Painting Completed....

Painting Completed....
Originally uploaded by snailsone.

This is a 10' x 56" painting that was imagined first

as a collage...This represents the search for a father

figure and the meaning of family...

3M Corp meets Milan...For those AV Tech geeks...

I know what I want for Christmas...

3M digital media system 710 projector with Vikuiti super close projection
Inspired by sports car design that has evolved over the years, the 3M Digital Media System 710 is much more than a standard projector. Vikuiti Super Close projection technology allows consumers to project high-quality, large images from a very short distance, making it ideal for business and home entertainment use. The 3M Digital Media System 710 features true XGA resolution, a USB media reader, Dolby 5.1 audio system and a built-in DVD player. 3M Digital Media System 710 will be available third quarter 2006. Designer: Design Group Italia; sold worldwide at a suggested retail price of $2,995.

Music "intelligence"...

Software: "Music intelligence" systems that can distinguish hits from misses could change the way pop music is made and marketed...The versificator, a machine described in George Orwell's novel "1984", automatically generated music for the hapless masses...

>>It was once thought laughable that a human being could be taken out of the creative process, but with today's software, not that many people are laughing, the execs are laughing their way to the bank maybe...

The software uses a process called "spectral deconvolution" to isolate and analyse around 30 parameters that define a piece of music, including such things as sonic billiance, octave, cadence, frequency range, fullness of sound, chord progression, timbre and "bend" (variations in pitch at the beginning and end of the same note). "songs conform to a limited number of mathematical equations," says Mike McCready of Platinum Blue, a music intellegence company based in New York...from the Economist...

Anyways, I also found this music map that when you plug in a band or musician, it will map what other artists might be likable...Needs some work, but it's interesting...The closer one musician/band is to another, the more likely you are to enjoy them...

Stem and Mickey Mouse

Stem and Mickey
Originally uploaded by snailsone.

Stem gave me this drawing...He's one of the biggest influences that I have been blessed to know...To all those Mickey Mouse painters, "You're Not Nastyer"...Heh...

Cope2's Graffiti 2006 show...

Located at MCCAIG & WELLES GALLERY in Brooklyn,
FEATURING:
COPE2 T-KID DELTA2 INK76 SONIC FLITE PART
ESPO EWOK CES EAZ DENZ TILT ZORI + DEC
KLOR + SCIEN OVIE JAES JEZ BEEN3
INDIE TOOFLY DEMER ACET + THEMO DEEM

Great canvasses, good to see familia at opening reception...Thanks to Cope for continuing the struggle...

Thanks Mark Ecko...

Manhattan: Graffiti-Tool Ban Is Reversed

By THOMAS J. LUECK

Published: June 9, 2006 NY Times

In a setback to the city's attempt to cut down on graffiti, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit refused yesterday to stay an earlier court ruling that struck down a law intended to keep graffiti tools away from young vandals. The law, which took effect in January, prohibits the sale of spray paint and broad-tipped markers to people up to 21 years old. The appeals court ruling means that the law cannot be enforced while the earlier court ruling, issued on May 1, is appealed.

>>The opposition for the case said that Mark Ecko was just trying to publicize his clothing company because he has a vested interest in the population that buys his stuff...I believe painting is a rite of passage, a training ground for creativity...graff has produced some amazing artists and art...It would be a shame if the courts take it away from future generations because it decreases violence in the streets, gives pride to neighborhoods...I mean yeah there's always going to be some bullshit between writers, but without the artistic expression, I think that would be the real crime...It is a craft handed down from generations now, not a trend...But that is my opinion...May the force be with all the diehard masters...

The Day After...

\"
Originally uploaded by snailsone
.

Here is a project I did for college...
the Bipolar Seven Deadly Sins...
Frankenstein, a man-made monster fabricated of human body parts stands in front of a DNA strand, telling of stem cell research and cloning in the future and Ponce de Leon and the telomerase enzyme, the supposed fountain of youth enzyme representing Envy...
Jerry Falwell and Daffy Duck..."Mine, mine, mine, rich rich rich..."





Shiny and red-faced after a few drinks...Oh what a knight...I made the rubber stamp for the martini glasses when I worked at Oakland Rubber Stamp Company for a summer...

Nosferatu had quite an appetite too...
George Bush in front of the Pentagon with a photo I took in Boston of a lady in a wheelchair begging for change and Lucifer, the fallen angel and a Narcissus flower...

