Face Tattoo

I think that having to live with one the rest of your life is far
costlier than the thrill of proving you are willing to get one.
--sushisticks

...illegal!

Grasshopper and I, plus a funny red helmet

"Backed into your scooter

Bad place to park

...illegal!!!"

I found this message written on the back of an envelope, taped onto the side mirror of my scooter today. The script was harsh and on further inspection I noticed the small dent, concave into my cowl that evidenced the encounter. The damage to the scooter wasn't that disconcerting, because I'm just Zen like that and have a deeply engrained understanding of the impermanence of everything. What irked me was their note.

I went to meet a friend for happy hour in the Pearl and rode my scooter straight there from work. Owning and driving a scooter is incredible fun. However, I have found parking to be a real bitch in this town. You'd think that Portland would cater somewhat to us scooter and motorcycle crowd. It's a self touted "Green" city that supports its eco friendly transportation. Doesn't my 90 mpg, 4 stroke, low emission mode give me some props in this town? I know it ain't a fixy! but come on!

I found a parking spot like I usually do; on the street, between two wide-set cars or at the end of a row. In this case, I parked at the back corner of the street, with my back tail light backed up to the parking sign that signaled that parking was not permitted past it. I often teeter myself on this edge of the law, where I have my back tire inside the line and straddle the bike along it, slightly askew, so that the front tire rests tilted just outside where it's permitted. A little mocking smile to parking enforcement who couldn't quite justify ticketing me for it.

Now, I have counted three streets in this entire city where I have found designated "motorcycle" parking.  (Thanks Magic Gardens :-) So, I have developed this strategy after several attempts at trial and error; and this phase of my motorcycle education has been costly. Actually, I think that I am close to having paid more in parking fines and registration costs than I paid for the bike!

Technically, I think that you are just expected to park in a car sized space. However, I have seen scooters do this before and you assume that the guy is a duche. So I don't do this. I have tried parking in that little triangle created by cars parked at an angle on the street, but was ticketed because I was pass the sign. I have parked in bicycle parking on the street and the sidewalk, got tickets. I have even taken a whole spot, paid for metered parking, and got a ticket cause someone stole my stick-on-receipt that, in a car, would be safe behind its window. I even contested that one! I had a receipt for the parking slip, but still had to pay the citation.

So I have developed this system that works fairly well for parking in the city. Like I said, I find spot at the end of the strip, guide it back into position and kick up on the stand. I paid for parking, so the city gets that much more out of their parking real estate, and head inside. I did happen to notice the car in front of me and considered whether they had the room to leave. It was a Ford Expedition, which is third in mass to the Hummer and the Toyota Tundra I think, just a massive thing, but there was plenty of room in front of them and if they knew my bike was there, they had plenty of room to get out.

Well, I guess that wasn't the case, they didn't see that I was there. Got in, backed up and bumped into little Grasshopper. I mean, I'm glad they didn't knock him down or anything, cause then I would have been way inside the no parking zone, would have probably been ticketed and had my bike all fucked up. All that equating to a major disruption in my Zen worldview.

Anyway, what I don't understand, is that this person got out of their giant, nearly indestructible vehicle walked over, saw my scooter and decided to get mad at it.

"Backed into your scooter

Bad place to park

...illegal!!!"

There was no apology in their hastily scribed note, just an omnipotent judgement of fact. Damn! Here was someone that truly understood the motorcycle parking laws of Portland, and I missed my chance to learn from their huge brain. 

I really just don't understand why this person even wrote a note, if all they planned to do was add insult to injury. That is just plain mean. Was it to just absolve their guilt and pass on the blame? I'm sure they were startled when they hit it, and maybe felt stupid, but... whatever. Who even cares about the inner workings of the mind an asshole? 

Thanks Audrey

Using Waste, Swedish City Shrinks Its Fossil Fuel Use - NYTimes.com

My sister shared this article with me about a city in Sweden that has taken proactive steps to move away from fossil fuel dependency. It's a really cool story.

They started the process in 1991.

Goaled

I want our lives to be different
I want to live for what we want
Make our goals our life and achieve
--sushisticks

A slice of some music in my life

YouTube - Kid Cudi - Pursuit Of Happiness ft. MGMT

PLEASE CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO

The song and video concept is pretty fantastic, inspiring even. It made me jealous and ashamed at the honesty of it. The music is well translated into those slowed down shots of glit and glamour.

Really cool.

Here is a another few versions of the song's video:

Click here for Megaforce Version

Click here for Live Performance on Letterman with Ratatat

I like that Ratatat composed the music and beat for this track. They really own, don't they. Katherine and I saw Ratatat play at Crystal recently. It really blew us away.

The visuals were incredible. Calculated to time, shot multiplied bird video projections. Translucent screens at the forefront of the stage reflected 3D images of a ghostly Victorian string quartet and spinning busts of Beethoven.

