Below Our Bare and Wandering Feet

sinai

2010-12-22T06:15:00.001-08:00

2009-09-07T22:31:00.000-07:00

i'm sitting in my bed, able to use my computer for the first time in months really. my power cord broke and i'm too broke to buy a new one. so jamie's letting me borrow hers, cause her computer is having bigger issues.

it's 1:37 am and i'm really looking forward to sleep but wanted to browse the inner-net for while. i just saw funny people with jason at the dollar theater where it was actually cheaper to buy 3 tickets, as you get a discount. 3 for $1.50, weird. the movie had parts that were enjoyable, but overall, i can say that i hated it. i still had a good time tonight, but the movie just didn't sit well with me.

oh, my job with bill didn't pan out, as some of you might have already heard. horrible miscommunication and i don't even really wanna go into it here, cause i'm over it, but as my employer for a few days, i have little to no respect for the man. i might be working at whole foods soon though, my friend brennan works there and says i'm supposed to get a call tomorrow from his supervisor and hopefully this all works out. a good job and discounts on groceries would be really nice. i like food a lot. i've been cooking meals a lot more down here in kentucky. i mean i always made food, but usually sandwiches and other stuff that wasn't really a meal meal. i'm going to be cooking the meal for the lunch on friday at the farm.

even though i'm broke i'm really happy. i can just feel that i'm in a good place in my life and there's so much potential and i'm optimistic. there is just so much to do out there.

p.s.-the church i go to, jeff street baptist at liberty, amazes me.

7 months...wow, a lot has happened

2009-08-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

last you read i was in sedona...looking at red rocks.

i now live in kentucky, moved from grand rapids with jamie and lydia. they work on a local organic farm (field day family farm) as interns and i had an americorps position at a refugee-focused community center for two months (americana community center). i had a job there as it was only two months long and it was really challenging and interesting. i had amazing co-workers and many elementary kids who have been through some tough things already in their life. we did some screenprinting, we played some soccer, we had water games, mustache days, ESL, went to the zoo, gardening, made a giant cyanotype, reading, we went to six flags, they got to throw a lot of water balloons at me, had pirate adventures. it was great.

some of my favorite names of kids:

abdirahman
dieu
jean jean
bagat
abdisamad
dargbason
tai tai
hey say
benediction mwendepeke
hope
bob brown
yav
abdirashid
nyenke
abdimajid
nurto
barmu
behya
bihimana
jeanette
ivona

their name for me (the progression)

mr. brad
mr. bread
roti-putih (means white bread in bahasa indonesia)

here are some photos.

i just started my new job, i'm taking care of a garden for a man named bill. he's in his 30s and too busy with his internet business to take care of it anymore. he asked ivor, the farmer of field day family farm, for someone to help. it worked out perfectly. so i have begun to plan and research and weed and seperate crazy vine plants from other plants so they don't suffocate and am going to plant some fall crop this week. eventually i'll be helping to get a larger plot in a nearby lot ready to winterize so that it can be used as a garden next season. i also took some soil samples which i need to mail off today!

samples!
garden: day 1
garden: after 2 days!

on a side note, i really really like living in louisville and i could easily see myself moving back here in the future.

we've also been doing some canning all of a sudden. jamie and i have both done blueberry jam. lydia has done some tomato jam, jamie has also done some peach jam, and this weekend jamie an lydia made italian tomato sauce while i made dinner for the three of us.

side note, canning makes you very very tired.

red rock!

2008-12-27T22:54:00.000-08:00

that's the apache sandstone you're seeing on the top of that plateau like formation in the center of the photo

good clouds
this is my dad smelling a rock next to the sandstone (you'll have to click on it to see)
i believe these little succulent plants are different than the tree trunk they're growing on as they looked really different from the leaves on the tree. but regardless, i think they look pretty sweet growing out of this peeling bark.

i've been meaning to post

2008-10-26T06:20:00.000-07:00

really, i have. the farm is just really busy. i have so many things that i want to share with you but do not have pictures of them and pictures are really good for a lot of these things but instead i will just write some words.

jamie and i went to a garage sale in rockford and i got a hologram of a mountain and lake scene with ducks. i also got master of the universe live action film for jon and jamie got an nsync album that her mom took away when she was a kid because of the sons digital getdown.

