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It’s time for more Richard Brautigan

Hey, Bacon!

The moon like:
mischievous bacon
crisps its desire

      (while)

I harbor myself
toward two eggs
over easy.

It’s Raining in Love

I don’t know what it is,
but I distrust myself
when I start to like a girl
  a lot.

It makes me nervous.
I don’t say the right things
or perhaps I start
  to examine,
   evaluate,
    compute
  what I am saying.

If I say, “Do you think it’s going to rain?”
and she says, “I don’t know,”
I start thinking: Does she really like me?

In other words
I get a little creepy.

A friend of mine once said,
“It’s twenty times better to be friends
  with someone
than it is to be in love with them.”

I think he’s right and besides,
it’s raining somewhere, programming flowers
and keeping snails happy.
 That’s all taken care of.

    BUT
if a girl likes me a lot
and starts getting real nervous
and suddenly begins asking me funny questions
and looks sad if I give the wrong answers
and she says things like,
“Do you think it’s going to rain?”
and I say, “It beats me,”
and she says, “Oh,”
and looks a little sad
at the clear blue California sky
I think: Thank God, it’s you, baby, this time
  instead of me.

Letterpress I

A few weeks ago I took a weekend introductory letterpress class. On the second day, our project was to create a series of broadsheets. Although the room was filled with beautiful and tempting wood block letters, I decided to keep it simple, stick to the impression-making metal type, and lay out the phrase that had been running through my mind for a week.

It was a very fulfilling two days.



Little notes

Little notes.

- I wonder how many times in my life I have typed “a href” in my lifetime. Also “img src” and “br.” When I was your age, we didn’t have facebook or tumblr or any of that stuff. We had to code it OURSELVES. It was awesome. We were part of a club. The only templates were AOL and Geocities and those were terrible and we looked down at you. This is a story I will be telling over and over (and have already started) to any potential grandchildren and any small, android-like teenagers when 2050 rolls around and all you have to do is THINK something and it will be posted everywhere for people to see.

- When I was part of the middle school chorus, our teacher was Mr. Koovshinoff. We called him Mr. K. He emphasized, over and over again, that we must not, under any circumstance, slide into singing “what you” as “whatchu.” Now both the correct and incorrect pronunciations grab my attention immediately when hearing a new song. Yesterday I was listening to a song by Menomena and the singer sang, so clearly, what you and I decided that yes, I like this Menomena band. (The worst offender I can think of off the top of my head: “What You Waiting For?” by Gwen Stefani.)

- There is an old man who waits for the bus every day at a bus stop about 6 blocks from my house. As I’m rushing out the door, I never know exactly what time it is. He’s on my bike path, which is different than the way I drive, and I can always tell if I’m fairly on time (only 10-15 minutes late) or very late (30 minutes) depending on if he’s sitting there. If he’s gone, I know I’m in trouble and I better step up the pace. Where is he going? Does he know that he has become an important part of my landscape?

- A life goal/dream is probably going to happen in 4 months. It’s not set in concrete, so I don’t want to shout it out to too many people too quickly, but let’s just say I borrowed The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction in premature preparation and I am insanely lucky.

Local Natives

It seem too obvious that I would like this band. It’s like they were tailor made for people just like me.

It’s been a really busy summer and a really busy summer break from school. There is never any time to be bored. I don’t know what that means anymore and I think that’s a good thing. But here we go again. Class starts on Tuesday. The whole Saturday deal and all. I am strong.

Local Natives, Airplanes:

August Days

biketour
Sometimes there is nothing more to say than ‘well, that was a really good weekend.’ Here are the ingredients for a good weekend: learning, making, biking, new friends, old friends, some beer.

In Watermelon Sugar

In watermelon sugar the deeds were done and done again as my life is done in watermelon sugar.

–Richard Brautigan

During my short trip to L.A., I picked up a triple volume Trout Fishing in America, The Pill and the Springhill Mine Disaster, and In Watermelon Sugar at the super delightful, and previously mentioned, Skylight Books. The fact that they had this book, when it is so hard to find Brautigan anywhere, secures their place in my heart. Besides that, they had all the beautifully designed series books there too. I stood there, touching the covers. I stood there for over an hour.

I have been repeating that first sentence in my head over and over again today. I don’t know what it means, but it seems important.

venicebeach

sprinkles

michelle

realmadrid

griffithpark

kiana

jaden

santamonica

L.A.

ramostwitter

Going to L.A. Sergio Ramos is basically begging people to stalk him. I won’t. Beverly Hills? Nah.

Blast from the Past

My post yesterday reminded me of this, which was made for the Walker’s Worlds Away exhibition back in 2008. Love that brother of mine.

Life Layouts

Before I decided to become a graphic designer, before I decided I liked art, before all that, I tried to explain to people that I found parking lot layouts fascinating. I delighted in finding the “special” parking spot, the one out of alignment with the parking lot grid, the one carved out of a concrete pavement, stuck at the end of a row to make room for just one more car. Growing up, I spent the majority of my play time with Matchbox cars building parking ramps and parking the “pretty” car in that one special parking spot. I have always loved layouts. I’ve been talking a lot about Sim City lately. Layouts. I love the face value of things and looking at them straight in the eye without commentary, without anything else to distract you from the form. *And yet they all mean something, don’t they? They were built in their form for a reason. They tell you about people.

I still have trouble articulating exactly what I mean. It’s not quite mapping. Is there a word for a passionate draw to the 2-D form of constructed environments?

maclean_housing

maclean_parking

Images: These pictures (and all the others) by Alex MacLean make my heart race. Via the finders-of-awesome, Public School.

moore_rotations

Image: Matthew Moore: “In October of 2004, my grandfather sold the first portion of our family’s land to Taylor Woodrow for a 253 home suburban community. This is the planned lot map that was submitted to the city of Surprise. I acquired this map from the city and used as the template for the design of my next land artwork entitled Rotations: Moore Estates.

The site for the earthwork was chosen in its relation to the actual building area of the development. I mapped out Moore Estates at a third scale using a CAD program and a GPS surveying crew.

The 253 homes were planted in Sorghum, and the roads were seeded wheat.”

34_ruschawhole

Image: Ed Ruscha, from 1967’s Thirtyfour Parking Lots

Psychic Octopus

Sometimes I really love my job because I get to spend time messing around with Photoshop and making pictures like this one.

Link: Paul the Psychic Octopus Predicts Your 50/50 Votes

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