Max on the Edge

Edge (network) is a bad thing on the iPhone (you want 3G, natch). However, Max twisted my arm into adding Edge (the game) to my iPhone. After I got through all the levels, I went back to the beginning to improve my times. I was addicted. I think I am getting better (in more ways than one)...

Happy Birthday, Dad!

You guys were so sweet to wish my Mom a happy birthday that I thought I would point out my Dad's birthday.

Please wish my Dad a Happy B-Day! As you can see, he is enjoying retirement.

(Just leave comments by clicking on "comments" just below and choose the "Name/URL" option button where you leave your comments. First name is fine!)

Paddlin' near Pedro

Mike Watt kayaks seemingly every morning. I would never have expected to see one of the greats of punk get so obsessed with sunrises, sunsets and lighthouses but I have to admit it is nice to find his images so often in my mailbox. Of course, it has a lot to do with the Secondman's Middle Stand, and his new look on life after coming so close to death...

I haven't had time for art, lately, so thought I would share a couple of his images with you (the bottom one was taken on Thanksgiving, I think). I hope to get back to my stuff after Thanksgiving. The installation at the Lux in Lincoln will take up most of next week. I will post some images of that as soon as I can

Track the toolbag

When the astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper lost her toolbag during a spacewalk a few days ago, I immediately wondered how long it would stay in orbit and whether I would be able to see it or not. I used to frequently track the Shuttle and International Space Station when I lived out West (great viewing). It is still fun to spot either the ISS or Shuttle passing overhead.

It looks like there will be a good opportunity to see the toolbag in the next day, or so. There are several sites that predict opportunities to spot it. It sounds like it will continue to orbit until maybe June of 2009, at which time they think it will finally re-enter the atmosphere.

We might see it above Omaha around 6 PM on the 29th, just ahead of the ISS.

The White Album - 40th Anniv.

The White Album - The Beatles

For those interested: The White Album has for a long, long time been one of my all time favorite albums, even while containing a few of my LEAST favorite Beatles songs - songs they wrote and recorded in their mid-20's, by the way. I used to have a very cool collector's edition that was on white vinyl - sadly, it was later ruined. When it was first released on CD, it became the very first CD I ever purchased. That led me down a path of CD buying that has led to several thousand CDs.

I listened to this NPR story when it was played live, then listened to it again over the weekend during their "listening party" where they played the album in its entirety. Even if you aren't a big Beatles fan, give it a chance. Admittedly, I am not their biggest fan, either - I just think the album was revolutionary and at the time I first heard it (years after it was released), it changed my perception of music, in general, and the band, in particular.

If you've never really given the full album a chance, at least listen to a bit of history...

Click here if you'd rather download the Podcast

Lake Tahoe Workshop

Every summer for the past decade, I have been invited as a Visiting Artist to conduct workshops on digital media for the Summer Visiting Artist Workshops program at Sierra Nevada College (a small private college in Incline Village). It usually focuses on Photoshop with some Illustrator thrown in. It looked like I would be doing a workshop on animation this coming summer, but due to the requests, it looks like it will focus on Photoshop, again.

If you ever want to take a 5 day workshop and learn everything from the basics to the most fancy tricks you can do with Photoshop (seriously cool stuff), this is the place to be. Plus, I am working on a DVD of lessons files (detailed Quicktime movie files) that participants of the workshop will get to keep for free.

It is such a blast every year, and Tahoe is the best place to attend a workshop like this. And the people are fantastic. It is a highlight of every year for me. It looks like it will be July 20-24, and I will post again when the time gets closer. It is also a pretty exclusive little club. They can only accept 10 participants, so although it isn't many people, you certainly gets lots of individual attention.

I have also been doing the t-shirt designs for the past few years, too. Here is the design from this last summer. The year before had cool glow in the dark printing. This next summer will be the 25th anniversary, so I better think of an extra special design...

Sweet Briar Redux

All photos © Kate Gorman from SBC







Wow - turns out a great photographer and student at Sweet Briar has been watching the blog since my silly lecture and sent along some images to show you what a beautiful campus it is (especially in the Fall).

