Wow / It’s no dream
They call it the White House, but that's a temporary condition.
05 Nov 08 · filed under: flickr, politics · 
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IxD / Dear everyone, I hope you can find my albums
What we have here is both a failure to communicate and an ingenious workaround. To Kristen & Rob: Kudos.
26 Aug 08 · filed under: flickr, ixd, web · (0) ·
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Flickr / Okay, I take it all back.
See, I criticize Flickr, and then this thing comes along to demonstrate once and for all its inherent goodness. No Flickr stylez or post-processing necessary. Via Sorry I Missed Your Party and BuzzFeed.
07 May 08 · filed under: flickr, photo, visual, web · (0) ·
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The Flickr style / Ugh
It's hard to ignore the fact that Flickr promotes a distinct style of photography; I say "promotes" because Flickr's "Explore" tab displays photos that are deemed "interesting" by Flickr's "interestingness" algorithm, and the photos in this area are generally characterized by what many are now calling "Flickr style." This is shorthand for "extensively post-processed" -- color-corrected, cropped, montaged, and so on -- techniques that turn simple pastoral landscapes into vivid, science-fantasy dreamscapes like the example below.
This was in Sunday's interesting pool, and it's a pretty strong example of the "Flickr style," i.e. heavy-handed, post-processed and much-adored by like-minded members of the community. Photo: James Neely
I don't patently dislike post-processing, but I find that the photos deemed "interesting" frequently have a creepy unreality about them, a flatness, an obsessive visual "perfection." The result is that many of these photos seem like scenes from Dune, or Lewis Carroll, or a Bjork video, or a Thomas Kinkade landscape. Everything is in focus, perfectly lit, tightly composed. In short, I dislike "interestingness" because it feels like a ... read on »
07 May 08 · filed under: flickr, ixd, photo, visual, web · (1) ·
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Archaeology of UX Weeks past
It's kinda strange (and thrilling) to browse through the many alleyways and avenues of Flickr and suddenly unearth a photo of ... yourself. Just now I came across this picture of myself and a shadowy figure, who I suspect is UX it-guy Jan Chipchase taken last summer during UX Week. My hazy recollection: We met and hung out during a late-night trek through the Mall to the Washington Monument, a epic walk that included UX Week speakers, the entire event staff, and the multi-talented Maggie Mason of Mighty Goods (and, more recently it seems, Mighty Junior), who recorded the journey here. We left late, got back *really* late, and somehow Jan looked none the worse for wear during his keynote the next morning; epic, indeed.
24 Apr 08 · filed under: flickr, ixd, the ancient past, travel · (0) ·
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Travel / Some places that got between me & my beloved blog
It started in London. I was there for, wow, how long? Three days? Seemed like three weeks. Cold, rainy, dark at 4pm, transcontinental travel, Ambien, fish & chips, trucks unloading just outside the window the Radisson all night long. I wasn't sure if I was sick, tired, both, half-awake, or what. Good times, as always. Thanks, London.
On to Paris, where there was a rail strike going on. We were here for a total of 24 hours, maybe, but it was AWESOME. Amazing light, cool old people, and insomnia just meant that I got up early enough to get some good pictures of the sunrise. Is it impossible to take a bad picture here? Champagne bottle on the curb. A not-so-interesting subject, unless it is backed by the winter light of PARIS. I took like 500 pictures on the trip, 5 of which were good and they were all in Paris. ... read on »
16 Jan 08 · filed under: flickr, travel · (0) ·
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Just Expect To Be Left Utterly Enraged
My cozy bed between Herman Miller chairs at Dulles.
News flash: Air travel really sucks right now (Washington Post). A couple of weeks ago, I too was touched by this national nightmare. On a Friday evening, I planned to fly from Dulles to SFO, but got slapped with an SSSS on my boarding pass (expired driver's license) and a long security line and figured I would miss my flight. Good thing it was delayed. For three hours, initially. The gate agents reported that there was bad weather in New York, and this seemed reasonable to me because there were lots of people at the other gates who appeared to be pissed off and tired. Also, the storm was all over the hundreds of TVs that blast CNN at you. I got comfortable and watched an excellent movie (Kurosawa's The Bad Sleep Well) on my computer, fully believing what the gate agents were saying: The flight would not be canceled. They emphasized this: It would not be canceled.
