Hustler of Culture

"Elephant Safaris--Into the Wilds" by Eames Demetrios

Several of Lulu's beloved Eames elephant cousins are going on a safari! Here's what the Eames Office had to say about it:

If you enjoyed the epic A Gathering of Elephants from a few years ago, Eames Demetrios, director of the Eames Office, has made another Elephant movie, this time animated on location in South Africa, at Mala Mala Game Reserve outside Kruger National Park.

The stop-motion film is a joy to watch and an adventure worth experiencing. I loved the zebra crossing. And chilling with the water buffalos. Where will the herd go next?! Somewhere fun, no doubt!

Eye-to-eye With a Blue Whale

UNBELIEVABLE. This blue whale sighting just happened a few days ago. The crowd's excitement is infectious! We love Captain Dave's Dolphin and Whale Safari and highly recommend you take a short ocean trip if you're visiting Southern California -- it's a game changer to see the largest mammal to ever "walk" the planet.

Gary Baseman at Bao Dim Sum House

I had a lovely lunch with friend and professional doodler, Gary Baseman at tasty Bao Dim Sum House. He drew while I talked and the curious waitstaff swung by a few times to check out the drawings, which incidentally inspired a Halloween costume or two. A sunny afternoon in WeHo was a lovely way to catch up with my always-traveling amigo.

SF - "Sink or Swim" (09.23.11 - 09.25.11)

 

Kitties!

My LA-based family has rescued five four-week old kittens and are hoping to find them loving homes. If you're interested in saving a life, please leave a comment and repost, retweet or forward to anyone who might be interested, THANKS!

UPDATE: We have found homes for all the kitties, thank you for your support!

Turtle Traffic at JFK Airport (ATC Conversation)

After reading this NY Times article about turtles on JFK's runway, I clicked on this link to hear air traffic controllers talk about the same subject from 2009 and I'm so happy I did. It's hilarious. Best overheard convo, ever! [Thanks Paddy for the link!]

Ghibli World of Minecraft

I am so grateful that there are some people with lots and lots and lots of free time on their hands! Someone loves Hayao Miyazaki very much! [Thanks to Mike Steel for this amazing clip!]

Guilty!

[Big ups to Julie and Cesar for the link!]

"Year of the Rabbit"

A visual recap of Year of the Rabbit at GR2.

Giant Robot is proud to host Year of the Rabbit, a group art show celebrating the 4709th resetting of the lunar calendar. Pieces will include illustrations, oils, pencils, prints, watercolors, sculpture, and other media–all dedicated to one of the most stubborn, but also most creative (and cute) animals in the Chinese zodiac.

Snooky and the Metronome aka This Cat Is Tripping!

Goodness, this cat is tripping... you don't even realize how badly until the other cat waltzes into the video -- all normal. Hah.

Exit Through The Pet Shop

 

Meowsers! Cats really do make everything better! [Big ups Carly for the link]

Wild Animals

Wow! Wild Animals. What an incredibly beautiful book! Wild Animals is a self-published art book by Rop van Mierlo, a graphic designer/illustrator from the Netherlands. I wish he sold prints of his artwork; they would make any kids' room feel extra warm and fuzzy.

Hardcover
40 pages
322 x 288 mm
Color offset
First edition
€ 30

[Big ups to Fiel for the heads up!]

LA - Sawtelle Dog and Cat Adoption at GR2 (02.05.11)

Small Gift: Celebrating 50 Years of Sanrio Photo Recap

A look inside Sanrio's celebration of 50 years of fun and friendship!

Dogtown

This bulldog is one of many skateboarding dogs in my neighborhood, Dogtown.

Brooklyn - Farm City Fair (09.12.10)

Farm City Fair
Sunday, September 12, from 11am–5pm         

Part of the series Farm City: Where Are You Growing?

The Fair is a wild new take on the traditional County Fair, a day-long celebration of art and food grown in Brooklyn!

