The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto
The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto | The New York Times by John Moore, from Getty Images. Insanely powerful and sad. [via DF]
Archive for December, 2007
Happy Holidays
Well, we’re finally back in Vallarta after a grueling 5 days in Los Angeles, sorting out 95% of the junk I had in storage, while slogging through horrible LA holiday traffic and rain. Not a memorable experience, although it was wonderful to check in with most of my LA peeps and to eat myself silly, putting on at least 5 pounds.
The road trip back to Vallarta took two full days of 15 hour driving, xterra loaded to the gills with books, records, family photos and an ass-load of ikea furniture (what can I say, i’m a sucker for cheap, well designed, poorly manufactured, wannabe-modernist disposable furniture). The trip was uneventful, except for the fact that we got better gas milage on the way back down, loaded down and bottoming-out with crapola doing 60 mph, then we did on the way up to LA, with nothing but a few suitcases, doing 100 mph. who’d a thunk it.
We’re now at my parents’ new joint in the hills overlooking Vallarta. Last night (xmas eve) was super party night and I have never heard such a raucous party town like I did last night. It was like New Years Eve in NYC x 1000. Cherry Bombs on every block, whistler bottle rockets, block parties complete with DJs. all night long. The four dogs in the house with us were freaking out, hiding under beds and running for cover. I finally nodded off to sleep around 2:30 or so and woke at 7:00am, to the sound of the roosters and chickens and the last of the parties closing down save for a handful that to this very moment, are still blasting the ranchero tunes. Mexicans know how to party.
Happy Holidays to all. and thank you all for putting up with my random blatherings and rants. Here’s to a happy/merry/wicked awesome New Year.
Back in LaLa
We’re back in Los(t) Angeles, enjoying the cold city life. never thought i’d say that about LA, but shizz is it cold here. We’ve actually been back since Wednesday. For one or another reasons we decided to cut the trip short a little early, so that we didn’t have to rush it to much in LA, getting all the crap done that needed doing, before heading back down to Mex, in time for the holidays. This way, we’ve been really enjoying ourselves and not spending the entire time in the car.
All is well. we should be pushing off from here wednesday or thursday depending on our whimsy.
Bali was amazing. the culture is gorgeous and the swell that hit town while we were gone was legendary. updates to come. stay tuned…
Bali Waves
Baliwaves.com is a killer daily surf report site, with series of photos from each report. The updates are local sensitive and way in depth on what the winds,, tides and swells are doing. These guys have heads all over Bali keeping an eye out for breaking spots. A resource like Baliwaves.com is especially useful in the off-season when the waves are less reliable and swells more fickle. If you’re going to Bali for surf action, this is a great place to start.
Balinese Bemos
click image to launch slideshow
Bemos are like miniature mini-vans. Sometimes they come in slightly larger sizes, but for the most part they’re super tiny. Bemos are Bali’s version of a taxi and they whiz you around island paradise for less then pocket change. Usually found on ‘bemo corner’ in each town or city, bemos congregate like colorful flies, each with their own distinctive color and hand-painted logo. They all manage to follow a similar signage style, so there must be some sort of unwritten ‘bemo’ style guide. Unremarkable by themselves, their logo styles are just quirky enough so that when you see a handful at rest on some corner, you can’t help but stop and smile, each one with it’s distinctive color and logo. Different but the same. When these funky little 4 cylinder mini-mini-vans get replaced with yellow, generic 4 cylinder nissan taxi cars, someone will be smart enough to publish a coffee table book on the lost art of the ‘bemo’ and it’ll sell like hotcakes. you heard it here first.
Cody is Rad
Flickr user Cody is Rad, has some pretty, uh um, rad photos of empty tubes and waves. Some are so clear + crisp, I wonder how he does it. Some of the photos were taken in Bali and Sumbawa, Indonesia. note to self: win lottery, buy underwater housing for Canon 5D. got it?!