After two more delays, at 2:30am, the gate agents delivered the obvious: The flight ... read on »
04 Sep 07 · filed under: flickr, tip · (0) ·
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Summertime / Camping in the Winds
When I start a camping trip, the Van Halen song "Panama" [Video on YouTube] often pops into my head -- I wish I could represent Eddie Van Halen's reverby guitar opening in words, but I was humming it and singing the chorus -- Pa-neh-ma ... Pa-neh-ma-ha -- as this picture was taken. That's the Wind River Range coming into view beyond my friend Nick. For the next 10 days, it would dominate us. In fact, this photo represents the last few moments of peaceful hiking. Our packs were really, really heavy, and soon enough the hurt would begin. Then, we would get rained on pretty often, and (for my part) suffer too many black fly bites and a few altitude-related headaches. Still, totally, totally worth it.
I could go on and on here, but my pictures on Flickr really tell the story better than I can.
I'm a shameless sucker for gear, so here's some shout-outs:
Bridgedale socks. They were really wet, ... read on »
24 Aug 07 · filed under: ecology, flickr, outdoors · (1) ·
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UX / Flickr pisses me off
Yes, I appreciate Flickr. After all, it allows me to store my photos online, share them with others, and display them on my website. Yay. Thanks for that. Still, it frustrates me daily. Here's why:
Sequence of photo display is set in stone
If I drag a dozen pictures into the Flickr Uploadr, God only knows the order in which they'll appear on the site. But I care about the order in which they appear on the site, because the LAST photo uploaded ends up being at the top of my Flickr homepage, and in that position of prominence it says something about me. It annoys me that I can't control this more.1
Little control over homepage layout; no way to make stuff sticky
So, if I can't control the order of uploading, can I control what's displayed on my Flickr page? No. Can I make a set sticky, so that it stays at the top of the list? No. Can I display only sets? No. Of course, Flickr has introduced new layouts, but all of them are simply ways of arranging the most recent stuff. Not helpful to ... read on »
23 Aug 07 · filed under: flickr, ixd, tech, web · (0) ·
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Yosemite rules
I'm usually the person who recommends going anywhere but Yosemite in the Sierras because it's expensive and tends to be over-run with people even in the high country, whereas the Emigrant Wilderness, for instance, tends to be pretty sparsely visited, even on the busiest of weekends. But let's keep that on the shhhh. Anyway, I spent 3 warm, sunny days in Yosemite last week with my good friend and all-around good guy Andrew Goodman.
We had nice weather, went to popular places (North Dome, Yosemite Falls -- which has its own Wikipedia page), and yet saw very few other people. Maybe it's the time of year, or the fact that it was a low-snow year, or both? Or our route? We hiked down to North Dome on the Porcupine Creek Trail, and then got back to 120 via the Yosemite Creek trail (where, incidentally, we took some excellent swims). Whatever contributed to it, I've now seen the good side of Yosemite.
Yosemite Valley from North Dome, rendered via the magic of Autostitch. It assembled 25 or so photos from my Motorola SLVR into a ... read on »
21 Jun 07 · filed under: ecology, flickr, outdoors · (0) ·
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Music / Lightning Bolt explodes 12 Galaxies
A few years ago, it would have been surprising to see a San Francisco indie crowd move its feet around in a dance-style motion at a live show. Last week, Lightning Bolt got people moving at 12 Galaxies; it wasn't exactly "dancing" but (from my vantage point in the balcony), it appeared kinetic -- lots of mass moving back and forth, a little crowd-surfing, a little flailing around. I took a lot of pictures from my perch above the drums.