Festivities engage all the senses: hear live music performed by local Bang on a Can marching band Asphalt Orchestra; taste delicacies prepared by local chefs inspired by ingredients from Brooklyn farms; view specially commissioned work exploring the culture of agriculture by local artists; get a feel for materials needed to produce your own food in workshops by Brooklyn Food Coalition; participate in a Blue Ribbon Competition hosted by GreenThumb; and browse a marketplace with some of Brooklyn’s small-batch artisanal food purveyors curated by Greenpoint Food Market. Cap it off with The Food Experiments’ live cooking competition—Brooklyn Roots—featuring savory samples and refreshing drinks from Brooklyn Brewery, Six Points Brewery, Red Hook Wines, Brooklyn Oenology, Kings County Distillery, and others.

We've Adopted Zelda!

Meet Zelda*, our newest family member! She is a playful five month old Maine Coon-mix kitty, adopted from Rescue Me Pet Foundation at Centinela Feed & Pet Supplies. After visiting the other cats at the Santa Monica Animal Shelter, we knew Zelda was going to be a part of our family. She won us over with her warm and friendly personality and bright yellow-green eyes.

Adopting an animal is something we've been lucky enough to do four times and our family is thrilled to have Zelda at home with us. We hope you'll meet her someday soon. In the meantime, more photos of our new roommate can be viewed here!

*Thanks to our cousin Ari for helping us name her!

Good Night, Godzuki!

Our beautiful Maine Coon kitty Godzuki changed cosmic addresses yesterday. It was unexpected as he had been acting normal all morning, even patiently hanging out with us while Lulu "pet" him (as seen  above). If something was wrong, he didn't lead on. I'm shocked and sad our little lion's gone. When I posted the news of his passing, it was only seconds before condolences started trickling in. I wasn't surprised. Godzu was well loved and had friends all over. 

Godzuki joined our family in April 2002. We got him to keep our other adopted cat, Atari, company. As a kitten, we couldn't tell he was a Maine Coon and we definitely had no idea he would become as big as he was -- in personality and size. Everyone wanted to hold him. And he was super cool about it. Some of our friends loved him enough to want to breed him, but alas, he was fixed.

Happy Birthday To Me!

For my 38th birthday, I went whale watching with a handful of friends. Big brother Julian took this kick ass photo capturing a damn fine day. Why a whale tour?! Whales are magnificent beautiful creatures and if you've never seen them in the wild, you are missing out. It is a humbling experience to see the largest known mammal to ever exist on planet Earth (blue whales are bigger than dinosaurs) and with a worldwide population estimated at 8,000 to 14,000, we are lucky to even see one.  Whale watching on one's birthday is also a great reminder, that we are only but a blip in this world.

THANK YOU everybody for a really amazing day! And big ups to Captain Dave's Dolphin and Whale Safari for making it all happen. I can't wait to go again next year!

Christien Meindertsma: PIG 05049

In this TEDxAmsterdam video, Dutch artist Christien Meindertsma discusses her project PIG 05049, a book documenting all the products created from different parts of an anonymous pig called 05049. Her research uncovered the obvious but to everyone's surprise, it also uncovered much, much more. Frankly, I was surprised to learn how many things had gelatin in them and also how much you could make with pig bones. Christien's last statement is poignant:

"... I really made this book because I love raw materials.  What I think this book tells us is that we have no clue what is in our products. I think if we want to take care of what's behind these products, for instance, natural resources, the people working on all these products, as well as all the livestock behind it, we really need to know more about the stories behind our products."

Just last week a stranger stopped me at the market to ask me what plant I had purchased. I answered, "These are brussels sprouts still on the stalk."  The person was a little embarrassed and surprised as she'd never seen brussels sprouts in "the wild" before. In a world where we hardly know where our food comes from, it's amazing to learn about where so many other things we use might come from too. Christien Meindertsma's body of work is truly breathtaking. I hope you enjoy her research as much as I did!