A shift in perspective.

I finally got around to exploring the site that had the moss graffiti information, storiesfromspace.co.uk. It is a really fascinating bit of work. The Ideas Factory contains some projects to have people reinterpret their surroundings. The Secret Worlds and Nature Reserve projects also force a shift in perspective. But they do it in a very magical, almost child-like way. I really enjoyed her work.

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Along the same lines, I followed the link from Boing Boing to the twisted films of PES. Great stop-motion work. The KaBoom! short is fantastic.

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I’ve been following the smart car’s move into the US and Canada with some curiosity. I like the concept, and think it is they way we should be moving – a small, light car for the majority of your use (single or double commuting) rather than the “wow look at the cargo room” extreme most of this market leans towards. However this Wired article seems to have some pretty bad news for the cars after import. It is rated to 60mpg in EU, but after being modified by G&K Automotive Conversions to meet the tougher U.S. emissions standards, the car received an initial Environmental Protection Agency rating of just 37 mpg. They are wanting a retest (obviously) since they think they should be up around 50. Still, it doesn’t look good when compared to the hybrid civic (45mpg), prius (60mpg), or insight (70mpg)

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How about getting better mileage on your same car when you switch tires? Apparently you can get up to a 6% increase in fuel efficiency just by buying tires that have low rolling resistance. Makes sense, wonder why this isn’t a major selling point?

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I listened to this in the car coming back from my eye appointment: Bus Showdown: New York vs. Los Angeles. LA has managed to speed up some buses by making them express (fewer stops) and giving them more time to catch lights. This has made trips up to 30% quicker for some routes. About time. I think there is a lot more we can learn from Curitiba, Brazil.

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Ah yes, more bad stuff in crap we use every day: Chemicals in Food Containers Linked to Prostate Problems in Developing Mice

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Lastly, some good news for Stephen Colbert – he is getting his own show. He will have a half hour spot after The Daily Show to do interviews and whatnot. The guy is hilarious, I hope it works out.

Chicano Park and a Tijuana Bullfight

(Photos from this entry can be found here: Chicano Park 35 years, Tijuana Bullfight.)

First things first. Two weeks ago Anna and I went to the shindig for 35 years of Chicano Park. It was as we expected; lowriders, music, and street fair vendors. In other words, a good time.

While there we ran into some guys we recognized from other events. They make and sell t-shirts of their art and photos, including those from the bullfights in TJ. We started talking and they told us about the season opener on May 1st that featured ‘El Juli’. Supposedly one of the best matadors in the world. Their enthusiasm planted a seed that eventually sprouted with us hopping on the trolley for TJ on Sunday.

It was fairly easy to get there – we walked across and grabbed a cab to the bull ring. TJ has two rings, one downtown, and another right by the border and the sea. La Playa – you can see a picture of it here (love this photo), courtesy of the California Coastal Records Project. Coming back from the fight was a bit tougher. You could take the MexiCoach for 5 bucks, or try for a cab. The cabs were scarce (police were leaning on them for some reason) but we managed to split a cab with a Portuguese couple who told us about some interesting american-portuguese bull fights.

This was my first time to a bull fight. Though I had read up on it, it was still nice to have some guys next to us that could explain the little bits. The rough idea is that there is 3 matadors with 2 helpers each and 6 bulls. The bull comes out, and 3 guys dance with it for a little bit. Then the picadores (guys on blinded, padded horses with spears) come out and stab the bull in the neck to get it to drop its head. After that, one guy uses six brightly colored spears to weaken the neck some more. And finally the matador comes out with a red cape and sword. They tire the bull, then pull some risky moves before finishing the bull with a curved sword.

Nothing goes exactly to plan, and this day was no different. The bull took one of the picadores down, but everything seemed to be ok once they got the horse back up. The first fighter lost his cape a couple times (bad thing to loose your composure), but did a clean kill. The second fighter was El Juli. Again one of the picadores went down. He seemed to be slacking, and did not make a clean kill. The crowd ripped him a new one. The third fighter was a gutsy kid, he did some moves and got to run a victory lap.

With the next round of bulls, the first fighter did better but didn’t have a clean kill. El Juli had something to prove, so he did some amazing moves and had a clean kill. The crowd loved it and he got two ears and a victory lap. The 3rd guy came out for the last bull. The bull was too unpredictable and the crowd threw seat cushions to mark their disapproval. The judge ordered a new bull for him. After that he pulled some daring stunts and had the crowd going, unfortunately he did not make a clean stab with the sword. After the match everyone threw seat cushions. Hah.

It was an interesting experience, but I doubt I’m going to be buying season tickets. If I ever want to throw seat cushions, I know where to go. The part that was the strangest to me was the picadores – I didn’t expect to see the bulls take them & the horse down 3 times. I think the horses have the worst job ever: “Hey horse, we are going to blindfold you, then stab a bull so it rams you a bunch. Sound good?”

A seed planted

I need to get off my ass and post some photos of the Chicano Park 35 years celebration. There we talked to some guys that told us about the TJ bullfight season opener, featuring a young, but very famous Spanish matador. It sounded interesting, and the event came up in separate conversation later. Anna had seen some in Spain, but I had never been to one. Fast forward to Sunday, and we are on the trolley headed to TJ to watch the bullfight. I’ll post more about it when I put the pictures up.

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Moss Graffiti

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I love sites like this. It has several pages of great photographs of abandoned buildings in Japan. An offshoot of infiltration maybe?

WP-FX701

I received my WP-FX701 yesterday. Stumbling through the manual’s pictures (it is in Japanese) I managed to figure most of it out, but found an Olympus manual that helped for the other parts. So far I am pretty impressed with the case. It feels very sturdy, and all of the camera controls are functional and easy to reach. It is a bit bigger than I was expecting, so I’m not sure how easily it will work in the dust for Burning Man. Perhaps I will just zip lock the camera and use the case when I know the dust will be bad.

I would love to head to the cove to try it out, but the water temp is 59F. Wee bit too chilly for me, not to mention the visibility this time of year is less than ideal.

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I watched I Heart Huckabees last night. A strange film, but I really liked it. It is definitely not for everyone though. You almost need a checklist to see if one would enjoy it. Let me try:

1) you enjoy odd, meandering stories
2) you have a casual interest in determinism vs. existentialism
3) you side with greens more than industry

The third point may seem a bit strange, but I think it was fairly critical to a lot of the humour in the movie. I would try to expand on that a bit more, but I’m just not that smart right now.

camera + water

I just bought the WP-FX701 for my Fuji F810:

It is not available in the US, so I had to buy it through Yuzo in Japan. The case and the camera have received good fan reviews from places like Digital Diver, and I would love to try it out at the cove. I’m not expecting the best results – I just snorkel, our water clarity isn’t the greatest, and I won’t carry strobes. However, the macro results with an amazing location and strobes are impressive.

The other reason for buying the case is for dust:

From Wired, Surprises Lurk in Satellite Snaps

I’ve been thinking more and more about Burning Man. Last year we were convinced we were going to take this year off. Too much time and money to invest. But as time passes, I am finding myself leaning more and more towards going back. I think I will be more likely to go if we can figure out a way to do it by plane. Driving 12 or 13 hours just isn’t that fun.

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Interesting information about RFID tags and future passports.

Don’t know who gets the blame on this one; Bush didn’t know about new passport rules