Sweet Briar College

While at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts (VCCA), I did a guest lecture at Sweet Briar College for David Griffith's class. While preparing for the lecture, I went through tons of old photos and found some good stuff.


This first image is of the Lost City in Bophuthatswana, Africa, where I worked for about 4-5 months. The Lost City is a project Sol Kerzner created to attach to Sun City (think Las Vegas in South Africa) so it would be more family friendly. CNN did an article on him, recently. We created "ruins" out of cement to make it look like it was an ancient city that had been destroyed by a volcano.


This is my crew (Blaine isn't in the image - argh. I need to find a pic of Blaine)


This was at the Henry Doorly Zoo. We were constructing rainforest trees (I helped sculpt and did all of the painting).


We would go through all this work to make them look great, and they would take the wires you see in the previous image and hook things to the wires such as fire alarms. Kind of spoils the effect.

Anyway, I talked about a lot of different things at Sweet Briar College, but the focus was "process," so I showed lots of images that showed how and why I create things. I think the lecture went okay...

I have spent the last few days dealing with computer issues and cleaning my office and basement. I hope to get back to art by this coming weekend. Updates will be slow here until then.

Shuffle = Random?

Alright. Something weird is going on here.

My iPod is set to shuffle and tons of bands. Hundreds of bands have been transferred to it. The have names beginning with every letter in the alphabet.

So, how come so many “M” bands are coming up? My shuffle is stuck on M. That doesn’t seem so random. You name it: M. Ward, Mount Eerie, Mountain Goats, Mugison, Múm, Mice Parade, Microphones and Menomena - I have heard two songs from each of those bands in the last hour, yet I have everything released by A Hawk and a Hacksaw on my iPod, and nothing all day. Ditto for Okkervil River and others.

Is this an example of that handful-of-pennies-dropped-on-a-grid phenomenon?

False advertising

Saw this ad on eBay. It animates between before and after 60 minutes of product use. Yeah. In case your monitor is too tiny to read the fine print, it says "Simulated imagery. Results not typical." Duh. I guess you can use "not typical" to mean NEVER. Jerkweeds.

Read Me Max

Happy Belated Birthday, Max! I think I said that to you when I saw you, but I never sent a card. UGH.

While going through all of these old images, I ran across a few images of you, Max. How young you were (both of us):







Man, how time flies.

Happy B-Day, Mom!

Early iPhone pic this morning on my Mom's birthday

Search Engines

Someone in Morocco did a search for "bad joujou" and hit my blog (I used the expression many weeks ago). Funny how we stumble on to things.

I fly out of London, soon. I will post Mark's essay after I get back to the States. If you haven't read his poem, yet, scroll down and read it below.

I just recalled a note I got from Mitch Easter many years ago. Mitch produced lots of amazing stuff including REM's very first album, but he also headed a great band called Let's Active back in the 80's. I once asked him for a copy of some early stuff, which he happily sent along. Cool guy.

On the CD, Mitch wrote "Halcyon Days"

Break

I don't know if I can call it a break, or not. I have been taking photos for a weird side project and started working on a web site for Andrew O'Sullivan (one of the people I am staying with in London). I will likely be working on the web site for a while, and then Meg and I will goof around London next week.

Probably not a lot of updates for another week.

Blog Visits

Can you tell I am not getting a lot done right now if I am wasting so much time with posts like these.



Still, fun to watch where people are visiting from.

Michael Stipe's Beer

I can’t be the first person to have noticed this, but I bought some Wiibroe Årgangsøl because it looked like Michael Stipe on the label (but maybe it is supposed to be the Danish band Kasper Eistrup?). I couldn’t find anyone making the comparison online and since the kind folks here at Ørslev Kloster might think me a weirdo for pointed it out, I just went ahead and drank it in silence. Plus, I won’t complain since it has 10.6% alcohol by volume. Not bad. A good strong pilsner.

But I mean, come on... dead ringer.