| Oh, that's where it went. |
[Feb. 18th, 2008|02:55 am] |
As promised, or at least strongly hinted at in my last posting here, I have a new design blog at damnedgooddesign.com. I started it last week. It gets one post a day. One is plenty, I assure you.
I'll continue to use bronxelf.com for storage and email, just as I have for the past several years, and I haven't gotten rid of my personal LJ (which is obviously not this account) and don't plan to. I may find a use for this account in the future or I may not. But if you're looking for something to read, you can check out the rss'd version of DGD at ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) dgddotcom.
See ya there. |
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| but wait- where did it all go? |
[Feb. 12th, 2008|01:09 am] |
Not that anyone is paying attention, because I sure wouldn't if I hadn't been the one to do it myself, but I've pulled down most of what was on the site, or at least the front end of the site.
The truth is, quite obviously, I don't use this space for what it was originally intended and I figure everyone who wanted to ever read the archives already has (come on, folks you've had over ten years now.)
I'm going to be starting a new design related blog. Whether I do it here (which is certainly the most convenient thing to do, since you know, I'm already *here*) and just do a redirect to here from damnedgooddesign.com (which I've owned for years and never did anything with) or I put that domain on a different space(clean start, not on LJ- using wordpress, most likely, I don't know yet, because then I have to wonder what the hell I do with this space (if anything. Mostly I use it for storage on the back end). I do know that the chances of my going back to blogging publicly like I did ten years ago are less than nil.
So many blogs. So little reason to do anything with any of them. |
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| Limesuckers: The Lime Project. |
[Nov. 8th, 2006|04:04 am] |
http://www.limeproject.org
Many of you reading this know Heather, who is known on moblog and lj as yourhermione. Last year, right after Christmas, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. You may have followed her treatment in her moblog.
Whilst she has medical insurance through her job, Heather does *NOT* have prescription coverage(The US doesn't work that way, and though that may or may not be cause for debate it's not going to change anything right now.). The medication which has kept her alive and with us is killing her financially. Way back in January I had a zany idea to raise money to help Heather pay for her medical bills. A lot of really wonderful people have helped make that zany idea real (and along the way helped me come up with OTHER zany ideas to do the same thing.
I started a group, called LimeSuckers and tried to get this idea off the ground. Basically, a bunch of us got naked to help our friend. Cause fuck it. Sex sells and so long as Heather stays healthy and doesn't go broke, I don't much give a shit who looks at me naked. A bunch of other people thought the same way I do, and now we have a calendar coming out.
14 women.
2 countries.
8 states.
All kinds of shapes and sizes. Something for everyone. The one thing in common is they're trying to help Heather.
*ALL* the proceeds go directly to yourhermione. We don't see a nickel of it.
I felt strongly that if I cared about Heather, and didn't want her to go broke then it was my job to do something to help. You can too, and I'm not even asking you to get naked. Just order a calendar. That link up there will show you how. If you don't want to order one, that's cool too- there's a way to make a donation without an order. If you have a shop, a store, a place to sell a few? Spread the word. LINK the site to your blog. Be a big mediawhore about it. I don't care, so long as it sells a damned calendar. You can order them in bulk. We can take international orders. And if calendars aren't your thing, then after the first of the year the Limesuckers will be coming out with *other* products- ALL of them going to help Heather.
It's her job to get healthy. We're trying to make sure she isn't crippled by the debt of doing so for the rest of her life.
So go to the site, look around, order something. Again, the LimeProject (limesuckers) SEE NOTHING out of this money. ALL of it goes to Heather directly. The site itself was entirely created by our friend Mara and I can't thank her enough for all of the bust-ass late night frustrating hard work she's done on it.
And thanks to everyone else who has been busting their ass on this project all year. We're getting there.
Thanks everyone, beyond that. Just please. Order one. Order five. It's important. I don't think I can change the world and I'm not trying to. But together, we can help this one friend.
Feel free to snag that little icon for your blogs and sites.
As of this morning, the Limesuckers have reached 25% of their soft goal. Fully 1/3 of all donations and sales have come from people located outside the US. The outpouring of support has been wonderful and we can't thank you all enough. However we have a lot more work ahead of us, so please, spread the word everywhere and anywhere you can. The site itself is entirely work-safe.
