Inspiration - Between the Folds

I wound up watching Between the Folds a documentary about origami almost three times in the last couple days.  Once for me, then with the kids, then with the wife and kids.  Origami has always fascinated me although I've never really dabbled in it.  It's such a nice idea to make sculpture with just one piece of paper. 

Beyond being about paper folding it's a bit of an exploration of how art evolves.  Starting with the basics, then to the overuse of technique, then minimalism, performance and so on.  It ends with looking at the scientific applications of origami.  Pretty great overall.

During and after everyone started folding paper.  I became fascinate with "one crease" origami which is the minimalist form.  

Drawn to Television - Bonus Edition

I haven't inked anything for ages and decided to give it a try on yesterday's drawing.  It turned out okay.

drawn to Television 12

actually, not TV as much as sitting around Sunday morning drinking coffee.

The Land Cruiser is definitely not the vehicle for coffee runs

Old Gold 11

Blatant Localism

2007

wood, 2 vestax turntables, Beach Boys - True to Your School 45, Beach Boys - I Just Wasn't made for these times 45, JFA - Blatant Localism EP

 I really thought I had better pictures of this but I couldn't find any.

here's my first attempt to post a video....it doesn't quite work

inspiration - my old skateboard

 I think I bought this in 1987 after my Mark Gonzales deck was stolen and then I broke my ankle.  I kind of drifted away from skateboarding and moved into Vespa territory.

 Santa Monica Airlines, Jesse Martinez deck

 Santa Cruz Slime Ball wheels

Gull Wing Truck on the front (Independent on the back).  Gull Wing was manufactured in El Cajon at the time.  From their site it looks like they're in San Diego now but their site hasn't been updated since 2007 so they may not be around at all.

Group Show 8

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 this was inspired by JFA's Blatant Localism EP

Drawn to Television 11

News Hour - governor of Wisconsin

Wheel Studs and windshield wiper test!

 I really wish I'd documented this a little better.  The amount of hammering, torching and smashing fingers made it much more exciting than I initially thought it would be.  Basically two wheel studs had been broken off on one of the rear tires.  If they weren't right next to each other I probably would've waited to fix them but I'm glad I didn't.

When I finished I wanted to be sure I didn't screw up the rear brakes so I took it for a spin in the rain.  This allowed me to look up the tires, drive a bit like a maniac and test the windshield wipers.  Win! Win! Win!

Album of the Week 9 - JFA - Valley of the Yakes

While pounding on the car to remove the brake drums and broken wheel studs I needed some good old teenage rage.  Jody Foster's Army's classic album Valley of the Yakes suited the bill perfectly.  With songs like "Kick You", "Preppy",  "I don't like You" it really let's your agnst flow.  I did find the occasional self conscious moment of "what is that middle aged man blaring from his garage?" but not enough to stop my punk rocking.

Valley of the Yakes is one those rare 45rpm full length records.  Which means every time I put it on I listen to a good chunk of the first track at 33 1/3.  It's such a fast album you don't realize it's going slow until the vocals kick in.

Manual Haiku 12

This trail bike can be

folded into a compact

unit for carrying

Tie Rods and Tie Rod Ends!

The steering on the Fj40 is a bit sloppy.  Eventually I'm going to get power steering installed but for now I'm tackling all the smaller things.  The first was new tie rod ends.  The old ones looked like some sort of clay sculpture.

 The old tie rod itself was an old wonky aftermarket one so I decided it would be a good idea to replace it with a heavy duty one from Man-a-fre.

And while I was at it I decided to replace the shocks.

The tie rods helped but the car is still a bit floaty.  Power steering might be closer than I thought.

Inspiration - Candy Hike! - Elsmere Canyon

This weekend we managed to do two weekend candy hikes*, the first was an accidental trip to Elsmere Canyon.  We'd planned on hiking Whitney Canyon but there were other people with dogs on the trail so we took a quick right turn went up and up and then saw this.

Elsmere Canyon is a hidden sort of box canyon which is Santa Clarita newest "open area."  I don't really know what "open area" means but I like it.  It was dedicated in November 2010.  Thanks to some citizens of Santa Clarita and money from Santa Clarita, Los Angeles County and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, Elsmere was save from being the nations largest landfill.

It isn't the nicest oak filled valley with a creek running through the middle of it but it's pretty amazing and only five minutes from out house.

*Candy Hike - is a hike where you use candy to bribe your kids to keep going.  Good for their body bad for their teeth.  Oh and I do wonder what kind of associations they'll have with hiking when they're adults.

Group Show 7

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Third Motorcycle