The sky over Manhattan is just spectacular right now. The clouds are black and brown and dark blue. The changes from minute to minute. Each new composition more exciting than the one before. And slowly the entire scene is turning darker and darker. Flash, there, again. Dark blue again.

How could anybody resist such a marvelous site? POPPOO.COM might be one of the cutest crude shockwave game sites out there. So beautiful. Oh, such excellent pixel-work!
Congratulations. **Astro Poop** might be my favorite game on the site at the moment, but maybe because I only played Astro Poop so far. Oh, sweet little pixel explosions.

A click on the random BlogSnob ad on this page brought me to SomeTHiNG...from Glasgow, I think and there, in the header of the page, was this wonderful Anne Frank Quote:
“How wonderful it is that we can start doing good at this very moment.”
Yes. And we should. Let’s.
Take a look at the entire site. I have the feeling that I will be learning a lot from this gentleman.

Check out this very intersting site I recently came across, it is called M3ORANGE, give it a click, it is about design, some photography, some exploration. A personal site. I like personal sites.

Just as they started getting OK, I will take a break. There will be no Small aero drawings tomorrow. I had promised to post them through May, and here we go, last day of May, last double of small aero drawings. I have plenty more, it is just that I did not scan them in. But I will, of course, you’ll see, just come back to check.
I remember drawing one of the drawings below on the plane. The plane doors had just closed and the stewardess had just walked past us, checking if we were buckled up. I was seated in a middle seat next to this quite attractive woman in her early 20’s. As I was drawing I noticed that she kept staring at my book. I tried looking back at her book, which had something to do with serious mental disorders and their treatment. After finding that out, I tried not to look much harder. (I was later told that the way I looked was in a bad, not so secret manner, a bit like a “not so secret super-spy”.)
So this woman looked at the smaller one of the drawings, which I had started while we were still at the gate, and which has probably something to do with my “economy-class” seat... She looked at the drawing and then she spoke, in the strangest, scariest, non-human voice, her emphasis somehow focused on the spaces between words, not the words themselves, the pitch of her voice fluctuating between a high pitched sing sang and a deeper something. “I do not know what you are drawing, but it is quite beautiful.” I know this sounds like a very kind and friendly compliment, but the way she said it scared me quite a bit. The way she spoke was way out of my league. I did not know how to react. I did not want to anger the spirits that just tried to get in touch with me. “Calm the waters, calm the waters, beautiful day, quiet f.” were my thoughts.
I thanked for the compliment, of course, closed the book and did not draw for the rest of the f. She just kept ordering these hard drinks and her body weight and temperature was somehow noticeable, no matter how hard I tried to move away from her. Oh boy.

If you are new to this blog and would like to look at all of the small aero drawings posted here so far, feel free to browse through them in the small aero drawings section of the catalogue. Open 24 hours. Enjoy.

Royal College of Art . The Show 2002 is on. The Site has been on for quite a while, but the catalogue went online today. If you are from Europe, you might have known about it for a while now. If your name is Tom Flemming then you are probably on one of the covers. (I know that Tom is on one of the covers, I am just teasing him here). Go, check out the show. Let me know who your favorites are. Ladies and Gentlemen. It is Friday again.

McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Today the Toll-Booth Attendant Felt Chatty is a big deal. It features a bit of the work of Todd Levin. (The Toll-Booth Attendant Felt Chatty.)
(I do not quite understand the piece, but it is just me, really.)
I can admit at this point that I have a *lifetime* subscription to McSweeneys and that I am a supporter of McSweeney’s and that some friends in Germany do not like that I gave them two gift subscriptions. But we need to spread the message. McSweeney’s is good for you. Read it, especially today.

Shu Hung runs the superbly IN-formed magazine IN (in-vincible is next). She also has this ability to find IN-credible sites. (How does she do it?) Today’s superb site is called Superbe. Check it out, and tomorrow, get your copy of IN. The IN people know what they are doing. The current issue is worth checking out for the Tom Friedman interview alone. (I will try to run an ad in the next issue. Some never before published material. Hope you will like it. All this to give you more free things and to keep IN free too.)

The walls of the cabin seem thinner than my refrigerator door. There is always this tiny pressure equalizing hole somewhere in the window, and tiny little ice particles form there in f.
The baggage enters the plane in a good old fashioned way. Thrown from little wagons with funny curtains on the side.
The further in the front we sit, the deeper are we allowed to look into the engine, this controlled inferno that sucks in all the air we just saw in front of it and spits it out with a much greater force to generate this great power that carries us all over the ocean. Yes, we are burning oil again. We are mixing air with dirt particles. Yippiee... How many tons of kerosene are burned every minute all over this planet?

The Russian contestant of the Miss Universe contest just admitted that she blushes whenever she “lies”, not what the translator said. Oh well. It does not really matter, or does it? ;)

Just added this blog to nyc bloggers. A very nice concept that sorts New York bloggers by their closest Subway Stations. How appropriate. I am closest to the 96th Street station of the 1/2/3. I can see the entrance as I am writing this. If you are in New York and have a blog, add yourself. (And let us know about your closest Subway stop.)

