Stephen Malinowski is one of our favorites.
And this is our boy’s favorite.
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Gables Tanglewood
I left Ziegler Cooper ten years ago. They’re a fine architecture firm, but in the wrong part of continent.
My parents were in San Jose, her parents are in Las Vegas, and fate had told us it was time to go back west. The heater in our apartment blew out, filling the place with acrid smoke. Instead of fixing the busted equipment, the landlord released us from the lease (turns out he was selling the property and it’s now a parking lot).
My two years at ZCA revolved around this 300 unit, 8 story luxury apartment behemoth on the outer ring of this suburban metropolis. I was the job captain for this project, but we were understaffed so I drafted about 80% this set, from the start of Design Development until halfway through Construction Administration. (We did this in AutoCAD, so Gables Tanglewoods must be among the last generation of projects at this scale that wasn’t documented via BIM.)
It was great experience for a guy who had only worked on small residential and tenant improvement projects. I learned a ton from the older architects, like proper waterproofing principles and how to squeeze every square inch out the building code from Rafael.
I also picked up how a more corporate firm works. You have to stand up for yourself in the corporate environment, unless you don’t mind being run over. Sometimes it’s not a horrific trade (I got a ton of experience in a short amount of time) but I realized I can’t sustain such a pace for my career.
One day, we’ll visit Houston again. Along with pilgrimages to the Menil and the Orange Show, I’m going to saunter into the lobby as prospective tenant so I can finally get a tour of this place that I didn’t get to finish.
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Another encouragement to make your website.
I’m part of a small group on Post.news who posts old work under the hashtag #SundayShare. This was going to be my suggestion for a “lunar new years resolution”…until the tragedy at Monterey park. I still think it’s worth sharing, so I posted it today.
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In 2008, I planted a flag on the interwebs with www.grizzlypear.com. (We came up with the name as a twist on our bunnies Badger and Peppercorn.)
I quickly lost interest in the webcomic, but now I had a domain to build upon. It morphed into the repository of my random contributions scattered across various forums.
Even though #PostCreative / #CreativeCollective is going strong right now, who knows how things will go?
Let this new-new year will be the one when you start your own site. Build a library that stands apart from these social media bazaars that come and go.
Your place might have few visitors, but you’re the only one that counts. Maybe you be digging into for next week’s #SundayShare in 2033.
If you don’t know where to start, I recommend getting the domain name on Hover.com which I’ve really enjoyed using. I don’t know which web-host is best, but I’ve been using the cheapest plan on Hostgator for a decade with WordPress for my blog engine.
Alt Text: A black and white ink drawing of two rabbits in a rectangular vaguely urban landscape with two rabbits hopping down the street towards the vanishing point. The dot pattern for the sunset was added on the computer and I still can’t decide which is better.
This is what I shared last week in the face of that tragedy.
A simple #SundayShare diptych of Badger and Peppercorn ferociously consuming Bok Choy in our old apartment in Houston.
Alt text: two photos, showing a pair of rabbits eating veggies on the floor. The black and white harlequin steps away after she yanked a luscious green leaf out of her albino partner’s mouth. Taken with a Nikon D40 with the 18-35mm kit lens. Fifteen years later, the gear doesn’t matter all that much. Glass and metal tubes sit in the a box while the heart is warmed by the glow of bygone days, occasionally rekindled by pixels on a screen.
Here’s to the New Year!
Let’s make many great memories and maybe some photos too.
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Rabbit in Your Headlights, UNKLE
In college I was cast in a modern dance piece that included this song and Dave Brubeck’s “Unsquare Dance”.
(I had no business performing, but males were in short supply.)
A few years later came YouTube and the realization that this song was paired with a great video.
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Monterey Park
Another city added to that list.
This time, one that I know all to well.I’m not a sage.
But I have their books next to my bed.In a moment of frustration, I opened them randomly.
I got lucky.~
The wise have no mind of their own,
finding it in the minds
of ordinary people.They’re good to good people
and they’re good to bad people.
Power is goodness.
They trust people of good faith
and they trust people of bad faith.
Power is trust.They mingle their life with world,
they mix their mind up with the word.
Ordinary people look after them.
Wise souls are children.— Tao Te Ching, 49 (Lao Tzu, Ursula K. Le Guin)
Things are shitty today. Unfortunately, it’s nothing new.
Confucius and Lao Tzu were writing amidst the dissolution of an empire. The feudal order had already dissolved into a collection of Warring States.
The past few years have been bonkers but nothing like the collapse they were experiencing.
Amidst the self dealing around us, we have one way through the chaos.
It’s an asymmetric struggle, but repaying evil with evil only compounds the devolution of our society.
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Love your enemies,
bless them that curse you,
do good to them that hate you,
and pray for them which despitefully use you,
and persecute you.— Matthew 5:44 (King James Version)
That reminds me of the admonitions of a Galilean sage.
Unlike his Chinese counterparts, Jesus wasn’t a petty bureaucrat with privilege. These insights came from a working class dude on the outskirts of the empire.
And somehow, his wisdom shaped the past two millennia.
This shit don’t make sense, but it works.
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With King Wen dead, is not culture invested here in me?
If Heaven intends culture to be destroyed, those who come after me will not be able to have any part of it.
If Heaven does not intend this culture to be destroyed, then what can the men of K’uang do to me?As in the case of making a mound, if, before the very last basketful, I stop, then I shall have stopped. As in the case of levelling the ground, if, though tipping only one basketful, I am going forward, then I shall be making progress.
The Three armies can be deprived of their commanding officer, but even a common man cannot be deprived of his purpose.
— Analects, Book 9:5, 19, 26 (Confucius, D. K. Lau)
When our institutions fail, even when the hand of fate crushes us, we still have the power to do good.
