Sean Tejaratchi and Chloe Eudaly of Reading Frenzy should get our cash support simply for coming up with this super fun promo video if nothing else. Which - I now have stuck in my head...chenji, chenji...go go GO!
You may have see my post last year about Sean's Crap Hound Clowns, Devils and Bait - well, great news! One of my favorites is soon to be rereleased - with your help, of course. If there was ever a time to support your local artists, graphic designers and independent press emporium's projects, the time is now, what with the rerelease of Hands, Hearts, and Eyes straight to your mailbox. *Side note* The time will also be in the spring 2011 when Crap Hound 8: Superstitions get's printed, but for now, it's all about the Hands, Hearts and Eyes!! And with the sorry state of the economy making us all into DIYers (a blessing, really) you'll need it for making your enemy's and loved one's Valentines this year - unlike last year's store bought ho hum. As if they really needed to sweeten the deal, Sean has designed limited edition prints and t-shirts for bigger sponorship levels. If I knew what the "cool" word kid's were saying these days, having this in our collection would be it. Check out Chloe's KICKSTARTER project here.
Besides you and me, fans of Crap Hound include Matt Groening, Banksy, and Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing.
Also eat more vegetables, but you'll have to do that on your own. What I can help with is to drink more water. It's easy with these heavy duty acrylic tumblers in lovely colors. And on top of it all, you can do your part and stop buying bottled water and use them to fill up with tap water. BPA free, reusable, two sizes, six styles and colors. Oh - and affordable at $13 and $16. Comes with a reusable hard acrylic straw in matching colors. I WILL ship internationally, just write me first on etsy and we can figure out international shipping. Mahalo! (Thanks) Find them here ---> Kapuanani.com
Amy Antonio, Taiwan, 2009
There's a style of photography which uses a lens to cause "tilt-shift", the creating of miniature still photography from actual landscapes by simulating shallow depth of field. What's created is a selective focused affect to images much like using the macro-lens feature at Miniature World in Victoria, Canada. It's easy to assume that the scene is set up and entirely fake, except the detail is too great.
Amy Antonio, Indonesia, 2009
Well, leave it to technology and the internets to make easy the artistic struggle of real photographers who spend hours tinkering with lenses, lighting, and messing around with the chemicals in a lab. While not as awesome, the nets has made it as simple as uploading a photo onto a site to create almost the same effect. What once was an overly stimulating detailed shot where your eye can't rest now becomes calm. It's fun to play around with, but if you want to see the seriously good tilt shift photos, check out Italian artist, Olivo Barberi.
The same effect can be done with video although more complicated than a simple upload.
Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.
Nothing quite prepares you for the culture shock of this library. You exit the traditional parlor of a large New England home and pass through a hallway into the bibliographic equivalent of a Disneyland ride. Stuffed with landmark tomes and eye-grabbing historical objects—on the walls, on tables, standing on the floor—the room occupies about 3,600 square feet on three mazelike levels. Is that a Sputnik? (Yes.) Hey, those books appear to be bound in rubies. (They are.) The floor is an Escher maze of tiles and the etched glass banisters change color. Who or what is behind the amazing space, you ask? And can I touch everything?
Photo: Andrew Moore
The man is entrpreneur and inventor Jay Walker. His company, Walker Digital created Priceline.com and many other businesses that reframe old problems with new IT. In his private life, he's a bibliophile and collector on an epic scale.
It's befitting that an entrepreneur and inventor so prolific and acclaimed would curate a library devoted, as he says, to the astonishing capabilities of the human imagination. He's fascinated by intellectual property in all its forms. The library’s design, spearheaded by Walker’s wife, is a creative and intellectual feat of its own. The 3-story-high building, computer-controlled and brilliantly lit to change colors, is like the set of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, only concerned with something much sweeter and more addictive than chocolate — pure imagination in all its scientific, artistic, technological and undefinable forms. A glass bridge, suspended in space, stretches across the library — so you can literally take a leap of human imagination as you marvel at the world-changing artifacts surrounding you. Walker commissioned decorative etched glass, dynamic lighting, and even a custom soundtrack that sets the tone for the cerebral adventures hidden in this cabinet of curiosities. "I said to the architect, 'Think of it as a theater, from a lighting and engineering standpoint,'" Walker says. "But it's not a performance space. It's an engagement space."
Gadget Lab: The large contraption at center is the Nazis' supposedly unbreakable Enigma code machine. The book to its left is a copy of Johannes Trithemius' 1518 Polygraphiae, a cryptographic landmark.
A chunk of his net worth went into building this enchanting library space, whose exhibits (yes, please touch!) go back, roughly, to the point our species learned to write. Walker's house was constructed specifically to accommodate this massive library. To create it, Walker and architect Mark Finlay first built a 7-foot-long model. Then they used miniature cameras to help visualize what it would be like to move around inside. Imagineers would be right at home. Read the entire article at WIRED.
Sorry, it's my semi-annual love gush for my town. This here's a nice little film put together by the travel folks...
It's the first of the month which means we are all already behind gathering goodies for Christmas or another December holiday of your choice. How's that for pressure! While not to be completely outdone pushing the festivities of big box stores, I have two new products debuting this holiday 2010. One is a set of 12 Days of Christmas Hawaiian Holiday Cards printed on 100% recycled paper for $12. Comes with envelopes, natch.
The second is a collection of my new favorite yet functional fad - these Acrylic Tumblers - which I have to admit, I'm addicted to drinking water out of because of the permanent ---> straw! <--- No more buying bottled water and no more fumbling with twist off caps. One should hope your drinking water is as tasty as ours is here in the Pacific Northwest, otherwise fill with whatever you like. Just sip. Viola!
Top Row: 16 oz in Ocean, `Ula Red or Clear: $15.
Bottom Row: 20 oz in Clear, 'Alani Orange or Lu`au Green $18.
Look for both of them at the Hawaiian Holiday Bazaar & More on November 13th at Thomas Jefferson MIddle School in Vancouver, Washington as well as on my etsy site after that date.