Saturday, May 28th, 2011
Stella is a beautiful boxer with tons of energy and a gorgeous underbite. Trained not to kiss, it’s impossible for her not to play – and she has a particular knack at dragging 8′ lengths of branch on the beach, among other traits:
Wednesday, May 25th, 2011
Some shots from my walking tour of San Francisco yesterday. It’s actually oddly difficult to take a level shot here, because of the hills – you find yourself constantly leaning to one side or the other. And I think my shots would all – ALL – be off-level if it wasn’t for the built-in bubble level in my G12! Because I took a couple shots without the level turned on, and they’re way off. And it’s one thing to take a photo on a hill, it’s another to drive or bike when you’re constantly on an angle!
You can see other shots from my walking tour Day 1 on my Flickr.
Category journeys | Tags:
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
I know they spelled it wrong… twice – but a lot of things in New York City are spelled wrong. I’m sure there’s even a blog out there dedicated to it. But you get the point, and it’s a really dear piece of graff. I like it!
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011
Yesterday’s adventure took me to the farthest reaches of northeastern Queens only reachable via the public transportation system known as the subway… dun dun dun, it’s FLUSHING! Seriously what’s the big deal? It’s only 8 express stops away, and even all 18 local stops is still closer and shorter than any train that goes to Coney Island – 18 stops from there won’t even get you to Atlantic-Pacific, let alone back to the City or the L train – but I digress!
The above image says it all for me: the Welcome to China 2011 billboard, the unreadable – by me – shop signs, and the Asian person toting around an American flag-umbrella. This is diversity – and by extension, New York – at its best. Flushing is a whole another world! I headed south on Main Street, walking a leg of the Flushing Freedom Mile, en route to the Queens Botanical Garden (walking gardens during extreme winter conditions is an old past-time of mine).
Crossing the threshold into Flushing – land of big-box stores and Asian markets:
These buildings, their designs and the way they’re constructed with shops wrapping all-around the ground floor, are very Asian-inspired:
check out these sun-faded electronics in a shop window:
I’m sure a person with snow-boots or tennis rackets tied to their shoes could have a lot of fun exploring the QBG – I was prepared but not that prepared, but still managed to snap some wonderful shots (the blown out picture of the Magnolia below was especially captivating, its cupped leaves holding snow):
Finally met up with Gina B. to ask her some questions about compost and worms – which as it turns out they’re having an I <3 WORMS workshop on the 13th, so if you’re looking to give your lucky valentine some good worms (not the bad kind!) the next day, take a look at their calendar. Also check out the aquarium below, which Gina said they found stocked with samples of 3, 4 even 5-year-old compost when they were shuffling around the office last year – sadly, unlike wine, it doesn’t improve with age.
Category journeys | Tags:
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011
In between a couple meetings yesterday in Sunnyside and Woodside, I took some time to stroll through those neighborhoods, as well as skirt along Sunnyside Gardens, and stroll through Blissville – yes, there is a neighborhood called Blissville in New York City! Not to be boxed into the area only around the first four stops on the 7 train in Queens, I still consider all of these neighborhoods part of the “greater LIC” – I won’t go into why that makes sense to me now, but it’s all part of an ongoing series, and will be detailed someday. For now, enjoy the vantages, the juxtaposition of commercial and residential, and a peek at some of the best-kept secrets in all of NYC:
Okay maybe not the “best” kept secret, this is a Queens prison. A “correctional facility” as they say. I don’t think I ever noticed this building before, even though it’s the only thing at the intersection – it is kind of designed to not-be-noticed after all.
backyards, deli counters, and never-changed-since-the-1990s era comic book stores are abundant in these areas:
lovely stained glass art at the subway stations along the 7:
when you get off those trains, you’re afforded with some wonderful sweeping skies, and magnificent views of Queens and beyond, including but not limited to top of the Chrysler Building, parts of Times Square, you can see the Queensboro Bridge almost head-on here, and even Big Allis off to the right:
This epitomizes LIC to me, a very quaint residential domicile just blocks away from a heavily commercial, industrial district:
Personally I love these architectural juxtapositions. Maybe it’s because I grew up in a post-industrial city, in a home but I yearned for industry, or maybe because to me it just makes sense to have work and life in the same district.