Dear reader. There are mosquitoes here around me. It smells like food. I have a view of the Hudson river. There is an American flag, mounted on the corner here waving in the cool evening wind. I am on the roof of our building and the sun just set. The sky is magically changing colors again. The sky seems bigger up here. The surrounding buildings seem like islands lit from within. Lanterns super-sized. A helicopter blinking in white red and even a blue just flew by. My subway ride was in a car with broken air-conditioning, the apartment was quite warm too, so the roof now is perfect. Almost perfect. Mosquitoes are not the most friendly beasts. Hope there is no West Nile Virus flying around with them. I came here straight from the office. My work headphones are now connected to my good old Powerbook and we are looking at the sky together, Charlatans in stereo are here too. Not too loud, but just loud enough to overpower the sounds of Broadway and of the Building’s air conditioning system. All is peacefully wonderful.
Too bad none of my neighbors on these high floors has an open Airport station. I would like to post this message from here. Oh, well.
Here comes another helicopter. Search on the roof here? Not anymore. Taking the route over 93rd street, slowing down, turning, out of sight.
A 737 just flew directly over my head. Charlatans soundtrack.

As I was cleaning directories on the server, I came across an old picture I took when traveling with Barry to Los Angeles. He had just taken the job at raygun, and I had some time to help him move his stuff into the new house on the West Coast. We drove across country in four days and nights, maybe six.
The picture was taken somewhere in Texas, it is a 24 hour info sign in front of one of those country churches that hardly look like a church. The message inspires me every time I see it. It somehow feels like the opposite of what every investment brokerage has told me so far (Past performance is no guarantee of future results). Here past performance will not be looked at, it is the future that starts now that matters. Now that you know it. Make it a good one.
(I also like that the word future is the darkest spot of the sign. So “future” does not necessarily mean a bigger house and more cash in the bank, it just means “your very private, custom future, as bright as you make it.”)

Oh, and can you please do not post any comments about the recent Catholic Church issues? Let’s see more of the big picture here, shall we?

There was a traffic jam on 96th and Broadway just a few minutes ago. The homeless Guy with his super-sized cart waited, for the overdressed Motorcycle rider going to the West side Highway, who waited for the SUV going the same way, who waited for a group of people including the man with the straps of his bag carving deep into the soft chest under his t-shirt, as they crossed 96th street to get to the subway.
Now it is the same event with new actors. And above all that, a large heron-like bird (remember, I am bad with names, that includes animals) flew by to get to her brunch in on this muggy and humid May morning. I love New York.

Hello boys and girls. Some old men are going to select a new Miss Universe this year again. It will be an event sponsored by our good old Donald Trump and transmitted on our good old CBS. The process will be pretty non interactive, for sure, just some channel surfing during the commercials. We all love clicking however, and you probably got here because you click. So, 75 of the candidates from 75 countries can now be clicked on here. The “article” is in German, but you might be able to figure out the very international navigation system: Check out the tiny thumbnail images, and if you like an image, use your mouse or pointer or whatever you use and click on it. (you will see a larger version of the same picture. You might have done something similar before.)
All models are dressed in bikinis or bathing suits, so I would rate the site PG. I know some surfers will be surprised that there are 75 countries that participate in this (Some will be surprised that there are still 75 countries out there). Let me know what your favorite country is. Oh, and for the very last time “Paris” is not a country and “Africa” is not a country either. No, Vatican did not participate.
Oh and one more question. After seeing Episode II. Can this competition be seriously called Miss “Universe”?

New York is the cradle of comedy. It is the birthplace, the womb, the place where is happens. You know what I mean. It starts here, it ends somewhere in New Jersey. So tonight we went to the Manhattan theatre source-one stop shop for the performing arts. It was an evening packed with a variety of performances by some Artists we knew, and some we did not, yet. I am really horrible with names, so it will take me a while to get together the hard facts. The Playbill that was given out at the event had a Jerry Seinfeld quote on it, but Jerry did not make it tonight. The host of the show, Deyk (sorry, whatever your names were, people...) gave us some very entertaining insights into his very private life. Very amusing. Does he really have a show on the cooking channel? Is he really a private chef for the Trumps, or was it part of the routine?, who knows. It was some good, good stuff.
Todd Levin was really funny too, but only if he never really sent these letters to these poor kids. Because if he did, I am going to kick his ... behind really hard.
The good thing about Todds performance was that he did not only bring good lines, but that the lines between the lines were quite good too. (just as I said, only if those letters were not real...) He is what I would call the intelligent, educated, sophisticated entertainer. (Oh, I wish some of the other performers had at least made an attempt to seem this way.)
The high of the evening might have been this one woman-performer who happened to be the last act of the evening. She was not only a snappy standup-actress, her voice was good, the songs were funny, she gave it all and it was just really great stuff. She had this excellent artistic Energy that should open her doors to large stages, shall she choose to enter them. I really wish I had remembered her name. She even built it into one of her songs, so perfectly. (Got it: Kim Gatewood)
Oh boy. If I were a theater critic, there would be no Broadway, just a bunch of shacks. I promise to find out her name. You have to see her if she happens to perform in a theater near you.
I shall say no more.