Flickr Places: Bali
Flickr has a new feature called Places, check out Bali and search for surfing. such a nice and easy interface to view surf pics. and don’t forget to peep the insane HDR work of flickr user Manolinlao, while you’re there.
Indo Surf and Lingo
Indo Surf and Lingo is the best surfing info source I have encountered for Bali and Indonesia. They say it’s the #1 guidebook for surfers. I say it’s the #1 source of surfing info for Bali and Indonesia, period. It’s like a Rough Guide but written by surfers specifically for visiting surfers who need the insider info.
I’ve scoured the web for info on wet-season surfing in Bali and there’s precious little. It has everything you’ll need to know: write-ups on each surf break, info for all surfing-ability levels, dry and wet season specific info (bali’s swells switch coasts each season), how to use wind speed, swell height and tides to figure out where the best waves will be, hotel information for each break and tips on how to reach less accessible breaks, charter boat info for smaller indonesian islands like Nias and Mentawais. Indo surf is very cultural sensitive and goes out of its way to respect local surfers and the lesser known breaks. It’s a very practical guide to learning the indonesian language as well as.
Basically, if it ain’t in this book, it’s probably because it’s so new they haven’t had a chance to update the book yet. IMHO it rocks, big time. So If you’re going to Bali, Indo Surf and Lingo is the indispensable, definitive guidebook on surfing in Bali and Indonesia. pick it up, yo.
Gamelan
Gamelan is technically a musical ensemble made up of metallophones, xylophones, drums, and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. But what it really sounds like is a highly orchestrated junkyard symphony of oddly melodic mix of banging and clanging. and I love it. It usually accompanies the Legong, Berong and Mahabarata dance performances. Back in the CalArts days, I’d sit in my design crit room, zoning out during a critique to the sounds of the clanging instruments floating in from the Gamelan classroom down the hall. I will always associate graphic design with Gamelan.
Here are a few of my favorite Gamelan tunes, right-click to save: one, two, three
Bingin Surf Report
Today marks the first day on our Bali trip that we’ll be at the beach. If all goes correctly as planned, we should be at Mick’s Place in Bingin, Dec.5th-8th. Mick has a pretty killer surf cam and daily surf report summary. So go check out the webcam and if there’s any swell at all, I’ll be out floating around in the water. Please do a little ocean goddess swell dance for us, I could use a little wave juju right about now.
Bali Found Typography
click images to launch slideshow (33 photos)
On my first trip to Bali, I was in college (’96). I was decidedly anti-photo at the time. I think my reasoning had something to do with not wanting to see Bali through the lens of a camera. To want to experience everything, soak it in and not have that process debased by the process of looking through a lens (can you tell I went to art school?). Needless to say, as the years passed, I’m remembering less and less about that first trip. Being in design school at the time, the one thing I did manage to photograph was Bali’s plethora of signage. Hand-lettered, hand-painted, spray paint, stencil, etc… Every conceivable sign (minus traffic/street signs), done with pride and love by hand. Bali seemed to have missed out on the cheap vinyl sign printing revolution, thank god. I still have those photos, in a shoe box somewhere and on our trip to Bali last year, I was decidedly pro-photo, this time, and well prepared to capture the glory of Balinese and Indonesian signage. I’ve put together a pretty good sample of the signs I found during our stay. enjoy.
Bintang
Right about now, I’m probably sipping a Bintang. I say “probably” because I actually wrote this on Nov.19th at 12:42am and I had no idea what I’d doing at the time you read this. So if I could picture myself doing something at the exact moment you read this, it’d be sipping a Bintang, on the beach, watching a balinese sunset. Go ahead and assume this photo was uploaded in realtime. thank you, yes, I will have another Bintang.
1 Year Anniversary
Today, December 1st, is our one year anniversary. Marcia and I got married exactly one year ago, on a relatively small beach in a small town in Mexico.
I love my baby.
