images from me to you

I remember hearing about these forever ago but haven't heard much about them since. I was just telling Racheal a couple of days ago that we should have them out here instead of driving up endless ramps...Now your local garage is the worlds largest vending machine! It fits 3 times as many cars into the garage as people could. Let's just hope they take crumply dollar bills easier than that Coke machine.


robot parking at usa today

I refuse to buy music from Itunes or windows media player or any of the big name players for two reasons: price and restrictions. I think they did not really change pricing structure from CD/physical media based to purely digital based. If a CD costs $12 to $15 in the store then the same data, minus all the shipping, packaging, storage, manufacturing, etc should not be $10 online. That is not even my biggest concern. The worst part is that if you buy from itunes, your music will only play in itunes/ipod. If you buy from most of the others, it won't play in itunes/ipod. I like to use itunes for my home computer and first I had a Dell DJ mp3 player and now a Zen Vision:M.

I want to be able to use my music they way I want to. I'm not selling my stuff on the street or swapping it with tons of people, at most I share with a friend to see them go and buy the same music. I just bought a CD yesterday of The Thermals. I would have never heard of them had I not got a mix CD from a friend with a track of theirs on it.

Well the music industry might be coming around. They might move as fast as glaciers and act like the dark overlords, but maybe they are changing.

As even digital music revenue growth falters because of rampant file-sharing by consumers, the major record labels are moving closer to releasing music on the Internet with no copying restrictions — a step they once vowed never to take.

Executives of several technology companies meeting here at Midem, the annual global trade fair for the music industry, said over the weekend that at least one of the four major record companies could move toward the sale of unrestricted digital files in the MP3 format within months.

NYT article on the matter

I worked for Machine Project on Friday and Saturday at artLA. Machine does TONS of great stuff. Just this weekend there was performance art, electronics and sewing demos, orange jam making, a giant flower volcano (which I cut flowers for), video games and more! I really wanted to get a haircut, but I left before they started. I also wanted to see the still (as in mash whisky) making demo.

My favorite thing to play with was the mobzombies video game You actually move the character by walking around. It has an accelerometer and compass so can tell where you were walking. You drop bombs and blow up pixel zombies. Apparently, I set the all time record for the game. I am pretty terrible at video games but several years of leading large groups through the streets of New Orleans, fighting mobs of flashers, drunks, and cameras caused me to be good at this game.

Fallen Fruit were there Saturday making Orange/Lemon Marmalade. I got a jar but haven't tried it yet. They are advocates of public fruit, which is fruit (and I guess veggies/herbs) that are either grown on public property, or grow over public property. So if someone plants an apple tree on their yard but the branches hang out into the street and you walk by and can reach the fruit you should be able to take it. I'm sure some people would argue against this, but I think it is a wonderful principle especially considering how much goes to waste otherwise. In the same vein I am an advocate for Edible Estates, which says instead of planting those hedges, plant grape vines or apple trees. Why waste water on decorations, when you can spend it growing your own food.

Aside from the Machine Projects, the art fair was about what I expected. It was more serpentine though. I had problems making sure I'd covered all the exhibits even though I went through several times over two days. I almost missed on of my former classmate's, Scott Teson, painting at Raid's booth.

I was excited to have a beer from the piece "the act of drinking beer with friends is the highest form of art" by Tom Marioni, which is also a book,.Beer, Art, and Philosophy. I wish I had bought a book or at least talked to him, but I assumed he'd be back on Saturday.

A funny piece was Alabama Mofo by Wayne White And now that I look at more of his work, I remember that they have them in Fred 62. They are paintings on the top of old "starving artists" type lithos. I think Alabama Mofo is the best integrated one I've seen so far.

So this is the spot for our upcoming wedding! It is down in Julian California. Coyote Cal's in Mexico was just going to be logistical hell. We drove down last weekend (holy crap this was a long week!) It is really nice and has a pool and all.

July 21st, woot!

We went to some openings in Chinatown last weekend. There was some intersting art. I really liked the sand dune that was moved by fans. Very subtle. Also funny to hear people discussing the patterns made by the sand like they were intentional instead of just a byproduct of fluid dynamics. The jellyfishish paintings and sculpture were also nice at LMan Gallery I actually thought they were one person until I looked at the flier. They both seem inspired by Lee Bontecou, who I adore.

I ran into Dennis Hollingsworth (pictured). He writes a great blog that you should check out. We didn't eat there while we were out this time, but there were lines out the door of Yang Chow. Go eat there!

So I've been a bit of a slacker the last couple weeks when it comes to blogging.... but here I am. I've been pretty busy. I've applied for a ton of full time faculty jobs so far in a ton of states. I have a ton to go. 16 tons and whaddya get? Another day older and deeper in debt... I've also been trying to work temp jobs to keep the current cash flow up.

New Years Eve we had a party at out place. It was fun and pretty low key. We then went hiking on New Years Day up at Griffith Park Observatory. Really crowded but good views of the city. It was so warm, even for LA.

We also took a trip to Mexico to look for wedding spots. We're pretty sure we are going to go with Coyote Cal's July 14th. We checked out nicer places in San Quintin (the owner didn't give a shit if we were there or not) and Ensenada (the manager was nice and helpful but the place is hyper-touristy/pricey). A few logistics issues are the only worries about the hostel.

Today we worked a photography seminar in the valley. I learned a good bit, especially about adobe bridge which I really know nothing about, or knew nothing about. I so much prefer adobe products to any other brand. They just get shit right. I can use dreamweaver but prefer golive. I can use final cut pro but prefer premiere pro. I've been using an old program for cataloging my images called ThumbsPlus for a few years now. It is seriously time to retire it and use something else. Probably a combination of lightroom and bridge, but also thinking of others such as ivew....anyone have any suggestions? email me.