One of my neighbors must have wrestled with a big fish on this humid May afternoon. The fish probably lost. And so the neighbor, to mark a clear victory just left the fish on the carpet. And the afternoon might have been yesterday, because today, today even aromatic candles can not fight the very special kind of smell in the hallway. It might, of course, be act seven in the mini war between some neighbors here. It is all about territory. Flags are posted on doors, other doors remain open, just to show off power. We recently got a knock on our door. “It is your crazy Austrian Neighbor knocking”, now really. We have no Austrian Neighbor here. This is what happens when Europe is perceived as this huge, unexplored suburb of Paris, which is technically a country. Why Austrian? The lady they might have meant is from Russia, I think. Oy, crazy kids starting some mischugge games. What’s wrong with these people. OK, so now there is fish stink. Let’s see what’s next.

And then there are these tiny bullies, pullers, pushers, tracktors. Invisible to the pilot, tugboats of the airfield. Larger and sophisticated in some airports, simple and tiny in others. Always much stronger than they seem. Hello there, who is pulling at my wheels?

Waking up in the middle of the night is not always a beautiful thing. Yes, amazon.com is open and the mac is listening to various radio stations, yes, the city does not ever sleep. Broadway just called through the open window. “Come, play with us, we are up all night.” Police cars and the trucks with fresh deliveries from upstate and north Jersey rush by the windows. The sky just turned dark purple again. And because there will be plenty of work on my plate today, I will need to force myself back into the land that can only be entered with the eyes closed. Now, please, I would like to go back. Show me what my mind is digesting. Thank you. Let’s go back, shall we? Good morning, good night. Just two more hours, please.

Tomorrow we are going to see the one and only Todd Levin.
Truly looking forward to it. I am sure the evening will be quite excellent!
> A Too-Poor-To-Travel Comedy Weekend
> TUESDAY, 8pm - $10 cover (worth it, I can feel it.)
> @ Manhattan Theater Source
> 177 MacDougall b/w Waverly & 8th Street
> (right at the northwest corner of Washington Sq. Park)
> theatersource.org
Yippiee. Go Todd!

My hearing is not quite perfect anymore. It used to be better. I even know where I left some of my hearing. It was that great concert a few years ago. I was much too close to the stage, without earplugs. The band was The Charlatans. I remember the bells in my hurting ears for several days after the event. And the world has been sly muddy sound wise since. But, hey, it was worth it. For The Charlatans. Yeah. So I am one of those quiet fans. I am one that looks forward to the upcoming DVD. Actually wanted to get it from Britain, but these country code warnings on my Power-book are not of the friendly sort. (Switch three more times and then trash your DVD player.)
So I will probably need to wait for the release in the US...
I am getting Songs From the Other Side from the Other Side of the ocean however. And nothing is going to stop me. ; )
I remember dancing like a madman to The Only One I Know at Goldene Krone Darmstadt 1990 or so... (Thank you, Jule!)
I actually danced so violently that I almost broke this one woman’s jaw. (I was a very wild dancer, you know... And just did not see her as I was flying over the dance floor in my Nike Terra. Serious stuff. ; )

I can not believe that Vern did not make it into the Top three of the Viewers' Choice Marathon. What’s wrong with you people? This show is about Vern and the others. It is basically the Vern Show. (He deserves a Vern show.)
Dear foreign viewers. Trading spaces is a silly little interior decoration show on The Learning Channel here in the US. Neighbors (2+2) have the chance to redecorate a room in each other’s home. The time is limited (48 hours) and so is the budget ($1000). The neighbors get help, of course. Their helpers are there professional interior designers. Some of them are a bit crafty, like Frank Bielec, some just “convince” the neighbors of their “ideas”, like Hilda Santo-Tomas or Douglas Wilson. There are some better listeners like Genevieve Gorder and Laurie Hickson-Smith (they are really good).
Yes, and then there is Vern Yip, the guy who is my personal winner every time. His work is just very carefully adjusted to the actual needs of the situation. He has the ability to put his ego aside and just create great spaces. In 48 hours within a 48 hour budget, from coast to coast. A real hero. So no wonder I am a (tiny bit) upset that he is not in the top three shows elected by viewers to be shown as the climax of the “Trading Spaces Marathon”. Oh well. I think Vern is the man. Give him his own show! Please.
Oh, and why would I even write about such a show here? It is an addictive piece of television and there are tears and laughter in every episode and there is this voyeuristic factor too, of course. How do people live? How would they like to live? Our dwellings are obviously not always like the pictures out of wallpaper*... So this is the kind of reality show I enjoy. Yeah. Make fun of me now... (Well I am obviously more addicted to my blog than I am to the show, because the shows is on right now and what am I doing? There are Charlatans on my headphones and I am blogging away. Or am I moving type?)

Just missed an exhibition in London. It was Do-Ho Suh at the Serpentine Gallery. Saw his work at the 49th Venice Biennale, and it was stunning, energetic and filled with this mind boggling sense of proportion. It all radiated this energy of good art. No questions asked. The pieces make us giants, make us powerful, move us to the edges of our perception. The wallpaper in one of the installations turned out to be millions of individual portraits, just sly bigger than the presidents on the back of a green card. A monument in front of the Korean pavilion was held up little figures, which also seemed to be individual portraits of actual people. The the entire floor in one of the rooms at the Biennale rested on the tiny plastic hands of these toy people. It reminded me of a story by Stanislaw Lem. A king who’s kingdom was big enough to use his people as confetti at parades. Let me look for the link.