Pigpen and turning into a skeleton wasting away into nothing...

Osama and Robert Elliot, the most famous executioner of all time, with a kill record of 6 people in two different states in one day...

Candidates for the Antichrist title...

Check out the possible beasts...Here's a site that I found interesting on bible prophecy...

AC/DC - Highway To Hell

So, here we are on the highway...

SUPERSTITIOUS - Stevie Wonder

Ready for the end of the world? Here's a little mood music for you...

6.6.06

Images courtesy of NickZ...

Texas bbq...

Photo from commonplaceblog.blogspot.com...I liked it a lot...Mr. President, this is an obvious message that your approval rating, the lowest since 1945 is for real...

Electric Evolu...

Electric Fish on the Verge of Evolutionary Split
Robert Roy Brit, LiveScience Editor, LiveScience.com
Saturday, June 3, 2006 11:00 A.M. (from Yahoo.com)

Electric fish emit weak signals from an organ in their tails that serves as a battery. Different emissions signal aggression, fear or courtship. While the fish can apparently understand each others' warning signals, "They seem to only choose to mate with other fish having the same signature waveform as their own," explains neurobiologist Matt Arnegard of Cornell University.

But in the Ivindo River in Gabon, Arnegard and colleagues have found fish with the same DNA emitting distinctly different signals. The fish are likely on the verge of splitting into two species, the researchers announced today. "We think we are seeing evolution in action," Arnegard said.

Because electricity is easily transmitted in water, many species of amphibians and fish have adapted to detect weak electric signals. Some, like sharks, use it to find prey. Others, like the electric eel, generate deadly voltages for defense or to kill prey. Others emit and detect electrical signals primarily as a means to communicate with their own kind.

Electric fish are called mormyrids. The roughly 20 distinct species that have been identified in the river, by their varying DNA, each emit distinct signals, which is the basis for Arnegard's new conclusion.

The process of splitting one species into two is called speciation. Scientists figure there are two ways it can happen. Groups can become geographically separated and take on new traits as their genes mutate. Or, animals can stay together but for some reason mate selectively to form distinct groups. The latter method, called sympatric speciation, is seen to be less likely and somewhat controversial.

"Many scientists claim it's not feasible," Arnegard said. "But it could be a detection problem because speciation occurs over so many generations." Arnegard is a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Carl Hopkins, a Cornell professor who has been recording electric fish in Gabon since the 1970s. The latest finding is detailed in the June issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Arnegard cautioned that it is possible the differing electrical signals might be like varying eye color and possibly won't result in speciation. He plans to return to the site this month to continue the research project, which is funded by the National Geographic Society.

No landmarks in NYC?! What!

N.Y. POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE
UH, D.C. -- TERROR TARGETS ARE HERE

By GEOFF EARLE and NILES LATHEM Post Correspondents
A postcard blitz from Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rep. Peter King will allow the Bush administration to see for itself that such landmarks as the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty and Shea Stadium exist in New York City. The feds claimed there are no monuments in the Apple worth defending from terrorists. A postcard blitz from Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rep. Peter King will allow the Bush administration to see for itself that such landmarks as the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty and Shea Stadium exist in New York City.

June 2, 2006 -- WASHINGTON - Ticked-off New Yorkers are sending Homeland Security boss Michael Chertoff a message - "Wish you were here!" - in a postcard protest against the 40 percent cut in federal anti-terror aid to the city.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton teamed up with Rep. Peter King yesterday to mail Chertoff the first of an expected avalanche of picture postcards of New York landmarks. The Clinton and King cards - depicting the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, Shea Stadium and Metropolitan Museum of Art - began with, "Dear Secretary Chertoff, Just a quick note from one of New York's many national monuments and icons."
In their postcard featuring the Brooklyn Bridge, the message reads, "Did you know that the longest single span of the Brooklyn Bridge is 1,595 feet and that it sees 144,000 vehicle crossings everyday?"
The message on the back of the postcard featuring Shea Stadium reads, "Since its opening, Shea Stadium has attracted more than 73 million fans!"
The postcard featuring the Statue of Liberty says, "Since 1886, the Statue of Liberty has been a symbol of American liberty and ideals. But did you know that the length of Lady Liberty's hand is 16 feet and five inches?"
In each of the cards, they signed off with, "Wish you were here! Hillary and Pete."
Clinton, a Democrat, and King, a Republican who represents Long Island, want to deluge Chertoff with cards to protest his department's determination that the New York funding cut is justified. A federal analysis shockingly claimed there are no national symbols or icons in the Big Apple. * Mayor Bloomberg suggested the money may have been spread around the country like pork for political reasons.

