Fire Island

The photos say it - only in part.

Heading back home

I've been traveling a lot recently. Since June 6th I've been in Mexico, Chicago, Madison, Peoria, San Diego, San Francisco - with a couple of weekends and work days in NYC between.

One of the best stops on the trip was seeing my sister and family in Madison.



It wasn't the easiest part of the trip - they moved to a new home and I was helping with painting, packing, moving, and watching the kids. Ana, as you can see above, was also into helping out.

Her new closet includes a window - a perfect spot to play. I painted a mural for her inspired by one of the books her parents read to her.

Mexico City for work

Last Friday a new client asked for someone to head down to Mexico City to participate in research. So I am here. It's great - beautiful and spring-like. I've managed a bit of time to see things while here - the Anthropology Museum and the Virgin of Guadalupe complex.

Turi travels... to the surgeon!

I've torn my ACL - a ligament that connects the back of the thighbone to the front of the shin and basically keeps the knee stable when you're doing side-to-side activities.

How? Probably on my last ski trip when I took on something I wasn't ready for, or perhaps at the basketball tournament when I turned oddly and kind of collapsed - or at sometime further back like the bad ankle break a few years ago.

Plane crash in the Hudson

From my window at work I saw the plane floating down river attended by a circle of ferries and harbor police boats. It was ringed with flashing lights in the semi-dark of mid-winter later afternoon. By the time it came into view all we could see was a portion of the wing angled out of the water and a bit of the tail.


This image was found online.

Experimenting with RockYou

Happy New Year!

I'm actually way far away in rural NH caring for my dad post-surgery - in essence chauffeur, cook, companion, and watchdog. It amazes me - deeply - how much time it takes to plan, cook, provide, and clean up from 3 meals a day and run the normal errands of a life when its not just oneself one is taking care of - and when you have to drive at least 30 minutes to do anything.

I do like it up here - the quiet, watching the lake freeze, unfreeze, glaze, powder, and crack as the weather changes, the cats getting into each other, cooking for dad, being away from the office, walking in the snow - but I think if I lived here I'd have to build myself a workshop or make a part of the house mine - and have a purpose to each day.

I guess 3 weeks of vacation/care-taking edges you beyond relaxing nothing-to-do-but-what's-right-in-front-of-you towards a questioning of what strings those moments together.

It has been fun as well to see Nugget experience his first snow, his first real time outdoors, and negotiating his first non-littermate feline relationship with my Dad's quite senior cat, Paquita.

Photo credit: Juan Botella, my brother-in-law, took a series of great close-ups of Nugget over the holiday. This is one of my favorites.

From a week with Dad

I've been working remotely for a few days with Dad. Nugget came up with me - and he's getting used to being outside and to another cat.

As always, great dinners.


Nugget exploring




The beauty of Fall

Wong Kar-Wai weekend

Gene came up from Boston this weekend for a midnight screening of The Ashes of Time and a great, intimate conversation with the director Wong Kar-Wai.

Louisville and the Ali Center

Silly photo from one of our work trips to Louisville - Fab, myself, Emile and Jason at the Muhammad Ali center.

frog BBQ and galdiator battle

I'm not sure who took the images - but they are a great representative sample of the evening - Amy's rooftop in Williamsburg, great barbeque, tasty drinks, and a n air-puffed gladiator battle station.



Nothing was stable, and all became less so as the night went on.

Watching the sport.

Delicious, though when I arrive much was already finished.

Happy frogs - though Mark has left for other endeavours since.

Poor Nugget.

Snip. Snip.

Poor, brave little guy. We went all the way uptown to the roving ASPCA van. We got there super early and waited inline with a boisterous assortment of people. But he waited patiently, even on the bus, and was sweet when I picked him up. I hope that he wasn't too young - they assured me he wasn't of course but he was not even close to being a tom yet. Ah well. He seems fine now.

Alaska - the touristy stuff

Independence Mine - an old gold mine that was abandoned due to the WWII draft.


The Musk Ox farm - they produce a lovely wool-like fiber Quiviut that is spun by natives into expensive but lovely lace patterns.


And - of course - a glacier tour run by a family friend out of Whittier - which was indeed a secret military base at one point due to it's almost 100% cloud cover 365 days per year.

Alaska - the family homestead

During the Great Depression, the government resettled farmers from dust bowl farms to Alaska to establish a farming community that would (ideally) come to serve the needs of military forces defending the states from Japan and any other offensive powers. My grandfather moved to Palmer about 15 years later and purchased a farm from one of the original homesteaders.

He's no longer living, but the street that runs by the old house bears his name. (He was also known as 'the Flying Dentist of Alaska'.


The farm was set on the flat plain of the Matanuska Valley overlooked by the Butte and Pioneer Peak.


The current owners have le the place decay - and the old barn that was raised in the 30's has mostly collapsed. But it used to house cows, chickens, tractors, even the airplane, and the many other ventures my grandfather embarked upon.


For both Galen and I one of our strongest memories of this place is from perhaps 1978... I was perhaps 6 and she 5 and visiting Alaska in the winter. I recall vividly sliding down the enormous slide in my snowsuit just after a fresh night of snow -- the powder piling up between my legs and flying around me as I slid down. And Galen remembers that I got there first and got to go down the slide first. It's still the best kept thing on the place.


We also visited the family plot in town.

Alaska - the first few days

We arrived in Alaska

Dad.

Galen, Ana, and

Juan

to see parts of the state Dad had never visited when he lived here himself.

and to return to the family homestead.

I shall destroy!

Camel Ride

Bonnie came to visit this weekend with her daughter. They met the kitty, then we went for Bahn Mi and played in the park across the street.

Kitten Attack

He's out to destroy the toys. (A photo from this morning as I was leaving)

New adventure - little nameless

I found a kitten the other day - he was crying in the alley. He's still nameless but has won a place in the house by his constant desire to purr and snuggle.


In the midst of cleaning


His eyes have a bit of an infection so he's squinty most of the time.

Hosting the Roger Black talk

I've been organizing and hosting a speaker series with the AIGA and frog. We focus on designers from any field talking about how they both draw on classic influences and maintain contemporary currency.

These images were taken by someone on Roger Black, last night's speaker, team and uploaded to flickr. They're lovely - and it's the first time I've seen any photos of the series.

Roger and I in the question and answer period

Roger Black

My AIGA partner, Kent Hunter

The audience during the talk