They are not really illustrations. They do not really illustrate. They are these small aero drawings I have been posting in this blog for almost two weeks now. Now they will not only be posted here, but also collected in the catalogue. Enjoy.

Hope the pixelsurgeon police will not be mad at me, for just (almost) copying and pasting their message here. It is just simply good news and we should go and visit pixelsurgeon. Good stuff.

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It's uh, um... about design, I think
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Birds are in charge here in Port Washington. They are everywhere, in all sizes they sing, they chirp, the prey, they fly around. Life is very different in Long Island. There still seem to be more trees here than people and Nature, at least in some areas is still written with a capital N.
There were two sparrows having great fun by my window here, which reminds me though that even if Nature is written with a capital N, these birds are children of immigrants, European, British starlings, set free in . And all because of Shakespeare. Who knew. (more on Sparrows)

It is an article on the website of the new york times. I can not keep reading now. It is a touching article. I will probably read it later. It is about the last messages from the towers. I can not read it now.

Ahem. Just to put things straight. I am a rooster. Yes, I am a rooster. My is a rooster too. I was born in 1969, which makes me a Rooster. What sign are you? (I know yours, Tom.)
Don’t be shy, click on the comment link and add your chinese sign. Let’s see if there are more monkeys than pigs. Please.

Fewer and fewer visitors read this blog. It might be the holiday weekend, but it might be the way I write. My writing is just not dirty enough. I do not use words like rooster, or kitten. I do not talk about things that drive traffic. Until now. It is time to link to some good digital porn. Now we will see how many visitors this site will get, how many hungry eyes will follow every link on this page, looking for more. The good, the bad and the pretty ugly stuff. Go for it. Move your mouse over the link and click real hard. You dirty, dirty surfer. (I might be the only New Yorker without a shrink, but if I go on like this... I will need to find one.)
(The above link is not dangerous at all. Yes, you can click it, Brother Franciscus.)
Thank you for the link, agent M3.

Channels, gates, gateways, gangways. Mazes. Flying is a bit of an experiment. Every single time, for every single passenger.

When building plastic models of planes in Poland, we always had to put something heavy into the front of the model, so it did not go into a takeoff position. I then wondered if the pilots needed to be the heaviest people on the plane to achieve the same effect in real life. (OK, I just made it up. Not even the small me could have had such a ridiculous thought...)
I still find it quite fascinating that these heavy birds can hit the ground so graciously, and drive around on these relatively tiny rubber tires.

Leica called me yesterday notifying me that my package, my repaired Leica minilux is on its way. It was supposed to arrive here on Tuesday, yet here it is. It is back. The shipping was overnight. The shutter is fixed and it is even more velvety than it used to be. Such a quiet little helper. Looking forward to shooting the first roll. We are back in minilux land. Yippie. I would make a shutter sound here, but the little camera is so nice and quiet... Hmm... (...) did you hear it?

Not sure if this one is for real, but if it is, it could be a a napster of search engines, of sorts? Try OpenCola and tell me more. This refreshing link was brought to you by Michael Dodt, from Frankfurt.
(it is “beta” and might be a spam engine, so be careful with your info... just saying...)

Waiting. Waiting for the take in. Waiting for the take off. Waiting for all the items to arrive. Waiting for the cabin to be closed. Waiting for the giant machines to finally move. Slowly at first, then faster. The camera moves away from the plane. We see the tiny bird. Are we ready for the intercontinental jump?

Imagine millions of these controlled by the imagination of a “senator”, working for one or the other side of the force. And then, in a robe, a Jedi knight, with hardly more than an old saber and maybe a bag of pretzels, doing this (careful, real video).
Or just imagine it the other way around. Ten of these going about their “business”, hacked to visit the sites in New York, and us here, in the midst of it, writing blogs, no sabers in our pockets, just iPods with some music. Oh boy...
This piece of equipment looks like some sort of future to me not sure if it is a bright and happy future (except maybe for pilots, who might lose their jobs, but keep their lives). How can all this be translated into any sort of reality for me please? Use the force, Luke.

There are pink stripes in a baby blue sky this morning. It was so good to meet old friends in a dream. And I am glad that my subconscious managed to polish our edges, leading to such a harmonious conversation. Simply wonderful and good. It began about ideas in architecture and continued without end through all disciplines, all. The sky seems like a sweet extension of the world I just was lucky enough to spend a few hours in. Such innocently happy moments. A smile.

Rem Koolhaas did not talk to Europe leading intellectuals to come up with his T-Shirt look design of the new European flag, as the New York Time Article suggests. (Or if he actually did, poor Europe) He just looked at Paul Smith’s Mini while looking for inspiration for his prada project. (God bless Europe.) We all know that Paul Smith is the master of Shopping Environments. What more can I say?

And what will happen this weekend? (ahem, starting tonight?) What is the shortest distance between New York and Tokyo? Tom (from London) sent me the following link:NEWYORK-TOKYO MUSIC FESTIVAL. Just the site is really pretty. I do not know any of the Japanese artists (do know some of the americans), but this event does sound fascinating, doesn’t it?

