DKWA

I’m back, and a good shave was in order…

If you can read Portuguese, or if you plan on being in Brazil anytime soon, be on the lookout for the November issue of Revista Piauí, a Brazilian culture/literature/arts magazine. They’ve used my ‘bikefish’ design to pretty-up their latest cover:

And if you somehow still haven’t bought a shirt yet, go get one at its new home: The Pedal Pushers Club.

The shirts are all organic cotton, printed with PVC- and pthalate-free inks. Super comfy, and super cool… That is, unless you’re driving a hummer. In which case; pull over, let the air out of your tires, strip naked, and run headlong into the woods. Or else karma’s gonna catch up with you.

I realize this is a little late, but as of June 26th, Mary and I are totally engaged. Woot woot!

I’m a lucky guy. I wake up every day knowing I’ll soon marry a phenomenal woman.

Went out to get some shots tonight around sunset. Damn my neighborhood is beautiful!

Today on the interweb I stumbled on a fascinating thread about Belgian Blue cattle, a bovine breed that is ridiculously ripped thanks to a genetic mutation that inhibits the Myostatin protein from doing its job, which is to limit muscle tissue growth. After only superficial research into these crazy cows, I found an image that not only showcases the incredible physique of the breed, but also looks remarkably like a Caravaggio painting:

There is a rather awkwardly assembled series of images here, but you’ll find a few others which are also dramatically lit like a work of the Italian master. Beautiful and freakish, all at once. Sort of like the subject matter in this case.

To the tree huts of Madison Square Park. Artist Tadashi Kawamata’s little forts have become enchanted fixtures of my commute, which leads me through the park twice daily. Since September of last year, a handful of the park’s most handsome hardwoods have hosted oddly constructed little dwellings, reminiscent of the tree forts I aspired to build in my youth. I say aspired to build, because the best structure I can remember finishing was simply a cordoned-off corner of my parent’s back yard, reliant on the intersection of two fences for all but one wall.

Kawamata’s huts look almost as if they’re built from handfulls of popsicle sticks heaved high into the trees which somehow stuck in a semi-organized fashion. They appear haphazard and unrefined, almost as if they were indeed the work of exceedingly industrious 10-year-olds. But their disorderly facades only thinly veil a complex and necessarily flexible method of fabrication: Undercarriages of uneven beams somehow function in perfect asymmetry to support the boxy ‘living quarters’ above. Instead of relying on countless nails and screws, the forts are tethered to their trees by a system of tightened straps and harnesses. Each hut is utterly unique, a product of the limbs upon which it clings, which highlights the irony of the materials, juxtiposing milled timber against living limbs.

I’ve watched as the seasons changed around the huts… Leaves turned, and eventually fell away entirely. The whole project has been nothing short of poetic, which is why I’m dreading the end of the week when all the huts will have been disassembled and removed. But I suppose therein lies the beauty of temporary public art: If it’s static, we eventually stop looking. I still feel bad for all the critters who’ve invariably called these huts home for the past 5 months. Fun while it lasted, eh?

That above image is obviously from late summer last year. The following concept photo-sketch by the artist almost exactly what they’ve looked like for the past few weeks.

Update: There’s a BLOG!

Though it was my 2008 New Year’s resolution to make my own beer, the homebrewing habit has stuck. I find something peculiarly rewarding about the whole process, including of course the finished product. So when the anniversary of my Great Experiment rolled around, I figured the best way to celebrate would be to… you guessed it… make some beer!

Wanting to craft a lighter brew, and in the interest of getting another variety under my belt, I chose to get the supplies for a Bavarian-style Hefeweizen. I brewed in early January, bottled last week, and am anxiously counting down the days until I pop open my first bottle-conditioned Hibernation Hefeweizen! Winter woes be gone!

I imagine I’m fairly lucky to have been a child in a generation when Mister Rogers was still rocking his cardigans on screen every day. His show is probably a better education than many kids ever get in school, and it saddens me greatly to know there isn’t really anything like that on TV anymore.

Fred Rogers wasn’t just a children’s TV show host… he was a soft-spoken champion of childhood development. And when a government grant for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was in jeopardy, Mr. Rogers spoke at a senate hearing and made his case like no one else could… With the lyrics to one of his songs:

I will preface this brief post with a caveat: I am no fan or proponent of vehicular racing, racing vehicles, nor video games which deal in such subject manner.

That does not stop me, however, from appreciating this oddly captivating and undeniably beautiful mash up of a thousand digital cars racing simultaneously on the same digital racetrack. Fantastic musical accompanyment to boot.

WATCH THE VIDEO

Had to do a double-take on this NY Times piece.

BUSH? Preparing OBAMA for crisis situations? The guy who waded pants-down into Iraq and dropped the proverbial wrecking ball on an American city after Katrina wants to tell the new guy how to deal with the flaming bag of shit on the porch?! (Stomp on it! QUICK!) Umm, pretty sure Bushy should just stand back and watch how it’s done… To start with, by putting extraordinarily competent and qualified people in charge of things that matter. D’oh!

What? Did Georgie throw a PowerPoint together illustrating how to duck an incoming pair of penny loafers? Give me a break!

How is this not an Onion piece?