HEY JAY! LOOK I'M POSTING (finally).

I've been away for a while, but only because the world wasn't ready for my particular brand of wit and sarcasm (e.g. that Obama post from way back when. I mean seriously, I voted for the guy. AND NOW LOOK AT HIM... winning Nobel Peace Prizes. [Babetron, will you please edit my capitalization and punctuation?] Sorry folks, I went to public school... IN ORACLE, ARIZONA. Look it up. We had gangs. It was tough being a white kid. I was valedictorian, but only because I slept with the science teacher. Joking. Totally joking. She was hideous.)

If I didn't do that parentheses trick right I'm sorry. It's been a while since calculus. (I can do derivatives. I was valedictorian of my jr. high in case you are bad at reading.)

Anyway, I love that "Gold Digger" jam. It's ridiculously off the hook. And having lived in Chicago (SOUTH SIDE) I feel like I should certainly support Kanye. But, the guy is amazingly ridiculous. Can we please laugh at him and then go back to busting out some funky jams. Seriously... that song is amazing.

Also if you are wondering why I do not post more often... I AM GOING THROUGH A MORAL DILEMMA. (Not a diorama. Those include a lot more dinosaurs and vinegar + baking soda volcanoes.) I think blogs are a narcissistic stage for the self-important to proclaim their insignificant observations/victories/milestones.

Just kidding interwebs. I love you. Can I has cheeseburger? (Seriously, Babetron ... that last sentence is OK.)

So, why have I decided to revisit this rapidly decaying medium? BECAUSE... I miss you. I still hold firm that YouTube is the one quasi-successful example of anarchy. I have listened to a lot of Propaghandi and as much as I love the idea of (A)narchy (that is supposed to be an "A" with a circle around it) I know of few political ideals (I'm looking at YOU communism), anarchy included, that work as well in practice as anarchy vis-a-vis YouTube.  (If I need to explain this to you, please feel free to comment. I am an argumentative mother effer. [Is that cool? I know a couple of moms who read this blog. I'm not trying to teach your kids bad language.])

In short, if I have any knowledge to drop on the world it is this:

  * If you are living in Chicago and not going to every single Gossip show you can afford you are doing it wrong.
  * Please put in "Hank Williams III" into Pandora
(the Greek myth is way cooler). You will not be sad at the gluttony of jams that spring forth.
  * The only good turtle is turtle soup. -Shredder


I have a lot more knowledge to drop, but you are not ready for it.

Also, Babetron is seriously cute and does not dabble in such ridiculous trolling. So please don't blame her for any comments my A.I. programming has made me contribute to the interwebs.

-Tybot.

p.s. Jay... we should get into a full fledged argument about politics. I am going through a major paradigm shift. I don't think we should have elected leaders. We should resort to gladiator arenas to find the strongest and most capable. No seriously, what's so great about the electoral college? (You can't even get a degree. I've tried.*)   *babetron/editor's note: puh-dum, ching.

new york, new york

as i have been reminded this morning, our blog is out of date again. carbon is a lot bigger now, and ty and i have returned from our two-week new york trip. a few favorite pics from our fortnight vacation from real life:

outside the Met.

ty's performance art piece. (he has performed this routine multiple times now, and with various victims, though i believe i've been the only audience of the display until now.)

                           

the remains:

carbon

we have a puppy! 

his name is carbon. he's tiny and prances on grass like a little deer. (happy early birthday to me -- thanks, tybot best husband ever.) for the record, ty still says he loves the succulents more than the birds AND the puppy, but i think carbon is slowly winning him over. 

this is really how he sleeps. i melted. 

and since tybot will probably bring it up if i don't, yes, i did buy him in a grocery store parking lot while returning a RedBox dvd, with no prior intention of coming home with a puppy. most impulsive purchase i've ever made, hands down.

if you didn't already have an excuse to come visit us (even you chicago friends) now you do: we have a guest bedroom *and* a baby canine.

Pommes Frites

this post is purely an exclamation of excitement at the latest to-do on tybot's and my new york city "must" list. (for context, we're flying out there in july for our dear friend allison's wedding to lucky-as-all-getout paul and we cannot wait.)

the newest addition: Pommes Frites in the east village.

the e-mail that sold me on it (copyright allison 2009):

I just put Pommes Frites down on your list of places to go.  It just sells french fries.  Because of this, I didn't think you'd give it due weight if it were just listed on the list.  So I'm just e-mailing to underscore the importance of going:

 

1)  It has the best french fries you'll ever eat.  They're unlike any other french fries you'll ever eat.  It also has something like 50 delicious, one-of-a-kind ketchups, mayonnaises, and other sauces.  In sum, though they may just sell french fries, they sell french fries.

