ELLEN

SF, hi.

2012-01-23T23:12:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I went down to San Francisco for a bit of a visit. I was looking forward to walking around, eating good food (Mexicannnn!) and seeing and hanging out with friends.

I went via Seattle, it was so snowy that day. I saw so many kinds of weather in one day - the cold, clearness of Vancouver - the white snow blizzardness of Seattle - and the brisk sun of San Francisco.

Yo SF!

Walked around. Oh look, pink rabbit cactus.

Oh what am I looking at? Teeny tiny succulents.

A pretty Mexican Bakery.

This was the first thing that I saw when I went to the SFMOMA. I was in total awe. It felt so good because I had also just gotten in for free. The art museum visiting gods were on my side.

My favorite piece that day.

This is a part of the roof of Mission Chinese Food. If you want great service - go here. For real! I wanted this place to be really good - especially since I broke my vegetarianism for it - but it was alright. We ordered Chicken Rice and it kind of bugged me that they mixed the chicken into the rice (in small pieces too!) and that it was missing the most key part of Chicken Rice - the dipping sauce. I am all for blasphemous Asian food - but this wasn't satisfying enough.

The roof of a taqueria where I briefly fell asleep in.

So happy underneath a bush on a street.

This cat was funny.

Nice spaghetti packaging.

It was raining most of the time we were there. We took advantage of the one sunny break and sat at Dolores Park with some crackers, cheese and funny drinks (Cola Chai for me and a Lavender Drink for Jane). Many a cute dogs there.

Great novelty: Buying alcohol from a 24 hour Safeway.

Passed by this sad lion on my way out of SF and decided to share this moment with it.

Thanks SF! I had fun (I sure liked your abundance of taquerias, cheap drinks, many used bookstores, and food) and we'll be seeing each other soon again I hope!

the age of wonderment.

2011-12-20T21:27:00.000-08:00

There was a dreamcatcher making night over at Jane's. So many! So pretty! And ahem, what an...interesting juxtaposition there is in this picture.

Mine above my bed.

Keeping all the bad ones out and the good ones through. Although I have been having super deep sleeps lately and can't remember any of my dreams.

Apparently dreamcatchers aren't supposed to last forever. Being made out of twigs and yarn, they dry up and fall apart. They're supposed to protect children from nightmares until they grow into "the age of wonderment".

That sounds nice. "The age of wonderment". Dear dreamcatchers above my bed: Please see me through until then! (Which I am guessing is now).

Glorious Pizza Party

2011-12-14T22:18:00.000-08:00

So everyone who reads this blog probably already knows about Glorious Pizza Party and how it's a pizza blog that I do with Jane and that it's us having a pizza party every week. BUT! You should go over there again and take a look cauuuuuseeee, the banner Jane made (out of real tomato paste and flash!) is cool and also the background with the pizza and party hats is really cool too and they're both new and probably weren't there the last time you were.

And until you go over there, here's some pizzas we made:

GLORIOUS PIZZA PARTY!

A Most Curious Event

2011-11-27T17:50:00.000-08:00

Poster design I did for Curious Oyster Catering Company for their upcoming event, A Most Curious Event at Olla Flowers. It sounds like it's going to be a really nice night, flowers everywhere, and oysters! Gawd, since becoming a vegetarian, I have really singled out the meats that I miss, and oysters is definitely one of them. I could eat dozens in one sitting and not feel disgusting. I'll probably cave at this event and eat a bunch - JOIN ME!

Ahem, the invites:

If you want to go, RSVP at curiousoystercatering@gmail.com!

Speaking of curious things, get a load of this punch that I bought to cut out the circles for the invites:

Whooaaaaa, isn't this thing the funniest/craziest? So massive for doing one task. But I gotta say, this thing, it has a LIFETIME WARRANTY and has the "Ease-of-use Commendation" by the Arthritis Foundation. This thing punches like a dream, I have never had so much satisfaction/fun from making circles out of paper.

!!

Someone give me a project that needs 2 inch circles, I've got just the thing.

Teepee

2011-11-23T22:31:00.000-08:00

Jane made a cat teepee for her cat Dig Dug. I helped her paint a bit of it. I really like it! Dig Dug seems to be kind of scared/not into it, but I'm sure he'll come around. I mean...look at it. There's talk of there also being a dream catcher in there. I'd be totally there if I was that cat.

Aw.

a start - a forest.

2011-11-06T20:52:00.000-08:00

Jane and I were eating pizza the other day and decided we were going to start our foray into filmmaking by making a small video demonstrating how one of her brother's projects, Nut-apult works. We don't know anything about filmmaking. We both took that class at Emily Carr, something about design and media - where you have to make a video and neither of us remember what programs we used to edit the video. Imovie?! All I remember is my video was about Tobias getting eaten by a duvet and I got a good grade for it. I also remember the teacher commenting how it was very early Peter Jackson. Oh teacher, you are too nice.

I was most excited about hanging out in a bunch of trees and cracking nuts.

So we went to Pacific Spirit Park (ps, whoa that place is so cool! Weird/creepy mushrooms everywhere, so many dogs, and TREES!):

We're also planning to maybe make a little song to go with it. Using this:

STAY TUNED!

Fish Bowl

2011-11-06T17:50:00.000-08:00

Ken Tsui and Alex Dadzis are putting on another dinner, a seafood one at Gene Cafe on November 18th and 19th! Go! Even if you don't like seafood, I think they'll convince you otherwise. Contact them at ludzuxiexie@gmail.com to reserve your spot or ask questions about the sea!

Here's the poster and ticket design I did for it:

The sea!

The Game of Kings

2011-10-31T21:40:00.000-07:00

Watched this documentary the other night:

Bobby Fischer Against the World.

The story of Bobby Fischer is such an interesting, captivating, and somewhat cautionary tale. A kid from Brooklyn that starts playing chess at the age of 6, clearly a prodigy, studies it obsessively, destroys chess masters from Russia at a young age, wins the world championship at the age of 29, then stops playing chess at the height of his level, disappears for years and becomes a crazy recluse Anti-American and Anti-Semite (seriously crazy) and ends up and dies in Iceland.

The documentary told the story of Fischer really well (although there were some cheesy unnecessary visual effects acting as chapter breaks). It talked about how Fischer really revolutionized the game of chess not just in terms of play, but bringing it to the mainstream and popularizing it. There are such funny people in the chess world with the strangest mannerisms and it just made the documentary even more entertaining to watch. And there were just so many little things in this documentary that made it so great - the interviewees, the incidents, discussion of the chess plays and everyone was just so into it and it's like, man chess is so cool.

I'm so awful at chess. It is in the truest sense of the word, a game. And I get too nervous, too self conscious, too thoughtful in all the wrong ways that I can't think clearly. One time a friend said I could have used these mannerisms of mine to my advantage - as part of my game. But I can't do that either, I can only play in my nervous and transparent way - and man it is so bad.

I'd like to be better at it though, so uh, who wants to play me? I'm going to study youtube videos in the mean time, so watch out!

At the very least.

2011-10-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

So here begins my foray into seeing what I can do with my hands.

I took a moccasin making workshop over at Blim last weekend, kind of on a whim, I saw it randomly, thought it was cool and signed up right away. We didn't really get much done in the class, only a 1/4 of one shoe in 4 hours! (When I signed up, I thought 4 hours was way too long, psh). When I got home, I was obsessed and couldn't stop working on them until I was finished. My hands were in pain (pushing a small needle through leather many, many times takes its toll) but I just couldn't stop. Moccasin making is tedious, it's just making sure you poke a bunch of holes your thread can go through and sewing it altogether. But it was enjoyable and I have a new appreciation for shoe making and I totally understand why Daniel Day Lewis went to be an apprentice for a shoemaker in Italy, I would/want to do the same thing.

I am also learning how to sew. I successfully made throw pillows (I CAN SEW A STRAIGHT LINE NOW! I was elated when I did this, because until then, I was hopeless with a sewing machine). I can't tell you enough how nice it is to learn a new skill, even if it's small and almost a given/basic to some people - because at the very least, you know something new, even if it's not immediately useful and beneficial.

Awhile ago I had this urge to go into Loomis and I somehow ended up at the discount bin for wooden beads and was like, oh cool, let's buy these and paint them. And here they are:

Ones I really like:

And my most favorite:

When I was painting these, I was like, man, what am I doing painting beads for. And it felt kind of dumb. But seeing them altogether, it's like, oh Ellen you're so hard on yourself and if painting beads makes you happy, then that's okay.

Because at the very least, they're pretty things to look at.

And I like this whole having whims and pursuing them thing.

DOO WOP.

2011-10-17T20:53:00.000-07:00

Man I love this song. I love when he yells "I'm in love" at the end. Oh I believe you.

I think what's also nice about this song is how I found it. I was at work listening to another album and before I had time to change to something else, this came on (the itunes library is full of songs from past people who have worked on my computer). And it was just so good and I was alone in the office and listening to it loud on a Sunday night. If I hadn't been listening to that certain album and hadn't had just let all the music play, I would not have found the song. At least that's what I think. It's nice to know small, nice, unexpected things come and that I can, haha enjoy them when they do.

I'm in love I'm in love I'm in love.

VIFF '11

2011-10-16T23:25:00.000-07:00

Another year of the Vancouver International Film Festival. I felt like I saw a lot more duds than goods. My VIFF choosing game is totally off. Before I forget what I watched and what I felt, here are the films I watched:

Intense relationship film that makes you never want to cheat on your boyfriend/significant other, even if the person you're cheating with is hot and besides, why cheat on Seth Rogen. Also reminds you not to confuse lust and the excitement of something new and different with love.

Think of every French art film cliche and put it all in this movie - melancholy, over wrought drama over nothing, blank stares, young spoiled rich people being activists and academics. I couldn't wait to get out of the virtually empty theater.

Fell asleep. This may have had to do with watching this film after work. But it also may have a lot to do with me not knowing at all who the author W.G. Sebald is and as a result, not really being at all interested in what was being said. Why did I buy tickets to this film then? Because the director had done this really great documentary on Joy Divison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2v4UwEiO-g that I thought that regardless of me not knowing who Sebald was, that it would have been interesting enough that it wouldn't have mattered. Bummer, not the case. I had also read that this film was visually beautiful. Lies.

Really engaging documentary about food waste in the western world. It made me want to join a CSA (where you go to farms like say, UBC Farms each week and pick up a box of produce - you don't get to choose the produce, but it's seasonal and cool). And have bees. My only thing is that I felt like the documentary could have gone so much deeper, it did a very surface level explanation of what was going on, but I felt like more connections could have been made. But I can see how complicated and hard that is to convey in a short amount of time because the problem is so vast and intricate. My other complaint would be that a teenage girl pulled out her iPhone during the film and proceeded to play several different games before someone got up and told her to put it away.

I thought this would be one of the better films I'd see at VIFF. The film looks good, but everything else about it was terrible. Having weird overly sexual scenes where it didn't even feel sexual anymore - just awkward and painful to watch.

So stoked on Steve Nash. I like multi-talented people. Two time MVP who made his own documentary, read Naomi Klein's "No Logo", skateboards around, and has a bunch of fitness centers. Steve Nash!

Documentary that follows the tour that had Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, and Vetiver before they got really popular. Every night they play a final jam altogether at the end of the show (the family jam) and it made me think about how I used to long to go on tour when I was in high school and I imagined it being more or less like this.

EL BULLI. First off, whoa El Bulli employs a lot of good looking chefs. Anyways. Ferran Adria explained that what they are more interested in El Bulli is the emotional aspect of food, and creating something different, innovative, and revelatory in that sense. And it made me realize that that is what I want for myself and what ever I do.

Cat's Cradle

2011-10-10T16:09:00.000-07:00

Cat's cradle explorations:

Text from this: http://blog.pictorymag.com/post/10606633545/the-night-was-young-and-so-was-i-the-lights-were

Fly South

2011-09-15T22:26:00.000-07:00

Poster I did for Ken Tsui and Alex Dadzis. They are putting on a really nice long table autumn celebration dinner that is fittingly called Fly South (which I kind of would like to do right now, anyone who wants to come is welcome). There will be local oysters, smoked duck, beets, and other nice goods to welcome fall with. Go! I would but James Blake calls. Oh and if you're a vegetarian, they've got some options for you as well, so don't be shy!

Email flysouthsupper@gmail.com to book your seat!

a reminder:

2011-09-10T23:11:00.000-07:00

It's always hard to remember that the end of something is the start of an opportunity. And that it's from there where you see what you're made of and that discomfort will make you something more if you try.

Thanks summer, twas swell. Hello fall, hope you're glad to see me.

Hi, Paris:

2011-08-14T16:01:00.000-07:00

Been busy and away.

But here I am and here is what I've been doing:

I just got back from a month long trip to Europe. Went to 3 places (or 4 if you want to be really detailed), Sète, Paris, Switzerland, and London.

Sète:

Went to Sète to see a music festival with Tom.

Then we went to Paris.

Saw things in Paris:

This was a strange piece, it was a video of a woman stroking a sleeping black man's face.