Seeing Ratatat in concert, really paying attention to them, is interesting. Just to see that music performed, to have it proven possible, is humbling. 

The energy was a lot larger than the time I saw them at Holocene. That show was also incredible. The venue is pretty small, so it was intimate. A crowd of just a few hundred. Andrew Nelson and I had to wait out on the sidewalk two hours the day of the show to guarantee our place.

That show had great visuals as well. Since their sound is so epic, so a fog machine was only natural. This was the LP3 tour and all of their new songs had videos that were projected behind them as they played. Here's an example, and one of my favorites they played:

Mirando Video

I've also been really into Kanye lately. Especially now since he's been through a sort of rock bottom this year. I love the rock bottoms. I think this video shows that his confidence is back:

Power Video

How crazy is this video? It's so Salvador Dali

My desk

I'm staring at it, trying to feed habits of using it effectively
Explore my capabilities to get what I want
Build on the narrative of who I want to be

--sushisticks

5.5.10

It's time to process
what I've put into my body
fear only makes it worse.
--sushisticks

Friday Night

The temperatures dropping and I hurry home.

Kevin gave me a bag of goodies, but turned out to be withholding.

Sarah needed my help, I didn't offer. She was fine.

Free McMenamins beers, the manager of Ringlers and the head of their new
Crystal Hotel.

Comfortable couch with Derek, he can drum and guitar with pride, but works an
office job.

A wife with a bad back gets an offer of my seat, husband engratiated.
grace... gracious ... engraciated

Johnny, with backing out, feeling bad about it.

Noah and I talk of peak markets and separate tragedy.

Typhoon proclaims themselves.

Tyler horns, Skeletron, And, and, and, Forest Park. These guys have all got to be sleeping with each other.

The Monarchs have a great sound engineer who loves good jokes.

It's a full moon, no wonder I'm animate.

Ditched by Johnny. Buddy's not responding. It doesn't bother me.

I had to go out and make friends. Whether they want it or not.

--sushisticks

So tight, like a ladybug

Typhoon, has like 100 members, and they have packet'ed themselves into
this tiny space like clowns in a VW Bug.

--sushisticks

Dr. Martins Store

I'm currently waiting for Typhoon to start playing at the brand new Dr.
Martins store. Sarah is carrying a garbage can, and I want to ask her if
she needs help. They just opened a new store across from there
old Burnside location, near Powell's.

I read in the Mercury that this great band would be
playing a free show here.

Pretty excited for this. I wonder when Johnny will show.

I think that any business can make successful choices in this economy,
but the vision has to be local and mobile. Companies with the right
resources and energy can do well.

--sushisticks

I love pain

My last session complete, Sept 17, 2010

I decided earlier this year that it was important that I build on the Katherine tattoo on my right arm. I went to Jeff P, from Art Work Rebels Tattoo on NW 23rd.

I gave him the few elements I wanted to be apart of the piece; a rose bush, living with roots, leaves and thorns. Afterwords, when I went to see the drawing, he suggested adding something behind my shoulder. Maybe a butterfly, which is terrible. I could not have a butterfly tattooed on my body in any serous way, but there's nothing like a bad suggestion to make you speak up for a better one. So I suggested an asp, coiled and hiding. Jeff was excited to oblige.

I went for my first session, two hours and $300 cash, he printed the final drawing as outlines and I let him lay it out on my arm with transfer paper. He adjusted it once to get the layout right for the shape of my arm. I sat there as he soaped up and shaved the spot, asked if I was ready and cut in.    

Something I learned about the pain right away, was that the expectation was far worse than the sensation deserved. If you're expecting it, you can acclimate to the pain; accept it and understand that it won't get worse than you can handle. Then it starts to just feel good, a frequency of sensation very similar to pleasure. You trick yourself into enjoying it as you would any bitter sweet, guilty pleasure.

The Outlines, April 9th 2010

The outlines went into my skin quickly, Jeff worked fast with a steady handle for their application. My friend Dustin came in and sat with us as he worked. This way I didn't distract Jeff too much with my nervous need to talk endlessly.

I really enjoyed the process, the entire time. Watching it lay out and feeling my skin react to the needles. You can kind of make out from this photo, the way my skin would swell and rise where the ink lay underneath. Finishing, I stood in front of the mirror and admired the placement, seeing the concept playing out, I was immediately pleased with the way that Jeff had placed my tattoo, it fit.

Tender and warm to the touch, the skin felt foreign on my arm. It reacted with excitement to my other hand running lotion across it. A slight burn that felt similar to one from the sun. The thorns of it dug in, flowers spread pedals out of flesh, the snake hid ghostly and fierce.

