Last week I got my hands on a new safety orange hoodie with plans to screen print all over it. So Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard to give the new hoodie some black. But when she came there the black jar was bare and so the new hoodie would just have to wait a while.
Friday at Artist & Craftsman Supply I found a fresh jar of black ink but I also found a jar of fluorescent orange, a color never before screened through my screens. It was calling out to me from the shelf. “Look up here. Look up here. Look up here.”
The two new oranges (hoodie & ink) will not be working together directly but they’ll be in the same space at different times. They are works in progress as we speak.
Orange whip?
Orange whip?
3 orange whips
Last year I pulled from a recycling bin a 1981 US Navy Marine Climatic Atlas of the World. It has been an upcycling gift that keeps on giving postcards and various art projects. Chock full of 12” x 20” maps for each month of the year featuring world-wide means and standard deviations. One man’s junk is another man’s orange whip postcard catalog.
"we now join our regular commute, already in progress"
February 21, 2025
Another epic commute to work
A herky-jerky train ride sandwiched between two short bike rides like this and like that and like this
And then 9.5 hours later, do it all again in reverse order like this and like that and like this completing the round trip so to speak
And then 24 hours later do it
ALL AGAIN AND AGAIN
As often as necessary
Reading The New Yorker cover-to-cover or any random book dujour like The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (thanks Cat) “no man is an island - every book is a world”
Wordle & Spelling Bee & Connections
With plenty of slack-jaw thousand-yard stares off into space. That’s how I roll in the groundhog-day hamster-wheel work-a-day rat race rut rote route routine
if I had a can of spray paint that's not where I would go with it. I'm more of a lowercase g guy. but as I parked the electric ass bathtub beneath it every day this week at 1320 NE Campus Parkway right around 11:27 am, it's made me smile for various reasons
This book was published in 1972. Chock full of exploded view diagrams and classic hands-on black & white photos of bikes and tools and tools on bikes. I got it at a thrift store some time in the late 90’s. The book was pretty cool, but the cover kicks ass. The go-go boots, the inverted bike repair chat in the park, the all-ages joy ride and on and on and so on. It was an original painting, specifically done to be the cover of this book. When I go back and find the artist’s name, I’ll let you know. Or you can get your own copy on ebay and let me know his name.
The other day I was about to chuck it in the little free library when I flipped through it one last time and noticed a few pages of diagrams had already been hacked out. They were probably cut and pasted into an issue of dickstank some time in the late 90’s.
Here and now a few more of those exploded view diagrams are on their way into upcycled postcard status because I decided to tear off the cover and put it in a thrift store 8" x 10" frame to hang on the wall and collect dust like “art”
I wasn’t looking for this book. But I guess it was looking for me when it found me at the local library. Now I suggest you look for it. Neko Case is a true rock star and she grew up right around here “raised by two dogs and a space heater” She spent a lot of time in Whatcom County and Washington state. And much of that time she was alone.
I’m halfway through it but it’s not too soon to recommend that you read it too. This week’s book of the month. This month’s book of the year.
