Design Work ornament
Design ornament
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Nothing, really
Web bullshit
FEATURE (Yobimono)
Spiral
No Great Shakes

"It pays to be good, then people remember you. I hope people will remember me someday."

—Grandma Hackenberg


Quotes
More fluff

PJ Chmiel's 2006 RAMBLE Tour


-> News-Worthy (IMADEKI)

NOTE: My old blog software (MovableType) is being an asshole again; I'm abandoning it and transitioning the whole site over to a new format, but that's not quite ready for primetime yet, so "pardon our dust" while we re-work this nearly 8-year-old design into something...slightly different.

Since I haven't written a new "blog" entry in the better part of a year, here's a brief recap of what's been going on:

Around Valentine's day Lindsay surprised me with a trip south to Alabama, to take an evening of zydeco dancing lessons in Huntsville, and we spent the next evening in Birmingham, seeing the sights of this impressive southern city. Around my birthday in August she surprised me with another trip south, this time to Summerville Tennessee, to visit The Farm (a famous former "hippie commune," which is now somewhat changed but still very interesting, and they give classes on different subjects like natural building, midwifery, mushroom cultivation, permaculture, etc.

In the spring Lindsay and I participated in a 4-weekend workshop on strawbale building right here in Louisville, and that was a great experience. I hope to use some of those techniques when building my own home someday. This summer was my first foray into gardening, and I had a fun little container garden on my rooftop. Not the ideal setup (a lot of plants would've done a lot better with more room to grow, plus traveling and gardening are a bad combination; many of my plants were damaged by too-seldom watering). Overall it was a great experience despite the setbacks and it really whet my appetite for larger-scale gardening.

Speaking of traveling, Lindsay and I took a road trip this summer to visit our moms, who live in Iowa and South Dakota, respectively. Along the way we snuck in a quick visit with Aunt Lottie (and Rene) in Chicago, stayed overnight at the new-and-more-spartan Casa de los Rynos in Minneapolis, paid our respects to the Twine Ball in Darwin (Lindsay's first time) and spent a couple of quality days visiting my grandparents (the Schnabels) in Aberdeen, SD. Then it was off to my mom's place for a few too-short days, where we caught up, communed with cows and I showed Lindsay the precise location of "middle of nowhere", took a side trip up to Ashley, ND and the ghost town of Venturia, ND, and then spent a few enjoyable days at her mom's grandiose house on a lake in Iowa, where we soaked up the sun and got a taste of "lake life," Okoboji-style. I wish we could've talked my mom into accompanying us to Iowa, as I think the two moms would hit it off, but it wasn't to be. On the way home we stopped briefly at the Corn Palace (finally made it there!) and Iowa 80. It was a wonderful trip, we both liked each other's moms, and I wish it could've been a couple of months instead of weeks.

In June we spent a week in Norfolk, VA (drove out there), stopping to visit Lindsay's adorable grandparents in West Virginia along the way. I got to see a few old friends and finally meet a bunch of my co-workers in the (new) PETA Web Department. A lot has changed there, it's so much bigger than before. The food options in Norfolk keep getting better too.

I took a trip up to Michigan by myself in August, in addition to the usual round of great visits, I dropped off some political posters to the poster show my buddy Maniotes was curating at Eastern Michigan University and got a tour of Ypsilanti, I made it to my cousin Amanda's 21st birthday party, met up with John at Dowagiac Commercial Press, got some French Paper down in Niles, reunited with my cousin Ben, toured Sunflower Ecovillage with Paul and Vete, saw my mom's friend Cyd again after 10 years or so, had a few quality days with Bobby Chmiel, and got to attend a touching ceremony commemorating the Lawton ball diamond being named in my grandfather's honor: Russ Hackenberg Field. An excellent visit, I managed to work while I was there too, from the coffeeshop in Paw Paw.

In early October I spent about a week in the San Francisco area, I got flown out there for a Web Dept. "retreat" and training session. Had a few workdays in Oakland and extended my stay for 3 more nights so that I could have some quality time in SF. I stayed in a couple of different hostels right downtown and had a fine time walking around, put a lot of miles on my moccasins. Realized that Chinatown wasn't quite as good as I remembered it, but Japantown was a real treat. I had a long-overdue visit with Mike and Lisa (talented friends from MCAD who also went to grad school together at Yale and are married), they have a cute little munchkin baby now and in addition to having their own design firm, Lisa teaches at CCA. When she found out I was coming to town she asked if I could visit her Design 1 class and show some of my poster work to her students, who were working on an "issue poster" project. I was a bit nervous, but it went well and was a lot of fun. The food in SF was outstanding, so good.

In late October Lindsay and I traveled north to Michigan to attend a wonderful conference on Peak Oil, Climate Change, Transportation and Food issues. We saw some excellent presentations and met some really good people. After that we spent a few days with Lindsay's dad in Portland, MI, and then a few days at my dad's house in Gobles. We worked during the weekdays and did a lot of visiting in the evenings.

This year saw me take a keen interest in politics, and I did several projects (mostly posters) in my own time, on political issues. I made a poster in support of Ralph Nader and got to actually meet him when he spoke in Louisville, that was quite an honor. I'm not optimistic about Obama, but there's not much I can do about it at this point, so I'm withdrawing somewhat and am going to focus on local and community issues instead. Just before the new year Lindsay moved in with me, and that is going well, the kitties and I are glad to have her here. A good and full year, I think this next year might be a rough one for the country but I'm doing my best to prepare in the face of uncertainty, and hope you will do the same. Thanks for being a part of my life. To see and read this year's holiday card, click here.

