B to the arter...

I haven't quite kicked this off in the big way I one day hope to, but so far in the past three weeks I have bartered for bicycle repair.

The first was upon my return from Seattle, when I exchanged a bike tube for a sandwich (from Bossa Nova) with Lee from East Side Peddle Pushers.

The second was with a man named Kansas who has lived in town for 3-4 years. He lives out at bio-squat and has been working on bikes for 30 years. My roommate, Grant, bought a bike from him with a particularly crazy paint-job but a particularly cherry ride. Kansas makes/refurbishes/repairs his own bikes, trailers and all kinds of stuff, including his own design for a recumbent bike. Since the bike Grant bought malfunctioned, he picked-up, fixed and re-delivered the busted wheel. Since he was around, I talked about outfitting my new bike (single-speed) with gears. He trued my wheels, and tuned my brakes. In return, I offered a great okra soup I made the night before.

sooo....

058. barter (3)

p.s. Kansas is new to the internet, and is trying to get the word out about his work. If you need a bike or bike repair, I will do my best to contact him for you. Also, he is looking for a new habitat. He is extremely low maintenance and would love a garage to work in, a yard to pitch a tent in, or any other alternative living situation. He is also more than willing to pay rent, but would love to be an in-house bike mechanic for a co-op. Hook a brother up. The man is 60, with a rock-solid work ethic.

Also! Check out Austin Time Exchange. I recently found out that it is legal to print your own money, to be used locally. Barter it up, ya'll!

Back from Seattle, SXSW, and Installing Cult of Color.

So, at the beginning of the month, I took a road trip with my friend Stephanie to Seattle that took almost a week and covered 5,300 miles of driving. While I had great ambition for the trip, planning to get a short haircut (#014), give haircuts (#23), get in a hot spring (#025), visit an apiary (#028)and pick fruit (#031) none of which I did. However, there has been far more success than failure in the last week. So here goes!... :

On the way to Seattle, we stopped through Denver, and I got to see my friend/tower climbing boss/beat generation incarnate, Jeronimo, Matt Case, Macon Terry, Fei Wu, Jamie Jack, Macon's girlfriend Brynn and her friend Jenn(y). We tore the roof off the sucker. And Matt decided to come with us. We left Denver after a good hour of piano playing and wrestlin' which ended some time around midnight. Then we had to drive through a snow storm in Wyoming all night at 30 mph.

021. visit a new state (2)

Idaho on the way, where Stephanie punted an ice cream cone (!)
Montana on the way back, where we ate a cholesterol-fest of a breakfast at "The Hanging 5" diner.

015. make bets for things that aren't money (1)

Stephanie was convinced her legs were longer, so we made a bet for shoelaces. Yeah, I won. She bought me some sweet red plaid fatlaces at Archie McPhee's, but we have reason to believe that Matt stole them when unloading his stuff. Punk. (Archie's is kind of like Toy Joy, but way better because of their incredibly random stock of industrial parts, lenses, machines, buttons, wheels, containers, and all around weird stuff that can only be a toy through the right pair of eyes.)

036. footrace

I raced Matt from the cupcake store where our friend Darin works. I won, but it wasn't a very good race. Unfortunately my best races have been prior to the conception of this blog... wanna race? let me know...

045. go to the beach

In Seattle, Stephanie, Ian, Matt and I visited the Olympic Sculpture Park, right on the Puget Sound. There are some pretty sweet sculptures, but best of all, it is right on the water.
At the very bottom left of this picture, you can see the rocky beach where I jumped in. It was definitely as cold as I expected (perhaps even slightly less), but for some reason the salt caught me totally off guard. Then I went and watched Be Kind Rewind with no underwear (it was wet).

027. listen to an new album in it's entirety each week (4/143)

I know I listened to a gang of new music on this trip, but the only things I know were knew to me were two bands from Seattle - Girth's "Living In Truth" and Sean's "Singers Ruin Perfectly Good Bands". Both are circulated through Brutal Prog, and are mostly precision-metalish in their sound. Sean is an incredible Piano and Drums duo that is simply unprecedented. Ah yes, and Estradasphere's "Palace of Mirrors".

