street art in nyc

in january, i became a five-year resident of san francisco. i absolutely love it... the hills, the ocean, the neighborhoods, the food, the people, the proximity to the mountains, and on and on. i don't pine away for nyc too often, but every once in a while something comes along to remind me why i loved living there for those crucial years in my 20s.

the latest "something" is the Wooster Collective.

woo·ster (noun)
A street in the Soho section of New York City

col·lec·tive (adj.)
Of, relating to, characteristic of, or made by a number of people acting as a group: a collective decision.

The Wooster Collective was founded in 2001. This site is dedicated to showcasing and celebrating ephemeral art placed on streets in cities around the world.

i didn't explore the art world nearly as much as one can in manhattan, but i actually saw quite a bit -- between living in the east village and lower east side and working in chelsea when it was just taking over the gallery hot spot from soho. however, i really haven't explored this world at all in san francisco. i love the murals scattered around the city, and i've tried to capture some of the graffiti, but i wouldn't even know where to start in terms of galleries.

perhaps that's why i got so sucked into the WC site this evening. the focus on underground, or guerilla, or street art is really fascinating. i loved seeing bits of my old hometown, along with a gentle reminder that there's incredibly cool shit happening in my current hometown.

some highlights:
printable cold sores [link to original]
wk interact's murals on lafayette street
the STUMP project [link to original]
lister hits the lower east side
nick georgiou's urban sculptures [link to original]

Krispy Kreme: now with 40% less guilt!

Krispy Kreme launches "lower-calorie" whole wheat doughnut aimed at diet-conscious consumers.

“The Krispy Kreme Whole Wheat Glazed doughnut delivers the delicious taste that our customers have come to expect from us,” said Stan Parker, the company’s senior vice president of marketing.

Too bad it's caramel-flavored...

gay woman in a suit, on tv tonight!

the oscars are always fun, and predicting the winners is even more fun. however, this year our girl Ellen is hosting and if nothing else america will get to see that women can look hot in designer tuxedos.



at first i thought i was reading FOX News, but it turns out CNN is quoting her performance hosting the Emmys after 9/11.

She famously opened that show joking that terrorists "can't take away our creativity, our striving for excellence, our joy. Only network executives can do that."

She went on to say she was an ideal host because: "What would bug the Taliban more than seeing a gay woman in a suit surrounded by Jews?"

finally!

after too many weeks of temps in the high 40s and 50s, tahoe is finally getting some snow! restorts are reporting a foot of fresh pow so far. not only that, but the temps are supposed to stay in the 30s. should be a great (read: busy) weekend on the hill.

OpenID Signup Verification

Originally uploaded by quepol.

shout out to my wee sis. i confess to giggling a little when i had to type this in to the signup form.

dirty monkeys and lying archaeologists

a bit of redemption for my home state (and hometown).

The Kansas Board of Education just this week adopted the fifth change in state science standards related to evolution in eight years, restoring mainstream scientific views and removing criticism of it that the previous board added.

it's just too bad that article isn't as funny as this li'l satirical gem.

Reacting furiously to the vote, Rev. Kyle Hingerman, pastor of The Fire and Sword Church of Jesus, in Topeka, lashed out at the State School Board.

"They say we're descended from a bunch of dirty monkeys!" he fumed. "How can they deny the unerring, factual, word of God? Don't they read the bible? Everyone knows that God made a beautiful Caucasian Eve and a handsome Adam, with convenient leaves hiding...er, things!"

"Those lying archeologists," he roared, "...making and hiding fossils to prove their fake case!"

shout out to mum for the links.

Hacking Twitter with Stylish

You can read about the evolution of this hack here, here and here.



I've taken Chris Messina's Stylish CSS and tweaked it a bit. To apply this style to Twitter in Firefox install the Stylish extension, create a Blank Style, and paste in the following code:

@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);

@-moz-document domain("twitter.com") {

#friends a[rel=contact] { display:block; text-decoration:none!important; margin:0 0 8px 0!important; }
#friends a[rel=contact] img { margin:0 4px -8px 0!important; text-decoration:none!important; border:1px solid #999!important; opacity: .7; }
#friends a[rel=contact]:after { content: attr(title); font-family:Verdana; font-size:.9em; }
#friends a[rel=contact]:hover img { opacity: 1; }

}

if you're curious i've also got some stylish hacks for del.icio.us, 30boxes, and isoHunt.

google goof

oops! happy valentine's day everyone.

update: the "L" in the stem and a bit of chocolate? or an obscure literary reference?

