insecta concept car

i love design that draws from nature. not necessarily a direct transfer but takes the millions of years of design decisions that have resulted in the many well-designed and well-functioning forms we share this planet with, and applies them to something functional like a vehicle.

here's a design that has used the grasshopper as its aesthetic if not functional design-frame.

23 year-old designer shao yung yeh explains, "taking inspirations from nature, the exterior expresses the characteristics of friendly insects, such as grasshoppers - agile, lightweight and green."

the concept features leg-like suspension systems, which actively adjust the height of the car in different traffic situations.

at the back is an independent battery pack with the ability to control the center of gravity of the car.

here's a short animation of the concept.


i'll tell you what, there are many rainy days when i'd leave my bike in the garage if this was on the driveway!

bruce mccall's imagined futures

bruce mccall is consciously anachronistic and yet his imagined futures - fetishized much like the covers of popular mechanics from long ago - are filled with unbridled enthusiasm and naivete. we need to feel and almost know that things will get better, more impressive, more incredible. more importantly - that it's gonna be fun. mccall's work is characterized as "nostalgia for a future that never happened". it's all tongue-in-cheek of course. i hope you love this guy's work and thinking as much as i did.



for more on bruce go here.

linton kwesi johnson ~ street 66

my son has "discovered" reggae. so, like any decent dad, i've dug into the vault and hauled all my peter tosh, wailers, pablo moses, and bob marley out into the harsh light of day for a rehashing by the next generation. listening to them again after such a long time they appear "fresh" while also being rich with associations and memories of days and relationships, and places long past. happily i've had the pleasure of listening to some really decent rich music as i've gone through my own rediscovery of these old "friends".

my favourite reggae musician by far was linton kwesi johnson . linton was described as a dub poet and somehow that appealed to me. i imagined that i'd hear music that linked the elemental dub bass beat alongside some righteous words. turns out i was very close to the intuitive mark.

my fave lkj tune by far was - and still is - street 66 off the very first reggae album i bought entitled bass culture. bass culture came out in 1980 and featured the powerful politicized words of linton alongside some equally powerful musicians.

read linton's words and feel the burning force pouring from his heart and mind.

the room was dark
dusk howling softly 6 o'clock
charcoal light
the fine sight
was moving black
the sound was music mellow steady flow
and man son mind just mystic red, green, red, green
your scene

no man would dance but leap and shake
that sharp through feeling right
shape that sound
tumbling down
making movement, ruff enuff
cos when the music met i-tops
i felt the sting, knew the shock, yeah, had to do and ride the rock
outta dis rock shall come a greener riddim
even more dread than what the breeze of glory bred
vibrating violence is our own move
rocking with green rhythm
the drought and dry root out

the mighty poet i roy was on the wire
weston did a skank and each man laughed feeling irie, dread i
street 66, the said man said
any policeman come here will get some righteous, raasclot licks
yeah mon, whole heapa licks

ours beat, the scene moving right
when all on a sudden
bam, bam, bam, a knocking 'pon the door
"who is dat?", asked weston, feeling right
"open up, it's the police, come on, open up"
"what address do you want?"
"number 66, come on, open up"
weston, feeling high, replied, "yes, this is street 66, step right in and
take some licks."

here's "street 66":

roast fish and cornbread

with the almost complete disappearance of the snow and ice, i've been playing some old favourites. rootin' through some reggae chestnuts that have emerged from the darker dustier regions of the golden fish music treasure trove and storage boxes of wonder and amazement, i came across a long time favourite by lee scratch perry.

perry was a mystery to me - a legend to those who know - but i never really got drawn into the mystique of him other than to admire and wonder at some of his use of technology in what for me seemed like a very non-technological environment - reggae at its most elemental struck me as something raw and real and from the city and then also from the hills and yet lee painted with technology and through his heart and spirit made it very human. something of his thinking about this is captured in this extraordinary interview.

