oh yeah, and amy lynch is my hero.

After the library, Amy and I went to the beach with her posse. You can just barely make out the Olympics in the background of this picture, but we could see them perfectly. (I would suggest clicking on the image to enlarge it, if you really want it that bad.) 

Today me and Amy Lynch attended the Oliver Herring Task performance at the Seattle Public Library's Central Branch. I was interested in observing how Herring maintained control of the performance, considering the tasks were acted out by a group of 35 volunteers, and how as an audience we are allowed to experience the work.

Unfortunately, all we were was confused. There was all kinds of trash everywhere, and not a lot specifically happening. We didn't know what the tasks were, or if anyone was doing them. The girl in the yellow dress was telling someone "not to tear down the fort", while an older women tried to get someone to help her figure out how to use a c-d player, which after it was figured out, started to play whimsical-french-circus sounding music. At that time, another group started playing four-square. And no, besides for the four-square and the music (minus the c-d player troubles), I don't think any of the above mentioned were specifically planned out. I started to wonder about the lines between people watching and performance, and to figure out what it was that I was doing. 

Before we left, the group came together and sung happy birthday to the seated man in the white shirt (Oliver Harring is the one on the far left holding the video camera.)  Overall, while interesting, I felt that the only people who could really enjoy it were the ones performing. Everything looked like it was a lot of fun, but all we could do was look at it from the other side of an atrium, like a zoo, with paper and all kinds of strange debris strewn everywhere. I am happy to have seen the work and to have learned somethings about performance, but honestly, I can't say what I really felt about it, good or bad. 

this video isn't that great, but image how awesome this house is going to be!

It will probably come as no surprise to anyone that I absolutely do not like Pearl Jam. In fact, I would go as far to say they are probably one of the worst bands of all time.* So I was hilariously delighted to hear of a new terminology for fans of this band: EdHeads (i.e. one who is of the persuasion of actually liking Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam enough to go to the lengths of obsession, believe it or not!) It was relayed to me all too casually by some bro-brah who was just sitting on the couch less than ten minutes ago. It just sort of rolled out of his month, like it was no big deal, like he talked about Pearl Jam all of the time. Amazing.



*O.K. so I don't completely hate Eddie Vedder. That would be too mean, considering he won a morsel of respect from me for his work on the Into the Wild soundtrack, which was actually pretty damn good. But let me tell you, I was completely shocked, and if you ask me, it was the amazingness of Christopher McCandless that did it. All of his positive energies saturated Veddy, up out of the grave and into song.

After David unclogged the sink, which is a really good thing because it smelled awful, I found this website called FontStruct. You can make your own type-face, or download some from their pretty interesting selection of fonts. This is something I was messing around with.

It's no Futura, but it will do. Since I'm not very good at making my own, I've been on a font downloading frenzy all day!

New friend Erin turned me on to this video. Radiohead held a contest in which different artists could remix the song Nude off of the In Rainbows album. So instead of lots of fancy electro beats and obnoxious mac-made techno tunes, this is the masterwork of James Huston, who in my opinion, takes the cake.

a house in a tent! this is probably the most beautiful home that i've ever seen. Designed by Frohn&Rojas Architects, The Wall House is composed of multiple layers. Each layer constitutes a different material in which the house defines-and re-defines the inside and the out. But, if it were really up to me, it would be all tent, all the time.

you can read more here, here, here, here, and here.

because we all need a little more david duchovny in our lives. 

so, summer is upon us. and while it isn't anywhere near warm enough for swimming here in the beautiful pacific northwest, i've been beginning to start thinking about getting a bathing-suit for when the time is right. fortunately i have my work cut out for me. mossy oak, real tree, and blaze orange swim gear!

also, i really want this shirt.

So while I was busy searching the internet for pictures of Alton Kelley, I found this poster created by him.

If it isn't immediately apparent to you, this is nothing other than an image of Union Terminal, which houses the Cincinnati Museum Center, my place of employment for over a year, as seen in the photo bellow.

So I decided to investigate more and ran across this website called Vintage Rock, which stated this about the album/train terminal:

Not to be confused with the album of the same name by the same band, released on Arista in 1977, this three CD package is appropriately titled after the Dead's latest venture -- the creation of their own museum/showcase/concert venue that is to be erected and open by the end of the millennium. Supposedly all the proceeds will go into the construction of this grand edifice which will either reside in San Francisco -- the Dead's hometown -- or New York -- everyone's hometown.

