This was a design for another project that didn’t happen but I always liked it and now that I have a fancy iphone I had a reason to make it into my screen wallpaper. All the other wallpapers I found ignored the iphone graphics that get overlaid on the BG image so I wanted to design one that incorporated the clock and slider bar/buttons. DOWNLOAD the wallpaper here.

I’ve also been converting some Disney mp3s into iphone ringtones to go with this theme. Here’s The Haunted Mansion Crow, The Haunted Mansion Coyote, The Haunted Mansion Bells, The Big Thunder Mountain Coyote, The Spinning Teacups, and the one I’m using that’s from the Disneyland Paris 15th anniversary celebration (I guess). When it goes off it’s like ULTRA-MAGICAL!!!, or SUPER GAY!!! which are sort of the same thing.   

Oh hi!

I’ve parked my Ferrari by this True Value Hardware semi here-

and I’m enjoying a delicious wine cooler-

I’ve forgotten if I ever had a job, I don’t care what I’m doing tomorrow-

Today it’s sunny in this national park and I’m loving this song-

The air is so clean, I’m gonna toss my hair around in it-

Take a few steps forward, then back-

My obsession with this scene from National Lampoons Family Vacation has little to do with Christie being “hot” but everything to do with how perfectly everything about her performance captured EXACTLY what that scene (,the movie, and the entire concept of the American Vacation) was aiming for. If you don’t want to be her after seeing this then you sir are a liar and no fun to be around.

The funny thing is if this were filmed to day it would be so over produced it wouldn’t work. The accidental genius of the set up is how casual and real it is. (In the film’s commentary the director talks about how he didn’t even realize that giant semi was there until later.) This makes the impact so much stronger because it doesn’t read like a slow-mo, Hollywood fantasy but something that could actually happen on a road trip. And how badly do we want it to!

It’s the day after and I’ve gather all the spent fireworks I liked and am pretending to run a fireworks store and sell them to Eva, my neighbor. The thrill was describing in great detail what each would do after it was lit, which is what we pretended to do after I “sold” them to her. 

This cat walked in a couple years ago and lives here now - I call him Meow Meow and we’re like regular roommates except for the frequent face nuzzling.

I’ll be reading selections from my teenage journal about what I wanted to be when I grew up, and how to be gay. Get tickets now, Mortified always sells out.”Mortified” is a comic excavation of teen angst artifacts (journals, letters, lyrics, home movies, and more) as shared by their original authors before total strangers.

WHEN: Friday, June 27, and Saturday June 28, 2008 TIME: 8:00 PM VENUE: Make-Out Room  ADDRESS: 3225 22nd St, San Fran CA 94110 COST: $10 adv; $12 doorGet tickets onlineMore info: GetMortified.com

When I’m done it should look like this Photoshoped mock-up:

and here is the Monday afternoon reality:

I was in Minneapolis at the Chuck Palahniuk event for his new gang-bang novel Snuff. Anal-beads and blow-up dolls were given away, as was copies of my book. Chuck was mobbed as usual so I spent the night chatting with Don Pollock whose raunchy/gritty story collection Knockemstiff is also being promoted by Chuck on this tour.

Then there was the artist-designed mini-golf course at the Walker Art Center, a temporary thing just for the summer.

And I saw some small buffalo on the drive to Fargo where I then ate some buffalo. As always, more pics in my Flickr pages.

Although called a slime mold, Physarum polycephalum is not a mold, because a mold is a fungus, and fungi don’t “eat,” or move. Yes this thing moves. And it has a memory. It also solves mazes. We’re like totally bff now.

OK so the long Lisa Frank is awesome because it has like everything Lisa Frank is known for and incorporates almost all of the common 80’s sticker themes: hamburgers, unicorns, ice cream, teddy bears, pizza, candy, cherries, and rainbows.Mystiks are awesome because they make swooshy colors when you press on them BUT DON”T PRESS TO HARD!Hamburgers and Coke-a-cola and other 50’s Americana made subtle appearances in 1980’s stickers, I don’t know why.Ark Animals were very hard to find unless you went to a big city like Minneapolis. I didn’t get these ’til I was 30Toots are the most awesome because they just are. These dinosaurs are gorgeous and profoundly influenced my sense of design.  

The park just opened in Myrtle Beach, and I haven’t been there (pictures stolen from Flickr) but the “Moody Blues Nights in White Satin: The Trip” dark-ride looks very experimental. The youtube video I found doesn’t reveal much, other than it’s really long.

Nearby, there’s a dumb looking ride called the Magic Mushroom Garden. The copy from the park website actually reads: “This attraction features a charming toddler play area made up of soft-sculpture, climbable clusters of mushrooms along with a log, a hollow log, and bridge.”

WOW, a LOG! And then a HOLLOW LOG! I love big fluorescent fungi but you’d have to be critically trippin’ to make this interesting. (Any coincidence the next land is “Rock and Roll Heaven”?) And call me an old lady but I don’t think any “toddler play area” needs to be drug themed.

The Americana at Brand is a just-opened $400 million outdoor mall in Glendale from the creators of the theme park-esque The Grove in Hollywood. They both feature trolleys designed by George McGinnis, a regular designer of vehicles for the Disney parks. You can rent apartments that overlook the park and pond for $3000+ but you’ll hear the fountain show all day long. I know because they were vacant and unlocked when I was there opening day, that’s how I got the photo from the balcony.