i have aaron's plant light set up in my room. i have new cuttings from an apple tree, some kind of maple and another mystery tree from my backyard, 5 different varieties of succulents from my aunt's garden in cambria california, along with a staghorn fern that is mounted on a piece of redwood, which she also gave me.

i have pictures of redwoods from a hike a did with my parents at big basin state park in california 2 weeks ago. i just don't have those pictures on my computer yet. speaking of pictures i don't have yet, i have a roll of B+W that jon is going to develop for me at calvin next week and i have a roll of color that i need to take in as well. both are from the summer and both i can't wait to see. i'm also hoping to set up a darkroom in our basement after i get a safelight. speaking of california, my cousin also got married that weekend.

i've been overhauling my bike this week. i will post more with pictures at a later date.

get mopped!

2008-08-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

slavic soul party...and the one who searches and destroys

2008-06-05T20:05:00.000-07:00

i just bought all of iggy pop & the stooges' albums at a flea market in moscow on two mp3 CDs for 8 dollars. it's a sad day. well, i got it because i only know one of his songs and i really liked it, and didn't really know where to start with their records, so i got this. if i like an album, i will go and buy it eventually. all of you are my witnesses and will hold me accountable...so as you may have gathered. i am in russia. i've been here for the last two weeks visiting with my dad and old family friends. no, unfortunately i don't have any old russian family friends, although these american friends are still good to catch up with. all of them are parents of kids i grew up with while i lived in egypt, a few were parents to some of my closest friends.
there are many things to share about my time spent in russia though. too many probably, so i think i'll stick to the most meaningful or interesting things i've experience or had happen to me, things that i want to share.
the virgin mary, saints, tzars, generals, composers, writers, soviet leaders, unknown soldiers, hammer & sicles, and the common soviet worker. all of these things russian's hold in some way. it's their legacy, whether they believe in it or not, whether it was a hard time in their history or the crowning glory; each of these forces are still alive and at work in some way or another. i can see it in the people and the. there are impressive statues of heros in city streets, elaborate memorials in cemetaries, and intricately designed mosaics inside churches and metro stations. it's been a priviledge to experience all of these things.
since i've been here there i have noticed new things that i enjoy and appreciate about grand rapids as well. so much so that while i was at the market today i almost bought a historic map of michigan from 1905 that i thought was in russian. right after i asked how much it was and went into sticker shock, i looked it over again and realized that it was actually in german. i suppose in my excitement to see my home i neglected to read the language...as it was all unknown to me, but admittedly it's pretty bad to get german and russian confused. needless to say, i did not pay up. i'm still trying to process the things i've realized about michigan, but one of them that i can say right now without having to explain much is traffic. it sucks and is completely non existant in my world in grand rapids. thank God. lastly, and on a different note, my dad and i are sorta jobless now. the company he works and started working for over 30 years ago, Amoco (now British Petroleum), had a deal with a russian oil company called TNK made back in 2003. over the past few months there has been clashes between russian stock holders and BP management. a recent lawsuit has put everything on hold and eventually all the infighting has caused BP to repatriate 88 of it's 100 plus expat employees back to their home countries where they've been told they will most likely be offered a job by BP there. my parents hadn't even really moved here yet and are going through a ton of transitional hassles because their plans have changed so abruptly. they sold their house in houston two weeks before this all happened. i can't believe it. all of their stuff had just arrived at the port city on the eastern side of russia, which has now been put on another ship back to the U.S.
i've lost my job for mostly unknown reasons as i wasn't able to go to our staff meeting we had at the beginning of this week. we will be closing on the 12th of july and i've been offered a job at the bakery instead. i probablywon't be getting as many hours but i've accepted for now. i think this is a good time and sign to really pursue a job in my interests. so it goes i suppose.

and again, on a completely different note, here is my moped as of 2 weeks ago. running great but still things to fix as usual. but i'm finally happy with it.

i'll be coming back to michigan on the 11th. i'm ready.

where am i living in 11 days?

