What we know now

Here's a list of 50 interesting things that we now know that we didn't know at this time last year.

How to handle telemarketers

Why is it that I joined the no-calling list yet I still get telemarketers calling at dinner time? Here is sweet revenge. This has to be the best trick played on a telemarketer. It's very funny.

From Neatorama

Tuesday Lovin': 10 Least Successful Holiday Specials

Very funny list of failed holiday specials. There are such goodies as: Muppet Christmas with Zbigniew Brzezinski, A Canadian Christmas with David Cronenberg, and Ayn Rand's A Selfish Christmas.

Feeling Lucky, Punk?

Sunday Schadenfruende: Tom Delay's Blog

If I've got the story correctly, Tom Delay started a blog and was so overwhelmed by negative comments that he took it down. But not before some wily person copied and re-posted it. Read the nice, warm and fuzzy comments.

Warning: After the first few posts it deteriorates into puerile name calling and is rather distasteful.

Looking Back: New Old Photographs

By chance I came across these two collections of photos from the 30s and 40s. They both candidly reveal a very different America. It gave me pause to think about an 8mm film I'd seen years ago when I had gone with a friend to visit his grandparents. The color film was of New York in the late 1940s or early 50s and was fascinating. It's one thing to see a city represented in a Hollywood film but quite another in a home movie. It is in some ways more magical because it is evidence made by someone you know and trust. Of course, the stories that accompany a viewing help make it vividly real.

The comments on both these collections work similarly.

Happy X-Mas

from Crooks and Liars

RIP: Big Bird

A sad day for muppets everywhere.

Yeah for Politicians!!

Politicians Sweep Midterm Elections

Design in a Small Town 9: Proximity

(I am in storytelling mode tonight, forgive me)

My father teaches Entomology at the university and his department, which houses an insect museum, shares the building with the Food Science and Human Nutrition department.

Many entomology researchers rear insects in effort to keep live samples to study. Apparently someone had been rearing Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches only to have them...um, escape. Needless to say, they have begun to appear throughout the building. Without invitation, I might add.

There is nothing more that needs to be said. You put two and two together. Food and cockroaches.

What does this have to do with design, you ask? Well, who on earth thought it was a great idea to put the entomologists and the food science people together? This was bound to happen, I suppose.

BONUS: Roach Cam! (from South Carolina)

About this Time

When I was an undergraduate I was at the mercy of my fellow classmates when it came time to find rides home for the holidays. Precious few friends, it seemed, were making that 300 mile trek across the state. One year, I happened to finish early and was very fortunate to catch a ride with a friend who lived 80 miles from my hometown and who was gracious enough to drive me to my front door before turning around and continuing on for another hour and a half.

I remember it was a cold November evening and my friend had decided to leave the major highways and take a back road in an attempt to cut time. We had to pass through several small towns on the way. Without warning the crystal clear night turned into a thick fog and as we entered the first town it was as if we had entered a dream. The town was completely deserted and apart from the one or two street lights the town was unlit - not a single house was illuminated from within.

It really bothered us. I remember we drove a little faster to get past this place. The fog lifted and the second small town we passed through was bright and full of life. It was very strange.

When I got to my parent's home, it was late and I was greeted by my sister, who was also visiting, and after getting settled I told about the creepy little town and she replied, "I have something really scary to tell you."

I am not a brave soul and the tone my sister set with those words really got to me. I sat down on the couch and grabbed a pillow for security.

My sister went on to explain how earlier in the evening my dad had casually admitted that, while we lived in our previous home (a creaky old Dutch colonial job a block or so away), he had had reoccurring nightmares about someone falling into a well. This was the first time he had admitted this to anyone and my mother, who had researched the history of the home, remarked that there had been a well that sat where the back porch was now. To take it further my mother now felt it safe to admit that she too had had strange experiences: a number of times she had seen out of the corner of her eye someone standing near her only to turn quickly to see nothing. This was beyond the usual sense that we often get at times.

My sister's confession, however, was beyond belief and to this day still makes me uncomfortable. She revealed that on more than one occasion she had awoken to find a young woman standing at the foot of her bed. She has since told me that, unable to speak or scream out of sheer terror, she would squeeze her eyes shut until she knew the girl had gone. Mind you these encounters happened not when my sister was a child but when she was teenager.

I had a hard time sleeping that night. In my mind I thought back to all the strange things I had experienced such as the times my cat would hiss and growl at things that weren't there or the time my sister's friend came to spend the night and pulled the blinds down and up again only to return to the living room later to find the blinds down again. I remember this because I took the blame for it and it seemed unusual that the blinds would be pulled down (they never were used at all in the room).

I don't know how much of these stories is embellishment and distortion over time. But I do know that when I recently revisited the house (a friend lives there now) that I felt nothing. The only awkward vibe I felt was when I remarked to my friend that I'd forgotten how small the bathrooms were.

But maybe he is not telling me something. Maybe, just maybe, he has inherited the nightmares and lonely little girl at the foot of the bed.

Happy Halloween.

Thursday Lovin': Resentful Rover

Mars Rover Beginning To Hate Mars

PASADENA, CA—After nearly three years of nonstop data collection, Spirit has begun transmitting obscene gestures and confusing rants.

Friday Lovin': Poodle People Unite! (and exercise)

I am not quite sure what to say about this:

Wednesday Lovin': Movie Pitches

Found this on Digg.com:

Erik Blevin's Kick Ass Movie Pitches

Dubai as Metaphor

image: © 2005 Harry Lambert

My sisters-in-law have vacationed in Dubai for a decade now and have remarked on what an utter and complete transformation has happened there. Once desert, the city is now home to some new and visionary architectural projects.

The money it must take to create, say, what will be the world's tallest building or to do massive terra forming is mind-boggling. No wonder architects and engineers are lining up to strut their stuff in Dubai.