I waited a few months before I went back to Art Work Rebels to finish the piece, Katherine and I had a trip to New York planned for the beginning of July. We had to save for that. Also, the summer is not the time to be banned from swimming in public areas. I waited until August and September to sit for the remaining 5 hours and $900 it took to finish, shading and color. I'll go in soon for another hour or so for touch up and to tighten up small details. Also, I love the pain. 

To me, tattoos are important to our new culture. In the superficial, image laden, ethereal lifestyle we all now live. With all the resources we have at our disposal, the money, technology and influence we can use to create an image of ourselves. One that isn't always truthful. It's a benefit to us to examine our lives, find the things that make us who we are, and forever make them part of our aesthetic. Then own that decision, get power from it. Sit down, absorb the pain, remember the moment forever.

The Rally at Washington DC

I decided to go visit my friends Tony and Kerry in Philadelphia. Another
motivation was John Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity taking place in
Washington, DC on Saturday. We had all decided to go.

We drove into the city, smoked and caught the metro; I really enjoy
riding public transit in new places. The subway took us into the city
and the mall. We walked towards the crowds and noise and found the
rally.

The crowds were immense! The place was over run with great
people-watching. The signs and costumes of clever people having a good
time.

We didn't really get to watch the speeches, the rally itself; it was too
big to get to the middle of and too distracting to focus on what could
hear. So we just flocked with the herds, went to the capital building,
supreme court, walked around the city trying to find a bar.

We ended up finding one in a hotel lobby, far from the rally, but still
packed beyond capacity. It took us a while, but we ordered beers from
the wet bar, then sat on the floor of the lobby to drink them.

It was fantastic, the energy was inspiring. That city was so unreal to
me before this, kind of a ficticious place. The history and power of it
took me off guard as I walked it's streets, seeing it for the first
time.

I'd like to come back soon.
--sushisticks

FORA.tv - David de Rothschild: The Plastiki Expedition

FORA.tv - David de Rothschild: The Plastiki Expedition

How America Can Rise Again...

This is a great article, I'll talk about it soon.

How America Can Rise Again - Magazine - The Atlantic

The Bible.. Just Plain Bullshit

Penn & Teller have this great Bible debunking. I'm really getting into this show.

The Bible.. Just Plain Bullshit Video by 406 White Boy (2) - MySpace Video

I want to intellectualize

--sushisticks

Google to Fund Offshore Power Project

I just read that Google is going to partner with two other companies,
Good Energies and Marubeni Corp, to begin a project titled the Atlantic
Wind Connection. These companies have committed to build a 350 mile
electricity transmission line 10 - 15 miles off the East Coast of the
United States, from Virginia to New Jersey.

They estimate the cost could reach $20 billion and be completed in 2020.
Construction is due to begin in 2013 due to regulatory hurdles. They
have committed to building the transmission lines only, this is the
basic infrastructure to support offshore wind turbines and the first of
its kind to be built off the East Coast.

I imagine that leases will be sold to wind turbine operators to tap into
the infrastructure. It's a good business model which could create a low
risk, perpetual revenue stream.

Also, I like this new focus on the ocean for energy. We have oil
platforms already, fleets of transporters, etc. I think that the oceans
hold huge potential for our future, it's exciting and adventurous.
Projects like this will give us another reason to live and work on the
seas. With more people depending on it, a meme of consciousness could
build and make our race better stewards of it. It might bring us back to
a time when the oceans were more revered and sacred. Getting us closer
to a childhood dream of mine, adventure on the high seas.

--sushisticks

Homeless in training

I'm remembering a phase of my childhood where I really liked to sleep
outside, in our yard, with a sheet tacked up to our fence. My little
sister, Audrey, camped out with me sometimes. It was an adventure, and
practice homelessness.
--sushisticks

A tell

I'm developing this nervous habit, a tell, where I'll ring my hands and
fingers. It started as an impulse to spin my wedding ring. It's becoming
a bad habit. I hate it. It's an outward expression of inner turmoil that
boils over and out of me.
--sushisticks

Dollars and good sencts

I've always been broke with a broke sort attitude. I'm just now learning
about money. I see that it's a pretty fluid things and a lot depends on
your mindset.

I grew up knowing we had no money. I stood in stores for much of my
youth, hung around malls with nothing in my pockets but my keys.
Eventually, I learned to steal.

--sushisticks

Testing ze photo

My boys Mike and JC. I'm the dork in the middle.

Testing

I wonder how many people want to limit how much they feel and censor
what they experience?

Bill Clinton gives us an action plan

So, along with John Stewart's awesome announcement on Sept. 16th of his Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington DC, he had Bill Clinton on for an interview. I ended up logging on and watching the entire interview and the former President does a great job giving a few examples of what we could do to turn the economy around. The link to watch it is below:

Bill Clinton's Extended Interview with John Stewart

It's frustrating that there are really good steps that we can take, but have such a hard time implementing. Anyway, I like what he says about taking job postings that have been open for more than three weeks and providing the funding for on-the-job training to help applicants close the skill deficit; help bring down the unemployment rate and get people active that collecting unemployment benefits.