roast fish and cornbread first appeared on the album roast fish collie weed and corn bread. a very experimental album for perry, it was the first to consist entirely of songs sung by himself.

ueli gegenschatz: the dream of flight

one of the more recent ted talks features ueli gegenschatz, a man who has had many experiences i never will including wingsuit flying. i've featured some wingsuit footage here before but this is a really nice presentation in which uelli talks and shows you through the learning curve of arriving at being a wingsuit flier and then drops some absolutely stunning footage of wingsuit flying.



to learn more about ueli visit his website.

light and snow

the snow continues to slowly recede and melt into long thin strips of crystalline purity as the sun stays up longer and softens the ground. much of it is turning into little ice crystals. inside those crystals are little bubbles of air. click on any of the pictures to fill your screen with icy bubbly loveliness!

on the front roof of my house, there's a drift of snow that is sheltered from much of the sun's warmth. i liked the way the light was playing on its edges - catching little fractals of diamond-like refraction - so i hauled down the bug screens and cracked open the windows to take a few pictures of it before it went away.


here's the snow drift a little closer.


there is a sort of letting go when the snow finally melts. conrad aiken knew something of the strange beauty that you become attuned to when snow fills the physical and emotional landscape of a long winter.



"as i walked through the lamplit gardens,
on the thin white crust of snow,
so intensely was i thinking of my misfortune,
so clearly were my eyes fixed
on the face of this grief which has come to me,
that i did not notice the beautiful pale colouring
of lamplight on the snow;
nor the interlaced long blue shadows of trees;

and yet these things were there,
and the white lamps, and the orange lamps, and the lamps of lilac were there,
as i have seen them so often before;
as they will be so often again
long after my grief is forgotten." conrad aiken (excerpted from "improvisations: light and snow")

winter rain on moss
soundlessly recalls those
happy by gone days
buson

snow melting
the village brimming over...
with children! issa

amanda van gils drops by!

(click on the image so that you can read it!)

what a start to easter sunday!! amanda van gils, the australian artist featured right here just over a month ago paid a visit to the golden fish today! the team gathered from all corners of the golden fish world headquarters for this magical event and celebrated her visit with coffee and tasty cakes!! but just as soon as the celebration got going it was back to work as we discovered that there's even more of amanda's work that needs to be shared.

amanda paints small paintings that carry tremendous presence. you'll recall that i was blown away by her "speeding train" series: "i was instantly captivated by her ability to capture that really fine line between revealing the scene and the blurring of that scene as a camera sees it (or as you see it if you look directly outwards)".

where "speeding trains" literally blurs the line between reality and otherness, much of her other work juxtaposes the features and qualities of earth, air, and water blurring the lines that nominally exist between those states and creating something other. something very magical. something that compels the viewer into introspection. as amanda puts it: "my work aims to engage with the longstanding tradition of australian landscape painting yet offer a contemporary take on the genre. through my work i aim to explore our dynamic psychological relationship to the world around us."

for example, "midflight" interpolates the figure of a swimmer from below with a scene that i connect to as reminding me of long lonely canadian roads in mid-winter. the resultant image is not only visually intriguing but compels me to consider the metaphor. the sensation of being in something so clearly 'other' leaves me - like the swimmer - hovering. i want to compel these swimmers to move on over the hill. what's there? who's waiting? what is the viewer doing there?
here are some more sky swimmers.


my absolute favourite piece of amanda's work is in a series from 2007 depicting people on high wires. i can't share it here, but if you follow this link you can have a look at it! isn't it amazing!! it doesn't appear to be for sale but man can i ever connect to that image!!

amanda's been busy putting together a book and you really should head over to have a look at it and maybe even buy a copy.
start here.

if you want to know more about amanda then "art interview" carries a really nice interview with her right here. "art re-source" has another good interview with amanda that you can read right here. to see pictures at an exhibition go here.

amanda also writes a blog on which you can see new works that you can buy, read a bit of what she's thinking and doing, and visit other artists through the links she provides.

