Bamboo Bicycles: Sit Your Ass on Grass

"My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought, cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives."

- Hedley Lamarr, "Blazing Saddles" - 1974

I love that quote. It seems often that I can't turn off my head, music, ideas, etc. Always thinking. That line comes to mind when I can't turn it off. It's that constant thinking which is why I find myself researching and writing about bizarre/eclectic things. This post was written before Christmas, which I will be posting about in the near future.

Until then...

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Bamboo is beautiful, a material relatively easy to grow and environmentally sound. So, as a carpenter I've been looking at it as something to build with. Specifically, a baby stroller.

This...



... is not what I'm thinking of. Something more in the style of this vintage rattan chair...




Ambitious, I know. While researching the stroller idea, I've found that I'm not the only one looking at bamboo to use in transportation.


The American Bamboo Society (ABS) - Bamboo Bicycle


Brano Meres - Bamboo Bicycle


Calfee Design - Bamboo Bicycle

The Calfee Design bikes are far too expensive to even think about, $2,695 and up. The Brano Meres page talks about construction methods which is useful. And lastly...


Bamboo Trailer

So, the dream of a bamboo baby mover lives on. Now about baby making, gotta get on that.

A Christmas Gift from Harlan T. Bobo.

Bizzarro Christmas tunes are a must for me, the only way I really get into the season. And Scenestars just gave me an early present in streaming Harlan T. Bobo's "Merry Christmas Spaceman".

Languid guitars slur their notes together, cheesy organs riff on seasonal songs, and exotica, alt-country, lounge and surf all live happily on this strange album.

The album can be heard on Scenestars, just click on contributing writer Racheal's head for her radio station.

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Visit Harlan's Myspace Page

Buy Merry Christmas Spaceman at Goner Records. 18 songs for only $9.99.

Pre-Christmas Post: The End of Work, Indie Atlanta Movie & Kudzu Covered Houses

Wth Christmas coming, I find my internet activities disrupted. Favorite sites, like Pitchfork, are taking a break, but here I am still hitting the web looking for new stuff to read.

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Being an on-call worker means both making my own schedule and being at the whims of my employers. Christmas means the end of work until the new year.

But the last week has been crazy busy and the time off a welcome change. All of my waking time has been spent at the Ferst Center aiding in Tyler Perry's production of "Why Did I get Married?" In addition to 5 shows in 3 days, they were all taped to be eventually edited and released as a DVD.

For those who don't know Tyler Perry, he popped up on a lot of people's radar with the success of his movie, "Diary of a Mad Black Woman." It was an adaptation of his sucessful play, and one that helped him get on Details Magazine's list of most powerful men under 39. Details states that he's earned about 80 million off of his various productions, plays, CDs and DVDs. His core demographic, blacks looking for an alternative to bling-and-crime focused entertainment. The central topic of his plays, the strengths found in faith, family and fidelity. All the shows last week, sold out. There was a reason a Bentley was parked out back of the Ferst Center. He knows what his audience want.

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Why I love Shoplifting from Big Corporations A manifesto film about the evils of corporations and the joy of the 5-finger discount. Stars local girl Anessa Ramsey who was in Geek Love.

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Kudzu Covered Houses in North Georgia

Kudzu in Atlanta, Georgia and surrounding areas

By Jack Anthony

Pimp My Artic Explorer

This is all cool with it's huge tires and plane on the back, but where's the bling?



I would pimp this out with Chip Foose Rims, a Bang & Olufsen home stereo and a Bombardier Learjet 60XR on the back!

All of that will be after I get my Trilobis 65 Floating Home/aqua-crib!

I get like this every Christmas. Once I get socks and a magazine subscription for presents I settle down.

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I'm busting my butt at work, but the 14 hours days are going to be paying for Christmas gifts and the credit card bills. More on the job when I get some sleep in me.

Former Atl. Mayor on Richard Pryor and Random Links

"Scatological, but a comic genius."

Former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson (1973-1981 and 1989-1993) after seeing Richard Pryor in concert.

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I've assigned myself a crash course in Atlanta history, using the kinda sweet/kinda annoying Atlanta-Fulton Public Library Online System's to get me my reading material.