The problem is that as forward-looking as the work is and as seductive the visual forms are, the power use to keep those structures functioning (cooling for instance) is very old world. I haven't seen many proposals (not that I have looked very hard) that, for instance, use solar as an integrated element - one that would make the buildings sustainable. The focus then seems to be on extravagant form.

Dubai then becomes symbolic of our time. With money comes the potential for something truly great that could be used as a model throughout the world. Instead it is used for an investment in surface.

Thinking outside the box

Yesterday it was reported that Muslims were offended by the shape of an Apple store in New York City because of its vague similarity to the Ka'ba, a holy site in Mecca. Needless to say, the story played up to stereotypes about Muslims as irrationally fastiduous to the point of militancy regarding anything even moderately resembling religious symbols and artifacts. Well, the story appears to be a pitiful extrapolation from one person's statement.

However, reading the comments today on a site dedicated to fanatic mac users is really very interesting and does so much to destroy many stereotypes about Muslims . It shows how light and entertaining things can be when we don't fall into prejudice and, instead, embrace our techno-fetishes.

Old School Collision Control

I don't know if it is the time of day or what but I couldn't stop laughing when I saw this:

Proof: There is only one me

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Rosa Parks (Her Chevy?)

Slate has a good article criticizing a new Chevy commercial. The commercial uses a number of images that, because of their juxtaposition to inane imagery and music, make the commercial...well, kind of "icky".

Wednesday Lovin': Your Last Elevator Ride (or not)

I love this trompe l'oeil painting in an elevator.

Scandal, glorious scandal.

Mirror Neurons and the Agony of Bad Advertising

The AIA (American Institute of Architects) have run this image in their magazine adverts for some time now. The caption next to the image reads: "Mom's cranky. Dad's irritable. The kids are grouchy. Everybody needs counseling. With an architect."

Ok.

This ad is really quite awful for so many reasons. First of all the image of the woman screaming does nothing to promote architecture. Secondly, the scream annoys me to no end. I actually think this is due primarily to my mirror neurons. I see someone screaming, it makes me uncomfortable because she looks to be in pain, and now I, just in looking at her, relate to that pain and make a mental connection to the AIA. Great! The advertising firm has now united the AIA and the idea of pain.

But probably the most offensive thing about the advert is the fact that this comes off as sort of a cheap bit of advertising. The image looks like the redundantly bland images spat out by stock image firms and it seems as though the advertising firm slapped on the copy to make it fit the client.

Architects and the field of architecture deserve better than this. There needs to be something in the AIA's advertising that talks about the exciting new developments in architecture or, in contrast, how the contemporary AIA continues a very rich history.

Whatever, just please, no more screaming ladies.

FOREST FOR THE TREES UPDATE:

It just came to me. It seems that the image of the screaming woman plays into stereotypes of the hysterical woman who is so overwhelmed and unable to handle life's pressures. Only to be rescued by the professional (read: male) architect. Mom's cranky, huh?

Visual Evidence: Republicans are psychopathic

Today I found this interesting site that has a number polls and their results. In a general survey about current events and governmental policy, I found the results very startling. On almost every question the histograms provide evidence that a fair proportion of people who define themselves as Republicans are concerned primarily for themselves and do not want any social programs what-so-ever. To extrapolate is to tread on dangerous ground. So, that's why I am willing do it, just for you dear reader: Republicans are psychopathic!

Judge for yourself. A Wikipedia definition of psychopathic (I actually looked up the term sociopath, but I like psychopathic as it has more sting):

A psychopath is defined as having no concern for the feelings of others & a complete disregard for any sense of social obligation. They seem egocentric and lacking insight and any sense of responsibility or consequence. Their emotions are thought to be superficial and shallow, if they exist at all. They are considered callous, manipulative and incapable of forming lasting relationships, let alone of any kind of love. It is thought that any emotions which the true psychopath exhibits are the fruits of watching and mimicking other people's emotions. They show poor impulse control and a low tolerance for frustration and aggression. They have no empathy, remorse, anxiety or guilt in relation to their behavior. In short, they truly are devoid of conscience.

quod erat demonstrandum

Congratulations, America!

Your government officially approves of torture and indefinite detention.

I used to worry about being called a bleeding heart liberal. You know, I rather be that than a cold-hearted conservative. Jesus wants us to torture - I don't think so. My belief deep down is that, somehow, this will come back to haunt those pricks willing to destroy the constitution in order to protect the most pitiful president this country has ever had.

Incredible. Where is my country?

Sunday Lovin': Balloons

Am I the only who finds this a little annoying towards the end? BTW, I think the eagle wins.

Getting Serious

I spent the day at a conference about the importance of play and, by default, gaming. All guest speakers were quite interesting and enjoyed myself until the last question and answer period. Then it struck me: what a luxury it is to talk about games.

Let me back up. The speakers included Shawn Rider, a down-to-earth gamer and former instructor currently working at PBS, who provided a great general overview of the field of game studies. Laurie Taylor, from University of Florida, who discussed gender representation in games. Dr. Taylor's discussion, like Shawn's, provided context and prompted quite a bit of commentary from the gameplayers in the audience. She began the project of laying out the problems of gender, race, and (to a degree) ethnicity representations both in the games themselves and the media about the games.

The final lecturer Julian Dibbell, of "A Rape in Cyberspace" fame, spoke on what he called Ludocapitalism and goldfarming in networked online games (MMOs to those in the know).

During the panel question and answer period, an emeritus Economics professor sitting next to me raised a number of questions about real world implications of games. The initial question, if I remember, was regarding the lack of any critical review or mentoring that happens when a young person consumes the narrative in a game. The panel response was that the game as medium is not unlike the novel to which I countered that we learn to evaluate novels critically in school but are left to our own devices with video games.

