As you probably have figured out by now, I use my blog as my memory. And in cleaning out my (overly large pile of clippings) I came across this article The Great Escape: How the CIA used a fake science fiction film to sneak six Americans out of revolutionary Iran by Joshua Bearman with illustrations by Tim Burgard.... Yeah see now you're interested. It was in the May 2007 Issue, and it was really amazing. For some reason the permalink doesn't work, but you can link to a PDF from their page here or Here is the link to the PDF . The article is nothing short of riveting and the illustrations are great.

Actually after looking at the page, there is another interesting pieces you can get PDF from the Wired page:

Pop Up Cities
One day soon, a marshy island not far from Shanghai will become home to a half-million new people. Design company Arup and architect Alejandro Gutierrez have created a new urban model for China. Welcome to the high-density, instant-assembly, bright-green metropolis of the future.

And now I have one less piece of paper in my life.

All, right, it's not by much, but still. So it must be pretty tropical for this time of year in Winnipeg, and it's pretty freakin cold here in NYC

When I tell people I've taken up curling I keep getting asked, "Wait, what is curling?"
And so I do a lot of explanation. However, curling's been getting more than the usual press lately - some might say it's 'heating up'. Yeah groaner I know. At any rate, here is a brief video about curling and was shot at my club (available in HD as well).

I just discovered sumopaint.com where you can use their online image editor to do crazy stuff.  I just played with it for a second, but it seems like it has the basics of what I'm looking for when I'm doing quick image touches.You can access the app here

I've been meaning to write up theses two places for a little while. One is a 'New Mexican Grub' restaurant in Scottsdale, AZ the other is a Pizzeria in Smyrna, GA

Carlsbad Tavern, Scottsdale, AZ - Let's be clear it's not amazing food it's just a great place. I think I saw a description that described it as 'the bat cave but better' and I gotta kind of agree. This is definitely somewhere I will find my way back to. Next time I'm aiming to sit on the patio (pictured). Here is what the folks over at yelp.com have to say.3313 N Hayden, Scottsdale, AZ 8525

Bella's Pizzeria, Smyrna, GA - We found this place wandering around in Smyrna. We actually stopped into a liquor store on in the Vinings we went in to pick up some local beer. They fellow in the store gave us some great guidance on the beer and recommended Bella's. We got a pie to go, took it back to our hotel and relaxed with some good beer and great pizza. We liked it so much that we actually went back the next night and ate in with my Mother and Grandmother. It has that fabulous old school pizza joint atmosphere with a laid back cheerful wait staff and good food. I feel like I had a calzone the next night. 3599 Atlanta Rd SE # A13, Smyrna, GA 30080

I've been meaning to change it up a bit for quite a while. I added an ad unit on the right. This involved getting rid of the categories list and moving down the links to my friends' blogs (sorry guys).

Improv Everywhere's 8th No Pants subway ride was January 10th.  And as you can see from the video it was pretty freakin hilarious.

Guy Walks In to a Bar

Two guys are walking their dogs. One has a big German Shepherd, the other a tiny Chihuahua. They pass by a very fancy restaurant and the guy with the Shepherd suggests they stop in for a drink. “They’re not going to let us in with the dogs,” the man with the Chihuahua says. Just do what I do, his friend assures him. The guy with the Shepherd walks in first and the maitre d’ stops him. “We don’t allow animals in here, sir. Sorry.” This is a seeing-eye dog, the man says. The maitre d’ apologizes and the man with Shepherd sits at the bar. Then the man with Chihuahua comes in.

“We don’t allow pets in here,” says the maitre d’.

“This is a seeing-eye dog,” says the man with the Chihuahua.

“That’s not a seeing-eye dog, that’s a Chihuahua.”

And the man says: “They gave me a Chihuahua?”

I just wanted the trailer for the new Star Trek movie, a prequel around the life of Kirk, and I'm pretty excited.

Thanks go to Foo for posting it.