18 Apr 07 · filed under: flickr, music, san francisco, visual · (0) ·
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Photos / Bridge and Bay panoramas
The weather has been getting nicer, so I've been jumping at any chance to ride my bike. Last Thursday morning, I rode across the Golden Gate Bridge and up into the Marin Headlands as the sun was coming up, and I stopped to take some photos as it was peeking above the horizon.
When I was going through the results, I realized that the individual pictures didn't really do justice to the moment, so I poked around the Internet looking for something better than Photoshop's stitching utility. Autostitch to the rescue! It's simple, straightforward, and it instantaneously produces panoramas without discernible seams even with just a few pictures.
(I was so intrigued by the above results that I decided to try it with cellphone pictures). Last Saturday, we had a picnic at Kirby Cove, a little valley on the Marin side of the bridge. It was foggy and cold for the first hour or so, but then it started to burn off and I took some ... read on »
20 Mar 07 · filed under: flickr, visual · (0) ·
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Online adventures / my Flickr hecklr
Earlier this week, I noticed that there had been a lot of activity on my Flickr photos. Someone named "furgurl" had commented roughly 50 times, and the comments themselves were pretty unusual. Most were lengthy, not the standard "OMG!" or "nice shot!" or whatever. They were also all lower-case, filled with misspellings and weird punctuation, and in almost every instance, pretty cruel. Cruel comments! On Flickr photos! Weird, huh?
The examples above are the only halfway clever comments, and they were the only ones I kept. (Apologies to Nathaniel, Adlai, and my mom's sausage fondue).
The rest focussed on just a few themes: the absence of make-up ("try wearing eye-liner!" was a common refrain when women were in the picture), out-of-date clothing ("was this picture taken in the 70's?" or "who wears THAT?"), beards ("that one is clearly a member of the Taliban"), receding hairlines ("take some of the hair from your face and put it on your head!" appeared in a few places), hair in ... read on »
09 Mar 07 · filed under: flickr · (0) ·
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Thanksgiving remix
Thanksgiving 2006 came and went, attended by friends, family and the customary dramas.
An East Coast / West Coast feud flared up in the week before the holiday. Gabriel (East) sent what some in the West perceived as "a salvo across the bow" in the form of a PowerPoint presentation (a slide of which is pictured below). It contained a financial-style analysis of Thanksgiving: how Thanksgiving East has performed over the past decade, trends, projections, and outlines for future growth.
Some saw this as evidence of a diabolical plan; I was naive and asked for clarification on specifics:
Dear Gabe, TYs (Thanksgiving years) 2003-2004 were characterized by broad guest sector diversification. What is the likelihood that a diversified strategy, with exposure to the Shanahan sector, for example, will be pursued in the future? Secondly, to what extent will "value" guests (e.g., McClorys and Preslers) continue to anchor the portfolio? Will you pursue more (potentially) volatile "growth" guests in order to boost performance in the coming years?
Gabe replied:... read on »
07 Dec 06 · filed under: flickr, new york, san francisco, the ancient past · (0) ·
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Baseball / Bonds, 731
After all my trash talk about Bonds and how he should just fess up to the roids, I saw him hit a dinger last Saturday, and I actually cheered. Like, I stood up as it left the bat, and maybe even jumped in the air when it went out, all the while clapping my hands. It was irresistible. He hit the thing a mile. It was awesome.
12 Sep 06 · filed under: baseball, flickr · (0) ·
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Music / Peggy Honeywell at Mollusk
Being car-less keeps me (mostly) around the southeastern neighborhoods of San Francisco, but every once in a while I'll venture out to the frontiers. Last Friday, we went out to Mollusk, the arty surf shop on 46th-ish Avenue and Irving, (i.e. WAY Outer Sunset), for an art opening and a performance by Peggy Honeywell, i.e. local art star and beautiful loser Clare Rojas. The surf shop setting was informal and cozy; the acoustics actually weren't bad; there were dogs walking around; all in all, it makes me wish that I got out there more. This intimate setting was lots better than the cavernous, loud, obnoxious-people-filled place I saw her perform last, Barry McGee's opening in Melbourne, Australia a couple of years ago.