remember, if you're interested in amanda's work and would like to buy one of her paintings, all you have to do is head over to her redbubble site where she has some really excellent work that you can either drool over or dig into your wallet for. a more complete portfolio of her work can be viewed right here.

easter sunday

an early rising to find the many generous chocolate gifts of the easter bunny scattered here, there, and almost everywhere!!

hurray for chocolate treats!!!

outside - small graces. the first flower in our garden pokes its brave and lovely self out of the earth. hello world!!



inside - a chance event brings these two pictures on easter weekend.




can you guess what i was photographing?

sanctuary

when you enter a grove peopled with ancient trees, higher than the ordinary, and shutting out the sky with their thickly inter-twined branches, do not the stately shadows of the wood, the stillness of the place, then strike you with the presence of a deity? seneca



i value sanctuary. i seek out places of reflection.

trees offer something of both in their strong silence. their carefully delineated relationships with the earth, air, water, and fire.

their unconditional offer of food, fuel, and a home to whomever, or whatever needs it provides a model of selfless integration into the whole environment.

william blake said: "the tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. some see nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see nature at all. but to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself".
1799, the letters

what did the tree learn from the earth to be able to talk with the sky?
pablo neruda

a world within a world

a tiny glimmer of green under the pillow down of snow that has fallen over the past few days.

a place to stop. and listen. and marvel at this tiny tiny world within a world.

(click on the image to fill your screen)



written in the meditation hall of broken mountain monastery
dawn clears
and enters the old temple,
first light
caught in the woods’ tall boughs.
a crooked path
leads straight to the dark retreat
where monks just sit
flowers and trees are deep.

mountain light
blessed by bird song,
dark waters
stilled in a man’s heart.
here, the howl
of nature is silent
so only the tone
of the soul shall sound.
yang lian

at such a time, in another place

i'm making the very most of the spring snow we've had over the last few days. three nights ago, i arrived home and my daughter asked me if i'd seen the bush outside. "the one where the birds make nests every year." i had ignored it. so strange because it was amazingly beautiful with fluffy clouds of snow clinging to each and every little twig and branch.

come. see.

(click on the image to fill your screen with fluffy white goodness!!)

beautiful words from gary snyder.

kyoto: march

a few light flakes of snow
fall in the feeble sun;
birds sing in the cold,
a warbler by the wall. the plum
buds tight and chill soon bloom.
the moon begins first
fourth, a faint slice west
at nightfall. jupiter half-way
high at the end of night-
meditation. the dove cry
twangs like a bow.
at dawn mt. hiei dusted white
on top; in the clear air
folds of all the gullied green
hills around the town are sharp,
breath stings. beneath the roofs
of frosty houses
lovers part, from tangle warm
of gentle bodies under quilt
and crack the icy water to the face
and wake and feed the children
and grandchildren that they love.

“kyoto: march” from riprap and cold mountain poems copyright © 2004 by gary snyder. used by permission of shoemaker & hoard.

wood and snow

an afternoon walk through the nearby woodlot is filled with little images of the very earliest spring colour alongside the stark beauty of an april snowfall.

a relic
coming first from the south before a storm: the wind warm, we imagine
exotics driven in the evening clouds over unknown trees.





then the wind backing around to the northwest, with the wood-rot scent
of snow late in the season, i will hear the geese
overhead in the morning, again, as though they had lost their place,



circling in the heavy falling snow, the lake below eclipsed
by steam, the trees falling into their shadows,
the news always arriving, to be turned over as a relic
even though it seemed to be still happening, a voice coming to us



accounting the burst of azalea, while here, the geese
no longer of the numbers once recounted, continue to remember
as they recompose their flight, the snow sliding
from their bodies, following their one call, the slate
water glints, at the same time things moving together and apart.

james mccorkle

april snow

rain and snow fell throughout the day and then into the evening. the beauty of spring snow is that it reminds you of the beauty of winter snow, but you know that spring snow is fleeting. it has an innocence about it. like candles. childhood.