Went to the tennis museum and learned that whenever Rafael Nadal comes to the French Open, that he must spend a day in Disneyland Paris. Also learned that tennis museums in Paris (well there's only actually one) are art museums (there was a jazz photography exhibition going on at the same time - huh? It was nice though).

Oh look that guy with the glasses is looking at me. We were in Paris for Bastille day and ate mexican and watched the fireworks by the eiffel tower for like 10 minutes.

Walked around a lot. This is probably us trying to look for Jim Morrison's grave in Père Lachaise and not finding it after walking in the opposite direction a couple of times. When we did find it, it was, haha, a grave that didn't really live up to its hype (like...at all). Although it had a small fence.

A lot of nice window displays in Paris. This is for a store that sells candles. And candles only. The long ones (which, are people really even that into?) It's amazing/nice that these kind of stores can exist in Paris...and that these people can also take a summer vacation.

This kid.

This was across from that really famous falafel place, L'as du Fallafel. I was standing in a big line waiting for falafel (THAT HAS EGGPLANT! Okay, falafels should always have eggplants in it) and even though this place has the most charming sign (but I guess not charming enough because I, haha, went to L'as du Fallafel like 3 more times while I was in Paris and never decided to try this place, even though it was right across the street and the same price), they didn't have nearly as big as a line, or even any line at all sometimes. I'd be so bummed if I was that owner. Or maybe it isn't as bad as I think and they get a lot of business because of L'as du Fallafel. Anyways.

Ate a lot of good things:

Paris consisted of me just basically starting my day by finding a restaurant I heard about and from there, walk around (most likely to a bakery or chocolate store or an insanely over priced clothing store) and walk around some more and then go to a park and sit. ha. It was really nice. Honestly.

Went to Rose Bakery. I hate to say this because I really enjoy the cookbook (although, admittedly, I haven't really even cooked much from the cookbook, I like looking at it more than I do cooking from it), but the place is kind of overrated. I am sure there are a lot of things that make it great, especially if you live in Paris, it's a nice break from all the heavy food and is unpretentious and all that, but I dunno, it was whatever. Although I am sure if I go back to Paris, I'd probably go back there anyways, cause you know, soft spot and all.

This dessert was out of control. An apricot tart with caramel sauce. Two favorite things. Together. On this plate. Yeesh.

I, haha, realize I didn't really eat much french food while in Paris. And that's okay.

What I really loved about Paris and got to do more of this time that I didn't last time I visited, was to just take it more easy and actually sit in a park - for a long period of time (like long enough to take a nap and then some kind of long). And there's so many! And they're all so nice and I wish there were more parks here in Vancouver. Serious lacking of good parks here.

What's missing in this picture? Me in a rowboat on this river. Tom and I had gotten to this park and went there to go hang out and go rowboating (I think Tom only agreed to because we had gone to the Tennis museum before this). When we got to the park, we were at the opposite end of where you rent the rowboats, and we walked for about 45 minutes before finally getting to the spot to find out, oh bummer, we're closed. Oh well.

haha.

Oh Paris I hope I see you soon. It was really nice.

People ask me why I like Paris so much. And I couldn't really say. Other than that I did and it felt good to be there. My answer is a bit more defined now. Paris is what results between the new and old coming together, and I like that result. I also like that it is a place that appreciates leisure, that celebrates it and thinks you're kind of weird if you don't.

Ha hrm I don't think that really explains much either.

Anyways.

the only one.

2011-05-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

I thought this was a line from the Black Keys song (The Only One). Turns out I heard and remembered it slightly wrong (it goes, "Mystery is what this is to me"). I like my version better though. MORE ROMANTIC.

stuff was deep. true.

2011-05-08T00:36:00.001-07:00

I finished the Wire. I can now get back to my life.

This image does not totally give an accurate depiction of the show, but it's one of my most favorite moments and one of my favorite character's (Wee Bey) best moments and showed the depth of his personality in a couple of brief minutes.

What made this show so good to me, and this is so noticeable after watching tons of shitty tv, is that it doesn't compromise. When the characters start to go on good paths or seem like they are going to have happy endings, they are rarely given that happy ending. When you don't want someone to die, they do, when you don't want someone to become an addict, they do, and it's not to mess with you or anything, but it's not creating all these magically fixed endings that are seen in nearly all television shows. The show recognized that they had an opportunity to show life (although dramatized and somewhat fictional), and they showed it in the most modest, unabashed, and honest way.

So, so good.

loved it more than anything, loved everything more than anything.

2011-05-03T23:17:00.000-07:00

seen and seen:

2011-04-16T23:35:00.000-07:00

I bought my first ever real deal digital slr last week (Canon T2i). I was so nervous about dropping such a huge amount of money on something that I don't really know anything about and don't really...necessarily need to rely on. But there were reasons for it (I'll get into this at a later date), but I am so happy with the camera so far. It is so so nice and it has made me want to take pictures of everything and anything (in an effort to get to know the camera) and it's been good.

So here's what this camera has seen so far:

Delicious roast beef sandwich made by Hamza with arugula and avocado. I forgot how peppery arugula is. PEPPERY! Like makes your face pucker peppery.

Okay. I, like almost every other girl/woman/possibly person was absolutely crazy about macaroons when macaroons seem to blow up and were everywhere. So much so that when I went to Paris, I went to Laduree and...got...2....of every flavor offered. Holy excessive. I was done (predictably) on the 5th out of like 30 macaroons in. This experience coupled with macaroons being everywhere - I was over them. They became these overly sweet finicky fussy things and made me want rustic desserts instead (ha). I was in Terra Breads the other day and it had been at least a couple of years since giving up macaroons, and the flavor they were offering, Earl Grey and currant, seemed really interesting to me, and I was like, oh cool, let's try. And oh my god it was so good. So, if you too were over macaroons, you should try this one. It's good.

Jane also got something new:

Dig Dug! I like him a lot. He purrs and purrs and drags himself around and tries to exert the least amount of energy possible.

Hypnotized.

Wahoo expensive camera you rule.

past collections.

2011-03-28T21:20:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention (or just left out) that last week another sort of (in my mind) big thing that I did was give up my CD collection.

My CD collection is at the foot of my bed and I see it all the time, and when I really begin to look at it, I just see it as taking up space and not really doing much of anything. I go through these fits of getting rid of as many of my possessions as I possibly can. Usually it's clothes and knick knacks from impulsive Value Village purchases, but this time it was the CDs.

I haven't listened to any of those CDs that were sitting on my shelf for years. My CD player is hideous, but indicative of my past (in a really nice way, that is only nice to me because it is mine), decorated with like (lol) Moneen and Napolean Dynamite stickers (lol, which I was so proud of at the time because I got them from a free screening, which up until that point, I had never experienced one and was amazed that they existed and that I got to go to one...and to receive...merchandise!) And the CDs just weren't a way of showing how I valued things anymore. Not the way that they used to. CDs meant a lot to me during high school, it was (and I know this is so obvious), one of my strongest connections to music and really set the foundation for how I approached music as well. To be open to new things and to put a value on music. And I still do value music, very much so, but I don't need to buy and own CDs anymore to prove that to myself.

At first it was easy putting a lot of the CDs in the box, but then there were some that were admittedly really tough and I felt this sinking, dizzying feeling because I felt like I was somehow betraying my relationship to music, the artist, and my past self (who would have died at the thought of me giving up these CDs, it never really made sense to me when "adults" said they weren't into music anymore and I would kind of...scoff in disbelief). But my computer was being really retarded (I was transferring the music from the CDs onto my computer) and was getting me really annoyed and put me in a very "fuck it" attitude, and I put those more nostalgically important CDs in the box thoughtlessly out of wanting to get over my frustration. And looking back on it, I am fine, and I think I was just kind of sad about that somehow these songs, and all the values, feelings and memories that came with them would be gone the instant they were in the box and no longer in my possession. And you know, that's not true.

I gave them to a record store. And the guy who was looking at them made small talk and asked if I was giving up my collection, and I said yes, and he's like, are you putting them all on your computer? And I felt kind of awkward because it's a local music store, and I said yes...and went on to ask if it made him sad to see people giving up their CD collections. And he looked like he really didn't care and was like, no. They took most of it, but there were some albums that they didn't end up taking, and I have to say, I was kind of choked, because some of those albums meant so much to me at one point and had such nostalgic value and sentiment tied up in them and the place I ended up putting them (sigh), was the Salvation Army.

When I was cleaning up my CDs, this was what I found in one of those albums that was the most important to me:

This is the album it was in:

I'll tell you the significance of each thing.

I would say Rilo Kiley is the first band that made music truly fulfilling to me, that showed me that it could truly express what I was feeling and to also overwhelm and complete me at the same time. This album opened up wanting more from music and knowing that I could get it if I just looked hard enough and spent time with it. And with all this came this sort of independence, of coming of age, by making these decisions in taste and defining who you are through choosing what you loved and spent time with. There's just also a bunch of all that teenage stuff tied up in this album, unrequited love, being a typically angry teenager, it was my soundtrack.

The fortune cookie fortunes...if you know me, I put a lot of value into signs - (no one will believe this) - but less so now. I had gotten like insanely drunk at this party and tried to tell this guy who I had a crush on for ages that I did, and got rejected, and of course was insanely bummed out, like (oh god), crying on the lawn kind of thing (overly dramatic person), and my family and I went for Chinese the night after, and those were the fortunes I got. My family and I went to San Francisco the day after and I really didn't expect much from it because I was so consumed with my awful "love life", but it ended up being such a great trip (lol, saw Sonic Youth play and got hit on by A COLLEGE GUY, that was the height of my flattery, but even if that hadn't had happened, the trip would still have been good). That trip also made it clear to me that I wanted to pursue a career in art (lol), and go to art school (not as...lol). I felt like I was at the right place at the right time, and I kind of got over the things I was sad about before I left (lol, as a teenager should) and just felt, as cheesy as the word sounds, but it is true -healed. And I kept that fortune as a reminder that when things go shitty, things get better afterwards (and this of course, is a revelation as a teenager, you always felt like when things went wrong, that things were over, and in a way they are, but of course, something replaces it, you just don't realize it at the time). And I put it in the place that was most important to me to solidify that experience that was so new to me at the time, but is part of growing up.

And this is kind of part of it as well. A small part, and I just wanted to remember it and document it as well as I could.

#21

2011-03-20T20:41:00.000-07:00

Week off time:

Ate this inaptly named candy ("Melon Almond Candy", Almond, yes, Melon, no). But it was delicious (slightly sweet, chewy, gummy, and almondy, yum). Someone tell me where I can buy these in bulk (the store I bought them from only sells them in tiny packs of 4).

Did an illustration. More on this later.

Sean had a show at Anti Social.

He drew on the walls with pencil.

Played with the google translator app on Andy's iphone. I don't remember what language that is. Some kind of African language.

Other things that I did not pictured: Saw Onra and Dâm-Funk, dragged myself to go see DESTROYER (as you can tell from my use of all caps, I was very glad that I went, got to see many friends and Dan Bejar be totally chill and awesome), went crazy at Nuba and had white sangrias, played chess and lost three times in a row, saw an entertaining but admittedly very flawed and awfully cheesy movie, and played Little Big Planet and unlocked a weird/fun level with crazy Avatar looking things.

Oh man it was swell. Now it's back to work week time.

No Buddy Trusts Me Anymore

2011-03-17T00:03:00.000-07:00

Yoooo, here's a poster I did for this guy. The show is opening this Friday at Anti Social and is on till April 19. He is sleeping hard on my couch right now (he was up 2 days straight preparing for this show, so anyone who is in Vancouver and is friends with me or him or possibly likes art and/or nice experiences, come out!)

HK and Singapore

2011-03-02T20:25:00.000-08:00

Yooo,
So last week I went to Hong Kong and Singapore for a little over a week and here's what it looked like:

I first went to Singapore to visit my dad for a few days. In keeping with one of my new years resolutions (hang out with nature more), I went to this small island off of Singapore, Pulau Ubin and hung out there for a day.

Bike that I rode around the island with. fyi, I rented it from an old guy who was getting no business (or so I thought, and thus felt kind of sorry for), and this bike, as like chill as it seems, was shaky (in a not good way).

A few dogs running around the island. I almost ran over a lizard with my bike as well. Almost!

Note to self and anyone who walks around in Singapore for more than 10 minutes: wear sunscreen and a hat or have a sun-burned face and have all people in Singapore look at you weird because Singapore Asians do not get sunburned (they know better than to walk around in the sun all day unprotected, or even, at all).

Then I went to Hong Kong and stayed with my aunt on Discovery Bay:

Discovery Bay is...from what I can see, a place where all the somewhat rich to very rich and lots of non-chinese people live in. It's an "environmentally friendly" island. Meaning that no one on the island is allowed to own a car (kind of impressive). They are however, able to own a golf cart. My aunt said, the golf cart only costs 100,000 (or something like that) Hong Kong dollars (HK dollar to 1 CDN dollar roughly: 7 to 1). But that the licence is 1 million Hong Kong dollars. 1 MILLION HONG KONG DOLLARS?! And apparently also the golf carts, at least the newer ones, are solar powered and don't even go that fast. 1 millon dollars to hang around the island on a golf cart. My cousins (the sons of my aunt) said that a few years ago (they are in high school), would sneak out at night and steal these golf carts (apparently it's really easy because the owners leave their keys in the glove compartment) and ride around the island on them and (I am directly quoting them) "drift". lol.