As the conversation progressed, the Economics professor made a statement, in response to something Dibbell had said about how wide-spread gaming culture was (hence his thesis that play is to the 21st century economy as steam was in the 19th century), to the effect that games are, in essence, the toys of a mere few.

I asked Dibbell if he went to the villages in China. He explained that the countryside is where many of the virtual sweatshops and goldfarming firms are popping up. I didn't pursue it further but I should have called bullshit on that.

Here's where I stand. Let's set up the picture:

~ 50% of the global population live in urban areas
~ 45% of the people in the world live without basic sanitation
~ 20% live without clean water sources
~ 15% are going hungry (this includes people in all continents on the globe)
only 10% have received a secondary education

here's where it gets interesting:

only about 10% of the world's population owns a computer with only 2.8% actually having internet access.

50% of the people in the world live off of less than ~$2 US/day

Um, I think a sizeable chunk of the world's population could careless about games. Thus I would posit that Ludocapitalism is but one form of SplinterCapitalism (if Dibbell can create neologisms so can I, dammit). Anything goes in order to preserve power. Material goods are there in all their oily splendor and that reality is very Old School Capitalism.

While I would like to see creative production in the digital era be supported and grow with a healthy dose of play (Homo Faber meets Homo Ludens), my excitement about the potential of gift economies and of anarcho-communism as their underpinnings, is often watered down with day-to-day evidence that Capitalism is feisty beast who will not go away. One result, perhaps, are the statistics above.

But that is immaterial as is, Julian Dibbell will tell you, much of what we trade these days. Yet to do so is a sign of extreme wealth and luxury.


http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/poverty/edocuments.htm
http://www.unicef.org/sowc06/
http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu/povmap/ds_info.html

The Small Multiple Memorial

A shady lawn stretches out in front the administration building at the University of Idaho - a reminant of the original campus designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, the designer of Central Park in New York.

Maybe it is that New York connection that made it a interesting place for a 9/11 memorial. This morning the lawn was covered in 3000 minature flags.

That's quite a number of flags. In fact, I assume that was the desired affect. The small multiples (as Edward Tufte calls them) work in a number of ways:

- a visual rhythm is produced through the repetition of colors and symbols
- a reference to graveyards is made with row upon row of headstones
- a certain 'wow' factor is achieved as our visual field is consumed with little flags

It is not my goal to critique someone's display (although I did wonder what 100,000 little Iraqi flags would look like) but I sort of wondered if this mode of presentation - in particular the use of small multiples - actually works against the idea of it being a memorial. We lose the fact that each flag really represents someone.

Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial is powerful in part because every single name is written on that wall. Other displays (sometimes during protests) have used props to remind the viewer that the numbers represent actual people.

Regardless, it is interesting that someone felt compelled to sit on the grass and plant each flag by hand.

Saturday Lovin': The Storm

i000765_big.jpg

These photos of hurricane Katrina are breathtaking. I really like the images like this one where the calm sky is being overwhelmed by ferocious clouds. Click on the image to see more in the photoset.

When I became a cartoon...

At one point in my life I had a friend who carelessly admitted to me that she thought that I was like a cartoon character both in appearance and action. Now, I am not quite sure if you understand the ramifications of such a statement. For me, it seemed to throw my life into disarray. Young girls and boys (I must’ve been maybe 13 or 14 at the time) are, I’m sure you remember, often unsure of themselves as so much of their character is formed and transformed by an internal dialogue shaped in large part by social interactions - especially those with the opposite sex.

Like the vestibular system, the interior dialogue that the pre-teen has with him or herself helps maintain social balance and forward momentum. If the system is pulled or pushed too far, the result in a sort of destabilization and, more often than not, the need to grab onto something. Quick.

I never seemed to be able to properly stabilize myself and, instead, I think I sort of began to embrace the notion that I was in fact a cartoon.

What does that mean? On the surface, I guess, it is a simple adaptive measure developed in part from the fact that, like my gen-x peers, I’ve watched way too much television. But how convenient it is to daydream like Ralph Phillips. Or simply be my default character, that goofy vulture from Bugs Bunny. (I am convinced that that is how I must be perceived most of the time)

I am not divulging this to elicit sympathy or pity but it has become a bit problematic. I look at my peers who can command a classroom. I see the years of training, the intellectual fire, and, most importantly, a well-crafted reputation being built before my eyes. Then I go to speak and facilitate and do all the things an instructor or mentor is supposed to do and in the back of my mind there is that damn singing frog who only performs in private - never at the pivotal moment. That’s me.

I don’t know what to do. I am embarrassed to admit that this is becoming more of an existential crisis at this point. Why can’t I escape my own mental model of myself?

The immaturity involved in sustaining such idiocy is staggering. Yet I am fully cognizant of my own role in this game. While I am convinced that everyone struggles to upright themselves after the vicious push and pull of adolescence, I still wonder if others, out there, circumscribe themselves so narrowly through the media they consumed.

I guess I will go along with it until I can find an alternative mental model. In the meantime, there is always the mid-century cartoon renaissance to keep me stabilized.

Wednesday Lovin': 3D interface

While this concept still uses the very dated desktop metaphor, I find the additional use of touch screen and the 3D effects very nice. I'd like to see more.

That whistling has got to go!

The Great Inversion

Dennis's shout out to Olberman highlights a week of rising voices and a political inversion that is becoming apparent. This inversion is something that could've happened earlier if only more people had had the courage to come forward (people in positions of influence) and protest.

My shout out goes to Rocky Anderson, the mayor of Salt Lake City who spoke in direct reference to the administration's spin happening at the American Legion conference in Salt Lake. A portion of the speech is here. For a write up about Rocky Anderson see this article in The Nation.

When the national momentum shifts, the inversion is possible. While it is pretty clear in a meta-reading of recent polls that a majority of those polled are weary of our government, it frustrates me to no end that we've had to wait for this inversion.

