[liff] Dymaxion Chronofile: The Ultimate Diary

2636.I have been additcted on various levels since high school of writing a diary. It must be said that right now that compulsion is tending toward a maximum, which is neither here nor there for anyone else but fairly joyous for me; also, there are levels of doing this. I'd like to be doing it a bit more; I tend to be distracted by shiny things and life events. 

If one asked oneself who the most dedicated diarist is, what would they say? Pepys, I'd imagine. I think there's one who kicked it up to the next level, thought, and that'd be the legendary Buckminster Fuller, a man who never did anything by halves.

And so it is with his journal, or, as he coined it, his Dymaxion Chronofile. In it he pretty much saved everything - newspaper clippings, photos, pictures, correspondence, reciepts, business transaction records. Originally it was kept as a series of leather-bound scrapbooks, but eventually due to centrifugal pressures such as storage, economics, and suchlike was simply filed in boxes.

The purpose of it all was to create a study of a life in context. Knowing what happened during certain times and viewing what Bucky saved within the scope of them would, I'd presume, generate some insight as to how a human responded to his surroundings, how he changed them and how they changed him, for starters.

Today, we'd call them lifeloggers or, if it were me, hoarder. Whatever. There may be lifeloggers out there … but they are certainly no Buckminster Fuller, who was smarter than just about everyone I've ever known (no offense, everyone I've ever known).

Here's something about the Chronofile from the Stanford University collection: http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/spc/fuller/about.html,  and this link will take you to a Google image search with the appropriate keywords. About four rows down is, for some bizarre reason, a photo of Sarah Palin. I don't know why either. Sometimes you just have to savor the irony. 

Technorati Tags: Buckminster_Fuller, Dymaxion_Chronofile, Diary, Diarists

[liff] Three Girls, One Teapot

2622.Them Aussie women are a different kind of crayzee.

I mean, if they aren't planking, they're teapotting.

Some women are doing with sheep, for cryin' out loud!

I know! Sheep … in Australia?

Don't think this sort of public behavior is dangerous? It's getting people fired at Woolworths.

Kids these days. Next thing you know, it'll be jazz halls and dancing.

Technorati Tags: planking, teapotting, Australia, memes

[logo_design] That Peculiar Lightness of Logos for 2011

2612.So saith GD USA's Logolounge: the fashion trend for logos seems to be light, airy, and transcendant:

For the 2011 report, our ninth, color is still prevalent, but tinted down. Where black has been used as the strong neutral, now brown or gray is in place. Blues and greens are softer, and pinks are starting to appear.

Other degrees of lightness: Shapes are airier, lifting off the page. Designs are rising out of their 2D resting places and suggesting that they would really like to go places. In some logos, line weights are slimmer. There’s plenty of transparency, too, as if light is now able to flow right through.

The transcendancey comes from what's turning out to be a logo's new remit: it did what it does before, but now it does it in places that Paul Rand never would have guessed. You'll find a logo as a favicon, animated, in print and in electronic form … but not just one form, many of them – animated, backgrounded, what have you. As digital design tools evolve, more effects and functions, once the domain of fairly abstruse professionals, now come to the fingertips of your friendly neighborhood desktop designer.

They can be used for evil, yes, we understand that. With great power comes great responsibility. Also, large power bills.

Read the Logolounge's report here … http://www.gdusa.com/issue_2011/april/logolounge.php … and go right to the graphic that illustrates what they see as the 2011 trends here … http://www.gdusa.com/issue_2011/april/logolounge/index.php … each image has a link to a definition and examples.

H/T to Jeff Fisher.

[pdx] Keep Calm, PDX

2589.My version of a popular meme, brought on by an extended browse at the Paper Zone earlier today:

It's words to live by, peoples.

[pdx] Paula Deen Riding A Unicorn Spirit Over Portland, Y'all!

2576.Since Portland is known as a foodie town, and Paula Deen IS food, y'all, what would be more perfect than a union of the Deenzilla and the awesum unicorn spirit of Portland?

I know!

Your meme of the day: Paula Deen Riding Things. Here: http://pauladeenridingthings.com/. They even got Paulas you can insert into your own graphics and submit.

Which I have done.

[liff] Everything I Needed To Know I Learned From War Of The Worlds

2561.

Just some basic truths.



Go here to read witticisms.

Technorati Tags: War of the Worlds

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[net] A Rising Facebook Meme Lifts All Cartoon Character Blogs

2545.

Any uptick in hits on my blog has been a cause for private celebration. Since I haven't yet figured out how to incite the national love affair with me I so richly deserve, it's been a bit like trying to induce lightning to strike - and happens about as often (there's a corollary to Murphy's Law which I've codified that essentially states that while it is true that if anything can go wrong it will go wrong at the most inopportune moment, it most certainly will not come when you actively attempt to induce it (but you won't keep it away permanently by inviting it)).

So, when it happens, it's a treat ... but the real triumph comes in finding out why.