Okay. Went to Ocean Park. This trip to Hong Kong for me was definitely the most tourist-y I've been in all the times I've been to Hong Kong. Usually I just hang out with family, shop, and eat, but I dunno, I did that last time and got sick of it fast (the shopping, eating part), and there's a few tourist things in Hong Kong that I haven't seen (i.e, the pandas in Ocean Park), and I am there, so might as well. And, haha, erm this is a benefit of being me on my dad's side of the family, I am the only girl cousin/niece, and I am one of the youngest, and so my older cousin paid for Ocean Park (which, is eep, like 30 dollars to get into). Thanks Alvin!

A big reason why I went to Hong Kong. To see my cousin get married. It was interesting, the first wedding I've been to ever. I didn't really understand what was going on because it was all in Chinese, but I am glad I got to see it.

Got peaceful on my last day in Hong Kong. Tian Tan Buddha. The first time I saw a large scale Buddha was in Nara with Jane (here). I think I was only really interested in going to Nara because of all the deer running around and seeing the Buddha was kind of an afterthought. When I saw it though, have to say, it's quite moving. Instant calm and humbleness from standing before something just so massive both literally and metaphorically. I am not really much of a religious person and I never really think much of monuments, but once seen in real life, it's like oh, man, yes.

Then I went on a plane where I sat next to a baby who kicked me periodically and liked to play with stickers and stick them on her mother and on my tray.

Ones with little happy faces on them.
:)

for everyone and anyone on february 14:

2011-02-13T21:19:00.000-08:00

It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight. -Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita.

obligatory cat photo:

2011-02-09T21:29:00.000-08:00

Hello tuxedo cat.

#20

2011-01-31T22:38:00.000-08:00

What are these flowers called? They are in bloom and smell nice. Like spring.

mine to use and mine to lose.

2011-01-29T23:12:00.000-08:00

Mike Mills has a new movie coming out:

Charming. A dog that gets subtitles!
Some of you may know Mike Mills because of this image:

Others of you may know him because of this other movie he did (which I had only recently found out, thanks Sean), Thumbsucker:

I really wanted to like that movie, but I was just really underwhelmed. Maybe Keanu Reeves (who really oddly stood out to me in the movie) threw me off? Because I feel like that was kind of sort of around his Matrix days and I didn't realize that Keanu Reeves is this weird robotic actor that needs a deeper sense of appreciation that I clearly didn't have at the age of seventeen. It was just a really quiet movie, and I should probably see it again, I've...become more perceptive to quietness. (haha).

Anyways though, what I really want to say about Mike Mills is this, he had this book that he put out through Nieves, Fireworks. The explanation he had for this book was just one of the nicest things I had read in a long time:

Some things that may or may not relate to these drawings: A professional suggested I take anti-depressants. I declined. About the same time I started drawing fireworks. I didn’t know what they meant or why I was drawing them. I was confused and embarrassed by this lack of meaning, but they kept coming. I could draw them no matter how I felt. I read that fireworks were first used in China in the 12th century to scare away negative spirits. I envied a world that not only recognized spirits, but scared the negative ones away with small man made explosions.

So, so nice.

And he ends by saying:

I felt a connection between the Chinese fireworks and the placebo effect, and some relief in all the things we don’t understand. At some point the fireworks grew more and more abstract, and messy, and complicated, and I became if not content then at least willing to make things that didn’t have any apparent meaning.

And so:

Last time I drew fireworks was in my first year drawing class at Emily Carr. We had to draw a night scene and I drew people watching fireworks. The teacher said that the idea was nice, but fireworks actually look very clean, and mine were too messy. I didn't really take it to heart. And it was in the class that I didn't take much of his criticism to heart as I did with my previous drawing teacher. And then drawing didn't seem like such a terrifying struggle to impress someone.

But a way to feel better.

Books Read '10

2011-01-03T23:01:00.000-08:00

Books I read in 2010 (in the order seen in the above image):

The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski
Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami
Chocky by John Wyndham
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession by Julie Powell
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis
A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
Trouble with Lichen by John Wyndham
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham
South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Funny Misshapen Body by Jeffrey Brown
Jamilti and other Stories by Rutu Modan
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
Ladies and Gentleman, The Bible! By Jonathan Goldstein

Out of all of these books, if you need something to read, I’d say: No Country For Old Men (Texas Noir, aka, such a badass book) by Cormac Mccarthy, The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (especially if you want to cry), Geek Love by Katherine Dunn, Jamilti by Rutu Modan, and man, I read a lot of Haruki Murakami books, which were all enjoyable, but I’d say, Dance Dance Dance takes the cake. Ha, all my recommendations, you’ve probably read them anyways, but they’re good books aren’t they?!

I didn’t like Tales of the City so much, as detailed here, and I was pretty disappointed with The Kraken Wakes and the Trouble with Lichen by John Wyndham, mostly because I thought they would be so good (as some of his other books are), but they were just so disappointingly boring.

BOOOOOOOOOKS!!

harry, you're all right.

2010-12-01T22:20:00.000-08:00

What oh what have I been doing?
Humming away at Adbusters, the latest issue, the January/February 2011 Big Ideas issue just came out.

A few spreads I designed:

This issue was the 3rd and final issue in the Adbuster's Revolution issues (Issues about Revolution, giving a history of it, and what kinds of revolutions are happening now and could happen in the future). The visual themes tying this issue together was light and colors (yes, I know, really broad metaphors, but it did help narrow down how to approach designing these spreads). So the issue goes from dark colors (Indigo, Violet) and transitions on through to angrier colors (Red) and into calmer more poetic ones (Green, Yellow). With each corresponding colors, the stories of the magazine follow the same sort of feeling, so dark stories at the beginning, and revolutionary, activist stuff in the middle, and ending on more thoughtful and quiet ideas.

I used so many bitmaps and what seemed like the first time ever, gradients. Have never used so many gradients in all of my time designing, always kind of thought they were slightly ugly and cheesy looking, but erm, I've changed my mind. GRADIENTS!

So yes, go look at the issue, and...buy a copy. It's a good issue.

Other things I've been doing, and this is kind of Adbusters related:

Being number 1 in the office Fantasy Football. :) :) :) :) . Although I did lose last week, a pretty brutal loss, 200 points to my 140 something points. That team was insane though. Let's hope that none of the other teams are as insane in the next 4 weeks, cause then...I'LL WIN!

Just started watching Twin Peaks. Man I really like it. Endearing townspeople with dark secrets. SPECIAL AGENT COOPER! Holy crap Kyle Machlachlan. Did you know he has a vineyard? And keeps a blog for his dogs? And takes on the strangest and most varied roles? Like really good ones like Special Agent Cooper in Twin Peaks and then stuff like the villain in the live action movie The Flinstones (I know this because for some reason I watched this movie over and over when I was a kid) and as Charlotte's first husband in Sex and the City? He didn't want to be type-casted I read somewhere. Yep, I think you've got that covered Kyle. Also I really love the theme song of Twin Peaks. It has the most cheesiest bass line, and it is slightly creepy, but man it is good.

I was walking home with Will (the art director at Adbusters) and I told him I've started watching Twin Peaks and he said that a lot of people when they're at my age watch Twin Peaks. I asked why. And he said he didn't know, just that they do. And I can see that being true. All 23 year olds, watch if you haven't, you can appreciate this donut image more.

I leave for Calgary in a couple of weeks. I was passing by an apartment and I could see their Christmas tree, and I don't know! It instantly made me fall in love with Christmas! Or at least start to get really excited and into it, and now all these Christmas related things are popping up that are making me fall in love with it even more, like, CHEESE BALLS! I haven't had a cheese ball in so long! I LOVE CHEESE BALLS! Here is a place that has a couple of interesting recipes for them: http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2008/12/cheese-logs-cheese-balls-and-aunt-betty.html

Anyways, that's the long and short of what I've been doing, working at Adbusters, killing the football pool, watching things, and eating and dreaming about cheeseballs.

away, away, away.

2010-11-16T23:27:00.000-08:00

I need to remember to bring my camera around with me more.

And FYI:

Thanks Jane.

VIFF '10

2010-10-23T23:45:00.000-07:00

This feels like forever go, but I saw a lot of movies at VIFF (Vancouver International Film Festival) and before I completely forget what I thought about them, here is what I saw:

This year's film festival made me realize:

I should watch more documentaries.

I like them more than I thought I did.

The Eye of the Storm

2010-10-04T17:54:00.000-07:00

A poster I did for an upcoming show at Straw Gallery (this friday, also my brother's birthday, also thanksgiving weekend!), Matthew Mark, "The Eye of the Storm". I think you can see more of his work here. I really liked Matthew's colorful wooden sculptures, and I was told that he would be exhibiting some paintings at this show, so I painted a probable Matthew Mark sculpture and it was nice to paint colorful strokes on top of one another (although you can't really tell so well from the poster).

In other news, I am on the most hilarious winning streak in my fantasy football league. I did however have to let go of my kicker (he wasn't playing this week), the only sad news about this otherwise very funny/fulfilling endeavor that is proving to be so entertaining.

Team MeatHeist

2010-09-22T23:12:00.000-07:00

Okay.

So something that has been holding a lot of my interest lately, is my first ever, fantasy football team at work.

Ha.
Haha.
Hahahahah.

Yes. I don't know anything about football, when it came to drafting, Tom just told me who to pick for my first two players and then I just picked what Yahoo told me to pick after that. Admittedly I haven't watched any of the games of this season on TV, so yes, I have jumped onto the football bandwagon. How come no one ever told me how much fun it was?! But hey, Frank Chimero (aka a great designer, and wait for this,) has a fantasy football team (never would have guessed it), and his is apparently doing pretty bad (which means, ha I would slaughter his team, because I am oddly, doing pretty well right now, but yah yah, it's the second week only). But holy crap, if winning isn't fun enough (won both of my match ups and possibly will win the rest, HA!) the NFL has the most hilarious players in the world. And so many of them have twitter accounts, and all of them have hilarious tweets. Specifically, Chad Ochocinco (#85, Wide Receiver for the Cinncinnati Bengals):

What is Chad Ochocinco doing with a pigeon? Gawd I love this guy. I don't know how to explain why I find these players to endearing, but they really are. I guess it's partly has to do with that I like watching people who really love what they are doing and are really committed to it. I also like when I can see aspects of their personalities, and a lot of these football players, they put their personalities completely out there (although I am sure this is the same with like basketball and hockey) and most of the time it's pretty funny.

I am really glad I did this. I was super hesitant at first, I don't really care about sports and to commit to something like fantasy football (you have to keep pretty up to date with it, who's injured, who's been suspended for a DUI or killing dogs or raping women, who's sucking, and who's not sucking) seemed really unappealing. But the prospect of smack talking and how fun it could be drew me in. And also everyone in my office was doing it and...to not have done it, I would have looked really anti-social and yah yah.

So watch out, Team Meatheist is going to...win. And steal your meat.

PS, isn't my kicker (the last picture and the only white guy on my team) cute?! I and apparently also the Chiefs picked him last. I wonder if they picked him for the same reason I did? Because he had a good looking face? And can get me 7 points a week?

undeniable.

2010-09-17T00:06:00.000-07:00

I feel like I haven't done personal work in a long while. I always want to and felt like it but could never really bring myself to do it. It's like when you feel like talking and you want to have a great conversation but you have nothing to say. Or you really feel like cooking but you can only find shitty non-interesting recipes. Or you want to read a really good book but everything seems boring and long. Or you want to see a really good movie but you've seen a lot of the good movies and begin to get indecisive with the amount of choice thereafter (mystery, drama, romance, comedy, sci fi, and so on). I am hoping that while all this wanting and then not doing anything, that even though I'm not doing something, that I'm at least absorbing whatever is happening so that when it finally comes time that I make something, eat something, read something, watching something, talk about something, that it is somewhat informed and fulfilling and if I am lucky, meaningful.

I've also had a hard time with the idea of making stuff. Where does it all end up, what's the point, etc, etc. And I still have a hard time with it and maybe that's part of the satisfying thing of making something of your own, working through these personal misgivings and at least coming out with something. Something that is yours.

And this here, is mine.

fickle things.

2010-09-07T19:21:00.000-07:00

What I did on my week off:

Maggie is leaving for far off places for who knows how long, so Jane and I had a goodbye dinner for her. At this dinner we destroyed a very big dish of lasagna.

Ate pulled bbq sandwiches and pie.

With these guys:

Sean rolled through town. He was pretty tired.

Jane and I have been going to the Kitsilano Farmers Market the past couple of Sundays. We shared this amazing nutella brioche. Oh my gawd.

I have discovered my most favorite peach, the white champagne peach:

I always liked the idea of peaches, and thought they were nice and all and appreciated them, but I always found the yellow ones a bit on the tart side, making it hard to fall in love with them. But these peaches, just sweet and juicy, I do, do love these.

I turned 23.

