August 29, 2008
south broad
I took this the other day and thought the colors were quite nice despite the overcast sky. I'm interested in the changing landscape of this area as U.S. Pipe structures are deconstructed and new development sprouts. Reviving this corridor, this old industrial zone will be great for Chattanooga.
Posted by mark at 9:19 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
August 28, 2008
chair
Flipping through the latest Interior Design mag I ran across this chair. It's a good thing inspiration comes from anywhere. One day it could be the way the light hits the river right at dusk, other day may be a song from a new favorite band Mono, or perhaps danish style furniture...
Posted by mark at 10:35 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
August 5, 2008
phantom road
Google has released the street views of Chattanooga. I've just spend a while driving up and down previous neighborhoods and past jobs. I'm surprised to see our new home photographed as well. Looks to be shot around last summer based on everyones grass being fried from the drought. Some day the maps will correctly show the new streets in our area and I can correctly send directions to our house based on the map. Until then Adams is merely a phantom road between Beau and Kim's homes.
Posted by mark at 9:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
May 20, 2008
Amerivespa 08
Dust off your old scooter or go buy one and join Chattanooga's scooter community in hosting Amerivespa. Amerivespa is the Vespa Club of America’s national rally so it's larger than the Hill on Wheels rally we've had the last couple years. The pre-registration and schedule is up and the days are counting down until Chattanooga is crawling with hundreds of scooters and 2-stroke smoke.
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May 16, 2008
muto video
This is great:
MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.
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March 28, 2008
design is dead
says Starck
Reading this article reminded me of Ecclesiastes:
The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!"
says the Teacher.
"Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless."3 What does man gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun?4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.6 The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.7 All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.10 Is there anything of which one can say,
"Look! This is something new"?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
Posted by mark at 2:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 20, 2008
while family is away:
_replace batteries in old 1gen, and 3gen ipods
_replace fuse in car
_take kids to grandparents house
_install new keyboard and experiment with Logic Pro
_clean house
_apply new grass seed to yard
_fix scoot
_catch up on freelance work
_prep taxes
_pay bills
_catch up with old friends
_update blog with new entry
It's been a nice restful few days of running solo. I do miss the energy and enthusiasm of my boys greeting me when I get home. I look forward to seeing them in a couple days.
Recently added to flickr:
Sites that made me stop a while:
Reykjavik
American Graphic Design on flickr
wierd
Our Childrens Gorilla: skullcave
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February 1, 2008
new stellas
I've followed the return of the stellas. Here is a new ad I found mentioned on 2strokebuzz.
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January 31, 2008
momentum
2007 has left and now I find it's the last day of January. Fortunately everyone here at the Cooley casa has escaped the illness I've seen passed around at work or in other families. I'm so thankful that we have been able to enjoy Willem and jump into the new year with full of momentum without being set back in our health.
I thought I would take a few minutes and reflect on the wrap up of last year and the launch of this one.
Photography:
I uploaded new holga and other images here. I still have a few rolls left to scan and explore. Many of these need a bit more retouching or re-scanning. On the topic of photography check out this plugin for safari or firefox:
Film:
I found "Once" to be a nice inspiring piece of work, though after the second time through the sequence of events in the recording studio seemed a bit too magical.
My brother got me "Sigur Ros: Heima" boxed set for Christmas. This film exceeded all my expectations. It's great to watch over again or even have playing in the background while I work. There is just a rich creativity in their music that's instant inspiration to feed on.
Helvetica was also high my list of favorites. Great interviews, great topic, and wonderful type.
I suppose I could write reviews on Juno, Atonement, No Country... but that what film reviews are for which are written much better than my ramblings.
You might also want to check out this video Bjork and Gondry made called Declare Independence It's beautiful in it's strangeness.