Each New York state resident is getting $2.78 in homeland funds - including the substantial but reduced funds for New York City. But each resident of tranquil Vermont gets $17.24, while snowbound Alaskans get $11.54.

Additional reporting by Stephanie Gaskell

geoff.earle@nypost.com

Politicians make the best gangsters...

NYC graffiti artists target councilman

By SARA KUGLER, Associated Press Writer Wed May 31, 2:06 PM ET

NEW YORK - Pick a fight with graffiti artists and you can expect to see your name plastered around town.

New York's graffiti artists and their supporters have tagged City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. as their archenemy. And they are making their disgust plain by putting his name everywhere — in graffiti, on Internet message boards and in court papers challenging his crackdown.

Vallone has made graffiti his signature issue since he was first elected in 2001. He has pushed through laws that raise fines for graffiti offenders — he calls them "punks" and "miscreants" — and penalize landlords who do not clean the paint from their walls.

The former prosecutor also won passage of a law that bars the possession or purchase of spray paint, broad-tipped indelible markers and etching acid by anyone under 21.

"Art, I like. But this is not art — this is vandalism," Vallone said one recent evening as he drove through his district in Queens, where spray-painted angular scribbles and multicolored block letters wrap around buildings and underpasses.

Several young artists who say they use the restricted art supplies for legal artwork filed a federal lawsuit over the new measure, saying it violates their First Amendment right to freedom of expression.

It is a debate with a long history in New York. Those who have fought to erase graffiti over the years, including Mayors Rudolph Giuliani, David Dinkins and Ed Koch, say it is a symbol of blight and urban chaos that invites worse crimes and is often a tool of gang communication. During the 1980s, the transit agency introduced paint-resistant subway cars, robbing graffiti writers of their preferred canvas.

Graffiti artists — or graffiti vandals, as some call them — say their work is a legitimate form of art intertwined with city history and urban American culture. They decry the attempt to associate graffiti with crime and gangs.

Graffiti is "the official visual dialect of a generation," and demonizing it "takes away their legitimacy," said fashion designer Mark Ecko, who has led the legal challenges to Vallone's laws.

In January, on a giant billboard near the Manhattan Bridge, graffiti artists spray-painted in enormous bubble letters a four-letter insult followed by the councilman's name.

Also this winter, a graffiti cleanup group's trailer — which read "Sponsored by Peter Vallone Jr." on the side — was stolen, robbed of its paint buckets and rollers, and abandoned miles away in Staten Island.

Graffiti writers on Internet message boards angrily vent that "this guy seems as if he's full of himself." Some listed Vallone's district office address and noted that "the door is pretty clean."

Last year, the well-known graffiti artist Cope2 called Vallone's council offices and spewed obscenities and threats on his voice mail. Cope2, whose real name is Fernando Carlo, was picked up by police but was let go when Vallone declined to press charges.

Vallone said he does not mind being the target of attacks.

"My first reaction is that if I'm making criminals upset, I must be doing something right," said the 45-year-old father of two.

Graffiti has irritated Vallone since he was a child — the kind of rule-abiding kid who would glare at people for littering. Besides writing anti-graffiti laws, he rails against companies that use graffiti in their marketing, which he says romanticizes illegal behavior.

He wants to tighten the laws even further, and recently introduced a bill that would require a license to buy etching acid. The material, sold in art supply stores, is commonly used in artwork to etch glass, but vandals apply it to subway windows.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg created an anti-graffiti task force last year. A special police unit uses infrared cameras to catch vandals, and uses a database of photos and "tags," or graffiti artists' distinctive signatures.

The 38-year-old Carlo warned recently that Vallone is waging a losing battle.

"They're not going to wipe graffiti out. It's impossible. It's not going to happen, because it's a worldwide thing and it's never going to stop," he said.

Don't know much about biology...

Don't know much about biology...
Originally uploaded by snailsone.

Edward O. Wilson has spent a lifetime squinting at
ants and has come away with some of the biggest ideas
in evolutionary biology since Darwin. Sociobiology and
biodiversity are among the terms he popularized, as is
evolutionary biology itself.

