Last night, Mara and I were messing around with Google Maps, checking out giant Japanese buddhas from the air. [Check out this one in Kamakura, near Tokyo]. Then we decided to see what North Korea looked like, and we raced over the Pyongyang and suddenly found this crazy thing with a giant triangular shadow. What the?
Turns out that it's the Ryugyong Hotel. It has 105 stories, and it is indeed shaped like an arrowhead, with a broad base that tapers steeply to a pointy top. The craziest thing: It was abandoned in the mid-80's, during construction; hence its moniker: the Hotel of Doom. (Apparently, North Korea had already sunk 2% of its GDP into it when they decided to pull the plug. Ouch.)
Esquire calls it worst-designed building in the world, which seems a little harsh. Would the world's worst-designed building inspire this: An animated short presenting a sort of Blade-Runner-meets-Disney-meets-Shinjuku vision for how the Ryugyong will be adapted in the future? Actually, maybe it would.
See it for yourself here.
28 Oct 08 · filed under: architecture, the ancient past · 
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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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I stumbled upon a treasure trove of old outdoors books at Iconoclast Books in Ketchum, Idaho this weekend; this one's from 1970.
The cover ultimately doesn't make much difference, but I like this one.
If only hiking through sun cups like these was as serene and lovely as the photo implies. Also, the introductory text instructs Yosemite visitors, "DO NOT FEED, TEASE OR MOLEST THE BEARS." Noted.
The page layout is classy, and the book is simple to navigate -- each set of facing pages describes one hike. Also, the map is intended as a thumbnail overview, not as the actual guide for use during the hike. (In 1970, maps could be acquired by sending $0.50 to the USGS.)
How do you know which map to purchase from ...
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18 Sep 07 · filed under: lit, outdoors, the ancient past, visual · (0) ·
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Like lots of stuff, they really don't make baseball cards like they used to. Halftone action thumbnail! Alternating colors in the player names! Don Drysdale's coif!
12 Sep 07 · filed under: baseball, the ancient past, visual · (0) ·
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Fidel doing what he does best: Moving the crowd.
I traveled to Cuba 10 years ago this summer, and I unearthed this 10-peso note when I moved earlier this summer. Coincidence, or a sign that I should return sometime soon?
When I was there, the official exchange rate was one American dollar to one Cuban peso, but one could get 20 Cuban pesos with one American dollar if one exchanged money on the street. It appears that this hasn't changed, though Wikipedia notes that Cuban pesos have no value in currency markets.
When I was there, Cuba was still reeling from the collapse of the USSR, and accommodations were made to handle the hardships known of this Special Period. For example, the American dollar could be used to purchase "luxury goods," though at that point "luxury" involved eating chicken once in a while and drinking an occasional beer. They've since introduced a second currency to replace the American dollar, the convertible peso, while keeping two tiers of goods. Yanqui go home!
05 Sep 07 · filed under: the ancient past, visual · (0) ·
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This weekend I got an incredible book about San Francisco called San Francisco in Maps & Views. I usually avoid glossy coffee-table historical books because they're so often filled with disappointments -- bad color, bad printing, messy layout, uninspired writing, PLUS they're really expensive. But THIS ONE. This one is different. The maps are very well-reproduced, high-res and colorful, and all are supported by detailed and surprisingly engaging commentary.
After I got over the initial thrill of using it like a flip-book and watching my neighborhood evolve, I started to notice smaller trends in land-use evolution -- a plot labeled "orphan asylum" became "hospital;" many things labeled "cemetary" became "park" or "civic center." "Dunes" become "the Sunset."
I was also intrigued by the use of public places as refugee camps after the big one hit in 1906. Apparently, SF carpenters sprang into action and built thousands of makeshift cottages for the earthquake/fire refugees, turning many well-known SF public spaces into refugee camps, including South Park, Dolores Park, and Precita Park, and lots of the then-outlying, undeveloped areas, like the Richmond and the Sunset. ...
