I’ve been working on this project for about two weeks. Tweaking and such. I call it “Long Live Shantytown” inspired by my favorite musician Jehro. When you see the image larger there is an ‘X’ located on each piece plus you can get a little more detail than what you see here. I’ve posted larger images of each on my FlickR photostream here. I’m so hooked and intrigued by how much I’m hooked and intrigued on coastlines right now. It might be an issue….but honestly I think I just miss the water at the moment. I’ve been asked to do a pastel version of this instead of these bold colors, so I’ll post that if I get around to it.

I figured why stop with Anthony Bourdain…let’s just get on a Travel Channel roll. Sweet sweet Samantha Brown. There should be a song about you. Running around high class hotels looking so beautiful in your bikini. You can find her travel channel site, ‘Passport to Great Weekends’ here.

Samantha was probably a class clown or nerd in high school. Always hanging out in the AV room talking about episodes of star trek and how good fruit stripe gum is. And really my only thinking behind that statement is the fact that she is so nice now. She’s not a fake nice like Andrew Zimmerman can be at times, but she’s legitimately kind…which is rare. And no popular girl in high school is that kind. My fantasy would be running into her in Prague as I was coming out of my hostel hungover, and I make a superior witty statement that she can’t stop laughing at then have lunch in an outdoor tent while she convinces me to spend the night in her Travel Channel approved 5 star hotel. You can fill in the rest. Love you SB!!!

I haven’t brought up Anthony Bourdain after all these posts.  And if you don’t know who he is, Anthony is a long time chef turned author… turned successful everything relating to food.  He host’s ‘No Reservations’ on the travel channel.  But here’s my take.  I love his ‘Kitchen Confidential’ book (went through it in about 4 straight hours).  I enjoy his show, and I somewhat like the personality.

He has a blog on the travel channel site you can check out here.  Anthony is no doubt skilled and talented.  I think he is a very good ambassador to other countries when he travels, which is big in my book, but I find him a little dishonest.  Let me explain.  I think as a host, you have to know how to use humor when situations are not good.  You have to give an honest opinion and then make the guy not feel like entire crap.  And humor is how you do this.  Instead Bourdain only knows that adjective sarcastic wit.  He’s good at it, but it seems that’s all he knows.  But that’s my only one gripe with the guy.  I’d welcome him anywhere and even ate at his restaurant in Miami “Les Halles.”  One of the most memorable meals I’ve ever had.

Colby Jack cheese, sliced thin, resembles coastline of the earth at around 10,000 ft on Google Earth. It was this revelation that got me thinking about coastlines. And as you can tell from the most recent buttons post, I’m quite intrigued with the convergence of water and land. So now my next project, art-project, is to create a series exploring coastlines around the world. The pic above is a cropped snap of that project. I’m about 3/5 of the way done, and I’ll post it when it’s finalized. But that is what I have been working on instead of updating the site consistently. (Excuse #1284 of the year for not updating as often as I would like)

I guess over two years ago I purchased the Lonely Planet Blue List 2006.  It was a well designed book, but now entirely practical when it comes to an actual guide book, which was the point I suppose.  And then when the 2007 book came out, LP offered a special “Purchase the Blue List 2007 and get a free copy of Blue List 2006.”  Well, I was interested in the 2007 edition (which was orange) so I got it and gave the 2006 book to a friend.  So when 2008 came out, I’m thinking…okay…let’s wait a year and get two at one time to save money (2009 & 2008).  Well 2009 came and no Blue List.  Instead LP came out with ‘Best in Travel 2009.’ And as I assumed, they offered a free copy of 2008 Blue List with it, shown above.  So I guess LP decided the Blue List wasn’t working anymore.  Which is a bit of a shame, since it was an interestingly designed book.  Bottom line…I’m going to be pissed if they come out with Blue List 2009 and I just bought this combo.  Wow…that took way more effort to explain than what I was shooting for.

New to the Izuno Store is our SytKos Series.  4 buttons from the coastlines around Phuket, Melbourne, San Diego, and Naxos.  I am loving the patterns our coast makes, along with a few boat docks.  So I decided to make some buttons out of them.  1″ buttons.

The Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras…..AAAAAAAAHHHHHH (High pitch single tone choir music going on inside my head). I’ve been a fan of Nikon for a while, and due to budget issues, it makes it difficult to be a fan of Nikon if you know what I mean. But this lens is priced right at $109.95.

Pros: Small, Great for Travel Photography doesn’t suck up valuable luggage space. Inexpensive, at least for Nikon, you won’t loose a lot of sleep if you drop it or it gets stolen while traveling. Autofocus, works great in low light situations, all the standard stuff that makes Nikon good is in this camera.

Cons: None that I can find for travel purposes.

BinHog brings us luggage wraps to identify your terminal bag.  Personally, I think the website is outdated and it feels very old lady-like (embroidery is just out), but the bag tags are priced right, and most importantly effective when you’re standing at the carousel.  I’m thinking they should just add some plain solid colours as opposed to corny clipart, then I’d be more interested.

My favorite messenger bag company, Crumpler, redesigned their website. It takes a while to load, even for a fast connection, but it’s unique and definitely is better than their old site. And I do appreciate originality. Crumpler is a bit of a travel trend setter when it comes to messenger bags.

I’m probably not going to be making many new friends with this post, but it’s been on my mind for a while now and I feel I need to unload.

The generation I’m talking about is aged from 21-30 (more or less).  I’m in the back-middle (28) if you need to know.

1.  We romanticize hardcore partying.  Perhaps all generations have fallen into this one, but I believe we’ve maxed it out.  At least I hope.  Here’s what I mean.  Ask yourself what your parents did on a “crazy” night when they were in their early 20’s?  I would venture a guess the MPAA would rate it closer to PG than your “crazy” night.  It probably has to do with the fact that we enjoy story-telling with shock value.  After all, there is no point in telling a boring story right?  We don’t criticize our peers for a night of drunken stupidness and criminal behavior…instead we only tell their stories to our other friends who then repeats one of their own that will be sure to upstage the former.  Why is this bad?  It creates a paradigm of us that our elders constantly use against us, in turn killing any credibility we might have as a generation.

2.  We grew the reality TV scene.  Probably not the inventors, but we were the target market.  Yes…I’m guilty too…but purely from a social experiment state of mind

3.  We tried so hard to be cool, we forgot why we wanted to be cool.  Hence…hipsters.  We didn’t learn from our parents and we are still stuck in a material world.  Damn…and I thought that wearing overly warm unzipped jackets and non-prescription eyeglasses was the solution. But it goes beyond hipsters…we justify and find reasons to be proud of being a redneck, proud of being an asshole, proud of being something that just 15 years ago we would never want to be.

4.  I see no true rebellious activity.  Instead we scrap around our repetitive weekday jobs and bitch about it.  Return home to our shitty apartment or parent’s spare bedroom and do nothing about it.  If there are those out there that have rebelled against this monotonous routine they are stronger than I, and the three I know about are truly happy.  I hope someone stands up and makes their point on a mass scale someday.

There are more reasons, don’t have the ambition (reason #5) to finish anything right now.  I will follow up with this in another post soon.