For halloween, I want to get eight ventilation tubes from Home Depot (like in the image above) Cut them down to about five feet long and attach them to a plastic garbage can. Put the garbage can over my head, presto! I'm a squid or octopus. I will even have my arms go through two of the tubes so i can control them and move them around. But those tubes will be longer than my arms, so i'll have some sticks inside the tube to extend my arms longer. And there will be little holes in the side of the arms, so i can stick my hands out when I need to use them.

Here's some fun images of squids and octopuses:

octopus

squid


Octopus would be fun, cuz of their eight arms. I could put something fun at the end of each arm. I don't know what yet. But something maybe. And plus they have suction cups. Again, not really sure what to use for suction cups.

Squids are fun cuz they squirt out ink. So maybe something with a pen or something. I dunno. Like each arm could hold a pen? I could draw with a pen? And then there's beached squids. Those are fascinating. And then there was the time when a qiant squid attacked Chicago

Either with the octopus or the squid, I'm gonna make some really big eyes. Like those googlie eyes. I need to find a clear plastic plate for the outside, a paper plate for the inside, and some black cardboard for the inside eye. That way, when i move the googlie eyes will shake around!

Questions:
ïÝWhat would make good suction cups?
ïÝWhat else would be fun props or jokes to go with the octopus or squid?
ï If the tubes end up being metal or some color, maybe I should cover them with an old bed sheet. What color would be ideal? And maybe i should wear like all black or gray so that my body is not too distracting from the costume?

It's so much fun to have a different wallpaper (desktop picture) on your computer every 15 minutes. (on mac os x, it can randomly change the wallpaper at a specificed interval).

So i'm looking for a bunch of new wallpapers. Please send in any wallpapers you have to: wallpaper@spudart.org. After one week, i will compile the entire collection and email it back out to those want a copy (including my current desktops of transformers, artwork, and sky captain).

Part of his reaction to the question from the audience, "How have new tools like computers influenced the way you work?":

"You use pen as tool--fine.
You use computer as brain--no."

"I have the macintosh.
I no plug wires into it.
It sit on my desk,
I put the paper underneath it,
and it hold paper down good.
I look at it and say,
'ooo la la! such a beautiful brick.
One of the most beautiful brick the world.'"

Source: 9/23/2004 talk by Italian designer Piero Lissoni at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago

It's a curious thing why people like to make homemade signs to hold up at a sporting event. The World Series is going on now and there are many Red Sox fans at Fenway Park holding signs hoping for that brief two-second moment to be on tv. But why do they really hold up those signs?
ïÝTo have a very brief moment of fame on tv?
ïÝSpreading their message to the tv audience?
ïÝSharing their message with the crowd at fenway?
ïÝShowing their allegiance?
ïÝAre they bored at the game?
ïÝMaybe they don't know why, because they are caught up in a cultural phenomenon of this simply being something you do at a sporting event.

Here is a comic strip from 10/19/2004:


Send your Candy Corn Flavored Pumpkins to:
2202 S. Figueroa St.
Box #123
Los Angeles, CA 90007

"Curiousity is like a synapsis.
If you have synapsis,
then you have curiousity.
If you have curiousity,
then you are a designer."

Source: 9/23/2004 talk by Italian designer Piero Lissoni at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago

What if inanimate objects could talk? What would they say?

I'm going to leave word bubbles with phrases around outside in public places. Here's some ideas.

On a parking meter a word bubble would say, "Your time here is limited, what do you look forward to?" On a bus stop sign, "What else are you waiting for?" On a window inside a bus, two bubbles, one saying "Look out" the other saying "Look inwards." The idea of two objects talking to each other has some intesting potential too, not sure what it could be yet though. Certainly a fun project to explore with all the ideas that objects could say. What else would objects outside say?

Here's some ideas on what else these things could be stuck on:
On a curb, in a planter (sticking the bubble on a toothpick so it stands up in the dirt with the flowers/plants), on a seat (with something about sitting/relaxing), on a light pole (something about light), in a corner somwhere (like it's whispering a secret)

For some fun photos, run around a tree and take pictures. You'll get some interesting results. Check out some photos I took outside Chicago's brown line stop at Western Ave: http://www.spudart.org/photo/20041011/

I'm trying to decide which one of these to:
* sell on my daprints site and
* post on the dpchallenge of the week for night shots.
Which photo do you think I should post for these?

I'm designing a brochure for KRT Campus, and I was looking for some dramatic images. Normally, you'd do a search for: drama, dramatic, powerful, happy, sad, joyful, and all those other words in the thesaurus. But here's a trick... look for the verbs that play out those adjectives. The two best ones were: cry and jump. Crying images are ALWAYS dramatic. And people jumping. Well, people jumping are gonna be great happy photos or sports players in their most dramatic moments of action.

The PBS special about Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis is now on sale today. I have to admit, while watching it on tv, I feel asleep half way through. I much more recommend the book, "Mere Christianity."


Also available today:
ïÝTransformers Energon - The Battle for Energon
ïÝTransformers Energon - The Return of Megatron

can you believe there are no webpages with the phrase "twice half great"? that's crazy. You say this phrase when you want to express the greatness of something, because twice of half is the full. So to say something is fully great is to say "it's twice half great."

Millennium Park in Chicago is very civilized. After awhile I couldn't stand to be there. Too civilized. I need to go to uncivilization. To touch.

Comments: This made me very curious, because Millenennium park is a park after all. Maybe it was too designed for him with all manmade stuff--music shell, huge metallic bean sculpture, video sculpture, bridge. But there are large patches of grass and some wild plant areas. But perhaps these areas were too planned out for him.

