Lamborghini forever!

Everyone knows by now that the Lamborghini Countach is the greatest car ever created and a testament to the creative spirit of mankind. We should all be proud when the aliens come, to stand up and say, "look at this. Man made this. and here's a poster as a souvenir."

Enjoy these two terrific videos youtube sent me because they thought I'd like them, and i did!





Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

i want this

this pencil sharpener is $400. It's from a company called El Casco. My pencil sharpener is from El Cosco and it works, but how do I know it's really working. I need to try this one to see what i'm missing. I'm gonna keep an eye out for this fella at garage sales etc.

Why is it $400? this is from their web site.

El Casco was founded 1920 in the Basque Country of Northern Spain as a manufacturer of revolvers. During the Great Depression the owners were driven to diversify into additional products, and in 1934 they began the production of the distinctive stapler M-5 which is shown alongside. Today, El Casco provides the finest range of desk accessories in the world, while maintaining the Hallmark of their origin by training their own apprentices, and teaching the traditional manufacturing skills. These processes are both painstaking
and manual,-all precison components are individually
numbered and assembled by hand. The flawless
mirror finish is achieved by repeated polishing
of the steel base in preparation for
the final chrome or gold plating.

I thought, "well, since it's supposed to last forever then you'd really only buy one sharpener the rest of your life so it might be an ok deal." but that doesn't really add up. i think i'll only spend another $80 on pencil sharpeners the rest of my life. oh well.

funny story

My German friend at work is like, 54 or something and he's kind of frustrated with the United States for different reasons.

a) Philadelphia is underwhelmed with his laser animation projector even though it's the only one of it's kind in the city.
b) He has to work menial job at Trader J's and the Franklin Center even though he has a good degree from a German design school.

etc..

I asked him if he ever thought about moving to LA to work in the movie biz and he told me this (to be read with a German accent):

I went to hollywood when i was a very young man and i had my art work with me and everything, you know? and i asked a taxi driver, "who should i talk to to be in the movie business? I want to show my drawings." I did not know anything! I was a very young man! The taxi driver said ," Oh, you wont be able to talk to anybody, they're all so well protected." So i said, "Ok, ok, who would you talk to if you were me?" and he said ,"Well, I guess I'd talk to Kirk Douglas" I said ,"Ok, do you know where to find him?" he said, "Yeah, i'll take you to his house" He was one of the only ones that lived in a house without a gate, you know? so i went to the door and knocked and this man answered, not Kirk Douglas, and i said, "I want to show Mr. Douglas my drawings." and the man tried to shut the door on me but i pushed back, you know, on the other side and he was getting very pissed off! Then, a Porsche.. a Porsche, you know the car? pulled up and Kirk Douglas came out. He said, "Hey, how's it going?" I was in such shock that I could not speak! I just stood there holding my drawings, you know, staring at him and he went inside and that was it! I never talked to him!

amish time.

Last week our friends Matt and Lisa came to philadelphia. We did a great job of unwinding, which is the process of becoming stress free. If the band "unwound" really lived up to their name they would look a little more like this.

this is the band we saw at the pinical of our unwinding which took place in amish country. The amish rule. The only problem i have with them is asthetic. Everything about their lifestyle looks great except their beards. The beards are fine but they need a mustache in my opinion.

Eww, yuck, stupid, i hate it.
Awww. much better.
one of my favorite parts was the gooooood flea markets and antique stores they have there. since power tools have been banned from trader joe's i've realized that hand tools are quiet, functional and not that much slower than power tools. the flea markets are chock full of very useful and sturdy hand tools along with a lot of cool old things . I have a German friend at work and he told me the amish speak german but it's hard to understand because it's from 150 years ago. what do you think about that? I want to be amish. I would have a little wooden chest at the end of my bed with a hand forged brass lock on it. Inside would be a laptop, an ipod and beer making supplies which i would use after everyone went to bed. And i would have a mustache.

Latest obsession

I'm obsessed with woodworking now. I got away from bikes. That went on for like 9 months. Then i was like, "i can't afford the bikes i want. I wish I were dead!" If I could make a bike from scratch that would rule but i can't. With woodworking you can make whatever you want (that's not really true but anyway). My symptoms are:

Going to the library on my lunch break twice a week to learn about woodworking. I've already checked out and read all the books that interest me, so now i make photocopies of Fine Woodworking magazine and read them on the train ride home. Weird?

Being on constant alert for things made out of hardwood. I can't take people throwing away antique furniture. I have a meltdown inside every wednesday morning because, "I'll miss the train if I turn around and take this__________(fill in the blank) home right now, but i can't let this oak ______(fill in the blank) go to the dump! AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRG!"

