theology&geometry

Twice now I’ve noticed a yellow tape robot placed somewhere conspicuous in an urban core: Once in Chicago near Millenium Park (left) and once in Portland near Powell’s (right). The Chicago robot, which probably measured a foot or so in length, was spotted around New Year’s Day, 2010, while the Portland robot — much smaller at maybe three inches tall — was spotted just Sunday.

I’ve been Googling and Flickring like mad to try and identify the common thread that would put a yellow tape robot on a sign and on a busy street thousands of miles from one another, but have come up with nothing. Is this a pop culture icon I’m not familiar with? A hip underground tape graffiti collective that’s on the verge of blowing up? Something completely benign? Some snarky way of marking touristy spots? Some completely random coincidence? One person with yellow tape who travels to the same cities as I and marks where he’s been?

I must know.

Instant update: Only thing that comes close that I’ve found is an image in this post. Of course no explanation accompanies it.

Instant update 2.0: A fellow LT directed me to a photo on Flickr and I followed a tag rabbit hole and found this collection of what is apparently known as Stikman. Hot damn, I love the constantly pulsing internet brain. Now to figure out what this little dude means. If anything.

I pulled this video for the song (“The Bunker” by Beirut) but then realized the video is pretty cool too.

I wish I could paint.

I really meant to link to this last week but I have that, you know, brain thing.

Shane‘s awesome papercraft skills + Curt and Chris‘ awesome comic skills + my photos = BEHOLD! Basically the funniest/cutest thing you ever did see.

My pal D salvaged this street art for me. The cat is winking. Tee hee.

[Project 365]

Another fabulous Shane McDermott papercraft project. This one’s in conjunction with the annual advent calendar. I’ll post a link to the online version as soon as it goes live. The calendar is here!

[Project 365]

Oak Pond Glass, a little shop out of DeSoto County, always has a booth at C-Y Fest. This year I was unable to contain my lust. I wish I could link you to their wares, but they don’t have a web presence that I can find.

[Project 365]

This is cool, but all I could think was, “Why the hell is Pauly Shore beating the crap out of this guy?”

Last Day Dream [HD] from Chris Milk on Vimeo.

Yes I know it’s on Tumblr but I will take your semantics and punch you in the face with them if you sass me again: Quoteskine

Monday evening, Stephanie and I got all itchy for a roadtrip so we headed east and slightly north and ended up on the sleepy streets of Brownsville, which, for all we could tell, had been emptied out by the zombie apocalypse. Oh, except for RJ’s Hibachi, a greasy spoon that gleefully abuses the “hibachi” part of its name by completely ignoring it. It was hoppin’.

We had some time to kill before the sun sat (we went specifically to see the MindField at night, since we’d both seen it during the day), so we kicked around the town square, peering into windows and marveling at the sheer number of tanning salons within a 300-foot distance. The sun finally biffed off and the lights — which underwhelmed me, I have to say, as a millenial who was weaned on the whiz-bang of MTV and Disney — came on and we padded through the grass, shrieking at real frogs and imaginary snakes. (And mosquitoes. I am the motherloving pied piper of mosquitoes.) We didn’t see dear Billy Tripp himself, but Stephanie was kind enough to leave a little cash gift in one of his comment boxes since she took a couple of books to give away. I left nothing because I’m a horrible grifter who never carries cash.

We both noticed several changes in the sculpture that either hadn’t been there before, or that we hadn’t noticed before. The highlight? The little naked dolls way up at the apex of the sculpture, their stringy hair blowing in the breeze.

More pics of the MindField (including pics from my last visit) live here.

[Project 365]

I went to the Cove and completely unexpectedly meet a ton of Twitter friends and we drank and guffawed loudly at Supervixens while others sketched the model nearby. Flippin’ awesome.

[Project 365]