today that I found out that I had seen an adult Great Blue Heron, an Ardea herodias, a bird with a 72" wingspan, weighing about 5 pounds, the largest and heaviest heron in the United States.
The British Guardian is int the procaess of putting together a list of Blogs they like. The list is here: Guardian Unlimited and this very blog has been recently added to it. You can submit your blog, I think.
No warning, no real long preparation. It was quite beautiful in Pennsylvania. There is so much to tell, so much to tell. How can I even begin to collect all the layers and streams and the comparisons of experiences. There is always so much more than can be recorded.
I will try to slowly, slowly grind through the still fresh memories.
And I really hope that all these animals on the roadside were just sleeping, resting. Hmm, let’s see.
About 70 miles west of New York City was our destination Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. We spent a very quiet and relaxing weekend in a place that seemed like a parallel universe version of some landscapes I remember from Germany and Poland, mixed with a really nice portion of Americana. It is so interesting to see how much of the pioneer spirit is left in the country, how many townships are just beginning to shape. It is fascinating to see how large the areas of property can be, and how they now are detached from actual use of the land, how some of the property is just that, property. Landscapes in Europe are very much shaped by thousands of years of feudal tradition, (and so many, too many wars).
The land in the south of Germany, for example would usually be divided among all the sons in the family. The older the son, the more land he would get, but all of the sons would be farmers on smaller and smaller parcels of land. In northern Germany, only the oldest son would inherit the farm, keeping land ownership intact and forcing the younger sons to participate in land free activities, like trade, or clergy. (Mostly trade.)
The Land rules here, on the other side of the globe seem not quite as traditional (and there is so much more land to be divided). Many of the places along our route had old Native American Names, but the land somehow felt not quite conquered yet. Many of the houses near the road were built as if they were a transition between a very recent past and a better future. Much of the land was simply used as a stage for a house and a garage. It would be interesting to observe how a landscape that is shaped not by the quest for food production but for entertainment will be transformed in the course of hundreds of years. How many golf courses can a continent have? American landscapes seem to have skipped certain developments too. Walkways are certainly not as popular in a country that is best explored by car, as they are in the country where the car was invented, after centuries of walking and horse riding as main form of transportation.
I know most of these innocent questions can make any urbanist or historian grab their head, it is just so fascinating for me to see how beautiful and often untouched America still is, and how quickly certain elements of culture are put into place here, while others that would seem quite natural in any place in the old world, just do not seem necessary. There are no Castles in the stares, the villages are not huddled together. Houses are not built like fortresses and not all roads here lead to Rome. It is fascinating however that many of the places have names that were not brought from Europe, and it would be interesting to imagine this continent the way it was before it became the New World.
We sat on a bench next to the now closed road near the entrance to the park by Circle. Joggers, runners, bicyclists, walkers, bladers, tourists, dogwalkers, all rushed by. I just wanted to take really slow pictures.
There was a lady a few benches down, her nurse had brought her out, so she could enjoy her time in the park. The nurse read the paper and the old lady looked at the people going past us. I could see through the camera that her glasses made the park look very different. She also had a hearing aid. Her experience of the situation must have been such a completely different one than mine. Well, it always is, of course. Each one of us experiences a completely different park. We might agree on certain describable details, but most of what we see and how we see it is very personal and very unique and translated into our own internal visual language. I observed the lady for a while. She hardly moved and yet I knew that she was probably enjoying this moment more than some of the quick movers around us. She was probably traveling through her memories of the park, she was seeing things we know nothing of. She might also have been there, just there, aware of the particular moment as it took place in front of her.
The pigeon was right behind us. It was a patch of gras not used by visitors. There were masses of people on the Sheeps Meadow, but nobody behind the benches just yards from the marked recreational location. There was loud music on the Sheeps Meadow, it was very quiet behind us. The pigeon waited in the sun. Other pigeons came to visit, walked by. This one pigeon seemed to enjoy a quiet and calm time in the sun. It must have been warm.
The picture in the center was taken later, more uptown, maybe around 86th street. in Manhattan can be so magical and so diverted by the buildings, newly composed. The can be harsh sometimes. It can be like a rush sometimes. But there are moments when it is just a quiet, slow motion . I think I love New York.