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29 May 07 · filed under: architecture, san francisco, the ancient past, urban · (0) ·
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So how come I just now learned that you can create your own Google Maps mark-up? As a lover of both maps and personal documents, the ability to customize an online map has the potential to have a Shabu-like effect on my life. The above map has all the places I've lived in the Bay Area. Check out the complete, interactive thingy here. It has essential, all-important commentary on each place. Maps I want to make: killer runs in SF; fun night-time wanderings in SF; literary locales of SF (from fiction and from real life); TV/movie locales of SF; (this guy already made a cool music-related history of SF); crazy work travel trips of the past few years; places I want to go; a burrito tour of the Mission; the list GOES ON.
19 Apr 07 · filed under: san francisco, the ancient past, visual, web · (0) ·
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I met Phil Collins (the British artist, not the British pop star1) at a bar in Brooklyn in the mid 90's. At the time, I didn't know him as "the British artist," I knew him only as my friend Tom's legendary boyfriend. I remember little of the night, but I do remember a hubbub accompanying Phil Collins's wanderings around the bar; he seemed to create some kind of event wherever he went. At some point, he approached the table with two tall drinks, placed them in front of me, and said something like "These are from an admirer of yours."
As it turned out, they were from an admirer of his, and this admirer perceived, shall we say, a lack of gratitude when his drinks were given away. There was a confrontation, as I recall, and Phil said something like, "Well, I'm sorry, I never turn down a drink, but you can't honestly expect me to drink [disbelieving voice] rum & coke?" (Or whatever the drinks were).
All of which serves as background to my reaction to Phil Collins's piece, ...
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08 Feb 07 · filed under: inside art, san francisco, the ancient past, visual · (2) ·
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Let's just say that I've crossed paths with the Anarchist Cookbook [Wikipedia] [Amazon] a couple of times in my life. In my youth, making a film canister bomb was a popular diversion, and the cookbook teaches you how to make it with stuff you can buy at a scientific material supply store. The first step is making gunpowder -- a much more straightforward process than you'd think.
Before I moved to Berkeley in 1995, I'd never owned a copy -- I didn't even know that it was sold in bookstores. I figured that you'd have to locate some anarchists and then trade them some vegan stir fry and/or a black hoodie if you wanted a copy. But soon after I moved here, I ran across a really old copy of it (at Shakespeare and Co on Telegraph, for those keeping track), and I figured that it couldn't hurt to have it around. You never know when you're going to need to make mustard gas, right?
I brought it up to the counter, and the clerk -- a grizzled, older Berkeley beardo ...
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12 Jan 07 · filed under: lit, the ancient past · (0) ·
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I love Flickr, but the good times are killing me. It's got too many amazing high-def and beautifully composed photos. How do they do it? After doing some research, I decided to step up my game and picked up a fancypants camera. Above is one of the first pictures I took with it, a panorama of downtown Kansas City from the Liberty Memorial. The bent horizon is the result of a cheap-o fish-eye attachment that I bought on Amazon. I used the 30D/fish-eye setup throughout the holidays, as you'll see in this set, and while I had fun, I also had the inevitable realization that an equipment upgrade doesn't automatically result in glorious, high-def photos. Back to the drawing board. Or the dark room. Or the Internet forums.
While I was in KC, I sampled some of its finest. I visited some homegrown letterpress printers (Hammerpress), ate some legendary BBQ (Fiorella's Jack Stack in Martin City and Gates on Main), and made a pilgrimage to a basketball temple (Allen Fieldhouse, to witness KU's ...
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08 Jan 07 · filed under: kansas city, the ancient past · (0) ·
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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:...
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07 Dec 06 · filed under: flickr, new york, san francisco, the ancient past · (0) ·
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In the Silver Jews song "Trains Across the Sea," there's a line that goes: "In 27 years, I've drunk 50,000 beers, and they just wash against me like the sea into a pier." That's 5+ beers a day from birth until your 28th birthday. If you start at 16, you're drinking a 12-pack a day to get there. (I didn't account for leap years, actually, so you'd have 2-3 days to let your liver recover during those 11 years).