2008-05-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

this picture symbolically represents what my moped project has been like so far (and yes, this is an actual picture from the first day of the project). it still doesn't run, but it's getting closer and closer. last night i finally had spark! but, the belt is too loose still and when i hook up the decompression cable it decompresses the cylinder even when it's not engaged. hopefully when those two issues are fixed it will start right up.the garden is coming along really well so far though. jamie, lydia, ally, jordan, and i have made mounds and rows and seeded and transplanted and almost everything is in the ground now. i have some wood and we're going to make a sign for the front. more updates on all of the garden happenings very soon as things will be growing like crazy soon enough.

oh, and these are yellow squash i believe.

here are some of the postcards i was talking about in my last post. i had picked up this exotic plant book at the "friends of books" store at GR Main a few weeks before. i ended up cutting the pages in half and screen printing the backs to write messages, the address, and to mark out a stamp placement spot. mickey already bought two packs! so these are the remaining three.

in case you missed peter brant's epic speech at the son lux show a few weeks ago, i happened to record it...enjoy

the last month and a half...condensed

2008-05-13T22:59:00.000-07:00

eaten lots of falafel and ants on a log. haven't been getting enough sleep. saw my first sprouts from the trays i have in the basement (technicolor swiss chard, heirloom tomato, leek, echinesea, spearmint, sunflower, big max pumpkin, and jalepenos). realized that i'm moving in 2 and a half weeks. having a yard sale this saturday (going to be streetwise on fitzhugh). tried to make art (postcards, sketchbooks, shirts) to sell at spring arts festival with two weeks of notice (did not end up happening...it will go on etsy i suppose). kinda feel like i need a small haircut, just a trim. still trying to sell my darkroom equipment. got a moped (will hopefully be running by next monday). working more hours at four friends. recieved my tax refund today. ate meat today as well (bosna!). remembered that we had a building blow up randomly in eastown earlier this year. listening to knock knock by smog. am getting vary sleepy. will post more again soon. good night

i want a range life, if i can settle down

2008-03-29T05:13:00.000-07:00

by train it takes a little more than two days of traveling to get from grand rapids, michigan to providence, rhode island. the point of taking the train was to make the time "getting there" just as important as as the time i had, "there" (there being westport, massachusetts).
although two days still seemed relatively fast for me to travel nearly halfway across the country, i definitely became more aware of the environment i was traveling through even though i was still speeding by in a coach car. the typical attention span americans have these days (myself included) had me wondering how'd i'd handle being on one train for 25 hours straight. turns out that if there's daylight and i can look out the window, i'm pretty content just sitting there listening to music and watching things fly by for hours on end.
when i arrived in philadelphia on the way out, i was naive, and thought "everything is fairly close on the east coast, providence can't be more than maybe 45 minutes away." towards the end of that 45 minute train ride i was passing through new york city and that's when i slowly realized that it was going to take me 6 hours. that leg of the trip was also at night so it made my antsiness even more extreme.
anyways, took some notes in my planner for each day's activities, imporant events, moments of frustration and joy, bodily functions, and random blurbs of the things that intrigued me along the way.
so if basically i had a really good time, exceeded my expectations for sure. here's us near the top of mt. monadnock, new hampshire
finding crabs!a seagull snagged a starfish. we watched it fly up high, drop it on the rocks a few times, and then eat the thing whole in about 30 seconds, it was insane.80's party!hopefully in my next post there will be a video of nate and i's cover of neighborhood #1 (tunnels) by the arcade fire.

you're a jet, snap

2008-03-17T06:10:00.000-07:00

this weekend i went exploring grand rapids on mopeds with my friend jason. we stuck to the west side of town, mostly trying to find hills and "backcountry," if you can call it that. friday morning we did some repairs and ended up at the ghostriders warehouse on the northside of town. after fixing the brakes and trying to get the vespa to jet properly, we ended up running out of gas 10 minutes before i had to be at work near one of the recycling centers on market st.

on sunday we took a long ride out to millennium park, had chinese in grandville, and saw lots of geese and goose poop. i hadn't been out to the park since fishing with aaron in the fall but i found that the area just north of the park was far more beautiful and interesting on our ride. it was timeless.

different branches of the moped army hold rallies during the riding season. jason's branch, the bourbon bandits, are having their moped rally in mid april. rallies often have gifts for visiting riders from other branches (i.e. screenprinted bandannas, toolbags, etc.). the bandits are throwing around the idea of trading cards. originally another bandit wanted superhero themed trading cards with some made up bandit superpower info, but jason had the awesome idea of making retro looking moped trading cards instead.

