A woody like no other

One of my favorite pieces of art at NEXT is this pecky cypress wood VW bus by artist Lee Stoetzel.

NEXT stop: Chicago

Heather and I are in Chicago this week participating in the NEXT Art Fair that opens tomorrow night. This city is amazing! It's clean, friendly, good food, excellent architecture, a lake, a river, and the weather is perfect. Last night we had a deep dish pizza that looks better than it tastes.



And went on a walk by the river.




This morning, we met Umar and Michiyo who took us to breakfast at The Original Pancake House. I had the Apple Pancakes and Michiyo had a Dutch Baby with strawberries.


Umar's from Chicago and went to high school across the street.

Umar's holding 2 new amazing drawings that we're showing at the fair.



And! Umar's launching his new CD with a party / performance this sunday. Right now we're resting at our room before heading out to dinner at Frontera. Our room has a nice view of the river.

"I want almost everything, and I get almost anything I want"

Last night, Heather and I met up with Jeana at Spaceland to see her husband's band perform. We were both completely blown away. The Mae Shi have been around for a few years and their experience was on display as they swiftly took the crowd on a wild sonic journey. Their first song was an anthem to excess that had everyone singing the refrain, "I want almost everything, and I get almost everything I want!" High energy does not begin to describe how these boys were wailing with every fiber in their being. I didn't know people could scream that loud for sustained periods, or convulse with such intensity as to summon paramedics. But that's just the attention to detail you can count on when the Mae Shi are on stage. Throw in a few pushups, a sing along under a sheet, some PBR, and Son, you got yourself a perfect friday night performance at Spaceland. I'm looking forward to their upcoming video that promises "lots of animated puking." Onward and upward lads! Godspeed!

Bicycle Kitchen @ 830pm

Went to the bicycle kitchen last night to fix another broken spoke on my road bike. I highly recommend anyone with a bike needing a tuneup to pay a visit to the kitchen. You'll learn how to fix any problem with your bike, rather than pay someone else to do it for you. I finished just in time to grab a pint of Scoops before they closed. Mmmm, Green Tea mixed with Mango/Pineapple. What could be better than a DIY bike shop next door to an artisanal ice cream shop? This one two punch makes Heliotrope and Melrose one of my favorite intersections in Los Angeles.


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Memo to Coke: Steal our water, poison us, fund death squads. Just don't make political statements!

Does this ad look political to you? Perhaps Coca Cola is endorsing Tibetan independence by showing Tibetan buddhist monks riding a rollercoaster with the words "Make It Real" eblazoned on their chests. It certainly looks that way to a chinese blogger who is furious that Coke is supporting Tibetan independence:

Germany has started to really show adverts for Tibetan independence. Coca-Cola! Okay, I will remember. From now on I will not touch this shitty product...The three monks represent Tibetan lamas. They are riding a rollercoaster, which represents freedom. 'Make it real' means 'make this [ie freedom] real...

Coke responded by removing the image and apologizing to the 1.5 billion potential coke drinkers in China:

We regret if the use of an image featuring monks from an old print advertising campaign from 2003 has caused any offence. This was certainly not our intention ... The old image was being used in the window of a shop in Bremen and has since been taken down ... This image was designed to encourage people to try something new. The image is not linked to Tibet and is in no way an expression of support for any political issue ...

The lesson Coke needs to take a away from this is that people will not tolerate political statements, tongue in cheek or otherwise. But by all means, go ahead an assasinate union leaders, hire paramilitary death squads and poison our groundwater all you want. We'll blindly drink your poison in bliss.

FotC album coming out 4/22

Flight of the Conchords will release their first full length album on April 22. I've scoured the internet for these songs for weeks, and now I'll be able to get them in one simple easy to use compact disc. Thanks Brett and Jemaine!

Roses in Bloom

Don't strew me with roses after I'm dead.
When Death claims the light of my brow
No flowers of life will cheer me: instead
You may give me my roses now!

Thomas F. Healey