and so i enjoy it for all that it is. while it's here.

pictures from early evening around my home.

a day that lived up to its name

a beautiful sun day yesterday. a day that lived up to its name. in the morning one of the neighbourhood bunnies came by and nibbled on some of the tasty carrots i put out for them. a very comfortable looking squirrel took me up on a big old strawberry but i wasn't fast enough with the camera to capture that strange moment. a robin came by to see what all the fuss was about.
the blackbirds are perched up in their favourite tree looking northwest.
they know the big weather forecast for tonight - lots of snow and or rain. big winds.

sure enough.


and later . . .

but it has its own beauty.

for the birds

on my walk home each night i pass a stretch of telegraph wires that is heavily populated by pigeons. this location is not new to the pigeons, they've been doing this for as long as i've been passing by that stretch of wires - seventeen years now!! i look up at them and think - what's going on up there. are they holding conversations? are they bugged by each other? are they next to their new best friend. are they in love?

today's short animation is one of film production company pixar's best in my opinion.



"for the birds" was released in 2000 and in 2002 it won an oscar for best short animated film! if you'd like to read the story, illustrated with stills from the film then you can read it here.

for those of you more inclined to sit back and watch excellent animation, then feel free to do just that.

for the birds:

clark little - inside the wave

clark little is a photographer who lives in hawaii. a surfer for a good number of years, clark turned to photographing waves and we are the lucky recipients of that decision. clark sits inside the waves and takes rapid-fire shots of waves curling around him, crashing down on him and whatever else it takes to capture an until now elusive sequence that reveals another facet of the extraordinary beauty of a wave. here are some examples.





you know that these little images aren't doing his work justice so you need to pop over to clark little's site and meander through his gallery. you're bound to find a handful of images that you will covet so much that you'll be quite happy to cough up some money for them! i found looking at these images actually a bit overwhelming and found that i had to leave and come back if only so that i fully appreciated the technical and aesthetic talent of this man. .

before you go, here he is telling some of his story and sharing some of his images on good morning america.

newberry vs. newberry

so early one christmasy morning - a while back i'll acknowledge - i woke up and watched a program i never ever ever choose to watch. it's a breakfast tv show emanating from toronto. the crazy part about this is that the singer sioux newberry is one of my favourite supply teachers for my class and there she was on that show singing with her brother and band. holey moley. what are the chances?!!

here's what i saw . . .

well i knew she was a talented person but that show really opened my eyes to just how talented she is. so if like me you want to know and hear more then here's the way in to . . . newberry vs. newberry. dig deeper and visit sioux's site. let the intro music play for a while. wander 'round and then nip over to her myspace site where you'll find lovely tunes from her latest cd "freightlines"!

trent university student newspaper the arthur (i worked for the arthur in the late seventies!) has a short and insightful review.

if you want to buy "freight lines" then nip over to itunes. cdbaby will also sell you a copy of the disc and while you're there you can listen to the whole thing streamed.



you can listen to sioux over on cbc radio.

oktapodi

roving reporter goldenrod (merrily residing in the sunny south - and i mean wayyyyyy south of the 49th parallel down in houston, texas) sent in word that something good was going to be seen at the academy awards. i never watch the awards ceremonies but i thought i'd have a look just in case. what's all the excitement about - "oktapodi". never heard of it? neither had i 'till goldenrod wrote me all breathless and flushed and suggested i take a look.

it is absolutely hilarious and awesome . . .

take a look and see for yourself!!

did you like it?! if you'd like to know more about this very clever film then nip over to its dedicated site!

huge hail in austin, texas

a few days back, heavy weather hit - and i mean really hit (!) austin texas. the results are documented in this collection of images hosted by the local newspaper. to have a look at what came down on those poor people. have a look here.

that's some of the largest hail i've had a look at.

y'all keep your heads down now!!