
02 December 2009
21 November 2009
Philippe Starck at TED
I never cared much for Philippe Starck until I saw this video. No self-aggrandizement - no slides of his work - just humility. Design may not be "oosless," but I agree that it creates better fiction than reality.
25 September 2009
Vanishing Point

I finally watched Vanishing Point (1971) last night. I have no idea why it took me so long. What an excellent, excellent film.
20 September 2009
Crittern Barn lives!
05 September 2009
Odds and Ends

29 July 2009
Yet another portfolio update

28 July 2009
24 July 2009
22 July 2009
NeoCon 2009 Aftermath



Mostly, though, there was mugging for the camera.
More Portfolio updates

21 July 2009
let's not forget
20 July 2009
Another Google Blanket Update!

Related: 100th post! Updates have been scarce lately; I've been considering grabbing the rudder and changing the direction of this blog, now that I don't have tales from the East to share. Hopefully a new portfolio website is in the cards soon, as well as experiments with Rhino and Alias, more furniture concepts, and maybe even more car design crit...
11 July 2009
neocon 2009
some photographs from this year's NEOCON furniture fair in beautiful downtown Chicago. this was my third year attending... i'm starting to get familiar with a lot of the furniture, so there wasn't much surprising for me this year.

08 May 2009
portfolio update!

30 April 2009
chair poster
21 April 2009
annie clark

20 April 2009
41
17 April 2009
11 April 2009
26 March 2009
irish nachos

dubliner cheese
cheddar cheese
cheesy mashed potatoes
taco meat
peas
beans
green onions
radioactive green sour cream
left: green nachos
cooked spinach
fresh jalapeno peppers
green onions
green peppers
cheesy mashed potatoes
peas
beans
quacamole
el ranchero chips (in the green bag)
squeeze of lime
the double starch whammy of nachos and mashed potatoes was a true success.
10 March 2009
standard chartered, at long last

now it's spring break!
05 March 2009
chairs


the two boards for my midterm presentation for my chair design studio. i'm leaning toward the second option, because it's nearly absolutely useless. not much use for a chair that you can't put up against the wall --- unless you've got a big, beautiful space.
this has been a challenging project, and not just because i've also been trying to finish my china project at the same time. i'm a big fan of my I.D. hooks (like, ooo, it's made out of recycled materials, or, ooo, it folds up!) and bullshit like that, but i've made myself stay away entirely. it's been hard.
it takes a lot of guts to get up in front of some designers and just say "this is my design, what do you think?"
04 March 2009
buck wild
01 March 2009
24 February 2009
the future
15 February 2009
art: sunlit couch
13 February 2009
10 February 2009
koolhaus kandle

more significantly, this chinese language website with great pictures, altered and otherwise. as a friend back in hong kong would say, "soooo PRC!"
08 February 2009
barcelona chair

the Barcelona chair had the most hooks to its story (maybe the most famous chair... designed for the German Pavilion in 1929... cool materials...), and I happen to like it, so it got the nod.
calatrava under construction

04 February 2009
29 January 2009
japan, day ten
last day. i won't lie, it was also the most boring. i can't describe how exhausted i was at this point of the trip. we only slept, maybe four hours, after our night out. i honestly, really thought i might collapse on the walk to breakfast.
yet, i abide.

we went back to shinjuku for one last look around before hopping on the plane to return to hong kong, shop for a souvenirs, for the girlfriends especially.
after walking around for a while, it was time to head back to the hostel and collect our things. the front desk gave us directions to the nearest train to the airport.

cute spelling.


that's where things went wrong. no trip is ever without drama, i suppose.
remember the picture of the tokyo subway system? not only does it look like spaghetti, but there are two separate systems in the city, the tokyo subway and the JR lines. we hopped on the JR, following the map and the instructions we were given. there were no english signs in the station. we should have known better.
four stops later and it became clear that we were on the wrong train. we hopped off, struggled to ask someone about where to go, and then, ultimately, got back on the same train. which, after 40 minutes, dropped us off in the middle of nowhere. we were now less than two hours away from our flight's departure.
a kind, old lady (have i mentioned how great japan is?) waved us over and, though some creative gesturing, explained that we had to wait 45 minutes for the next train to the airport. which would itself take another 45 to reach the airport. it was going to be close. we drank a hot, canned-corn drink.
we got to the airport with maybe 15 minutes to spare, mostly discouraged, but determined not to give up until it was really, completely too late. we ran to the terminal and were treated like triage patients at the northwest terminal. though initially they said we were too late, they were able to rush us through and get us on the plane, not three minutes before it left the gate.
one plane and one taxi later, we were back in hong kong. for three days.
in conclusion, my visit to japan did nothing less than restore my faith in the human race.
28 January 2009
japan, day nine
home stretch here, folks.


we spent the next four hours wandering around tokyo, searching for a place to stay for the night. one hostel after another in asakusa was booked up, or, even worse, had only one bed available. we finally travelled deep into the heart of the city to find a room.
with what little afternoon we had left, we decided to visit the Yasakuni Shrine, Tokyo's own controversial war memorial. i was excited. first, the giant gate to the shrine, made out of steel and not the usual wood. after a walk through a street market, and a quick stop at the temple proper, we found the Yushukan, the japanese war museum.
it was cool to see this zero up close and personal. but the last part of the museum, a few rooms covered floor to ceiling with pictures of dead soldiers, really nearly moved me to tears.

morning in the capsule hostel, surveying the damage. most of the other guests had already gone, home to their wives and families.



the museum did not disappoint. after a few rooms of ancient samurai swords and armor, it was on to the real meat: revisionist WWII history: germany had no choice but to start the war after suffering such disgrace after WWI. japan fought in nanking with honor, then left its people alone. america forced japan into war WWII by cutting off their oil supplies.
i don't really blame them. they weren't evil and hell-bent on genocide, they were just hell-bent on empire. weren't britain, and spain, and the netherlands, and the french, et. al.? after sealing themselves off from the rest of the world for some hundred years, it was the americans that sailed to japan and demanded they open their borders for trade. with the americans came their guns, and with the guns came a devastating power struggle that opened the way for the power-hungry.
and never forget: samurai hearts.

after that sobering trip, we went back to our new hostel to rest up and meet with a handful of austrialians we had met in kyoto. we went to dinner with them, after having had dinner on our own, then went to a club that one of their local tokyo friends had recommended. which sucked.
so we went to another neighborhood, and found another club, this one, a little off the beaten path. things were slow at first, but after a little gin and tonic, things started to pick up, and ultimately, we danced all night with some local folks. it was a great last night in town.
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