There are several series of photographs on Desiree Dolron’s site. The cover of the site might be my favorite image there. A photograph?, a painting? the softness of the image is stunning. A portrait with a very velvety quality. The proportions of the subject are made unusual through choice of hair and clothing. The skin seems like finest, translucent china. The girl looks directly into the camera, calmly, seriously, with a hint of curiosity. The shape of her eyes exquisite, the outlines of her face made to look quite perfect. There seems to be just one source, a natural, cold north . A soft that somehow removed the color from the lips of the girl and also took away her eyebrows. The comes from the right hand side, turning the image into a flipped, sly flattened Vermeer. The image can be found in | xteriors | catya (2001) the piece is a cibachrome 120 x 165 cm. A good size for a contemporary portrait. I wonder if at this size the image keeps the jewel box appearance.
This is what I call irresistible viral marketing. Altoids, the mints almost as strong as their claim (Fisherman’s friends are curiously stronger), have a new viral site. I feel very positively infected and can not resist to share this book filled with memories of the future. Let’s go!. (How do you like my fruity link, kids?) Thank you for the virus, JG.
These plants seem the happiest so far. It might be their surroundings. The red wall lets them glow in joy. I walk by them several times a day. And every time there seems to be a tiny spark a wave in the wind. There is no wind where they stand. There is not even a window. But there is this strong joyful contrast. They are the right plants in the right place. Green tongues of a superbly slowly burning fire. Making oxygen. (Not only the colors seem exchanged)
“Red” and “beautiful” come from the same word-core in Russian. The red square used to be the only paved place in early Moscow. It used to be the beautiful square. Red can be an expression of beauty indeed.
The exhibition contained two beautiful sculptures. Some visitor seemed to pay no attention to the work. They were very interested in the words describing the work however. A translation for the reading mind. A way to feel about the space they were in. Words, direction, hints, descriptions, thoughts. Sometimes the pen seems not only stronger than the sword, but also stronger than a brush or chisel. Sometimes.
Visiting a place to read about it. Why am I writing this?
Did they realize that they were only visitors? Did they realize that they were the softest part of the exhibition? The exhibition needed them to exist. It would continue to exist in them. They would take it with them. Back home. This short read impression about it. The description of the transient space they were in.
An interesting article by Lrs Kjellberg investigates Improved sharpness using various aperture settings on photographic lenses. The issue is not quite as linear and simple as one might at first expect. It is obvious that a completely open lens will lead to a less sharp results. (This is why we focus with the lens wide open and then stop it down if desired?) It is interesting to find out however that at apertures beyond f8, diffraction becomes an issue, making the images less sharp again. (This is valid for the plane of focus only. The depth of field, or even margin of “error” is much greater at f22 than it is at f1... of course.) The author provides great illustrations to explain all of this very well.
Had my lunch at eatery. (It still seems to be the word out there that looking “fabulous” will make you smart... psst... it does not.)
The place was packed. I was by myself. The chances of getting a seat at a table with air conditioning were very slim. I decided to sit outside. It was just me and a napkin, a tiny plate, a fork, a knife and 9th avenue. The napkins at eatery are the vicious fabric kind, the ones that leave white marks on everything but white clothing.
I made a little rabbit puppet out of my napkin, put it on top of my salt shaker and positioned the arrangements for a photograph in front of me on the table. A lady stopped by me on 9th avenue, touched my shoulder and asked, very gently, her head sly slanted, if I were going to have lunch with my little bunny friend. I smiled back. I told her that I was not very comfortable with the place, but that the food was so good that I had to do anything to break the spell.
I whispered to the bunny, that next time, we would need to dress up better. I made him into a boat, but he fell apart. My food came. It was good indeed.
From 96th street to 50th street is a short ride on the local train. Just a few stops (96-89-79-72-66-59-50). I was late however, and wanted to “jump” ahead. I took the express train to Times Square (96-72-42) and then the local to 50th Street. (42-50). The train however was a local that went express. (42-72-96)(there is no local downtown transfer on 72nd street, yet.)... So after a ride of (96-72-42|42-72-96) I decided to wait for the next local train, which happened to be incredibly packed and not air conditioned. So my total ride this morning was (96-72-42-72-96|96-89-79-72-66-59-50). Oh well.
Amy Franceschini (futureFarmers) made this cute and easy to use shockwave Sound fun application. You can drag and drop little boxes filled with quirky beats and sound effects into two tracks and the fun is instant and rewarding. The interface is very intuitive. Just drag the things by grapping them where they seem grabbable, duplicate them by holding down the option key (hello Photoshop users)... and so on. It is good and healthy fun. And there is an update every month. Yeah... Oh, now you want the link, dontya?...POTLUCK. (What’s up with that name?) : )