 

2)  It's in the east village, which is a very fun, hip, lively neighborhood, one that I highly recommend just wandering around in.  (I'll also give you the address of a basement used-book and records store and a bar with skee-ball, just in case you feel like you need destinations as you wander to pull you in different areas of the village).

 

3)  The east village is grimy, which I've only begun to appreciate.  I used to think that the city needed a good washing, but now I revel in its grime.  Pommes Frites is also appropriately grimy.  They've been frying french fries in that place for a very, very long time. 

 

4)  The french fries come in paper cones.  The old wooden (grimy, see above) tables and skinny, skinny bar against the wall have holes drilled into them, perfect for cone of french fries.

 

5)  It's a tiny place.  It's a wonder that they can do much much good (and sell enough french fries to stay open) in such a small space.

 

6)  My officemate used to go there with Keith Richard's son.  It's near an old, famous concert hall that's now a bank.  Thus, it's very rich in musical history.

 

7)  At something like less than $5, it's a steal for a meal (if you don't mind eating just fries) or a good snack when you're tired from wandering.

 

Also, can I get your address?

*****

let the countdown begin!

l'amore.

valentine's day at la caille. tres magnifique.

p.s. more updates to come. 

(we're overdue.)

Barack-O-Rama

Adromischus cristatus

Here's one of the ones I couldn't find earlier this morning:

Adromischus cristatus

i really like succulents

It seems like only a short while ago Babetron and I bought our very first succulent plants.
We now have at least thirteen varieties in the house. They are so small and weird looking, I can't help but want to collect and grow all the new varieties as we find them. So today I am going to dig around online and find photos of each of the plants I have been able to procure so far.

Crassula ovata
We have two varieties of this species:
Jade Plant













and Hobgoblin Fingers (also called Gollum Fingers)


















Anacampseros telephiastrum
















Two varieties of the Haworthia family:
Haworthia Cooper














And Haworthia Reinwardtii also known as "Zebra Pillar"


















Pachyphytum Bracteosum














We have a couple of Sempervivum plants as well.
Sempervivum arachnoideum














And also Sempervivum montanum Although it's hard to say for sure. There are so many Sempervivum plants out there. We have the generic kind purchased at Home Depot and Ikea. These are usually referred to as "Chicks and Hens"












Sedum dasyphyllum
Maybe. I know it looks like something from the Sedum family. To be honest, it is pretty hard to pin point something exactly. There are so many varieties of plants...













Crassula arborescens














There are at least three more. I know one is commonly referred to as a "Pie Plant" and I have no idea what the other two are called. But I have spent way too long on this post as it is. Also, if I made any mistakes or labeled anything incorrectly please feel free to correct me. Most of my information was just pulled from the internet doing image searches, and digging around various sites for clues.

new process

I just started building a new set of stretcher bars for my next painting last night. I've never used this process before. Actually lately I've grown pretty complacent, and have just been using 2x2" beams. they are often a little warped, or twisted so it makes the whole process less than ideal and even downright mediocre. So I've decided to buy 1x3" poplar planks and then glue a strip of 1" molding to edges. this will provide a nice lift for the canvas, and any warping in the beams themselves is almost nonexistent. My only fear at this point is the see how the frame holds up, or possibly warps once I wrap the canvas taught around the stretcher bars. Hopefully I can nullify this as much as possible using cross beams and metal joint supports.
Anyway, here is a photo of me gluing the molding to one of the poplar beams.

Two types of people in the world...

There are two types of people in the world.
1) The first type of person thinks that any cover song is "way better than the original."
2) The second type of person just had ravioli for dinner.

Actually, the post was going to originally say that the first type of person can't admit when their favorite band puts out a mediocre album. But then I was thinking about this Rage Against the Machine cover of "Straight Edge" I was listening to in the car and I just thought to myself, "Minor Threat had those fat guitar sounds! Rage sounds all flat in comparison." And I think that was one of the first times in recent memory where I didn't like the cover better than the original.

Also, how come I never update this blog anymore?

the space between two dots

Tybot drove me to work this morning, and i started waxing philosophical about direction -- a mild version of the "why am i here? where am i going?" questions you ask during life's crossroads.

it spawned from listening to the New Pornographers' Twin Cinema album this morning while getting ready. this is a band that was introduced to me via what i would later recognize as a very ugly situation, but i would never have suspected it then. at the time, i thought the band was ok -- but ironically, now years later i love the band, even with the awareness of the context. the bigger picture, if you will.

as one example of a larger point i was trying to make, i said it struck me as ironic how big twists can sometimes start in places or things you would never suspect.

anyway -- i was deep in thought, thinking about starting points and middle points and what comes next and said, "i feel like i'm at a line between the dots and don't quite know where the next dot is -- or what the big picture will end up being."

to be expected, Tybot had the answer and responded perfectly:

"yeah, like connect the dots. a lot of times it's a giraffe."







so there you have it.

i'm a girl of simple tastes

as for today, i like...

