Beings of the Earth, Aloha from LA !

Time flies. On the cosmic calendar, the history of the universe as represented by single earth year, humans have existed for only the last few seconds of December 31st. The lesson here can be seen in two ways - either existence is fleeting and nothing really matters much (not so fresh) OR you can acknowledge that we aren't guaranteed much time my amigos, so make the most of it and celebrate the perpetuity of our cosmic calendar's New Years Eve!

And so begins this monologue - 2:37am - it's pitch black outside and a slight breeze is somehow managing to creep through the train yards diesel grit that clings to my window screens. I've got to be in San Diego by lunch time tomorrow so I've decided to get pumped up on red bull and super noodles and send some love your way - as usual I've separated the email into BRIEF and EXTENDED versions.


BRIEF UPDATE:

Pics:
Four galleries have been added at:
http://snaps.projectfresh.com/
EAST COAST TRIP - NYC - including Wired's NextFest Conference and Providence.
LONDON - 27th Birthday Fiesta and two weeks of enjoying 'the old country'.
CAMDEN, MAINE - Volunteering at the Pop!Tech Conference.
LOS ANGLES - Back home for Halloween Hilarity.

Upcoming Trips:
NYC - On the 17th November - RISD Portfolio Reviewer at Art College Day!
ITHACA - On the 21th for Thanksgiving with the siblings!
LOS ANGELES - Back 'home' on the 28th.
and then.....
BANGKOK - One way ticket on the 19th of December :)



Projects:
CVZ Contemporary Gallery got an improved interface and more artists and work!
http://cvzcontemporary.com

My new customizable folio system is slowly beginning to emerge into Version 1:
http://foliohub.com/development/index.php?site_id=1

This is just a temporary, and as the dummy text shows, not yet complete test site for the legendary NYC artist John Hung Ha. It has still to be filled with his most recent work and details but with this structure I'll be able to give creatives a tool with which they can grow their audience, showcase and even sell their work online - all colors, styles and content completely managed by them and on their own domain - right through the web browser. There's some interesting features like random loading of the home and gallery pages images for the "fresh every time feel". Because that's just how I roll :)



EXTENDED UPDATE:

I feel this burning that there is simply not enough time in the day. If you take what you WANT to do, divide it by what you HAVE to do and then multiply what you CAN do - the old (Wtd/Htd) x Cd - you're often left with a remainder that you just have to come to smile and terms with. Nonetheless, it's time to maximize experience, explode the comfort zone and otherwise just shake it like a polaroid picture.

October was a solid month of travel and made me wonder why I even bother paying rent. While I did have some good nights rest I also slept in an airport, on numerous folding bed contraptions and on a faux-leather couch where I woke up with a possessive cat half lying on my face. And I'm allergic to cats. Here's a little round up of the craziness!


East Coast - NYC, Wired's NextFest + Providence
(http://snaps.projectfresh.com/albums/2006-09-30-East-Coast/index.html)

First of all, love HAS to go out to my incomparable ex-step-cousin-in-law Gilles who always makes sure that I'm not homeless - if sheer goodness has ever been fleshified into a man-mold and sent to walk the earth he is that being :)

The RISD posse in strong in NYC - hundreds of talented designers growing like some sort of rampant, yet beneficial bacteria that promises to infect the earth with it's sweetly creative mucus. LA also has a huge energy to it, but there's something about NYC where you're constantly interacting with people, even if it's just moving out of the way of a vomiting hobo, that really makes every day seem dynamic. The honorable Carlo von Zeitschel threw a great soiree for CVZ Contemporary's new space and the party eventually spilled out onto the streets and into hazy oblivion soon after that.

My final few days there perfectly overlapped with Wired's NextFest conference - an unbelievable showcase of cutting edge technology, organized into a few overarching categories: health, home, auto, entertainment, communication etc... Laser Harps, Vein Viewer, Huge Touchscreens and even gamers finally getting off their couches and fighting large headed Bruce Lees - we were all waiting for the day. The highlight has to be Brainball though - each player donned a brainwave monitoring headband and a ball was placed in the middle of the table. Whoever had more active brain patterns ATTRACTED the ball, and if it reached their circle they lost. BUT people would begin to win, then get excited, then it would come back their way! And so on, until the loser gets shocked with 12,000 watts via electrodes in the seat. Not really, but I strongly suggested it - until I was asked to leave the area.


