(growing facial hair for a cause—I could Do this!)

Congratulations to the many friends and colleagues who have been growing an upper-lip-sweater over the course of this past month, as part of the Movember fund-raising initiative (for prostate cancer research). Don’t know how I missed taking part this year (growing hair is one of the things I actually do quite well), but guaranteed… I’ll be pushing out the facial follicles 11 months from now.

Image: thanks to friend Celia Clucas (Joburg, South Africa) for the cheesy snapshot of yours truly sporting a porn-star-type moustache and hamming it up with the likeness of a recently-departed simian colleague—ten years ago, if memory serves.

Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba

You know it’s winter when, quite suddenly, the tens of thousands of geese that have filled the skies for the past two months are gone… when the cats’ enthusiasm for the outdoors dies within a second of opening the door to their eager meows, and when the morning ritual includes an extra five minutes of sweeping snow off the car and scraping the windshield. Oh, there’s also the freezing temperatures of course, the monochrome palette that suddenly sets in… and other telltale signs such as overshoes by the door, snow-covered Westies parked all in a hibernating row, and ‘the greeters’ outside Ev’s studio sporting white toques and scarves.

I returned from a quick trip to Taiwan four days ago to find a complete change of season—not unexpected of course, but still a surprise…

(flashback to San Francisco, 1976)

Thirty-four years ago today, The Band, joined by more than a dozen special guests (including Paul Butterfield, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Ronnie Hawkins, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood and Neil Young) gave a final performance, “The Last Waltz.” (I’ve been listening to the album set of that memorable concert ever since). Director Martin Scorsese filmed the gig and two years later produced a documentary with the same name—today hailed as one of the greatest concert films ever made.

See the movie trailer here; visit YouTube for dozens of out-takes… enjoy.

New Delhi, India

French graffiti artist C215, aka Christian Guémy, has left his mark on walls near and far… the US, Brazil, Israel, Morocco, Poland, France, England, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands… and now India. Read more about him and see a good collection of photos documenting his street art here.

(5 years of documented neglect)

To and through the considered eye, even neglect can take on a tactile poignancy. Rust never sleeps, and beauty continues to be where you find it… lots more to be seen in the gallery Urban Exploration.

Taipei, Taiwan

As I write this, I’m sitting in the shadow of Taipei 101 (until earlier this year, the world’s tallest building). I’ve been staying at the Grand Hyatt Taipei directly at the base of this colossus for the past few nights, with full days spent in consultative sessions with the organizers of next year’s 2011 IDA Congress Taipei / design at the edges event, as well as jury duty for the Taiwan International Design Competition (multidisciplinary) and the 2010 Golden Pin Design Award (product design recognition scheme).

Thanks go to my kind hosts and the local organizers, and thanks as well to friends Alice Chen and Enrica Hsiao who met up with me for a lovely sashimi lunch yesterday… now it’s off to the airport and back to winter.

New York Berlin

Christoph Niemann is a talented, award-winning illustrator with a great sense of humour who recently moved to Berlin with his family. His illustrations have appeared on the covers of The New Yorker, Newsweek, Wired, The New York Times Magazine and American Illustration. He is the author of many books, among them The Pet Dragon, which teaches Chinese characters to young readers, I LEGO N.Y. and, most recently, SUBWAY, based on The Boys and the Subway, the first entry of his Abstract City blog.

Christoph’s web site is christophniemann.com (I’ve posted about his work previously, here and here).

Montreal, Quebec

Submissions have been coming in nicely from around the globe to INDIGO’s Mother Tongue project. There’s still time to submit, anyone can participate… submission deadline is 1 December 2010.

Shown above: three recent submissions, from Belgium, Australia, and Italy. 

Brooklyn, New York

‘American Kills’ by Chilean-born New-York-based artist Sebastian Errazuriz is a public installation showcasing the suicide rates of US soldiers.

(source)

source: Shorpy

If you like high-resolution photographic images from the past (albeit predominantly American), this archival site is a great resource. Enjoy.

Thanks to Jeope Wolfe for the link.