And this is what I looked like for most of the end of that night, rolling around on the floor, laughing uncontrollably.

yakkity-yak-yak-yak.

2010-08-16T23:39:00.000-07:00

Hrm it's been awhile since I've said anything on this blog. I was in Calgary for a bit and just have been keeping pretty quiet these days.

Jane came with me to Calgary for a few days and we went to Banff:

This is at the top of a mountain where you take a terrifyingly long (and expensive) Gondola ride to get to.

We went to the show Sean helped put on, "The Chute Project" (which I did the poster for) at Straw Gallery. It was pretty great by the way, and congrats to Sean and everyone else who helped put it on.

We went to Drumheller and ate deep fried chicken and fries (that were sadly not very good, maybe I should have taken note from this dinosaur and eaten a gigantic hamburger. I did however outdo this dinosaur on the ice cream part and had 2 gigantic scoops, one being mint chocolate chip and the other pralines and something or another) at this place:

The coolest part of Drumheller, HOODOOS:

I've been pretty quiet thinking, considering and trying to practice these things (except for one of them, you get to guess which one):

The Backside of Your Gullet is Decadent and Depraved by Frank Chimero - It's a four part (don't let this deter you, this is really really good), series of little, very easy to read essays basically about, what is the point of doing anything (something that I, and probably everyone else thinks about everyday from everything to the smallest to largest thing). Chimero is a great designer, has great clients, but he feels a little lost, stuff's feeling a bit pointless (I feel ya buddy). And I think it's great that he's admitting that and trying to figure out why and sharing his experience along the way (because I'd sure like some light shed on this as well).

Skateistan - Sean had been telling me that his friend Rhianon was involved with this and I looked it up and I think it is so cool. Teaching kids how to skateboard in Afghanistan! I feel like it is such a simple idea, but that it is definitely a challenge to do in real life, but once done has a really great and wide-spreading positive effect. Donate to Skateistan! (I know how infomercial-y this paragraph is, but know that no one put me up to this. I won't let you donate to just anyone!)

But Will it Make You Happy? - This New York Times article really affected me, making me reevaluate how I live and how to live, trying to make things slower and simpler. This includes checking my email, facebook, and twitter less, which so far I feel like I've done in an okay and somewhat improved way, and ha, I hope it lasts longer than this week. I always do this detox sort of thing for a week and then eventually just give it up because I don't know how to occupy my time! But I guess that's the point.

On that note.

Bye!

night market and chute project:

2010-07-19T20:37:00.000-07:00

Went to the Richmond Night Market and ate a lot of food:

A woman accidentally knocked over her drink:

The woman running this stand was not impressed.

I lost this game within 5 seconds. I could have easily blown 20 dollars just to catch one tiny fish. The game was that intense for me.

A poster that I did for an upcoming show at Straw Gallery in Calgary.

Here is an example of what you may see at the show: http://thestrawnews.blogspot.com/2010/06/mom-brainstorm.html

Go!

a week off:

2010-07-15T22:57:00.000-07:00

O hai bathtub (who's drain is clogged, halp!), summer, and everyone.

I had a week off from Adbusters and it was awesome. Here's what I did:

Drank a whole bunch of summer drinks.

Cold Brewed Iced Coffee. Okay okay, there is so much hype over this drink. I like hype. So the story is that cold brewed iced coffee is way better than just coffee you normally brew and put ice in. Apparently, according to this New York Times article, cold brewed iced coffee is more than just sticking ice in hot coffee, and if done right, is so smooth, has a natural sweetness (and even notes of CARAMEL!) that just does not compare. The recipe is the easiest thing in the world, and for something so amazing, come on, gotta try it. And I tried it using this girl's combo of adding almond extract and maple syrup. OKAY. IT IS OUT OF CONTROL! Hype like this is cool.

A Strawberry Rosemary Tea Lemonade that I made. Just puree some fresh strawberries, add some lemon juice, tea bags, chopped up rosemary, sugar, and water and you have one of the best summer drinks in the world. I have decided that I best like eating strawberries blended. And in this drink.

I ate delicious things too. This is the "Dunbar" bar from Butter Bakery. I want to try the "Coney Island" bar next (brownie with toasted coconut marshmallow on top!)

I bought a whole bunch of plants and pots. A total, total (not as good) ripoff (I mean, total inspiration) of this girl's shower jungle. My window ledge is not deep enough to have big crazy plants on. A modest shower forest will do.

I saw a bunch of movies:

Toy Story 3

Twilight: Eclipse (lol)

Wet Hot American Summer

I bought a whole bunch of books. You can read what they are here.

I acquired a stump.

Had a picnic with a friend I rarely see, but when I do, it's always nice. And yah, there's a pate there with FOIE GRAS in the middle! And a big hunk of camembert cheese. Best kind of hunk.

Did work for OCW magazine(formerly known as One Cool Word). The magazine is relaunching next Friday with a big show/party at the Rickshaw Theater. Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=110715885644879&ref=ts. You should go if you're in Vancouver! Going to be fun. Also a couple of Calgary pals are in the magazine as well! Sean Macalister and Heather Kai Smith!

I also went to the beach a lot (but you know what that looks like, and just so you know, there was lots of sun and hot air). And found people to play chinese checkers with.

And I slept.

I hope you had a good week too.

Selected, Recent, & Very Here: Ideas

2010-07-04T22:16:00.000-07:00

I designed Sean's artist statement for his upcoming show, "Selected, Recent, & Very Here: Ideas" at the Coup restaurant in Calgary opening on July 7. Go if you're in Calgary!

Also, Sean has started a blog: seanmacalister.blogspot.com

Another update: my favorite dessert these days: whipped cream with a bit of a maple syrup and fresh bc cherries. gawwwwdddd!

And my favorite thing to do: nothing.

eat and make.

2010-06-21T23:11:00.000-07:00

delicious nights:

'za (Recipe from here). Lucky for you and me, this recipe is pretty easy and makes the annoyance that is making pizza nonexistent.

Hamza made a whole lamb and a bunch of people were there.

Something I made for a show:

I don't know if this poster is being used for the show still, this could be false advertising, I could have, ha made a submission for the wrong thing. But no, I think at least this part's right: there will be an art show at Straw Gallery (in Calgary...1506 6th Street SW) during Sled Island (starting on June 29th) and the theme of the show is "Garage Sale". So go if you are in Calgary, yah? I heard there's going to be gutted amps, electronics, and a bunch of other crazy things on display.

And man, who came up with glitter? And who thought of giving it to kids? As much as I like it, glitter is night-marish, it gets everywhere! Just when you think it's gone, there it is, refusing to get off.

Just like other things.

Like caked on food on the bottom of pans.

And this and that.

Adbusters 90: The Whole Brain Catalog

2010-06-08T14:26:00.000-07:00

So since starting at Adbusters, the first issue I got to work on is out on newsstands now:

The theme of this issue, "The Whole Brain Catalogue" was inspired by The Whole Earth Catalogue. The Whole Earth Catalog came about from a guy who was high on LSD back in the 70s or so and was starting out at the sun and (up until this point there was no image of the whole earth) and thought it was weird that there wasn't an image of the whole earth, and I guess somehow he got it to happen, or at least got the ball rolling, and then this catalogue came about where it sells items that hippies would like.

Anyways, this Adbusters issue is showing the whole brain and things to do with the brain. The visual theme of the issue was "madness".

I had first discovered Adbusters in high school and was immediately influenced by the anti-corporate and consumer ideas and really took it to heart (but got kind of disillusioned with it shortly thereafter, I like to spend money and not be told in an aggressive way how to spend it). I was also truly inspired by the way the pages were laid out, even going so far as to try to do that in whatever sort of projects at school I could. I liked the hand done aesthetic and the aggressiveness of the design and it really (unknowingly) shaped my design process.

So it is super funny and interesting that I ended up working here. If you had told me in high school I'd be at Adbusters, I'd be like, no way! I didn't even realize back then that being a designer, laying out these pages, was a JOB, and that it was done by a PERSON. This was naive of me, but Adbusters was just this magazine, that just magically produced itself, and was done in some far off place that I would never be able to touch.

But here we are.

Working on this issue was exciting for me. It was my first time working on a real publication in a real job setting that was going to be seen by people. It was interesting to see the process of making this magazine and I have never used so much of the scanner, photoshop, and bitmaps in my life. My role in this magazine was, that the art director (Will Brown) would assign me pages/spreads/elements of a page to work on and to really just go crazy with the layout (aka do what I want but still get across the message of the piece). On all of the things he assigned me, the image was chosen by himself and the text was provided, and I just did the rest.

The aesthetic of Adbusters, from what I gathered, is that they did not want any sort of visual fatigue. They want all kinds of styles on all different pages, and this creates a visual onslaught that can be either stimulating or overstimulating (so much so that you stop reading), depending on who you are. Before I had thought Adbusters was overly aggressive, and it still is, but I've gotten used to the craziness of the pages. Another thing was, if you have a crappy resolution on your image, or if you suck at photoshop, you can either a) try to learn better tools in photoshop, find a better image, and make it look pro, aka, find a pro solution or b) acknowledge the crappiness and your limitations and play it up. That was really interesting to me, both of them are solutions/approaches to a problem, but I had never thought in those ways before, the goal for whatever you are trying to design, for me at least, is to make things look as tight as possible, to address and acknowledge crapiness is something I've never considered before.

You'll see a lot of my handwriting in this issue. Angry handwriting. Here are some pages/spreads that I worked on that I liked:

The funniest thing I had to do for the magazine.

Check out the issue, yah?!

calgary.

2010-06-03T00:14:00.000-07:00

So I was in Calgary for a bit and this is what the weather was like:

And this is what Calgary was like this time around:

One of the main reasons I was there:

Yes this is probably true.

Said probably best pizza in the milkway galaxy.

This however is not possibly true. I had a piece of the Hawaiian pizza. Tasted pretty hammy. This is Josh and he is Jewish and not allowed to eat pork. He ate spaghetti and meatballs and bread instead.

A painting that Sean and I played around with. I did the tiny dots. Sean did the big ones.

Something beside a really great mural that Sean MacAlister did behind The Coup restaurant:

Photo courtesy of Sean's facebook.

>___<

<3 my dog

Hey Vancouver.

mountains.

2010-05-25T22:01:00.000-07:00

Hi:

On a couple of whims, I bought a few herb plants: basil, rosemary, and mint. I had always wanted to grow my own herbs, it always irked me when I would spend a dollar on basil and never finish it all. What a ripoff! I never knew how satisfying it would be to have your own plants. They were always kind of a whatever thing to me, getting nothing more than a glance or a passing thought. But jeeze, I get happy from just LOOKING at them. I LOVE THESE PLANTS. A friend was telling me how plants were like pets to her and she loved them so much and I was like, yes, plants, nice, next subject. But I completely understand where she is coming from, smelling them, seeing little buds grow, the burst of green, it's all too much.

I am so proud of this pie! (Recipe here) The meringue!

Then on Monday, hiked the Chief with a bunch of pals:

I was so nervous about going up this big ol' mountain. I had done the Grouse Grind last year and had gone into it with little expectations, if anything, to do fine, but oh my god that mountain kicked my ass and I felt like my mind and limits were truly tested that day. I was told that the Chief was somewhat the same in difficulty level as the Grouse Grind, if not harder, and that...was really discomforting. But I am like, man, just do it, what are you going to do anyways on a Monday other than stare at a computer for the entire day, this is a better use of your time and body.

And it was a good thing I did. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, and hanging out on the top of a mountain is cool.

Then we went to the beach:

(contrary to what you may think from looking at this picture, the water was really cold)

(contrary to the slight grimace on Tom's face, the beach was really nice.)

I am off to Calgary tomorrow for 6 days, and I am very excited. Thanks for seeing me off on a good note Vancouver.

Talk soon.

first time dinners.

2010-05-12T21:42:00.000-07:00

The other day Jane taught Andy an easy dish to make for himself and I got to sit and watch and eat the result.

Andy's chopping skills!

The resulting meal: Stir fry noodles. Was delicious. Good job Jane for teaching Andy well and thanks Andy for feeding me.

In other news, this film that's coming out by Christopher Nolan looks like it's going to absolutely kill:

I've watched it like three times, admittedly because I couldn't really get a grasp of what was going on plot wise, the images were so consuming that it was hard to concentrate on the story. And Joseph Gordon Levitt is in this! AHHh. What a babe. It's been so long since I've been truly excited to see a movie, really looking forward to it.

I have to say, I've been thinking about it more and more and these are my top films as of right now and probably forever:

-Forrest Gump

-The Dark Knight

-Jerry Maguire

OKAYOKAY.

First off, all of these movies, I can watch over and over again, I love when they pop up on TV or on an airplane or wherever.

Every time I watch Forrest Gump I cry so hard. It is so sad to me, that this man loves this woman his entire life, does anything and everything for her, and she doesn't realize she loves him until way too late, and by the time she does, she's gone soon after. I also just love the times when the movie is set in, from the 50's on until like the 90's and there are just so many great pop culture references and such great play with them.

The Dark Knight. This movie feels so epic to me! The joker was so great, so many great scenes in this movie, the music adds such great atomsphere as well.