Thanks everyone and I will keep updating as events proceed. :)
-elf. |
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| The great equalizer. |
[Jul. 27th, 2006|11:33 am] |
Note: This is a repost from my personal journal. I wanted to put it someplace public, because people seemed to like this, and wanted to link to it.
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There's been an interesting confluence of topics in my life this week, and one that keeps coming up with incredible regularity is the notion of introversion vs. extroversion. Extroverts outnumber introverts by a 3 to 1 ratio. (oh just google "extroverts outnumber introverts" to find this same statistic ad nauseam.) It is for the most part, an extroverted world. And a lot of the time, extroverts just don't GET introverted people. It's like they're another species. But being an introvert is like being left handed. You have to get used to living in a world where 90% of the people are right handed and in general, they don't care about your left-handedness. It used to be that only the insecure introvert would be noticed. We call that "shyness". But introversion is NOT shyness. Shyness is a combination of introversion and insecurity. But one does not need to be shy to be introverted. Confuse the two at your peril.
Just to be clear:
I am an introverted person. If you're one of the few people who think otherwise, you're wrong. There is no other word to describe you that is even remotely polite.
Having said that, I can understand why people sometimes mistake introverts for extroverts these days. That reason is the internet. The great equalizer. One of the things many extroverts (particularly ones who don't have a lot of introverted people in their lives) don't understand is that fundamentally, we find people tiring. That's it. We find interacting with people, even those we love very much to be a draining experience. We need time to be alone to recharge. And we LOVE to be alone. We are totally capable of entertaining ourselves. We do not _require_ the company of others. And my goodness but we need a barrier between us and people in general.
Enter the internet. Where un-shy introverts can be comfortable. Because we can deal with people on our terms-- not the terms of the extrovert. Where we can interact only to the degree we feel we'd like to and not feel the contstant drain of being around people in person. It's a place where we can function socially that perfectly meets our needs. You meet more introverts on the net because we LIKE it here. Extroverts are out partying and interacting with other people because they are energized by the physical company of others. And we can meet in the middle in this setting. Most of the extroverted people in my life are totally secure with themselves, and they grok how introverts work. I'll be honest and say most of the people in my life are introverts because I find that extroverts who function well on the net are not that many, as a percentage of extroverted people. They prefer meatspace, and I will gladly leave them to it. Thankfully though, all of my close extroverted friends are comfortable with themselves.
And then, there's the insecure extrovert. I'm not even going to get into all the things insecure extroverts do in meatspace to get attention, because I just don't care. I find that stuff just fodder for laughter, and the occasional bar fight. But just as insecure introverts (shy people) are easy to spot in meatspace, and harder to spot on the net, the reverse is true for insecure extroverts. You may or may not be able to spot them in meatspace. But you can sure as hell find them on the net. These are the people who IM you the moment you log on, almost every time you log on. They can't stand silence-- so if you don't talk to them for a while, they ping you, and when you ask what they want, they have no idea. They just wanted to have someone reply to them. They will go down every person on their friends list until someone is willing to talk to them. They need to be entertained. Interacted with. Distracted. They will come up with meaningless topics or even better, just random sentences, just to fill dead air. Anything, anything, to not be "alone". And dear god, but they whine about how bored they are. (The answer I want to always give is only boring people get bored.)
They require an audience. It's as if no one is interacting with them at every moment of the day that they require, they will simply disappear and no longer exist.
I often wonder how secure extroverts deal with these people. Do they kick them out of the extrovert club? Do they not get the little hat and a pin? (I think introverts have the lock on secret handshakes.)
But thankfully introverts have the internet. Because I don't think I'd talk to anyone if it didn't exist.
-INTJ poster child, out. |
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| And for my next trick... |
[Dec. 9th, 2005|06:31 pm] |
One of my Urban Architecture photos was nominated for the Gridskipper Urban Travel Blog Contest. You can vote for your favourite here.
I'm really quite flattered. I still am merely learning my way around the capabilities of the camera. NYC provides. I just made with the clicky-clicky.
Still, very cool. :) And thanks to Chris at Gridskipper for the nomination.
