CELE-BERATE

Weirdest ever, even for me. A true original.

This weekend/I need a better zoom lens?

I wish it were this easy.

WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE

KUBOTA GARNDENS

20 acre Japanese gardens 2 miles from home. Amazing what's hidden around here. Quiet!

In 1927 Fujitaro Kubota bought five acres of logged-off swampland in the Rainier Beach neighborhood of Seattle and began his garden. A 1907 emigrant from the Japanese Island of Shikoku, he established the Kubota Gardening Company in 1923. Fujitaro was a man with a dream. Entirely self-taught as a gardener, he wanted to display the beauty of the Northwest in a Japanese manner and was soon designing and installing gardens throughout the Seattle area. 
 
As Fujitaro’s landscaping business prospered, his Rainier Beach garden grew to include twenty aces. It was the family home, the business office, the design and display center. And nursery to grow plant materials for the gardens installed by the Kubota Gardening company. The family was very generous in sharing access to the garden, and for many years it was a center for social and cultural activities for the Japanese community in Seattle.

GOT THE HOOK UP, HOLLA!

Tow truck driver lives down the block. I love this place. 

ANGEL OF SETH

Made up this little bottle of absynthe for Seth. Phosphorescent paint sealed over with model paint. The aqua-green hue of the drink compliments the glow effect. Hard to photograph.

Would you like to be sad?

You may think I look sad
But I am just sleeping
It’s my facial expression
I’m probably dreaming

Would you like to be sad?
Would you like me to teach you?
Well, you can learn to be sad
But you must practice like I do

You must follow directions
And learn it right from the start
There isn’t a short cut
It must come from your heart

There are those who are happy
There are those who are wise
But it’s the truly sad people
Who get the most out of life

You may think I look sad
But I am just sleeping
It’s my facial expression
I’m probably dreaming

-d.b.

DEATHSTAR 2.0

THE LATEST EDITION.

BAMBOO

I have a bamboo fetish. I could stare at any free growing bamboo for hours. Lithe and long-lined, strong and yet graceful, not rigid. Leaves like knife blades. Stark yellowish-green hues. Great raspy sound in the wind.

It's a little more tedious, and less sensual, when you try and still life it by pencil. The Chinese found that brush and ink allowed for a gentle and yet still sharp way of creating such images. And you could produce these images rather quickly, like bamboo grows. Art imitates life, often times even in process.

David's Tower

Friend of old and architect David Richardson recently whipped up this cardboard tower with a little glue. Told him it was amazing, loved the symmetry, that it reminds me of an Escher. He agreed, but said it had some kinks that needed to be worked out. I wanted to post a picture of it, even though it aint fixed....

CLICHE CHIC

ODD VIBRATIONS

BRING THAT BEAT BACK

PE just never gets old.....

Public Enemy
"Bring that Beat Back"

[verse 1]
Played in Cincinatti
Wit my whole head nappy
Made a rally in the street
Wit nothin' but a beat
Gotta grudge against a judge
Kick em out that seat
You are what you eat
So what you eatin'
Same message to your mind
Be self defeatin'
Sick n tired of bein' sick
And tired of bein' beaten
Saw em drop it like it
Was way too hot and too fast
For hip-hop doo-wop rock or bop
Ain't here to hurt you
Don't hang in them circles
Government ain't got me
Yet so yall don't stop me
See a stampede of fake cats
Runnin from Bill Cosby
What does he gotta do
wit you doin you?
Yall know what?
DJ Lord gimme that cut
Bring that beat back
That's what's up

[Verse 2:]
Feedback from truly
Freed blacks
Gotta think outta this
Box of hard knocks
Lined em up at Fort Knox
To die in Iraq
You don't know I rock?
What you under a rock?
Old cats beggin' us to
bring that beat back
Each generation thinks
The next one is wack
Jumpstarted in the daze of crack
R&B Reagan, daddy Bush
Way the hell on back
Pray to god
Feel like I got a church in
myself, good god uh
Can't get no help
I say again health care cutback
Shit is whack
Bring that beat back

