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Halloween has me looking for something to put me in an interestingly creepy mood. These paintings and drawings from American artist, Thomas Hart Benton (1899 - 1975), always give me a mixed sense of awe, psychedelic trippiness, and a sometimes vague, but always satisfying sense of unease. Appropo.
- posted by JIMWICh on 10/31/2000 6:26:34 PM

Interactive dead fish splash thing.
- posted by JIMWICh on 10/31/2000 6:12:17 PM

There's actually three South Poles: The ceremonial striped South Pole with a mirror ball, a rather pitiful geographical South Pole, and an ever-shifting Magnetic South Pole (now located in the ocean off the coast from the French Station. The average temperature at the South Pole is -50°C and is one of the dryest regions anywhere on the planet (don't forget your Chapstick!). Half the year is spent in darkness and the other six months are in bright sun. During the summer, the sun is so bright that you can't go outside without sunglasses without risking snowblindness - actually sunburning your eyes!

But it's not that miserable down below. It seems like it would be fun to go for a spin in these big-tired snow buggies or take a ride in a balloon! (check out the large Easter Island-like head that someone's sculpted out of snow in the background of the snow buggies photo) There's a weight room and a gymnasium for sports, too. Afterwards you could stop off at the South Pole galley for a bit to eat. Poor old Robert Scott never had it so good.
- posted by JIMWICh on 10/29/2000 10:17:48 PM

Nice cloud action tonight over the west coast of North America. I love Yahoo's satellite weather site.You can check out the recent satellite shots from numerous locations above our beautiful planet.
- posted by JIMWICh on 10/27/2000 11:55:26 PM

Found out my third patent, US 6,133,909 - METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEARCHING A GUIDE USING PROGRAM CHARACTERISTICS, was granted in the past week. It's funny, because you always find out first via the companies that want to sell you a commemorative plaque!

My other two were granted in the past year and all three were from development work I did for a former client, StarSight Telecast, now part of Gemstar: US 6,075,575 - REMOTE CONTROL DEVICE AND METHOD FOR USING TELEVISION SCHEDULE INFORMATION, granted in June 2000, and US 6,002,394 - SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR LINKING TELEVISION VIEWERS WITH ADVERTISERS AND BROADCASTERS, granted in December 1999.

I'm particularly pleased, because these are the first patents I sought for intellectual property developed for clients starting in 1994, on my initiative and I also wrote a good deal of the claims language and produced all the backing documentation from my design work. I'd felt my work was patentable, and also thought it would be an opportunity to teach myself this crucial part of strategic design. Since I've continued seeking patents on work for subsequent clients, it's good to see the earliest efforts bringing success.
- posted by JIMWICh on 10/24/2000 7:29:53 PM

Painter, Kelly Newcomer has a body of work entitled, Childhood Innocence Meets Futuristic Machines in Outerspace, which explores the aesthetics and power of cuteness as used to sell technology. He's created an online click-thru image essay, Cute Booklet. I especially like the excerpt from Japanese art critic, Noi Sawaragi, from an article in Flash Art, "Dangerously Cute: Noi Sawaragi and Fumio Nanjo Discuss Contemporary Japanese Culture," where cuteness is discussed as a passive form of controlling power.
- posted by JIMWICh on 10/23/2000 10:53:37 PM

This looks like a really, really misguided attempt to legislate with technology. California State Senator, Jackie Speier has introduced SB 2004, which would require all California vehicles purchased after 2005 to have a Pursuit Intervention Termination Management System installed, allowing law enforcement to shut off vehicles by remote control.

Okay, who with any familiarity of technology beyond that of a three-year-old doesn't realize that such a lame-brained scheme will be hacked and in the hands of the nefarious within ten minutes of its introduction. Lots of folks hate this bill. Some have suggested that the technology is being aimed at parolees, but there's quite a discussion going on over at technocrat.net.
- posted by JIMWICh on 10/22/2000 10:31:02 PM

On the interpretation site Memepool linked to, Nick Chaffee gives Alex of stinky.com an English translation of the words and lyrics in the long version commercial. "Saabasu Mansion" is a large residential tower, or complex built by the Anabuki Construction Company. The song lyrics intone that your hopes, dreams, and chest will grow and grow in Saabasu Mansion. This "grow and grow" is juxtaposed with Little Red Riding Hood suddenly seeing the well-endowed raccoon character and exclaiming, "Wow!"

I started by poking around the site, and noticing that the raccoon-like creature was named Tanuki. A search revealed that Tanuki is both a mythical forest character, renowned for his large testicles and abilities as a shapeshifter, and this figure is based on a real wild animal related to the dog family called a Tanuki, or raccoon-dog. Tanuki are sometimes kept as pets. They are also the only animal known to eat poisonous toads, diluting the toxin with copious amounts of saliva. They are revered for their large pot-bellies, and the mythical character is somewhat of a mischievous trickster.