we went through the small collection of cards i have at my house, scanned the best 7, and made one demo to post on the bandit rally forum. if they like it, i could be making all of them in the next few weeks which will be a lot of work but well worth it.we just have to scan his signature and lay that over the top.ah yes, tom henke...the all-star

p.s.-my home's not trapping radon inside, woo!

i want to fly a kite

2008-03-07T07:35:00.000-08:00

so i've been mentoring this kid named matt berzeley out at newhall middle school in wyoming. pretty much all he cares about is skateboarding, i had that mentality in early high school, so we can relate. we sit in a library/media center area and do his math homework every tuesday afternoon. it's funny because often times he opens his book and has to give me a quick overview of what he's learning and i brush up on my math skills and surprisingly i remember how to do this stuff and can actually teach him. matt's got a good head on his shoulders, is respectful, and knows he needs to do better in school. the thing is, me teaching him isn't really the point, especially as he pretty much understands everything. i'm there to be his friend over everything else.

this past weekend i went to the home and garden show for free (to witness the insanity of this type of event), thanks to thommy, who got me a badge from another Healthy Homes employee who is pictured on their page. so yeah, i went to the show wearing a nametag that read "Errol Spells" which is a pretty awesome name.

here's thommy and isaiah at their radon testing booth. exciting...!

the japanese garden...which had a pond with koi and a little bridge and it was inside devos place, ridiculous as usual.

i didn't realize that people were waiting for me to take the picture for a little while, and as you can see, that lady is kinda annoyed, oh well.

basically, the home and garden show was a mall that people paid to go to. most booths were for very luxurious appliances or systems you could install to "improve" your home. there was wine tasting, mini cooking shows, leafless gutter displays, teeth whitening stations, fans blowing money around in clear boxes the size of telephone booths, and countless "register to win a free tv/romantic getaway/truck/$20,000/yard stick" offers (thommy signed up for all).

there were a few booths that i respected though. LEED certified home builders, worm bins, bonsais, and a full size RV that would fill with smoke to teach kids about fire safety.

aaron and i rode the tall bike for the first time last week. everyone who rides any kind of bike should experience this. it's just so much fun. honestly, pictures or videos don't really describe it, so there will be none for now.

peter hiskes works at calvin's other greenhouse. on sunday afternoon we were able to go, sit and read and take pictures and sweat. it was a good time.

i'm currently applying for a summer internship in the Adirondacks in upstate NY at a community arts center. apparently the name Adirondacks is an anglicized version of what the Mohawk called the Algonquin or latilontaks meaning "they eat bark," because when food was scarce, that's what they did. but yeah, the Mohawk used it in a derogatory manner...in any case, i'm pretty excited about this opportunity.

frozen feet, bruised thumb, mix tapes, logan's run, a couch snuggle, and wham city

2008-01-28T06:47:00.000-08:00

winter camping 08, in Deerfield Park, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan with some friends, one night only. It was a really good time of just sitting around the fire talking and drinking tea and rum and then doing calisthenics to warm up. I had no winter boots, which was a little uncomfortable but not so bad. mickey had the good idea to remove his socks and roast them over the fire to dry them out, i did the same. at night i had a toasty nalgene in my sleeping bag, followed by a big breakfast at lil'chef the next morning.

experimenting with my tripod/headlamp around the campfire.
i also grew out my beard for the first time , ever, as you may have noticed . here is the mustache which remained for 5 minutes after i shaved. i thought i looked like a frenchmen for some reason.aaron, heather, and i have been working for weeks and weeks (partially procrastination) on a package for our friends (nate & ellie) who live out in Massachusetts. i recently purchased a tape deck from the st. vincent depaul thrift store (which is my favorite thrift store in grand rapids for electronics, they do repairs on donated electronics and get them running again). anyways, i made a mix tape for nate & ellie:
this past week i was introduced to an old movie called Logan's Run. it's pretty great, and stars Michael York (who played Q from Austin Powers) and Farrah Fawcett (before she was famous). And as for new music, check out Wham City by Dan Deacon.

