Penguin July 23rd, 2008
Landed around 10 last night at JFK. Went through immigration, then luggage claim. Got back around midnight. Was greeted by some friends at church.
Went home, checked my email, and slept for 12 hours.
I’ll be posting logs from the trip over the next 2 weeks.
It’s good to be back 
-Penguin
Related postsNinja July 23rd, 2008
I am absolutely in love with the highly detailed paintings of lovely locks, braids, and flowing hair from Colleen Sanders.
Untitled, gouache on paper, 55″ x 89″, 2007
detail of Untitled, 2007
Untitled, mixed media on paper, 21.5″ x 29″, 2007
detail of Untitled, 2007
Untitled, gouache on cut paper, 29″ x 39″, 2006
detail of Untitled, 2006
Related postsNinja July 23rd, 2008
Here are some more of the sights that I saw while in Taiwan.
What used to be someone’s small rose garden.
More freshly hung laundry. I’m a sucker for laundry. If you take a look through any of my vacation photos, you will see hung laundry, graffiti, peeling posters, doors, type, and occasionally people.
Some kind folks offered to take us out for rides to see the sunset, but I never had the time. I was stuck indoors grading homework, prepping for the next day, and oh yes, in long meetings (thought I could get away from all that).
Meet Alex the cicada (the kids named him for some odd reason). Before Taiwan, I had never seen one.
Unlike Alex, this ugly fellow did not get a name. We were constantly finding dead roaches in our showers and classrooms. These bad boys were over 3 inches long and they flew!
There were over thirty of us living in one house. People left their personal items scattered about the house. As I was heading to the bathroom to brush my teeth, I passed this—Whitemen Toothpaste! When I asked the owner about it, she said, “We have Blackmen Toothpaste, too. They are exactly the same, but with different labels. You do not have these brands where you live?”
Related postsNinja July 22nd, 2008
photo via Boston
After spending a week with bugs crawling on my body while I slept (yah, I’d wake up and find dead, crushed insects in between the layers of my clothing), we sprung for a nice hotel on our last day. We spent one day in Taipei, and it wasn’t long enough. I love the fast-paced city life!
I’m up for new experiences, so I opted to try the hotel’s complimentary fish pedicure. Basically you stick your feet into a large tub of water, and the fish swarm around your feet and nibble off your dead skin. I’m far too ticklish!! I only dipped my feet in for about 2 minutes and promptly pulled them out.
Related postsNinja July 22nd, 2008
One of my favorite illustrators, Matthew Woodson, recently received a serious spider bite (with subsequent fluid-draining), and is currently taking commissions upon request. The prices vary based on size and scope of work, but he is suggesting a range from $100-$500, which is a complete steal.
I’ve always dreamed of having an original by him and already put in my request! This is a really good opportunity to support an amazing young artist and help someone out.
For commissions, Matthew can be reached via Myspace or Facebook.
If you’d like to help out and get some great art work, but can’t afford a commission, you can purchase some of his prints here.
You can read more about Matthew’s spider experience here.
Related postsNinja July 21st, 2008
I know this already made its rounds on the blogosphere while I was gone, but its still worth posting about.
Check out Radiohead’s just released a new video for its song “House of Cards” from the album “In Rainbows”.
No cameras or lights were used. Instead two technologies were used to capture 3D images: Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR. Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes
The making of Radiohead’s House of Cards
Related link
+ Manipulate the video’s data in real time
Ninja July 21st, 2008
The Sayama Forest is one of the most remarkable urban forests in Japan, located just outside of Tokyo. This forest is the inspiration for Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece, My Neighbor Totoro. With Japan’s rapid urban devleopment in the 70s and 80s, the forest has been losing it’s land. In 1990, Miyazaki (宮崎 駿) set up the national trust, Totoro Forest Foundation to preserve this land.
Totoro Forest Project Charity Auction
The benefit auction will be held at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville on September 6, 2008. It’s entire proceeds will go to The Totoro Forest National Fund.
Cocktail party from 5 PM to 9 PM.
Totoro Forest Project Special Exhibition
The special exhibition featuring selected work fromt eh auction will be held at the San Francisco Cartoon Art Musum. There will be two separate shows. The first exhibition will fron from September 20–December 7. The second exhibition will run from November 6–February 20.
Some participating artists include
Related link
+ Check out the official site for more information on the auction and participating artists
Ninja July 21st, 2008
I haven’t even come close to downloading all the photographs I’ve taken! But here are a few from the first batch.
NvP, waiting at the airport.
Giddy with excitement! Can’t you tell?
Here’s the view from my window seat. What a glorious, unreal blue sky.
Off to Feng Yuan!
Here is the sleepy town of Feng Yuan (literally translated means “fragrant garden”) waking up at 6 AM. I had to balance on the edge of a 3rd floor balcony to get this shot. I wrapped my arm around a nearby clothesline just in case. It was really sturdy, I checked, no worries.
I love the sight of freshly hung laundry.
Two of the local Feng Yuan kids chatting before school starts. I wonder what they’re saying?
On to the next town—Wan Nei!
Here is one of the houses in Wan Nei. Wan Nei is near Suan Tou (translated, its name means “garlic.” So I went from fragrant garden to garlic. ^__^
Here’s one of the fruit stands I pass on my walk to school. There are many farmers in this town, and as you might imagine, quite a bit of competition to sell their goods. Each stand is lucky if they can bring in $10 US a week.
This is one of my students from my last class. His name is Ken. He is incredibly sweet and kind-hearted. And I love him dearly. His mother passed away from some form of brain disease a few years ago. He lives with his father, two sisters, aunt, uncle, and grandmother in a shed-like house with a dirt floor and a thin corrugated metal roof. After class ended, he invited me and some other teachers to visit his home. He rode his rusty bike ahead of us, and he’d stop at each corner and turn around to check on us. While we were walking, he gave us a tour of all the different crops. To the left, you can see rice starting to sprout.
I think I will head off to bed. I will post more photographs and stories during the week.
See you around,
Ninja
Related postsNinja July 21st, 2008
Hello again!!
It’s been a while since my fingers have felt the joy of tapping on my keyboard. I nearly forgot my passwords. Powerbook login. Email login. NvP login. Twitter login. Oh, dear.
Since my return, I’ve been happily greeted with hundreds of emails (from both friends and spammers), bills (of course), and packages (oo la la). It will probably take me a bit to get back to all of you, but don’tcha know I’m going to try my darnest to write back (within a reasonable time frame). Please be patient. ^___^
It feels good to be home!
Much love,
Ninja
Related postsPenguin July 4th, 2008
This week, I finished my preparations for my trip to Kyrgyzstan. I’m leaving with a bit of apprehension and uncertainty.
Last week, I sent my project document to my point of contact in Kyrgyzstan. Unfortunately, she’s returning to the states to get surgery for breast cancer. Initially, the project was supposed to be a documentary on local culture, but after I sent the project plan, they told me they wanted to shift to making a promotional video.
I wrote up a piece about documentaries versus promotional videos. Instead of continuing the discussion, I received a fluff email. As I prepare to leave, I have no idea what I’ll be doing once I hit land fall. I also don’t know who my new point of contact is going to be.
There’s a lot of challenges with this project. It’s my first documentary. It’s in a language I don’t know. When I come back, editing will be extremely difficult. But we’ll see.
With that said, I’ll be gone until the 22nd. Ninja will be gone until the 20th. Until then, have fun with our archives.
-Penguin
Related postsLimited edition lithograph prints. Signed + numbered.
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