In 1994, Studio Ghibli, which has distributed a number of well-known animations, including the very moving Grave of the Fireflies, released director, Takahata Isao's animation based on the myths and legends of the Tanuki, entitled, "Heisei-era Tanuki Battle Ponpoko." The interesting thing about this film is that it pits the mythical Tanuki against humans, which have come to turn their mountain ecology into a huge residential development. The Tanuki are ultimately defeated, but those that succeed in changing into human form stay behind as humans, while those who remain Tanuki leave on a huge treasure ship. In one last desperate kamikaze raid, a Tanuki utilizes his giant testicles as a parachute.

In the Anabuki commercials, the Tanuki character is shown separately from the four other animals dancing happily with Anibu-kin-chan, and in the shorter commercial, you can see that Tanuki's actually somewhat upset. Perhaps this enormous Saabasu Mansion residential tower has pissed him off, and he's getting ready to attack with his giant balls! Go Tanuki! It's hard to imagine an American commercial being even a millionth this strange and cool.
- posted by JIMWICh on 10/20/2000 7:46:29 PM

Several years ago there was a great shareware program for the Macintosh called Zipple, which replaced your little menubar icons with 16x16 pixel animations. It no longer works post-MacOS7 (you can use a similar program called Menuette), but I've got a bunch of them archived, and created a number of them myself. It's pretty tedious to convert them to animated GIFs, but I thought one epic Zipple that contained the opening to Lidsville was just too great to leave to obscurity. I'm not sure who created this, but I particularly like that you can recognize the villain, Horatio J. Hoo-Doo, played by already-strange-in-real-life Charles Nelson Reilly. Anyone who ever saw this Saturday morning show will recognize the opening.
- posted by JIMWICh on 10/15/2000 11:51:16 PM

My music tastes are pretty eclectic, but one of my fave genres is surf guitar bands. It's probably the best legal way to keep yourself revved while plowing through all-nighters. There's an almost infinite range of this stuff out there, most playing off Tijuana, Spaghetti Western, Island Tiki, Eastern Asian, and assorted Middle-eastern sounds.

I'm lucky to live on the San Francisco Peninsula where local college radio station KFJC's DJ, Phil Dirt has a Saturday show called, "Surf's Up!" Phil's reviews are amazingly extensive. The local record shop has a good surf section as well. Here's but a few of my faves (but don't even bother unless you're equipped with a subwoofer and are willing to destroy your building):

Insect Surfers - Twin guitar madness. Just flat out kickass. Raw. Hot. SoCal-based. Check out their CD's: Death Coast Highway and Reverb Sun and the following MP3s from their site:
Tiger Shark
Psychotronic
Stingray

Pollo Del Mar - Two guitars for the price of one. Polished. Layered. Intense. Screaming. Marin-based. Just go buy Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. Do it. Now. Ferrari has one take on the whole speed and beauty thing. This is the flip side. This album has steadily grown on me from the very beginning. Check out these MP3s from their site (I just wish they'd included, "Jonny Foo: Ninja Chiropractor" because it's my favorite cut off the disc):
Cutlass Supreme
Devil's Slide

The Aqua Velvets - Moody. Exotic. Trippy. Molten lava. SF-based. I recommend their CD, "Nomad."
- posted by JIMWICh on 10/14/2000 11.23:12:09 PM

Planning a visit a modern art museum? Might I suggest you postpone your trip to the new Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain long enough to visit Florida State University's Molecular Expressions webgallery. You'll find hundreds of beautiful and interesting images, many of which would look just fine on the wall of an art gallery. Would you believe that the gorgeous image above is of Amstel Light Beer?! It's too bad it doesn't taste that good.

Photomicrographs have been taken of a wide range of subjects. The webgallery contains everything from amino acids, to cocktails, to endorphins, to vitamins, and many more categories. The Silicon Zoo features photomicrographs of tiny images etched onto semiconductor chips and discovered with a microscope, including the world's smallest legal disclaimer and the world's smallest wedding announcement.
- posted by JIMWICh on 10/13/2000 10:48:39 PM

The greatest thing about little Aibo just might be the way in which he powers up. He simply humps his recharger station! Good boy!

Word is it'll set you back $1500 to start with. Aibo's humpstation will run you another $170 and there are a number of memory stick personalities including Aibo Life (basic), Hello Aibo, Party Mascot, and Aibo Fun Pak, each around $90 apiece. Extra lithium battery packs are $100 a pop. And an Aibo Master Studio programming kit is forthcoming.

But hey, why stop there?! There's also Tama, the robot cat (with dumb looking fur) and though it's not yet available for purchase, there's even a robotuna, a robopike, and a robobass! You could have a cyberquarium, with one of these paddling around on top.
- posted by JIMWICh on 10/12/2000 10:53:45 PM

Why drive around all flat 'n stuff when you can tilt?! It's amazing the number of variations that have cropped up in just the last few years. Tilting ethusiasts (not to be confused with the related "feet-forward" crowd) like Mitch Casto and Max Hall have sites that link to a number of them. The Carver (shown above), from Europe, looks like a sleek little funmachine. And the Mercedes LifeJet promises a similarly exciting driving experience with two wheels up front. The Sylph also has two wheels in front and adds little wings. The Campangna T-R

But me, I'm holding out for a Zark1500!
- posted by JIMWICh on 10/10/2000 10:07:14 PM

Woah, praise the dark and pass me that SPF5000 sunblocker!
- posted by JIMWICh on 10/6/2000 5:43:33 PM

Most of the time I sleep like a log. My dreams generally run towards the mundane, but every once in awhile, and I don't know whether it's from spicy vindaloo or what, I dream something that's just too wacked. A few months back I had one involving newsguy, Sam Donaldson, who for some reason had become some sorta Sea Prince. He pretty much just stood there underwater, arms akimbo, trying to say, "Primetime Live!" but only bubbles would come out of his mouth. It seemed both incongruous and yet strangely right!

