Thai Statue in San Francisco

We met my old friend Amanda for brunch while in San Francisco this October. This half-finished sculpture of a Thai Diety was outside the Asian Art Museum near the Civic Center. This was a really top notch museum!

A Tree Falls in Brooklyn (or many trees and few cars)

Last night around rush hour, there was a freak storm with Tornado like winds averaging around 65mph that caused damage all over Manhattan and the boroughs. Some photos from the NY Times above show huge trees down in our neighborhood, only a few blocks away. On 11th Street around the corner from our apartment there was a really large tree that had been struck by lightening and had uprooted and cracked the sidewalk, also crushing a car in it's path. There were branches strewn about on all the sidewalks and streets. This morning, the camera crews were out to cover the damage in broad daylight, but by this evening most of the trees has been cut up and fed to the woodchipper. Everything was all cleaned up pretty quickly. I had no idea that such a fierce storm was going on while I was working! It felt like a little like a horror flick was unfolding when I got out of the subway and saw so many large trees fallen and cars smashed.

Here's the NY Times coverage:

Philly's Murals

Beautiful murals in West Philadelphia. These are called 'Holding Grandmother's Quilt' and 'Grandmother Sewing'.

I wish I took these pictures, but they are from NPR's report. Read here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129281658

A lovely quote from the article:
" I know that what we're doing isn't a solution for all that is wrong with the city ... [but] murals show us the catalytic role that art can play in healing a city," Golden says.

Killer Jellyfish Poster

Cute poster with graphic design humor from Core77.

Home Improvement

Here are some recent pictures of our new apartment. We've painted the place and started to put up decorations. I'm in the process of putting up the molding in our small room behind the kitchen. And we are waiting on an order of new shades for the tall living room windows.

The colors used are Valspar Paints:
New Avocado: for the living room
Rich Chocolate: for the kitchen
Rising Tide: for the Bathroom
Sage Bud: for the Bedroom

Psychedelic posters

We visited the Toledo Art museum to see the current exhibit on Psychedelic rock posters. Of particular interest were the black light posters. They were pretty interesting to view as a group in a darkened room. Here's more info about the exhibit: http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=38651

Motorcycle lessons

Getting lessons on Mom's rebel. After a few laps in first gear around the parking lot, I'm ready for my second lesson.

American Signs from roadside Ohio, (Cincinnati)

The American Sign museum has a pretty large collection of old road signs and window signs dating back to the turn of the century. The collection was an interesting look at the way advertising and the craft of sign-creation itself has changed over the years. We're posing in front of the famous Frisch's Big Boy statue, which is rare with it's sculpted slingshot in the back pocket. The museum also had some big iconic signs, such as the original holiday-inn sign with the then modern 'moving lights', with it's blinking lights pattern in the bulbs.

The large spinning sphere with the car on it, was a moving sign that advertised a car dealership in Oakland, California. The sign must have been pretty impressive at the time with it's space age appearance and movement. Unfortunately, it happened to be in a bad neighborhood and still has large bullet holes in the sides. The cocktail sign is from a local Cincinnati restaurant.

One of the most interesting pieces to me, that was on display was the portfolio of a sign painter from the turn of the century. It's displays a sampling of letters that are hand-painted in gold on glass to display the painter's craftsmanship.

Here's a link to the museum, http://www.signmuseum.net/ if you ever find yourself in Cincinnati. It's well worth a trip.

Excursion to the MET

Exploring the rooftop modern art exhibit at the MET.
This bamboo structure behind me was created by Mike and Doug Starn and is called, Big Bambú: You Can't, You Don't, and You Won't Stop. People were climbing up inside the structure on stairs that reminded me of something out of Robinson Crusoe. We didn't make the climb, but it was a curious site. We actually went to check out the current Picasso exhibit.

New Apartment!

Here are some pics of our new apartment!

NYE 2010

ringing in the new year in style at Mike's amazing loft in Tribeca