Photos from Japan

Several months ago I said something about posting photos from our trip to Japan. Tracie did me the favor of going through all of the photos from that trip and picking the best ones, which I’ve now posted in a Flickr set here. The first eight, of the Great Buddha, you may have seen before; the rest I just uploaded. There really were a number of good things about the trip, not the least of which is that both of us came back alive.

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I haven’t put any captions on the photos, but they are tagged with the city in which they were taken. If you have any questions about any of them, I’m happy to (try to) provide answers–just leave a comment here. read more

Ice Cube on The Eames

When Chris Randall (the other half of Audio Damage) tweeted the following video, he introduced it by saying, “I’m still convinced this is the best thing ever made in the history of ever.” Yes, Chris is prone to hyperbole, but there is something oddly compelling about it:

I suppose its allure has something to do with not expecting a rapper to be passionate about architecture, or not expecting anyone to draw parallels between house construction and sampling. Maybe it’s just the line, “1949 style, bitch!” Whatever the explanation, maybe it is one of the best things ever made. read more

July

Iris

Regular readers of this blog have almost certainly noticed a paucity of postings over about the last 12 months, even compared to my usual low level of activity here. The short version of the explanation is this: the last 13 months have been very difficult for Tracie, and–by association–for me as well. To put it bluntly, things have been so difficult that I haven’t particularly felt like writing about much of anything, most of the time.

Over the past month, I’ve mentally worked on a long version of the explanation. It involves two incurable illnesses, one excruciating nerve condition, more than half a dozen doctors, more appointments with doctors than I can count, many tough choices and several disappointments. The story isn’t all bad; there have been triumphs as well, and Tracie’s in good shape now. But it’s going to take some time to write, and I find myself avoiding the trip down memory lane, because that lane is really rough for the last year. read more