Music:
Really, nothing stands out to me as much as In Rainbows in brilliance. I'm also hooked on npr music online. I've been exploring more mountain / folk music lately. Amber picked me up a mountain dulcimer for christmas. I'm sure our street is breaking some kind of record on the amount of dulcimer playing residents in a given population. I'm looking forward to spring when everyone ventures out on their porches with instruments in hand.
Posted by mark at 9:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
November 16, 2007
burn
I burned my old beater guitar last night. I remember long ago when I picked it up at a yard sale for five bucks. There were many cracks and splits that wood glue would no longer hold together. Here are a handful of photos from the burn last night.
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October 23, 2007
motorola gondry
So Gondry was asked to do a short film based on his experience with the new razr phone. Here it is.
Like most of his other work it's very creative and imaginative. However, the main character seems out of place. Looks like she walked out of a pantene commercial onto the Gondry set. Something doesn't quite fit. Tip: I found if you download the high-res video you can see all sorts of creative goodness that you would miss watching it online.
Posted by mark at 9:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 18, 2007
tricycle
This week I started a new job at tricycle I'll be filling in the shoes of Ben Horner and that of Widgets before me. I'm excited about the change and to work closely with Michael on the marketing and merchandising efforts of the company. Feel free to read more of what tricycle is doing via the blog: tricycleink
Posted by mark at 11:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 6, 2007
mid-century chairs
A while back I ran across these chairs and had plans to re-upolster them with amy butler fabric and bring them back to glory.. but there is just no room in the scooter shed to store them and I'm ready for them to go somewhere else. Anyone interested in this project? They look mid-century danish to me, but can't find any information on them anywhere. I'll let them go cheap.
Posted by mark at 10:14 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
September 25, 2007
crabtree farms event
Crabtree farms is having a barbecue, beer, and bluegrass event this Friday night. It's a family affair and completely worth the price of a family membership.
Coptix donated a letterpress poster and I was the the lucky designer that got to design/produce the poster. Thanks to Paul for use of his press and Evan for his time and expertise. It was a great project for a great event.
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August 28, 2007
home
In the last seven years of marriage Amber and I have moved 6 different times. Each time we have enjoyed the uniqueness of each space and enjoyed making it home. When I watched the following ikea ad something resonated with me. The audio and soundtrack combined with rotating vignettes into different lives tell the story better than any paragraph I could write. Director: Martin De Thurah
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August 19, 2007
hill on wheels
Enjoyed being a part of hill on wheels this past weekend. Highlights included the ride through Sequatchie Valley and the Karaoke Cruise aboard the Fat Cat Ferry late Saturday night. Check out more photos here.
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August 16, 2007
east Main
ahh, the morning air often filled with the smell of koch's processed chickens while stepping over broken glass and weeds, listening to the sounds of construction/renovation... the progress... the morning walk to battle academy with the boys... and my camera in hand...
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happy accident 01
from a scan + typography, made from torn business cards and generic envelope
Posted by mark at 2:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
May 6, 2007
ongoing mess
The drywall is up and primed. Ready to paint and put the flooring in. I'm looking forward to completing this project so we can finally settle in our new home. By the way, anyone need 3 extra sheets of drywall?
Posted by mark at 5:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 19, 2007
update
I thought I would write a quick update on things that I decided to write about but never got around to posting...
uploads:
I scanned some junk from my past in hopes to throw out and clean out things objects that I'm tied to, but don't want to store:
This is an old Fingerhutt flyer from our old days playing shows at Lucy's Record Shop. Yes, good times...
Photos from a trip to Italy back in 1999
involvement:
Enjoyed playing a role in this. Props to Allied Arts for stepping up.
Amber made more of these cool hand bags.
film:
Pan's Labyrinth was a great film. Read the review here.
Posted by mark at 12:34 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
October 26, 2006
Havalina
Alright, think back to summer of 1995. Cornerstone Music Festival, finding all sorts of new music, finishing up high school, enjoying the summer... and stumbling on to Havalina Rail Company.
