100 happy days :: day 69

the new flatiron building by LEGO architecture. seriously the best, most clever build ever. 

even bats agrees.

i actually almost want to buy another one just to build it again.

it's that cool.

why do grown-ups play with LEGO?

living vicariously through blog posts and instagram shots of the opening of the in LEGO, we connect exhibition a week or so ago at the bryan ohno gallery in seattle, i've found myself once again pondering the whole love of LEGO among adults. when i started working on this question in earnest a year ago, i think that one could still detect a slight sheepishness among some of the adults who loved LEGO. but that may have been my own uninitiated perspective.

today, i believe thanks (at least in part) to the LEGO movie, it seems that love of LEGO is everywhere. people get enormous and colorful LEGO tattoos (and they must be adults, since you have to be 18 (or at least reasonably look it) to get a tattoo). gizmodo writes about LEGO regularly and so do the folks at geekwire. there are elderly folks using LEGO to keep their fingers and their memories nimble. there are serious blogs, discussing the LEGO community at a rather academic level. and blogs analyzing in minute detail every new LEGO brick and color. thousands of grown up people around the world are unapologetically and even proudly devoting their precious spare time to their LEGO hobby.

there are also some folks who love LEGO who are making a business of it in grand style. people like ryan "the brickman" mcnaught in australia. warren elsmore in the uk. nathan sawaya in new york. these are folks who took their hobby and made it their very successful businesses. and they think they're lucky to get to play with LEGO for a living, there's no sheepishness in sight. as well there shouldn't be.

i wonder if this embracing of a childhood toy in adulthood is something unique to our times? we all want to hold onto our youth these days. and we do so in the form of elements of pop culture. so i find myself singing along to the same songs on the radio as my 14-year-old does and i too want urban decay eyeliner. and i want to play with LEGO minifigures. granted, i play with them differently now that i would have as a child (i say would have, because i didn't really play with LEGO as a child, i had a pony, after all). and my method of play - taking photos of them "in the wild" - actually rather embarrasses my child, who isn't that keen on me arranging marge simpson on a shelf next to a cup at ikea. so it is something other than holding onto my youth, at least for me, since playing LEGO wasn't a part of my youth.

but what is it? is playing with LEGO just like any other hobby? like flying radio controlled planes? or building model trains? or quilting? or painting or any other creative hobby? why do so many more men indulge in the hobby than women? can it be taken seriously? is it art? the three showing their LEGO photos in the gallery are daring to think so. and their photos are each marvelous in their own very different ways. and i think that's some pretty cool boundary-pushing.

things we've built lately

the creator 3-in-1 beach house. it's got all kinds of great details - like a wave out front and a surfboard.

it also has a cool window that opens on the back side, for playability. and check out that outdoor shower!

and from this side, looks like an architect must have designed it.

we put emily to work building the treehouse when she was here. it's also a creator 3-in-1 set.

there's a little crankable bucket and the ladder can be folded up to prevent unwanted folks from coming up into the treehouse.

love the super cute friends camper - sabin built it, but i might have to take it apart and build it myself, just for fun. if i had a camper that looked like this, i could totally get into camping.

next up was the friends juice bar - all kinds of awesome details in this, but that's what lego friends does best.



juicing blenders and check out that orange juicer detail on the right. love it! but probably the best part of these friends sets is the colors. they're so bright and cheerful.

i have a little bit of a thing for chima legend beasts. they've got cool teeth and ball joints, so what's not to like?

and the minifigs are dressed very cool as well. i don't really know the chima stories, but these little warrior animals just speak to me.

look at all of those cool wing pieces on the awesome eagle!

the lion was the one i got first and oddly enough, i don't think i shared him before. posable and cool. i think maybe what i like is that they remind me a bit of mixels with the small ball joints and posability.

where do you want to go today?

it's summer holiday time and everyone around me is off to fun places. denmark pretty much shuts down during july. bakeries close. flower shops close. it's easy to get a first row parking spot at work. we are going to london at the end of the month, but it seems a long ways off. i bought big ben in honor of the trip. and because we couldn't decide if we were giving sabin a trip to paris or rome for her confirmation gift, i bought both the eiffel tower and the trevi fountain. because how better to reveal a gift than with a lego set? (we went with rome.) and since we had them both, we had to build them. but at the moment, they're sitting on the shelf, next to the sears (willis) tower, and the guggenheim and rockefeller center, making me long to take a trip. hmm...do you suppose i can satisfy the wanderlust if i pick up the brandenburg gate.