I can't decide whether it is a popular course to take and, if so, if we should tone down our celebration of those now dissenting voices. Where, for instance, are the 20 year olds whose lives could be most impacted by our foreign policy and our reckless fiscal practices and the aftermath that they will inherit? Why aren't they on the streets? Or are they quietly dissenting online? Logging in to some progressive myspace to plan the revolution? I doubt it.

The proof will be in the pudding. What will the congress be and how will it act? Will they be the counter balance to the administration? Will the GOP figure some way to tweak the election results in their favor?

And what about Iran? How will that come to play? It seems that there are so many things in play. I am somewhat pessimistic. But then again Olberman's Murrow moment and Mayor Anderson's unabashed progressive populism do ignite hope and, with any luck, we will see the celebrations spread. Come November.

Sick of Business as Usual?

This looks fun and, well, just in time...

Thursday Lovin': Huffpo People Ranker

Playing around with this little tool - which compares the number of blog entries that mention the provided keyword(s) - I found it somewhat humorous to compare food with personalities or disparate things...

Enjoy!

Rant: Waking Up the Left

I thought it was interesting that during the interview with Ned Lamont when Colbert mentions friends of Israel (if I remember correctly) that Lamont follows a party line and remarks that Israel has a right to defend itself.

I like Lamont but find the Democrats and much of the left's uncritical and zealous support of Israel too much. While I am frustated with Hezbollah's provocation, I feel that Hezbollah's creation is in large part due to Israeli actions in the past.

That frustration with the favoritism for Israel in Middle East only fuels the very things that Israel and the United State hope to qwell. Especially when so many innocent people, in what this administration once touted as bastion for democracy during the Cedar Revolution, are killed or displaced. Why don't more thinking people on the Left realize that this is very dangerous, very sad, very wrong path we are taking.

Lipi sends along this article expressing the same frustrations. If you love peace, if you are a humanist, if you truly believe in progressive ideals then you cannot stand back and watch this happen. By mere inaction you become an accomplice.

The frustration that I have heard from many Arabs (we seem to forget that there are significant populations of Christian Arabs in Lebanon) and Muslims is often summarized in one word: justice. Injustice breeds so many ills. If we truly want change and peace it cannot be done through violence especially when one side in the conflict is so favored. Why is that such a hard lesson for people to learn? With growing sentiment against the war in Iraq why can't people make the conceptual shift to understand the same ideas about the failure of force as a measure to promote change applies to Lebanon?

I think the whole course of events so far does not bode well for the US or Israel. It is only when this mess is too far along and, as Lipi often tells me, we are paying $10 for a gallon of gas will most Americans wake up.

I worry a lot about it all when I try to sleep at night. At the risk of trodding on Dennis' territory I have to say that the recent events have clarified something for me and that is that we are all interconnected. We are really one. I don't want to be hokey but it seems that those in charge have the inability to see the consequences of their thinking and their actions. Utopia or oblivion? Start thinking about love not violence as an answer. Hokey, perhaps, but very powerful. Think love.

From Guernica to Qana

The images from Lebanon remind me of this piece but somehow the painting now fails to show the horrors of war to me. It seems too tame to me now. I could've chosen to post an image of a dead child pulled from the rubble in Qana to represent what I am talking about but it is too painful.

It is strange how, as a parent, every child is my child. You see the same eyes and the same expressions of fear. It is simply painful to see a dead child because it is your own.

Picasso's Guernica can't speak of these things in the same way. It is first and foremost an intellectualization of the horrors of war and then a visceral one. But one that ultimately says the same thing about the human cost of war.

Shout Out: Dennis' Daily Bliss

Dennis Bennett, my most loyal reader (besides my wifey-poo...actually I am convinced you two are my only readers), has a new blog. What Dennis has created is the blog equivalent of licorice allsorts. Chewy politics dipped in little Buddhist sprinkles or surrounded by another chewy layer of smart progressive observations.

I am digging what Dennis has called "Daily Bliss" - small stories to highlight a Buddhist thought or to simply make you think. I spent an hour one day trying to make sense of one story. I sat there staring at my monitor then folded up the laptop and walked away. I guess when it starts to make sense to me, I will have made the journey. (Either that or found the Diamond Sutra Cliff Notes - Har Har Har)

I can't wait 'til Dennis folds baseball into this all.

DIAMOND SUTRA UPDATE:

from the British Library:

"Hidden for centuries in a sealed-up cave in north-west China, this copy of the ‘Diamond Sutra’ is the world’s earliest complete survival of a dated printed book. It was made in AD 868."

"The sutra answers that question for itself. (Greg's comment: Of course!) Towards the end of the sermon, Subhuti asks the Buddha how the sutra should be known. He is told to call it ‘The Diamond of Transcendent Wisdom’ because its teaching will cut like a diamond blade through worldly illusion to illuminate what is real and everlasting."

"The teachings of Buddhism are subtle and open to more than one interpretation. The ‘Diamond Sutra’ urges devotees to cut through the illusions of reality that surround them. Names and concepts given to both concrete and abstract things are merely mental constructs that mask the true, timeless reality lying behind them."

To see the Diamond Sutra in all its illusory glory click here.

DIAMOND SUTRA UPDATE 2:

I got to thinking. Doesn't some of the Diamond Sutra sound like String Theory?