Providence

It's my fun and fancy treat to take the train from NYC to Providence. You can take the bus for less, but on the train you get more room, you get to plug in your laptop and best of all, if you sit on the right side of the train you get great views of the coast much of the way up to Ptown. Early October is a pretty special time to be in Providence too because it's Festival of the Birthday Trio. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd represent the respective birthdays of the lovely Tai, solid Eric and incorrigible D. The few days that I crashed with them and their lovely cats was spent in a blur of tequila infused celebration, boisterous freestyling (DJ'd by Sensual Dan) and while we weren't able to go to the King Richard's Faire because of rain we did manage to fit in some rather professional bowling.

While it's sad to say that sleepy Providence is beginning to lost some of it's quiet charm - it's still a great place to visit. It's interesting to drive by physical places that retain such powerful memories. A house where you met a great love, the restaurant where the arguments started, even the bench where you flatly refused to believe that kid was yours. Good times.


London - 27th Birthday Fiesta
(http://snaps.projectfresh.com/albums/2006-10-03-UK-Birthday/index.html)

On the afternoon of the 2nd October I arrived at Boston's Logan Airport to board my plane to London. I was set to arrive on the 3rd (my birthday) so that would mean I'd be turning 27 somewhere over the Atlantic. I bolstered all the charm I could and with a compassion-milking facial expression requested to be upgraded to first class as it was 'rather a special occasion'. While I didn't get the upgrade, I did get all-I-could drink champagne and small chocolates. I felt quite fancy and happy with myself and took full advantage of the offer.

Upon being greeted by my magnanimous mother, Jojo Capece, she informed me that no matter how jetlagged or hungover I was, she'd planned for a large birthday party that very night so I better look nice! Then she bought me a breakfast pie. That night felt like a someone soaked a handkerchief in concentrated nostalgia and lovingly gagged me with it. By this point I was functioning on no sleep and in every direction I turned was a face from the past; young and old, it was a great feeling to see the crazy fools again. Apart from Maz trying to get busy with Jojo the night was exceptional until I finally fell asleep in a local pub.

At this point I have to take a moment to send massive love to Lawrence and Catherine for letting me crash in the maid's quarters of their Hampstead Estate AND for not making me scrub the toilets this time. Lawrence was not only the first person to get me interested in computers but also showed me my first computer porn on a chunky laptop in the middle of an English rugby field when we were about nine years old. You're family my friend and day we decimated the wasps nest with toxic foam eternally bonded us.

The rest of the trip was spent catching up with old friends and spending time with the crazy mother. I also saw some inspiring art galleries and exhibitions - and played with digitally enhanced shadow puppets. At night I managed to coordinate hours with my California coder so maximized around 20 hours of each day! On the last day we threw a big BBQ party, but It was more comparable to a Roman feast - less door mice and feather induced vomiting but still beautifully hedonistic. I felt slightly embarrased by Jojo surprising me with a second birthday party (by now it was now late october) but that's raw maternal love and we partied well into my last night in the UK.


Boston to Camden, Maine for Pop!Tech Conference
(http://snaps.projectfresh.com/albums/2006-10-23-PopTech-Maine/index.html)

Exhaustion finally caught up with me on Virgin flight 11 in the form of the ill congested dome piece. I arrived in Boston and politely spread my more rare international cold strain to Sam's lovely family, which I'm sure won't facilitate future visits. I did manage to ingest 8 oranges, 5 sachets of Emergen-C, 2 packs of nurofen and a bowl of spicy vegetable soup all in 24 hours. The next day I was feeling better and I didn't get diarrhea like the guy in the store said I would.

After leaving Sam + Sarah's (thanks peeps!) I met up with my wonderfully energetic counterpart Tango, who runs a great blog at designverb.com. We'd wanted to go to Pop!Tech for a few years but it costs $2700 and is always sold out. How else to do it other than volunteer?! We drove up to Maine, stopping only to take some important pictures and arrived in the quaint little town of Camden just in time to don our sweet white volunteer vests and get the team debriefing. To try to describe the conference is to immediately do it injustice so I'll juxtapose the abstract with a few actual examples to really knock your socks off.

(Deep moment approaching...) Most humans tend to find a comfort zone in which they can exist with minimal chaos. It's arguably a natural quest; to establish security and ensure stability as much as possible so the tides of the unknown don't loom as threatening. Ultimately everyone has different levels of comfort and no one's level is right or wrong, it's truly a subjective nook in which you choose to dwell. However unfortunately, fear of the unknown, or even worse, fear of failure, can keep us from experiencing pivotal moments, of expanding our minds and ultimately growing as individuals.

