"A Segscellent adventure"

I found this really neat article about Segways, and one reporters journey to learn to ride one on a tour of Baltimore.

I've posted the intoduction to the article, read the rest (and view the photos) in the link.

"Throughout history, mankind's lust for locomotion has propelled many an extravagant invention. In His Infinite Wisdom, God gave man two legs and unprecedented bipedalism, allowing man to literally rise above his quadrupedal ancestors. But then man said to the Lord, "eh, shove it, Pops," and sated his inner-speed demon. He tamed and rode horses; he designed wheels and popped mad wheelies; he egregiously underpaid some folks to build railroads. Then, in 1919, he wrought the Pogo Stick, which has since reigned as the undisputed King of Transportation.

Until now.

The future of travel is here, friends, and its name is Segway. Did you know that these two-wheeled, counterbalanced godsends have arrived in Charm City, thanks to a futuristic company known as Segs in the City? Did you know that for $45, you can experience the future today? And did you know that Metromix had the cojones to pay me to ride one of these things around, despite my well-known ties to the Official Society of Pogo Stick Enthusiasts?

These facts, and others equally useless, await you just beyond the precipice of the present. Join me for the journey of a lifetime, or at least the journey of a lunch break, as I infiltrate this forward-thinking cabal. Call it a segsual rite of passage. They made me wear a helmet, but you, dear reader, can go without."

Read the rest here
http://baltimore.metromix.com/events/article/a-segscellent-adventure/464422/content

Thats no pipe, thats my lamp

No, the pipes aren't about to melt.
They're a new floor lamp, designed to glow, but to LOOK like pipes. I guess the industrial style is really "in" right now. . . .

The cost? "Only" $614.

I'm pretty sure I can do something similar with a can of spray paint, some clear tubing, and a couple of light fixtures for about a quarter of that price. . . .

View/purchase one here
http://en.dawanda.com/product/217244-Lightpipe-
Lichtroehre-Leuchtsystem-Nachbau-Lueftungsrohr

Serious about archetecture. . . . .

Image from story/AP


"HUNTS POINT, Wash. — Rolling the waterfront house onto a barge on Lake Washington took just over 20 minutes. The house's maritime trip to British Columbia will take a bit longer.

In an effort to preserve a spectacular home at a bargain price, a Canadian family is moving the 3,360-square-foot, two-story house from its lakeshore location in this suburb east of Seattle to a site near Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.

According to public filings, the former owners bought the home for $9.4 million; but they just wanted the 44,000-square-foot lot.

So they contacted Nickel Brothers House Moving USA Inc., which then listed the home for $335,000, including moving the entire thing."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,368952,00.html

Rain! (photos)

The windows in the kitchen - its not blurry, thats how hard the rain was falling and streaking down the glass.


Safe to say we got just a little bit of rain the other day. . .
So, as usual, I grabbed my camera, and shot a few photos.
Not the best, but I'm happy enough with the results. It was too dark to do much more anyways, and I didn't exactly have all evening to spend shooting photos of the rain.



The view out my front door. ^




The rain coming down on the old pickup outside the kitchen door ^

David Byrne Uses An Entire Building as a Giant Instrument

"Boing Boing TV got to sit down with Talking Heads' front man David Byrne, who has created an awesome, humongoid instrument from a whole building. Basically, Byrne took an organ and wired the keys to different areas of the building where various gizmos are set up. When he strikes a key, it sends an electric current that starts a motor at the end of the wire, powering something that might strike the side of a wall or send a breeze through a pipe. This project is for Byrne's installation "Playing the Building," which is on display at NYC's Battery Maritime Building until August."

From
http://gizmodo.com/5015113/david-byrne-uses-an-entire-building-as-a-giant-instrument

Guardian Arts and Sports writers trade places for a day

"'This artist is deeply dangerous'

What
would happen if the Guardian's sports and arts writers swapped jobs? In
yesterday's G2, arts critics tackled sport. Today, the sports team take
on sculpture, opera, dance and music

The Guardian

Wednesday June 18 2008"



Theres both a video and a written article, and I would reccoment viewing either one, although both a very well done.
The article has commentary from five different writers, all sports -> art crossovers, who wrote about a subject they don't usually get the chance to write about.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/jun/18/art.pop

Update Notice

Due to a number of factors, updates will now be on weekdays only.
To preserve the quality and range of topics, there will no longer be updates on weekends until further notice.

The content won't change, the topics won't change, you'll just have to wait untilll Monday for new posts.

Your editor
Mark

Demon goats and literary humor

I found this very funny article on how to deal with demon goats.
I've published the first couple segments from the how-to FAQ's.


"Demons are funny things. Well not so much "funny." More like terrifying. They can either be a simple angry spirit that hurls kitchen knives at you, or they can take the physical shape of some multi-tenticled hellspawn with six mouths and a mind that telepathically screams words and images capable of plunging you into a nightmare realm of torture. But whatever your class of demonic possession, this handy FAQ will help you deal with it.

Let's get started!

I have awoken to a horrible sound coming from my living room.

You should probably go and investigate to see what is going on. Considering this is a booklet on demons, coming face-to-face with one is a startlingly possible scenario.

There seems to be some kind of...goat...in my living room, eating my throw pillows.

If it is simply a goat, consider calling animal control. Or simply shoo it out of your house and into the street where someone else will deal with it. I'm sure someone is looking for their goat."