Thursday Lovin': Document(ed) Weirdness

Wednesday Lovin': New York Rooster

New York Rooster

Illustration Friday: Opposites

Yeti and Squirrel's 1st Date

My 6 Keys to Peace in the Middle East

TIME has an article with 6 Keys to peace in the middle east. Without going off on the shortsightedness of the suggestions I decided to promote my own 6 Keys for Peace:

1.) Impeach Bush and Cheney for lying to get us into Iraq

2.) Recall troops from Iraq

3.) Close Guantanamo

4.) Support the Palestinian State to the same degree as Israel (and promote business development and International Peacekeeping forces in Palestine)

5.) Deal with so-called terrorists states in an open and honorable way (it may even require looking at the root causes of terrorism - I bet you'll find plenty of young, openminded, and rational people ready to be part of the global economy)

6.) Get over your racist, bigoted impressions of Arabs and Muslims

Bonus:

7.) Realize the rest of the world doesn't believe this is WWIII and the Second coming and especially don't want America to bring promote more bloodshed in the hopes of bringing both on

If you want to know what really prompted this entry read this article.

Forgive me the Digression

Israel's (and by proxy the U.S.) response to Hizbollah has been horrifying to say the least. I was surprised the mainstream media let Americans fleeing Lebanon report about the insanity of the air raids. While Hizbollah's provocation might have been an act of war it seems the Israeli response is too brutal if not a war crime.

There have been a lot of interesting visual artifacts outside of the usual spectacular images - not to mention that this is the 1st real "blog war" providing gruesome and vivid accounts from the war zone. Of the artifacts take these drawings warning people about the Hizbollah leader Nasrallah. The article calls it "clumsy war propaganda".

More hard-hitting are these illustrations by Mazen Kerbaj. Mazen so skillfully gives us insights into the frustrations, fears, and anger. The drawings, like so much from this whole series of events, are, I am sure, eye opening for many. I say to myself: "Here is a blogger and artist like me but someone made a decision that has inexorably impacted his life in a very real way." Could it happen to me?

Visit Kerbaj's blog for his updates and very real commentary.

Saying it all

click image for slightly larger version

Illustration Friday: Sacrifice

Britcom Revisited

We are back in the States but I had to post this.

What Americans Think of Britons...

I find these clever.

What Britons Think of Americans....

Found this on Huffington Post.

Flags, Football, & Dragons

My brothers-in-law have been glued to the TV, like many Britons, watching the World Cup. As it seemed the appropriately testosterony thing to do, I've joined them for many a game and have really enjoyed it.

Between games yesterday, I walked to the nearby village. Lipi remarked to me how strange it was to see St. George's Cross all over the place and proceeded to explain that the flag (see above) is for England only. Now that the Welsh and the Scots have their own parliaments, Lipi argued, they've had to deconstruct the Union Jack somewhat. I hated to tell her that they've always used the Red cross on a white field for the national team.

Regardless, it got me to thinking about the Union Jack and it's composition and how silly flags are. Slap down some colored stripes on field of primary color and you've got yourself a shared national identity. I love Rem Koolhaas' EU flag proposal. I find it a statement on this very point and something really beautiful to regard as well.

If you are going to make a flag, I think it helps to have some crazy mythical creatures on it (humped zebra, perhaps?). If I made a flag, I'd put Bigfoot on it. Anyway, forget St. George's Cross. We want to see Dragons!! The Welsh have got it right.

(the english crest does sport dragons. the americans need bigfoots, I tell you!)

UPDATE: I am an idiot. The crest shows three LIONS not dragons. Lions are pretty cool though. But still not as cool as a bigfoot.

Driving in Britain

We've been in England for almost a week and have been sticking near Reading as we haven't found the desire to go into London. Next weekend we'll travel to the Isle of Wight (if it's not too dear).

Anyway, just driving around here I've noticed some strange things . First, I saw a sign that said "Queues Likely". It's a bit of an understatement when traffic is stacked up and when there is no traffic what-so-ever it seems a bit too general. I expected to see a sign saying "Cloudy skies possible".

Near Reading is a town called Winnersh. Among British place names this one is not the most exciting but it is remarkably difficult to say. Are you supposed to pronounce it "Winner" and then make the archetypical librarian sound? Or is it pronounced "Winnerish"? I prefer the latter.

"Did I win the race?"
"Well, not exactly, but you were winnerish."

My favorite road sign is this:



It's to warn drivers of speed humps (a possible outcome of speed dating?). But it always strikes me as a body left in the roadway. There is also the "humped zebra crossings" (translation: raised crosswalks/speed bumps). I love the thought that mythical creatures could magically come out of the Tesco supermarket to cross at this point in the road.

I have yet to see a humped zebra.

(Queues Likely photo courtesy of UKStudentlife.com - a funny read in itself)

Visiting Little Britain

I've been frantically trying to tie up loose ends and prepare for our semi-annual trip to the UK. I am now at that point when I am like a giant emotional candy bar: stressed on the inside blended with a chunky nervousness nougat and a sweet utterly gleeful candy coating.

The in-laws moved out of London to Reading (not pronounced REEDING but instead rhymes with "Sausage"). Reading will be a new adventure (hopefully one less expensive) so I've been doing my research. Already it looks promising. Check out the Wikitravel page. You've got to love a town that has a religious building called St. Mary's butts and church. Second only to St. Peter's coccyx and rectory, I suppose. I will have to do some investigation when I get there.

Usually by the time I get there I am so exhausted that everything seems to deliriously humourous. The fact that you have to pass the exit to Dorking and Leatherhead on the way out of Heathrow doesn't help. But I think it is something more. In fact, the British tend to naturally mock themselves. For proof watch the video below. Anyway, stay tuned to this site for more updates and travel notes.

Illustration Friday: Portrait

Saturday Lovin': Apocalypse Pony

Crooks, Liars, and Love

My daily routine usually begins with a quick look at the news and then a tour of few blogs. This before I have even brushed my teeth. Pitiful (but I know you probably do it too!)

Crooks and Liars is currently my favorite political blog (man, there are a lot of good left-leaning blogs these days). I like C&L for three simple reasons:

• the entries are concise roundups of other stuff from all over the web

• many entries include video (in both wmp and quicktime formats) that really often makes the point

and most importantly

• John Amato, C&L's creator, posts an eclectic mix of music videos at the end of each evening

The night before last, Amato put up a link to George Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps from the infamous Concert for Bangladesh. He also posted an alternative version performed by Tom Petty, Dhani Harrison, Jeff Lynne, and Prince that really is good.

