My friend Pearl just started blogging. It’s pretty entertaining stuff, you should check it out. She tells great stories about living in Philly - like going to see Rambo with her parents at the Riverview or having crazy rides on SEPTA. Plus, she loves drawing cartoons. That lil’ fella above, for example. He’s Lonely Zombie, and he can’t get a good date ‘cuz he keeps eating their brains! Poor guy. Click through to read the whole strip.
My sister Anneke, the cutie that she is, just scored the cover of Lehigh Valley Style Magazine. How cool is that? It’s not every day you get to have yr face on the cover of a old media mag. Sa-weet!
Allow, if I may, to re-blog - without comment - a quote I just read on one of my favorite all-things-freak-folk blog, naturalismo:
Q: How do you think your present image as world traveller, bawdy singer, etc. combine with your image as a writer of children’s books?
Shel: I don’t think about my image.
Q: But if you are a spokesman and leader of your generation with millions of followers, don’t you care what they think?
Shel: I don’t speak for anybody but me; I am not a leader. I just want them to let me alone so I can do my thing.
Q: What is your thing?
Shel: I don’t know. That depends on the day, the time of day, and what I did yesterday.
Audrey and I have been lucky enough to be invited to a couple recent Philly Food Blogger meetups, an extravegant delight from the epicurian minds of some wickedly good cooks, wine lovers and foodies who like to write, eat and well, cook. Audrey and I don’t blog about food, per se, but we do have a video series about cool date spots in Philly called Illadates (in case you haven’t seen it!).
This time, the Philly Food Blogger meetup was hosted graciously by Taylor of Mac & Cheese. Her blog, IMHO, is one of the best-written, most beautifully photographed, and frequently updated restaurant/gardening/foodie blogs in the area. Plus, she’s one cool gal. Thanks for a great night, Taylor!
Audrey and I went out to Salt Lake City last week to visit her folks. One of the highlights was our day hike at Antelope Island State Park. This incredible island is in the middle of the Great Salt Lake and has always been a kind of spiritual home for Audrey. Buffalo everywhere. Wide open views. If you’ve ever seen Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle, remember the rodeo round-up scene in Cremaster 2? Not a lot different. Surreal!
It was my first time there, and I can see now why she loves it so much. What an amazing place! The land and sky all blur together in this vibrant magic of light, snow, salt, water, grass. Here are a few photos from the day, but be sure to look through the whole set. Truly beautiful.
Audrey and I returned just before Christmas from our indulgent 10-day voyage to the Yucatán. We have lots of fun stories to tell, but I’ll let the photos do the talking for now (since I’m at work now and shouldn’t be blogging!). Here are a couple of choice images. Many more on my Flickr set. Stay tuned for the (of course) video!
Audrey and I are in much need of a long vacation after many months of hard work. So it’s off to Tulum, Mexico for our honeymoon! We promise to return with good stories, funny videos and lots of amazing photos to make ya jealous. In the meantime, we are unplugging completely. No inkernet. No phone. Nothing. Just hammocks, margaritas, ocean and sunshine. Happy Holidays! See you soon!
It’s that time of year again, when everyone and their mother is reflecting on a year nearly slipped into history. Everyone loves ‘Best of…’ lists, and I admit, I’m no different. Since I have a blog, and you’re reading it, I will now impart to you the albums that I loved listening to over the course of this year, the ones that truly resonated and will forever remind me of the my life and times of 2007.
Number One: Person Pitch - Panda Bear - Can you ask for a happier, cooler, trippier set of songs? I don’t think so. This guy is brilliant. Not only did he make a masterwork in Person Pitch, but he also made a pretty killer album with Animal Collective and put on one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen. Here, see for yourself:
Number Two: In Rainbows - Radiohead - Bound to be on 99% of critics list, I realize, but how could I not? My god, it’s a masterpiece. Truly. This album is as good, if not better than all the previous efforts by these geniuses, and the fact that they released it on their own, shaking up the music industry just makes me love them all the more. This is one of those albums that you turn way up and close your eyes and sink into it wholesale.
Number Three: This Fool Can Die Now - Scout Niblett - My wife and I have been rocking out to her album ever since Audrey opened for her at Johnny Brenda’s. Seriously good stuff. Incredible it hasn’t blipped up on the proverbial radar. We have this album in constant rotation. I’m amazed that it hasn’t gotten more attention. Her duets with Will Oldham are incredible and her song writing is poetic.
Number Four: Neon Bible - Arcade Fire - This is the album of Summer ‘07. While Audrey and I sweltered and sweated in our warehouse loft during the blazing days of June and July, we’d pump this album up and rock out while making breakfast or cleaning the house. Not a bad song in the bunch. For real.
Number Five: Beware of the Maniacs - The Dodos (aka Dodo Bird) - These guys played a warehouse show this year that totally blew me away. I recorded a few songs, but my mic battery died and I lost all audio! One of the biggest bummers of the year, to be sure. I bought their album, and was not disappointed. These fellas just got signed to the great indie label French Kiss Records this month, so I hope they really take off!
