photo of the day

good photographer
super hot photo
that'll be all for today

[via nejat talas]

would you like a green stairway, why yes i would!

this building has a great clean design. it's a box shell, but hides a grass stairway to a green roof. the back of the stairway is in the center of the photo above.


for some reason a beautiful curve like the one created by the bottom of the stairway that expands to meet the left wall is a nice juxtaposition to the strong angles of the box frame of the house. (that sounded nerdy than required... it's nice when curves and straight lines are mixed - there much better)


a awesome view from the staircase. the coolest thing is you can only access the roof from inside the house...


view from the roof.


view from inside, looking at the staircase.

[via contemporist, the architects are kwk promes]

are we all the same?

this is a pretty cool concept that this photographer came up with. from what i can tell i likes setting up for photos and loves photoshop. he takes photos from the same location, over and over again and compiles different people from different images to create a theme... i'm not sure if all the of the people in the image were taken at that location or if they were transplant from an entirely different location. but based on the lighting, i'm guessing they were... otherwise he's photoshop skills would be utterly insane.

cellphones

all in red

taking photos in times square

women

kids, kids, kids (i love this one... it's the same location as the top one)

[via v1 gallery]

i love simple things

so when i was in elementary school - i used to have an old braun travel alarm clock as my bedside clock. i don't remember how i got it, i definitely didn't buy it myself, but i remember it was very easy to use, just two simple dials in the back, one to adjust the time and another for the alarm. there was button on the top to set the alarm and that was it.

over the years, i lost the clock (probably between house moves we did as a family) but i remember trying to buy one a few years back, but couldn't find the one i wanted. i thought about getting it as a travel clock. but like most people i've switched to using my cellphone as an alarm clock, but there is something great about using a simple analog clock and leaving the cellphone on the other side of the table.

i'm not sure if i'll get one (maybe when i start working on the road a lot next year) in the meantime my cellphone seems to work alright, even if it seems i have to keep on living the digital lifestyle.

[reminded by valet]

best sushi deal in town

so M told me about this place that has good sushi (with an all you can eat option for $20) that was nearby. i scoffed at the idea since e-town doesn't have great sushi options (i don't think that chicago has great options as compared to bigger markets on the coasts (NYC, LA, SF, etc.) but this place was great... sure it's not going to be 5 star sushi, but it was fresh and very reasonably priced.

since it was lunchtime and went with the ramen (which is even harder to find than sushi, and it was good... not as great as the stuff in little tokyo in LA, but still - very good for what it was. it came with a side of california roll - nothing amazing but super fresh avocado which was nice.

all in it was 8 bucks which is good value. the decor looks more like a fish market than a restaurant which is probably why they don't have as much overhead. simple, white and clean. what's not to like? sure it's not fancy, but let's be fair, this is e-town anyway.

next time i'll have to go for dinner and get some real sushi.

Sea Ranch Fish Market
518 Dempster Street
Evanston, IL
847-492-8340

neoclassic: will it work?

so the whole neoclassic look is starting to surface... first it was olympus that came out with a concept that was pretty interesting - it was a mix of analog looks with digital guts and a nice fitted leather shell to round out the old school aesthetics. it looks like nikon has come out with a similar concept but this is aimed more downmarket (the olympus one had a classic rangefinder look which would have been in the 500+ range for sure. but my guess is that this one would be more mass market and in the 350+ range... since the guts of the camera would probably retail for around 250-300.

i definitely like the concept... the only probably with neoclassic design is that digital camera lifecycles are too short these days and cameras as an "investment" is no longer true. so getting a non-transferable nicely fitted leather case either built in or on top of the camera seem a bit of a waste.

but i guess we'll see... i am happy that cameras are coming out with some more innovative design.

korean fried chicken: reminds me of the good ole days

korean fried chicken always begins with the trifecta of condiments. jalapenos on the left, pickled radishes in the center and a salt/pepper blend on the right. normally you dip the chicken in the salt/pepper (since it's not seasoned) and you eat the radish and jalapenos afterwards. the radish is sweet and a bit sour and of course the jalapenos are spicy.


