Filed under: Photography, Travel by ramune

Mark Mothersbaugh – Zissou Society Blue Star Cadet/Ned’s Theme (Take 1) (from The Life Aquatic soundtrack)

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To follow up last week’s postcard, I am posting some diptychs I put together from my visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I absolutely love that place and although it is a bit pricey, it is well worth visiting.

Filed under: Photography, Travel by ramune

Tipper – California Rolls

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A couple weeks back I went to San Francisco to visit friends for a week and to celebrate my birthday. During my trip I drove down to Santa Cruz and Monterey with a friend. I had a fantastic time and hope to go back again soon (looking for work if anyone out there would like to hire me). These photos are from the Santa Cruz portion of my trip. I am absolutely in love with the cyprus trees along the coast (as you can see in the photo at the bottom taken by my friend) and would take one home if I could.

Photo by Alex P.

Filed under: Holiday, Photography, Travel by ramune

Gorillaz – O Green World

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Hello again . . . I hope you had a fantastic end to 2009 and are ready for 2010 (whatever that means). In reality I just see it as a continuation of time, but I do like to think of it as a “new beginning” of sorts. I didn’t do so well with last year’s “hopes” so I will skip on writing any down this year and just say I hope 2010 is even better than 2009. It would be really nice if I could post on a weekly basis like I claim I do.

Since I am a bit behind again, I will post at least one extra post this week and another the following week. I was in Chicago for Christmas and although I didn’t take too many photos of the actual Christmas festivities, I did get some photos from wandering around Chicago and the surrounding areas. A few of my cousins and I went to the Garfield Park Conservatory on a particularly chilly icy day before Christmas. If you’re ever in the area I recommend checking it out, it is quite refreshing to walk around in Amazonian and desert climates when it is cold and snowing outside (that that I mind that, I love snow).

This is what it looked like outside . . . cold and snowy and there were white caps on Lake Michigan.

Filed under: Photography, Travel by ramune

Pilote – Can You Keep A Secret?

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Hooray for housewares. For unique dishes and glasses, Fishs Eddy is the place to go. I sometimes wonder how it is that I haven’t walked in there and completely knocked over a 3 foot tall stack of plates. Next time I should ask someone who works there how often people break things.

Today’s song is brought to you by Pilote, who was one of my favorite musicians almost ten years ago. He was a guest DJ once on some radio show in England where you could chat with the DJ on AOL Instant Messenger while he was playing. He has a song called “Turtle,” which is rather sweet, and at the time I had two turtles, so I wrote him on AIM and told him about them (yeah . . . I am a nerd). He played the song and dedicated it to my turtles . . . that pretty much made my day.

Filed under: Photography, Travel by ramune

Mulatu Astatqé – Yèkèrmo Sèw

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In case you are just joining in, normally I post once a week but since my two year anniversary is this coming Sunday and I am a bit behind, I am posting daily so that I can make it to 105 on time. I have also started posting a song with each post so you have something new to listen to while reading/looking at the post. Enjoy!

Last year my sister and I went to Storm King and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, running around the fields interacting with the sculptures. This year we planned to go back with our mother, however the weather called for rain and thunderstorms all day. Luckily that didn’t stop us and although we couldn’t see much of the beautiful view while driving to Storm King, the rain did let up a few times while we were there. Most of my photos are from the tram that drives you around the park. Usually we would have gotten off and walked around, but because of the rain we mostly stayed on the tram (if you get off, you have to wait around 20 minutes for the next one). The foliage was stunning and I am glad we didn’t chicken out and stay indoors that day.

Filed under: Music, Photography, Travel by ramune

For the past couple of weeks I was in NYC enjoying the company of my sister and friends. It was a lovely time filled with several concerts (two of which were free!), lots of walking, wandering and eating. Here is a selection of some of my favorite photos from my visit. More can be seen in my NY set on flickr.

My sister and I spent a good portion of this day wandering around in the rain until eventually we found an umbrella . . . but by then it had mostly stopped raining.

No pair of shoes on a wire is complete without a baby or two.

Hyperspeed through the Williamsburg Bridge

Let it be known she did not build that sandcastle, she just posed by it.

One of the main reasons I planned my trip when I did was to coincide with Warp Record’s 20th anniversary events. I saw Flying Lotus, !!!, Battles, Hudson Mohawke and Clark (shown above). I have wanted to see Clark live for a while now and didn’t think he would ever make it to this side of the Atlantic, so I was thrilled to be able to see him play with a variety of nobs in person.

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Filed under: Collaboration, Photography, Silliness, Travel by ramune

Eeek, I am late late late. In fact as of today I owe three projects! Here is one that I meant to post last weekend but then the week came upon me and before I knew it it was Sunday again and I missed my deadline. So here we go (and with 9 minutes until September) . . .

My sister (being the amazingly talented book binder/conservator/master of all things book and paper related person that she is) has agreed to make me a portfolio case. So the other week I went up to NYC for a few days to pick out leather from Talas and approve the mock up she put together. I am looking forward to having it all done and ready for interviews since all I have now is my online portfolio. Once it’s all put together I will be sure to post it, however that is not what this post is about. This post is about what happened after I bought the leather from Talas.

After Talas and a tasty sandwich, we drove up to Storm King (an hour or so north of NYC) and walked around the park. It was a beautiful day (is anyone else amazed at how mild this August has been?) and although we did not have enough time to bring a picnic, relax and draw, we did have time to walk around half of the park and take some silly photos. A lot of the sculptures are not necessarily my favorite stylistically but it’s great to be surrounded by massive pieces of art out in nature. My favorite was probably the Andy Goldsworthy wall, but I am not as thrilled about the photos I took of it. I guess I will have to go back and take more some other time when the lighting is not quite as harsh.

Below are a few highlights from the day. As usual you can see more here. If you are in or around NYC I recommend packing a picnic and spending some time there. It’s also not far from Dia:Beacon, which I have not visited yet but hope to soon(ish).

With my bare hands I was able to hold the massive steel sculpture “Pyramidian,” by Mark di Suvero.

Balancing “Pyramidian” in the palm of her hands

This is what happens when the tram drivers get out of control. Casualties occur.

My head hurts

Filed under: Collaboration, Friends, Photography, Silliness, Travel by ramune

I am later than usual this week because I was skiing north of Quebec City at Le Massif! I had a fantastic time with my sister, brother, his girlfriend and my brother’s two friends. We skied for four days and for the most part the weather was nice (by nice I mean really cold but sunny with a great view). Here are a few photos from the trip. You can see more here.

The crew at Le Massif and the Saint Lawrence Seaway

Knock! Knock!

The crew at Le Massif and the Saint Lawrence Seaway

Happy Birthday Crème brûlée

Filed under: Friends, Photography, Travel by ramune

I am a couple days late with this one, but I have also been in the San Francisco Bay area for a week. I was in San Jose visiting my friend Kathy for a bit and now am with family friends in San Francisco. On Saturday, Kathy and I went to Big Sur for a hike and found these lovely leaves. She was not that impressed, but I was because we don’t have trees like the ones in Big Sur on the East Coast . . . or at least nowhere I have been. Below is a photo of Kathy with one of the larger leaves that we found.

Kathy and a big leaf