As individuals, we still own our purpose and agency. If not in politics, then in culture.
Let’s build relationships and make art to bind us together.
No matter how small, each step brings us closer “to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”
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Despite the anger, the answer will be found through calm.
In this moment of great sacrilege, listen for that still small voice.
Its whisper is our way out.
The sun sets
On the western hills,
Quickly the valleys
Darken.
The moon rises through the pines,
In the chill of the night,
Amid the crystal sounds
Of wind and stream.
The woodcutters
Have all gone Home,
In the mist the birds
Are settling in their nests.
My friend promised to join me tonight
Alone with my Lute
I wait on the vine-strewn path.Meng Horan (ca. 689-740, from the commentary on the Tao Te Ching 49 by John Minford)
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Work at Office, Week 1
Day 1, Back in the Office!
…and my first meeting is on Microsoft Teams, even though the three of us are within fifty feet of each other.
(screen sharing > face to face!)
Work at Office, Day 2
Sure is nice chatting in person after almost three years apart. I’m very blessed to enjoy the company of my colleagues.
At the end of the day, I realized that I’ve forgotten where the light switches are scattered around the building.
The delighted squeals of the kids when I came back home was a nice bonus.
Word of the Day 3
Solutioning.
This meeting is only for updates, we will address solutioning at future meetings.
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Movie Roundup, January 2023 to June 2022
I’ve fallen behind, so let’s declare amnesty and just power through the past half year in reverse chronological order.
Bambi, Algar, Armstrong, Hand, 1942
OMG the animation is mind-blowingly gorgeous. The oil painted backgrounds are luscious and the hand animation holds up against anything you see today. It’s a natural outgrowth of the work the studio did in Fantasia. We watched it on Saturday and I could watch it again tomorrow.The Muppet Christmas Carol, Brian Henson, 1992
Another classic on Disney+. This one’s status is dependent on the original story and time of the year. I gotta wonder what Michael Caine was thinking about his career as a A-list actor playing with dolls. Did he take in good fun?Zootopia, Howard, Moore, Bush, 2016
Was fun when we watched it a few years ago, and fun again. The kids really enjoyed it too. Not a masterpiece like Bambi, but certainly in the top third of Disney’s esteemed catalog.Luck, Holmes, Abad, 2022
The only reason I watched it was because Lasseter was involved. He might have been good in his heyday, but it’s obvious he needed the Pixar team more than they needed him. The story was drawn out and the animation awkward. Absolute mediocrity at best.Wolfwalkers, Moore & Stewart, 2020
Lovely film to round out the trilogy with Secret of the Kells and Song of the Seas. A welcome respite from the Pixar-Disney-Dreamworks 3D hegemony.Home Alone, Chris Columbus, 1990
Fun. I didn’t watch it until just a few years ago. I’ve always had something against rambunctious brats (I didn’t get into Calvin and Hobbes until I realized the peerless quality of the Watterson’s drawings). I could see this movie becoming a holiday staple until the kids are old enough to watch Tokyo Godfathers.Toy Story 4, Josh Cooley, 2019
Pixar knows what their doing, even if I’m not totally sold on Bo Peep becoming an action hero.Toy Story 3, Lee Unkrich, 2010
A fun caper. Slightly better than Toy Story 2, but the original still holds the crown in my heart, in spite of the dated graphics.Frankenweenie, Tim Burton, 2012.
It’s OK as a stop motion full length movie. Maybe I didn’t enjoy it as much because we weren’t expecting a black and white film. I should watch the original half-hour show. I wonder if brevity might have shaped a better story.Encanto, Bush, Howard, Smith, 2021
It was such a big deal the year before. After getting a Disney+ account we had to watch it. It’s fine. I enjoyed the wacky song and dance numbers but the movie just ran too darn long. Then again, they all drag out nowadays.Kung Fu Panda (1-3), Osborne & Stevenson, 2008, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, 2011, Carloni & Nelson, 2016
Fun popcorn series. I can’t remember a ton from any given movie but I’ve watched each of these films at least twice and wouldn’t argue against watching them again. My wife isn’t fond of the chop suey orientalism, but I’m inured to it.Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight, season 1, 2022
Awful TV show, but the kids liked it. My wife didn’t even bother to watch this.Lucifer (ep 1 and 2), Tom Kapinos, 2016
The first couple episodes were fun, but I wasn’t going to invest hours of my life on this show.Love Death + Robots (seasons 1-3), Tim Miller, 2019-2022
I love animation. This series fulfilled every bit of it’s promise. Each short is a banger so it’s hard to pick favorites. But to name four: “Sonnie’s Edge”, “Zima Blue”, “The Very Pulse of the Machine”, and “Jibaro”. I may have to re-up with Netflix when season 4 comes out.Arcane, Pascal Charrue & Arnaud Delord, 2021
I finally got around to watching it long after the buzz from it’s release. It’s great. Didn’t realize that a video game company could produce such a good story. The fight at the end of Episode 7 of is one of the best fight scenes I’ve ever watched. Even though the nine episode series kind of runs out of steam at the end, I still spent the week after watching Arcane commentary on YouTube to process the journey. -
9 Coins
an ignoramus tips the Tarot
Black ink (Flair Pen) drawing on a yellow steno pad. Colored in Pixlr. Collaboration with the kids. She did some of the coloring this time.
A black ink sketch on lined paper with a pile of nine gold coins with square holes. The coins are marked with a yellow house, an invisible face, a strange oval thing, green icing, and a peachy “DADDY BAD!” warning. Around the stash float two grey locks, two pink hearts, two smiling faces, two purple something-randoms, a blue-red spike ball, three purple hats, four windows, and a tomato-tomato head. This time, coloring didn’t last beyond the weekend…then again we didn’t go up to Mount Charleston to play in the snow this week.
