Heck Yes GPS!

I hate the typical GPS systems installed in cars and sold as portable devices, but a new development in the audio for the systems might just change my stance on the most annoying way to receive directions ever; Bob Dylan. That's right, according to the Telegraph, Bob Dylan is in negotiations to become the new voice of GPS. I am a huge fan of Bob Dylan, going so far as to drive to Bakersfield once to see him live; it's cool to think that the voice of Bob Dylan could have guided me to his own concert.

Kate Kirkwood

Full of contrast, shadows, an intriguing use of foreground, and a thread of images that recall mortality. Kate Kirkwood's photography has caught my attention. To see more of her photography visit her website.

Groovy Baby

In between seasons at Astrocamp I've been picking up extra work in town. The Quiet Creek Inn is one of those places; the main thing we do is go to vacation rentals and clean them for the owners. This means that we see a wide variety of living arrangements and styles of decoration. Sometimes the moment I enter a rental I feel at home, and sometimes we open the door and I think "What on earth?" One house in particular amuses me because it's straight out of the 1970s. Very little is modern in the house, and the things that are modern seem more out of place than the rest of the decor. Case in point, the kitchen; modern cabinets nestled into the olive green fake wood, brightly colored chairs, and distinctly patterned tiles.
The built in book shelves are next to every bed, complete with a hefty bed side table, and a bulky lamp.
Notice the awkward loft, large, exposed, olive green beams.
One of two spiral staircases.
Check out the lamp.
They even have an arcade game on the bottom floor.
So now that the 70s pad is clean, welcome back to the current century.

Vik Muniz

It's a little long for a youtube, but I love Vik Muniz so here it is.

In the calm of my kitchen I stand, carefully wrapping each dish in newspaper; some will be put in a box for storage and others will be put in a box to move on to the next kitchen. A kitchen where there is more chance that something will break, because in this kitchen there will be three other girls. Unaware that certain dishes have meaning that goes beyond the ceramic that holds my coffee. This pale blue, dimpled, mug from Starbucks; a gift from a friend who was once a Baristo. That's right, the title I changed for him from "Barista" to "Baristo" because it sounded more manly. Mass produced, but gifted with me in mind. I drink from this mug and remember sitting in my living room in Cardiff, Saturday morning with friends I love, mindlessly enjoying the morning with some coffee and PBS before heading off to Balboa Park. Or the amazing wine glasses given to me for my birthday from Jacob; do I pack them away or bring them to the next kitchen to be shared with others? They are just glasses after all, and more can be purchased if they break. What good is a glass in storage? These are the things I ponder while packing up my apartment to move to the next location. Begrudgingly I give up my amazing little den of solitude, knowing that I will be moving to one of the more bustling houses on camp. I am gratful to have a place to move to though, and a job in the fall that doesn't entail me taking out trash or commuting off the hill. Things have a way of working themselves out, and though I won't be in grad school I will be at Astrocamp. There is always more to learn, always more people to meet, and I guess in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter so much if a wine glass gets broken. Now I just need to get off the blog and pack those things up for the journey up the hill to my new location.

Oh Cardiff

When I lived in Cardiff by the Sea, I passed this statue ALL the time. One of my friends from the area recently alerted me to an article about it. I always thought it looked a little bit cheesy, but apparently real surfers had cause to be truly pissed off about it and this is how they let the people know. They dressed up the statue to look ridiculous. It's better than actual vandalism though and, after reading this article from Surfing magazine, I can certainly see why they would be upset. The reasons for hating the statue aesthetically are many; most pertaining to the fact that the surfer doesn't have the classic surfer physic, bad form, weird posture for the move he is supposedly doing, inaccurate sea spray, etc. Being a non-surfer myself, I have to say I go along with the other reasons outlined in the article. First and foremost, this bronze sculpture cost the city of Cardiff $120,000; a massive load of money that could have been put to better use.
To quote the article:

We don’t want to see statues erected to celebrate the sport of surfing; we don’t want more parking lots paved near our favorite spots. We want clean beaches; we want the environment to stay entact; we want our good waves in our favorite spots to stay good. Surfers are probably mostly upset at the fact that they paid $120,000 for that piece of crap metal. They could have done a mass cleaning of the Cardiff water; or a huge beach sweep of pollution; or maybe use that money to stop companies along the coast from putting pollutants into the water.

How to Shred

Along side the Cardiff surfer, someone put up a sculpture to show what shredding actually looks like. This was on the Leucadia Blog, very cleaver, whoever the secret artist is.

Kama's Escalator Animation

Happy Anniversary Abbey Road!

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Beatles album 'Abbey Road.' In honor of this event the iconic crosswalk was swarmed with fans. Since the release of the album the road has been no stranger to extra attention, I found a website with a huge collection of some of the Abbey Road album cover parodies. Some of them are pretty good.

Compare and Contrast

When I was an undergrad I was introduced to a popular practice in art history, the compare and contrast essay. I wrote countless papers about how various works of art were similar or different; Cindy Sherman vs. Diane Arbus, Donatello's David vs. Michelangelo's David, Giotto vs. Duccio. What is the visual vocabulary? Line, color, composition, etc. So imagine my surprise when I found the most bizarre, but spot on compare and contrast I've seen in awhile. BUST Magazine put a post on their blog today about Bill Clinton flying to Korea to negotiate the release of two American journalists. Along side the picture of Clinton posed with Kim Jong-il was an image of Grant Wood's "American Gothic." The somber expressions, the strong lines, the similarity in face shape; seriously, Clinton has that girl's nose and Kim Jong-il has the man's chin. The strange part is that there is no explanation of the painting juxtaposed with the photo, it's just there. Take a gander yourself, write an essay if you wish.