The above quote comes from Frederick Allen's 1996 book, "Atlanta Rising.' It's a good read, and tackles the city's history by looking at the people that made up the power elite. I like my history books full of charactors to keep the events from getting too abstract. In that regard, it's much like "The Power and the Money, The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America 1947-2000" by Sally Denton and Roger Morris.

Anyways, Allen's book is my first good primer on the city, the first bad book, Archival Atlanta. I was hoping for a collection of unique tales told well, but this just felt like I was listening to a rambling relative with questionable memory.

Now on to the random crap...

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I went to Hartwick College with this guy, The Lizardman. He didn't look like that back then.

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Baby Bush Toys | Simple Products for Simple Minds

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It's not just a crazy conspiracy, it's a fashion statement.



"Black Helicopters (BH) are not just helicopters with a black paint-job as you may have been told. They are, in fact, autonomous agents -- lifeforms -- created by New World Order (NWO) agencies via nanobiotechnology. Their primary purpose is to spy on the activities of average citizens in order to gather tactical information and discover "subversives" who are not bowing to the will of the Liberati's UN-backed Federal Government. Furthermore, when the NWO Invasion takes place in the not-too-distant future, they will round up citizens for internment in concentration camps or carry out the elimination of the more vocally anti-Liberati."

In Atlanta, a New Arts District Catches On - New York Times

The NYT is throwing some love our way with an article about the Castleberry Arts District.

In Atlanta, a New Arts District Catches On - New York Times

Did I Make Duane Forget His Keys?: Last Night's Party

"... hanging in the door, were my keys. Yup. Not only did I leave the keys to my semi-new car outside merely steps from the actual vehicle, but I left the token of entry to our home in a place where it would have required no effort to break in and kill us, rob us, etc."

Last night, Chez Kimberly (a.k.a. our apartment) was host to a small party. Included on the guest were online local folk Duane, Amber and her GDBF. The above quote about misplaced car-keys got me wondering if the night's event was to blame for him leaving his keys out in the cold. If so, sorry.

It was interesting to tell my wife's co-workers that I had never met two of the people invited. While not said aloud, sometimes I can hear the question, "Why would you want to meet someone you only know by reading about?" My thinking is that they wouldn't pass up the opportunity to meet John Keats (dead) or Oscar Wilde (ditto) solely based on their writings. So, Duane and Amber were asked because I liked what they thought and how they said it. Plus they brought good stuff to the party, just like I thought they might.

It was nice finally meeting the people behind the blogs, seeing how they matched up with their words. I didn't talk to them as much as I wanted, but I was trying to appear smart in front of Caroline's G-Tech colleagues so as not to embarass her. I think I held my own.

The food went over well, the people seemed to enjoy the party, and it was 2:20 am when the last ones made it out the door. All-in-all, a great night.

Parental Fun and Jon Stewart

Tonight ends a 3-day visit with the folks.

Tuesday night: Chinese food at Golden Buddha, yum.
Wednesday: the aquarium = excellent!
Thursday: their visit to the High Museum, they loved it. And our dinner at Dante's, Dante (the owner) stopped by our table and is even more chatty then my dad.

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And now for something completely different...

"...I will not rest until every year families gather to spend December 25 together at Osama's home-abortion commie/pot jizzporium."

- Dec 7th, 2005. Jon Stewart responding to Bill O"Reilly's featuring of a 2004 Daily Show clip as proof of the show's anti-Christmas crusade. Jon returned the favor by offering up himself to Bill as his personal enemy, starting with the Osama quote.

Happy Holidays.

More B-Day Fun: Korla Pandit

Another gift on my list from Mom and Dad...


The Korla Pandit DVD

Korla Pandit played the piano and organ on a nationally-syndicated show in early 1950's, always gazing into the camera. Now he plays in our living room. So dreamy...

Work, Weather, Weekend: A Rainy Celebration of Age

Work:

Friday night, got to work the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Christmas show at the Ferst Center as a spotlight operator. Which meant a great view of the show. While I love me my vintage clothes, I wasn't huge into the swing thing when it had a revival in the 90's and I didn't know how much the band would be coasting on costumes and schtick. But the show was a great one with just the right amount of showmanship from the lead singer/guitar and stellar playing from the band.