For the last two or three days, I've been notching around two-three hundred hits a day, a welcome influx. I've deduced why. Apparently there's a Facebook meme in full effect, where everyone is replacing their profile pic with their favorite cartoon character. In as much as I am my own favorite cartoon character, I resisted the bandwagon for a while, then, realizing that I did quite adore Speed Racer (who had to duke it out with Tintin), I changed my Facebook avatar for a little bit to the illustration you see left.

After this I found out that this has something to do with an online awareness campaign about child abuse. Being against child abuse, I didn't really have a problem with that, though one would want to do something a little more material, I'd think.

But the real reason I did it was to marvel at the connectedness of things these days, and that the virtual sphere is just as chaotic in its way as the real. You see, the endless searches for "cartoon character" is pinging this off-the-cuff article like mad.

Traffic is still fun, though. So I'll just enjoy it and hope people stop by to read the rest.

On Facebook I'm http://www.facebook.com/samueljohnklein, and on Twitter I'm http://www.twitter.com/sjkpdx, of course.

Technorati Tags: Memes, Facebook Memes, Speed Racer, ZehnKatzen, Samuel John Klein

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Portland Street Mnemonics Make The New York Times

2140.Okay, well, the comments of a regular feature anyway.

One of the residents of the sidebar is a couple of Portland street name mnemonics. It'd be fantastic if I could take the credit for them, but while I, amazingly enough, inspired them, they aren't my composition. But they are nifty. Today, via the miracle of Google alerts, I saw that this humble place of woolgathering was namechecked by a commenter to the "Schott's Vocab" column, identifying himself as one Matthew G. Miller:

And Samuel John Klein has posted three more–covering more streets and helping us remember the order of which M and which C streets come first–on his blog The ZehnKatzen Times in a posting January 14, 2009:

The colon there at the end was as in the original; presumably the commenter ran out of room. The 14 Jan 09 post which mentions this is at the end of this rabbit hole, but if you don't feel like clicking yet another link that has a target="_blank" attribute, I'll save you a step.

The streets, in order from north to south starting from SW Ankeny Street (1 short block south of West Burnside, which should need no introduction) and continuing through the PSU district, run as follows:

Ankeny, Ash, Pine, Oak, Stark, Washington, Alder, Morrison, Yamhill, Taylor, Salmon, Main, Madison, Jefferson, Columbia, Clay, Market, Mill, Montgomery, Harrison, Hall, College, Jackson.

The first submitted one, from a commenter identifying himself as JD, went as such:

All Across Portland Our Streets Wind Around Mossy Yards. Traffic Snarls May Mean Jammed Cars, Cranky Motorists Making Minimal Headway. Harried Commuters Just Love Going Slow.

Nice, simple, sweet, poetic, and topical. Mnemonic WIN. But another commenter, Dave DiNucci, pointed out that since some initials duplicate (Main-Madison, Market-Mill-Montgomery, Harrison-Hall), and gave us two alternatives that included more letters. The first one plays off the tendency of names in the Alphabet District to be named for historic Portland figures and alludes to the curious geography of the south end of the grid, where all lines pivot, and offers a sort of gently gibing editorial commentary of the fairly fashion-oriented names of the streets:

ANcestors ASsociated Portland Oregon STreets With ALphabetic MORtals, Yet Toward SAlem, MAInly MADe JEjune, COLUmnar, CLiche MARked MIxtures. MONotones HARmonize HALfway, COLLiding JAuntily.  Lines Gently SHim.

Another mnemonic WIN. But Dave wasn't finished. Knowing that Portland has its share of left-brain/right-brain thinkers, he offered another, more lyrical version which goes so far as including the whole of the name Columbia:

AN AScending Path Of STone
Wends ALong MORning Yellow Trilliums.
SAnity MAIntenance.
MADe JEalous,
COLUmbia CLeaves MARvelous MIsty MONuments,
HARsh HALcyon COLLages.
JAcob's Ladders Gorge-ously SHine.

Note also that Dave's mnemonics include streets athward the I-405/South Portland interface, which is even more nifty.

From the comment at the NYT's column comes the phrase that started it all with me. The original questor of a memorable PDX downtown mnemonic was none other than The Oregonian's quondam quotidian quipster, Jonathan Nicholas (who was in his time sort of PDX's version of Herb Caen) who, after an appeal in his column sometime back in the 80s, eventually produced a little gem of his own:

Any Portland, Oregon Sunny Weather Always Makes You Think Some More Magic Just Came Calling.

Which at least gets you through to Columbia and Clay.

We have an embarrassment of riches, each suited to a particular way of thinking, each equally memorable, so that you may never be lost amongst Portland's downtown street again. I wish I could have said that I came up with them, but I am honored to have been thought highly enough by some that they'd share them with you all here.

And thanks to Matthew G. Miller who though enough of my blog to have made a mention of it in the New York Times.

Technorati Tags: PDX, Portland, Portland streets, Portland geography, Portland memonics

Rick Astley Is Also Not Dead

2116.The Weirdest Week Ever continues, as the celebrity death hoaxes threaten to outnumber the actual celebrity deaths.