I was watching Cool in Your Code, Woodside: Queens; Little Melting Pot -11377 today which I had PVR'd from the broadcast on WNYC. I think they'll let you watch the whole episode online. It's a great show for getting a micro look at the good stuff around NYC. I do have to warn you the hosts are a touch over the top, I don't think you can call it schmacting if it's hosting a show, but it's close.

Cool in Your Code is actually how I found Arnold Hatters, perhaps one of the best hatters in the world, ( 535 Eighth Avenue, Between 36th & 37th Street ). I have purchased a brown fedora, and two straw hats (for the summer obviously) from them. Their customer service and commitment to quality is unmatched. My wife has a coconut tele (as you see on the right) and noticed a slight problem with one of the stitches, she stopped by and they replaced her hat before she could completely tell them there was a problem. They take care of you with an almost saintly patience and nearly insist you try on half a dozen hats before you buy. The gentleman I usually speak to also taught me the secret of how to wear a hat properly.

The two things you should know about hats are:
First, A proper hat is worn with a slight angle to one side, left or right, you choose. Wearing it square on your head makes you look like a rube. Seriously, check the old movies. Once you put a hat on properly, it's the most obvious thing inthe world.
Second, a bit of etiquette, a man does not touch another man's hat without permission - let me re-phrase because some people don't understand this - a man DOES NOT touch another man's hat without permission.

Oh yeah, and what I started blogging about, a Pontiac commercial. Don't own a car so doesn't much sell me on anything, but I do love the treatment of Spy Hunter. Brilliant.

This comes from my clippings pile (from February 2008 Wired Magazine). They have short piece, Online Art Galleries Peddle Original Works at the Right Price, about where you can buy prints of art online ranging from cheap to not so cheap. This one caught my eye, but it's worth exploring.

This community of illustrators tends toward pop surrealism — take the blinded characters of Eduardo Recife (3) or Brian Taylor's not-quite Looney Tunes. Prices: $15 to $45 (archival giclèe prints). Best for: Refined do-gooders: 10 percent of each sale goes to a charity of the artist's choosing.

I've been following sweetafton23 for a bit now, after the Harvey inspired by the Bruner turned me on to her. I was working a bit late tonight and wanted a short reprieve from work so I happened over to youtube to see if there was an update. I was surfing her old posts and saw she had covered "Still Alive". It sounded familiar enough so I clicked play. Little did I know that Mike had already played the song for me after privileging me with watching him complete Portal on his Xbox 360. At any rate, it's pretty funny little song written by Jonathan Coulton. So without further ado, except thanks to Mike for keeping from falling off the edge of cult hits into the mainstream, I give you sweetafton23 doing "Still Alive". (be sure and listen to the words)

Through various circumstances and noble pursuit I ended up having a spare $200. So I bought myself a Flip Mino HD (from Amazon whose affiliate link creator is screwy with this product for some reason), the deliciously pocket sized HD camera. In case the Flip people ever make it here, it was David Pogue's review in the New York Times that introduced me to the HD version of the product and ultimately was the factor that put me over the edge to purchase one.

So this Christmas I took a brief 3 day road trip from Phoenix, AZ to San Diego, CA. I had the camera shipped to me in San Diego and took some video on the way back. Then I used the footage and iMovie HD on my mac book pro to make a short (6 min 21 sec) video. With the learning curve and my aesthetic sense it took about a day to edit 6 min of video from less than an hour of raw footage. I think it looks pretty good, but there are some obvious rough spots. One of which is the trans coding to post on Vimeo.com. It comes through a little pixelated. The original is very crisp and the overall quality of the end product is fantastic. Have a look for yourself:

I also wanted to mention the fantastic artists whose music influenced the video and whose albums I really enjoy. Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers: One Hour Mama

and The Airborne Toxic Event

Well, it's difficult to describe what the business model was going to be. I never did launch SpamHisAss.com but I did build the software. Should I renew or go set them to expire? Is anyone interested. I'll give em to you cheap.