"It's an honor just to be nominated." |
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| The Taste of the Town. |
[Dec. 4th, 2005|02:56 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | art, conceptual | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  curious | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Soul Coughing: 4 out of 5 | ] |
Artists Invite Public to Taste Art
Excerpts:
"Visitors to Visionaire art magazine's "taste bar" are offered postage-stamp-sized strips that dissolve like film breath mints. They were developed in conjunction with artists, and the artwork paired with each flavor is displayed menu-like above the bar."
"Visionaire and New York-based International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. spent about a year on the project. The resulting 12 collaborations include "Mommy," a condensed milk flavor accompanied by a photo of a woman's breast by Yoko Ono.
There also are highly conceptual tastes like "Power," the flavor of sea spray and sweat envisioned by surfer Laird Hamilton and accompanied by a photo of his back."
I like this idea. It gets you thinking about what things would taste like-- about how concepts would taste. About ideas would smell. That's some heavy hitting shit, yo. I mean how do you decide what naked ambition tastes like? What intuition tastes like? What about what risk, desire...architecture taste like? I have no idea, but it makes me want to figure that out.
How would you define the flavor of concepts important to you? Things you feel completely comfortable with, but now you're being asked to put them in a whole new context and means of description? Tell me, I'm listening.
Apparently this same group did the same kind of exhibit with fragrances a couple years ago. That's easier than taste, for me. I want to bottle the smell of NYC just before it rains and water hits the asphalt. Ozone and power. The smell of whatever the hell those night blooming flowers are that go crazy just before June and scent a 10 block radius here in the Bronx. The smell of a working studio- fire, and smoke and linseed oil and alcohol, with the undercurrent of the ammonia used in diazo prints, because that's what work smells like when it's just coming off the keys and the brushes and out of the blast furnace. The smell of NYC in winter, which is like a knife's edge of crisp-- I only wish I didn't have to be cold to experience it.
So what do your favorite concepts taste like? What do they smell like? And how would you translate that, if you were asked to do so? |
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| There is no Santa Claus. |
[Nov. 18th, 2005|07:45 pm] |
Pulled shamelessly from J. Grant: What it's like to be an Atheist.
Really well put, frankly.
In other news and entirely unrelated, I kinda got pulled along on a coat-tails ride recently on the completely deserved and wonderful writeup in the November issue of Architectural Review of my friend Rob "The Architect" Annable.
I find it amusing that the first time anything of mine appears in AR, and it's one of my photos(as opposed to an actual design project)-- from my camphone no less, and taken as a joke that I never expected anyone but Rob to actually understand. Life is funny like that.
And despite his protestations to the contrary, he will always be a Starchitect. Good going, Rob.
The semester ends in about a month, and with any luck I will be able to squeeze out one more semester's worth of scheduling so I can Get the Hell Out with both my degrees (and keep my Summa, which I'd really like to do.) It's just another step on the plan of world domination getting enough letters after my name to play anagrams. (and thank you Dr. Matt, for that one.)
-elf. |
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| bars and guitars. |
[Nov. 4th, 2005|05:14 am] |
So last Friday Chris Orbach did a double-set show with the band at CB's Gallery to raise money for the Save CBGB Fund. Great show, really, as evidenced by the almost 90 photos and copious video I managed to take in the course of the evening. I just finished editing the last of the pictures. I must be getting at least a little better at this because I'm keeping more of the pictures I take.
A lot of them are still blurry, but it's a rock-and-roll blurry. At least that's what I'm going to claim if anyone asks. It's clear though that I need a lens kit at some point for my Nikon, as I just can't get the closeups I want out of the built in lens on the thing. Oh well. All things in time, I suppose.
Anyway, fun was had by all in attendance, and if you missed this show (and shame on you) come to the next one. Chris is starting to play some great new songs along with his old stuff. Totally worth the price of admission. You can always find me. I'm the one with the camera.
And occasionally a silly hat.
Rock and roll, man. Rock and roll.
-elf. |
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| Sometimes, the best things are the ones we don't post. |
[Oct. 11th, 2005|07:12 pm] |
While I was looking through the 20k or so images we have at WNA trying to cull needles in haystacks images for the book, I came across an image that we never posted.
