Dance

Either/or or both.

It's kind of fun to hit play on both and alternate the audio. Watch the old ladies dance to the kids' beats or watch the kids pop and lock to Caribou.

Nothing better

Tron 2.0

Because 1.0 movie about me wasn't enough.

Friday!

It's Friday. And you know what I'm doing tomorrow? I'm sailing in the morning. Then I'm kayaking around the A-Basin and gawking at beautiful teak boats. Then we're grilling the Silverlake Farms veggies and meat I prepped in the morning. After a nice afternoon dip in the pool, we're going back out for an evening sail, coming back at sunset.

That is a Saturday.

"because if feels better than unbuttoning your collar..."

Silverlake Walker

Dr. Marc Abrams, the "Silverlake Walker", was found dead today in his hot tub. Crazy. He'd walk by my house twice, every single day. I thought he'd never stop walking.

Art reminded me of my 4th of July BBQ last year, when the Walker passed by my place and everybody cheered for him. He looked a little startled.

LA Times did a nice profile video on him recently. It's funny - whenever you talked to an east sider about the Walker, you'd get a different theory on his backstory. He addresses some of the rumors in this piece. :: here ::

Crabbing

Legendary psychologist Viktor Frankl delivers a great talk on humans' search for meaning, using a metaphor of a pilot crabbing - or, aiming to windward of their target to compensate for a crosswind [the staff at Helms-a-Lee would like to point out that the physics here are the same in sailing]. It's worth your four minutes:

Photographer :: Ruben Cox

Photographer Ruben Cox' show "River Pictures" opens at the Hi-Lite in downtown LA this Friday. It's a photo essay of lazy summers on the river in his hometown of Highland, North Carolina in 1990s.

Curator Audrey Landreth notes, "Cox's images capture real moments that speak to a greater experience: an American experience of fleeting summer and youth, the thrill of cool water on warm rocks; of goose bumps and distant laughter, of not wanting the sun to go down."

By appointment only. Let's go.

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This is how you do LA summer nights

Tonight, Ryan, Sarah, Art, Karla and I went to the Hollywood Bowl to see the LA Phil play Mozart. Ryan prepared a great dinner for us - fettuccine with ground turkey bolognese, and a really nice summer salad of sliced lotus root and cucumber, bacon, and rice vinegar. If you haven't tried lotus root, you should fix that.

Mozart under a warm LA summer night sky, $8 seats in the nosebleeds, a picnic, wine, good friends. Happy boy.

Happy Inception Day

Two good new trailers. Excited to see both movies. Writing in sentence fragments.

I'm not going to see Inception this weekend, but I'm looking forward to it next week. Instead, I'm going to Vegas to celebrate Gary's 30th birthday. That'll make it four 30th birthday celebrations and a 4th of July in a seven week stretch. This weekend is going to be a blast, but I am really looking forward to having a lazy, healthy weekend or four. Maybe sailing this weekend. Or perhaps I'll finally hole up with The Wire DVDs.

re. the Social Network trailer - they nail the zeitgeist. In the front end, they deliver a well crafted iteration of the cliché 'shared human experience' montage, but they show how sad and desperate the 21st century version can be. Post that flattering angle of yourself from above, or better yet, 3/4 and above, update for attention, hope for acceptance. The back end of the trailer is powerful in its restraint. It's the story of an awkward 19 year old nerd trying to make friends and get laid. But he changes the way humans relate in the process!

re. the second trailer - I can't believe they casted Zack Galifianakis for Iron Man 3.

Un Homme et Une Femme x Best Coast

While I'm at it, here's another one. oh la la, Anouk.

*also,

Raymond Cauchetier

Photographer Raymond Cauchetier spent a decade shooting behind the scenes pictures on film sets like Godard's Breathless, Demy's Lola, and Truffaut's Jules et Jim. I've done some pretty fun stuff since 2000, but it's safe to say that Cauchetier wins this contest.

His work will be on display at the James Hyman Gallery in London. Hanging out in front of these 30x40" gelatin silver prints of Jean Seberg, Anna Karina, and Anouk Aimée? swoon sign me up.

Also, this is a repost from way back, but it seemed appropriate. One of those "I wish I had thought to do this first"'s. User created Godard/xx video:

Open letter to Nickelback

I saw this here and I couldn't help but repost it.

Angles are Attitudes

"Cock your hat - angles are attitudes."

- Frank Sinatra

I'd love to get my hands on one of these. This little digital camera is attached to an inflatable balloon. The photographer has 20 yards of line to send it up and click away.

The Last Jungle Gym

My four nephews/niece decided I was a jungle gym this weekend.

Connor wanted to play The Last Airbender, which he only knows from the TV campaign that we happened to work on here at Aspect. He knew every character ("Madeleine, you can be Katara, Sokka's sister."), every important plot point ("The Fire Nation banned The Earth Kingdom from bending earth."), the action moves with accompanying sound effects ("pphshheww hhhhwwwaaaaap!" *visuals below), and even some of the copy we wrote into the spots ("There is only one who can master ALL the elements."). I am brainwashing my nephews.

It cracks me up that my parents still cover their "new" (it's got to be 15 years old by now) couch with bed sheets. I actually don't even notice it when I'm there.

Lay the beets down

I made a roasted beet salad with purslane, capers, red wine vinaigrette and crumbled feta for my dad's birthday get together. The beets and purslane are courtesy of Silverlake Farms CSA.

I had never even heard of purslane before Tara offered it as part of our share. It's a nice mild alternative to leafy greens, with a slightly spongy (but not in a disgusting way) texture. I looked it up and it turns out it's actually a succulent. Another name the portulaca oleracea goes by is "Little Hogweed." Sounds like a character from a Mark Twain short.

LeBron : Hulk Hogan :: Miami Heat : nWo

Bill Simmons can be a damn genius sometimes. He posted this clip from when the Hulkster betrayed the WCW to form the evil three man alliance nWo. "This is the New World Order of Wrestling!!!" The crowd is shocked, the youngsters cry, the boo birds come out.

It's the Bash at the Beach! South Beach? Commentators say Hulk Hogan's move must have been "premeditated," set up for the last two years. LeBron Hogan says, "Everybody was wondering who the third man was! ... I made that organization. I made the people who ran that organization rich. I became bigger than the organization!" And so he had to leave.

And don't forget, after this match, the Hulkster trades in his patented, cheery red and yellow for the villainous black tights and do-rag.

There are no heros without villains, right?

Chasing Championships

Jordan isn't speaking specifically to free agency, but what he says is applicable to the circus LeBron orchestrated these last few weeks. He's talking about how the system helps create these entitled, petulant, self-important athletes.

I've thought for the last seven years that LeBron had made it through relatively unscathed. I gave him a pass for walking off the court two years ago, for referring to himself in the third person from time to time, dancing on the sidelines during blowouts, and for his uninspired play against the Celtics. Turns out those weren't aberrations.

LeBron drank the Kool-Aid too. Bummer.

Remember Jordan's simple 1995 press conference announcing "I'm back"? And the two three-peat Championships that preceded and followed that announcement? What a spectacle the ringless LeBron drummed up for himself.

I hope the Dream Team Heat are a disaster. I really do.

Hey, Charles - sweet track suit!

4th of July

Great weekend. Here are some iPhone pics. Some underwater pics coming when I finish the roll.

NYT Magazine Redesign

Great piece on the recent redesign of The New York Times Magazine. It dives deep. For example, they point out that the end slug is now the dot from the i in the logo. Good stuff.

"I am at two with nature"

Woody Allen shooting Love and Death.

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