directly: graphic design + photography + visual art + music + writing + unique travel + sustainability issues + transport + the experience of cities + surfing + getting lost + bumping into myself where i never would have expected + riding a very unfashionable scooter + riding 50s schwinn postman's bike (her name's la belle gitane) at odd hours + working 80 hour weeks most weeks but working only for myself
indirectly: film + architecture + industrial design + urban planning + fantasizing about stumbling upon a big ass pile of cash so i can buy half of the Coop art store, half of Home Depot, half of Half Price Books, half of Cheapo discs, a whole printing press so i can publish whoever and whatever i wish, and a rather large sligtly delapidated daylight factory on the Eastside to put it all in... then creating a compound... then a neighborhood... then our own little city!
Music
i've tried to begin this like 10 times and i just can't compile this list in a reasonable timeframe... but shitloads of great local bands and small indie bands from the rest of the world... a few famous bands... of course i love everything on my label... check it: Indierect Records
Movies
Lucia Y El Sexo (Sex and Lucia)
Duo Luo Tian Shi (Fallen Angels)
Volver
Hop
El Crimen Perfecto
Maria Full of Grace
Lemony Snicket: Unfortunate Events
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Mozart and the Whale
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Dirty Pretty Things
Dot the i
The Dreamers
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
Transamerica
Russian Dolls
I Am Cuba
Secretary
All About My Mother
Pan's Labyrinth
Chungking Express
Delicatessen
Match Point
Cache
Cashback
The Squid and the Whale
Knocked Up
Planet Earth
Happy Endings
The Lovers of the Arctic Circle
2046
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
Melinda & Melinda
40-Year Old Virgin
Io Non Ho Paura (I'm Not Scared)
Ray
Finding Neverland
3-Iron
City Of God
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Lost in Translation
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Amadeus
Adaptation
Cinema Paradiso
8 1/2
Love Jones
Closer
Bleu
Happy Together
City of Lost Children
Sideways
American Beauty
Being John Malkovich
The Big Lebowski
Stealing Beauty
Amelie
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Spanish Prisoner
Very Bad Things
Bubba Ho Tep
Say Anything
House of Games
Rize
Office Space
Sin City
The Hudsucker Proxy
Elizabethtown
The Shawshank Redemption
One Night at McCools
American Beauty
Lumumba
Blood Diamond
Pride and Prejudice
Mirror Mask
Black Snake Moan
Children of Men
The Last King of Scotland
Sliding Doors
Kinky Boots
I Heart Huckabees
Firefly
Carnivale
An Inconvenient Truth
The Matador
What Time is it There?
Taking Lives
Seven and a Match
The Bourne series
La Dolce Vita
Nathalie
Some favourites from this year The Zahir by Paulo Coelho Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl The Names by Don DeLillo The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte Holy Smoke by Tonino Benacquista City of Tiny Lights by Patrick Neate The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thompson Ideas that Changed the World by Felipe Fernandez-Arnesto Collapse by Jared Diamond God and the Evolving Universe by Redfield, et al Homo Zapiens by Victor Pelevin Death and Restoration by Iain Pears Eleven Minutes by Paolo Coelho
Heroes
all three of my grandfathers that i've known... for very different reasons... but they've given me the strength to turn down a number of high-paying cushy jobs in favour of getting dirty, bloody, beat-up, worn-out, insane, and full of heart.
Graphic Design + Photography Studios:
Both firms provide essentially the same services to slightly different audiences. BBDH and City On Fire give me about 80 hours of headache, love, inspiration, destruction, satisfaction, and insanity per week. I can't believe i get paid for this!
Blue Buddha Design House + City On Fire
Indierect Records
Small indie rock record label focused on supporting some of my favourite Austin bands. We've had the pleasure of releasing music by Purchase New York, Ghostland Observatory, The Arm, Lomita, and Belaire.
Indierect Records
The Austin Independent music magazine: The Austin Independent is a not-for-profit indie music magazine focused on supporting Austin artists we love and showcasing them during SXSW to the visiting music industry and fans. Check out our past issues at:
The Austin Independent + The Austin Independent Blog
Free magazine (blog before launch of full annual magazine)
FREE curates articles and interviews on a wide range of subjects dealing with the peculiarities of living in the modern, urban environment, including issues encompassed within subgenres of urban planning, design, art, communication, technology, transport, spaces, and whatever else we find that inspires us to try to live more completely. Let me know if you'd like to contribute or have ideas.
Free Magazine blog
Odic Force magazine:
Odic is a new arts and culture print magazine we launched during my annual Art Disaster party during SXSW 2008. The magazine celebrates creativity in Austin and engages readers in a dialogue about arts innovation in all its forms. As one of the founding members City On Fire is responsible for creative direction, layout design, photo editing, and some content production. If you're an Austin-based writer or photographer feel free to send me your portfolio. Odic Force magazine
PLACES I'VE LIVED AND LOVED OR SPENT SOME GOOD TIMES IN:
i'm from all over ... lived and loved many cities ... every day spent doing art + design + photography + running an indie record label and having far too many ideas and projects than time to do them... i think sexy abstract thoughts and you'll probably make fun of me for it (or inspire me with yours)... my eyes change colour (green with yellow to a soft grey blue) according to the seasons and sometimes my moods ... so does my hair (blonde to strawberry blond)... in true european fashion my teeth are cutely slightly (fine, a lot) crooked so i've escaped the plague of looking like a ken doll ... i'm never macho but i'm no-one's bitch ... i surf and travel when possible ... i love to read and want know about everything ... i have lived and live to know more ... i create and am being created by art + design + music in all forms ... i even like to cook (but mainly i like chopping vegetables and flipping things around in a wok)... and i'm a connoiseur of $9 and under red wine ... i'm spending all my energy building something beautiful ... and sometimes i need the right person to walk with me while I get through the rough spots ... and let me do that for them ... everyplace i've moved stray cats have adopted me -- they love me and i love them back. i am honest and loyal and for my close friends i'd be willing to kill or at least maim... for myspace friends i'd be willing to do the same for a reasonable fee (in euros, please).
Who I'd like to meet: mad intelligent disturbingly sexy minds +
someone not simple and not dramatic.... someone to see bands or films or exhibits with ... sip cappucinos or wine ... someone who supports me following my heart and doesn't get upset if i work too much but takes charge sometimes so i dont' kill myself working too much... someone driven and self-aware ... someone curious ... someone who knows how to be a friend on both clear and cloudy days... someone who accepts a sincere apology when i make mistakes... someone patient enough to find the core and the whole... someone to meet in the plaza and ride subways with ... someone to be electric in blue lights with ...
Happy Early B-day Senor! When you coming over to Korea? I'll be in Crete from July 18-28. If you're aimlessly wandering Europe, swing by. Ouzo and catching up are in order! Much love from the other side of the globe! P
untouchable? i think not, mr. i-just-queued-EVITA and recently watched the "incredible journey of a growing embryo from its inception as a single-celled organism to the beginning of brain activity to the first heartbeat." ;P