Read the rest here
http://www.papertank.com/article/FAQ_So_you_have_a_demon

I really feel sorry for this guy

Han Meilin is the designer of the Chinese Olympic Mascots. He not only endured the rigors and pain of having to re-design his characters, but he's now faced with a slightly larger problem:

"Now we learn that a growing number of people in China have started letting superstitions get the better of them and believe that Meilin's Olympic mascots are the fulfiller of horrible prophecies or somehow responsible for the recent natural disasters that have plagued the nation."



Man, that stinks.
I really feel sorry for Mr. Meilin.

Photo and quote from
http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/branding_identity/
beijing_olympic_mascot_designer_blamed_for_natural_disasters_in_china_
87288.asp?c=rss

Life-size baloon characters

As usual, I was doing my trolling of the internet for random links, and I stumbled upon this guy, who does life-size ballon figures - like Elvis, Master Chief (from Halo), and Mario.





View more photos of his work here
http://www.balloonguyentertainment.biz/Archives/FeaturedImages/html/0.htm

Visit his website here
http://www.balloonguyentertainment.biz/

Art (of the edible kind!)

Okay, so theres been a lot of video and photo on here lately, although I'm trying to cover ALL forms of art. I figured it would be good to do a post on something thats a little more.. .interactive? So, enjoy.

Here's a nice article on some of the best ice cream treats available in the freezer at the grocery store (instead of straight from the ice-cream truck.)

Their favorite?

"Blue Bunny Vanilla Champ! Cone: 330 calories, 19 grams fat, 35 mg cholesterol, 110 mg sodium, 35 grams carbs.

The testers never thought any cone could beat the Drumstick, but this one did it by a whisker and also notched the highest score in the test. Think of it as Drumstick 2.0, with the ice cream a little creamier, the chocolate a little richer and the cone a little crisper. This just might be the perfect ice cream treat. Final score: 97."

(Their ratings were out of a possible 100).
Read the rest of the ratings on summer ice-cream treats here
http://www.wgal.com/health/16462753/detail.html

Dogs. Lots of Dogs.

I think my only comment for this one is dogs. Lots and lots of dogs.
For a semi-slow-mo video, this is pretty cool. Dogs. Lasers (or is it neon?) And a really funky beat. I like how you can see the dogs skin/fur ripple as they jump or freefall, how its all wrinkly, and fluid, like the fun is just hanging loosely on the dog. I don't like how in some of these shots, the dogs look downright scary. At 1:17, that dog looks like its about to take my leg off at the ankle.

Funny and creative lightbulb ad

No, I haven't fallen victim to being paid to blog. I came upon this ad a few days ago, and I though it was really funny. I mean, it's creative. It's different then anything I think I've ever seen on US television, and I think its a great concept. I mean, things really are different in the dark, and what better way to make a lightbulb ad then to play off that fear.

"Waking Up" my Michael DuBois

Find more videos like this on Hollywood East TV


"Everybody, even teenagers, fall inlove. But when that love is broken our hearts ache with what seems to be no end. However, just like anything in life, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. And that light, is what reminds us of what we wake up for every morning."

View Earthrise from Mars

"The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera would make a great backyard telescope for viewing Mars, and we can also use it at Mars to view other planets. This is an image of Earth and the moon, acquired on October 3, 2007, by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

At the time the image was taken, Earth was 142 million kilometers (88 million miles) from Mars, giving the HiRISE image a scale of 142 kilometers (88 miles) per pixel, an Earth diameter of about 90 pixels and a moon diameter of 24 pixels. The phase angle is 98 degrees, which means that less than half of the disk of the Earth and the disk of the moon have direct illumination. We could image Earth and moon at full disk illumination only when they are on the opposite side of the sun from Mars, but then the range would be much greater and the image would show less detail.

. . .

On the Earth image we can make out the west coast outline of South America at lower right, although the clouds are the dominant features. These clouds are so bright, compared with the moon, that they are saturated in the HiRISE images. In fact the red-filter image was almost completely saturated, the Blue-Green image had significant saturation, and the brightest clouds were saturated in the infrared image. This color image required a fair amount of processing to make a nice-looking release. The moon image is unsaturated but brightened relative to Earth for this composite. The lunar images are useful for calibration of the camera."


It may not look like much, but on that one tiny blue and green orb exists all six billion or so of us - and has existed, as far as we know, every human being ever made/created/evolved/whatevered. Everything that we know, and everything that we ever have known is contained on that little sphere.

Whats even more amazing is that twelve people from that little blue-green orb in the bottom left have actually managed to travel through space and walk on the surface of the moon, all the way on the other side of the picture. If that isn't amazing, then I don't know what is.


Image, caption, and full-size photo from
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/
multimedia/mro20080303earth.html

Graph

more graph humor and song chart memes

(If anyone doesn't remember, Patric Henry was the "Give me Liberty or give me Death guy.)

Lolcat of the Day

more cat pictures

The Lolcats explain the difference between color, grayscale, and matte.

19 Famous Photos - in LEGO

"Recreation of Henri Cartier-Bresson's "Behind the Gare Saint Lazare" in Lego"

Photo (above, and in link) by Flikr member Balakov.
View the other 18 images here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/balakov/sets/72157602602191858/

Its baaaack!

Okay, so my art blog kinda fell on its face for a while. . . .
I got too caught up with other things, and I didn't have time to blog about anything, but my list of posts is starting to pile up again. . . .That, and I discovered a way to automatically post new blog entries - so one hour of work can mean a weeks worth of posts, which for me, is a major advantage. Look for new updates and posts soon!