029. meet 3 people who have had strong influence on me through their work (2/3)

On the way back to Austin, Stephanie was kind enough to oblige my potent desire to see Secret Chiefs 3 in Houston. Little did I know that Estradasphere was supposed to open, a special reward for the extra effort. After the show, I talked to Trey Spruance- the brains behind Secret Chiefs, Guitar player for Mr. Bungle, and truly an inspiration musically and philosophically.

Back in Austin, SXSW, blah blah blah... THIS WEEK, I worked installing the work of Trenton Doyle Hancock. I randomly went to his talk at UT about 3-4 years ago where he mentioned he was working on putting together a project with the Austin Ballet. After the long anticipation, the event is finally happening. The show is called Cult of Color, and Arthouse is hosting an installation about the collaboration between TDH, Graham Reynolds (musician), and Steven Mills (choreographer) that brought this baby to fruition. So...

004. be involved in a theater production

And I got on a fabulous roof in downtown Austin last night. So...

011. get on roofs (2)

053. - Changed!

053. get recently aquired hitachi VCR to work with Panasonic Camcorder

The "Panasonic Camcorder" is the one that all of my childhood home videos were made on. This thing is a beast. I can remember countless school plays, dance recitals, and pretty much anything at night having a crazy light burn that would make trails across the picture.

Here is the down side:
It came with it's own VCR that had a slot for a battery pack enabling it's portability. The VCR connects and powers the camera through a cable labeled "Serial". In the inheritance of this magnificent media relic, there was no VCR. Thus I am on a quest for a VCR that has "Serial" output, maybe even a battery. anything that will make this camera make images.

I recently thought I stumbled into a goldmine when I found a VCR with such a port, but no battery. Old, old hitachi, complete with a handle. $2 at the Goodwill bins. I bought a chord that powers it from Radio Shack. Alas, all the belts in the VCR are crusted over and snapped immediately upon turning it on.

So...

053. get Panasonic Camcorder to work

Almost.

056. complete a crossword puzzle (correctly) by myself

Roofs, Car Stereo, Spring Garden

011. get on roofs(1)

Brian F., and his roommates, Josh, Will + (is that it?) hosted a party on Saturday with a Spider-man bounce-house-moonwalk. Damn those things are fun - but - they also had a huge crate in their backyard, enabling easy access to his roof, eye level with Spider-man. The goal is multiple roofs, so I'm halfway there I suppose...

100. read all Nicolas Bourriaud's Books (1/2)
101. read a book every month

I just finished Nicolas Bourriaud's Post-Production: Culture as Screenplay: How Art Reprograms the World, which talks mainly about contemporary art primarily from the 90's that uses existing elements of culture, albeit architecture, images, text, colors, or even completed works themselves. His discussion of artwork is reference-laden, and as a result, it can be hard to envision what exactly he is talking about. Many of the artists that the book discusses, create work that is difficult to understand through images, or even eye witness. Unfortunately, this flaw can be daunting, but his writing is edgy, passionate, and new so I was willing to stick it out.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<.other news.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I successfully added a CD player to my car! No longer will I be relegated to tapes! Music never sounded so good (barring the time when the original CD player wasn't broken). Ironically, in light of this new power, I am on a tape making kick. If you want one, let me know! I will make you a one of a kind mix as I rifle through my music collections and the radio.

Even though my goal is to listen to an album in it's entirety each week (which is hard to do in a car) I will be able to activate those piles of CDs that get so little playtime. If you have something you think I should hear, send it my way. Email? Snail Mail? FTP? DL? sure!