hot toddies and cold sleddies

2008-01-22T13:07:00.000-08:00

i have been sledding everyday for the last three days. this is our group for the first outing
greg, alison, adam, jeff, mickey, teresa, macy, and myself (or this).but the last two days have been the most intense. mickey and i have been going at night to Beltnap park and Richmond park at around midnight. it's interesting how different the two are (thommy suggested Richmond and at first glance it doesn't look like it's going to be as fun as Beltnap). here are some things i have learned:

saucers work better (thus are more fun) at richmond
the snow boogie is best at beltnap
saucer aesthetics look better amidst the powder of beltnap
the lake at the bottom of richmond is similar to the fence at the bottom of beltnap, however, it has yet to be determined which is better.
two people + two saucers = fun fun
two people + two saucers + battle! = fun fun pain, then no fun
three people + one long sled = no movement
three people + one saucer + one long sled = super heavy duty train which which unless properly secured will result in the long sled sliding out from under two of the three riders simultaniously causing surprise and pain to the bum
the trees/gauntlet at richmond are scary but add that extra thrill, the weeds at beltnap don't quite accomplish this
the robert morris "X" at beltnap adds extra aethetics and and possibilities for creative multi-sledder acrobatics...
oh, and beard ice is painful when people try to rub it off

well, here's a video which really doesn't encompass all of the above, but it's still fun.

SHIPOOPI!

2008-01-13T23:42:00.000-08:00

(photo by Chad Vickery)

New Friend Song - Ben and Bruno - Live at the NEST 01.13.08

northwest christmas

2008-01-03T20:34:00.000-08:00

I went to Seattle for 2 weeks. I spent half of it with my family and half with my sister and my friend dusty. i finally got a good sense of seattle and what it could be like to live there. the rain bummed me out but i've been assured by lance that you get used to it just like the cold and snow of michigan.
these are my feet in the crazy central library. if you ever go to seattle, make sure you check out it out, i especially like the carpet squares that have pictures of blades of grass on them.
we went to discovery park which looks out over the puget sound to the olympic mountain range. we saw an adult sea lion and a baby, possible family, we're not sure where the other parent was though...
dusty and i rode in seattle's critical mass for december. there were a couple hundred people which was amazing compared to the 20 we had in my other ride in september back here in Grand Rapids. i experienced "corking" on this ride which worked very well. the best part though was that everyone would hoot and holler and ring the bells on their handlebars when cars would honk at them. it really helped to lighten the mood and seemed to bring all of us closer together even though we were all, for the most part, strangers. it made me want to get a bell for my bike. oh, and every large group bike ride i've done has had a tall bike in it and this one was no exception, we had too. i was surprised that i didn't see more fixed gear riders or recumbent. apparently both are huge in seattle and there were hardly any.
this is my sister in front of the wall of death. we rented bikes and rode part of the burke gillman trail. at the bike shop i picked up a map of all the bike paths and bike lanes and bike friendly roads in seattle. it's pretty sweet. i put it up in our room here cause it's just so good.
i also went to a screenprint session on new years eve. i got "car free penguin" printed on my hoodie, yep. the design and drawing was done by a five year old.
p.s.-my sister and i made sugar cookies...and they weren't that great (dusty says otherwise)

p.p.s.- here i am dancing

basement screenprint studio 2.0

2007-12-27T10:14:00.000-08:00

clam, crab, cockle, cowrie

2007-12-03T20:45:00.000-08:00

i talked to my dad today on the phone today. it was his birthday. the phone call was one of the best i've had with him over the phone. i was talking with mickey a little about the relationship i have with my parents as they live on the other side of the world.

the converstations we usually have on the phone feel a little forced at times because we don't see each other that much and it hardly ever seems like many new things have happened in their lives since they moved to kuwait over 3 years ago. usually its about how my mom's job is terrible and she wants to quit but stays on anyways, and how the dogs are doing (and sometimes they try and get the dogs to respond to my voice but doesn't work), and then i tell them what's going on in my life.

but this time, for some reason, i was able to talk to my dad more like a friend than my dad. and i this sounds weird/bad, and it's not like the things we talked about were different then normal, but it was mostly when we talked about how they are going to be moving to moscow in february. kuwait, in my opinion, hasn't been that great for them as there isn't that much to do and that my mom's job sucks so much.

so i'm really excited for them to move to russia. i asked my dad if they were excited. he said one day they are excited, the next they are really nervous, which to me is really good to hear because i was feeling like kuwait was getting to be too "hum drum" for them, and that some nervous excitement is just what they need. he was telling me how different it will be from the other places we've lived (cairo, dubai, jakarta) and how the fairly recent change from communism effects relations and trust between westerners and russians, it was all very interesting to me.

also, i'm probably going to be visiting them for a month or so this summer which i'm also really excited about.