I prefer Harrison's acoustic version (see embedded video below). The video is both heart-tugging tribute to Harrison as well as a reminder of all that we've lost since the 60s (although I am certainly glad fashion has changed).



The music embedded in C&L is a nice respite from the complete disintegration documented in the other posts. But somehow While My Guitar really struck accord and forced a lump in my throat.

Harrison's message is painfully simple and dead on: Love. In the era of grandly stupid and selfish control and violence, reinvesting in love is the only way out. The paradox is (and I think the Beatles got a lot of shit for this) it is hard to turn love into political action. Fear and anger are better motivators perhaps.

Needless to say, Amato's music choices recently have grounded me and got me to think about the bigger picture. As Kurt Vonnegut explained (in describing his epitaph):

The only proof he needed for the existence of god was music

Better than Snails!

Incredible balloon creations.

You thought you had a rough day...

I just got back from California and a visit with my Grandmother. One of my jobs was to pack her numerous lawn ornaments (you'll be happy to know that the Frog and the Cow made the journey to Washington safely). While doing so I found a veritable platoon of snails. I couldn't help but watch them in fascination - there were so many.

It is not like snails are exciting. But I couldn't get over how many were just hanging out. So, I did what any PhD would do: I pried them from their locations and set up a giant snail traffic jam so that when they had settled and figured the coast was clear they'd start moving and peak out of their shells only to find they were smack dab in bumper-to-bumper, er, shell-to-shell mega-traffic.

Anyway, here is my homage to those snails still trying to find their way home after my exploits.

Topographical Typologies and the Porcelain Future

Back in March, the renewed College of Art and Architecture at the University of Idaho presented a lecture series with a number of well-known architects as guest speakers. Of those architects, Ali Rahim seemed to inspire my students the most.

Students and faculty alike found Rahim's work to be the perfect symbol of progress and of technological possibility. Rahim's gift to architecture, I think, is his compartmentalization of structure. With the aid of the computer he creates forms that can be broken down into smaller components and manufactured offsite. The architects role, under the guidance of the machine, becomes one more akin to industrial designer. This often affords spectacular forms but what results in Rahim's work, I feel, is form that gives too much to the computer-aided process and manufacturing and not to the scale and human dimensions of good architectural space.

Rahim, at one point in the lecture, claimed that this methodological approach removes his work from existing architectural typologies but that is pure bunk. If anything Rahim is well entrenched in the language of computer-generated aesthetics. The work also references not only space-race high modernism and even the virtual architecture of the early 90s (see the earlier work of Marcos Novak for instance) but it also plays with the current visual dialogue of technological devices.

Rahim's use of white comes from the long history of shorthand for the technology-driven form that is often uber-sterile and, well, cold and inhuman. George Lucas' first sci-fi filmTHX 1138 uses white in this way but perhaps the best example is the iPod. The stainless, highly polished silver and porcelain-like white of the iPod speak of cleanliness by referencing, believe it or not, bathrooms. The tub, tiles, and fixtures - everything comes across as clean and somewhat sterile. Rahim takes this to exaggeration. The undulating forms of his spaces also read as bathroom fixtures that have grown to such a scale they have consumed the building.

What is more interesting perhaps is that the blob, arguably the preeminent form both referencing and derived from the technological apparatus, is now an obstacle and human memory and scale are sacrificed. The phenomenological aspects of being in space often overrule any system to derive form. But Rahim's work puts up a good fight. The vacuum molded forms create a bloblike topography that makes the spaces hard to personalize and even decorate. The topography also forces the space to be not about the persons within but about the building itself. It is techno-scenography. It is a technological topographical typology.

Illustration Friday: Sorry

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(Click on image for larger - more readable - version.)

1 Year Anniversary

I almost let it pass. Metasurface, the silly blog with the serious name, is now officially 1 year old.

The Eye of the Beholder

The My Heritage site offers a test run of a nifty tool that scans your uploaded photos with a bazillion microderm doubleflux modulators in order to compare your facial features with well-known personalities and celebrities.

I tried it yesterday morning and think it might have been on the fritz because my results (on numerous tries with different photos) came back with the following celebrities:

- Sean Lennon
- Elvis Costello
- Larry King
- Rin Tin Tin

I actually made up that last one (does anyone even know who Rin Tin Tin was anymore?) but it doesn't matter.

My wife supposedly looks like Toni Morrison or Spike Lee. My offspring look like Whitney Houston and David Beckham.

Anyway, it was sort of fun (in a self-deprecating way). For those who want to know, I really look like this:



(from Gizmodo)

Wednesday Lovin': All Dolled Up

I love this suit but am very afraid to ask about a matching tie.

Illustration Friday: Angel and Devil

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Monday Lovin': #27 is a fire hazard

Michael Wolf's 100x100 is a photographic documentation of flats and their owners in one of Hong Kong's oldest housing estates.

It is strange how I find the more spartan rooms cozier than those quite stuffed with possessions. I think I'd be worried about fire hazards. I love the couple in Image #50.

Each room is a book to be read.

(from Kottke.org)

Spent

I have officially started summer and have, frankly, had trouble keeping awake. It was, as always, a taxing semester and I am completely spent - emotionally, physically, and mentally. But summer, of course, allows some freedoms and part of my mornings, I hope, can be spent translating ideas into writings, drawings, or whatever.

This summer involves traveling to San Jose, California and then a trip to England in June and part of July. There will be plenty to share, I am sure.