That doesn't mean we didn't LIKE it.
We get a lot of images we can't post but that we like. Sometimes we write back to the submitter, telling them how OH HOW WE WISH WE COULD....
So in the first weeks of WNA we had gotten this photo, and I wrote back to the guy, thanking him.
It's still my favorite image.
The person who sent it wrote back, and gave me permission to do with it as I liked, since I liked it so much. I told him we couldn't post it on WNA, cause it was against guidelines. But I have his permission to post it here.
So, from Stephen and Barbara, in California:
This makes me laugh my head off every time I see it.
:D
Back to work. Next update, about something completely different. I have one brewing here. Stay tooned.
-elf. |
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| And we're live. |
[Sep. 27th, 2005|01:19 pm] |
WNA is live now (well, since yesterday).
Also, if anyone is interested in watching the KNBC piece on WNA, It can be downloaded here. It's 13.4 mb, btw.
enjoy.
-elf. |
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| Okay, then. |
[Sep. 25th, 2005|10:29 am] |
Update on the WNA server situation:
The problem has supposedly been resolved, but it will take a little time for the servers to come back online.
We appreciate everyone's patience-- it's not like *we* can get in there either. We can't, just yet.
-elf. |
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| We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: Please Stand By. |
[Sep. 24th, 2005|11:34 pm] |
I am aware that werenotafraid.com is down. al4ie.com is also down which means it's a problem at the main host.
No, I have no idea what's gone wrong yet.
No, I have no idea when it will be fixed.
Yes, I have emailed Alfie and Joe, but it's 4:30am in London and (I so very sincerely hope) he's asleep(I already *know* Joe is asleep.).
Yes, I know this shit only happens on weekends.
Will keep everyone posted. Sorry about that.
I need to update here more often. Hm.
-elf. |
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| The WNA BBC Documentary |
[Aug. 12th, 2005|04:55 am] |
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Can be viewed here. You will need the latest version of Quicktime. Also, if it doesnt load fully? Reload the page. It took me about 6 times to get the file completely down. The documentary is a half hour long, and really, the best thing I've seen produced yet on the topic of WNA. |
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| Signs you've been working too many hours in a row |
[Aug. 12th, 2005|04:12 am] |
1. You spend five minutes getting frustrated because your gmail password isn't working.
2. You then realize it's because you're trying to use the WNA email password instead.
3. You then decide to post this info to your website.
4. You spend 5 minutes trying to figure out why you can't log into that account.
5. You then realize it's because you're trying to use the WNA email password on *that*, too. |
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| No screaming phone calls. That's good. |
[Aug. 9th, 2005|12:40 am] |
For anyone who can get BBC Four, the documentary about We're Not Afraid will be rebroadcast on Wednesday, August 10, twice.
I haven't seen it myself, but I did get a rather detailed review of it from my friend Nicola, so I have a fair idea as to what it did, and did not cover. Hey, I'm just grateful that I wasn't referred to as "an internet friend" (why yes, that does still bother me.) Seems like it went fairly well really. And she said Alfie looked and sounded great (always a bonus considering how little sleep he's been getting.) Then again she said you couldn't tell how little sleep *I*'ve been getting and that's nothing short of a minor miracle.
A few people who have written in to WNA since then have mentioned seeing the show and being quite choked up by it-- since I haven't seen it myself I'll reserve judgement on that, but the reviews seem to be quite positive.
So it'll be on again twice on Wednesday.
And no one called me screaming. Bonus. |
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| So in today's news... |
[Jul. 28th, 2005|03:08 pm] |
Muslim Scholars say Terror Violates Islam
In other news, water is wet.
In other, more potentially exciting news (or at the very least a tad less of a Captain Obvious moment, though by how much I'm not sure), I was officially named this morning as Design Director (meatspace) for WNA. Before I get the next question, "meatspace" is in reference to 3d space, as opposed to virtual or web space. Look around you, folks, I'm not a web designer, nor do I play one on TV. However in the real world? Not a problem.
As to why a website would need a meatspace designer? That's something you'll have to tune in to find out. :)
Also, we hit 300 galleries (a bit less than 7200 images-- we have some backfilling to do, because of duplicates, etc.) about an hour ago. And THANK YOU THANK YOU, we finally have A FAQ.
