Monkeytype

Wassup 2008

2008-10-26T07:53:00.000-07:00

Damon & Naomi, Helena Espvall & Masaki Batoh

2008-06-18T20:15:00.001-07:00

jbrendas_20080616_043
Originally uploaded by monkeymark

I saw Damon & Naomi Monday night. Helena Espvall and Masaki Batoh played as well. They're touring together and it was fantastic.

The World's Coolest School Bus?

2008-02-23T06:47:00.001-08:00

Make that coldest... This windsled is used to carry kids to school once the ice makes their normal transport, a ferry, impossible. Home-schooling anyone? My gal DJ is from Wisconsin. She never mentioned this...

[International Herald Tribune]

Videos on the Interwebs

2008-02-22T16:11:00.000-08:00

Look Around You
This brilliant series of shorts produced for the BBC was created as a parody of the educational material of the 70's. I love these. Here's a link to the background on Wikipedia.

Look Around You - 1 - Maths

The Five Minute Video Series
This is a long running project produced by an old dear friend. Richard has created platform for everyday people to tell their stories, dreams and tragedies. It's warm, open and often funny.
link

Pond5
Stock for Everybody
This past weekend I had dinner with my pal Tom Bennett. He's one of the founders of a great new royalty-free stock footage company. It's all based around a slick website which allows users to browse and search for tagged content. The bill themselves as "the world's marketplace for royalty-free stock video footage."
What's revolutionary about it is that it is based on indie content. Any shooter can easily put up their content and offer it for sale. They split the commissions 50/50 and pay out through PayPal. Check it out!

Dungeon Majesty
Four attractive women play D+D with a scruffy dungeon master.
On TV.
Oh, and they act out their moves in costume.
With awesomely cheesy blue-screen effects.
What could be better?

2007-09-19T06:26:00.000-07:00

Batfart.
What can I say. It doesn't get any batter than this.

Another reason to miss SF.

truth

2007-09-18T10:34:00.000-07:00

Truth

Were Cheney and Bush whiney kids?

2006-03-23T09:08:00.000-08:00

According to this story,whiney children grow up to be conservatives. The cool confident ones became liberals. Hmm.
via metafilter

State halts PhilaHealthia Health Coop

2006-01-24T19:15:00.000-08:00

I was excited and inspired to find out that Paul Glover had moved to Philadelphia, joined our coop, and was bringing the concept of cooperative health care to our town. He was the founder of Ithaca Hours, the Ithaca Health Fund, and Ithaca Community News and potential 2004 Presidential candidate for the Green Party.

Apparently the Pennsylvania Insurance Department Commissioner Diane Koken was not as impressed. She issued a cease and desist order.

Here is a press release from PhilaHealthia.

And here is more info about the Health Democracy movement.

...and just when I thought my cynicism might fade.

Edward Burtynsky

2005-12-30T10:17:00.000-08:00

I've been a big fan of Edward Burtynsky's work for several years now. However, I've yet to see his prints in person. Now I have my chance. The Brooklyn Museum of Art has a show up until January 15th of his large format prints. I found out about it here.

The Real Toy Story

2005-12-30T09:42:00.000-08:00

I posted about this project by Michael Wolf over a year ago. After a very toy-centric holiday visit and a recent viewing of the brilliant film WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price, I wanted to point it out again. It offers a revealing perspective into the lives of those who make our bundles of cheap plastic fun. Michael's other work is terrific too.

"What a brilliant idea.
Check out this wonderful installation and photo project by Michael Wolf."

Mission Creek Music & Arts Festival

2005-05-24T16:10:00.000-07:00

I've just been putting the finishing touches on the website of
the 9th Annual Mission Creek Music & Arts Festival.
8 Days
57 Programs
More than 20 Venues
Over 100 Artists
Simply the best of the underground
from San Francisco and beyond.