[Verse 3:]
They say the youth don't matter
And the old don't mind
It takes a lotta spine
To build all them young minds

Some of us get ghetto at
the wrong damn time
Album what? we just
makin' one at a time
To save another brother
whose life on the line
A big shot to claim some
rocks and shine
Signs of a soul gone solo
Robbed blind
A very small part of half
the worlds crime
Runaway child blown by
an old land mine
Little ones workin' in diamond mines

So cats can say what's
hers and what's mine
Diamonds are girls best friend
So why's he cryin'?

[Verse 4:]
See when y'all hear it get near it
And you recognize the lyrics
You trained to refrain
And you start to fear it, escapism
Like today there ain't racism
Obviously y'all ain't see
Black folks on TV
Judgment calls
Made on behalf of you and me
Or you and I
Do or die
I say an "I" for an "I"
Dividin' line
Got the poor people
Payin' for crime
Corporations gettin' paid
off our jail time
Now y'all can tell Russell
Yes I knock the hustle
Cause 2 million in lock-down
Under federal muscle
Beyond the streets
These kids is always watchin'
Watching some of these
jerks when they go berserk
So I work...

SCARLETS CD RELEASE

CD, promo poster and bling coming soon.... 

(click on image to see full jacket)

ROBERT'S UNFINISHED PIECES

THe video image quality allowed here is not sufficient. Vimeo may be required...

DORKY, BUT DEADLY.

(FIRST TRY DORK TOSS)

Afterthought: Throwing it is much less dorky than owning it in the first place. Outcome vs. motive...cause vs. effect....

MY PAINTBRUSH DOESN'T TELL TIME!

 

First piece I've done for myself in I don't know how long (for our red walls at home) and the thing doesn't keep time. The hands move at some unknown rate. I have tried to fix it and it is useless. Figures.  Grandpa Bob was the watch repairman, not I.

UNINTENDED SUDDEN ACCELERATION

Toyota Executive Says Recall Might 'Not Totally' Solve Accelerator Problems.

I love the term, "unintended sudden acceleration." I will have to muse on this some more later, but for now, I am (totally) reminded of a dialogue....

 
JACK  
On a long enough time line, the 
survival rate for everyone drops to 
zero.
 
 
Two TECHNICIANS lead Jack to the BURNT-OUT SHELL of a 
WRECKED AUTOMOBILE.  Jack sets down his briefcase, opens it 
and starts to make notes on a CLIPBOARDED FORM.

 
JACK  
I'm a recall coordinator.  My job is 
to apply the formula.  It's a story 
problem.

 
JACK  
A new car built by my company leaves 
somewhere traveling at 60 miles per 
hour.  The rear differential locks up.

 
JACK 
The car crashes and burns with 
everyone trapped inside.  Now: do we 
initiate a recall?

 
JACK 
Take the number of vehicles in the 
field, (A), and multiply it by the 
probable rate of failure, (B), then 
multiply the result by the average 
out-of-court settlement, (C).  A 
times B times C equals X...

 
CUT TO:
     INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - MOVING DOWN RUNWAY 
Jack is speaking to the BUSINESSWOMAN next to him.

 
JACK 
If X is less than the cost of a 
recall, we don't do one.

 
BUSISNESS WOMAN 
Are there a lot of these kinds of 
accidents?

 
JACK 
Oh, you wouldn't believe.

 
BUSINESS WOMAN 
... Which... car company do you work 
for?

 
JACK 
A major one....

SPRING-TER IS HERE

 

  

 

COOL NIGHT

INCENTIVE-BASED POLITIC$

Sheila Krumholz of the Center for Responsive Politics said, "Lobbying appears recession proof. Even when companies are scaling back other operations, many view lobbying as a critical tool in protecting their future interests."

Taken from Brodner's blog.