Read it. Love it. Distribute it freely. Embrace its glorious question answering abilities.
And stop sending in duplicate images. Please.
-elf. |
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| Sunday Telegraph |
[Jul. 24th, 2005|01:07 pm] |
Alfie did an exclusive interview with the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, which can be found here.
I think it was written quite well.
Go Raccoon Boy, Go. :D
-elf. |
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| Thoughts in no particular order |
[Jul. 24th, 2005|12:22 am] |
These days, getting sleep around here is sort of like being in a swimming pool when you have a large chest.
*looks down* Come to think of it...I've lived this joke before.
Anyway, you try to stay underwater as best you can, but eventually you just float up to the top. Physics, yo. These days I'm now sleeping in 90 minute intervals.
No, that wasn't a typo. I sent off a photo to Amanda before I went to lie down most recently that made Alfie's increasingly exhausted appearance (and if you're reading this, Alfie, GO TO FUCKING BED.) on television look like he's a model for GQ. (I mean we love the boy, but he needs to be clubbed like a baby seal* until he's unconscious for a good number of hours running.)
Why no, I'm not going to post the photo.
Speaking of posted photos, my original photo at WNA has been relpaced by a new one, because my old one (though it made Alfie giggle madly at the time) no longer conforms to our posting guidelines. So I have a new one up. Yes, I did save the old one. I made like three though, before I decided on this one. It doesn't show my face, but realistically speaking finding photos of me on the net is kind of like finding hay in a haystack, (as opposed to needles in haystacks, which is another story entirely and involves the press and photo requests that come in without gallery numbers.)
I also made another WNA image which is just graphics, that I like almost as much as I like the one of my metrocard. (That's still my favorite one.) I'll throw it up there the next time we need a backfill (a backfill is when we have to go fill in empty spaces in galleries when we clear out duplicates(more on that in a moment) or things that were posted accidentally against guidelines.)
Speaking of that. People? Im begging you here.
Stop resending images.
Really. We got it the first time. We're also backlogged by about 12,000. Your resending images doesn't aid in the goal to reduce that, and it causes multiple postings that I have to go back at 4am and correct, when I could be doing something else.
Like not sleeping.
At least last night I put the not sleeping to good use. For the first time since the 7th of July, really, I chewed through the leather straps at WNA to go downtown to see Chris Orbach play an acoustic set in a very small room, with just himself and his lead guitarist, Stew Cutler.
There's precious few things that can rip me from my computer these days, but Chris always does, and as usual, he did not disappoint.
I took about 70 photos. I'll get some more edited tonight, but I really like these. I also shot video, but I'm waiting to get it rotated before I post the link(right now you have to turn your head sideways.) He will be playing next Friday night as well (at a venue I can't remember, but I'll nudge him again to remind me so I can pimp it here..
Gah. I think I need to buy stock in Excedrin. I always go through bottles of it pretty fast but this month has been so nuts I've run through my usual six week supply in about 3.
Must buy more tomorrow: Note to self. But at least this pace is good for something. I've lost 8 lbs since the 7th of July. Can't much complain about that.
-elf.
*no, I do not endorse the clubbing of baby seals. Don't send me angry seal messages. I love seals. They're cute. I wouldn't club any. I would feed them tasty fish and boop their noses. However, whapping Alfie repeatedly until he actually goes unconscious does still have a rather charming appeal. Just sayin. |
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| Surreal. |
[Jul. 22nd, 2005|11:19 am] |
How strange has your life become when the notion of hanging out with a group of friends, generally referred to in the shorthand as $famouspeople, is not nearly as surreal as what you've been doing all week?
And to think, today has the potential to become far more bizarre.
My life might be taking a complete left turn at Albuquerque. |
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| This is CNN. |
[Jul. 17th, 2005|08:03 pm] |
The interview Alfie did with CNN (complete with my photo being on the screen for long enough to make me laugh my head off can be downloaded here. Thanks to Misha and Joe for recording, coding and editing, and to Tieespie and Daz for hosting.
Screencapped goodness, courtesy of Misha:
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