Gallery of Abandonment

2005-05-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

Wow. A beautiful and haunting (via BoingBoing ) gallery of photos of abandoned structures - Waste Deflation Spiral*. Amusement parks, factories, even Hashima island - which is an entire coal mining town abandoned in the 70's - all beautifully captured. There are 52 collections in all. The photographer, Taro Shibakoen is a 20 year old Cancer from Kanagawa prefecture in Japan. Apparently he's had a good deal of time to travel to all of these sites and document them. And his photos are really quite good.
* All of the text is in Japanese, but I used Google's translator to glean a little bit about Taro. The title may not be a very good translation. But I like it anyway.

Mmm... yummy!

2005-05-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

Originally uploaded by h.neumeyer.

Two great tastes that... uh never mind.

"Not the America I know..."

2005-05-12T09:40:00.000-07:00

We've all heard this meme now. Yet another newspeak negative affirmation - a definition of America by describing what it is not. We know what it isn't. The question burning in my mind is "what it is?" I decided to spend a few minutes with Google to see if I could find out a little better description of Bush's America.

I searched on: ["not the america I know" bush ] and came up with quite a few links.

Here are some of the more choice items:

First of course is the darling of this week's headlines:

In interviews for US-funded al-Hurra network and the al-Arabiya satellite channel, President Bush said: "People in Iraq must understand that I view those practices as abhorrent.
"They must also understand that what took place in that prison does not represent the America that I know."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3685669.stm

Okay, so apparently this America is not a torturer, or abuser, or a doer of the abhorrent.
Let's step into the wayback machine and travel back to September of 2001. What kind of America didn't our fearless leader know then?

September 17, 2001
" Women who cover their heads in this country must feel comfortable going outside their homes. Moms who wear cover must be not intimidated in America. That's not the America I know. That's not the America I value."

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/terroristattack/bush_speech_9-17.html

So this sounds like an America that isn't opposed to women wearing head coverings. Especially not moms. And it wouldn't intimidate them for it. Or assume that based on thier appearance or dress, they were associated with a religion, or ethnic or political group. And then intimidate them. Okay.
But a little over a year later...

President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat
Remarks by the President on Iraq
Cincinnati Museum Center - Cincinnati Union Terminal - Cincinnati, Ohio
October 7, 2002
" Failure to act would embolden other tyrants, allow terrorists access to new weapons and new resources, and make blackmail a permanent feature of world events. The United Nations would betray the purpose of its founding, and prove irrelevant to the problems of our time. And through its inaction, the United States would resign itself to a future of fear.

That is not the America I know. That is not the America I serve. We refuse to live in fear. (Applause.) This nation, in world war and in Cold War, has never permitted the brutal and lawless to set history's course. Now, as before, we will secure our nation, protect our freedom, and help others to find freedom of their own."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021007-8.html

Well now. This sounds like a much tougher America. An America that isn't an emboldener. Or an allower of terror. And it seems a kinda pissed at the UN too.

So, what IS this America of "ours"? Just this week Mr. Bush himself gave us a little peek at that America that he does know. Now we know, it isn't not white.

April 30, 2004
President Bush Welcomes Canadian Prime Minister Martin to White House

" There's a lot of people in the world who don't believe that people whose skin color may not be the same as ours can be free and self-govern. I reject that. I reject that strongly. I believe that people who practice the Muslim faith can self-govern. I believe that people whose skins aren't necessarily -- are a different color than white can self-govern."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/04/20040430-2.html

Huffing Bio-Diesel

2005-05-10T13:23:00.000-07:00

Arianna Huffington's new vehicle, The Huffington Post, is online. Bill Maher has posted an article in which he implores Bush to get behind bio-diesel.

Anti-abortionist = beastiality?

2005-05-09T12:58:00.000-07:00

This from Fark : An anti-abortion activist interviewed on Fox's Alan Combs radio show claims, " If you grow up on a farm in Georgia, then your first girlfriend is a mule..."

Link

Bottle houses

2005-05-05T16:41:00.000-07:00

earthship stained glass
Originally uploaded by cer!se.

Ever since I was a teenager, I've been fascinated with bottle houses. I had discovered a book at a yard-sale that featured a home built by an old woman made entirely out of beer bottles. (I remember that the author made a point to note that she had personally emptied each bottle too.)

The Bottle Houses Pool on flickr has some beautiful and inspiring photos.

