The Grittiest Tomato

Here in San Francisco there exists numerous urban gardens tended by green thumbs bent on having a small pastoral slice of life. I work in the Civic Center area of San Francisco, where there are wonderfully cared public gardens in the South of Market Area. These gardens are intentionally planted and make for a quiet lunchtime to mellow out and relax. They are peaceful retreats from the workplace and the urban flux of noise, grit, broken bottles and the smell of homeless urine.


I walk by the intersection of Market Street and 10th Street every day on my way to and from work. There exists a vacant lot of debris and rubble from a previous building.

To my surprise, I saw a wild tomato plant sprouting from the broken concrete and brick just inside the chain link surrounding the site.



Nature and chance will never cease to amaze me. How little tomato plant could sprout in such a seemingly inhospitable place is confounding, but offers the biggest pleasure of surprise and wonder.

The plant had two other smaller tomatoes beginning to emerge and I hope they make it to full ripeness.

I can't help but wonder how they got here. Some errant seed blown by the wind? Did someone discard a half eaten sandwich with a slice of tomato? No matter how, my day of discovering this was enlightened with an early morning smile, appreciating a small patch of wilderness in an urban setting.

Dinosaurs & Robots Architecture Roundtable

I have to admit, I've been lack on my blogging responsibilities. None the less, Mister Jalopy over at Dinosaurs and Robots has posted some of my thoughts regarding a previous post of his on architecture and materials. Have a looky see here.

Original post I responded to here.

Bernie Mac & Issac Hayes, RIP

Both of these cultural icons deserve to be remembered.

Not A Sensible Weapon Of Choice

Some genius thought it would be a good idea to rob a store with a palm frond. Makes for better performance art.

Video of the crime.

Link, via

Skate Study House

Inspired by iconic mid century modern artifacts from the Case Study Houses, Blends has organized an exhibit of furniture design made from skateboards and skate paraphernalia called Skate Study House

I have always viewed skating as a legitimate methodology for design, since skating teaches one about the infinite possibilities in a given set of seemingly limited circumstances. This show looks fun and who wouldn't want a George Nelson Ball Clock made of skateboard wheels (shown at left). Stop by their Los Angeles store to see the goods on display over the next week or order via the website

Via

Simulacra

Strange Maps has a nice post of the America's profiled in a stain of jam.

These things are fantastic when observed and just recently my coworker Marcus noticed Mickey Mouse in a coffee stain on our break room counter top. Unfortunately our office manager has no soul and promptly wiped up the apparition with a wet sponge.

One of my favorite holy simulacra is The Virgin Mary appearing as a stalactite of ice in a Texas grocery store freezer. Apparently prayers have been answered, cancer was cured..."and stuff like that." Link

Have Ax, Will Travel

A blog post on Dinosaurs & Robots has a nice narrative of Ed Kienholz taking justice on a TWA customer service center in 1968 due to a package of his damaged beyond repair during flight. Truly ballsy and inspiring to say the least. Link

Not that I'm condoning violence or vandalism at airports or anything, but you gotta hand it to Kienholz for living up to 'An Eye for An Eye' credo for a Tiffany lampshade.

Yelle "ACDG" Remix Video

Absolutely amazing shit. Wish I could rock like this.

Running With The Devil

One of my finer memories as an adolescent was attending a Van Halen concert at the Forum in Los Angeles for their 1984 tour. I was 14 years old and went to the show with my dad who had picked up the tickets. They were excellent seats, loge seats just above the floor and off the left side of the stage. We could see it all, we were where the action was happening.

I consider myself very fortunate to have been to that show and seen the real deal line up, before Van Halen went into those bad, bad years with that Hagar guy.

David Lee Roth is a showman, a slap stick rock and roller who knows how live life on a stage and keep you entertained. During a break between songs Diamond Dave says to the crowd, "Hey check out all you Southern California people all high on Northern California pot." My otherwise mellow father let out quiet the yell and joined in on the cheers of about 18,000 stoners. Ah, Mr. Roth thanks for revealing my dad's a closet pothead.

I wasn't too keen on 'Jump' or some of the other syth crap they were dabbling with, but went nuts for just about any other song. Especially the tracks on Van Halen I, II and Fair Warning. Good stuff indeed.

Chunklet has posted an isolated vocal recording of David Lee Roth singing "Running With The Devil" Have a listen here. Via

Free Rice

Some people get hooked on phonics. I'm hooked on free rice. Freerice.com is a website with an interactive vocabulary game and an admirable goal of donating 20 grains of rice for each vocab question you answer correctly.

It's pretty simple with multiple choice questions for vocabaulary definitions. What's fun is for each question you get correct, the next question gets harder. If you answer wrong, the next question is easier.

Before you know it you'll be playing the game and will have donated 1000's of grains of rice.

According to the site, Free Rice has two goals:

1- Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
2- Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

This is possible due the sponsors who advertise on the site. The donations are made to the United Nations World Food Programme. Learn more about where the rice goes by clicking here.