Being the Christmas show, they did some seasonal tunes like "Mr Heat Miser" from The Year Without a Santa Claus. The best of the five Christmas songs was also the most interesting. It was a mambo version of Elvis's "Blue Christmas," with a Perez Prado tempo and horn treatment. Brought the house down.

Weather & Weekend:

Sunday was my birthday and the rain prevented my wife's plans from working out. We were going to roadtrip to Chattanooga to see Rock City's Garden of Lights. Years ago, Caroline and I went to Rock City and loved the retro-tacky/natural-beauty wonder of the it all. Don't know much about the place?... here's a good primer on one of my favorite places.

While I loved the idea of going for my birthday, I vetoed going in the rain. After an afternoon of watching the Atlanta Radar Map I'm glad we skipped it, nonstop rain from here to Chattanooga all day. Instead we went to the Antique Factory in Chamble, went to Atlantic Station just in time for all the stores to close and ran around Ikea for a little while. All in all a nice night.

And this morning I woke up early and got to open a package from FedEx. Thanks, Mom and Dad, it now lives on top of my iMac...



Click the picture to see the sign in its blinky, light-up glory.

I Know it's 1:30 in the Morning, and No, You Can't See the Fish!

I've been home from work for a couple of hours, and I'm hoping to hit the Georgia Aquarium next week. But this is what I get when I try to buy tickets online...

"We are currently experiencing a high volume of traffic.
We are unable to process your request at this time, please try again later.
If you're are interested in purchasing tickets, please call us at 404-581-4444.
Thank you for your patience."

It really is 1:30 in the morning. So, seriously?...

Should I call them now?

*tired*

Wednesday Weirdness: Meditation, Movies and Mystery Sites

Meditation:

One of the benefits of being the spouse of a Georgia Tech professor is taking advantage of free offerings from the school. We had started a 4 week meditation class in an attempt to reduce stress and see if it would help me with some back pain that I was having. But the metaphysical nature of the teachings kept me from really being able to use the teachings. Lines like, "build a tunnel from your heart-center to the candle..." weren't working for me. I know that there are tangable and observable benefits to meditation. Being a skeptical kind of guy, the spiritual side to the teachings keep me from really getting much out of the class and we stopped going after the second week.

What got me thinking about such things was reading an article about the Dalai Lama working with scientist to document the changes on the brain and body when meditating. I would think that a tech school could develop a mediation program that was inclusive of scientific aspects that the students could relate to. I would certainly be more likely to go to that one.

Also see:

Wired News: Scientists Meditate on Happiness
Wild Divine Home Page "the Journey to Wild Divine is a unique program for mind & body that links biofeedback hardware with your computer..."
The Science Of Binaural Beat Brainwave Entrainment Technology frequency-based brain alteration

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Movies:

Finally finished some movie watching started over Thanksgiving weekend. It started with a post turkey-diner viewing of Reefer Madness! The Movie Musical. Based on the original propaganda film "Reefer Madness" (available here for free download) this one had Christian Campbell, Robert Torti, Kristen Bell, Alan Cumming, Neve Campbell, Ana Gasteyer, Amy Spanger and Steven Weber in it. Great scenes like Jesus Christ "lording" over a heavenly cocktail lounge, marijuana induced sex-madness and catchy songs made this a great way to wind down. Seriously good stuff.

Lat night, we finished Mad Hot Ballroom which followed a collection of NYC grade-school kids in their mandatory ball-room dance classes. Really charming, with the kids being both funny about boy-girl stuff and really coming alive as they preform in a city-wide competition.

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And finally, Mystery Sites: more weirdness in the good U.S of A.



More Scientology fun. Now everyone can see where the Scientologist keet their secret stash of records, alien bodies and rejected Tom Cruise movie scripts. The circles etched in the New Mexico desert are signs for future Scientologist to follow in order to unearth a repository of teachings and documents important to the group.