Global warming and a folk tale...

FADING FROGS: Researchers writing in the current issue of Nature report having discovered a strong correlation between extinction of harlequin frogs, which live in Central and South America, and global warming. Apparently, the toastier temperatures are ideal for the growth of a chytrid fungus that is deadly for the amphibians.

Note: My Mom used to tell me a Korean folktale as a little girl about a bad frog who always did the opposite of what his Mom told him...She would say, "Now, you've got to learn how to croak...CROAK!" The bad frog would laugh and bark like a dog...And when it was time for chores, he ran away...Finally his Mom got very sick and thinking that her son would do the opposite, on her deathbed she requested that he bury her next to river hoping he would bury her body in the mountain...The bad frog felt so badly for how he treated his poor Mom that he listened to her last request and buried her body next to the river...Her body floated away down the river during the rains and that is why frogs cry when it is raining...

Koreans can tell some messed up stories...Heh...

Single into Multi...

MUNCHING ON THE MOVE: Algae colonies, such as the Volvox one shown here, are propelled through water by the coordinated movements of their whip-like flagella. Now a team of scientists from the University of Arizona and Brown University has found that the beating flagella also concentrate vital nutrients in front of the swimming colony. Biologists had not previously understood how a group of single-celled organisms could get the extra fuel needed to multiply and create colonies, which can include up to 50,000 individuals. This new finding shows how the algae are able to feed, explaining a critical step in the evolution from single-cell to multi-celled organisms. Above, illuminated plastic beads show the current flow created around the Volvox colony. The research is detailed in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

I voted for something and my candidate actually won...

Stylewars.com won the Webby...The site designers got the People's Choice Award...

Remembering James Conway Sr.

Though the song drives me crazy, I have to say thank you for all the chocolate cones...

"Written in E-flat major in jaunty 6/8 time, the jingle was created by an advertising agency in 1960 for the company's early radio campaigns. Though the trucks play only an instrumental version, the tune does have words:

The CREAM-i-est DREAM-i-est SOFT ice CREAM

you GET from MIS-ter SOF-tee.

FOR a re-FRESH-ing de-LIGHT su-PREME

LOOK for MIS-ter SOF-tee...."

*Also, NA-BIS-CO was written by Barry Manilow...This was explained to me on a Duck Tour of Boston by our tour guide...

Copyrights on forms, shapes and colors?

GLASS ARTISTS FACE OFF IN COURT
By Timothy Egan

Published: June 1, 2006

SEATTLE, May 31 — As an ever-moving maestro in the world where fine art and commerce converge, Dale Chihuly is perhaps the world's most successful glass artist.

Dale Chihuly in his studio last week on Lake Union in Seattle.

His clients include Bill Gates and Bill Clinton, and his elaborate installations of sea gardens and flower clusters show that mere sand transformed by fire can elevate a casino ceiling to the level of gallery spectacle.

But now Mr. Chihuly is in the midst of a hard-edged legal fight in federal court here over the distinctiveness of his creations and, more fundamentally, who owns artistic expression in the glass art world.

Mr. Chihuly has sued two glass blowers, including a longtime collaborator, for copyright infringement, accusing them of imitating his signature lopsided creations, and other designs inspired by the sea.

"About 99 percent of the ocean would be wide open," Mr. Chihuly said in an interview. "Look, all I'm trying to do is to prevent somebody from copying me directly."

The glass blowers say that Mr. Chihuly is trying to control entire forms, shapes and colors and that his brand does not extend to ancient and evolving techniques derived from the natural world.

"Just because he was inspired by the sea does not mean that no one else can use the sea to make glass art," said Bryan Rubino, the former acolyte named in the suit who worked for Mr. Chihuly as a contractor or employee for 14 years. "If anything, Mother Nature should be suing Dale Chihuly."

The suit, rare in art circles, offers a sometimes unflattering glimpse at how high-powered commercial artists like Mr. Chihuly work. The two glass blowers say that he has very little to do with much of the art, and that he sometimes buys objects and puts the Chihuly name on them, a contention that Mr. Chihuly strongly denies.

He acknowledges that he has not blown glass for 27 years, dating from a surfing accident that cost him the full range of shoulder motion, an injury that struck three years after he had lost sight in his left eye in a traffic accident.