Like just about every Dead release since Jerry Garcia's death in 1995, this live set -- from March 13, 1990 at the Capitol Centre in Landover, Maryland -- is complete and uncut. The packaging is also top-notch, featuring the art of Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley, the creators of the original Terrapin release -- featuring the dancing turtles at the train station, a popular Dead image -- as well as several other Dead graphics. Here they have taken liberties, and devised a beautiful and immaculate keepsake. If the actual building to be called Terrapin Station looks anything like the artists' rendering, it will become a popular attraction.

The reason this particular concert was chosen to represent the band's fund raising efforts is because of the need for a strong version of, what else, "Terrapin Station." Research among Dead scholars, archivists and band members themselves have indicated that 1990 was a banner year for the band -- the last year with keyboardist Brent Mydland, and arguably the last year the band seemed to be putting forth much effort.

HAHA!

The New York Times also ran a quick story about the plans to build this giant Grateful Dead amphitheater/museum/library back in 1998, but there was no mention of plans for the facade of the building. So, the only logical thing to do would be to make Union Terminal the home of the new Dead Museum. It is already a museum center after all, and Ohio does house the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, so why not?

This is the start of a new campaign in which I want to seriously petition the Dead and the Museum Center to join forces. It obviously won't work, but would be so much fun. I will post my campaign posters as soon as I make them and I encourage everyone to hang them up all over Cincinnati.

R.I.P. Alton Kelley

yeah baby.

Speaking of Wiener Werkstatte, I found this awesome painting on a blog about ornamentalism. Check it out.

So, I have a favorite coffee shop in Seattle. It is called Bauhaus Books and Coffee. I haven't taken any pictures of it yet, but I found this one on the internet. If you look in the top right hand corner, you are able to see my favorite decorative element; the roughly 4ft tall framed photo of Walter Gropius.

Although it doesn't appear to be as Bauhaus influenced as it is Wiener Werkstatte, it sort of feels like you are in a non-time. The aging of the environment is similar to Highland Coffee in Cincinnati (which remains my all time favorite coffee shop out of any in the entire US of A, that I've seen at least) so it's easy to get comfy. Yay Bauhaus!

foxy mulder!!!!!

I spotted this Knitta graffiti outside of the place that I am staying! 

Also at the sculpture park were the three-dimensional graphic works of Geoff McFetridge. Because of how awesome this was, I decided to reserve an entire post for it. Geoff McFentrige's work teeters on the edge of whimsy, optical illusion, and paranoia. While similar in style to some contemporary illustration, especially popular with the neo-MTV generation, McFentrige's playful yet eerily dark paintings seem to transcend these trendy and somewhat expected forms of drawing. It hearkens back to painters and designers like Ladislav Sutnar, Kasmir Malevich, and Marcel Duchamp, while reversing the flow of the Adobe Illustrator craze by hand-painting each piece. Likewise, his work is quietly psychedelic, reminding me of Harry Neilson's animated children's film The Point (which if you haven't seen, you should definitely get a copy.)

Thursday John Douglas and I visited the SAM Sculpture Park with the sole intent of visiting Mark Dion's Neukon Vivarium. But, much to our dismay, the volunteer run installation was closed when we arrived. I am seriously considering volunteering, just so it can be open for people to see. Although it did seem that being in the manner of a Mark Dion piece it would be inaccessible, right?

I was still pretty upset, even though I was standing in front of a totally awesome Richard Serra piece.


But how can you stay mad long when you are cradled in the giant rusty ship-like womb of of a Serra sculpture?
Also of note, is the giant metallic tree ascending from a bed of wild flowers in direct proximity to the Mark Dion piece, which I found ironic and fitting simultaneously.

And lastly, probably the coolest job ever. I wish I could say that I buffered pop-enlargements for a living.

Sunday afternoon John Douglas, Amy, new friend Erin, and myself traveled out to Anacortes to see about a possible job opportunity. I wasn't too keen on the job, but Desolation Point was amazing. Observe:


This photo is hilarious. I'm not sure exactly what is going on, but I have a feeling we were looking for good spots for napping. Which we did.