Sidewalk Stencil Art

2005-04-27T15:17:00.001-07:00

I've recently been shooting photos of sidewalk stencil art. I've got some Flickr slideshows here and here. I've also started a Group on Flickr called Sidewalk Art Party.

Today I've got a bunch of stencil related links:

There's a huge archive of stencils where else but at Stencilarchive.org?

The Philadelphia Weekly asks "Are they art or graffiti?"

Roberto Christen's got a couple of nice shots in his blog magnitude8.

I'll be getting Stencil Pirates: A Global Study of the Street Stencil soon.

The crew at m-city.org has created this amazing stencil project. They built an online application to help you create your own stencil designs. There's a great gallery of their murals from around Poland.

There will be a Stencil Art show, "Street Sweepers" presented by the SS Crew Friday, August 26th through Saturday, September 3rd, 2005 at The Firlefanz Gallery in Albany, NY.

Found #001

2005-04-25T21:52:00.000-07:00

Found #001
Originally uploaded by monkeymark.

Flotsom found in alley near South Park.

Graffiti - Ocean Beach, San Francisco

2005-04-24T23:34:00.000-07:00

Graffiti - Ocean Beach, San Francisco
Originally uploaded by monkeymark.

Sometimes the most colorful thing on the beach is the graffiti.

SidewalkTags

2005-04-21T11:40:00.000-07:00

One afternoon this winter, my friend Dave and I were walking along Divisidero St. near my home in San Francisco. I saw a cool little stencil on the sidewalk in front of us and whipped out my brand new phone to snap a photo. Dave says, " Hey, that oughta be your next project." I shrug. Well, here it is...

My pal Dave Michalski is brilliant. He is the editor of XCP: Streetnotes. His new book "Cosmos and Damian - A World Trade Center Collage" just arrived in my mailbox this weekend. Even though I spent the last year working with him designing it, I am still impressed with it.

Memo from the gene-typing pool

2005-04-20T10:07:00.000-07:00

These pigs flew. From Paris to San Francisco. Unbelievable.
Thank you Michael and Silvia.

Bob Jones University: Physics Breakthrough - Amen!

2005-04-04T09:24:00.000-07:00

This Easter weekend proved to be providential for the entire scientific world when Creation Science Lab at Bob Jones University announced the discovery of new class of particles - the Miracule. The first of these tiny bundles of energy detected is the Floaton.

"We have conclusive evidence that it was the Floaton Miracule that allowed our Lord and Savior to walk on water." says Creationist and Physicist Ronald Eugene, Ph.D. His new paper, "Miracules - Proof of a Unified Faith Theory" published this week in QUACS, the Journal the Quarterly Union of the Academy of Creation Sciences goes on to describe other particles such as Duons and their polar opposites - Duon-to-Others.

In the tradition of the Academy, the lab will forgo the peer review process. Says Dr. Eugene, "You just have to believe..."

Mr. Michalski

2005-03-31T09:37:00.000-08:00

Xcp: Streetnotes editor David Michalski assembles this brilliant collection of writing and art twice a year. Described as "an online exhibition space for poetry, ethnography and the documentary experience" this site is always interesting.
His new book Cosmos and Damian, a World Trade Center Collage, a dizzying construction of oral histories, prose, poetry and photographs about the life in the World Trade Center is due out any day. I had the pleasure of working with Dave on the design of this book. It's arrival is eagerly anticipated in every quarter.

Pawlukaville

2005-03-15T09:39:00.000-08:00

About a year ago my pal Shannon O'Leary called me up to talk about an idea she had to write a collection of crime stories about pets. It's coming together as a comic Pet Noir - An Anthology of Strange But True Bay Area Pet Crimes, with stories illustrated by artists including August Bournique, Paul Musso, MariNaomi, Ric Carrasquillo, Jen Feinberg, N8 Van Dyke, Peter Conrad, Attaboy and Bitter Pie.

There will be a party, art opening and fundraiser on April 9. Mission Creek Productions is booking the music which will include: Ezee Tiger, So So Many White Tigers and Fuckwolf.
See you there...