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“It’s better to help people than garden gnomes.”

—Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001) 

Winnipeg, Canada

I’m dumbfounded every year at this time when I see hordes of crazed consumers out shopping for unneeded things they can’t afford. I’m convinced that a focus on material things causes easily-avoidable stress and dampens the creative spirit within a culture—and we well know the devastating effect that over-consumption is having on our planet.

Save some shoppers. Save the planet. Give some folks a hearty hug. Who cares if you know them or not… think of it as an intervention of sorts. (While you consider your hug-deployment strategy, here’s a nice tune by Joel Kroeker to put you in the mood).

Image: one of a bunch of poster designs I’ve contributed over the years to Buy Nothing Christmas, an initiative started by Aiden Enns (former managing editor at Adbusters and founder of Geez magazine).

Klimcentrum Bjoeks, Groningen, the Netherlands

For a flatland nation with no natural outdoor climbing opportunities, the “Excalibur,” a 37-meter-high climbing wall (121 feet for my non-metric US friends—almost a rope-length, with an 11-meter overhang) makes an impressive vertical offer. I’ve designed (and built) several climbing walls and structures in my time… but very puny in comparison to this. (More, better pics taken from a kite, here).

Climb on…

Toronto, Canada

I’ve been asked to give a talk at FITC Toronto 2011 (my 4th time with FITC in hogtown I believe… also enjoyed previously contributing in Chicago, Amsterdam, and Winnipeg). This is Sean Pucknell’s/FITC’s 10th anniversary event, and it promises to be “a busload of thrills.” Early-bird pricing for event attendance closes on 11 December. My presentation is entitled Cause an Effect. The blurb reads as follows:

Our globalized society is morphing rapidly from an information era into the age of ideas—at the same time our fragile planet accelerates towards the edge of survival. Those of us involved in creative pursuits (such as data manipulation, visualization and ideation, media-making, image creation, and content delivery) find ourselves thrust suddenly into the leading role of change drivers. Though equipped with previously unimaginable power, the influence we now wield outstrips our own understanding.

This presentation will explore “why” we do what we do, and “to what end.” Expect humor, passion, pithy insights, astute maxims, and a personal existential narrative wrapped in a big-picture exposition on the power of design to shape culture and influence our tomorrows.

Stuttgart, Germany

Literal enjoyment takes on a new meaning when typography and chocolate meet. Tasty one-liners, two-liners… letters, words, quips—your choice, from Typolade.

Thanks to Gerald Brandt for the link.

(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.