Afterwards, Amy summoned the Norse gods of the sea on the edge of this cliff.

day four

Oh, the glory of the God-Mountains!!!!! We left Montana and drove into Idaho only to see the wonder and the power that is the GOD-MOUNTAINS!

After we passed through Idaho, we entered into Western Washington, which is an arid grassland. This continued through most of the state until, BAM!, MORE GOD MOUNTAINS! There is no way to describe the magnitude of these mountains. It's insane. So I won't talk I'll just illustrate.

Now, keep in mind, at this point we are less than two hours away from downtown Seattle. Shortly thereafter, we entered the city, which has its own forms of godlike magnificence.

day three

In the morning we awoke to the glory that was Badlands National Park. The temperature was perfect, probably about 70 with cool breezes, and the soft grassy patches made perfect for camping. We saw bunnies, mountain sheep (which look more like deer), and many many many cute little prairie dogs. There are foxes, ferrets, and buffalo, too. But we didn't see any of them.
This was our camp site. I had already taken down my tent (which is totally awesome, I just got it right before the Gorge trip, and hence very proud of its bran-new-ness.)



The thing that I really loved about the Badlands was that it looked exactly like the Painted Desert, which I visited last summer, but it has these cute little tufts of grass on top of the buttes. Observe the benefits for meditation:

After we left the Badlands we drove on to our next destination, Butte, Montana. We were all set to camp in Butte, making sure that we wouldn't have another repeat of Monday night. But, as our luck and ill-planing would have it, this is what greeted us as we drove in to town:

In case you are confused by this picture, that's about 2 inches of snow on the ground. Butte was conveniently located at the very foot of a giant god-mountain. We got to the KOA, and after a little bit of consideration, checked into Eddy's Motel. In the comfort of our motel bed with cable television (oh, luxuries) we watched South Park until we fell asleep.

day two

The next day we knew that we deserved a break and were looking forward to arriving in South Dakota, the land of tourist traps! Our first stop was some place that claimed to have a cowboy town, live buffalo herds, and animatronic western scenes. It ended up having everything but the live buffalo, but plenty of amazing buffalo pelts. Then we started to see billboards for the Corn Palace.

The Corn Palace is located in the town of Mitchell, South Dakota (which actually is a really cool place, and it even has a little cafe called Mustards Last Stand, ha!). It is surrounded by 80 gift-shops, but once you penetrate through, you come across a Russian style palace covered in corn murals.

As you can see, the murals are made completely out of corn husks. Upon entering we found the work of a local Souix artist Oscar Howe, who was the Corn Palace artist in residence during the 1960's and 70's. His illustration style was so amazing, that we knew we had to find out more about him. Lucky for us there was the Dakota Discovery Museum and Howe Gallery. So we went there next.



The Dakota Discovery Museum was pretty cool and the gallery was amazing. They had not only the work of Oscar Howe, but of Edward Sheriff Curtis and Charles Hargens ,too (whose entire studio was recreated within the gallery). And the best part was the women who ran it was totally awesome. She even gave me a little book of her fiction writing. So we hit the road because Wall Drug was only a couple hundred miles away.



Wall Drug has to be the most amazingly ridiculous place ever to exist in the great 50 states. The story goes that Wall Drug got its fame by offering free ice water to weary travelers. It is located in Wall, South Dakota directly above Badlands National Park. There is really no way to describe this place. And if you haven't "dug it", then I guess there really is no way for you to know. Imagine hundreds of miles of open highway, cattle ranches on either side, adorned with hand painted signs advertising everything from a t-rex, to a travelers chapel, t-shirts, free water, 5cent coffee, useless things, etc. And when you finally come to your destination, being Wall Drug, it is a maze of gift shops, kitch museum-esque displays, old west themed everything, and, you guessed it, animatronic western displays.

It's easy to see how you could get lost in the wonderment of Wall Drug. And that we did. Being one who has a weakness for postcards, I was going crazy! So many hilariously mundane postcards of puppy dogs talking to frogs about their location, buffalo herds, airbrushed wolves, Native American exploitation, galore. And lastly, there were the displays of taxidermed animals dressed in western gear.


Day two turned out to be an Americana overload, and we were happy to finally put it to rest in the serene comforts of the Badlands National Park.