And of course cutie houses, faux alleys, shopping by the pound, and more hidden streets that never get walked on:
Category journeys, local | Tags: Tags: Long Island City, NYC, walking tours,
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
the International Plastic Quilt Project – I gave them one of my Editor’s Choice blue ribbons!
Where to begin?
This is one of those megaposts that makes me sad, because it reminds me of how much activity just happened, and how poof, it’s all gone now. I’m still nervous with excitement – okay maybe that’s the late-night coffee talking – and unclear what exactly to say other than if you missed it, you seriously missed it!
It’s incredibly difficult to explain in a blog post what Maker Faire is: what it excites and instills in people, and how it operates. The best way to explain it is to participate in it, to see it live, and to flow through its channels. Maker Faire isn’t a thing that tells its Makers what to do. Instead, Maker Faire is whatever the Makers make of it! There’s a point at which the floodgates open and the crowds come rushing in, sure, but more-so than that there’s a point when the team who put it together kind of give it up, and let the Makers run the show! It’s really remarkable, really incredible, not something you find much of anymore. So much of society elsewhere is “curated”, orchestrated, composed. Maker Faire is LIFE. It’s fluid and organic and sometimes it doesn’t work – and when shit breaks down, you understand it that much better, and you hack it back into place!
And perhaps the most impressive element of Maker Faire was how it natively procured a platform of dialogue that is lost in so many other facilities. You could easily walk up to a complete stranger and ask them a question – be it technical or conceptual – about their project and get a response. They were there to talk, to exchange, and to expand the minds of those attending, to open up new possibilities through language and presentation. Here is this thing, yes, but now I will tell you here is why this thing is here! Ah-hah! That’s when it gets really interesting.
I really want to mention and caption each and every single image with its own essay, but that simply might not be possible. This page will never load and this server will crash if I tried to load all 400+ quality photos I took at this amazing event. Instead I’ll post a couple dozen now, and I hope to mention a couple more choice images and projects in the days ahead; because it’s pretty clear to me that as I twitch and type that I’m completely overwhelmed with the mass of experience I just encountered, I’m looking for a way to unload, and I want you to participate in the tidal wave of awesomeness that Maker Faire has to offer:
this is like one of those centrifugal spinning solar system devices, only GIANT and DIY!
a Make workshop about marketing your hand-made products
I gave the PaperBot one of my blue ribbon Editor’s Choice awards. Here’s a video showing the PaperBot in motion:
Kids having so-much-fun in the Young Makers building
Also, kids and adults alike could learn how to solder for just $1 – and you actually made a blinking LED device!
embedded arduino lilypad in fabric – wearable electronics
giant… cardboard… robot… AWESOME!
Madagascar Institute – from Brooklyn – Invents The Wheel at Maker Faire! I have yet to take this thing for a spin!
a custom bike wheel with embedded LEDs that display images as you cycle! in this case, the Matrix code.
a crafty theatre set for teaching middle schoolers the principles of stage lighting design and sequence-programming (cue calls, basically), driven by a MaxMSP patch with iCamera and servo-lights. Brilliant!
Angus operating the ShopBot… HI Angus!
hi Tramaine… Shouldn’t You Be… (Tramaine was the resident sign-painter and made some lovely hand-painted signs chock-full of info’mation)
lots of crafters at Maker Faire!
glowing boxes of DIY-whats-it-dos!
a solar charging station, reminiscent of gas stations of yore, for you to recharge your mobile devices with sun-ergy
learning basic smithing skills, taught by Oakland’s The Crucible
the Midway fairegrounds. And yes, that’s a rocket in the background. And yes, it’s 40′ tall. And yes, you could go in it. And YES, it’s capable of space exploration, they had all the knobs and dials and viewports to prove it!
Like I say, if you missed out on this you missed out on one of the most exciting events in this country. That’s saying a lot, but it’s also true that there was something for everyone at Maker Faire – from kids to adults to hackers to solar enthusiasts to gardeners to pyro-maniacs to music and performance. And it was all Do-It-Yourself! See you next year – I can’t wait!
More pictures on my full Flickr set!
Category arts, events, journeys | Tags: Tags: Maker Faire,
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