A friend in Texas fifteen years ago had described a dream he'd had that I also felt compelled to illustrate. The front door of a non-descript tract house opens and out comes a stick of Wrigley's gum, which is hit by a beam of light from the sky. Then, in a high-pitched voice, the gum suddenly proclaims, "Aerlivve!"

The hell?
- posted by JIMWICh on 10/5/2000 8:16:04 PM

Here I was, boppin' along thinking we had around five billion (with a "b") years until the Sun expanded into a red giant and turned our planet into a crispy nugget. Now I learn that we'll be losing our oceans (and, of course, surfing, seafood, BayWatch, et. al.) in less than a billion. And life's expected to lose its grip in less than half that time! Geez, I guess it's only a matter of time until additional circumstances are recognized and this gets whittled down to twenty years, tops.
- posted by JIMWICh on 10/4/2000 7:12:26 PM

A couple of months back, longtime partner in crime, Mark over at bOING bOING posted a link to illustrator and comicbook artist, Jim Woodring's awesome site, including a Flash animation entitled, "Whimgrinder" Featuring Frank and his ever-present companion godling, the cute but fierce Pupshaw ( LLLLL! ), it's just the thing to cure yer bellyachin'! Woodring's added some things since I last visted and the site's store is jam-packed with his comic books, lithographs, and other goodies.

I'm particularly fond of his "Tin Toy" paintings. They're a surreal amalgam of hillbilly schlock mixed with violence and shamanic mysticism, done up in a shiny photorealistic style. Hooboy, he's truly an American treasure, if every there was one.
- posted by JIMWICh on 10/3/2000 7:09:10 PM

I thought I'd go ahead and unveil the house I've built and submitted to IconTown™. It's one of my all-time favorite pieces of architecture - Dutch De Stijl (Dutch for "The Style") architect and designer, Gerrit Rietveld's 1924 Schröder House, built in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Truus Schröder-Schräder lived in the house from 1924 until her death in 1985. Rietveld (1888-1963) also spent the last six years of his life in the house.

Here's a couple of photographs of the house, which is still standing today. These photos are part of a collection at Boston College professor, Jeffery Howe's site..Additional information and analysis can be found at internet software architect, Sander van Zoest's great Schröder House site. which included a number of photographs of the interior. There's also a video of the house available on tape, download, or streaming media. The very best way to explore the house is to download Artifice Inc.'s free 3D viewer, Design Workshop Lite™, download the Schröder House 3D Model from Great Buildings Online, and then take your own tour!

Members of the De Stijl movement included the famous painter, Piet Mondrian (whose painting style I'd used as an icon years ago), Theo Van Doesburg, JJP Oud, Vilmos Huszár, Bart van der Leck, along with Gerrit Rietveld, who is probably better known for his famous 1917 Red and Blue Chair, also considered a defining piece of De Stijl design.

The members of De Stijl were not close - having met only a few times and never having exhibited as a formal group. Each was familiar with the others' work though, and they shared a common sense of aesthetics and style. They called for a reduction of architectural, sculptural, painting and furniture forms to simple, basic geometric elements. They were also concerned with creating a higher-level perception of these individual elements as a formally configured "whole.". A balanced asymmetry and the use of horizontal and vertical elements only, along with the pure colours of red, yellow, and blue and the neutral colours white, grey and black marked this style.

Today a number of modern architects can trace their style back to this beautiful and elegant movement, including Richard Meier, architect of the Douglas House (this is my personal all-time favorite house. The Douglas House can also be downloaded as a 3D model from Great Buildings Online), The Atheneum in New Harmony, Indiana, Atlanta's High Museum, and the magnificent Getty Center in Los Angeles. Meier was one of the five architects known collectively as "The Whites," whose work in the 1970s began to reconsider the New Realisim/Modernism of the early 20th century. Other architects in The Whites were John Hejuk, Michael Graves (who went on to become one of the most well-known post-modern architects), Peter Eisenman, and Charles Gwathmey.
- posted by JIMWICh on 10/1/2000 7:26:18 PM

It looks like it might be awhile before Bernd 'Be' Holzhausen gets around to updating IconTown™, which was first mentioned and described here last week.

IconTown™ was recently featured in Ars Electronica 2000, so he's probably been pretty busy from participation and response.
- posted by JIMWICh on 10/1/2000 6:28:12 PM

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