PURVEYOR OF FINE WORDS

January 27, 2003

January 27 2003

Butch Cassidy and who?

White of Winter ticket stub
I spent last weekend in Park City, Utah, hobnobbing with the Hollywood types at the Sundance Film Festival amidst a veritable orgy of self-congratulatory festivities, a.k.a. “Award Ceremonies.” Now, we didn’t hobnob per se — it was more along the lines of hobnobbing vicariously through the ill-dressed wannabe L.A. actress types, scampering after anyone who got out of a limo and looked remotely famous.

What we actually did was sit through a bunch of films that all went something like this: “So this happened, and then that happened, then this, and then everyone died.” Seriously, so many of those indie films were just flat out depressing. One particular standout was White of Winter, a film that combined a depressing theme, an awful soundtrack, and some of the worst dialogue, ever, stretched over 140 minutes. Excruciating.

Nonetheless, it was a good time, with snowboarding at Park City filling in the other non-movie timeslots. Unfortunately, the snow coverage was pretty bad as they were experiencing some of the worst snowfalls in recent history. My poor snowboard took a beating from all the ruffage that was exposed on the slopes.

5 editorials

January 12, 2003

January 12 2003

Gearhead

My Christmas present to myself was a set of new brakes. Yes, very practical indeed. I spent all Christmas day getting them replaced, so I decided to document it because the instructions I found weren’t that great. Thanks to Victor for helping me out.

2 editorials

January 3, 2003

January 3 2003

Ta-hoe?

Tahoe '03

Spent New Year’s in Tahoe again with the ex-Calico crew. Good times. (Photos taken with my Polaroid Mio — quite the fun camera, I might add.)

Photos »

2 editorials

 

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  • A list of 100 skills every man should know. The annotated version of the list starts here. My dad taught me almost all of the skills you should teach your kids.

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  • Anytime is a good time for a well-cut movie trailer mashup: here's The Dark Knight version of the Toy Story 2 trailer. (via buzzfeed)

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  • One of the most popular events of the annual New Yorker Festival is Calvin Trillin's food-oriented walking tour of SoHo, Greenwich Village, Chinatown, and Little Italy. According to the New York Times, one of the tour's favorite destinations is Banh Mi Saigon Bakery, also one of my top lunch destinations.

    Standing outside, dipping his roll into peanut sauce, he said he liked to eat standing up. "If I couldn't eat in a four-star restaurant again, it would mean nothing to me," he said. "But if someone said I couldn't eat any more cilantro, I would be very upset."

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  • The Big Picture has a selection of photographs from Yann Arthus-Bertrand, who is the answer to the question "hey, who takes those amazing aerial photos of all these different places on earth?" Many more images are available on Arthus-Bertrand's web site and in his many books.

    Some of these photos are coming to NYC in May 2009 in an exhibition in Battery Park City.

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  • Remember the fun we had reading about this root beer tasting a few months back? The #1 root beer from that tasting, Sprecher (from Wisconsin), is now available on the root beer section of the menu at Ssam Bar. My Moscato d'Asti-addled brain forgot to get a bottle to go when I was there last, but I'll be back for you soon, Sprecher.

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  • We've seen personal annual reports, but now Christopher Doyle has devised a set of personal identity guidelines for himself.

    The image above is from a spread marked Full Colour Vertical_Private. The following 'key identity formats' are, of course, Full Color_Vertical, Full Colour Seated_Casual and Full Colour Seated _Formal.

    The incorrect uses are hilarious.

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  • David Friedman of the excellent Ironic Sans blog took some photos of a Kentucky denim factory that distresses jeans for high-end designers.

    I used to scoff at paying a premium for jeans that come with holes in them already. Then I saw just how much work goes into distressing jeans, and I realized that these people are artists. You can't just have any loose threads, you have to have the right loose threads. They can't just be faded. They have to be the right color. A lot of work goes into making these jeans look just right.

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  • A photographer talks about how he edits his photos and collects editing approaches from other photographers as well.

    You usually have a hunch, but the great thing about photography is that it's so unpredictable, so you never quite understand how and when a good photograph comes about. But when editing, I do contact sheets, then machine prints and then select from that.

    And when asked what makes one image stand out more than another, is it emotional or an intellectual reaction he answers: "It must be intuitive. If it were intellectual, I'd be able to explain what happens. That's why I'm a photographer. I express myself visually, not verbally.

    Two main themes emerge: 1) take some time off from your images in order to evaluate them more fairly, and 2) edit with an outside party, someone you trust to be tough but fair. (via conscientious)

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  • The New Yorker devotes the entire Talk of the Town section in their latest issue to their endorsement for President. As you might guess, Obama gets the endorsement and John McCain receives no quarter from the editors. The key part of the article concerns the candidates' possible appointments to the Supreme Court and their consequences. A more conservative court scares the shit out of me.

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  • A new study suggests that HIV jumped from apes to humans around the turn of the 20th century, which coincides with the development of colonial cities in sub-Saharan Africa.

    HIV was and remains a "relatively poorly transmitted" virus, he said, so the key to the success of the virus was possibly the development of cities such as Leopoldville in the early 1900s.

    The large numbers of people living in close proximity would have allowed more opportunity for new infections.

    "I think the picture that has emerged here, is that changes the human population experienced may have opened to the door to the spread of HIV," he said.

    (link)

  • Evan Roth has been putting metal plates with messages and symbols cut into them into his carry-on luggage when he goes through security at the airport.

    Here's Roth's idea, which he calls "TSA Communication" and tells me has already made it through three trial airport runs: Take a metal plate, stencil and cut out a message -- words or an image -- place the plate at the bottom of your carry-on bag, and watch what happens as the TSA employee operating the airport X-ray machine notices ... or doesn't notice.

    So far, he's used plates with outlines of the American flag, a "NOTHING TO SEE HERE" message, and something he calls The Exact Opposite Of A Box Cutter, a plate with a box cutter shape cut out of it.

    (link)

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