Jerry Maguire. Okay I've explained why I've liked this movie before, it just has so many lines that just hit you and stay with you.

Hell yeah.

#19

2010-05-02T21:40:00.000-07:00

Hi. It's been awhile. Things have been happening, things like this:

Who knew. A job! At Adbusters! As an 'art assistant'. I am really enjoying it so far, for many reasons, that the people are surprisingly normal, funny, really easy to get along with, that I get to do some pretty interesting things and that it's only a 10 minute walk from my apartment (hello home lunches, one of the best parts of junior high all over again).

It was kind of funny, this was the only good picture of the night, the other ones, it seemed no matter how much I tried (and from what I remember, Andy tried to take pictures as well), I ended up with pictures of Alex's torso.

This night was crazy. A party under the bridge by Home Depot near Main and Terminal. At first it was like, "What is this and what am I doing here." they were playing some strange rave noise music, and then they changed up the music and it just became awesome. And there were so many people there! So many different kinds of people! Including an underage kid who lives in my building (and I booted for one time) who seemed absolutely stoned out of his mind, like so many other people at this party.

Hope it's been awesome for you as well.

New American Felines

2010-04-11T22:28:00.000-07:00

So this show was the bane of my existence on and off this whole week:

It's being put on by the boys at Straw, and the show is drawings of felines. New ones. American ones. It was pretty open-ended for what the drawings should be and all that, and it was exciting and seemed like fun, but when it came time to actually draw something, I was completely stuck.

Andy drew one of the best cats known to man, Maru. Maru rules. And this drawing rules. Has that manga feeling to it which is totally fitting since Maru is the cutest Japanese cat alive.

I drew a cat that night that Andy drew Maru and it was met with some pretty subpar looks. I knew my drawing was pretty whatever too and that I should do something else. I had no idea what to do, but I remember having one kind of silly idea where a bunny has cat ears, and having no other interesting thing to do, I did it.

And jeeze, it's so cute. A BUNNY WITH CAT EARS! I am dying.

I used to have a loped ear bunny, it went through a variety of names, BB (people asked me if I named it after a competitor on Survivor, hrm no, it's a cute name), Lucky, Obi Wan Kenobi (I was in love with him at the time), and then finally just...Bunny. When the bunny was younger it would hump the large beanie baby frog that my brother owned. I don't know why it was so attracted to it, but he would always go to it.

Anyways, go to the show if you're in Calgary, should be cute/nice/fun.

lol, for tom and whoever else wants to see this:

2010-04-04T23:02:00.000-07:00

Tom's blue egg.

Easter & Such.

2010-04-04T11:02:00.000-07:00

So on a Friday night, with nowhere to go out to, Andy, Tom and I made Easter eggs.

lol.

Different egg shapes.

In case you didn't know the difference between a normal egg and a mini egg, here is a picture to aid you in your learning.

Couldn't turn this into an omlette or something, too much spit and who knows what else.

lol @ Tom's drying setup.

The eggs!

Mine.

I liked Tom's postmodern colorful egg.

And also Andy's typographic egg.

So I got to design the latest issue of the One Cool Word Magazine. I am pretty happy with the result, and there are some pals showing their work in this issue, Nathan Grimson and Keith Weiss! So you can pick up a copy of this at the launch party (which is included in the door price-$10-flyer below, designed by co art director and designer Jaz Halloran) which is happening a couple of weeks from now. The launch seems like its going to be interesting, burlesque dancers (I've never seen them before!), artists featured in this magazine will be exhibiting work, bands, and I imagine beer. Wooo. SO COME! PLEASE!?!

five full seconds.

2010-03-31T23:32:00.000-07:00

Phew March.

This month was moving along at a pretty...slow pace and then all of the sudden things have gotten very busy. At times I feel like a chicken running around with my head cut off, but I am grateful for not sleeping in until 12pm and then spending an hour to figure out what to do with my day. I don't do well with that amount of time on my hands.

I've also always felt that I am better in the Spring. I always feel like I make most of mistakes, am at my worst in the fall and winter, and then somehow Spring always works out for me. Maybe that's why it's my favorite season. And also the air smells nice.

One thing that kept me busy this past weekend (for Straw):

Holy crap those circles for the tops killed my hands to do. I made it so hard for myself and there were moments where I just held the little labels in my hand and just wished it would just unstick itself. But I'm not a wizard, so oh well.

At the beginning of this month I watched...hahaha 3 seasons of Lost straight (I had lots of time as explained before). And there was this part where one of the characters, Jack, a spinal surgeon, was telling this other character Kate about this time where he was doing surgery on a patient and he screwed up really bad. He was scared, and he said to himself that he will give himself 5 seconds to let the fear completely envelope him and when those 5 seconds are up, to get back to what he is doing. I have been thinking about that a lot lately. Not just in terms of fear, but in any sort of extreme negative emotion, like boredom, annoyance, being tired. I think it's a good way of putting things behind you, letting everything hit you for a brief amount of time in order to move on. Because people and things need you to get on with things, you need yourself to get on with things.

Anyways.

Hi April, nice to see you.

some of it:

2010-03-25T00:06:00.000-07:00

Hmm I was going to wait and make a long epic post after I finished a lot of things that I have on the go, but I am too excited and really want to show you some of it now:

Andy helped me photograph this. Woop thanks Andy. I wanted to photograph it on a nice day, and I had researched it and everything, SATURDAY WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SUNNY! But it was overcast, but whatever, first day of spring, it's a hard day to live up to, so I understand Spring if you just weren't up to being awesome on your first day. You're still my favorite season hands down.

Aw my gawwwd, LITTLE HILLS WITH LITTLE BUNNIES! Okay Andy and I did the photos at Jericho and as many people in Vancouver know, there are many rabbits there, and in so many different colors (grey! white! caramel! dark brown!) and they are so incredibly cute and we watched them for a bit and I can't wait to go see them again.

And hooray! The book I designed (Centrism) for Jared's collages is done! If you'd like a copy, you can contact Josh at strawbooks@gmail.com.

I am especially happy with the accompanying essay at the end and how it was treated:

Another project that I am working on for Straw. It's a pill bottle that treats...when you are walking down the stairs and you think there is another stair but there isn't. The whole idea stemmed from Jared and Josh when they were thinking of what to submit to a friends' magazine, Palimpsest for their second issue, Medicine. So it was kind of funny, we only needed 50 bottles for the project, but Shoppers Drug Mart (where I bought these from), would only give me...200. So the rest of them will be sold at the book launch for Jared's book which is happening April 2 at Comrad Sound in Calgary, AB. So yeah I am busy trying to get like 1oo of those done with my impatient and clumsy hands (but don't worry! They don't look shitty! I think at least!)

Okay that's it and I hope you are well as well.

#18

2010-03-18T17:18:00.000-07:00

March so far:

Went to this place, Simply French (at Alma and W.10th) with Maggie. It was nice, you should go.

Prints I have made and that are available in ma store. The whole time I was making these prints, it was like, man what am I doing. I had these x's on a page that looked terrible, or a flower that looked like it was done in a junior high art class and I just couldn't make myself patient enough to just finish the thing before making such harsh judgements. I needed immediate satisfaction for every second of the process (and that never really happens, as I so often forget) and it took a lot to keep pushing myself and convincing myself that what I was doing wasn't completely dumb and to keep going. And here we are. And I'm pretty glad we're here.

No Country For Old Men

2010-03-10T02:17:00.000-08:00

A few sentences from the first couple of pages of "No Country For Old Men" by Cormac McCarthy. Those pages absolutely kill. I read it like 50 times, it is so well done, time stops, it is just so good.

If you haven't read it, read it. If you've seen the movie, enjoyed it, read the book, the movie is missing so many things that make it so much better.

BADASS.

Witnessed/Ruled

2010-03-01T17:32:00.000-08:00

The last bits of February:

Vancouver 2010 Party city is over. :(

Pal from Calgary, Adam Zendel came down to see some of the Olympics. This is at W2 in gastown.

Okay many of you must have been here:

Wasn't it insane?!

Thanks Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010 for Wilco, fireworks, all the gold medals (and other medals), intense game and competition watching, people, and being here, it sure was fun and I feel so lucky to have witnessed and experienced all this. Safe to say, you ruled.

back to the days of color

2010-02-17T00:59:00.000-08:00

Day at the studio:

pencil crayons saying something on a wonderfully thick piece of paper:

I bought a new pencil sharpener today (1 dollar!) and it's been a long time since I've sharpened several pencils to a fine point (hello elementary school and prisma colors!) and it sure felt good. Speaking of sharpening and elementary school, I remember having this deluxe set of CRAYONS and in the back was a crayon sharpener that was terribly ineffective and I was always disappointed by how it never really seemed to sharpen the crayon but just make it even more dull. Crayola for you.

I also got around to listening to Marissa Nadler's Little Hells. I really like the title track of the album and you should listen to it:

hello all.

2010-02-15T01:29:00.000-08:00

So it feels like the last few days have been spent chasing everything free and interesting that is happening for the Olympics, and holy crap is it ever exciting.

lol.

Okay this is no secret, but I was seriously so beyond stoked to see Wilco at Livecity the other night. When we got to the site, the line was incredibly thick and so long that just when you didn't think it could get any longer, it did. But we got in the line and it seemed like it was going to be the longest wait or near impossible to get in, but it moved surprisingly fast. It only took 45 minutes (I know it may sound long, but I was too excited and it felt pretty short) and once we were in it was the coolest feeling ever to see such a big, wonderful favorite band of mine (for FREE!) at this huge world wide event (the OLYMPICS!), such a great summation of things in one moment in time and man, WILCO. They played such a long set too, which was a nice surprise as well.

I have no idea what happened here, but it's kinda nice.

Chinese New Year!

I so very like tulips and especially these ones that I bought from the corner of Granville and Broadway (2 for $5!)

This is such an exciting time and I am so glad to be here and around all these people doing all these things and man soooo gushy.

oh you've changed.

2010-02-06T22:38:00.000-08:00

A line I love from a song I really like by Wilco:

The way the song goes after this line, it's like sea waves crashing on top of one another, it's something I wish I could truly visualize, that I wish I could play, that I wish I could physically experience (hey let's go to HAWAII!), but this will have to do.

spidey.

2010-02-02T22:20:00.000-08:00

Hello February.

bread, pizza, fortune cookies, and volcanoes.

2010-01-27T19:50:00.000-08:00

BEHOLD:

My first real loaf of homemade bread. As you can see I am very excited and entertained about how I am documenting this moment in photobooth.

I've always been scared to bake bread, the whole kneading, letting it rise thing was just too daunting, time consuming, and even though it's a basic skill that I think everyone should have (And they probably do possess, but seldom try) it's just way more convenient to buy it. But it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought (as with everything in life) and I'll probably do it again in like a year or something. The recipe I used is from this book, which I go to for a lot of my eating needs.

Also! First ever attempt at making no-knead pizza dough. You may notice my laziness when it comes to making bread like things, if there is an easy way, I will take that way. Again, I was scared to make this pizza dough because I had read that it's not as easy as it sounds and the thought of attempting something and possibly failing and having no dinner totally scared me off. Even though whenever I read about how people are scared to work with certain ingredients, I think, pusssyyy, but then I am a bigger pussy, and one of my New Years resolutions: not be a pussy. So I made this pizza and it worked out well and I am happy I did. Pays to not be a pussy.

The most asian thing I've ever done. When Josh was here he talked about wanting to make fortune cookies and he was kind of kidding and when I said we should do it for real, he said he only thought of it because it was ridiculous and probably impossible to make. I didn't think it was impossible and I wanted to prove that to him. So this is hahha...the result. They look more like teeth cookies, WISDOM TEETH COOKIES! And I like how very homemade it looks, they make me laugh each time I look at them, and I was kind of laughing to myself while I was making them as well...maybe that's why they look all misshapen. Anyways, the recipe is from Martha Stewart, nothing that woman can't teach you.

A serious photo of the teeth cookies.

Up close! ahahahahah. Oh gosh.

There are actual fortunes inside the cookies (set in Akkurat and typewritten lucky numbers on the back!), ones that were submitted to Josh, and if you have a desire to send in some fortunes, send them to him at: thestrawbooks@gmail.com. My favorite ones are, "Even War Won Tons want peace", "CAUTION: May contain traces of paper", "Help! I am being held prisoner in a Chinese bakery", and "luck is its own reward."

I felt like I've made a lot of weird/novel things in the past few days, or have documented in a weird/novel way, so here is something kinda serious that I've made that's been in my head for a long while. I've always been fascinated by the word "Volcanoes", it stemmed from the Feist song, "Past in Present" when she sings a bit about volcanoes, and I just loved that tension and explosion and I remember just putting the word on photos and it just made the image seem so much more heavier, like it was on the brink of something, like when the weather is threatening to rain but you weren't sure if it will.

Could go either way.

Whew.

vacation from a vacation.

2010-01-24T02:35:00.000-08:00

So Josh came into town and this is what it kind of looked like:

Ah god my favorite mac and cheese recipe with kale salad (super good balanced combo!)

