heron’s head park

It started pretty simply.
Meet Ruth after work, bike over to the Heron’s Head Park wetlands, look at lovely nature-y things, and go home. The first couple parts went well, and we made a stop at Islais Creek site along the way. It was the “going home” part that fell apart. Our intuition failed us, the bike map lied, attempting a daring leap over a fence ended badly. Then, to top it off, what we thought would be a triumphant pedestrian bridge crossing turned into denial of entry by possibly the only bridge troll I may ever meet in my life. He was very polite about it though, and let us know that he hasn’t let ANYone across that bridge in 5 years, so it’s nothing personal.

tower marking site of islais creek

unexplained but beloved cement torso

entrance to heron's head park on hunter's point

dwayne - enjoying the flora but looking for the fauna

lovely path leading to.... a power station.

wetlands reclaiming they're own, one mudpit at a time.

industry refusing to be nudged out too quickly

ruth and i pondering how fast we would need to pedal in order to launch ourselves successfully into oakland

completely lost on the way home, but finding dozens of guerrilla gardens along the way

we're trapped under an overpass, and that garden seems to be trapped on a traffic island

freed, after shimmying between jail-like bars

pedestrian bridge option denied. the guardian of the bridge turns us away.

tracker journal

Recent global earthquakes have finally gotten me off my ass and assembling an earthquake kit for my apartment. There are the usual gallons of water, snacks, candles and blankets going in there, but I’ve decided that it’s just as important to also put in several good books, wool socks, hot chocolate, drawing paper and pens. There’s going to be a lot of free time when things go to hell, so we might as well enjoy it.

tracker journal cover with bow drill clasp

Another item I’ve thrown in to the earthquake kit is one of the 9 bound journals I created after taking the Tom Brown Jr. Tracking class this past September. My notes evolved into elaborate drawings and layouts over the course of the class week. It was so much fun translating the information flow that it was worth making my drawing hand useless for days afterwards. Rather than let the notes rot into obscurity in my filing cabinets I decided to make a small edition of bound books and share them with other people I thought would be interested in the contents.

open case and the japanese bound cover
page sample
page sample
page sample

I have a few left here, and this one in the photo is now being zipped up in a plastic bag and placed alongside my leatherman and shishkabob skewers inside the giant earthquake rubbermaid container.

New site for Foundaround Sound posted

Foundaround Sound - Global MosaicBack in October I had developed and released a Flash based site for my client, Foundaround Sound. We were both pretty happy with the overall look, feel and functionality, and I had already shifted my brain to other projects when I got a phone call.

“It doesn’t work on the iPhone.”

Well, of course not. It’s Flash based.

But I agreed with him that not being able to use it on the iPhone pretty much sucks. The whole idea of the  site is, after all, to sell his music and provide him with income. If someone tries his site once on their iPhone and can’t access it, the moment is lost. They will most likely never try his site again.

So, with his go ahead, I redesigned and coded the entire site to be as web standards compliant as I know how at this stage of the game, and to snazz it up with jQuery instead of Flash. It turned out to be a real brain melter on my part, but a hell of a lot of fun and now both the client and I are even happier than before and excited about the re-release of the site.

Check it out: http://www.foundaroundsound.com

End of an era for aponeurotica. At least, the end of a Flash based era. jQuery, rock on.

careful what you wish for…

Books & boxes have been preoccupying my mind of late, and I’ve carved some time out to work on patterns and prototypes. I’m realizing one of the things I love about the process is the complete lack of “command+z” option on these little guys. Two hours can be spent measuring, cutting and gluing – and in the end the damn thing won’t close. The handmade box version of “command+z” is to grab another piece of paper and start all over.

I was having some logistical issues as to how I could get the type onto a variety of materials in order to execute a certain book idea I have. Letterpress would be ideal, but on a budget I wondered if I could just get a hold of a set of typewriter arms and work one letter at a time. The past couple of days I had it in the back of my head to look out for a source for typewriter arms. The typewriter gods have smiled upon me, and this morning there was one in its own little 1960’s carry case sitting right in front of my apartment. Way to go, typewriter gods! Could you leave some ribbon ink tomorrow?