The problem that I had in making new posts last semester seems, in retrospect, to be more existential than, say, time-driven. I have been writing about creative production and, implicitly, the need for everyone to play/explore/express themselves. The trouble I have is that I am at once over- and underwhelmed. Overwhelmed by the volume of what I find and underwhelmed by the inanity of the chatter. It almost doesn't make sense to me anymore.

Why talk if everyone else is speaking at the same time?

Speaking Out

From retired Generals to the Pearl Jam, there are so many voices rising in a cacophony to protest. Never before has such a sentiment seemed to bubbling up from the collective unconscious. Every thinking person feels it, that mass of uneasiness, and people are acting on it. It will be interesting to see how this manifests itself in both the artist's project and in the broader public discourse.

My question, then, is the media tone deaf? Why haven't they grabbed on to this and started doing their job? I listened to public radio yesterday and had to endure a diatribe by a conservative pundit. This gentleman went unchallenged. Come on, folks, it's time to speak out.

The Pleasure Principle

SEED has an article by Goeffrey Miller that posits the reason why we have yet to make alien contact is that they, like us, find the stimulation of media far too engaging to take on such tasks as space exploration and colonization.

The discussion about our fascination with media is interesting. We are finishing up the initial offering of new course, New Media Aesthetics, and one of the key themes, it seems to me, is the question of where our bodies fit into the hypermediated lives. The last book we've had the students read, Hansen's New Philosophy for New Media, borrows from Bergson to make the argument that the role of making meaning of new media texts is re-centered on the body.

While Hansen's argument is compelling, I am worried that in our recentering we are still, even in the exploratory new media object, succumbing to the seductive, yet ultimately vapid pleasures of the technological artifact. Simply put, we love the sheen of the digital image, the novelty, or we marvel merely at the method of production.

Miller tells us the dangers in this: when we fall to far into a mediated world we do not exercise our evolutionary biological fitness (there are holes in this position, I know). The pleasure we seek - the pleasure that assists us in finding suitable mates and ample food for survival - are faked in new media enterprises.

In thinking about this, however, I still come back to this point that tells me that, in some ways, this is alright. If Miller's position is that we, in the media-seduced West, are not reproducing and, therefore, falling behind radical fundamentalists, I find that argument so problematic on several levels. There is a certain opposition inherent in that and a belief that the media systems that feed fundamentalist beliefs aren't as illusory and prevalent.

Needless to say, Miller's Great Temptation can have many shapes and flavors.

Peace Takes Courage

Ava Lowrey is a 15 year old peace activist from Alabama that creates simple yet hardhitting animations about the war in Iraq. She comes at the issue, in the different films, from different perspectives ultimately showing the affect of war.

The images are graphic.

(from Crooks and Liars)

Transgenic Easter Bunny

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Originally uploaded by raccuia.

My mother was kind enough to give me this Easter Bunny in glowing yellow/green foil. I think it could be chocolate transgenic Easter bunny.

Oh, how the times are a-changin.

The Strange Beauty of Horror

On the 19th of August 2003, a car bomb explosion killed 17 people including the UN's chief envoy to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. A CBS cameraman recorded the events directly following the explosion. Mark Pesce put the footage to music. What results is something hard to watch but even harder to turn away from.

$200 Peanuts

Ryan Air's Michael O'Leary talks about travelling free on airlines in the near future.

The Organic Rebellion

I don't know why I find this amusing. It could be the silliness or the blatant copyright infringement. Or the fact that it follows a tradition of Star Wars parodies or that it seems, um, like 30 years too late.

Actually it does remind me a bit of Hardware Wars which, more than the original Star Wars movie, inspired in me an interest in film.

I am not sure Store Wars would instill a desire to buy organic goods (but it might promote amateur filmmaking).

Celebrating the Interior

There has been a lot of discussion on the blogs I frequent about a young man named Gilles Trehin. Gilles draws very vivid, intricate, and believeable representations of an imaginary city he calls Urville.

I like this short documentary about his work and I found his appreciation of the socio-political aspects of the real world and their impact on his interior vision equally intricate and vivid.

The work in some ways reminds me of the drawings of Achilles Rizzoli, a strangely introverted draftsman who represented people in his life as buildings.

Public Restrooms Seen from Space

No. Wait. It's just an eclipse.

Nuclear Nightmares

Hardhitting images in this visual project make explicit the ill effects of radiation.

Nobel Prize for Game Design !?!!

Here is an interesting article about expanding the role of videogames and reconceptualizing what gaming can entail.

The Truth about Bigfoot

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SXSW and the Great Hope

There were a few articles and speeches from the SXSW festival that I found intriguing simply because the implicit theme was self-defined, community-based media production and control.

This piece by Derek Powazek highlights how out of touch Hollywood is.

Bruce Sterling's speech was powerful. The end portion, to me, is a moving call for an authentic populist movement in America.

UPDATE:

Video from the session that Derek discusses.

Great Fan Film Choreography

I keep thinking about how art students go to museums and copy the masters. This is the 21st century action film equivalent, I suppose.

Curious George and Web 1.0

We went to the theater last weekend to see Curious George. The film is very "smooth" (that's the term that comes to mind) as the story has few intense moments. The most disturbing thing is when the Man in the Yellow Hat lets George get taken away by Homeland Security (he eventually ends up in Guantanamo but the torture scenes are kid friendly).

Although stylistically divergent from the illustrated books, the story is really very engaging for kids (and me, of course, but what's the difference really?).

What I liked about the movie actually has nothing to do with the hour and half at the theater. It has more to do with the lack of the usually kiddy movie hype and the website. The hype thing maybe due to the fact that I didn't notice the ads but I don't remember the usually mess of promotions.

My eldest daughter and I stumbled upon the movie website from the Apple Quicktime trailers page. The Curious George site opens to fill the screen and includes several different environments that kids can click and explore. It reminds me a lot of the discussions back in the web 1.0 day when cyberspace was a location and websites became "destinations". Maybe it 's broadband, or maybe it is the raw 2 dimensionality, or the renderings, or whatever but I thought that the interface as space, though seemingly old school, really was fun to explore and play with.