12 Sep 06 · filed under: flickr, music, san francisco, street art, visual · (0) ·
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Food / Lakes and cheeseburgers along the PCT
During my hike on the PCT in 2001, my two favorite pastimes were swimming and eating. When I was walking -- which was most of the time -- cool swimming holes and sizzling cheeseburgers filled my daydreams. When my hiking partner, Nick, and I talked, it was more often than not about swimming and eating cheeseburgers: How far to the next river, creek or lake? How long would it take to hitch out to get a cheeseburger at the next road crossing?
As the two attached lists indicate, we found lots of chances to follow these particularly blissful pastimes. Cheeseburger-wise, the best were found in the Cheeseburger Belt, which begins as the Sierras give way to the Cascades in northern California, and ends a little north of Ashland, Oregon. The best of the best in the belt were found at Buck's Lake Lodge near Quincy, the Pines Frosty in Chester (which also has kick-ass shakes), and Lake of the ... read on »
13 Aug 06 · filed under: ecology, flickr, outdoors · (0) ·
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Personal history / Pacific Crest Trail five years later
Five years ago today, I was hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail. I spent the summer of 2001 hiking through California, Oregon, and Washington; on the 12th of August, I was chilling out at Crater Lake, Oregon.
Crater Lake had been a really major destination for me, not because of its legendary, otherworldly beauty or because I'd never seen it or because I was looking forward to bumming beers off retirees in RVs, but BECAUSE I was having a new pair of shoes delivered to the PO there. My feet, at that point, were thrashed. The trail can be unkind to feet in a variety of ways -- extreme heat in the south, frequent river crossings and snow in the Sierras -- and it doesn't help when you wear one pair of Asics Gel Trabuco III's for the last two-thirds of the state of California.
I take a look at my PCT journal a few times every summer; the entry scanned above represents some of the happier times on the trail. A little ... read on »
13 Aug 06 · filed under: ecology, flickr, outdoors · (0) ·
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Alone in Houston
I put some new photos on my Flickr page recently. This one is from a recent trip to Houston. I took it while driving around (I believe it's called) The Beltway. The photo makes Houston seem empty, which, as I recall, is like the opposite of what it is. Especially the freeways. I don't recall more than a few moments when I wasn't sitting in traffic. Which makes me wonder: Did I really take this picture? How did it get into my phone?
19 May 06 · filed under: flickr, urban, visual · (0) ·
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Things to do in Minneapolis when you’re cold
The Twin Cities are still full of good times, especially when the mercury plunges. A couple of weekends ago, I enjoyed the chill with my friends Fish, Katie and Becky (pictured, in front of the new wing at the Walker).
The highlights:
Vietnamese sandwiches at the Jasmine Deli on Nicollet. Their sandwiches are fabulous, especially the BBQ chicken.
The new and improved Walker. Twin Cities residents seem ambivalent -- some love it, others are underwhelmed -- but I was really impressed with the way that the new wing blends into the old, and the manner in which they space itself still seems intimate and surprising. Plus, it's open late on Friday nights; how great is that? The Walker's video installations have always been great, and I was really glad to catch a few moments of Jem Cohen's "Lost Book Found" and "Blood Orange Sky" as we walked through -- worth reading: A long, detailed interview with Jem Cohen by Rhys Graham. Also, an entire room dedicated to Sherrie Levine, a cabinet full of Fluxus stuff (still cool after all these ... read on »
30 Nov 05 · filed under: flickr, minneapolis, tip · (0) ·
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Art / LACMA garage RIP
Soon, the garage outside the LA County Museum of Art is getting torn down to make way for some big new building. Unfortunately, it's got some really excellent murals by Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen that I checked out when I was there a couple of summers ago.
The LA Weekly says:
Now's the time to check out the celebration of street art it has become since October 2000, when husband and wife team Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen were commissioned to bomb the second floor of the structure in commemoration of the show "Made in California."