(And ray of inspiration...) Pop!Tech represents to me the antithesis of this; 4 days of interacting with people from all different backgrounds and listening to radically diverse speakers that totally shake up the parameters within which you'd previously been comfortable. The truth is this can only be a good thing; you either experience a vector shift which can affect everything that follows OR the experience only bolsters a path you're already on. For a true master of this philosophy, even complete negatives can be flipped to a positive. That's how I made peace with wetting my bed well into my 20's :)

Some of my favorite moments were:

Will Wright - Creator of The Sims new game called Spore:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8375503330420559198
He talked about generative coding - emergence and complexity derived from simple principles.

Kevin Kelly - Futurist who by showing numeric parallels with the human brain posited that the internet is set to become the "one computer";  a massive artificial brain that is currently of about equal complexity to one human brain (1 trillion links vs. about 1 trillion synapses). He then stated that by around 2030 it should equal the complexity of ALL human brains combined. And THEN we get jetpacks.

Rodriguez and Gabriela - UNBELIEVABLE South American guitar duet that made you get chills because they were so in sync:
http://www.rodgab.com/

Juan Enriquez - Showed the ongoing flexibilty of states/borders and showed there to be a constant force of secesion happening all around the world. Why is it so hard to govern the middle east? Watch this video:
http://mapsofwar.com/ind/imperial-history.html

Richard Dawkins - While slightly dark (aided in part by the title of his new book "The Devil's Chaplain" AND his scholarly British accent - remember the Star Wars bad guys??) he made the good point that "it's about time we start criticizing faith". Faith itself is not inherently bad but humans have a nasty habit of letting it get a little out of hand. And Creationists are just ridiculous.

Kent Nichols - People have questions - and who better to answer them then a real Ninja. Ever wondered what all the hubub regarding "Net Neutrality" is about?? Now you can learn with a Ninja as your sensai:
http://askaninja.com/tags/net-neutrality

Homaro Cantu - OK, this guy is truly a unique character. Take one part chef and one part scientist, shake and you get Cantu, the founder of Moto Cuisine in Chicago. It's a steep price for the experience to eat there but if you're looking for that vanilla flavor in your wine that only real vanilla bean can give when exposed to a class 4 laser, or carbonated fruit or yif ou demand your carrots frozen in liquid nitrogen - then Moto is for you!

These are just a few of the speakers, and obviously I've only hinted at what they talked about. If you're looking for a more in depth review on any of the speakers then check Ethan Zuckerman's blog (I have no idea how he can document so intricately live):
http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?cat=23&paged=1

Other highlights for me: meeting one of my favorite photographers in the world Ed Burtynsky, who is also an incredibly cool cat.  Hanging with the hilarious Ze Frank was the second time I had the pleasure. I also got to volunteer with some excellent people including a big posse from Pratt with whom we rented a sailboat with on our final day in Camden - see you in NYC amigos! Then Tango and I packed up and drove back to boston, but not before feasting on some classic Maine "lobster rolls".

That night in Boston, the news said to watch out for patches of snow the next day - I woke up, got to the airport and smiled as I boarded the plane back to LA. I smiled more when I whipped the girls next to me at Texas Hold'em as we drank the plane out of Jack Daniels. I smiled the most when I got back home and sat on my balcony, enjoying the warmth and sunshine of LA :)


HALLOWEEN, BANGKOK AND BEYOND!
(http://snaps.projectfresh.com/albums/2006-10-31-Halloween/index.html)

There's a unique title - but I'll leave this conclusion short and sweet. Halloween - is there any funner holiday? This year we dragged it out to it's fully deserved week of partying - from Pasadena mountain tops to the West Hollywood parade! And how better to celebrate than by being a bunch of wasted crayons? Massive love goes to all you peeps for making it a beautiful blur of color and laughs!

I will firmly state that 2007 is going to be an absolutely ridiculous year. I give you my word, it will pale anything that has happened in the last 27 years, but that's a story for another time. In short, I'm moving out of LA in mid December and have a one way ticket to Bangkok on the 18th - the adventure begins with the wedding of Opur and Maz over Christmas! I'll be back in the US in time for Burning Man in late August. In between those dates - get ready for some magic of only the freshest degree!

Well my dear friends it's 8:01am and the sun has risen to reveal a beautiful day. I need to finish some early morning web work before I go down to San Diego so I must bid you adieu. In the meantime I would love to hear from you - let me know how you are, send pics or tell me to sod off and stop being a nuisance (any attention is positive). I know I send out these big emails but I guarantee that a personal email gets a personal response - or your money back!!


Yours tickled pink,


Senor El Fresco
part time usability agent - full time experience addict
_________________________________

portfolio : www.projectfresh.com
pictures : snaps.projectfresh.com
travel logs : technomad.projectfresh.com
myspace : www.myspace.com/friendlyd

aim : douglez
skype : wdcampbell3