UKAZU Motley

"I was at a day spa. Day. D-A-I-Y-E. Okay?"

2006-07-06T09:46:29Z

UKAZU is getting a massage and will return soon.

The Earth is Now a Sandwich

2006-06-13T05:32:46Z

Heads up everybody: Ze Frank has led a charge to change the world. Using nothing but New Media and catchphrases, he has turned a legion of sports racers loose on the world to fight off the scourge of hard chargers and make the world a ~~better place~~ sandwich.

The call. The tools. The answer. Validation.

Today was a good day, and now I understand why.

1000 Paintings

2006-06-01T04:49:58Z

Check this out: a young artist living in Zurich named Sala had the idea to paint all the numbers from 1 to 1000, and now he's selling them. He priced the paintings by subtracting the number on the painting from 1000. So, the painting of the number 600 costs $400, for example. Also, he discounted the paintings according to the current number of paintings sold: paintings 0-100 sell for 10% of their face value, paintings 301-400 sell for 40% of their face value, which allows him to increase the price of the paintings as demand picks up and supply dwindles. Last rule: the minimum price for any painting is $40.

There is a list of the paintings still available, a blog, and a FAQ. I found his paintings after reading through another of his projects, depicting websites as graphs. Earlier this week, he also got linked from BoingBoing, which drove a lot of traffic to the site.

On Sunday, I bought one. I think it's great. It matches my aesthetic, the story is fun, and I got a painting in the first 100 (90? 91 maybe?), so it's about the cheapest original artwork I'll ever pick up.

Guess what number I bought. Numbers 1-10, 42, 69, 100, 101, 333, 666, 777, 999 and 1000 had already been purchased when I got to the site.

commencement 2006

2006-05-30T18:00:36Z

hey y'all. just checkin' in, and wanted to invite you to my graduation this friday, june 2! details here. myspace, i know. you love it - don't lie. especially pb. he's ALWAYS on. AND, he's got joey lawrence on his page. a nice touch.

harlem children's zone

2006-05-17T17:50:30Z

geoffrey canada has adopted a 60-block wide piece of harlem, new york, as his bean field. this area - harlem children's zone - contains 10,000 children, all at the poverty level, where less than 50% graduate from high school. he's taking on poverty by spearheading education, while at the same time offering food, grants, tutoring, medical clinics, and parenting classes in an attempt to close the disparities between the working poor and the middle class. the charter school, featuring advanced computer and science labs and a healthy-food only cafeteria, runs on a $36 million/year budget, with over $100 million in its coffers, only a third of which is provided by the federal government - the rest from private sources.

something for all of us to learn from and be inspired. thanks, canada, for sacking up and doing something seemingly impossible, but long overdue.

Video, Video, Video

2006-05-16T07:18:06Z

Mmmm... vi-de-ohhhh...

The Logitech Orbit Cam! (cue triumphant music). This is pretty sweet -- a web cam with some facial tracking features. It's rad when what was once considered really tricky technology arrives in silly consumer applications. Watch the video, it will all make sense. (via Ze Frank, the man)
FedEx airplane arrivals during a thunderstorm Thanks, Joe!
And, despair: alternative management theories. Good, dry humor. It's like bonus material for The Office DVD. Well done.

Limited Edition Soldierleisure Print

2006-05-11T08:02:53Z

Hey sleisure junkies – Andy did some limited runs of a new design by hand recently, and the t-shirts are up for sale at soldierleisure.com. Go check out the shirts, and e-mail Andy if you like the tee and want to rock it locally.

I picked one up, so be sure to give me a call before you want to wear it, because, you know, if we wore the same thing, that would be so embarrassing.

Ze Frank Still Rocks the House

2006-05-02T06:35:33Z

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Back in 2001, Ze Frank stole your attention with crazy videos on the Internet. Ze Frank was one of the first links I ever put on UKAZU. I hand-crafted that puppy on June 12, 2001.

And now, 5 years later, he's still rockin' the web. In the age of YouTube and Google Video, Ze Frank is running short videos from his site every weekday that offer inane babble and goofy social and political commentary all mixed together to keep me watching.

Check out Ze Frank's "theshow".

This Stuff Writes Itself

2006-04-27T09:10:49Z

David Copperfield foiled thieves with slight of hand. I'm not joking - this is in the newspaper!

After a steak dinner with two of his assistants, Copperfield was walking back to his bus when a car pulled up behind him and thugs with handguns jumped out and demanded that he and his lady friends empty their pockets. The women both handed over the goods, but not Copperfield! He showed empty pockets while concealing a cellphone, wallet and passport.

Oh, David, you're so slick!

Stanford on iTunes

2006-04-11T18:48:22Z

This isn't an "ooh, technology" post, I promise. I am writing to alert you of a cool development: Stanford is putting a lot of content online via iTunes. Check it out. They have made speeches by the Dalai Lama, professors' lectures, music and news all available free and available to the public. I'm glad Stanford did this. Think how cool it would be if all universities did this?

Ha. Apple Rules.

2006-04-05T18:48:41Z

Apple announced today that they have built a tool that enables Macs to run Windows. Bootcamp. This is some powerful stuff. I know that this is also some geeky stuff that a lot of you simply won't care about, but I couldn't not post it. Apple continues to out innovate everyone. Seriously. Everyone.

Of course, lots of people have wryly asked, "If you have a Mac, why would you want to run Windows?"

Cultural Commentary (Whoa!)

2006-03-31T14:29:58Z

Good reading for a Friday:

The Cast of Blossom vs. Wu-Tang Clan – This is awesome. Read raps from Joey, Six, Blossom and the rest of the crew as they shred up RZA and the rest. Respek!
Up with Grups - An article in New York Magazine calls attention to the growing group of post-yuppie 30 and 40 somethings that just won't grow up like their parents did. Read up – I bet you have noticed some of this going on. Though I am not always down with people's choices for expression, I can identify with the desire to do things that would not have been considered age appropriate for adults in the past. None of this gets people off the hook for wearing things they shouldn't wear, however (let's all end the "I wish I were a MILF!" look born and re-born at Scottsdale Fashion Square day after day.)
Late add! Robot wrestling. Kick ass! (via TMN)

Fingers Breakdancing

2006-03-24T20:30:23Z

Oh yeah, break it down b-boy. This is some good stuff. Lean way back in your desk chair and click through to some video of fingers breakdancing. Happy Friday, people. [via Kottke]

MySpace Caption Contest!

2006-03-22T07:05:47Z

Pauly B has started something. We're going to have a caption contest for Alex's MySpace photo. Pauly B's entry is "Faux-hawk sunset."

Check out his photo and leave a comment. Alex will appreciate it and I will appreciate it.

Update! Danah Boyd just won't quit! Her latest: "Friendster lost steam. Is MySpace just a fad?" I like the way Danah breaks it down.

Chicano Style in Japan

2006-03-07T22:34:29Z

Bob and I headed downtown for First Friday last weekend and while walking through Monorchid, I saw some cool stuff I've never seen before. An artist was displaying photographs of Chicano style in Japan. There were photos of heavily tattooed Japanese men in beater tank tops and guys in button down work shirts buttoned all the way to the top button. There was a photo of a classic 60s Impala.

It was pretty wild. I didn't think to get the artist's name so I could look up the art later (duh). And now, despite doing some digging on the internet, I have come up with very little.

Two bits I have been able to find:

The largest circulation of Lowrider Magazine is the edition published for Japan. That's nuts.
And some photos of some Japanese guys rocking Chicano styles, which links to a page with photos from the Japanese edition of Lowrider Magazine.

Do you guys know anything about this?