Over the last five years, Kilgallen's smoking, trudging, scowling women and McGee's signature sad-sack faces and meticulously drawn messages have inspired uncoerced homages from several locally and internationally known artists: N.Y.-based graffiti trio FAILE's collage stencils; Spanish tagger PEZ's bubbly alien figures, and Obey Giant guru Shepard Fairey's looming wheat-paste policeman.
It wouldn't be as sad if Margaret K. was still around to bomb another garage, but the fact that she's not makes the disappearance of this free and public place even harder to take. Sucks.
The whole story: ... read on »
04 Nov 05 · filed under: flickr, inside art, street art, visual · (0) ·
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Art / Muhammad Ali likes soul food
One of my favorite neighborhood art spots is called Creativity Explored, "a nonprofit visual arts center where artists with developmental disabilities create, exhibit, and sell art." Or so it says on its website.
At first, I felt conflicted about Creativity Explored. Much of the art is geniunely impressive, and a few of the artists are quite talented and produce truly beautiful work. But the greatness is complicated by the artists' disabilities. So many works seem truly unique, yet you can't shake the feeling that you're admiring the product of the very thing that prevents the artist from living a "normal" life.
The fact is that I really like a lot of it, especially the handwriting/drawings of John Patrick McKenzie. John's handwriting is bold and jaunty in a way that, at first, makes it look like a cross between graffiti and first-grade. But then beyond the initial impression, it becomes clear that the page is often organized very precisely. As he tends to color in the enclosed areas of each letter -- the interior of an R, D, P, etc -- the page ... read on »
04 Nov 05 · filed under: flickr, inside art, san francisco, visual · (0) ·
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Photos / Underwater buildings
Sometimes, the crappy lens on my Motorola v220 produces interesting effects. Recently, it has started compressing the depth of field, and at the same time, arbitrarily fuzzing out objects. When directed at buildings in full late-afternoon light, it actually makes things look like they're in an aquarium.
06 Oct 05 · filed under: flickr, mobile, san francisco, visual · (0) ·
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Architecture / Seattle library
I took this picture in a small atrium overlooking the lobby of the Seattle Library, designed by Rem Koolhaas and opened a year ago. As Mara and I enjoyed the cool, green light, we overheard a conversation that went something like this:
Middle-age woman to her husband: I can't believe they spent so much money on this thing.
Husband: It's absurd. What's in a library? Books. You don't need all this other stuff.
Middle-age woman to Mara: What a waste of money, right?
Mara: [Flabbergasted]
People raise the same argument when cities build new sports stadiums. Of course, stadiums bring in huge amounts of revenue and, the last time I checked, libraries were free. On the other hand, stadiums house teams owned by zillionaires who, the last time I checked, could probably afford to build the stadiums themselves.
In any case, the taxpayers of Seattle have contributed to the construction of an amazing public space where EVERYONE can go, read, hang out FREE OF CHARGE and be inspired by the wisdom of the ages surrounding them. I can't imagine a better environment in which to do this. Citizens of ... read on »
15 Sep 05 · filed under: flickr, visual · (0) ·
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Art / Enter maximalism.
An article in yesterday's NYT House & Garden section extolled the virtues of clutter. Kristen summed it up nicely: Maximalism is the new minimalism.
"Minimalism is easy to copy," Ms. de Lorme said at her unabashedly messy desk on a recent morning. "Everybody can do it."
Nevertheless, maximalism isn't as easy as it sounds. The author visits a Barry McGee exhibition at Deitch Projects in New York and finds that clutter must be as carefully arranged as non-clutter if it is to work:
Op-art panels on the walls. Graffiti everywhere. And one wall I stared at for a long time was covered with small, framed pictures densely hung at odd angles, some layered on top of one another. Like the whole massive installation, it looked random. Of course, it wasn't.
The thing is, Barry McGee was maximal so long ago -- Bay-Area-Now-1996 long ago -- that it's strange to use him as an example of a current maximal trend. I guess well-executed maximalism is timeless.
The photo above is from Barry McGee's maximal mural at the Museum of Victoria (fall, 2004).
05 Aug 05 · filed under: flickr, visual · (0) ·
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