Projects so far:A box for pictures etc. I wanted to try dovetail joinery, the hallmark of fine craftsmanship. Mine are just a little wonky but, "handmade charm" right?


I tried a little carving at work on this and another sign. I don't think i'll do it again. It took too long and put me behind.

The bread rack at work kept breaking from shopping carts. I made this one to absorb impact thanks to it's integrated suspension.


See, the middle shelves just wiggle when hit.


This is cheating to show this because it was made before my obsession but i felt i needed to fluff up my projects section a bit. this is a pedal board for guitar distortion pedals. You can leave everything plugged into each other and not have to assemble everything every time you play somewhere. I painted an indian on it to give it some pazzaz.

Future projects:I found this broken- ass chair on the curb. it's danish modern and will be really cool if i fix it right.

I'm working on a bunk bed for regis, our cat. It'll be mahogany and walnut. here's what it looks like right now.Just a bunch of cut up wood in a bag but, lord willing, it will look like this:
I also plan to make a tv cabinet that doesn't look like a tv cabinet.

See you later.

My 30th Birthday Part II

My dream came true and they opened a car museum in philadelphia! Didn't you hear what i said!? oh, you don't care. Anyway, people were telling me a car museum opened and i was like, "that's cool, it's probably nascar or something but that's cool." But I looked at the website and it wasn't nascar. Heck, there were barely even any american cars there. Just fine, vintage, european sportscars. my favorite!Hey, where is this place? Oh, i know! I think we just go this way a couple blocks. It's hot out here! I'm not familiar with this part of town. Maybe it's down this way.We found it! And it's even open!
Alpha Romeo! so far so good!I don't know what to do. What happens when all your dreams come true?



Cool! Gullwing mercedes. Syd Mead owns one. I hope i can get one someday. I promise to take care of it!


A pair of matching bmws. The more cars look like toys the better. These look just like toys so they rule.A super rare cobra coupe. You can tell it's real because it's kind of rough and rusty.



Another alpha. How elegant.



This place is fun. Auburn Speedster. Heartbreaking isn't it?



Another Auburn. Wow. It's so beautiful i'm getting a toothache


Here we are fighting the crowds in the cafeteria. Philly is not a real big car town.




Lady mechanics in the girls bathroom. (emily took it. I didn't go in there)



Another 300sl. I like this one even more than the first one!




Jaguars. I'm shitting right now.



A very streamline peugeot. I'm still going.



A 1957 Ferrari Testa rossa. I have no more shit to give. I'm all out of shit.




A very lowwwwww Aston Martin. Thrilling


Bugatti. The photo speaks for itself. I wish i got my senior picture taken in this car instead of leaning against a tree.


Thanks Emily for experiencing this with me. I know you enjoyed it just as much as i did.

My 30th Birthday Part I

I had a great, classic birthday. "What kind of brand new drug did you do for your birthday?" you might ask. I didn't do any drugs! We didn't even got to a bar! We didn't even go to any peep shows! We didn't even hide any cameras in any sororities! It was really fun though. Ice cream parlor and arcade. See? classic!
First we went to The Franklin Fountain. I may have talked about it before. It's old fashioned. The early 1900's must have been the golden age of sweets. (no, i don't know that cause i was there. i wasn't born until 1978 jerk!) A lot of ice cream parlors look like they're inspired by that period. Barber shop quartets too. I notice little things sometimes.
I felt like number one because strangers kept wishing me happy birthday.

Here I'm holding up 3 fingers to represent my 30 years. the fact that it's also the sign of the gang i go to on tuesdays and weekends is a coincidence.


ON TO THE ARCADEI like this kind of basketball. I'm not letting anyone down .This is going great. i didn't even day dream and drift off like when i play real basketball.
Head to head competition. Catch the fever.
Hmmmmm. Ipod, wii, dyson, flat screen.......



We did see some strippers but they were so small they don't count.

yeah!

wow, we had a great time with the bethancourts. they'd already been to philly so we mostly focused on enjoying ourselves and takin' 'er easy instead of another philly tour. it was awesome i tell you. this weekend reinforced my belief in fun. always, always fun. foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

car show!!!! (come on be a sport)

the philly car show came here last week. i went alone which i seriously don't mind a bit.it was very fun. should i say it was fun or should i say it temporarily extinguished and insatiable desire planted in me at a very early age by my father?

ever seen one of these? it's called a nash something. it's beautiful don't you think?
this corvette was awe inspiring. i love it's thrilling color scheme.


this is a cord. does the bumper look familiar to you? you may have scene it on the show "My two dads".

ferrari seems to be back on track with this guy. i love it.


i want to make wood toys out of all these cars . emily, i need a bandsaw.