• waking up to sunshine on a Friday morning and knowing i don't have to go to work
• being out the door by 9:30 a.m., with Nikes on my feet, sunglasses on my head and a book in tote
• reading by Lake Michigan until lunchtime (or in this case until i finish the book -- about three hours later)
• walking back home with Grant Park, the Museum Campus, Soldier Field and Chicago's spectacular skyline as the backdrop (this is my neighborhood? seriously? a year and a half living in the city and it still feels new)
• coming home to our airy loft
• tossing some fresh pasta with avocado then rummaging through Tybot's studio for a bit
• finding the perfect painting for our west wall
• flipping through a design/architecture magazine (while admiring our view of the Sears Tower from the living room couch)
• taking a two-hour nap
• waking up just in time to walk back down Michigan and catch the last hour of Radiohead at Grant Park (yeeeeah- i got in!)

Tybot gets home from camping tomorrow -- i'm pretty excited about that too.

that also probably explains why i'm blogging on a friday night.

k,byeeee.

Link dump

Hello, I am dumping a bunch of links here for easy access. Feel free to check them out, if you so desire.

http://tylerspurgeon.wikidot.com/
a wiki site that I set up to meta organize and document myself.

http://tylerspurgeon.wikidot.com/forum:start
the forum i set up at said wiki site. please feel free to jump on and post about whatever you'd like.

www.tylerspurgeon.com
this is probably the most important one for now. this will be a personal website where people can access images of my paintings. it's still in beta phase, and i'm busy uploading files at the moment. it probably won't be live for another day or so.

so proud of tybot

tybot sold another painting this weekend. "girl with gas mask" has now joined the ranks of tybot collector pieces. here it is on our living room floor during the final cradling process. i love this photo, and it's a fantastic painting. definitely a favorite among visitors to the tybot/babetron abode.




(by the way -- congratulations, miss benne, on your stunning new art acquisition!)

the pinecone

and by daily i mean...

So, I’ve decided to start blogging my Web findings-of-the-day (on a non-daily basis). At work I’m constantly coming across brilliant sites and interesting news bits that I think I might want to reference later. Most of these get shot to Tybot’s gmail in rapid succession with nothing more than a "so cool!" or other equally descriptive subject line as intro. I think he might appreciate me sharing these a little more constructively.

Today I have two sites that struck my fancy:

The first –- Triangle Battle. The loading page is clever and the interactivity gives the site a novelty value before you even get to the content, which is also good. How could I not be in full support of something that incorporates music, charity and plastic figurines?

The second Web site belongs to this 100% authentic little Mexican joint next door, which I frequent without remorse on a monthly basis. I promise you will not regret clicking every link on the site – the Flash animation is a treat. Follow it up with a vegetarian fajita burrito and now you’re really talking.

succulents

My brother-in-law introduced Babetron and myself to succulent plants. They are amazing and we both really like them. We decided to plant some of our very own. Here is a photo:

Hopefully someone can look at the photo and tell me exactly what we just bought. I think one of them is a "jade" plant, but I'm really not sure.

I. AM. IRON MAN.

(Disclaimer: for those of you who are interested in wedding video and photos...they are on their way. This post, however, is pure pop drivel.)

With the Iron Man movie coming out tomorrow, I've been constantly humming Black Sabbath's tune of the same name over and over and over in my head. So when I got to work today I wanted to look up the lyrics so I could actually sing it. To my surprise, the lyrics and song are completely awful. The only really great element to the song is that classic rift performed by Tony Iommi. But as soon as Ozzy steps up to rock the mic, I just want him to stop ruining the great guitar sound.
Now I know Sabbath has some notoriety as being a dark predecessor to modern metal, and Osborn is supposedly some rock legend. But with the exception of War Pigs I can barely sit through anything the man sings.


Regardless, I'm looking forward to seeing the movie at some point this weekend. The idea of a post rehab Downey Jr. playing a booze saturated crime fighter is almost too perfect to pass up.

New Camera

Babetron and I bought a new camera last night so we can video tape the wedding. I can't wait to go home and figure out how it works. The blog will undoubtedly benefit from some DIY video posts in the future.

Eight more days!