You Say Tomato, I Say Tomato

left to right: Sweet Basil, Bachelor Buttons, Tomato, Snap Dragons and Gardenia(not one of the original seedlings)
So I won't bother discussing the others since obviously this tomato plant is getting crazy big. Twenty-one inches to be exact. I need to wire it soon!
Few notes on tomatoes from, who else but our lovely, collaborative, Wikipedia:

• The story goes that the lingering doubts about the safety of the tomato in the United States were largely put to rest in 1820, when Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson announced that at noon on September 26, he would eat a basket of tomatoes in front of the Salem, New Jersey courthouse
• Arkansas takes both sides by declaring the "South Arkansas Vine Ripe Pink Tomato" to be both the state fruit and the state vegetable in the same law, citing both its botanical and culinary classifications.
• Since "vegetable" is not a botanical term, there is no contradiction in a plant part being a fruit botanically while still being considered a vegetable.

Konono Nº1

This amazing sound and celebration comes from the area right across the borders between Congo and Angola. Konono Nº1 is the first volume of Crammed's new series Congotronic, which is devoted to electrified traditional music from the Congo.

















Instruments are hand made. The main instrument used is called a likembé or a thumb piano.









Much thanks to Daye for the heads -up

Swarm

These makes me think that creativity has more to do with an appreciation of what already exists than imagination. I have never seen birds swam like this. The images were sent to me from jason. The photos are from Europe...somewhere.

In the Mood?

Ladies and Gentlemen the world's oldest condom from 1640. Its reusable, made of pig intestine and comes with a manual that suggest disinfecting with warm milk.












Thanks to b- for the enlightenment.

Sweet Dreams Are Made Of These

Its funny I, of course, never conjured this image when I thought of floating. Now I will not be able to think otherwise. For meat balloons and other odd ideas see Unusual Cards

Satisfaction

There are few things truly satisfying in this world. To be sure, satisfaction comes in different forms for different people. Its doesn't even keep a consistent form throughout the life of one person. For instance, in college I used to drive past 5 coffee house to get to my favorite one. I would order a large "Mint Condition" consisting of espresso, steamed milk, chocolate syrup and mint syrup. This was truly satisfying. I savored every last drop. And then one day...nothing. It just didn't do it for me anymore. I am content but not thrilled with a regular cup of joe. Occasionally an album will come out that will hold me over to till I see the Dia at Beacon for the first time, encounter my first flasher or wake up early.
I think even when you pine for something and finally, after pouring all your time, thoughts and energy into this thing, finally you obtain it, that its not half as satisfying as the process was to get there. So then maybe its the search that's holding on to all the satisfaction.
In my search for this thing I found Marian Bantjes, my new design crush.







Thanks to HugeRash for the heads-up

Play Time

A couple of months ago I bid on a fairly large lot of letter magnets on ebay and won. I am working on an animation with the letter forms now. This is the test run.

Saturday

Aaaaah, Saturday. Last night some friends and I wished Peter bon voyage for his journey to teach in Japan. His is a good man that will be missed. I am looking forward to the stories he will have to tell. As you might imagine sending someone off who you will not see for some time involves a late night of drinking games, jokes and singing. So, this morning I woke at leisure. I managed to leave my phone at the party and haven't retrived it yet. A pleasant break from communicating.
Soooo, plant update(you'll notice a huge difference from the last):
Top image from left to right:bachelor buttons, tomato, snapdragon, forget-me-nots
Tomatoes are better than expected. I have already given two small pots of them away. I only photographed the big one but there is another of comparable size that is doing just fine. The snapdragon just now sprouted. I will have to re-pot them soon. The bachelor buttons are also doing pretty good. I can't really tell how these are going to unfold yet, but they seem to be getting there. Forget-me-nots...forget it. They are all but dead.







From left to right:zinnia and sweet basil
The zinnia are not plenty but the few are growing tall. Sweet basil is doing good. I don't want to get too excited about this one; keep your fingers crossed.
Onto the topic of pancakes; I love them.












