I took this the other day and thought the colors were quite nice despite the overcast sky. I'm interested in the changing landscape of this area as U.S. Pipe structures are deconstructed and new development sprouts. Reviving this corridor, this old industrial zone will be great for Chattanooga.

Flipping through the latest Interior Design mag I ran across this chair. It's a good thing inspiration comes from anywhere. One day it could be the way the light hits the river right at dusk, other day may be a song from a new favorite band Mono, or perhaps danish style furniture...

Google has released the street views of Chattanooga. I've just spend a while driving up and down previous neighborhoods and past jobs. I'm surprised to see our new home photographed as well. Looks to be shot around last summer based on everyones grass being fried from the drought. Some day the maps will correctly show the new streets in our area and I can correctly send directions to our house based on the map. Until then Adams is merely a phantom road between Beau and Kim's homes.

Dust off your old scooter or go buy one and join Chattanooga's scooter community in hosting Amerivespa. Amerivespa is the Vespa Club of America’s national rally so it's larger than the Hill on Wheels rally we've had the last couple years. The pre-registration and schedule is up and the days are counting down until Chattanooga is crawling with hundreds of scooters and 2-stroke smoke.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Reading this article reminded me of Ecclesiastes:

The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!"
says the Teacher.
"Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless."

3 What does man gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun?

4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.

5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.

6 The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.

7 All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.

8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.

9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there anything of which one can say,
"Look! This is something new"?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.

_replace batteries in old 1gen, and 3gen ipods
_replace fuse in car
_take kids to grandparents house
_install new keyboard and experiment with Logic Pro
_clean house
_apply new grass seed to yard
_fix scoot
_catch up on freelance work
_prep taxes
_pay bills
_catch up with old friends
_update blog with new entry

It's been a nice restful few days of running solo. I do miss the energy and enthusiasm of my boys greeting me when I get home. I look forward to seeing them in a couple days.

Recently added to flickr:

Sites that made me stop a while:
Reykjavik
American Graphic Design on flickr
wierd
Our Childrens Gorilla: skullcave

I've followed the return of the stellas. Here is a new ad I found mentioned on 2strokebuzz.

I thought I would take a few minutes and reflect on the wrap up of last year and the launch of this one.

Photography:
I uploaded new holga and other images here. I still have a few rolls left to scan and explore. Many of these need a bit more retouching or re-scanning. On the topic of photography check out this plugin for safari or firefox:

Film:
I found "Once" to be a nice inspiring piece of work, though after the second time through the sequence of events in the recording studio seemed a bit too magical.

My brother got me "Sigur Ros: Heima" boxed set for Christmas. This film exceeded all my expectations. It's great to watch over again or even have playing in the background while I work. There is just a rich creativity in their music that's instant inspiration to feed on.

Helvetica was also high my list of favorites. Great interviews, great topic, and wonderful type.

I suppose I could write reviews on Juno, Atonement, No Country... but that what film reviews are for which are written much better than my ramblings.

You might also want to check out this video Bjork and Gondry made called Declare Independence It's beautiful in it's strangeness.

Music:
Really, nothing stands out to me as much as In Rainbows in brilliance. I'm also hooked on npr music online. I've been exploring more mountain / folk music lately. Amber picked me up a mountain dulcimer for christmas. I'm sure our street is breaking some kind of record on the amount of dulcimer playing residents in a given population. I'm looking forward to spring when everyone ventures out on their porches with instruments in hand.

I burned my old beater guitar last night. I remember long ago when I picked it up at a yard sale for five bucks. There were many cracks and splits that wood glue would no longer hold together. Here are a handful of photos from the burn last night.

So Gondry was asked to do a short film based on his experience with the new razr phone. Here it is.

Like most of his other work it's very creative and imaginative. However, the main character seems out of place. Looks like she walked out of a pantene commercial onto the Gondry set. Something doesn't quite fit. Tip: I found if you download the high-res video you can see all sorts of creative goodness that you would miss watching it online.

This week I started a new job at tricycle I'll be filling in the shoes of Ben Horner and that of Widgets before me. I'm excited about the change and to work closely with Michael on the marketing and merchandising efforts of the company. Feel free to read more of what tricycle is doing via the blog: tricycleink

A while back I ran across these chairs and had plans to re-upolster them with amy butler fabric and bring them back to glory.. but there is just no room in the scooter shed to store them and I'm ready for them to go somewhere else. Anyone interested in this project? They look mid-century danish to me, but can't find any information on them anywhere. I'll let them go cheap.

Crabtree farms is having a barbecue, beer, and bluegrass event this Friday night. It's a family affair and completely worth the price of a family membership.

Coptix donated a letterpress poster and I was the the lucky designer that got to design/produce the poster. Thanks to Paul for use of his press and Evan for his time and expertise. It was a great project for a great event.

In the last seven years of marriage Amber and I have moved 6 different times. Each time we have enjoyed the uniqueness of each space and enjoyed making it home. When I watched the following ikea ad something resonated with me. The audio and soundtrack combined with rotating vignettes into different lives tell the story better than any paragraph I could write. Director: Martin De Thurah