It's Steve (now in blog form)

The super secret project continues unabated, but here are some recent bits to keep you up to date.

Ben has discovered Mr. Potatohead and his unfortunately placed storage compartment.  Poor Mr. Potatohead looks really surprised.

I had dinner the other night with some of the OG MySpace crew.

Does Passion Furniture differ from regular furniture in form or function?

Call center operator: “No ma’am, have you tried giving your traffic some warm milk or thorazine?”

My obsessions with signs continues. Here are some I’ve come across recently.

Caught this in Toon Town at Disney Land.  The economic meltdown is much further reaching than I’d imagined.

The cafeteria at work sold me this when I asked for green Jell-o.  This is definitely not Jell-o.  It has been my experience that when food comes with a cartoon character wearing a sombrero, that’s the international sign for diarrhea. 

You should be careful of guard arms in parking lots

Special thanks go to Jake for shooting this one over.  I like labels that clearly show the item’s function.

I took the family down the third street today to walk around and return some presents (I you think it might have been something you sent us, you’re probably right). While we were down there I saw some things that I really liked.

Cauliflower is kind of scary- I don’t think we spend enough time thinking about cauliflower. Obviously, it’s more important a vegetable(?) than I had imagined. The farmers’ market down there had types that actually made me do a double take.

Fractals are awesome self-repeating sets.  They are also apparently a flavor of cauliflower.  The guy in the booth said this is a young Italian cauliflower.  I think it’s an orbital fractal. Math types, any help here? Where are you, Kunal?

The purple and orange ones are some sort of crazy hybrid from Cornell in the 70′s.  People did a lot of drugs in the 70′s.  

Who says Hanukkah isn’t fun?- I’m totally bummed that I missed this

I’m in Paris between events and have a few more minutes to myself.  No time like the present to complete the Barcelona recap.  The food was good, but what makes Barcelona really special is it’s ability to brilliantly combine the incredibly cool with the incredibly stupid.  Don’t worry.  I have examples!

Happy Pills are cool- This is a great store front.  Had it been a pharmacy it would have been very very clever.  As it was only a candy shop, I’ll give it only one very.  Very clever.

Rhinoceroses in denim gas masks are stupid- Clearly, there is no way that denim will act as an effective barrier to most toxic gasses.  That doesn’t make any sense at all.

Barcelona epilepsy puppets are cool- Remember the Japanese cartoons that kept giving kids seizures?  These are their wooden puppet equivalents.

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Mr. Christmas Log is kind of stupid (but I still like him)- I have no idea what this guy is about.  The holiday market in Barcelona was chock full of Mr. Christmas Log.  He is, obviously, a piece of wood with legs, a face, and a hat.  I suppose I could look up his origins, but it’s almost more fun not to know.

The Gothic Quarter is really cool- The Gothic Quarter is my favorite part of Barcelona.  It’s a maze of narrow streets winding through the old city.  I basically head over there and get lost.  It’s great.  I really like when you happen to glimpse open spaces down narrow corridors.  It’s like stumbling on hidden worlds.  It makes you wonder how much of the world you’re really not seeing everyday.

The Sagrada Familia Church is amazing- This thing is unreal.  Gaudi started construction of the church in 1894 (I think that’s right), and it isn’t slated for completion until 2023.  For a few extra euros you can go to the top of the spire and walk down.  The view is unreal and the architecture is just incredible.

I can’t recommend Barcelona highly enough.  If you ever get the chance absolutely give it a visit.  Ok, I’ve got to crash.

I’m back on the road and have an hour between events.  This seemed like a good time for rambling blog posts.  Hurray!

Brookstone has worrisome gadgets- I was in Brookstone the other day doing a little holiday shopping when I noticed this gem.  It’s from a poster showing the many amazing exercises that you can do with one of the machines they sell.  I might be wrong, but usually it’s a sign that things have gone pretty much off the skids by the time you get to the “Abductor Massage”.

Hurray for Jesus- I have a much easier time getting behind an Old Testament angry god than the New Testament lovefest (a little divine jealousy and retribution keeps the relationship spicy).  This random Seattle graffiti art is a Jesus I think I could really get on board with.

Visit the Sawtelle Bansai Nursery- If you live in LA and haven’t visited the nurseries around Sawtelle, you’re missing out.  It is a very Japanese neighborhood with very Japanese nurseries.  I particularly like the bansai section in the northmost joint between Santa Monica and Olympic.  Their tiny trees are really amazing.

They also specialize in subtle racism…