snowboarding, movies, headaches and ashes.
it's reading week! which is amazing because i can sit back and do nothing! well not really, but i do have a little more time to myself. last weekend i went to the bay to visit my brother and his wife. i had a blast. there's something about getting on a bus that i always enjoy. then again, there's something about being on a bus for 6 hours that i despise. but the trip was good. we went snowboarding on saturday. the hill was pretty small, but we had enough to make ourselves ridiculously sore the next day. we also a pretty funny story about teaching manners to young snowboarders. but i'm afraid that writing it on this blog will just make the story sound lame. so ask ryan or i about it sometime.

i've been ticking off a few flicks on my gigantic film list lately. here they are:

the graduate—yesYesYES-amazing.
fargo—rock-my-socks-off-amazing.
garden state—after-the-credits-i-must-watch-it-again-amazing.
lost in translation—mind blowingly-amazing.

in other news, MY HEAD HURTS. it's ash wednesday and i gave up coffee for lent. i should probably mention that i just woke up. yikes! but i guess it's a good thing because every time my head throbs, i'm reminded to think about jesus. sweet. i should probably get going. mTp and i are heading out to mass to get ashed.

/dr.

there is hope.
this year i've found myself in a battle with the ethics of design and the industry i find myself in. i began to realize that my industry actually does revolve around; convincing society that the they actually do need 2-ply toilet paper in their lives. because their asses will be so much better off. you know...useless shite like that.

but over the last few months, i've found people who view design different. people who think graphic design can be a positive contribution to society. it's been encouraging. it's everything i want to learn i school, but have never been taught. while doing a research paper i found this (it gives me hope):

FIRST THINGS FIRST 2000
a design manifesto

We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators who have been raised in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents. Many design teachers and mentors promote this belief; the market rewards it; a tide of books and publications reinforces it.

Encouraged in this direction, designers then apply their skill and imagination to sell dog biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds, detergents, hair gel, cigarettes, credit cards, sneakers, butt toners, light beer and heavy-duty recreational vehicles. Commercial work has always paid the bills, but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what graphic designers do. This, in turn, is how the world perceives design. The profession's time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best.

Many of us have grown increasingly uncomfortable with this view of design. Designers who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting, and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact. To some extent we are all helping draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse.

There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills. Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention. Many cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programs, films, charitable causes and other information design projects urgently require our expertise and help.

We propose a reversal of priorities in favor of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication - a mindshift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning. The scope of debate is shrinking; it must expand. Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.

In 1964, 22 visual communicators signed the original call for our skills to be put to worthwhile use. With the explosive growth of global commercial culture, their message has only grown more urgent. Today, we renew their manifesto in expectation that no more decades will pass before it is taken to heart.

signed:

Jonathan Barnbrook
Nick Bell
Andrew Blauvelt
Hans Bockting
Irma Boom
Sheila Levrant de Bretteville
Max Bruinsma
Siân Cook
Linda van Deursen
Chris Dixon
William Drenttel
Gert Dumbar
Simon Esterson
Vince Frost
Ken Garland
Milton Glaser
Jessica Helfand
Steven Heller
Andrew Howard
Tibor Kalman
Jeffery Keedy
Zuzana Licko
Ellen Lupton
Katherine McCoy
Armand Mevis
J. Abbott Miller
Rick Poynor
Lucienne Roberts
Erik Spiekermann
Jan van Toorn
Teal Triggs
Rudy VanderLans
Bob Wilkinson

AND…

Dylan Royal.

teeeee-shuuuurtz.
it's friday night and i don't feel that social for some reason. so i decided to make shirts. i printed another one of hepburn. i like how it turned out.

i had a pile of ink left over that i mixed so i decided to make a print based on a poem i wrote recently titled, "F is for _AITH". the ink in the picture is still drying.
in other news, i got my camera back! but there seems to be a little mix up with where my battery went. so i may have to puchase a new battery. BUT i did get a pretty sweet discount on the repairs (as in a whoppin' 40% SCHWEEEEET!). so next time i post a picture it will look crisp (unlike the hazy photos i just took) that's all...for now.

/dr.

this is my life. febuary 2, 2007.
i haven't written in this little blog for a long time. my mom asked me to keep it updated so she can keep up with my busy life. so...this blog entry is for my mama shizzam (that's her nickname). here's the update.

most significantly, i'm thinking (basically sold) about going to india to serve the poor in calcutta for the month of may. ya, i know. scary. but i really feel like god is kicking my ass to go. right now we (some peeps from my church) are still in the planning stages, but every meeting i go to, i get more and more pumped. when i get really excited i say, "yesYesYES!" to myself. and i've been saying that alot recently. and when i'm not saying that i'm deathly petrified. keith dungeon and i are also using our god-given skills to create a website for the trip. stay tuned.

in other news. i'm seriously thinking about getting a bunny-rabbit. i LOVE bunnies. they make me incredibly happy. you seriously have no idea. i went to a friend's house last thursday and it turns out she has TWO bunnies. i had a blast. i think they did as well. and while i had the chance i rubbed one of the little guys into my eyeballs to find out if i am allergic. i think i was ok! perhaps after india i'll get a new furry little friend. for more on how animals make people happy. read joey's most recent entry.


after the bunnies and i hung out, we watched THE WIZARD. remember the wizard?! with ben savage? it's that late 80's movie about kids taking a road trip in order to play in a nintendo tournament in california. YUP! that wizard. amazing.

CALLLLLIIFORRRRRRRRRNNIIIAAA.

/dr.