Still, Mr. Chihuly said, he works with sketches, faxes and through exhortation. Nothing with his name on it ever came from anyone but himself, he said.

Andrew Page, editor of Glass: The Urban Glass Art Quarterly, which is published in New York, said that Mr. Chihuly deserved a high place in the pantheon of glass artists, but that the suit could hurt his reputation by igniting countercharges and opening a window into how a celebrity artist works on a mass scale.

"I think Dale Chihuly is a pure original," Mr. Page said. "He has a tremendous sense of color and composition. And he has done a tremendous amount for the field. But this lawsuit may have been the worst thing he could have done."

I agree...

Forensic Science and Mona Lisa

Forensic Science and Mona Lisa
Originally uploaded by snailsone.

Mona Lisa 'speaks'
By Toshi Maeda Wed May 31, 10:01 AM ET

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Mona Lisa's smile may always remain a mystery, but it is now possible to hear what her voice would have sounded like, thanks to a Japanese acoustics expert.

Dr Matsumi Suzuki, who generally uses his skills to help with criminal investigations, measured the face and hands of Leonardo da Vinci's famous 16th century portrait to estimate her height and create a model of her skull.

"Once we have that, we can create a voice very similar to that of the person concerned," Suzuki told Reuters in an interview at his Tokyo office last week. "We have recreated the voices of a lot of famous people that were very close to the real thing and have been
used in film dubbing." The chart of any individual's voice, known as a voice print, is unique to that person and Suzuki says he believes he has achieved 90 percent accuracy in recreating the quality of the enigmatic woman's speaking tone.

"I am the Mona Lisa. My true identity is shrouded in mystery," the portrait proclaims on a Web site at http://promotion.msn.co.jp/davinci/voice.htm. "In Mona Lisa's case, the lower part of her face is quite wide and her chin is pointed," Suzuki explained. "The extra volume means a relatively low voice, while the pointed chin adds mid-pitch tones," he added. The scientists brought in an Italian woman to add the necessary intonation to the voice. "We then had to think about what to have her say," Suzuki said. "We tried having her speak Japanese, but it didn't suit her image." Experts disagree over who was represented in the portrait, with some saying the smiling woman is Leonardo himself, or his mother.

The team also attempted to recreate Leonardo's own voice in a project timed to coincide with the release of the film "The Da Vinci Code." Suzuki said he was less confident about its accuracy because he had to work from self-portraits where the artist wore a beard, concealing the shape of his face.

Suzuki's work has made contributions to criminal investigations -- in one case after he successfully aged a person's voice by a decade. A recording of the voice was broadcast on television, leading to the apprehension of a suspect.

Wanna give a plug to Rob's new book...

Robert Lanham has a new book coming out in September, The Evangelical Right...His site for the book is full of funny religious and political stuff..."Internet Home for the Sinners destined to be left behind..." Robbie is the author of such books as the Hipster's Handbook and Food Court Druids, Cherohonkees and other creatures unique to the Republic...Rob is also creator of the site, www.freewilliamsburg.com...Are you nervous about 6/6/06?

A poem for the one who killed me...

A Kiss for the Dying

another place
void of warmth
ravaged by darkness,
Constant,
only in space,
always seeking, in motion,
speeding, consistently finding nothing,
between visions of paradise and hell,
Still...until you stand in unlit corners,
creeping closer...
until your lips,
for there were no kisses before your mouth,
And there were no dreams
except those found
Until I wake
from dying.

I was just awarded the Editor's Choice award for this poem by www.poetry.com and the International Library of Poetry...It will be printed in a hardcover collection and also will be professionally read for a 3-CD collection called The Sound of Poetry...

Banned from Television show...

Lots of pics of women clad in nothing on the back wall...Canvasses of Asian girls...There were one or two sick canvasses...hate to be a critic, but I didn't see a continuous theme in the show...The crowd was friendly, yet honestly I thought the art was mediocre...The space at the Canal Chapter in Chinatown is super hot. You get off the elevator and literally it's like 20 degrees hotter than outside...Those guys need to install fans or something...It was a group show by DAZE, CYCLE, WON, RON ENGLISH, SACHA JENKINS, RYAN MICHAEL KELLY and RAMMELLZEE. The highlight of my evening was a great dinner at my favorite Vietnamese place with my buddy Tomoko...Good food, good company, good times...Congrats to Tomoko for graduating tomorrow...She is officially an architect...