Heligoland (Deluxe Version) Massive Attack

About time for a new release, thankfully. Not like their usual stuff, for the most part. Weird 5 minute songs that tend to layer the most music in the last minute, sometimes after the vocals have ended. Lara says that's a jazz thing. I don't recognize it as such. But I find it fascinating. It makes you patient. But it also makes the album grow on you. Each song, you like it the more you listen to it, even in one go. This is not a critique. I hate all forms of artistic/art critique. Just observation from a musical layman. I don't think it hits me like Mezzanine or 1000th Window, but I think it may be more complex. Might take longer to sink in. Definitely experimental, pushing boundaries or whatever. I think I like it, and think I might like it very much. Maybe in a week I'll hate it.

LION

My old man painted this when he was around my age. Dunno why he don't like it. Probably too much of a perfectionist. Certainly something he passed on. To say I'm my worst critic is a major understatement. I'll leave it at that.

I'll probably catch flack for posting this painting. But I dunt curr. I think it vurry gud. Look at the eyes.

TRUE GRIT

Wonderful read. Wayne film bored the shit out of me when I was little. Who knows now, but won't bother. Looking forward to the Cohen Brother's re-make next winter. But a film cannot do this book justice, no matter what. Too much narration. Too much written humor and subtlety that couldn't make it into a film, can't translate it all. But they'll get what they can. I'm rooting.

But the book is a masterpiece. Period.

CREATING THE LA LA MILK BOTTLE

THESE THINGS ARE NEVER EASY. PLANS ALWAYS CHANGE DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCE AND PHYSICS. TRIAL AND ERROR.

Chop Shop

Go to this. If not only for Lara's piece. (Okay, and maybe Donald Byrd's weird piece too.*) I'm not biased. I have good taste. (and yes I posted late. I was without computer for a couple days.)

Buy tickets here:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/browse.html



















*

BOB

Dreamed I heard a Dylan song last night that made me cry. Odd thing is, I never heard the song before, I musta made it up.

Wish i could remember the lyrics.

They probably sounded like Bob Ross.

2-1-1: ENTITLEMENT VS. APPRECIATION

 

THIS WAS PART OF AN E-MAIL THREAD AT WORK. I HAD SPOKEN WITH AN AGGRESSIVE REPEAT CALLER (AS WE CALL THE CHRONIC CALLERS) AND WAS THINKING ABOUT HOW SHE WAS SO PISSED OFF THAT THE SOCIAL SERVICE PROGRAMS WE REFERRED HER TO (I WORK AT A 2-1-1 CALL CENTER) WERE NOT PAYING OFF QUICK ENOUGH, AND SHE JUST KEPT CALLING AND YELLING AT EVERYONE WHO ANSWERED TO PHONE.

************************************************************************************************************

I never will understand the concept that some of our more colorful callers (not a racial adjective) espouse -that someone could yield better service by increasing abusive behavior and harassment. It takes that whole weird notion of entitlement (that’s another doosey by itself) and adds a kick to the groin to try and get results.

I understand the stress is a factor, but it’s like insulting your prison guard to try and get him to let you out. (no prison pun intended)

Why do people feel entitled to assistance in the first place? They call it a rat race for a reason. Capitalist societies are not meant to pick up the fallen. I guess it’s based on hope. Hope that some of the some part of the system is working to help the unfortunate, just out of Greatness.

Before I got this job, I didn’t know (or expect) that so many social services actually existed. It blew my mind that someone could get their rent paid for them and not have to earn it. I lived in poverty for years and never thought to ask for help. Didn’t even cross my mind. I wonder if I would have had I known about it.

I think it’s a cultural phenomenon, where parents who know the system/had to use it, pass on the attitude of getting what you can, where you can, however you can. I just wish that taught behavior more often came with an altruistic reflexive trait, even if it were just gratitude. It always makes you feel better to help those who you know have appreciation.

Of course, that’s not part of our job….treat them all the same, do not judge, we don’t know the story. A good rule, but sometimes an Ayishia comes along and rubs you wrong.