Source: 9/23/2004 talk by Italian designer Piero Lissoni at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago

Laura has started a campaign to get a Papa Johns into the city of Chicago. She sent the following to Papa Johns:

when o when will you open a Chicago location? i have been waiting for so long. you force me to eat "pizza-like" subsitutes like Domino's and Pizza Hut, since i live within the Chicago city limits. please spare me this humiliation and open a location within Chicago.

Here's my email to them:

Let me ask you... If there was a pizza capital of the world in America, would you think that Papa Johns would have a location there? Certainly you would. Papa Johns gotta represent in the pizza capital of the world.

What if told you that Chicago was the pizza capital of the world. And that Papa Johns has NO locations there. Find that hard to believe? It is true, and I still find it very difficult to swallow this hard truth.

Is Papa Johns afraid of being part of the incredible Chicago pizza legacy? Surely not with your better ingredients and better pizza. Is Papa Johns too good for Chicago?

Chicagoans are clamoring for the Papa Johns legacy. Can you hear them now? "pa-pa JOHNS. pa-pa JOHNS." They are screaming the from the tops of buildings. From the depths of the valleys. From the lake to shore. From the south side to the north side. The voice is getting louder. and louder still. Papa Johns! Where are you?

You can leave your comments to Papa Johns at their feedback form: http://www.papajohns.com/feedback/ele_feed.htm

Or mailing them a snail mail letter to:
Papa John's International, Inc.
Consumer Services Team
P.O. Box 99900
Louisville, KY 40269-9990

In the sentence, "I feel so bad," the word "so" expresses the bad feeling to a greater extent. "So" is making what you say so much stronger.

But if you combine two "so"s next to each other they only express to a moderate extent.
"His leg is but so so." Having two "so"s back to back makes something weaker, instead of stronger.

Maybe it's the cutesiness of it. Like saying "poo poo." Saying it twice softens the crudeness of it.
2*poo = 2/poo

I have a notepad with a monthly updated to do list. This page gets looked at very frequently. It would be a good idea to put some bible verses at the bottom to be a good reminder of how God gives us strength and works through us. To not be so absorbed in our actions.

Then I was thinking that "remind" was maybe not the right word for how I want the verses at the footer of the page to function. Not just to remind me. Not to just serve as one brief quick temporary thought. But it's to guide, to grow, to provide insight against the context of the list of to-do items. The verses not to just serve as a backdrop for what I'm doing, but to take an active role. And truly be integrated within my life. And the word "remind" seems too brief.

BUT actually take a look at the word "remind." It's "re-mind" or "re mind." Like to repeat in your mind. It's not just a temporary thought. It's something that gets mulled over and over again, because it's repeated in the mind. Re-mind is something that stirs inside you and stimulates thought.

Just like in 2 Peter 3:1
"Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking."

Here we have Peter sending "reminders" that will spark the readers minds... a remixing of a bowl of soup that has settled and separated. It's so nice to have reminders to remix up our lives when we become too stale or motionless and lazy. Oooo yeah! Mix up that pot of soup! Shake that bottle of ketchup!

Aladdin, the Disney animation is finally released on DVD today. A funny piece of trivia from imdb:
"In early visual development, Aladdin resembled Michael J. Fox. As the film developed, Jeffrey Katzenberg didn't think Aladdin had enough appeal to women, so he asked that Aladdin be beefed up a bit to resemble Tom Cruise."


Also available today: Fahrenheit 9/11

A couple weeks ago I posted "The top ten reasons for sitting in the corner of a room." While researching corners online, another form of corner came up... the street corner.

A search for corner on the cartoonbank yields alot of comic strips with people standing at the corner of a building. This type of corner is interesting, because it's the exact inverse of a corner in a room. The corner of a room is negative space. Where the corner of a building is positive space. The corner of a room is an enveloping feeling. The corner of a building is a pointing feeling.

The corner of a building implies a turn. There's that side and this side. So it's not really pointing. Because you can go around the turn. Whereas in a room it's like there is one focal point you can exist in. Oh that's the difference. The focal point in a building is a physical object. The focal point in a room is a space you can exist in.

Also interesting is the fact that the corner office of a building is considered to be the most prestigous office.
The corner space in the context of a room = low ranking
The corner rooom in the context of a building = high ranking

Who were the players on the very first baseball teams like the 1876 Cubs? Not the 2nd season, but the very first season? What are the stories back then? The National League formed in 1876 with the Chicago Cubs (then called the White Stockings) winning the league with a record of 52-16.

Here's a funny story of the best player, Ross Barnes, in that first year of the National League:

Barnes was an early batting star who played from 1866-88. He mastered the old 'fair foul' rule of the day which said that a hit ball was fair if it first hit fair no matter where it went after that. For example, today's bunt that rolls foul past the first base line would be a fair ball. Fielders did a lot of running after Barnes' strategically angled hits.
In 1877 the rules were changed so that a ball had to stay within the foul lines like today. Barnes' career fell apart after that.

He musta crapped his trousers when he heard of this rule change, because his batting average dropped from .429 in 1876 to .272 in 1877.

sources:
ïÝRoss Barnes statistics
ïÝNational League stats and awards
ïÝStory of Ross Barnes

"My sofas are uncomfortable. I design them to be uncomfortable."

You get strong feedback from my couches. To continuously use. It's like the computer. Without using the computer, it is just a brick. With my couches you continously interface with them. The user is modifying their body every two or three minutes.

Source: 9/23/2004 talk by Italian designer Piero Lissoni at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago

October 2004 is Chicago's ninth annual Chicago Artists' Month. Stuff happening all over the city--over 150 events! The City of Chicago's listings were confusing, so here's a nice handy compiled list by date:
ï October 1 - October 4
ï October 5 - October 11
ï October 12 - October 18
ï October 19 - October 25
ï October 26 - October 31
ï Ongoing Exhibitions