* * *

so awesome that you can now studyfood design.

if i had to do it all over again, i'd study that.

* * *

hilarious cake fails.

* * *

an inspiring home in cape town.

as zeitgeisty as it gets

i wrote this review of the 1996 "classic" microserfs by douglas coupland on goodreads (hence the uncharacteristic capital letters). i'm too tired to change them all, so you'll just have to live with them. i loved the book. it spoke to my 90s soul. i can't believe i didn't read it at the time. if you didn't read it at the time, read it now. if you did, read it again, there's still something to it. and it's still about as zeitgeisty as it gets.

I read Generation X years ago and then didn't read anything else by Douglas Coupland. I'm not sure why. But in some sense, I can't believe I didn't read this back in 1996 when it came out. That said, I'm not sure I would have appreciated it then like I did reading it today. I accidentally worked for Microsoft myself during the early 2000s (accidentally because they bought the company I was working for, so I didn't exactly choose it). Not much had changed since the mid 90s, apparently, as the Microsoft he described was much as I remember it, tho' there were perhaps many more soulless cubicles on campus by the time I got there. I think the layers of fat in middle management he hints at were stronger by the early noughties and the Cult of Bill had definitely not subsided.

This book is dated in many ways - it's amusing now to harken back to Apple's Troubled Years Without Steve and the programming languages they talk about are a bit passé. But how prescient was Coupland with Oop! - it's Minecraft in a nutshell and those Minecraft guys are raking in the cash, albeit in Sweden, not in Silicon Valley.

And of course, the LEGO references throughout are nothing short of awesome in my eyes.

I wholly embraced postmodernist writing in the 90s and I think this is a prime example of it - I love the lists, the pages of code, the diary-style. It just speaks to me. But then, I guess I am of Generation X, so that's not much of a surprise. However, I also find it a bit lazy. Like Coupland included whole sections of his own diaries, filled with profound, but disjointed thoughts, rather than actually weaving them into a real story. However, this somehow accurately reflects how we are these days and that seems powerful.

It just speaks to my 90s soul and makes me want to dig out my Calvin Kleins and a worn flannel shirt and just sort of slouch around the place, lamenting the suicide of Kurt Cobain.

AND now to the quotes...
On LEGO (from Abe's Theory of LEGO):
"Now I think it is safe to say that LEGO is a potent three-dimensional modeling tool and a language in itself. And prolonged exposure to any language, either visual or verbal, undoubtedly alters the way a child perceives its universe. "

"First, LEGO is ontologically not unlike computers. This is to say that a computer by itself is, well ... nothing. Computers only become something when given a specific application. Ditto LEGO. ... A PC or a LEGO brick by itself is inert and pointless: a doorstop; litter."

"Second, LEGO is 'binary--a yes/no structure; that is to say, the little nubblies atop any given LEGO block are either connected to another unit of LEGO or they are not. Analog relationships do not exist."

"Third, LEGO anticipates a future of pixelated ideas. It is digital. The charm and fun of LEGO derives from reducing the organic to the modular."

"What do I think of LEGO? LEGO is, like, Satan's playtoy. These seemingly 'educational' little blocks of connectable fun and happiness have irrevocably brainwashed entire generations of youth from the infomration-dense industrialized nations into developing mind-sets that view the world as unitized, sterile, inorganic, and interchangeably modular - populated by bland limbless creatures with cultishly sweet smiles."

"LEGO is directly or indirectly responsible for everything from postmodern architecture (a crime) to middle class anal behavior over the perfect lawn. You worked at Microsoft, Dan, you know them - their lawns...you know what I mean."

"LEGO promotes an overly mechanical worldview which once engendered is rilly, rilly (sic) impossible to surrender."