Todays not-victim? Rick Astley. Sure, he's never gonna give us up, but was life giving him up? A handful of sites reported the demise of the RickRoller using, more or less, this verbiage, with a dateline of Berlin, Germany:

Known for his 80's pop hit "Never Gonna Give You Up," the 43-year-old Rick Astley has been pronounced dead today. Astley's body was found at the Angleterre Hotel in Berlin after an ambulance responded to an emergency call from his hotel room.

Astley was found unconscious in his hotel bedroom and was unable to be resuscitated. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

Astley was in the middle of a concert tour that would have ended in late August of 2009. He was to return to the United Kingdom at that time.

The word apparently came from this site, a CNN stringer site called iReport. The Inquisitr explains iReport to us:

Unlike previous fake celebrity deaths, the use of CNN’s iReport gives this a little more legitimacy up front, at least if you don’t know how iReport works. iReport is open to all submissions without pre-publication review: I could submit a story saying Rick Astley is dead at the hands of an advanced civilization of alien music lovers and it would be published until such time CNN pulled it it.

(update 0115 30 Jun) The original story reffed above has been pulled. It's now at http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-287981, and the illustration has been replaced with a video file of the opening of The Fresh Prince of BelAir. Seriously.

Another giveaway might be that the story (allegedly by AP writer Liz Sidoti) was filed at 0100 on Monday 30 June 2009. 30 June is actually today – a Tuesday.

At this point it's almost anti-climatic to note that the surname of the writer, SIDOTI, is an anagram of the word IDIOTS.

With Rickrolling and this to his credit, Rick Astly has finally, arguably, become more famous than he deserves to be. And so it goes.

Technorati Tags: meme, celebrity death hoaxes, rick astley, rickroll

The Portland Police Mounted Unicorn Patrol, Then and Now

1970.Unicorns have been with us longer and in more remarkable ways that you might know. Our researches have uncovered this previously unreleased photo of one of the first Portland Police Bureau Mounted Unicorn Patrols ... ca, 1891:

And in modern times (ca. "now"):

Stranger and stranger, inDEED! Our guess is that the more world-weary unicorns (the ones that don't need to be tamed by a virgin) try out for the mounted patrol.

It's entirely possible that the old legends about the unicorn is a bit wrong, of course. You know, everyone has a PR flack these days ...

Technorati Tags: Portland, Unicorns, Portland Unicorn Burial Ground, Portland Police Mounted Patrol, Portland Police Mounted Unicorn Patrol, Portland Unicorns

Randy Leonard and The Black Unicorn

1961.Back in the early days of the Attorney General campaign, Randy Leonard introduced John Kroger to the peoples at a photo-op in downtown Portland (the following photo from here):

It was the beginning of a successful campaign to put the most dynamic AG we've seen for a great long time in office.

But did they know they had a visitor? After analyzing the photo, we found out:

Yes. It's the Black Unicorn.

Did his presence bless the campaign? Was the Black Unicorn simply looking on (as unicorns are wont to do, keeping their own counsel, as they do)? We find something oddly compelling about Randy, maybe he does, too.

One thing's for certain; we've been analyzing photos from the Macpherson campaign for a while now. Not one unicorn ever went anywhere near him.

And so that one goes.

Technorati Tags: Portland built on an ancient unicorn burial ground, Portland, Unicorns, Portland Unicorns, teh funnay, Randy Leonard, John Kroger

Towards A More Postcard-Friendly Unicorn

1953.It has been pointed out to me that "UNICORNS BITCHEZ!!!111!!!" might not play so well amongst the more sophisticated amongst us (which I thought I wuz, but see how I am). So I've changed the type. Now available here for the asking, a more modest unicorn graphic with more warm and welcoming message:

Magical, yes?

I expect this to be up in the NYT within the week. It was meant to be.

Expect it in bus shelters soons after. If Travel Portland wants to use it, thaz' cool, just credit me.

NB: The Portland Photo is CC-SA-BY-2.5 licensed by Eric Baetscher. I got it from here. The unicorn graphic I scraped off my hard drive somewhere; if you recognize it, just shout out, and I'll credit.

Technorati Tags: Portland, Portland Humor, Unicorn Burial Ground, Portland Built On An Ancient Unicorn Burial Ground, liff, liff in PDX

Factish :Portland Is Built On An Ancient Unicorn Burial Ground

1948.It's true!

So saith Dave, who knows about these things.

Technorati Tags: life in Portland, Portland Oregon, Portland Culinaria, The so-called Pearl District

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, or Aretha Franklin's Hat Spotted in PDX (updated)

1934.

And I just realized, as much as I enjoy Kimberly, Tony, Joe, and Matt, there's one person who needs a touch of class more than most, and who are we to deny him?

It is, as some acquaintances might say, fabulous!

Technorati Tags: Internet Memes, Memes, KPTV Fox 12, Channel 12, Joe V, Tony Martinez, Kimberly Maus, Matt Davis, Portland Mercury, Aretha Franklin's Hat, Lars Larson

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