Some know it, some do not. Google use Pidgeons, they always have. Thank you for the link, Jørgen.

Planes do not necessarily become easier comprehendible, just because we come closer to them, or when we enter them. There was always this serious disappointment with toy cars for me. They never really had as much detail as I anticipated. Being mostly built to sell, not really to teach, the love the manufacturer pours into some toys stops at the moment the package is opened, or the toy is somehow assembled. The child takes over. The money is in the bank. Planes are a bit more (and just a bit more) like living things to the casual (7-17 hour) visitor. They look very fascinating from the outside and there is this exciting activity at the gate, but then the inside continues to be exciting. It is built to entertain, it is built to look secure, it is built to prevent a fire from spreading. Just the development of airplane seats, from these soft looking objects to supreme space savers, where the knees of the person behind me seem to be part of the design, is worth its own story. And then there are these entertainment systems. With the disappearance of smoking on planes, there needed to be some sort of entertainment patch. Be it television, be it a series of (the) movies (I was just about to rent anyway.) All seems to be there to prevent us from going nuts, staring at the starting baldness of the person in front of us. Or listening to the screams of the much too young baby in row 56. Yes, it is much, much more complex than that. Oh, of course it is. The two drawings below were not drawn next to each other, just as none of the aero drawings before were. I like these new relationships. New stories.

Quick Brown Fox, a chain in Australia just started selling this tasteless handbag. It costs $159 and is almost sold out. What is next?

When the plane finally docks at the gate, there is this sudden increase in points of contact with the static real world. Just minutes prior to this moment the only connections between the ground and the machine seemed purely visual. Then the first touch of the ground. More or less violent, but reduced to the tires, tiny points of contact for large, large machines.
Only at the gate do these ultimate swiss army knifes open all their blades. All the interfaces can be used now. All hatches are open. Gases, liquids, baggage, humans are allowed to flow relatively freely between inside and outside of the bubble. Until the moment comes to seal the bubble again and to bring the inside to a place far, far beyond the horizon.

A refreshingly brief and balanced article on Thomas Struth in the current issue of The New Yorker (Page 118-119).

As I was going through my image library, I found: “George W. Jenkins (1907-1996), the founder of Publix Super Markets.” There is plenty of security around his portrait in this branch in Miami. Or is the portrait the ultimate anti burglary and anti fire device?

welcome to REMOTE because of theorem. [ interactive environment design ], because of lovebri, who presented beautiful pictures by edge of the continent.
And then there was a message from Cis, who is most likely related to Chez Frohmage (is this his real name though?)
Hold your turbans. There is another fantastic site out there: Turbanhead.com - mouth fulla plantinum', mouth fulla gold! do I need to say more? Probably not. But I will.

Almost every story has a bright side, of course. The film exchange project is a great idea and I would participate again. Even the AtlantaGeek episode has a bright side. The guys who are hosting his stuff have some really great shots on their site.
I really like the wonderfully foggy image by Rob. Then there is this great shot of a lone mailbox which looks like a movie still. (Excellent job there, Rob!)
My favorite photograph here is definitely Mare. I am quite speechless. A beautiful photograph. It is beautiful because it manages to capture a time in life, not just a year, a place, a person. (I know she is a specific person, but in this image she portrays more of a mood for those of us who do not know her.) We are obviously looking at an exhausted friend of Robert’s in some large (Greyhound?/Airport?/Train-station?) terminal waiting area. The shot does not only portray the moment, but is obviously the end of a much longer journey through time and space. It is a short moment of rest in an otherwise not so restful time. What are the sounds around them? How long does this moment last? How long will they be able to travel like this? Where will their journeys bring them? Her and Rob? How long will they remain friends? What does she dream of? It is a bit like the moment which was supposed to be portrayed in this one Coke commercial. This, right here, might be one of the greatest moments in their lives.
Thank you for documenting this moment in our lives so well, Rob.
Those were my favorites, but you might like others. Take a look at the whole gallery. He calls them Older Photos. They look pretty current to me.

He says he is looking for an internship, but let’s be honest, this guy might be a student, but he can make stuff look pretty sweet. Somebody should be able to use these skills in an interesting project for a paying client. Robert has skills. Let’s find him a job people!
Take a look at his site:aurikom - robert lenne - portfolio.
I know that we all think that the times are not as bright as they used to be, but there must be a desk somewhere for this guy. I would see this as a win win situation. Give him a chance and then report back. I would love to hear part two of this obvious success story about to unfold. (Thank you for the link, Jess!)

Bet I can make you move back and forward in front of your screen, without touching you or even speaking to you? Just click this link, and enjoy.

Is this an omen?, am I a chosen one?, is the web trying to tell me something here? I just found this article in the Onion as a referrer to my blog. Does this mean that I complain too much?, not enough? Is this a sign that I am going to lose my hair much more?, should I stop drinking hazelnut coffee (how did they know?), or not drive a Volvo (I do not have a car), or forget about New Mexico (who told them?) all together?
This is one of those perfectly spooky links that make the paranoid me even more paranoid. It was OK when the metafilter linked to this blog, but now the Onion? I also had some visitors from this company called Apple this morning (who are they?). Do we have some food theme going on?, is it because I used to work for Organic? It will probably remain a mystery. Unless of course it was you who linked. Come forward, place your comment below. Do not be shy. I know you really to tell us.