"LEGO is, like, the perfect device to enculturate a citizenry intolerant of small, intestinal by-products, nonadherence to unified standards, decay, blurred edges, germination and death. Try imagining a forest made of LEGO. Good luck. Do you ever see LEGO made from ice? dung? wood? iron? and sphagnum moss? No--grotacious, or what?"

"We agree about the LEGO. It is too pretty to sell. Somewhere a few weeks ago, like a piece of DNA with just the right number of proteins added, it became alive. We can't kill it."

SOME OF THE OTHER GOOD QUOTES TO REMEMBER:

"We can no longer create the feeling of an era ... of time being particular to one spot in time."

"Palo Alto is so invisible from the outside, but invisibility is invariably where one locates the ACTION."

"I got to feeling meditative. I felt as though my inner self was much closer to the surface than it usually gets. It's a nice feeling. It takes quiet to get there."

"Flight Simulation games are actually out-of-body experience emulators. There must be all of these people everywhere on earth right now, waiting for a miracle, waiting to be pulled out of themselves, eager for just the smallest sign that there is something finer or larger or miraculous about our existence than we had supposed."

"In the end, multimedia interactive won't resemble literature so much as sports."

"I began noticing long ago that years are beginning to shrink - that a year no longer felt like a year, and that one life was not one life anymore--that *life multiplication* was going to be necessary."

"I also say the world 'like' too much, and Karla said there was no useful explanation for people saying this word. Her best guess was that saying 'like' is the unused 97 percent of your brain trying to make its presence known. Not too flattering."

"It seems everybody's trying to find a word that expresses more bigness than the mere word 'supermodel' - hyper model - gigamodel - megamodel. Michael suggested that our inability to come up with a word bigger than supermodel reflects our inability to deal with the crushing weight of history we've created for ourselves as a species."

"How do we ever know what beauty lies inside of people, and the strange ways this world works to lure that beauty outward."

"I'm coming to the conclusion about the human subconscious...that, no matter how you look at it, machines really are our subconscious. I mean, people from outer space didn't come down to earth and make machines for us...we made them ourselves. So machines can only be products of our being, and as such, windows into our souls...by monitoring the machines we build, and the sorts of things we put into them, we have this amazingly direct litmus as to how we are evolving."

"And the continuing democratizing of memory can only accelerate the obsolescence of history as we once understood it. History has been revealed as a fluid intellectual construct, susceptible to revisionism, in which a set of individuals with access to a large database dominates another set with less access. The age-old notion of 'knowledge is power' is overturned when all memory is copy-and-paste-able - knowledge becomes wisdom, and creativity and intelligence, previously thwarted by lack of access to new ideas, can flourish."

Lucky Charms are symptomatic of a culture in decline.

"There's one thing computing teaches you, and that's that there's no point to remembering everything. Being able to find things is what's important. ... I think memories are always there. They just get...unfindable."

"Games have only recently been revealed as the passageway for the future of the human race."

"People without lives like to hang out with other people who don't have lives. Thus they form lives."

"Randomness is a useful shorthand for describing a pattern that's bigger than anything we can hold in our minds. Letting go of randomness is one of the hardest decisions a person can make."

"Las Vegas: it's like the subconsciousness of the culture exploded and made municipal."

"I guess the number of things we build defines the limits of ourselves as a species."

"Las Vegas is perhaps about the constant attempt of humans to decomplexify complex systems."

"I guess it's sort of futile trying to keep a backup file of my personal memories.

Not at all, because we use so many machines, it's not surprising we should store memories there, as well as in our bodies. The one externalization of subjective memory-first through notches in trees, then databases of almost otherworldly storage and retrieval power.

As our memory multiplies itself seemingly logarithmically, history's pace feels faster, it is 'accelerating' at an oddly distorted rate, and will only continue to do so faster and faster."

"What then--when the entire memory of the species is as cheap and easily available as pebbles at the beach?"
This is not a frightening question. IT is a question full of awe and wonder and respect. And people being people, they will probably use these new memory pebbles to build new paths."