A Place in the Desert for New Mexico's Most Exclusive Circles from the Washington Post
Scientology landing strip - Microsoft TerraServer Imagery
Scientology landing strip - Google Map

A Florida television station reports on a community outside of a state prison where the homes have no public records, the police won't allow filming and the folks won't talk about the place.

First Coast News | Local News - The Secret City

My Birthday/Christmas List: Secret Santa Anyone?

Blogging on this rainy day...

I know that there won't be any suprises from the internet, but that's not keeping me from posting some of my desired gifts online. Christmas is less then a month away and my birthday is coming this Sunday.

Even as a kid my parents told me that I had expensive taste in gifts. I would make my Christmas list on a roll of cash register paper. That way I had an almost unlimited length of paper to add to when I remembered another item to be included. For the sake of my parents convenience, I would also put the prices next to each item. I would pride myself on the $100,000 Christmas lists I managed to hand to them. Inflating the cost, Corvettes, motorboats and airplanes. How an 8 year-old would pay for the insurance on these items is beyond me. But they were on the list none-the-less.

A small sidenote, as a kid I had a standing deal with my parents that if I was able to spot 13 Corvettes in one place and point them out to my parents, they would buy me one. The problem was that my dad would speed up if a collection of Corvettes were seen on the road, making my task of counting impossible. I am still Corvette-free.

And now my list, with details as to why someone else may like these things as well...

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Invader ZIM - House Box Complete Set (Vols. 1-3 Plus Extra Disc):


A twisted "kid's show" that follows that attempts of an inept alien to conquer the world while attending elementary school. From the creator of the comic book, "Johnny The Homicidal Maniac." I know that my corruption of my wife was complete when she started watching the show without my suggestion.

You would like this if you: like Adult Swim, support alien overthrow of the world, enjoy dark, twisted humor.

Korla Pandit Video

In the 1950's, this mystical Indian man wordlessly stared into the TV camera and play exotica Hammond organ. But he was not so mystical nor Indian. "His birthplace was Columbia, Missouri, and he was an African-American, not an Indian, despite what his death certificate would ultimately say. Pandit was born to Ernest Redd, pastor of the Second Baptist Church, the largest black church in Columbia, and Doshia O'Nina Redd, who was of Creole lineage." He transformed his heritage, thus evading the stigma of being black in America, and turned himself into a much more acceptable and exotic foreign personna. This tape has an hour of his televised performances.

You would like this if you: like retro kitch, exotica organ music

The Welcome to Las Vegas Sign

The picture doesn't do this blinking sign justice. Looks just like the Vegas sign on the outskirts of town. A portion of all proceeds will be donated to the Nevada Cancer Institute.

You will like this if you: enjoyed "Swingers," gambling or just want some Sin City in a room of your own.

Little Nemo in Slumberland

A surreal collection of Windsor McKay's sunday comics, circa 1905-1910. Loads of graphic artists cite this guy as a major influence. The hero's dream adventures are reproduced in their original size 16x21 inches.

You will like this if you: like vivid and artistically skilled images, enjoy fantasy without irony, need material for your dreams.

Flying Spaghetti Monster Shirt

The Flying Spaghetti Monster was created as an alternative deity to add to the Intellegent Design debate.

You will like this if you: want you scientific debates religion-free, want to wear your sacralige proudly, want to be touched by His Noodly Appendage.

"Shepp's World's fair photographed. Being a collection of original copyrighted photographs authorized and permitted by the management of the World's Columbian exposition"

This is the rarest item on my list and hardest to find. Chicago got to host the 400th anniversary celebration of Columbus's landing by creating a huge fair in 1893. A year after the Paris Fair opened with the Eiffel Tower, this fair introduced the world to the first Ferris Wheel and the first midway. An amazing photogenic place, nothing remains of the fairgrounds.

You will like this if you: like the amazing made real, see gorgeous architecture and displays, want to see the fair in the book "Devil in the White City."

Post-Thanksgiving Post: One Holiday Down, One to Go

Whoa! I've just come to after a 3-day turkey coma. Guess that's what happens when you overdose on tryptophan.

Now, on to the inevitable pre-Christmas stressfest!