Got this piece of Polish spam yesterday:
Good thing Polish is my mother-language so I will be able to give you a little introduction into this especially cute Spam message.
(others have not been as lucky and receiving Korean Spam

My Polish bundle of love reads as follows (you can scroll down for a translation):

> Witaj!
> Przed chwila Twój znajomy byl na naszej stronie, gdzie odwiedzajacy
oceniaja jak podobaja im sie inni, w skali od 1 do 10. Postanowila dac´ Tobie
znac´ o jednym z ciekawych zdjec´, abys´ sam mogl je zobaczyc´!
> Oto adres zdjecia:
> http://lustereczko.pl/index.php?kod_osoby=296779
>
> Odwiedz nas! Moze zdecydujesz sie umiescic swoje zdjecie, aby inni Ciebie
ocenili
> Pozdrawiamy,
> Lustereczko.pl
> http://Lustereczko.pl

Welcome,
Just moments ago a friend of yours visited our site, where visitors can vote on the looks of others by using a 1-10 point system. She decided to let you know about one of her more interesting photographs.
Here is the Picture:
> http://lustereczko.pl/index.php?kod_osoby=296779
Come to visit us. Maybe you will also decide to place your own picture on the site, so others can rate you?
Greetings
Lustereczko.pl (Little mirror)

Cute Spam, isn’t it? I would not mind getting more of this non threatening stuff. Keep clicking, some of the pictures are super funny. Oh, and I gave her a 7. ; )

It did not take long and I was able to find several friends and foes in personality stereotypes. Pretty scary? Pretty funny. : ) Try it.

I usually edit the title of a link before I post it, but with Christa... even the title of her blog is dry and funny:Jesus Blogging Christ!. Christa is blogging. Christa and I (and Eric, and Chris, and Jess and many others) worked together on PowerAde a few years ago. And she was the one who made things happen on screen, before others were even dreaming of them. We had a site that was built to be ahead of the then usual web experience, to empower kids with slow modems (and a thirst for PowerAde). You have to read Christa’s blog. It is really good, brief and to the point (and really, really funny).

Eric posted some photographs from a tattoo convention on his site. He took them with a disposable camera. There is a photograph of a Transspecies person in the gallery. (And Boba Fett was there too...)
Great job, Redd! It is a good looking gallery too.

What can we do? Atlanta Geek does not mail me back. I sent him my film roll on May 3rd and have not been able to get in touch with him since. He does not reply to emails and has obviously not posted my photographs.
He obviously shot his pictures and had them posted on the BBC Blog. Atlanta Geek, if you really think that things are going according to plan, then you might be very wrong... I know where you live, Atlantageek... Do I have the keys?... Well... Let’s see...

Visiting stock photography sites, one wouldn’t expect to find not only the image of a Gun, but also a snappy description that helps the designer understand that the thing we are looking at is er than the average laptop, can be easily concealed and just in general does a great job, yeah. Not sure I like this.

Good morning, two more drawings in the aero drawing series.

Good Morning. It is May 20th. The moment of truth. I am very happy to present twelve Photographs by the wonderful Hilary Johnson of ClutteredLife.com
Hilary sent me a selection of sweet pictures of her two beautiful children and her handsome husband (the dog was also in one of the pictures). It was not an easy choice, but I somehow managed to pick twelve images, as promised. It is a tiny story, it seems... about a sister, her wild baby brother and the happy house and a tree. Hilary experimented a bit with black and white APS film, giving the images a very interesting feeling of suspence. I tried to keep some of that mood in my selection. Enjoy. (Hope you like the selection, Hilary.)

All photographs are © Hilary Johnson. Project made possible by

I hope AtlantaGeek has not forgotten about the project and remembered to post my images today. (Click him.)

That’s it. I know the secret. George Lucas is actually a 12 years old clone of himself. We just saw Episode II and it would have been a great movie if only all the characters, their dialogue and their story were not entirely Computer Generated and the director were at least 14. (I take it back, Jar Jar in a Blender would not have been the healthiest kind of fun.) The cities looked most “real”, straight from Blade Runner, except there were more Monsters. Some of the better scenes were actually scenes straight out of Monsters Inc., and Gladiator/Ben Hur. (Obi van Hur.) I also found it very deful that most of the spaceships made sounds as if they were manufactured around 1924. (not quite as bad as this one, but definitely no jet engines.)
Am I getting geeky here?, shall we be in any way surprised? I just saw the origin of Boba Fett. How can I remain the not quite serious self? Boba Fett man! I also saw the inside of Slave1.... Do you know what I mean? You know....
George Lucas is definitely 12. He has seen his older sister kiss, he has heard about relationships from his friends who are 13. And then he went back to his drawing board at Skywalker ranch, called up his former self and told the story in a way that followed the old superbly successful formula, which among other things requires to generate as many merchandisable characters as possible, even if the movie begins to look like a toy commercial. Does the same character appear more than once, they need to wear something different, so there can be several versions of the same toy....
I shall say no more, my vision seems clouded by the dark side.
The movie was packed with fun and I will certainly see it again....
Anni questions?, mom?