The snow yesterday falling around us in Philadelphia was magical. It gave me shivers (the good kind) just thinking about all my past winter beginnings, especially the ones when I lived in Telluride, Colorado and the first dusting of snow was cause for much excitement. In honor of those wonderful winter feelings, I share with you this:
Our friends Lord Whimsy and his wife Lady Pinkwater joined us recently for a soiree chez nous (at which those photos above were taken, making our big, drafty loft look all warm and cozy!). Whimsy and I got into a discussion about ‘microcelebrity‘ and what it means to us as media makers. After further reflection, he’s written a great post about it on his blog, and I encourage you to check it out if you’re interested in such matters.
A snippet:
The timing of this more recent article on microcelebrity seems a bit odd; this technology-fueled social phenomenon has been around for quite some time now, although it has certainly grown and intensified in recent years. We are all becoming more adept as self-mediators: It has become one of those necessary twenty-first century life skills, right up there with knowing a few key phrases of HTML or knowing how to put one’s cell phone on vibrate mode. To quote Clive Thompson: “The truth is that people are developing interesting social skills to adapt to microfame. We’re learning how to live in front of a crowd.” In the words of Quentin Crisp, we’ve learned to “urinate with style”.
Hunter Gatherer has an amazing new song! Audrey just wrote and recorded a demo she’s calling “Sirens“. After listening to it only once, I have fallen in love with it, and am compelled to share it with you. I’m not just saying ‘cuz she’s my wife and I’m biased, either! Not that I have to reiterate, but damn, this girl has crazy talent.
I’ve been playing around with Tumblr lately, and have been totally diggin’ it. Check out my tumblog called Meem. Tumblogging (what a word!) is quick and painless posting, a little like Twitter, but more. A little like blogging, but less. Me likey.
I’ve been posting all sorts of ephemera from my journeys around the web. And posting photos from my cell phone from my journeys around my day (like the one above, taken under I-676 on 3rd Street). Fun!
Instead of having a party to celebrate the end of our second season of the Illadates show, we thought it might be fun to have a contest for our season finale show happening in a couple weeks. Isn’t that exciting!? Here’s the announcement we made yesterday:
Head over to uwishunu for details. You can email your date idea to iknow [at] uwishunu.com or leave a comment to enter the contest! We’ll be keeping track of the best pitches, and probably posting them in a blog post. You can vote for your faves, soon, too!
We can’t wait to hear what your favorite date in Philly is. Make ‘em good, people. We want to have some fun with you! Even if you don’t live in Philly, wouldn’t this be a great excuse for a visit?
And do us a favor… spread the word for us! Kthxbai.
Portland and I have a long, mythological relationship. I’ve only spent a grand total of sixteen or seventeen days there spread over four or five visits and passing-throughs. But it’s always lurked around my mind as one of the greatest cities in America, embodying so many ideals I want in a lifestyle. Biking, sustainability, art, music, proximity to wilderness. Oddly, even though I’ve gone on and on about “someday soon I’ll be moving to Portland” during the travel years of my twenties, I never have. And I wonder if I ever will. Once, in the fall of 2002, I even packed my car, ready to move, but somehow through a strange twist of fate, ended up in Philly for a year before moving back to Colorado.
Who knows. Maybe I’ll get my stint in Portland yet.
This is a little late post-Halloween, but I just got these pics from my sister-in-law Molly. My brother Dave works at Dreamworks as a digital animator. This is the kind of pumpkins he carves:
Last night’s show at Johnny Brenda’s was breath taking! Though I was full of nerves before they went on, Audrey and Gretchen played wonderfully. The other bands, Picastro and Scout Niblett blew me away. Watch some vids on my Live Music Journal. (UPDATE: just added another vid, the top one!)
Okay folks, this is a must-see! My wife’s band, Hunter Gatherer, previously a solo project, now a duo, is performing at Johnny Brenda’s on Sunday evening (October 28th at 9pm). Should be a lovely show as she’s opening for the excellent Scout Niblett. Come out and support her, hear her amazing songs! Of course, I’ll be video taping the performance and will be blogging it regardless, so if you’re far away or have a good excuse to miss it, just check back here in a couple days. Thx! See you Sunday!
Really, a bicycle is the vehicle of the gods, in my opinion. The most sustainable, healthy, and fun way to get around. In an age of Peak Oil, this is an awesome little way to show why biking rules. I just read about this great meme on the Nau blog: stickers, t-shirts and patches to show your love for your non-fuel consuming, human-powered vehicles. I had the idea for a sticker for the downtube of my bike: “Zero Emission Vehicle“, but I might just get one of these. Dig it. Go get yours and support the cause Zero Per Gallon website here.
And let me leave you with this lil’ poem from Jonny5, the purveyor of the project:
My good friend Jeff Carpineta brought his super great vintage polaroid camera (don’t know the exact model UPDATE: it was a Polaroid Land Camera circa 1970). Want to see more photos? Check out my Flickr set or our wedding photo group on Flickr. If you were there, make sure to add you photos to the group pool! Thx!