BRILLIANT RE: DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MACS & PCs:

"She's Mac, I'm Windows.
Entirely appropriate, because Windows is more male, and Mac is more female.
"Windows is nonintuitive...counterintuitive, sometimes. But it's so MALE to just go buy a Windows PC system and waste a bunch of time learning bogus commands and reading a thousand dialog boxes every time you want to change a point size or whatever...MEN are just used to sitting there, taking orders, executing needless commands, and feeling like they got such a good deal because they saved $200. WOMEN crave efficiency, elegance...the Mac lets them move within their digital universe exactly as they'd like, without cluttering up their human memory banks. I think the reason why so many women used to feel like they didn't "understand computers" was because PCs are so brain-dead....the Macintosh is responsible for upping not only the earning potential of women but also the feeling of mastering technology, which they get told is impossible for them."

ON THE GAP (the clothing store):

"You can go into a Gap anywhere, buy anything they sell, and never have to worry about coming out and looking like a dweeb wearing whatever it was you bought there."

"I figured that Gap clothing is what you wear if you want to appear like you're from nowhere; it's clothing that allows you to erase geographical differences and be just like everybody else from anywhere else."

"We also figured that Gap clothing isn't about a place, nor is about a time, either. Not only does Gap clothing allow you to look like you're from nowhere in particular, it also allows you to look as though you're not particularly from the present either. ... Gap permits Gap wearers to disassociate from the now and enter a nebulous then, whenever one wants then to be in one's head...this big places that stretches from Picasso's 20s to the hippie 60s."

"There are more Gaps than just the Gap. J. Crew is a thinly veiled Gap. So is Eddie Bauer. Banana Republic is owned by the same people as the Gap. Armani A/X is a EuroGap. Books Brothers ia Gap for people with more disposable income whose bodies need hiding, upscaling and standardization. Victoria's Secret is a Gap of calculated naughtiness for ladies..."

"The unifying theme amid all of this Gappiness is, of course, the computer spreadsheet and barcoded inventory.

"Deep in your heart, you go to the Gap because you hope that they'll have something that other Gap stores won't have...even the most meager deviation from their highly standardized inventoried norm becomes a valued treasure."

unexpected lego-related goodness in the mail

look what my bloggy friend ariadne sent to me! we haven't really known one another that long in this bloggy world (we met through the ever-fabulous lisa), but she obviously totally gets me. and she lives in thessaloniki, which is one of my favorite places (and a place i've been many times, always under blissful circumstances). in general, greece is wonderful, and obviously, so is ariadne. thank you so much! it was absolutely the perfect surprise gift for me! and i absolutely adore the tiny houses postcard.

steampunk lego

i have a rather hard time staying out of the employee store at work. i'd been eyeing metalbeard's duel for awhile, because it's got that steampunk feel to it. it's probably the hardest thing i've built and i'll admit there's something wrong with that big foot, but finally i just turned one piece around (not how it was supposed to be) and gave up. it stands more or less stable now, so i'm good with that.

there's a lot going on - great small details, like the shark arm and the anchor on his pegleg foot, which incorporates a barrel (those barrels always lend a steampunk touch). he's not super stable and it feels to me like a display set, not a play set, but that's ok, as that's what i want to do anyway.

he came with this micromanager (he does after all need someone to duel against). it's the most complicated micromanager i've built, but not my favorite, despite being rather overly detailed on the inside, which lends some whimsy that i like. i guess i just like my micromanagers in micro size.

the top opens up and there's a little seat in there, where i think a guy could hide out. since i'm not actually playing with him, but just putting him on the shelf with my other lego movie sets, i don't have anyone inside.

we also recently acquired the creative ambush set, also acquired because of the steampunk feel. sabin built this plane, while i built the flying kebab wagon (see below). i love again the old west details - clever use of a barrel as the front of the plane and green shutters as flaps.

probably my favorite detail is little sudds backwash's flying organ. so cute. a much more creative lego builder than i has made a whole new creation out of this set. skills of that magnitude are, as yet, beyond my lego abilities.

but i do love the whimsy and details of the flying kebab wagon, complete with the rotisserie of meat, ketchup and mustard bottles and frying pans as headlights. the menu boards double as wings and the wheels fold up when it's in flight.

there's much more steampunk lego goodness in this group on flickr. and also this one.