this is the chicken with a "salad" of shredded cabbage with a "thousand island dressing" which is actually a mix of ketchup and mayo.


you can't each chicken without beer. we had two kinds last night: OB and Hite.


we also had spicy rice cakes after the chicken (they actually ran out of chicken which is crazy for a chicken place, but it was tuesday night and i guess they weren't expecting that many people??)


this is a cold stirfried salad with conch, i had to look up what a conch was in english... it's a marine snail that lives inside those really pretty shells.


to finish off the meal we had yellow watermelon. yup yellow! never had it before, but it was amazingly sweet. they said they bought it at h-mart so i'm looking forward to picking up some soon.

Overall - it was a decent meal - i think we've had better fried chicken before, but still it was good to have some old school korean food.

Hourglass
3658 W. Lawrence Ave.
Chicago, IL 60686

spoonettes

as we all know there are some classic problems with appetizers... the largest of which is the small plate supply issue. it's always a pain to obtain a large number of plates for appetizers or you have to make the appetizers holdable without a plate. if you're attending a party or function and waiters come by with appetizers you're limited with options to things you can grab with your hands and not get messy and eat in a somewhat dignified manner right?

but not anymore - now with the new spoonettes, a spoon shaped filo dough, you can bake edible spoons to "plate" your appetizers... it will even hold liquid (or sauce) if plated just before serving without getting soggy.

it's not super cheap - 3.50 euros for twelve, but still if you're hosting a party for ten, it's not much to get a package and serve your appetizers with a little extra flare.

now if this doesn't seem like a pressing issue to you, that probably means more important things are on your mind - like the bank stress test results that came out today. but what's the fun in talking about that... spoon shaped filo dough is cutting-edge innovation.

working on the farm

every farmer starts his day off with a hardy breakfast... and in this case we mean start our day by eating breakfast at 1pm and and by hardy we mean enough fattening food to kill a cow.

above we have a waffle covered in butter and syrup, hash browns covered in grilled onions and cheese, two pieces of buttered toast, two sausage patties (which were off screen) and two or three scrambled eggs. all of this was provided by waffle house (it was my first time going there... not sure how many more times i'd go) i ate most of what you see on the screen, which did not feel good shortly after consumption. still it did feel manly.


panoramic view of part of the farm.... we shot roughly where the guy in the center of the image in standing. (click on any of these images for a large version)



panoramic view of the front of the farm from the road, super green grass and the weather was just beautiful.


tree in front of N's old house... which sat on a five acre plot... lots of grass which was nice... would make for a great place to have summer bbq's out back.


that's a day old calf - he had a twin brother who is with his mom. this one was still getting the hang of his legs so he was a little slower to run and join his mom. i was a bit to close to the fence when i was taking the photos and got a semi-aggressive visit from the mom who wanted to make sure i knew she was the boss. it was duly noted.


this is the tree that the MBA students cut down with an ax. the old fashion way. and if you were wondering... how many MBA students does it take to cut down an tree with an ax... the answer is four.

the one behind it was later also cut down. but with a chainsaw... which is also super cool but in a different and infinitely less tiring way.


what happens when you give a road flare to a bunch of exhausted guys drinking and eating chicken wings late at night? you get photos like these.

technical info:
ISO: 100
shutter: 5-8 seconds
aperture: f/4
stabilized on a car hood

overall it was a great trip, even if with the long drive and the bitch middle seat.

going to the farm

so today the roommates and i (along with two of our friends) drove seven hours to ohio to go to a farm. actually we didn't get to the farm today. we're going tmw, today we went and stayed at N's parents' place. we had a great dinner and played pool and video games in preparation for a big day of working on a farm. clearing trees and operating heavy machinery. should be a fun time.

i should mention that our friend S bought an ax so he could cut down a tree the old fashion way. that should be a riot.... then again he is canadian so maybe that will give him an edge.

more tomorrow.