See the current Gregory Crewdson show at the Luhring Augustine Gallery in Chelsea. The show is a bit of a blockbuster and because of the crowds it might take some time until it is your turn to bring your nose so close to each one of the Photographs that you can almost smell suburbia, see the and maybe hope to see hints of grain or discoloration in Crewdson’s work. All visitors seem to do this and they seem rewarded by an obsessive richness of detail in each one of the images. The work looks good, the show is plentiful and all so extensive and complex that only the overseas visitor might bear to see it only once. Whoever can will probably return to the scene and take a closer look, again, move their noses even closer to the images, discover new and fascinating details, see the and smell the flowers, or the gutter, or the skin or the police car.
Some of the photographs are a bit like paintings, meticulously composed with drawings and plans and just the right props. Some started as black and white works and seem to have been colored for this show, to give them better consistency. All of the work seems printed on paper, all in the same size, and all of the work seems to have a very nice, high density of information. More so than most of the currently prized work from the Düsseldorfer Schule, which might be larger in scale sometimes, but not quite as dense.
Crewdson just as Wall (thank you for the link, Todd), is a “cinematic” photographer. The images we see here feel like stills shot in elaborately constructed worlds in high budget Hollywood productions. The show sometimes gives the impression of a multiplex with 20 movies on strange aspects of the inside of suburbia, including alien abduction and covered up abuse.
There is probably a thick layer of reality in these stills, but it is sealed in a story, a sculpture, an installation. This might seem like a completely new concept, but in fact is a return to what painting often used to be before there was, well, the silver screen.
The show is free and definitely worth a visit. If you can not go or do not want to travel, take a look at the Twi which could very well be the catalogue for the exhibition. The book will not break your budget and you can move as close to the paper as you want and nobody will get angry if you leave nose stains in your book. You might.

Now (again) you can visit some art at the DIA Center without leaving this browser. The center just recently launched a new project by Jeanne Dunning, called Tom Thumb Notes Towards a Case History. A stunning little collection of pages focused on the exploration of the Tom Thumb fairy tale, among other, quite fascinating little tales. If you have a weak stomach and would like to deal with the theoretical angle of the work and how it relates to Freud, Ödipus, Doctors Wolf and Wolff, as well as Sara Tucker, just read the Introduction to the Introduction. If you always wanted to become a Veterinarian because of the romantic aspects of this work, especially as a country doctor, take a closer look at this deep link.
All in all a wicked little web art project filled with fascinating little animations and well researched illustrations. Intelligent and definitely worth a visit. Thumbs up.

When I dropped off my watch in December of 2001, I could not expect that it would take five months for the work to be completed and for me to have my watch again. It does sound like quite a long time, doesn’t it? I am very glad that the wait is over.
I explained the story of the watch a tiny bit about a month ago. You do not need to click...

I had given my good old black ORIS alarm to Juvelier Pletsch in Frankfurt in December of 2001r. There was nothing wrong with the watch, it is simply a mechanical piece that needs lubrication every two years or so, just like a car needs a change of oil. My Oris alarm had not been opened since 1996, so the oil change was long overdue. My daily interaction with the watch was slowly leaving marks. The winder was almost stripped of chrome, and there seemed to be some resistance whenever the alarm needed to be set. (It is a wrist alarm, a minimal mechanical PDA.) My ORIS wrist alarm will be 10 years old soon, but only on the outside. The reason why I had bought the watch in the first place was its strange age discrepancy between the watch and its inside. The mechanism that runs the watch was built in 1969 by A.Schild , the same year when I was born (the design was from 1930, I think). ORIS bought the last contingent of these alarm mechanisms and repackaged them in 1988. Giving the watch in to Pletsch, I had a s feeling that there would be some sort of complication. This particular ORIS watch is a pretty limited item with a very limited amount of spare parts available to the dealers. (When I dropped off the watch it was one of those moments when the entire store staff comes together to take a look at the thing I brought). Even though there was nothing really wrong with the watch, the Watchmakers concluded that the ORIS needs to be sent home to Biel in Switzerland to get a new glass and a new electroplating on the entire housing. The Chrome had microscopic faults in it by now, which were caused by all the temperature changes over time and my really bad abuse of the watch in the first years. The tiny cracks destroyed the left sleeves of almost all of my shirts and even several sweaters.
I agreed that now was the time for the watch to go onto this serious adventure, to travel back to Switzerland and to get a new lease on life. Pletsch called the Manufacturer in Switzerland just to find out that there were no housings that could be used as replacement, so the entire watch needed to be taken apart, stripped to the brass and re-chromed. Everything. The winders the lugs, all of it. Then the new glass... Then the regular lubrication process, and the simple resealing.
The entire procedure, including shipping took five months. I have the watch back. I have the feeling that the glass was not replaced, but this probably means that there are no replacement glasses for this watch anymore. The chrome looked truly fantastic for the first half hour or so, but there is some sort of a small bubble on the left hand side, which might mean that there will be more trouble. I have a one year guarantee on the work and will probably wait and see what will happen.
I know that I sound really obsessed about this watch, but it has shown me so many good times as bad times. In order to run, it needs my attention, as I have to wind it at the same time every day. It is my alarm and reminder, and by now I almost have the feeling that it is a unique piece. I know it is not, but it seems impossible to find even a picture of a black ORIS wrist alarm online. I knew about the part shortage for quite a while now and have been checking eBay for this particular model for several years now. Not once have I seen this watch. (Other versions of it, maybe, but never this most modest one, a black ORIS wrist alarm.)
Mine has the serial number 420-7387 B (for black) 5520.
I will post a scan tomorrow... (Am I strangely obsessed with the wrong things?)