Also an interesting note, one that we point out to our investors at work all the time, private corporations and the public have trillions of dollars on the sideline right now, waiting for the green light to invest. A big reason they haven't is because of the political landscape that is causing so much uncertainty; tax rates in limbo, a possible change of leadership ideology and a highly polarized debate.

I hope that we can have a realistic debate about what to do from here. John Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" sounds like a great attempt to publicize the opinions of the moderate, who I think are the majority in this country, and becoming increasingly disgusted with the polarization and power given to the extremes of our political landscape. 

Anyway, as a pessimist of human nature and having an unhealthy propensity towards a just Apocalypse, I doubt we'll achieve any bi-partisan agreements. However, I am greatly amused by this rift within the GOP. These Tea Party people are a real Godsend.

A few thoughts on the eventual tipping point of our economy...

I recently found this video on Flora.tv. Which is a great resource for all sorts of academic lectures. This lecture by David Harvey and accompanying animation has done a fantastic job of illustrating what has happened to cause the financial crisis. It also explains the fundamental flaws in democracy and capitalism that prevent any crisis from ever truly being solved.

It's pretty wonderful. I suggest viewing it a few times to understand it. I have watched it several times myself. The embedded video below cuts it off at 10 minutes, so watch the full programs at Flora. It's actually only 11 minutes total.

Oh, and welcome to my new blog.



What I'd really like to discuss about the video today is the time-line that he lays out concerning Reaganomics and the steady decline of wages since the 70's. We are in this time-line now, follow is logic further to see where we are going.

There is a continual problem here, David states that "capitalism never solves it's crisis problems, it just moves them around geographically". There has continued to be financiers approaching each problem to come up with a way to repackage and "circumvent the barrier"; never actually solving anything. I love how he says, "each crisis is defined by how we handled the last one", or something like that.

These ideas first occurred to me during my undergraduate study at the University of Utah. I was walking home from a finance class and walking through these very nice neighborhoods. I had been studying real-estate and could deduce the different ages of the homes I passed. Through casual anthropological observation I noticed that the older homes had newer homes between them and figured that the original owners had sold their land to someone who would then build on it and get the benefits of the established neighborhood. Whatever their personal reasons for doing this, they were cashing in on their assets to raise capital. Now this capital wasn't earned traditionally, through hard work or ingenuity, it was acquired by cashing in on the capital accumulation of their assets.

I then thought, "What will the next generation do to supplement their income?".  This was before the housing bubble burst and advertisements for home equity lines of credit were being broadcast constantly from every forum. This was the beginning of my fear for our system and my future. Since then, I have learned more and more, without finding anything but madness to comfort my fears.

Anyone who has toasted a drink with me a few times, may have noticed my occasional dedication, "To the coming Marxist revolution", which will get a smile or a chuckle now and again. I'm not so much recycling my jokes, but rather cementing the idea in my mind that change is inevitable. A specific change. This economic cycle that we are in is much larger than a couple of election terms. The politics of it, span multiple generations and parties in power. So much momentum that keeps building on itself, and it only takes casual interest in Washington now to see that legislating a smooth transition towards a better, more secure system will be impossible. IMPOSSIBLE! The roots of the current system is like a tumor that has grappled the heart of the body, and to remove it would be it's death.

Hahaha! Why so serious? Well, I'm occasionally prone to dramatics. However, I'm kinda off point here. Wages have declined steadily in the past 40 years. We have dealt with it by taking on more and more debt, publicly and privately. We have also successfully lowered the cost of living by outsourcing labor and becoming more efficient. Oh, and through household innovations, we have been able to send the wives in mass into the workforce. An interesting note here, a triumph of feminism to surpass that glass ceiling and successfully enter the world of business. However, now it's difficult and rare for a family to sustain itself on one income alone. Interesting comedy of errors punishing our hubris I think.

We are approaching something soon, because as you look closely at each crisis and it's "solution" and you understand how these things compound on each other, I really feel like we are playing the last of our cards and have painted ourselves into a corner. We cannot increase wages. For starters, unemployment is too high to justify that, and second it would cause inflation (especially following the monetary policies of the last several years). We cannot sustainably take on any more debt, try asking the Tea Party about that one, or try calling your credit card company. I think that we have nearly maximized our efficiencies through technology and outsourcing. Finally, unless I can take on another wife, I think that our household wage earners max out at 2.

There are other solutions out there I am sure, radical new technology, etc. I know that my analysis is fairly limited, but it at least outlines my concern; justifies my sense of concern. My true feelings are excitement though, I would like to see how this all plays out.