Recently, I came across a diary I kept in 1994, the year I moved to California. I was clearly obsessed with the Silver Jews at the time, and I'd done a little math in the margin to calculate how I matched up to them, beer-wise. (I was 22 at the time). Shockingly, I found that I had to cram roughly 40,000 beers into the next 4.5 years. That's a little over one case per day, everyday, i.e. a true 24x7 sort of endeavor. Did I make it? Short answer: No. However, I did predict that I'd be getting there by the time I ...
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19 May 06 · filed under: music, the ancient past · (0) ·
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I watch so much SportsCenter that I figured I'd try to chronicle the non sequitors that they use to punctuate excellent sports moments.
Three beers apiece for my co-workers -- While high-fives among teammates are being exchanged. Derivation: Shawshank Redemption
What's on the grill? -- Punctuates the moment when someone, usually Dwayne Wade, dunks in someone else's face, i.e. "Jason Collins, what's on the grill?"
Pay for my dry cleaning! -- Accentuated a Vince-Carter-administered NBA playoff dunk. Derivation: SNL
Bartender! Johnny Walker Red. -- Highlight involving the Cincinnati Reds.
_____ has powers comparable to Wonderboy! -- Fill in the blank with any player who is about to do something amazing in the highlight reel. Derivation: Tenacious D.
That's levitation, homes. -- Dunk that could otherwise be described with the words "helicopter," "windmill," or "tomahawk," or any dunk by Vince Carter or Andre Igoudala in the month of December 2005. Derivation: Tenacious D.
Bartender! Canadian Club. -- used in conjunction with the Blue Jays, Raptors, or any Canadian NHL team.
Get to the chopper! -- Variously applied, e.g. Albert Pujols has just hammered the crap out of the ball and is beginning to trot around the bases; Ben Wallace has completely ...
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02 Mar 06 · filed under: baseball, the ancient past · (0) ·
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I have irrational feelings about Kansas basketball, and this entry is a simple effort to contextualize and provide foundation for comments I will make as the 2005-6 season unfolds.
I grew up in Kansas. My grandfather, great-grandfather, dad, uncle, and aunt all attended the University of Kansas. My family had season tickets for both football and basketball games, and I spent a sizeable chunk of my childhood running around those stadiums. At football games, we sat on the 50-yard line, about 30 rows up from the field. For basketball, we sat courtside -- second row, actually -- behind the Kansas bench, Jack Nicholson-style.
Any fan of college sports will tell you that season tickets to Kansas football have never been in high demand, at least not in my lifetime. The last glory year for Kansas football was 1969, when they were edged 15-14 by Penn State in the Orange Bowl. My dad traveled to Miami for that game, and the story of profound heartbreak still stings, even though I wasn't there. The basketball Jayhawks had hay days in the fifties, again, well before my time, winning a national championship in 1952 and coming up one point short of another in ...
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20 Jan 06 · filed under: kansas basketball, the ancient past · (2) ·
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I'd never heard of Robert Adams before I saw his show at SFMOMA. Called "Turning Back," the photos document the destruction of the old-growth forests that Lewis & Clark passed through on their journey westward. The title refers to the implications and complications of westward advancement. When Lewis and Clark reached the West Coast, they turned back and headed east; the vast devastation in Adams's photos conveys the sense that -- these days -- there's no turning back.
"Turning Back" is bound to strike a chord with people. It evokes indelible American ideals and icons -- the natural beauty of America, the promise inherent in the West, the bravery of Lewis & Clark -- and presents it in a format and style eerily reminscent to another photographer named Adams -- Ansel. Whereas Ansel's classic photos endeavor to communicate the vastness and beauty of America, the best of Robert's manage to convey an equally vast devastation.