I have been observing some movement across the street. There is a large truck and a crane and two strangely angled, huge, wrapped packages. They look like straight out of Christo’s dreams. Good thing that there is a URL on everything these days. So now I can be sure that what is being threaded into the entrance of the bank across the street is a set of two Schindler escalators. I guess they are the Schindler 9300 kind, guessing from the size of the packages and the building. How exciting it that.
Crazy that they ship these things in one piece.
You should see how they thread them through these narrow doors... Oh wait, I am taking pictures. So you will see. Soon. What am I, digital?
-------
It is 9:44, a second truck just arrived. Even more Schindler’s gifts. These packages are huge.

A coastline can somehow be a two dimensional experience, there is the water, here is the beach we stand on. The waves take a good aim, lift their white fists and pound them more or less violently against the shore. The ocean comes by and brings some sand.
What I just saw outside the window was a bit like that, except in 3D and with 60 frames per second. Waves of violent rain struck one after the other onto the tar of streets and roofs. Cars with their s on seem to move in channels of dark gray transparent matter, touching not the ground, but the reflection of an identical car upside down emerged in this seemingly very viscose material.
We have big plans for today. We will need to get outside. Break some umbrellas again.
Time for me to lean outside the door and to pick up the Times. My strangely cinematic dreams make me see the world in pseudo poetic colors this morning. I might need a tiny reality check.

We almost did not get into the Hotel. The entire area was packed with visitors and police. We were late. Even in the elevator there were more people than there should be. The room was not very big. It had two windows of which only one opened. I wanted to look him eye to eye. I leaned out. There he was. He was much bigger than I had imagined. The weather was perfect, my camera was very lame. I managed to get a few blurry shots. Now I can say that I saw him. He was very close, very big. Patched up and on his way down to macy’s. It was my first parade. And it was the first time that I was this close to spiderman.

Are you a priest, or a pastor, do you have trouble with your meetings, the holy mass is a mess? For you, my son, there is Worship-Leader a specialized application for Priests and Pastors who want to keep their sheep flock on track and singing in the right key. The interface is confusing, the usability could be better and the colors chosen used green/pink (white and gold would have been nice, or black with little white accents). Oh, just download it and enjoy. Available for Mac-os9.

My friend Martha almost lost her job as a teacher of the United Nations pre school in Kraków, when she decided that it would be nice for the children to draw little Marias and burning hearts for mother’s day a few years ago. In Poland such iconography, while obviously of Christian origin has a sly different meaning. Maria is the mother of the nation and a universal symbol of motherly love, and a burning heart is more a symbol of passion than anything else. The children of diplomats understood. Drawing Marias made sense in the context of Kraków, a city probably more saturated with Christian symbols than Rome. Their parents were a little less understanding of course and for a good reason as well. How would an ambassador of Vatican feel if his 5 year old son decorated his playroom with large Stars of David or a crescent moon, or both. (Oh, wait... Impossible.)
Why all this seemingly unrelated writing? One of the drawings above is obviously more of an expression of passion than it is a drawing of a burning heart. Don’t we all find ourselves looking for symbols of childhood comfort when trapped in moments of helplessness and sadness?
And please do not send me emails that I am renouncing myself from my religion three times before the rooster cries in the morning. I always had my own little angles and views at all this, and this is a longer story and will be dealt with later.

Who knew, who knew. I made it to #6 on Capn Design’s Top 10 List. I would probably not really care. (You know I do care.) But I am right behind Tom Waits. I will not argue with this particular selection. I am certainly not as good as Tom Waits. Never will be. What makes me feel a bit less comfortable is that I am higher on the list that G*d-Man. (G*d!, Man!) and even higher than the author’s sister! Hmm.
I guess I should not complain. The excuse why I did not make it to #1 sounds very honest. It is my writing. It is not quite there yet. Give me some time, please. (I will never be better than Tom Waits though...)
The site also contains one of my favorite Photos on blogs: NYC Reporter can you see this natural posture, or how he holds the microphone? (please also note the traffic .)
A nice snapshot from around ground zero.

I do not even know where to begin. I used to sign my name by adding a little drawing of my face as part of my signature. (Yes, it was all over my credit cards, and even in some legal documents.) I am a left handed, completely right brained person. I have a blog. I even have a T-Shirt that says “I did this.” in German. (It is actually “I was the one who did it”, or “Ich wars”)
Today somebody showed me the website of a guy, who is/does/has all of the above, except he is a funny and very smart writer.
So if you are here because you think that this blog is funny, head over to tremble - I did this, and upgrade yourself. Cheers. I will keep on drawing. ; )