in all, a very satisfying couple of sets. this lego building is addictive, i tell you. i wonder what i'll tackle next?

mixel mania!

seismo

shuff

krader

vulk

teslo

zaptor (i think i like him best)

see, two pix of zaptor - i definitely like him best. 

volectro

my mixels crew.

they came out on saturday. and i had to have them all (there are two i haven't built yet, it seemed obscene to build them all in one day, so they're not in the photo). they come in a small, collectible bag, kinda like minifigs and in the same price range. only frankly a way, way better build. i feel like they're teaching me how to be a lego builder with their turnable heads and their ball joint legs and arms and adorable teeth. plus, who can resist those googly eyes? not i. series 2 will come in a couple of months and already i'm chomping at the bit. they'll be blue, brown and orange then. and series 3, before the end of the year in green, gold and purple. i'm thoroughly infatuated and becoming a real lego builder thanks to these guys. i think i can even bring myself to take them apart and try to build something of my very own. and that's a very, very big step in the right direction. plus, they're designed to be able to make a big mixel of the three little ones, so they even want you to mix and match. that's why they're called mixels, after all. there's a tie-in with cartoon network, but i have to say the cartoon doesn't speak to me (i am a little outside their demographic, after all), but i'm in love with the analog mixels. and with my device/internet addiction, that's undoubtedly good for me. i could stand to live a slightly more analog life.

which johnny depp?

captain jack sparrow?

or tonto?

i'll admit, i haven't seen the lone ranger.

it left the theatres too quickly.

but i do like tonto as a minifig.

and i've heard it's available on viaplay.

but i still think captain jack is my fave.

how about you? which johnny depp is your favorite?

* * *

one of these days, i'll write about something other than lego.

i'm just a little bit in love right now,

so you'll have to forgive me.

lego as artistic medium

JCDC Versus LEGO from Bad Winners on Vimeo.

in light of bill's comment that LEGO isn't really that creative or unique when it comes down to it, i had to share this 3D animation based on a real fashion show featuring LEGO-inspired fashion from french designer jean charles de castelbajac back in 2009. although i will grant that i will likely never create something new and unique from LEGO (i'm a building-instruction follower), there are many people who make unique creations using LEGO as an artistic medium the same way that people use wood or paint or textiles. often with amazing results. 

signs of spring

sunny yellow.
small water droplets.
bright green to combat the grey.
signs of hope after a long, dark winter.
relentless winds blow,
belying the impending spring.

...or perhaps bringing it.

* * *

i know, i know, i'm all lego all the time. but i can't help it. the lego movie held onto the top spot at the box office for the third straight week. and these behind the scenes featurettes are so clever, i had to share this one.

i'll leave you with the film's earworm - everything is awesome.
just try to be in a bad mood after you hear this song.
i dare you.

here's hoping that everything is awesome in the week ahead. for you and for me.

little me (#tbt)

that's me. i'm not sure how old i am, maybe around a year and a half?

dang, dad looked young.
and how cool were my shoes?

but check out that cigarette in dad's hand.

there would be total outrage if you saw a parent smoking with their child in their arms today.

but i don't even remember him smoking.

chewing tobacco yes, but not smoking.
i'll bet they didn't even have a car seat for me.
and guess what? i survived.
and even kinda turned out.
more or less

* * *

but speaking of outrage with regard to children...
there's been an old LEGO ad from the early 70s circulating.
it features a super cute little red-haired girl.
well, someone found her.
and i have to say that i couldn't agree more.
i'm not a fan of the lines for girls and neither is my girl.
but it does seem that LEGO is held to a higher standard than other toy companies.
like, look at this piece on barbie making the cover of sports illustrated.
mattel says they're unapologetic.

* * *

have you heard all of the palaver about the danish giraffe marius?

well, this will make you laugh about it. 

signs

signs the world has gone mad:

1. iPhones containing flappy bird going for obscene amounts on eBay.

signs you have the best job ever:

1.

 

2.

 

3.

 

signs you are drinking too much coffee (you enlist your minifigures to help serve it to you):

signs of cuteness (and it's a cat!) in the world:

signs that your life may have been taken over by lego and that it might be time to head for bed.