As fun as the movie and the website are, I still must admit that I have a soft spot for the original George.

Metrocentrism and the Oscars

It's not just me. Larry Mc Murtry, who along with Diana Ossana adapted Brokeback Mountain for film, remarked backstage at Sunday's Oscar awards something to the effect that of the films he has written that have been nominated for an Academy Award only the film that was set in a urban setting won an Oscar (Terms of Endearment).

The New York Times ran an article also talking about Los Angeles selecting a film that reflects itself.

It is something that we in the rural west and mid-west feel and it is something that extends well beyond gay cowboys and the movie industry. Rural areas are just as complex and deserve equal attention. How about some respect?

Design Activism

Houtlust is a site documenting creative public awareness campaigns for serious social issues. Very powerful work.

3 Months too late: Fictional Christmas Cards

I love  this project and have to admit that it is because I find the photographs that come slipped inside Christmas cards excruciatingly awful.  Usually that one image has to summarize an entire year or give a fresh representation of the family (see how we look now!).

There is entertainment value in that, I suppose.  But this bloke's Christmas card pictures are fun and has got me thinking that we all could use a little more play in our lives. If not for yourselves or your hapless victims then for the sake of making photography ever so slightly less "redundant". So, here I throw down the gauntlet: next get-together try a little fiction or roleplaying.  And send me the results!

Couldn't say I didn't see it coming....

The only thing left for this guy to do is grow horns and shave his head to reveal the mark of the beast.

Knock it off

In the age of hypersensitive intellectual property rights (or what I have coined Hypersenintrights™®) it is fun to look back at the other ways people have ripped off musicians!

(from Design Observer)

Global Growing Pains

Muslim protests over Danish caricatures of Mohammad are, I am sure, confusing for Americans.

The media babble tends to center on Freedom of Speech vs. Religious Tradition and Belief. But I think that is a veneer of sorts. The real issue at hand is post-colonial cultural friction infused with a healthy dose of new globalized reality. What do I mean by that? Let me break it down:

All over Europe and the US there are immigrant populations from 3rd world countries and former colonial states. Post-war, mid-century European economies needed to modernize and did so by having workers from all over the world migrate and take those jobs deemed undesirable. I am sure that it was assumed that those foreign workers would go home eventually. But the reality of it is that many didn't. The result is a large Muslim influx throughout Europe and immigrants becoming citizens. Whether Europeans want to admit it or not, they now have growing populations of Muslims that want to be integrated without losing their Islamic identities. As I mentioned before, in regards to the Paris riots, when those populations of disenfranchised Arab youths (for example) are considered neither European nor from their parent's native culture then they have a comfortable built-in Islamic identity.

There is profound discomfort and a feeling that the original European cultures are rapidly being influenced, transmogrified, or otherwise being challenged by the growing ranks of Muslims within their own populations. It would be far too simple to suggest that the Danish, in this latest incident, are pushing back and saying, in essence, this is our culture, this is how it works here, and if you don't like it, leave.

The problem with this idea (beyond it being more than bit puerile) is that it does not take into account how utterly useless and antiquated the notion of nation-state is in the global economy. Denmark needs the rest of the world to survive economically and a big chunk of the globe flies the crescent and believes that Mohammad is a messenger of God. We in the West may value our free speech and want to defend it at all cost. But in other parts of the world some things are still sacred and beyond parody.

The riots and discontent are certainly being fomented by religious leaders and even governments now but I am sure that the ignition point started right in country, right in Denmark. The Muslim identity rises above borders here as well, fuelled by the internet, global news, and even international air travel.

The lessons to be learned from this, I suppose, are that we in West seriously need to listen to the cultural anthropologists and start to realize that there are other cosmologies flourishing in the same national garden. For things to change and get better we need to accept difference and, in the least, give some consideration to how we are all influenced by one another on a global scale and, in fact, really do need each other.

As I am sure we will find out, the cost (and I mean literally costs as in economic effects as well as socio-political) of failing to do so will be enormous.

Illustration Friday: glamour

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(Click image for larger version)

I was scanning some old work and found this from a previous life. The drawing uses some standards for fashion illustration: catwalk poses and a body that is something like 14 heads tall.

This drawing was intended to be very glamourous.

The work is ancient - owning a computer at that point in my life was but a dream - thus it is watercolor, pencil, color pencil, and oil pastel.

I have others (should I admit that?) but chose this one because I felt the looseness worked in support of the theme.

Be afraid.

This article discussing the Department of Defense's plans to "fight the internet" appeared recently on the BBC news site. The actual report referenced is linked from the page. You have to read it. It is remarkable and a little disturbing. After reading it, the only way I found to counteract that kind of bad mojo is read something like this.

Like groovy lights, man

Natural psychedelia (that does not require pressing on your eyeballs). Enjoy!

Thursday Lovin': Sleepless Remix

Remember the wonderful Shining remix that took the horror movie and made a trailer for a romantic comedy?

Well, here is the reverse. A romantic comedy made into a horror movie. And it is just as brilliant.

metasurface 2006

The Roman god Janus (from which we get January) is depicted as a twin with one face looking forward and one looking backward. The name of the month makes sense, of course, as this is the time of year when we both reflect and think ahead.

Metasurface is a fun project and I will definitely continue it this year. Illustration Friday has been a saving grace because I've posted so little. But I want you all to know that my bookmark folder and writing notes are full with plenty of stuff (literally months worth of entries) and I am itching to post it all.

Pretty soon you'll see some simple changes in design and deeper may become a blog of it's own.

If you are still reading Metasurface, let me know what you think and what you'd like to see:

greg@metasurface.net

Illustration Friday: E is for...Envy

(click on image for larger version)