What I remember:
Is it lounge? is it surf meet folk meet spy music? Crowd on stage. Tons of instruments, mixing styles.. Then there was Orlando- upright bass player, stylish, remember being next to him at times at hardcore shows. Nice guy. Matt Wignall seemed cool, nice guitar... I remember thinking they were very original, so yeah I was an instant fan. Later saw them at Rocket Town in Nashville, had photography/art for sale along with merch.. yeah, good show... hooked. I also still have an old t-shirt with Havalina mispelled. It looks like a picasso bull.
Now and Then:
For a few years now I've tried to follow them but at some point lost track, lost my cassette tapes, moved on... but would do random internet searches when they would cross my mind. Earlier this week I discovered that Matt has released a good bit of the tunes for download here. He states: "Free downloads because we record music that should be listened to."
Matt, thanks for the tunes and I hope your new project takes off!
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October 22, 2006
cardboard props
Thursday night I caught the a showing of The Science of Sleep since I'm a general fan of all things Gondrey. The cardboard props from the movie were great.
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September 12, 2006
Album nostalgia with the new Itunes
Apple just released a few new updates and products today. The shuffle looks quite elegant as well as the new Itunes update. They managed to improve on an already successful interface. One of the new features is the artwork viewer. The top half of the browser features an interactive widget-like scrolling window that flips through your album covers. This is the first time a digital interface has even come close to restoring that feeling of flipping through vinyl records or cd's at record stores. My brother and I spent countless hours growing up flipping threw used music and finding out new bands. A few of my favorite places in Nashville were the Great Escape, Phonolux, and Tower Records.
I love how the artwork has been restored to the music on my playlists. I'm finding all sorts of new music I had in my library just by browsing the album covers and hahaha, it's glorious.
Posted by mark at 9:15 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
August 17, 2006
Rally
The following video is why I think scooter rally's are a blast! Don't forget Chattanooga's own Hill On Wheels Rally this weekend!
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July 28, 2006
PJ's Ramble
This is one of the best paint job's I've seen on a Stella. This is PJ Chmiel's Ramblin Man. His trip is very inspiring and I look forward in meeting him in person when he stops in Chattanooga. Check out his plan of action here
Posted by mark at 4:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
June 23, 2006
Metal
One of the best documentary's I've seen in a while. Here is the site http://www.metalhistory.com/
It's great how Sam Dunn tell's the story and explains Metal while studying the style and culture in a scientific approach. I think it's true that if you ever once really enjoyed metal your kinda hooked for life and "you get it". Otherwise it's fine if other people don't understand it. Regardless, this documentary reveals the love Dunn has for metal and brings a good bit of explanation behind the culture.
Posted by mark at 11:38 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
April 13, 2006
IKEA Dream Kitchens
Ok, it's no secret Amber and I have been Ikea fans for a while having visited the stores in virginia, maryland, chicago, LA, and now atlanta... so when I discovered this Dream Kitchen demo it was just what I needed for the day.
http://demo.fb.se/e/ikea/dreamkitchen/site/default.html
Posted by mark at 10:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 16, 2006
A New Ride
Here's a new family member. I sold my vintage bike to a good friend and skillful craftsman Andrew Nigh. I'm just noticing I haven't posted anything in a while. To keep up with my real life go here, otherwise go buy your own scooter here.
Posted by mark at 10:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 12, 2006
like father like son
Aidan is enjoy time on my desk. I'm amazed at how fast kids can control a mouse and keyboard. Anyone have any suggestions on learning software I can get? Otherwise I'll have to start teaching him how to set type in illustrator or create playlists in itunes.
Posted by mark at 12:17 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
February 2, 2006
vader controls
My son Aidan enjoys dressing up like random super heros. A few days ago he noticed he was missing the controls to complete his darth vader suit. It's the first time he has asked me to make something so specific. Seems to be the best thing I've designed all year. Enjoy
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