I woke thinking that I wanted cheesy grits but when it came down to cooking time, pancakes won by a landslide. Occasionally I will add chocolate chips or top with bananas. Not in the mood for super sweet and, as always, having a bum banana dilemma, I opted for a pear topper. Now as most of you know I am a lifelong vegetarian with complicated relationship with eggs. I enjoy trying to cook eggs for family but couldn't eat a naked one to save my life. Even quiche and flan make me quiver at the thought of consumption.
Having said that, I relish baked goods and bread pudding. Don't ask me to make sense of this. The problem has plagued me for 25 years now and I don't care to investigate any further. But we all know ya gotta put an egg in your pancakes and so I do it. Today though, my egg freaked me out. It had a white thing in it. What is that? Needless to say, I didn't use this egg

Amnesty

Impeccable. Thanks to Walker for their Amnesty International Ads. And thanks to Chris & Daye for bringing them to my attention.

The Corporation

First allow me to make a few surface observations. I like the use of the Base Nine for the section titles. Who doesn't love to use an Emigre typeface?! Also, it donned on me that Noam Chomsky seems timeless. Its almost like he always has and always will look the way he does right now. Sure you can find photos of him when he was younger but that wasn't Noam...I assure you.
Now, this movie was recommended to me twice in one week so I took it as a sign to move it to the top of my queue and watch it the very day that it came in. The opening scene was a flickering of logos. Though, each logo was held on the screen for a mere second, I could identify all of them. *drool* 'Wow' I think immediately, 'those must be very successful marks from a design stand-point if I am recognizing them all.' *snap out of it* Did anyone watch the cartoon Duck Tales with Scrooge McDuck and his nephews? Well, Mr. McDuck's motto was "work smarter, not harder" which seemed to be the heart of the first corporations. No doubt he was a rich duck with money first and foremost on his mind. While his nephews clearly reaped the benefits of his ambition they also acted as his conscience.
Anyway, what really shocked me was how quickly coporations found a loophole out of responsibility; as early as the 14th Amendment. This gave them the rights of an individual. A little tacky I think, but not half as tacky as deforming human beings and animals(seriously drove me to tears), trying to claim a living organism as your on patented creation or privatizing rainwater. Overall I thought the most acute statement was made by Ray Anderson from Interface: "I realized that I was a plunderer. To plunder is not mine, its something that belongs to every creature on this earth."
And while this devastating documentary ended on a positive we-can-all-make-a-difference note(much appreciated and its true we can...somehow), lingering in my head were the words of Jonathan Ressler, president of Big Fat and official mayor of Choadsville. After describing his deceptive methods of corporate guerilla advertising, he summed up what he thought the general public should do in response to this corporate dilemma. "Just Say Thanks." Hey thanks! Your choad-key to the city is in the mail.

Ladies Love Cool Jays

...and so do men.
Everyone say hello to brandon, one of my best friends and subject of one of my favorite photos of the year. Even though I have known B- for 5 years now, I never knew he was one for karaoke. You learn something new everyday. I imagine he is at the last chorus of "I Will Always Love You".

W.O.T.

September 12th is a interactive simulation of the war on terror.
Honestly, its not the funnest game I have ever played. I kept making a lady cry, but you should check it out for yourself.

Knowing is Half the Battle

When I started my first year of design at Georgia State I was hungry to know everything that I could about this thing called graphic design. What was design anyway? Do I really get to be creative? Oh, and the new macs were just so sexy. How indulgent.
I was shock and intrigued to find that there was "well know" designers. It may have been a close friend at the time or my impeccable History of Design teacher, Liz Throope, but my eyes were opened. Not only are there highly skilled typographers out there, but there are also a lot of amazing efforts being made to educate the public. One of my favorites is COLORS Magazine originally edited by Tibor Kalman. The magazine releases serveral issues throughout the year. Each issue is dedicated to a particular topic and has a web site companion.
The Story of Energy is a good one.