My roommates (Grant and Devin) and I went to the Austin Sustainable Food Center in an incredibly weird, futuristic, gold mirror-glass building called "The Twin Towers". We got a gang of free seeds, fertilizer and literature. If you are interested in starting a garden, it is a great place to get seeds, and now is a great time to plant a spring garden (i think). Today, I will plant, Spinach, Cilantro, Carrots, Broccoli, Snow Peas and Micro Greens. This is the first food I have grown from seed, so I know very little about the timing. Wish us luck...

Alright!

sketchbook found, list posted!

The 1001 day clock has been ticking for a good 2 weeks and I had yet to post the actual list. In all it's glory, it is now posted for your browsing and perusing pleasure. For those who don't know, several acquaintances, friends, and roommates are challenging ourselves and each other to complete 101 things in 1001 days. If you see something you want to collabo on, let me know. I removed "make list" from its prominent position at number 1, which was completed almost two weeks ago. With this massive list update, I am realizing I will need to keep a count instead of simply crossing off some of these endeavors.

058. Barter

I'm not sure if it counts, Kevin Addickes proposed a themed mix CD trade. The theme he gave me was "Spring Heeled Jack". The theme I gave him was, "moneyless society". I have made a mix TAPE in lieu of a CD and it has been delivered.

052. Bull's Eye!

Do red ones count? I went to Dog and Duck on Tuesday with Michael Greene, Dan Bui and their roommate Tyler met us there. We played darts, and while i got several red bull's eyes (meaning the outer ring of the center) the 3rd dart of my turn bounced off the board, and I hastily picked it up and threw the only black bull's eye of the night. It didn't count for the game, but the Bull's eye count is up to 1.

057. buy food i have never tried and cook with it

At Whole Food's on Saturday, I bought a taro root. Its texture is rough and hairy on the outside and sticky potato on the inside. I have had taro chips, but never prepared it myself. Though "Joy of Cooking" (1997 edition) suggests baking them, I sautéed it in thin slices with onion, garlic, pepper, ginger, jalapeño and scrambled eggs. It was awesome.

081. (re)make clothes (picture coming soon)

I sewed a shirt to another shirt. My leaning tower of Pisa shirt which hung on my wall for the last year was sewn to my Israeli army shirt. It is quite the mash-up as Nathan Greene observed
on it's first outing.
The Italy shirt was purchased by my friend Molly Pierce on a trip to Italy, where her mother was inappropriately dressed to go into a museum. Apparently, sleeveless shirts are not allowed, but there is a convenient souvenir stand nearby. It looks like the nike logo, with the tower for the letter "I".
The Israel shirt was given to me by my friend Adam Robinson.

027. listen to a new album in it's entirety each week

This week it is Nat Baldwin's Most Valuable Player. I had the pleasure of meeting him on Wednesday at his show at Rancho Relaxo. Everyone in his band was extremely friendly and talented. I still can't get over one horn arrangement made to sound like backwards guitar. Phwew. I think I will have to listen to this one again soon. (right now.)

As soon as I get a computer of my own (within the week! thanks, sis!) my documentation with be more rich, thorough, and frequent. alright!

Dang ol' loosin'

I have lost my most favorite sketchbook.

At least the one I have been using. If you have seen it, please let me know. It has my name and phone number in it.
Frustrating, every time I think about it. Especially because of the fact that it is the only place in that contains the original list of 101 things to do in the next 1001 days.

The list was completed on Tuesday while at a book tour reading/listening of David Isay's work with StoryCorps. Little did I know, he was on my "List of things to check out" in the front of the aforementioned displaced sketch book. I found out about him through one of my recent favorite Artists, Christine Hill.

Today, I played kickball, organized by Patrick at the "West Austin Park". If you are in Austin on a Sunday, drop by any time between 3pm and sundown. I think it happens every week (even when there's a super bowl.) I also made a flyer for a show at the Hole In The Wall on Feb. 15 featuring, The Black, The Reverse X-Rays, Follow That Bird, and Martin Crane. It starts at 9, and will be worth showing up on time for (Martin is great).