Josh and I must have gone to almost every possible used book store in Vancouver (which is my way to pass the time). Here is the stack that I ended up with. A sort of mission was to get all the Murakami books, nearly there, but not completely. I am most excited to read, Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami...the guy who sold me it told me he doesn't like Murakami in general, but this book, this book was fantastic. And also I am really looking forward to the Raymond Chandler books as well (inspiration for Bored to Death!)

I am pretty specific about what I buy in a used book store. Usually if it's a modern classic/classic, I will only buy it based on the cover, because those books are usually a dime a dozen, so might as well pick the best looking one. I loooove first editions. Especially if they are first editions designed by Chip Kidd. Some used book stores sell new books along the used books and you'll never see me buying those new books. I try at all costs to buy that book used, and really if I am too impatient and can't wait, I'd buy it on Amazon.

While in the bookstores the things I was looking for (aside from what you see here) were Shirley Jackson, L.P Hartley's "The Go Between", John Wyndham, and Chuck Klosterman's "Downtown Owl". A topic of conversation in many of the bookstores was the folding of Duthie's, and I just cannot get over the insane rent that the place had to pay, 16 THOUSAND DOLLARS! A! MONTH! What! WHAT! WHHHAAATTT!!! That's insane.

Anyways.
It's funny, Josh came here for a vacation, and I totally felt like I was on vacation as well (even though I've been on vacation since like October), and it felt really good and really nice and yeah if you didn't know it already, vacations rule.

how one is built.

2010-01-18T01:25:00.000-08:00

Okay. So confession. Or not really even. I really like the movie Jerry Maguire. Yes it's cheesy and like, man Ellen, you have no taste, but there's something about it that completely kills me, especially one scene, which I wrote out above (you can read all of the key Jerry Maguire quotes here, the one that I wrote out is like the 2nd last one). I just love the characters, Cuba Gooding Jr. and his whole pursuit of "the kwan" and there are some things that are said in the movie that I completely take to heart! AND YOU SHOULD TOO! Or not. Free will!

I also really enjoy a song from the movie as well, "Secret Garden" by Bruce Springsteen, you don't have to watch the video (in fact I recommend that you don't cause it kills the good movie that is Jerry Maguire), just listen to it. Every time I do it really reminds me of junior high and sitting around and watching movies like this and guiltily/surprisingly (and thus indulgently) really enjoying it and almost saying/thinking, like screw anything that's "cool" this "terrible" movie rules and there's nothing no one can do to change that.

PRINT PRINT

2010-01-09T18:20:00.000-08:00

Selling prints of some of my work online: http://printprint.etsy.com!
Coooool!
Thannnks!

In other news, after eating awesome nachos at Foundation and then attending a photo show at Antisocial, watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs for the second time the other night and it was good! If not even better than the first time around, which makes the movie more awesome. Whenever that movie comes up, almost every person says, "I've heard it's actually good." Like everyone is surprised that something with such an awfully weird and nonsensical name could be more than bearable. And it is actually good! And you should see it if you haven't already. Serious laughing.

ode to the muji 0.3mm gel ink ballpoint hexagonal pen:

2010-01-08T17:43:00.000-08:00

I love this pen! And I love it thin (0.3 mm or smaller!)

lol using muji pens.

rudderless:

2010-01-05T20:07:00.000-08:00

Been thinking about this word a lot these days.

In other news, 3D seems to be a super big thing right now (especially in my twitter feed!!!). BUT YO! Up in 3D was like whatever (the effects, the movie itself was awesome!) I guess I really need to see Avatar in 3D.

Anywayyyyssss.

Books Read 09:

2010-01-03T18:13:00.000-08:00

Books I read in 2009 (in the order seen in the above image):

The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi
Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto
The New Kings of Nonfiction selected by Ira Glass
Shenzhen: A Travelogue by Guy Delisle
Good-bye by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell
Where I am Calling From by Raymond Carver
A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes From my Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg
Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
Comfort Me With Apples by Ruth Reichl
No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July
C by Josh Barsky
The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Burma Chronicles by Guy Delisle
French Milk by Lucy Knisley
Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine
Lamb by Christopher Moore
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Out of all the books, the ones that I enjoyed the most and would tell you to take a gander at if you were in search of something to read: The New Kings of Nonfiction selected by Ira Glass, Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami, The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank (especially if you are a girl! One that is in love with romance! And don't worry this isn't a cloyingly cheesy book either), Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind, Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine (best graphic novel I read this year), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham (I recommend reading anything by this author...science fiction at it's best, totally awesome).

And hrm, out of all the books, the ones I would tell you to kind of stay away from (I only say kind of, because we probably have different tastes, and really none of the books I read were terrible, but I just didn't really enjoy these ones): Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell (really hard to get through, the author is slightly boring), French Milk by Lucy Knisley (a kind of blah graphic novel, the drawings are alright, and at times the observations were interesting, but for the most part, passable), ha hrm that's it.

Yeaaaah books!

home.

2009-12-31T07:22:00.000-08:00

Gawd I love that Southern Drawllll.

I find that it's a bit easier to find a nice pale pink for something, but to find a good shade of blue is hard...it could end up looking too corporate, too nice, too whatever, it's hard to find that one that feels just right.

Anyways...uh new year in like half an hour here in Hong Kong!! 2009 you were sweeeet (for serious!)

A-S-I-A TOUR IV

2009-12-30T06:46:00.000-08:00

Trip is winding down, I'll be back in Van on the day before the big ol' 2010.

It sure has been nice here in Kuala Lumpur spending time with my family, drinking milk tea (both HOT and COLD!), being in hot weather (and not sweating too hard, something that I am kind of proud of, ahaaaaa) and just experiencing and navigating a new city.

A lonely mall.

This little girl was beautiful!

Hey Van did you miss my face (leaf face!?), cause I kinda missed yours. See ya soon tree face!

A-S-I-A TOUR III, SINGAPORE (Part 2)

2009-12-26T23:46:00.000-08:00

Yo!
So this is what happened on my last day in Singapore:
David was totally awesome and drove (DROVE!) me around and showed me stuff:

What! David Lang drives? Yes it's true! AND! Not only that, talking on a cell phone at the same time! Remarkable.

In front of the door...where we met...David's...GRANDMA!

An educational theme park, Haw Par Villa:

I think all of what you see in Haw Par Villa is painted by hand...with a noticeably small paint brush...

This was hands down the most weird/disturbing thing in the park for me, I still feel very physically weird looking at this thing. The point of the park is to instill buddhist morals and whatnot into you, and my dad said that this thing is to remind men that beautiful women (or hookers I can't remember) can be treacherous and to be a moral man. Uh yeah! I am totally a moral man now.

Driving around aimlessly, we ended up at this awesome beach where there was windsurfing, the water was so warm, and was such a nice way to end the day and say goodbye to Singapore with.

A-S-I-A TOUR II, SINGAPORE (Part 1)

2009-12-22T06:57:00.000-08:00

So I am back in Kuala Lumpur now after being in Singapore for a few days. It's a pretty dialed city (although it has a hilariously weird national symbol), public transport is awesome (so noticeable after being in Kuala Lumpur), everything works, makes sense, you know, dialed.

So here's what part of it looked like:

Hm I went to the Toy Museum (one of the top 5 most interesting museums in Singapore according to one website! lol)

Isn't this Batman compass so cool?! I want one so bad! I'd never ever get lost again! And I would also possibly be able to fight crime as well.

Seeing so many old toys was interesting, but once you get past that, and you start thinking about how this museum came into being, a guy who collected a buttload of toys and then his wife donated them to the city, I don't know, I felt like, what kind of guy spends this amount of money and time on toys? I couldn't decide if the guy was insanely weird and a bit out of touch, or just really appreciative of...toys in an extremely healthy way.

The museum reminded me of my ...hahaha....beanie baby collection. Ah god! I have sooooo many beanie babies, I got totally caught up in that hype when I was in junior high. I wonder by the time I die if I will amass an even larger beanie baby collection (unlikely though, I haven't bought a beanie baby since I was like 13) and my husband will donate it to say...Calgary and there will be the first ever beanie baby museum and it will be 11 dollars to get in (that's how much this museum costed!) Ah god culture at it's finest!

I also went to the Singapore National Museum. As you may have noticed I saw a lot of museums. This museum was surprisingly good (I tend to think "National" museums are pretty...dull and uninspired). It talked about Singapore's history in food, film, fashion, and other things and it also had some non permanent exhibitions that were well done as well. What was also good about this museum were the explanations for the pieces, really well articulated, enlightening points.

Hey uh, everyone from Clement's third year spring semester core, Plan B 3.0 exhibit, ha uh, holla? Kind of makes the jars in the Plan B 3.0 exhibit look very...homey. Anyways. These jars were super beautiful! They displayed ingredients found in Singapore cooking, and there were some jars where you pulled this thing and you could smell what was inside. So wonderfully interactive! I love smelling food things!

Okay there's more to Singapore that I have to show (later, these mosquito bites I just got are killing me and it's hard to concentrate) and it involves this guy:

lol.

Talk soon friends!

A-S-I-A TOUR I:

2009-12-18T05:52:00.000-08:00

Hong Kong:

Hong Kong was a blur of shopping malls. I saw a buttload of Uniqlo's and Muji's and now I wonder how much I'll be craving seeing them in person once I am back in Van.

Seeing so many shops and so many people, and sadly getting kind of bored of looking at the clothes (all becomes a blur after awhile...a very monochromatic blur), I started looking harder at the people. And I think this: the fashion sense in Hong Kong, after being to Japan (albeit briefly so this observation could be very superficial) and talking to my Aunt, I am thinking that it is motivated and defined mostly by status and huge well known brands, rather than in Japan it seems to be motivated more by true self expression (you see a lot more 'stranger' looks in Japan than you would in Hong Kong and a variety as well, extremes like over the top outfits seen in Harajuku and then clean looks like Muji and Uniqlo). It doesn't matter what you are wearing, but who you are wearing, and it seems like the opposite is more found in Japan. I know brands and who you are loyal to is a big thing around the whole world, but it seems to be a really dominating and deciding factor in how a person's appearance is defined in Hong Kong.

Kuala Lumpur:

KL's Twin towers! My dad works on one of the lower floors of one of these buildings. I don't know which one.

Aren't we?!

Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia. Okay I am not closed minded or anything (or whatever), but I didn't think I'd be at all interested in seeing this museum, but faced with a bunch of time in my hands and not really knowing what to do in Kuala Lumpur, I went to this museum on a whim because it is one of those big tourist things to do. I say that I wouldn't be interested because I don't really know much about Islamic Art and it just never really held any interest to me. But this museum was beautiful! There was a section that showed various mosques around the world (little perfect models with insane tiny details that just thinking about make my eyes cry), and holy shit some of them are amazing, AND THEY WERE BUILT FOREVER AGO! Really nice and impressive.

I feel like I've paid more attention to the architecture in Kuala Lumpur than in most places I've been to. Maybe because I had/have few notions about the place and to see impressive structures here and there is neat and a bit of a surprise.

I have been drinking like gallons of cold milk tea, god, so! delicious! And everything that I've eaten in Kuala Lumpur (Chicken Rice, Laksa, Chicken Biryani, etc) has been awesome and super good, and is great when you first eat it, but I am beginning to feel the effects of the heaviness/greasiness of it, like feeling mega tired afterwards and thinking, "Man what did I just eat." Anyways.

A really sort of nerve-wracking thing about Kuala Lumpur is the taxis. With most, okay well, EVERY, place that I've been to, you can hail a taxi, and that taxi will take you wherever you want. But here! HERE! They sometimes don't want to take you there (because they want to stay on a certain side or whatever), and if they do take you, they might put it at a set fee, which is higher than if they were to just open the meter and let it run. I don't really understand why they do it and it just makes for a really nerve-wracking experience, especially being a foreigner because I am super not good at haggling and when you want to get somewhere, you just want to (or at least I want to) get there as soon and as easily as possible, even if it means spending like a few dollars more.

Tiny bit of Singapore:

Went to the Singapore Art Museum. It's in a really neat building, (a restored old school building) and I was really impressed with this piece by Donna Ong (beautiful!) and also this collective (Vertical Submarine) and their stuff made me laugh.

Hey!

It was nice catching up! Let's do this again sometime!

Boulder/Vancouver Life

2009-12-03T23:03:00.000-08:00

Tobias thinks we're getting close with getting the right exposure times for screenprinting. I sure don't feel it yet, but I hope we are.

The successful result of my first visit to Army and Navy. Now my neighbor shouldn't be complaining about hearing me walk around in my apartment, and now I can laugh at what hilarious fuzzy moccassins I have.

YEH!

Arbitrary/Inevitable

2009-12-02T20:57:00.000-08:00

Things to note about me and colours:
I tend to wear a lot of blue.
I am drawn to brown shoes.
I like pale pink backgrounds.

That's it (hrm I thought there'd be more).

Won't Ever/Won't Never

2009-11-30T02:03:00.000-08:00

Whoosh! The days have gone by seriously fast.

A button from Dallin for Straw.

While in Calgary, Dallin, Josh and I worked on Dallin's Book:

This book will be available for purchase at Calgary's next Market Collective (Dec 6!) if you're in Calgary, GO! Dallin is hand binding these books and yes, that's cool yeah?