>full song<
>full lyrics<

rosie thomas played a song for me

2007-11-14T22:18:00.000-08:00

so i made some walnut ink a few weeks ago. i was too late to get the walnuts that fell here in michigan, but when i was down in louisville visiting jason i was able to snag some while on a loner bike ride where i got lost but then found the walnuts, and then found my way back to the apartment.
so i simmered them in water for about 6 hours, then cut off their now soft green outershell, and then boiled them for about an hour, then let them soak or a day or so before straining it all and putting it in a cool whip container.

i've also been working on some bottlecap magnets. i bought this liquid plastic stuff that i pour into the cap once i have set some collage material inside. it then sets and dries. i have about 15 now. some more are down here. eventually they'll be up on etsy.com to sell.
a week or so ago i had another bout of the "what am i going to do with my life" crisis. so far, i've been encouraged by lots of people to pursue a job through americorps. and after looking at their website, man, they have lots of interesting opportunities. i've also been considering this other organization called Artcorps. basically they are like peace corps but for artists. you go to one of their locations in central or south america and teach/create art which deals with social or environmental issues that the community you are placed in is dealing with. the only hitch is that you have to be fluent in spanish and i know pretty much none. but i do have a little more than a year to learn if i do decide to pursue this. we'll see. also, on a completely unrelated note, i wish i was allowed to go to cuba as it sounds really sweet there. 80% of their farms are organic and they have tons and tons of urban and roof farms as cuba as a country is so self sustaining. it's great.

so, i've gone to two shows over the last few weeks as well. last weekend i went to my brightest diamond and tim fite. it was great. i'd only heard one by my brightest diamond from the asthmatic kitty compilaition "Mews Too" and had never heard of tim fite, but they were both very good and very different, which i like when going to a show.

tim fite was crazy. my notes on his show are below.

although he ripped the beat and some other stuff from ratatat for his song "It's All Right Here" but that's okay cause it's still a hilarious song. here's some notes i took about him on a receipt after he played (you know, so i wouldn't forget everything that happened!).

"my brightest diamond really surprised me as well. i wasn't really into them on Mews Too (the song being "Riding Horses"), and it was probably because it was a compilation and i was expecting a certain type of music because it was from sufjan's label. but i ended up likeing Riding Horses much more live. anyways. they reminded me of a mix between regina spektor and mirah, mostly regina though, but more rockin'. i enjoyed it quite a bit, especially because i'm a fan of edith piaf and she did one of her songs.

tonight i went to see rosie thomas. i honestly can't remember the opener's name, he was on the FFM sampler but yeah, i wasn't really impressed, he was okay i guess. one or two good songs but overall just sounded like he was trying a bit too hard. i did like the song where he sung about rainbows though.

rosie was great, really funny and great stuff to say to all of us. i don't really want to say more than that even though there was so much more. it was just really good.

about a week ago, aaron and i went to meijer late at night to buy a new ceiling light fixture as ours broke...well, at least a month ago. anyways, we ended up getting sidetracked in the gaming center. he was playing the wii and i got stuck on the ps3 because the other wii controller was broken. BUT! little did i know, i would be sucked into the best skateboarding game EVER. hands down. it's pretty much exactly what i wanted tony hawk's games to be like. when i played those games i would set the stats really low so that things looked more realistic and were hard to do. long story short, this game is nothing like tony hawk and makes skateboarding in a video game more like it is in real life (aka hard). anyways, i was seriously considering buying a game system just so i could play this game but it doesn't come out for wii and i really don't want a ps3 or an xbox 360...or really the wii either because they are expensive and really don't fit in with my whole "get less stuff thing" i want to make a reality. anyways, here's a video clip from the game i found on youtube. if you really don't want to watch all 4 minutes of it, just skip till it says -2:10 on the right hand side and watch till at least -1:55 as that's right where my favorite trick of the video starts!.

oh yeah, and i'm sick again. it sucks. also, tomorrow i work during the santa parade (in novemeber???) what the heck grand rapids?!