Actually, she didn’t really phase me. But it was a long day, and the last call. By that time I was comfortably numb.

THE WHEEL OF LIFE

How I feel lately, mentally. (but not too far off physically....I'm getting old and broken)





Being broken or "braided" on the wheel was one of the most insidiously painful methods of torTure and execution practiCed in Europe.

After hanging, “breaking with the wheel” was the most common means of execution throughout Germanic Europe from the early Middle Ages to the beginning of the eighteenth century; in Gallic and Latin Europe the breaking was done with massive iron bars and with maces instead of wheels.

The victim, naked, was stretched out supine on the ground or on the execution dock, with his or her limbs spread, and tied to stakes or iron rings. Stout wooden crosspieces were placed under the wrists, elbows, ankles, knees and hips. The executioner then smashed limb after limb and joint after joint, including the shoulders and hips, with the iron-tired edge of the wheel, but avoiding fatal blows. The victim was transformed, according to the observations of a seventeenth-century German chronicler, “into a sort of huge screaming puppet writhing in rivulets of blood, a puppet with four tentacles, like a sea monster, of raw, slimy and shapeless flesh mixed up with splinters of smashed bones”. Thereafter the shattered limbs were “braided” into the spokes of the large wheel, and the victim hoisted up horizontally to the top of a pole, where the crows ripped away bits of flesh and pecked out eyes. Death came after what was probably the longest and most atrocious agony that the ingenuousness of the power structure could inflict.

FROM THE WEBSITE: "Together with burning at the stake and drawing-and-quartering, this was one of the most popular spectacles among the many similar ones that took place in all the squares of Europe more or less every day. Hundreds of depictions from the span 1450-1750 show throngs of plebeians and the well-born lost in rapt delight around a good wheeling, better if of a woman, best of all if of several women in a row."

DON JUAN

"We know that nothing can temper the spirit of a warrior as much as the challenge of dealing with impossible people in positions of power. Only under those conditions can warriors acquire the sobriety and serenity to stand the pressure of the unknowable."

The 4 attributes of wariorship: CONTROL, DISCIPLINE, FORBEARANCE & TIME.

2ND BEACH KALEIDOSCOPE

2nd Beach, Summer '08 w/ the Old Man. A painting resulted from this spectacular light show.

FROZEN HOME

FROZEN HOME from Quinn Davis on Vimeo.

Photos of the Kats/URL TEST...old website

Testing BLOG functions. Funny early Jack and Annabelle photos and video. Why not? Click post heading for link...hopefully.

TECHNO-CHRIST-NICHO

 

This thing is an absolute bitch to photograph. Walls on every side and glass covering. Electronics parts, xeroxed (use this word in  game of scrabble and you will win...) Jesus, glued watch parts, painted Nicho box. It was the funnest thing to build so far. I like working with little parts. I think I would make a good bomb disposal tech. Grandpa watchmaker and father surgeon. I believe habit influences DNA. Or it could be as simple as traits passed on from the weathered technical aptitudes of men of craft trade? Whatever the case, I enjoy taking things apart and putting things together. Too bad my fingers are so big.

I like the cross made of electronic paneling. I plan to recreate this concept again. 

In the future, we will be crucified via neurologically uploaded data. The materialization of Hell will be of mans device, and it will be virtual, and electronic. No fire or brimstone necessary. The next (form of) inquisition will be digital.

GOOD ADVICE CONT.

Drift wood from La Push can be very wise. All you have to do is pay attention to it.

MA BEST WURK YET!

 

  

  

  

  

"The key to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." ~A. Einstein 

Well, there/here you have it. I grew up surrounded by good art. I can't take any credit for my own stuff, let alone this, which is my mothers. Ma needs her own website. Makes me proud. She encouraged any and all tendency to emote via medium. Good vibe to grow up with. Maybe my best lesson ever. Do not hesitate...just let it out...BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY...

Happy birthday Ma. Love ya. 

Q.