And also another book that I've been working on, Jared's collages...is almost done as well.

More of Calgary:

Oh man I didn't expect to be staying up this late. Must be all that bubble tea with Ms.Koo.
And I know I've already said it, but Calgary ain't so bad.
But, uh, Hey there Vancouver! Goodnight!

Calgary You're Okay.

2009-11-20T20:53:00.000-08:00

Dear Calgary:

I don't want to jinx this or anything, but a lot of people talk shit about you (including myself) and I guess hearing this from me won't be such a bad thing. So I wanted to say this to you: thank you for being sunny and dry (it feels good to not have wet socks and cold feet), thank you for letting me drive on your roads and not die, thank you for having friends, thank you for your golden flat plains and your big sky, and thank you for being pretty nice so far for a November trip, and ha uh thanks for showing me that the latest Jay-Z single is awesome.

Brick cheese? Very descriptive for the wrong thing ya know?

Shredder.

2009-11-17T00:56:00.000-08:00

Maybe this should have been my costume for Halloween: Cousin Itt towel style! Or brown ghost towel style.

Learning fallibility.
Got my hair cut, got tickets to far places and not so far places, and I oughta, got-ta get a goin' now.

(ps man it's windy!)

DIAMONDS

2009-11-04T02:17:00.000-08:00

An exploration of diamonds.

I was talking to this guy one time about how I really liked the one song by Broken Social Scene, Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day). And he's like, "Oh yeah, that one's great" and then sang a line from that song, and I don't know if he's completely misheard the song or if I misheard him, but I thought he sang, "Diamonds ain't never turning to dust." Even though it's completely wrong and I don't think there is a Broken Social Scene song with that line, it's quite beautiful to me nonetheless. I find that this happens often with Broken Social Scene (like with KC Accidental, I made up alll the lyrics to that song), but I know it's common to mishear songs and you end up with your own version of your lyrics that you grow to love but eventually forget once you learn the correct ones (and you try so hard to remember what you started with, but can never really get back to it).

Anyways.
Nice weather we've been having?

I saw this movie tonight:

A Serious Man. And there were some parts where I had no idea what was going on and why that scene was there and so forth. It was kind of a choppy experience, there's parts where I could understand and I enjoyed, then it would get kind of strange and I had no idea what the director was implying, and then it would go back to understanding, and maybe that was the whole idea of the film, I don't know. But um maybe if you've seen it you could explain the beginning, end, and a bunch of other parts to me?

#17

2009-11-01T23:13:00.000-08:00

Excerpt wridrawn (written+drawn) by myself from the book, History of Love by Nicole Krauss.

If you can't read it (I know people have a bit of hard time with my handwriting), here's what it says:

My brother and I used to play a game. I'd point to a chair. "THIS IS NOT A CHAIR," I'd say. Bird would point to the table. "THIS IS NOT A TABLE." "THIS IS NOT A WALL," I'd say. "THAT IS NOT A CEILING." We'd go on like that. "IT IS NOT RAINING OUT." "MY SHOE IS NOT UNTIED!" Bird would yell. I'd point to my elbow. "THIS IS NOT A SCRAPE." Bird would lift his knee. "THIS IS ALSO NOT A SCRAPE!" "THAT IS NOT A KETTLE!" "NOT A CUP!" "NOT A SPOON" "NOT DIRTY DISHES!" We deneid whole rooms, years, weathers. Once at the peak of our shouting, Bird took a deep breath. At the top of his lungs, he shrieked, "I! HAVE NOT! BEEN! UNHAPPY! MY WHOLE! LIFE!" "But you're only seven," I said.

And man this cough of mine is giving my upper abs or stomach a work out, COUGH OUT!

#16

2009-10-28T00:35:00.000-07:00

So I have updated my portfolio with a few more things: Straw, Incurable, WWWLBWT, and just updated the images for: C, Great Love/Conquest, Secret History, and The Story I Want to Tell You. All the images for those projects were done by the exceptional Jason Edwards.

A lot of the recent projects that have popped up on my portfolio were helped along with the critique of Tobias Ottahal, and big thanks for that.

During making new projects for my portfolio, I caught up on toooons of TV. Like TONS! But really bad TV. I would have it stream in the background while I worked. Bad TV while I work is really comforting and calming to me, it keeps me focused/distracted in a good way in the sense that it keeps me awake and engaged (but yeah I know, shouldn't I be engaged by the project?), I guess the better word is entertained and motivated, but anyways. With good TV, it's hard to have it streaming in the background because good TV has all these visual cues and hints that need to be watched in order for it to be understood as good, and so it demands a larger amount of attention. And there's also the whole thing with good TV where the characters say something, but their actions speak differently, which gives the scene a whole deeper meaning, whereas with bad TV, what is said is what is meant and its very superficial in that sense.

So enough of this portfolio business.

Saw this film with Jane tonight:
Coco Avant Chanel. It's about fashion designer Coco Chanel before she became mega famous and ubiquitous. The film mainly focused on her love life, and as much as I love love, I thought the film was pretty weak. I guess it didn't help either that one of the characters would sometimes speak in a British accent then go back into French, sounded really awkward and highly laughable. The film just wasn't compelling or engaging for me in any way, it was flat and preetty forgettable.

And it looks like I'll be in Asia for a bit in December. KL and HK yonder!

#15

2009-10-19T00:44:00.000-07:00

I was pretty entertained by this movie.
"Feed me woman!"

hahahaha.

VIFF 09

2009-10-17T19:37:00.000-07:00

Films I saw this year at the VIFF:

Films that I enjoyed out of the ones I saw:
Mother, Castaway on the Moon, Ashes of American Flags, Breathless, The Exploding Girl, Mammoth, Punching the Clown, and The White Ribbon.

Films that I kind of enjoyed seeing:
An Education, Prom Night in Mississippi (there were some seriously cheesy effects in this movie that made me groan), Air Doll, Cole.

Films that I did not enjoy, in fact I feel asleep:
Eatrip and Cooking History.

It's funny, the films that I thought I would really enjoy (Eatrip and Cooking History) were really disappointing. I've said this to Jane many times, but the Korean Films I saw this year (Mother, Castaway on the Moon, and Breathless) were so strong and impressive, whimsical, bold, and just overall entertaining and enjoyable. I was surprised as well at "Ashes of American Flags". It's basically a Wilco show on screen and I thought it would be kind of boring, but because I respect the band, I felt like I should see it. I was surprised at when it ended, it was so abrupt, I wanted more, and it was just beautiful to look and listen to, and it made me listen to Wilco on repeat afterwards for a few days. Especially a specific minute of their song "At least that's what you said", new goal in life: learn that guitar part in that specific minute of "At least that's what you said". And the "Exploding Girl". It was very much like a hipster movie to me, it was visually beautiful, with beautiful hipster characters set in New York. But it's quietness and smallness won me over.

VIFF was definitely enjoyable this year.

Hello:

2009-10-15T23:23:00.000-07:00

Been busy making things.

Saw my last film today of the VIFF this year, The White Ribbon. In the movie, the daughter and son of the pastor have to wear a thick white ribbon in their hair or arm to remind them of their innocence and purity and to stop them from sinning and whatnot. It seemed like a punishment, a way of identifying that this child did something wrong and needs reminding of what they did wrong, but the ribbon was so beautiful that if I had to wear it, I'd probably just think about how pretty it is and not so much about how I was a bad kid. And apparently I guess the son and daughter were like this as well, but instead of thinking the ribbon was pretty, hrm, thought instead that torturing other kids would be actually pretty fun. You need to see the film to understand what I am saying or prove me totally wrong because I am not entirely sure as to what happened, I was wide awake and everything, even gripping my face at the intense scenes, but there was a lot of implied stuff that I can only guess at and would like to hear what you thought of it because I am not so sure and would really like to know.

Pow Wow

2009-10-12T15:46:00.000-07:00

Yeh!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Back to a place where we know we are loved.

2009-10-06T23:03:00.000-07:00

This illustration was inspired by this:

The season finale of season 1 of Mad Men, The Wheel. Everything that was said to sell the idea to the client was just so achingly true and things that you know but were never really able to put in such a clear and eloquent way. What was said just resonated with me and nagged at me and I put it to paper.

BOOKS READ.

2009-09-24T23:25:00.000-07:00

I started a Tumblr that keeps a record of all the books I have been reading. Having buttloads of time at the book store has increased the amount of books I am reading, and I have all this information, and I feel like I need to do something with it. Hence, I present with excitement:

BOOKS READ.

I just post what books I read, sometimes do an accompanying illustration with my favorite sentence/passage from that book and the story of how I got to the book. It was inspired completely by Ken Tsui's tumblr, Habitual Viewer, where he documents what films he is watching. Seeing all the film stills in one place, it looked so beautiful, so important, even though it is so small and brief, it is so loaded! And most importantly, it made me want to see all the films he was watching. I wanted to do the same thing, just post the cover of the book I read and my then write my favorite sentence and leave it at that and let the viewer think whether or not the book seems interesting or not. But gah! I just couldn't! I feel this incredible need to tell people why I chose the book, how I got to the book, because I like knowing that kind of stuff, and I like telling that kind of stuff. I will kind of draw the line (even though I think I already kinda crossed it) at telling you whether or not the book is good and worthwhile. You can decide that for yourself because I did when I found all of these books.

Um, so unless kind of otherwise noted, the illustrations that accompany the book covers are done by myself. Um yep!

And we start Books Read with the lovely Dorothy Parker and Ms. Judith Jones.

Celebration/Extremely Dreamy

2009-09-19T17:36:00.000-07:00

For the most part, September, you rule.

Today is Joel's, the owner of Tangelwood and Brigid's books, birthday. It is also the third anniversary of Brigid's Books, celebrate! I made him a little card and also bought some truffles from Chocolaterie de la Nouvelle France which Tobias and I stumbled upon while walking on Main Street. I had the dreamiest truffle there, it was a black currant tea truffle, the instant I stuck it in my mouth I was amazed at how fruity it was (I find with a lot of truffles that it says it tastes like something, but it rarely ever does, and if it does, it's too subtle for my unrefined palate) and how SOFT! Truffles are usually kind of hard because it is dipped in chocolate, but this lady just rolled it in cocoa powder, and gosh it melted so nice in my mouth.

Man I am still dreaming and thinking about it.

I am not exaggerating here, but that truffle was almost...revelatory! It tasted so good that it is now my standard for a good truffle, how they should be, soft, intense, and uh...extremely dreamy.

expectations.

2009-09-08T21:27:00.000-07:00

Everything and nothing to say.
You know?

So I am now officially 22 and it was the first birthday in a long time or possibly ever where I didn't really make much of a big deal of it in my head. I always feel kind of shitty or insanely slummy on my birthday because no matter how hard I try, I have expectations and they are always unmet or unfulfilled and the day ends up feeling so anti climatic and I have all these self-loathing feelings for acting like such a big spoiled kid. I'd have such conflicting feelings, I would want to stay in bed and not talk to anyone but to also be out doing significant meaningful things and say hi to everyone and have everyone say hi to me and eat cake. But this year was different, everything felt fine, things felt okay and there were pleasant surprises (small things) that left me more than fulfilled.

I have been thinking about expectations, and how having them sometimes leads to disappointment. I started thinking that maybe you shouldn't go into anything with expectations, or if you do, to have some pretty low ones. Then I was reading a tv review in the metro and the reviewer said something to the effect of, "This show will be enjoyable if you have low expectations." And seeing that in print and reading it, that idea of having to have to have low expectations in order to enjoy something just suddenly seemed so retaaaarded. It sounded like such a cop out, that the show would be excusable if you kind of turned off your mind and your thinking and your questioning, the things that makes things more interesting, more meaningful, less shitty. If you have to have low expectations for something, you probably shouldn't even be bothering with it anyways . It's better then to have appropriate expectations, reasonable expectations, and they can be seen as high or low, but they are specific to the situation, its context, and I think that leads to better feelings.

I think at least.

Ties.

2009-08-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

Today I ate crab with family that I haven't seen in six years. They visited my house in Calgary before coming to Vancouver and my youngest cousin, the one who likes to have his picture taken and repeats everything you say, he was able to comb the hair on my dog. Only my mom combs my dog (mostly I think cause she's the only one that is willing to do it, wants to do it, but partly because my dog only really likes it when she does it). My dog does not get along with people, can be kind of vicious (the vet had sent a letter recommending she be euthinized because my dog almost bit a nurse) and as cute looking as she is, really isn't very nice to anyone but my mom, dad, brother, and I. It is nerve wracking to have people stick their hand in front of her, asking to be sniffed and allowing them to touch her, luckily they pull away fast enough when she growls. For her to allow this boy to comb her, I think there's something kind of special about this kid, he won her heart, and even though I only saw him for an hour or so, mine too.

His older brother is cute too! Has a nice quietness to him, the kind that is okay with just listening and allowing his younger brother to take all of the attention and be the eccentric one. He plays clarinet and soccer and is very tall.

