bees, books, n' booze

when WK was attacked by swarms of bees yesterday morning, we thought the apocalypse was coming.



apparently the bees lost their queen and followed her scent to the shrubbery on our rooftop and then smashed themselves against her queenly odour.
a beekeeper was called and came and took most of the bunch away and is going to enslave them to make honey for himself and his beekeeper wife. they say that the bees should produce honey for them in a year.



(for those of you who don't know, there is currently a crazy honey bee shortage, i'm sure he was stoked!)



after weeks of work, 12 finished our first real deck for Wordstock. hurrah! (is this the first time i've posted work on here?)



yes.



at 4 o'clock, we all ran up to the roof for michael illick's art show Scott Phillips: A Life. scott is an account dood here and i guess mike's been drawing him for quite a while and eventually made enough sketches to warrant a kickass hoopla of an art show.



















introducing will: our shining englishman. we finally got our 13th this past sunday. at long last, 12 is complete.



rob's BFF from high school. they also went to school with this guy.



drinks were had...



and scott tattoos were generously doled out.







<3

edwin ushiro solo

edwin ushiro is having a solo show soon at project: gallery. the show is titled While Tides Guide You Back Home. i've been a fan of edwin's work for a few years now and i've been lucky enough to show his work a few times too. i'm really excited to see what he'll do with this show. project is such a great space for 1 to 2 person shows.

the show opens july 12 at project: gallery in culver city and he'll be attending the opening, so go and say hi to him for me!

black cab for cutie

i don't follow music much. not to say that it doesn't move me, but i've always been one of those "oh, i listen to everything" type of people. i never know what to say when people ask me what my favorite kind of music is, or even who my favorite bands are...except for one.

i've been a fan of death cab for cutie since i was a sophomore in college, which is not to say that i'm one of their die-hard fans, but it was before Narrow Stairs, Plans, or even Transatlanticism. death cab fueled me through my period of post-high school teen angst and subsequent emoness. i love them.

but i remember when it all started to get really popular. when kids who went to concerts could only sing along to songs on their newest album. when they appeared and played on the OC. when their only concerts in town were in the biggest venues in town. is this what it feels like when your favorite band "sells out"?

it's weird to follow a band long enough to see them grow and change and finally get into the mainstream. their songs are being played constantly on the radio and MTV gives them clever commercials to advertise their new CD. that's what they've been putting in all the hard work for, right? they're finally getting what they deserve; recognition, tons of fans, record sales...but i am a little sad that i'll never see them at a small venue again.

nevertheless, death cab is still rockin' it and i have not lost hope. my friend jimmy sent me this video they did in london with Black Cab Sessions. all the videos are shot in the backseat of a black taxicab in one take with a band playing one song acoustically. pretty keen.



i still love you death cab. <3

undoboy

Chean-Wei Law is a WK designer who goes by Undoboy for his personal projects. he just launched his website of toys and other design goodies. i like his style and his block toys are rad.
i'm thinking about getting some of the wall decals for my room!

press

Seattle Weekly

lions and toygers and bears...

i recently read an article about 'Toygers', a new breed of cat that is currently in the works. the breeder, genetic specialist, judy sugden has been working on this tiger-housecat since the 80s. her mother created the Bengal breed (housecat & wild asian leopard) to try to save actual leopards, hoping people would be deterred from buying pelts that looked like their housecats.

a housecat can't be bred with a tiger, so sugden is "faking it" and instead breeding breeds that carry either the striped or deep amber traits reminiscent of their muse. apparently cat's don't fancy artificial insemination, so the process has been lengthened due to cat-courting time. she estimates that the perfect toyger (carrying full face/body tiger traits) will be ready by 2010.

the result is a muscular, reddish/orange-hued, exotic-looking cat with dog-like traits (they like to swim!) that is really very beautiful but also very ethically controversial.



read the full article here: Life.com

honda "jump"

i know this has been out for a while, but since i don't have a tv, i haven't seen it until now. this is an ad wieden worked on for honda accord. it took many test trials & rehearsals and utilized around 50 uber-experienced (1000s of jumps) skydivers. they even made a documentary about it. sweet.