circumlocution

brevity is the soul of what?

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Location: Montreal

26 December 2006

a continuation of sorts.

well, it turns out i totally can't remember what we did on monday, or tuesday for that matter. suffice it to say that san francisco was rad regardless and we saw (or at least, michael saw) joanna newsom at the great american music hall on tuesday night. i was there alright, but couldn't see a damn thing based on the fact that i'm about 5 feet tall and we got there late. late in sf means 9.30pm. isn't that nice? home by 1pm. fucking sweet man.

anyway, we got a ride back to los osos on wednesday with my friend ally, who lives in a nearby town. being at my parent's house is so weird, but so nice. here are a few views from their place:















you're looking at morro bay in the distance, and its claim to fame, morro rock. morro rock is one of 9 mountains in a range through san luis obispo, all dormant volcanoes. morro rock is actually the cap of either the 7th or 8th, the rest of which is buried deep beneath the pacific ocean. it's a bird sanctuary and a disgusting tourist trap.

yesterday michael and i went to montana de oro, which is an absolutely beautiful state park and beach area a few miles from my house. we went to a tiny pebble beach called spooner's cove and waded in some really freezing but refreshing water. seriously, if you ever find yourself lost on the california coast, and you happen to be in a totally random town called los osos, make a point of going there. it's probably one of the prettiest places i've ever been in my life.

today is/was christmas day, and my family broke a tradition of going to the cinema on christmas day in favour of staying home curled up on the couch watching the world's fastest indian. it's an awesome movie about a really cool old motorcycle. which, supposedly, is in my hometown right now!

so i hope i do something exciting enough to warrant an interesting post in the next few days. happy holidays to you!

21 December 2006

the golden state.

well here i am, sunny california. we flew into san francisco on friday and spent the weekend there. here's what we did (boring, but with lots of linxxx!):

friday: get into sf at around 7pm california time. drop off our stuff at our friend ava's house, and then immediately go get a burrito from taqueria cancun. THE BEST BURRITOS EVER. wander around the mission district a bit and then go back to ava's. fall asleep by 10pm.

satur(art)day: out of the house by 9am. get breakfast at this place around the corner, and then go to the big farmer's market on the embarcadero. eat a lot of samples. then we decide to go to some museums. we start at the cartoon art museum, which is showing a really beautiful collection of old children's book illustrations. then we go around the corner to the museum of modern art, which is showing an amazing body of work by anselm kiefer, as well as a hysterical art film of kids in istanbul doing karaoke to smiths songs by british artist phil collins (NOT FROM GENESIS). after the moma we make plans to meet up with my friend kim and go to the new de young museum in golden gate park. we see 2 amazing shows: the ruth asawa exhibit, a retrospective of the bay area artist's crocheted wire sculptures as well as works on paper. check this out:























totally mindblowing. the other great show was the quilts of gee's bend exhibit, which features more than 60 quilts made by the women who live/d in gee's bend, alabama, over the past 4 generations. technically the quilts serve the purpose of keeping people warm, but they were totally works of art. see here:

















also totally mindblowing. after the de young, we walk through the park to the giant robot store for the printed matter opening. after being arty farty for an entire day we decide to head up to crepes on cole for dinner, where we meet up with kim's paramour dana. after dinner, we take the train downtown to catch the bus up to my friend jamie's apartment, near the crooked part of lombard street, in russian hill. i've been friends with jamie for over 10 years. she's totally crazy, in the fun way, and an amazing artist. she just graduated from san francisco art institute and needs to become famous soon. we spend some time up there for a bit and then head home and pass out from art-exhaustion.

sunday: we wake up relatively early and go have some breakfast at the pork store cafe in the mission with ava. michael and ava decide to have a big bike ride down to ocean beach (isn't that the best name for a beach?) that afternoon, so i make plans to spend the day with jamie. michael and i sadly part ways and i head up to jamie's. we take the bus down to fillmore street where our friend ryan works at a really awesome pet store called george. then we wander in and out of shops we can't afford before getting some food at la mediterranee, a great greek restaurant. from there we head back to the mission to go to this amazing shop paxton gate which is basically a gardening/oddities/taxidermy shop. it's right next to 826 valencia, which is the san francisco contingent for mcsweeney's. after spending about 2 hours in paxton gate, we head over to artsf, which is (sadly out of date) having a show of artwork for less than $100, organised by an old highschool friend of mine. i know that there are going to be a ton of people i know there from both university and my hometown, but i don't expect to see half of my roommates from 2001 there! it was totally crazy. they all live in sf now and are in a band called the dedications. i also get to see my friend ally, who is from my hometown and went to the same university i did, but only after i graduated. and do you want to know something awesome? ally was a semi-finalist for this past season of america's next top model! i bet she has some great stories. anyway i spend some time at the art show with her and jamie and ryan, and then jamie and ryan take off and i head over to meet michael at a bar on 16th called gestalt haus, where a bunch of bike nerds are drinking litres of beer, eating vegetarian kielbasa and swaping bike parts. i get there just in time to meet up with michael and his friends erik and ben, and we all head over to golden era in the tenderloin for some vegan chinese. so we're all totally stuffed, but michael and i think it's a good idea to go to mel's diner for pie. we each get a slice of pie and pick up a slice for ava and head back to her place to eat pie and watch a shitty movie called pulse.

monday and tuesday coming up shortly.

14 December 2006

just in time for holiday gift-giving.

the postcard sets are ready and available at lost and found, as well as fred.

13 December 2006

we'll teach you tricks that will blow your mind,

like a moon without a tide.

2 of my favorite songs/videos from 2006.



12 December 2006

tough crowd.

show of hands; who reads this shit?

now some cool trees:






















the tree circus.

10 December 2006

query.

i like cameras. old ones, like really old, that take film. before your time, you know.

if anyone hears of anyone giving any away, tell me about it. i like collecting things, especially old cameras. you know?

here are some pretty camera sites.

instamatics
dianas and dianas
leica swoon
subminis:
17.5s
110s
some good linxxx
junk
polaroids
some lucky person's collection

look how cute *squeal!*

06 December 2006

quoth my distraction, evermore.

i done got myself a brand new blog.

04 December 2006

the long horse!

tinselman brings it all back.

long live

long horse!!

03 December 2006

the long horse?

i posted this on my favourite messageboard, halifaxlocals, after reading about it on boing boing:

the long horse! it's REAL. just like the cows whose legs on one side were shorter so they could stand on the side of the mountain without falling off, like in pecos bill's day.

the long horse.

as well,

tinselman's original post.

if you click the wiki link in that post, you'll be brought to a page that states that the long horse is a blog-derived hoax and that it's actually not real. there are links to pictures that show that there has been some manipulation to create long horses.

(that wiki article isn't the same one in the extinct breeds post, so click the one in the extinct breeds post.)

tinselman rebuts
...

and has a witness.

who knows if they were real? whatever, they're neat.

here are some pictures of long horses:



01 December 2006

j'aime des cartes postales.

quite right; i do love postcards. so much so that i made a postcard set of the giving up the ghost images. there are 12 images in the series, plus i made this super rad index card so that you can see what you're getting.



























the set comes in a clear plastic sleeve so you can see how downright purty it is.

$12 is a steal. i'll send it to you in the post for $14!

make your special someone happy this holiday season.