While I walked through the show, I thought a lot about my hike on the PCT, which took me through a few of the same forests featured in the show. As I approached ...
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07 Dec 05 · filed under: inside art, the ancient past, visual · (0) ·
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Pittsburgh. Buffalo. Niagara Falls. Toronto. Detroit. It's not exactly Route 66, but it was hot.
The whole trip is on Flickr.
03 Aug 05 · filed under: flickr, the ancient past, visual · (0) ·
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10 things about Gabe & Yoshi's wedding:
The bride and groom. Our golden couple. The whole weekend was a perfect reflection of what we all love about them.
Kalamazoo. Charming and fun. Shady trees, greasy spoons, a surprisingly fancy art museum.
The winding, tree-lined streets of Kalamazoo. Grid-less! Baffling! London, Boston -- those cities have nothing on the complexity of Kalamazoo. If some kids on skateboards hadn't pointed the way, we would have missed the beginning of the wedding. Thanks, kids!
Fireflies and Christmas lights. The bride's sister's boyfriend (Andrew) hosted a lovely after-party on the night of the rehearsal dinner. Usually these parties are ill-planned and bar-oriented, but this one was well-executed outside on a beautiful back porch lit by Christmas lights and fireflies.
The Kal-Haven Trail. Nearly a death-by-humidity experience.
Suite 702. Post-wedding sing-alongs, beer-scrounging and hotel-room-jacuzzi-ing at the Radisson. Classy.
The excellent, eclectic food. Not that there's anything wrong with the salmon filet/side salad/baked potato thing, but it was pleasantly surprising to get a nourishing, unique meal at a wedding reception. I actually ate this food, and liked it. Nice work, wedding ...
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20 Jul 05 · filed under: flickr, the ancient past · (0) ·
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So as it turns out, Bob Woodward met Deep Throat in a White House waiting room. Of all the juke joints in all the world! Woodward was a lieutenant in the Navy and often delivered documents to the White House. Felt was there on FBI business, undoubtedly looking out for the best interests of the nation.
Woodward's account is amazing. All these years, I thought Deep Throat was some kind of all-knowing genius. Turns out he was a petulant administrator who was bitter about being passed over at promotion time. One must ask: Why the *hell* did his family think that this was a good idea?
Woodward offers a glimpse at the kind of thing we'll probably read once Felt publishes his own account. Too bad the cloak-and-dagger "prearrangements" sound so corny:
Take the alley. Don't use your own car. Take a taxi to several blocks from a hotel where there are cabs after midnight, get dropped off and then walk to get a second cab to Rosslyn. Don't get dropped off directly at the parking garage. Walk the last several blocks. If you are being followed, don't go down to the garage. I'll understand if you don't show. All this ...
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02 Jun 05 · filed under: law & order, the ancient past · (0) ·
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Bookforum recently published a tribute to Thomas Pynchon called "Pynchon from A to V," written by critic and Pynchon maniac Gerald Howard. Most Pynchon fans discover that their love dare not speak its name because when it does, it instantly labels one as a literary snob and smartypants. Like experience in armed combat, love of Pynchon and Gravity's Rainbow is best delivered in the format of memoir, and Howard's affectionate tale of his own Pynchon obsession inspired me to reconsider mine.
Let's first get the unavoidable and unfortunate realities out the way: Gravity's Rainbow is dense and unfriendly. Pynchon's characters appear from nowhere, have bizzare names, and disappear without a trace. Poof! Gone. Most vexing of all, reading Pynchon in general, and GR in particular, requires wrangling zillions of intricate conspiracies within conspiracies, many of which seem to have no bearing on the Point of the Book, whatever the heck that may be.
Howard's GR experience was similar to mine, a kill-or-be-killed, finish-or-die-trying affair. I read GR when I was 23. It was a time of confusion, bluster, distrust, cut with confidence that my recently-acquired BA in English had given me unique insight into the world; in other words, I ...
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02 Jun 05 · filed under: lit, reviews, the ancient past · (0) ·
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