Time-suck of the day: meez.com

create your own 3-D avatar at meez.com

we've all gotten sucked in before... how many times have i created my own south park character? created my own cartoon avatar? well, fair warning... meez.com may suck you in and keep you there for a while.

these people have thought of almost every type of fashion, every t-shirt slogan (gay pride, "jesus loves me," "kosher fo'sher," FSM, 1337, space invaders, "flock star," and other various geek chic, etc.), and every tattoo/piercing. yes, if you have a common tattoo (bluebirds, stars, dragons, tribal stuff) you will probably be embarrassed that you're now so "generic." i confess to being a little miffed that my tribal star is almost exactly the one on the site -- although they have it around the belly button instead of on the back. whew!

is it without faults? no. as you can see, i clearly went with the male gender. the female fashion choices just didn't accurately represent my... ummmm... androgynous (read: slacker) style. so, forgive the semi-chiseled face and lack of boobs.

not only is it kind of fun to poke around and put items in your "closet" so you can "wear" them later...i am fascinated by the marketing side of all this. it's clearly directed at the MySpace youth cohort, and they've included "apparel" with the logos of various youth organizations. i'm sporting the 826 Valencia tee, and there are several others -- Summer Search (who ab's old friend Eden works for) and Outward Bound, to name a couple. there's also a money-making side, as expected, since you can purchase apparel to wear. for example, stylish jeans cost 10 "coinz," a san francisco giants ball cap or jersey costs 25 "coinz" (10 cents a coin).

fascinating, really. not sure if they're making any money, but at $5 a pop i bet the kiddies think it's basically free.

i stumbled onto meez via youtube via meebo. a bunch of web2.0 startups got together and made their own homemade superbowl commercials -- the idea being that during the last "bubble" web startups actually had the cash to get a slot during the big game. not so much this time around, but some of the "New Wave Dot-Com Ads" are pretty funny.

Priced out of the big game, internet startups meebo, Meez, Multiply, Plaxo, RockYou.com and Technorati opted this year for a more frugal and fun approach. Having watched our dot-com bubble predecessors spend millions on ads that ran once, we charged up our handheld video cameras and started shooting. As you'll see, the results are zany and full of laughs. If you like what you see, please pass the word.

enjoy... and if you do get sucked in and actually sign up at meez, my username is quepol -- and we'll both get coinz! :)

for more time-suckage, go check out grow cube.

moblog: Travel Tips

how to guarantee yourself a full row on a trans-continental southwest flight

pre-flight:
1) hope you're in group A or B
2) buy some food to chow

all aboard!
1) head to the back of the plane
2) put some stuff in the middle seat -- a hoodie, your food bag, etc.
3) chow on your whopper, but don't put the tray down (too obvious) and be sure to get some mayonnaise on your chin
4) pick out the onions, lick your fingers, and take your sweet time
5) watch everyone approach your aisle, take a look at your mess, and walk on by

after takeoff:
stretch out and enjoy!

[this has been sitting among my drafts since my flight to manchester. figured i might as well hit the ol' publish button.]

Late night in the Castro

Went for a little photowalk in the Castro last night. It was fun shooting the neon at night. I'll post the hightlights at flickr and zooomr once I've had a chance to process them.

I was walking along fairly late at night, and even though SF is decidedly not the city that never sleeps, I was amazed at all the people out and about. Of course, Wednesday is the new Thursday... and the queens were getting ready for the weekend.

I also went down to the Embarcadero for the last 20-30 snaps on my SD card. Much less busy, but still a lot of people walking around, waiting for the bus, etc. I discovered that One Market's kitchen is right on the street and it was very well lit. Next time I'm down there at night I hope to take a few more pix. Got a couple, but am excited to revisit it.