p.s.- rosie thomas encouraged me

where to begin

2007-10-21T07:04:00.000-07:00

so much has happened in my life since i last wrote. i feel very alive. i have had moments of joy and contentment while hiking in the Porcupine Mountains with Josh, experiencing Jazz Vespers again, speeding around Louisville on mopeds with Jason, lying in bed while a nice breeze comes through the window, and just being able to read for fun before i go to sleep. it's been good to strengthen relationships with certain people, to be able to be there for someone and listen, to see people and feel welcomed into their life, to be hugged. i've been blessed since i've been back in Michigan.

right now i am sick though. i have a cut in my finger. my heart is breaking right now. friends and relatives have been searching for jobs and haven't found what they need right now, their parents have aggressive cancers, relationships for some are strained and difficult to understand, some of their hearts are breaking as well.

ah...i miss kaitlyn a lot.

come down, heaven. won't you come down? won't you cut through the clouds? won't you come down? God, this can't be. God, this can't be, God, could it be that all we see is it? is this it? 'cause i know this can't be, the great peace we all seek.

ah the joys of the mitten

2007-09-30T14:48:00.000-07:00

i went with my two friends, Aaron and Heather, to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for the first time last weekend. bringing our bikes, fishing poles, food for 3 days, a tent, 3 sleeping bags, a stove, and some chairs...we were ready.

we camped on the coast of Sugar Isle next to a rundown cabin that Heather's family owns. the small channel of water in between the island and the land on the other side is actually Canadian territory (which we illegally went into via a small rowboat). Once in Canada, we explored the small and unique Blueberry Isle only catching one fish, rainbow trout, which would be our only the whole weekend.

one day we went on the ferry over to Sault St. Marie with our bikes and visited the Soo Locks.
Sault St. Marie was a weird town, touristy yet seemed delapitated at the same time, like it's heyday had long since passed which gave it an odd dying feeling.

at night, back on Sugar Isle, an animal would swim close to the surface of the water near the docks. every so often it would cause a huge splash, the only other sound besides the constant waves on the shore. Sugar Isle was surreal in a way, a way that i can't really describe. we did eventually investigate and figure out that it was a beaver doing the nightly ritual of slapping it's tail on the water. the morning we left, we found a "beavered" log that had washed ashore, it was quite interesting to look at.

this weekend i participated in Critical Mass here in Grand Rapids. it was a really good experience and it wasn't a surprise that the only place we got yelled at was in East Grand Rapids. it was undoubtedly one of the most ridiculous things i've ever seen people get so upset about on a friday evening. we also got to fully utilize the only bike lane that i know of in Grand Rapids (located just past Gas Light Village towards Lake on Wealthy). to me, critical mass was equally about the environment/the rights of bike riders to the roads and the sheer enjoyment of 20 or so strangers just getting together to ride their bikes around town. we had a good time.
speaking of bikes, here's mine.
also, if you have time Wednesday nights from 7-9 and you live in Grand Rapids, come check out and participate in collaborative art-making called Possibility Space at the 106 Division gallery downtown.

p.s.- i now have a job at Four Friends Coffeeshop.

doing and experiencing, not a whole lot of art making, but that's ok.

2007-09-14T08:47:00.001-07:00

last saturday was the day to see friends do athletic things!

and here's a video which encapsulates what we did that day to support our friends
it was our housemate, josh's, birthday on wednesday, so we baked him this cake that collapsed in the middle. it says "JOSHAPPEE B-DAY"

i also visited chicago a few days ago. i hung out with my friend Jordan and we fixed up the vintage schwinn i got for free, from mickey (my housemate). Jordan used to work at Dan's Bike Shop in Oak Park and so we were able to work on the bike there and raid their basement for parts and old schwinn stickers (which had already dried out, but oh well). needless to say, my bike is really really sweet now!
here it is, in process. but i'm sure you guys will see it completed at some point in the future.

basically, i wanted to get a road bike so that i wasn't driving my car all the time and it's been really good so far, i even got a compliment on my bike from a random person on the street this evening. yeah!
in chicago, we also went to the Glenview Skatepark which was fun. i hadn't skated much and i hadn't really lost much either so that was awesome. here's Ben (one of the dudes who works at Dan's Bike Shop), he killed me in at game of SKATE.

on my way out of chicago i had to stop at Quimby's bookstore and here's what i got

