el medio es el mensaje?

hoy estaba pensando que todas cosas son por lo menos diez veces mas interesante en otra idioma. antes del año pasado, solamente tenia una idioma, y solamente podia pensar en una idioma. a veces pensé que mi vida faltaba algo, y sentia aburrido. ahora, asi que puedo pensar en otro idioma (mas o menos), si en algún momento pienso cosas aburrido, puedo cambiarme a pensar en español (o en castellano, como decimos aca en la Argentina), y los pensamientos mas aburridos se cambian a ser bastante mas interesante. Tengo que traducir todo en mi cabeza, y con este desafio, todo esta nuevo. Cuando voy a fiestas y trato de hablar con gente en castellano, hablo de cosas cotidianas y común, pero con un entusiasmo que viene del desafio de traducir. Hablo del colectivos, o de mi casa, o cualquier tontería, con vocabulario de Spanish Level One, y siento muy orgulloso que por lo menos, puedo hablar. Puede ser que en el futuro, si aprendo a hablar mucho mejor, quizas la idioma perdería su misterio y excitación, y sería común. Pero todavia no estoy allá.

i want dinosaurs.

My spanish is getting better every day, thanks in part to listening to the radio all day when I'm working alone at the studio. I love the commercials because they're short, succinct, and repeated endlessly, the better to understand them. Today I learned about Mundo Jurasico, at La Rural. For only $30 pesos, it's a jungle full of giant life-sized animatronic dinosaurs! I want it so bad. I love dinosaurs. And animatronics. Will I spend $30 to find out if this is really as awesome as I want it to be?

shapes

I really loved coming across each one of these artists on the internet and I love them even better when I look at them next to each other. As far as I know, the two artists are totally unrelated but clearly they have an aesthetic connection. I want to make things that are this beautiful!

paper sculpture by Ferry Staverman:

glass by Andy Paiko:

Valentine

I've got a new card design up for sale, special for Valentine's Day! fun!!

Zviah

On Monday at noontime, we had Zviah put to sleep. We just found out this weekend that she had cancer, and she must have been sick for a while, though she only appeared to be suffering the last few days. It was an incredibly hard decision to make because we knew how much we would miss her, but I'm sure it was the right one because she's much more comfortable now, chasing bunnies in greener pastures.

Zviah was born in Alabama in 2000, and raced in Daytona Beach and Palm Springs, Florida. You can see her pedigree here and her racing history here. Her racing name was ML Bannerville and her training name was Angie. When she was three years old, she retired from racing and was rescued by the Michigan Greyhound Connection. Mike adopted her on December 2nd, 2003 and named her Zviah, which is Hebrew for "deer." When she came to live with him in Ann Arbor, she had never lived in a house (having grown up in the racetrack kennels) and it was the first time she had to confront challenges like stairs and windows and cats. In 2004 they moved to Brooklyn, where she met Emmylou Elbows and spent many happy Saturday mornings running free with her friends in Prospect Park. In 2006 she came with us to Buenos Aires, where she was studying Dog Spanish and advanced napping.

She could most often be found sleeping upside down on her giant bean-bag bed, with all four legs sticking up in the air, eyes open and tongue hanging out. If you rubbed her belly, her teeth would chatter from happiness. She also enjoyed steak dinners, looking fancy, cuddles with Emmylou, eating garbage in bed, sprinting at the park, leaning on strangers, and sleeping in closets. She hated fireworks. Zviah was a great dog and we miss her lots.

oooh! pretty.

I just fell in love with these beautiful patterns from a danish textile company called kragh rosenberg. I love all the purple and blue and white, and the tiny dots, and i love the Bargello-looking zigzag pillow pattern. I found them on designsponge.

farm

mike was just showing me all these pictures. his friends work here, at this farm in Germantown, NY. it looks so nice it just about made me want to cry from missing farm life and vegetables and gardens and green. and they really make it look like fun.

Some Kinda Love

This was my favorite favorite album for so many years. My sister Amy gave me the tape when I was in eighth grade. Today I heard this song and realized I still don't know what all the words are, so I looked them up. Let us now kiss the culprit.

Some kinds of love, Marguerita told Tom
Between thought and expression lies a lifetime
Situations arise because of the weather
And no kinds of love are better than others

Some kinds of love, Marguerita told Tom
Like a dirty French novel, combines the absurd with the vulgar
And some kinds of love, the possibilities are endless
And for me to miss one would seem to be groundless

I heard what you said, Marguerita heard Tom
And of course you're a bore, but in that you're not charmless
Cause a bore is a straight line, that finds a wealth in division
And some kinds of love are mistaken for vision

Put jelly on your shoulder, let us do what you fear most
That from which you recoil, but which still makes your eyes moist
Put jelly on your shoulder baby, lie down upon the carpet
Between thought and expression, let us now kiss the culprit

I don't know just what it's all about
Put on your red pajamas and find out
Mmmm ... ohhhh la-dee-ta-ta-ta