My uncle was saying that what my mom orders for dinner is very different from what he would order. She orders things with more vegetables. And what he and her order is different from what their other brother would order and so on (my mom has...4 siblings). I thought that was kind of nice. You could tell who's dinner belonged to who.

I rode the new Canada line to meet them and gosh it felt really cool and exciting! And then I began imagining if I were in charge of putting sky train lines in Vancouver, I thought about where I'd put them and whether they'd be underground or above and when.

Above mostly.

Delancey

2009-08-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

Menu taken from Orangette for the restaurant Delancey in Seattle, Washington.

I love this menu. I straightforward names of the pizzas, I like how focused the flavors on the pizza are, and I just absolutely love love love the sound of the desserts. For most sort of European (or to be un-politically correct, white) restaurants, I tend to gauge how good I think the restaurant is based on what the desserts are. I know it sounds so insanely simple, but the idea of a organic raspberry yogurt popsicle makes me swoon along with chilled peaches in wine. I just imagine the pinkness of the raspberries and the freshness of them and having them in a cold popiscle after eating pizza on a summer day sounds pretty more than good to me.

Even though I've never been to this restaurant (and probably won't get to it for a bit), I am already in love with it as well. Maybe it's because I have been following it's progress on Orangette and had read how Molly and her husband started with wide-eyed hopes and a nameless empty space into this beautiful, classic, and undoubtedly what will be an insanely popular restaurant. I feel invested in it just by reading about it from start to another start, and I feel insanely happy for these people (almost to the point of weepy if I stare at a picture too long) even though I have never met them and I bet once I get to the restaraunt I'll feel insanely awkward and creepy for having these feelings and stare at (but enjoy) only at my pizza and popsicle (or a different dessert depending on when I'm there).

So I'm gonna leave it at that, and if you ever go to Seattle, Delancey yonder!

I present:

2009-08-12T15:19:00.000-07:00

I am so very elated and overjoyed about this:

Josh sent me a bunch of his book that I designed and typeset today to sell at the bookstore(s) that I work at and even though he was telling me that there were some little problems with it, I still love it, flaws and all. I think it's because every bit of the design is mine and when something is yours, if anyone were to knock it, yah it might hurt for a second because getting dissed sucks, but who cares, you made this whole entire thing, and no one can really take that away from you. The book of course represents a lot of things to me and that's probably why I am excited about it, it's the start of something between Josh, Sean, and I, it's the culmination of years of something, it's a validation of something, and man it's just so fucking cool.

So! If you would like a copy drop by Brigid's Books (Bayswater and Broadway) or Tanglewood Books (Fir and Broadway) and talk to me!

#14

2009-08-05T18:36:00.000-07:00

I did this poster for Josh's booklaunch (August 16, 7 o'clock, Tubby Dog in Calgary, AB!). I like the whole thing for the most part but I kinda feel like the typeface I chose for "C" isn't quite right, it's set in Gill Sans Bold and I dunno if you have any suggestions that be cool.

But if any of you who read this are going to Calgary or are from there, you should totally go cause I would, I mean come on, hot dogs and books!

I have been watching Mad Men a lot more lately (I started watching it awhile back and just kind of lost interest) and the opening credits just kill me (always did and probably always will), I absolutely love the music, so epic! Speaking of epic, the music in Moon is so good! I kind of felt that was a big part of holding that movie together and making it 500 times more intense and interesting, without it I think it could have easily fallen apart.

air, hot and thick.

2009-07-30T13:50:00.000-07:00

A free night of folk festival courtesy of Mr. Adam Zendel. Hi Adam!

A sleeping hippie.

My friend is off to Saskatchewan and was saying he was looking forward to when you leave your home and you reflect on what you're leaving, and he was excited to see what he would think about.

I'm leaving Calgary after staying here for 12 days (which was a bit too long) and it's not quite the moment where I reflect on the city (I suspect this will happen more while I am at the airport and waiting to board) but right now I think I'll remember the air, hot and thick, and me being sick for what felt like forever, and watching so many movies, and how much I like driving late at night, mostly because there's no one around and I don't have to worry about looking like a shitty driver or crashing into anyone but a tree.

Man I can't wait to be in Vancouver.

The Weird Looking Girl From Boy Meets World!

2009-07-12T11:55:00.000-07:00

The other night for dinner, Nate and I went to Topanga Cafe. My boss at Tanglewood recommended it to me as a place that is pretty good to eat for under 15 dollars. I was kind of hesitant to go because I knew nothing about the place and I didn't really know how good my boss' taste was in restaurants, but you know, always good to try something new.

We get there and it's the cutest place ever (pennants and menus coloured in endearing ways adorning the wall) and all suspicions and apprehensions were put to rest. The food was pretttty okay, I got everything that appealed to me on the menu because I didn't really know when I was ever going to be there again. If I do go again I could do without the dessert (empanadas) and the drinks and just have the deep fried corn tortilla stuffed with meat with rice and beans (Flautas!), which I am kind of craving right now, the rice was the kind of rice I like from non chinese origin, kind of tomatoe-y and puffy.

But yeah! You should go! And maybe invite me along.

#13

2009-07-09T18:20:00.000-07:00

HEY!
I have been liking these things a lot the past few weeks:

-Salsa
-Lemonade (I've made Basil, Rosemary, and my latest is Watermelon, I found a recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb lemonade that has been fascinating me for a week now that I'll be trying soon.)
-Chinese Checkers. Although I seem to be on a total losing streak. Watch me rise from the dead though.
- Vain and Vapid's Summer Collection 20 09...gaaaahhhh such beautiful stuff. I stumbled upon this girl on Etsy and I am glad. One of the few sellers on there that makes their own clothes that is absolutely lovely and reasonably priced.

Photo by Alana Davis

-Pushing Daisies. At first I thought a lot of this show was kind of forced and a bit too sort of charismatic for it's own good, but as I watched it more, I just felt myself unintentionally laughing really hard and just sort of unwillingly smiling at how endearing the characters were and how they acted and who they are. Not too mention uh, Ned (Lee Pace) is kind of um, well really good looking. It's a bummer that it was already cancelled after 2 seasons and I have yet to see the second, but I can see that too much of a good thing gives you a bad stomach ache.

Other things that I just like and discovered recently:
Sprouted Kitchen. I have yet to try and recipes from this blog, and admittedly nothing really jumps at me to try, but the photos on here are absolutely gorgeous and striking and I like the largeness of them, gives such a good breathing room and I just feel at such peace when I look at this blog.
Anna Melcon. I had stumbled upon her blog when I saw this tutorial she had done (which I really want to do one day) and I realized I had seen her work before on flick r , which is insanely nice and you might think so as well.

Poster by Anna Melcon!

Okay and here are some pictures of the days of June and July that you might like to look at:

last night she said:

2009-06-28T20:14:00.000-07:00

Nothing Future from Ellen Lee on Vimeo.

Oh thank you everyone, last night was swell!

#12

2009-06-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

Images from various tumblrs listed below.

I have a few more tumblrs that I've discovered lately that you guys might like as well (some of them share the same images, but they're all still really great):

Weird Fish
(Un)solved Mysteries
We're All Scattered
Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes
Delay...Procrasinate

The other day I was in Future shop buying new earphones and I impulsively bought Season 1 of Pushing Daisies. I don't really know much about it and I had only really bought it because I had seen this image on someone's tumblr:

And that was more than enough for me, but then I realized I could have just gotten it from the library for free. Then I went into this whole sort of dumb dilemma of well, it's nice to own things, but it's also nice to have stuff for free, and la la la, and I don't even know why I am really going into it here, but in the end I put a hold on this series at the library along with a billion other things because I think I am in a very consumptive mood. So yeah if anyone has any mussiiiiccc or books or anything I should watch and see, tell me!

(please!)

#11

2009-06-16T00:29:00.000-07:00

I got an old roll of film developed the other day:

These photos are from North Van during when I had to go to Centennial Books to get my books bound. Speaking of bookbinding, Tea! Party! Design! Or, without the exclamation points: Tea Party Design (cute name by the way). Ginger and Chloe starting and doing stuff and it looks really exciting and cool and everyone should see! It seems a lot of people are starting stuff, in Calgary my friends are also starting a little book publishing house/company, The Straw and I was just at the Main Street Party thing the other day where a whole lot of selling of handmade stuff was going on and it's nice/exciting to see semi big/big things being done by everyday people.

This tree was crazy to me. It was bursting with bright pink flowers and dying brown petals. I really liked it.

I was lying underneath the tree to photograph this.

One time Andy and Jane came over and we played with photobooth and listened to Girl Talk for like 3 hours straight and played bocce for 2 seconds on my bed. It was fun.

Some sort of dramatic photographs of a not really dramatic night:

That's Nate making me laugh. I can't remember at what though.

I want to do more analog photographs! It's really exciting to fill up a roll, hand it in to London Drugs and to be reminded of what you did and saw and to also be kind of disappointed at how many awful photographs you can take. But when you have a somewhat good one, it's really really exciting and you can't help but stare at that photo for a long time. Or you keep going through the pile over and over just so you can see the good photo in all the crappy ones.

salad days.

2009-06-11T21:23:00.000-07:00

What I really don't like is making something that I either screwed up or tastes bad because of weird ingredient combinations. Especially when I am counting on it as being a meal for 5 days a week or something. I always try recipes that have appealing ingredients to me and that I know that I won't mess up. The most recent mess-up that I can think of was I made a potato soup and ended up with like potato porridge, which sounds kind of interesting, but made me want to barf each time I swallowed. Or the time I tried to make ricotta gnocchi (first time ever making gnocchi) and ended up with these gobs of dough that disintegrated into a goopy weird paste in your mouth that just wouldn't...dissolve.

So I was reading Molly Wizenberg's (Orangette) A Homemade Life (it's good! you should read it as well) and she had a recipe for potato salad (I! Love! Potato! Salad!) but seriously some sketchy weird ingredients were in this salad. And she admitted it as well that it's a bit of a weird combo, but that she was absolutely in love. I mean, mayonnaise (I don't really like mayonnaise based potato salads in the first place, I'm more into sour cream or vinegar) and ranch dressing (that stuff only belongs on chicken wings and pizza) and dill and eggs? Really weird combo. But I trust this girl (I've tried several of her recipes before and they made me pretty happy) so I said okay, fuck it, let's try this weird potato salad.
And it's good! And it's pretty (with the flecks of green from chopped up dill and green onions and the red skinned potatoes and yellow-y orange egg yolks) and you should try it too (go find Molly's book or just ask me in real life and we'll talk).

confession #1: mom's pasta salad.

2009-06-09T17:45:00.000-07:00

I know it's summer when I am eating this salad.

My mom would make this when we would have big barbecues with family friends over and I loved it with chicken and potato casserole.

The salad has a crappy ingredient that I have a big soft spot for (probably because it was the only dressing we had when I was growing up for whenever we ate salad. Then my mom discovered the wonders of balsamic vinagrette and olive oil) Kraft's Zesty Italian Dressing. I try to stay away from crappy food as much as possible but there are things that I can't quite keep away from:

-Ice cream from Mcdonald's. Jane and I had this all the time in Japan and it's such a cheap ice cream that satisfies my cravings without any guilt whatsoever.

-Chocolate dipped cone from Dairy Queen, I had one the other day and I noticed how thin the chocolate tasted (something which I never really noticed before), it was almost water-y. But I love the dipped cone because right when you get it the chocolate hasn't quite set, and then when it does, it's mega fun to crack it.

-Kraft Dinner and McCain frozen fries with tons of ketchup. In high school this was my favorite thing in the whole wide world to eat! I haven't had this combo in like 4 years, but I bet I would still enjoy it.

-Instant noodles and Little Caesar's 5 dollar pepperoni pizza. And...hahahaha I would add malt vinegar to my noodles as well. With instant noodles I always have to have something crunchy to eat with it.

-Dill pickle chips (Old Dutch!) and grape slurpees. Junior high summers!

Okay I am done with confessing all of the bad things I like to eat.
If you would like to make this pasta salad, here are things that you stick in it:

-Pasta (I use rotini, but you can use whatever sort of shape you like)
-Cherry tomatoes
-Advocado
-Brocolli
-Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing.

The dressing is seriously key! As for measurements and stuff, just eyeball it and taste and I'm sure you'll end up with something good. Make sure though to boil the brocolli for 1 minute (until it turns bright green) so that it's cooked evenly and you're good.

endless.

2009-06-08T00:41:00.000-07:00

I remember everything that's happened these past few weeks as a blur, a really nice, fast one that had achingly slow moments and then quick ones that you wish could go on for a bit longer. And every moment was so clear at the time it was occurring and even though I can't remember every detail on cue, I know they were good, I remember that at least.

In other news, my goals for the end of this summer, aside from being a respectable 21 year old and a grown-up and whatever:
-Make tarts (Chocolate, Lemon, and Chocolate/Caramel)

Ha um that is it for now.

lucky.

2009-05-28T11:11:00.000-07:00

In my dream last night someone told me, "You are my penny" and at first I didn't get it and was slightly offended, but then I thought it was one of the nicest things I had ever heard.

a nice feeling.

2009-05-26T00:14:00.000-07:00

contentedly exhausted.