Wholphin (which i highly recommend), "Help, My Snowman's Burning" which is a zine from New Zealand that has reviews and articles about movies and albums and random stuff, "Coordinates" a zine which explores the relationship our location and reasoning for being in that location have with who we are and how it shapes us and we shape it, and lastly a small booklet called "Bipedal, By Pedal!" which describes Critical Mass, a bicycle event held once a month in countless cites around the world. the booklet is meant to be handed out to people who happen to see a Critical Mass ride and want more info. i'm going to be photocopying it for when aaron and i, and possibly mickey and jeff, do the ride on the 28th in Grand Rapids.

this video is from Creature Comforts, a show made by Aardman Animations (the people who did Wallace and Gromit). the show uses the audio from real interviews with ordinary people about different topics and then creates a claymation video clip of animals acting as the people. this particular clip is about art!

today i went fishing with aaron.

he caught a bass!

and lastly, here's mickey selling bread at the farmers market.

tomorrow morning i'm going to sell bread as well, woooo! 5:30 AM!

pictures! pictures!

2007-09-07T06:50:00.000-07:00

click ->HERE<- to see the rest.

there are pictures from 3 national parks in there, including Mt. Rainier, the Badlands, and Yellowstone.

i quit my job, i'm back in grand rapids. i applied to work at Nantucket Baking Co. (they make pizza and other bread things). we'll see how that goes. otherwise i'm also applying at Gaia (a local vegetarian place).
in other news, one of the bearings on my skateboard exploded while i was riding down the road on the mountain. here's a photo. i kept riding it and eventually it carved out an area in my wheel. pretty crazy! anyways, when replacing the bearings, one of my bolts wouldn't go back on, sooooo. i'm still skateboardless.

oh well. at least i still have tennis!

2007-08-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading a book called Love Medicine. It's by Louise Erdrich, a native american author. Kaitlyn told me I should read it. She also told me I should read A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man about a year ago when she got back from Spain, but I never finished it. Love Medicine was beautiful though. During the last 10 pages or so a Patty Griffin song kept going through my head, the one off A Thousand Kisses, the one that starts out "long black limosine, shiniest car i'd ever seen." It's a sad song, but a good song. A beautiful book.

The other day during work I made a collage using pieces of a photocopied trail guide at the ranger's desk. I drew Michigan on a piece of paper. Itaped some viewpoints and waterfall labels around the state, marked in some trails between them, and used the shape of the Nisqually Glacier to make "da UP." For Grand Rapids I put the label "Paradise" which is the area of the mountain i'm at. I miss Michigan.

I'm sorry. I'm not doing well, so you'll have to wait on hiking and other pictures.

2007-08-08T22:42:00.000-07:00

I set up this blog as a way to document and share things that I'm discovering or creating. This has become especially important to me now that I've left my home and community of the past 4 years. It has been nearly 2 months since I left Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I went west, to Mount Rainier National Park in Washington. This is my first time in this part of the country. Currently I'm working as a cook at the Jackson Visitors Center which is about 45 min from the southwest entrance of the park. I live and work at approximately 5400 feet above sea level...flipping burgers and making "setups." If there is one thing I have learned from this job, it's that I need to try and pursue art making (in some form or another) as a "career" (and it's weird to call art making a career). Aside from work, I have been able to explore the mountain quite a bit, usually on my days off, sometimes after work in the evening, and very rarely in the morning, before work.

I've touched waterfalls, crept towards marmots, felt the tops of wildflowers, eaten a salmonberry, climbed above clouds, scared by the screech of a nearby pika, and kickflipped a gap behind the visitor's center at dusk.
In terms of art making, I screen printed 200 program covers for a friend's Wedding, collaged and photocopied from some info sheets and "about" pamplets into my own pamphlet loosely about the park, created packages for friends, and have hiked with all my watercolor supplies at least 3 different times and have yet to actually paint something.

here are some pictures of life at the mountains minus hikes. my next post will be a hiking highlights post.

here are trays of "setups"

collage work

my room with my snazzy mt. rainier placemat hanging to the right, and some art and pics on the left.

panorama of my workplace (i think you can click on it to see it bigger)

my homemade screenprint station

peter, my taiwanese friend and suitmate

i drew up the day's special board...and made it a little extra special. the bottom drawing is titled Mr. Mount Rainier, 2007 (he's holding the Jackson Visitor's Center in his hand!)

and lastly, a panorama of the place i work...on a cloudy day.