Photos from our trip to India, 1/05

Can't get enough of this BS? Old-ass HTML archives here.

Hit Parade (Music of the Moment) ONGAKU

Clifton Chenier, Broadcast, John Delafose, Magnolia Electric Co.

Housing Development Name Generator,
a work in progress
(Choose one from each, mix/match)


Distractions

Pictured Rocks, Munising and the Upper Peninsula, 7/05

Trip to Minneapolis for Ryan's 28th Birthday, Signs in Minneapolis

Photos of Brooklyn, NY, the Gotham Scooter Rally, Manhattan and Chinatown, 4/05

Up the Mississippi River with Draplin from New Orleans to St. Louis, 8/04

Van Buren County Fair, Family in Paw Paw, Bobby, Drive around Lake Michigan, 8/04.

Trip to Wisconsin Dells, Sauk City and Sun Prairie, WI

Images of Paw Paw's Flea Markets

Trip back to Virginia for Ken's Wedding, 5/04. Photos of Winnie, Richmond, the Ghent Inn, and more.

Photos from cousin's wedding, my mom's side of the family, March, 2004

Scooter Trip to MI, 8/03. Photos of friends, cousins and more.

Trip to Poland with Grandma, 5/03. Warsaw, Krakow, Tarnow, Dynow and more.

Recent photos on Flickr

My profile on MySpace.
My profile on Scoot.net
My favorite videos on YouTube


Draplin Design Co.

Andy Beach's Reference Library

Truthout.org
(non-corporate news)

Indymedia.org
(non-corporate news)

911Truth.org
(dig deeper)

Stuff Still Made in the USA

Folkstreams Documentary Films
(watch them online, amazing!)

Vocalo.org
(Awesome Chicago radio, stream it)

Congress.org
(get in touch with your "representatives")

2StrokeBuzz

Louisville Scooter Scene

Gapers Block

Absenter (Naz' site)

Ryan Simonson's MN Artists Page

the art of Keiko Ishii

The Degree Confluence Project
AMAZING portrait of the earth, degree by random degree. Wow.

Interesting Ideas
Signs and roadside stuff. Ryan thought this guy and I were the same person.

Joseph X. Burke
Awesome words/music/pics. Paw Paw.

Ruthless Guide to 80s Action Films
Critical overview for any American male



Featured Image


Chinese Restaurant Name Generator, v. 1.1
(Choose one from each, mix/match)


Movies I've Watched Recently

Pickpocket (B+W, France, 1959)
Saw this on a whim when I should've been working on freelance projects instead, but I'm really glad I did. The reviews all referred to a sort of magical quality to Robert Bresson's filmmaking, and talked about how "realistic" his films seem, devoid of flashy cinematic effects, gimmicks, or overzealous acting. It's true, this film was very straightforward in its depiction of a man who decides to try his hand at becoming a pickpocket, half out of boredom and half out of desperation. We feel tension as he learns his trade through intense closeness to the subjects and powerful silence. The story is based loosely on Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, which I intend to read ASAP. The actors and Parisian settings were very handsome to my eyes, even Michel the main character in his shabby suit looked dapper by today's slovenly standards of casual dress. And the young woman who looks after his mother, Jeanne...what a beauty! She reminded me a little of Ashlee Simpson (who I think is cute) but 1,000 times more class and depth. Even his miserable rented room (whose door gets left wide open to the world as he goes out, almost unthinkable in today's world...maybe rare then too, but he had little to hide or be stolen, very spartan tenement-house living) was full of charm to me, run-down but so unlike the cinderblock prisons people dwell in here. Great visuals and lighting, perfect acting (or non-acting, as it might be) amazing sets and streetscapes, beautifully-done sound and even some damn nice opening and closing titles. I can't wait to see more of Bresson's work, this film really resonated with me.

Driver 23 / The Atlas Moth (USA, 2002)
I borrowed this DVD from Luther/Will and it quickly became one of my all-time favorite films (Vanessa's too). I ordered myself a copy and also ordered a copy to send to Ryan. If you liked American Movie or Spinal Tap, or have ever been in a band or lived in Minneapolis, this film is a must-see. Like American Movie, it's a story set in a north midwestern city in the late 1990's and featuring a charismatic, "out-there" protagonist driven to succeed in his creative endeavor (as the frontman for a progressive metal band in this case). The main guy here is Dan Cleveland, a heavily-medicated obsessive-compulsive guy driven to succeed and "see things through" by a chemically-imbalanced fire burning hot in his brain. It's hard to describe the film(s), you should just see them. Nobody I've recommended them to didn't like them. Dan's monologues are both sad and heroic, but relentlessly entertaining. His drawings (what little we see of them) are even better. Very well-done documentaries following the same few people over the course of 7 or so rough years in the pursuit of playing shows and putting out a CD, full of wonderful characters. Especially relevant to me because I lived in Minneapolis while most of this was being filmed so the setting/venues really speak to me. Among other things, Draplin had this to say about the film: "So many different little lives out there. Wow." Fuckin' A.





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