Pizza is a mess you say? Yeah, I hear ya. You're probably looking for: Photo Galleries or Linkmania or Fresh Photos
New, FREE Kids' Coloring Book Page
Just finishing up the first of what I plan to be five or six kid's Halloween activity & craft pages. In addition to coloring book pages I'm thinking I'll make a page of printable... ummm, what are those called? "things you glue onto toothpicks and stick into cupcakes". Seems that "Cupcake Toppers" or "cupcake flags" are common labels. So a page of Halloween cupcake flags.
Dang! Martha Stewart's already got a terrific set here: Clip-Art Craft: Spring Cupcake Toppers (PDF).
The major problem, as I see it, is that young kids would pluck one of these from the cupcake and immediately poke their eyes out, an un-YouTube worthy moment. Need alternatives to toothpicks. Perhaps candy cigarettes or carrot 'n celery spears. Yuck.
In the meantime, download my Pumpkin (also part of my growing "Coloring Book Pages" Flickr set or right here on Pizza, Kid's Coloring Book Pages, A Grab Bag Of Uneven Illustrations).
Fifth Grader's Story Collection ...from 1931!
Whilst out in Kansas visiting my very loud family (it's possible, folks, that I'm NOT the loudest) Judy showed me, then allowed the borrowing of the "Book of Short Stories" -- a collection of essays, book reports, "what I did this summer" stories by fifth graders, and the great part is this was published February 1931! I've started uploading all of the stories, but there's already a dozen or two up there. I just think this is such a neat find. Check 'em out and let me know what you think! Start with these Pretending and A Beautiful Site.
Restored Neon, Swing Band, & Classic Cars!
Emily & Phil pose
alongside a classic
Met Emil, Phil, Reid, & Ming to wander about enjoying a terrific swing band and a tremendous restoration of Chinatown's neon signage -- tacky is back, and it's beautiful.
The Cuba Ya Wish You'd Seen
Just started on a new site for Peter (Moruzzi) for his soon-to-be-released book "Havana Before Castro, When Cuba Was a Tropical Playground". So far it's just a coming soon page, but check back as there's so much good material to work with even I should do OK.
BTW, nearly finished reading the galley -- it's a fun, quick read.
Update (19-July): Peter's added some excerpts from his book and a terrific classic mojito recipe, also from the book. Check it out.
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Neighborhood Gets Overdue Loitering Spot
Cycleway Coffee
Grand Opening
My recurring lament "wherefore art thou, neighborhood coffee house" ends with the opening last month of Cycleway Coffee, a truly first-class coffee house nestled at the foot of the hill-saddle between Highland Park, Monterey Hills, and the Arroyo Seco -- otherwise known as "Hermon".
Their opening day was quite well attended, capped off by a stop of some scores of bicyclists enjoying the monthly NELAart Organization - Spoke(n) Art Bike Tour (open-studios throughout Highland Park). I dropped in during the day to shoot these photos (also posted as a Flickr set).
The very existence, as brief but notable as it was, of the cycle way was a complete surprise to me. And while it was never finished, rarely used, and was replaced by a freeway it's quite a tale.
(full disclosure: yes, I worked on their web site)
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life drawing above a masonry shop
Halloween Prime:
Dracula Night
After more than a year of "planning to" I finally made it to the drawing club this past week where the theme was Dracula (thanks to Richard!). It honestly exceeded my expectations, which were fairly high -- and if you've ever seen the past work posted on their blog you know why. Here's a few of my feeble sketches
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more of the same obsession
Happy Halloween
Three, count 'em three more pointless coloring book pages, no, not pointless: for I proclaim these a tribute to Zanzabelle (Silver Lake) Ice Cream Parlor and General Store. If you've not been you owe yourself a visit to this tiny cabin, chock-full-o retro candies, toys, art, and of course Fosselman's Ice Cream: floats, malts, you name it. Or just a great scoop or two while you blissfully browse Wacky Packages, tin toys, and groovy stuff.
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need a spooky background?
Happy Halloween
I was looking for a decent tessellating (step-n-repeat) background tile for a web page recently and, as per my usual, I wound up elsewhere, so, here's hoping this will meet your Hallowe'en needs. Two sizes: 125 pixels square (shown, right) or 250 px.
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Get productive fast!
Get Firefox!
A question I frequently get is which Firefox plug-ins do I recommend (OK, sometimes it's just "Hey, what's that?" as someone points to my screen). The world of Firefox add-ons is incredibly rich, but whenever I install Firefox on a development machine here's the extensions I always immediately add.
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Yikes! Bosses? Fuzzy Butts??!
A Mess Without You
C'mon, this is somewhat better, no? It's all about being there, when the going gets tough. No, wait. That could be taken... nevermind. more...
Yikes! Bosses? Fuzzy Butts??!
Hey, Boss!!!
OK, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. I've no idea why last year was all sweetness 'n innocence, and this year I'm being, well, a tad hateful and now...? Now? Let's be frank; this is mildly offensive. I'll be losing my PG-13 along about now, right? more...
Love is... a steamy, leech-infested swamp of emotion
Let's Suck Face!
A theme appears to be emerging for '07's Valentine's Day card lineup, and, lest speculation carry on unabated, allow me this: I emphatically deny such an intent, nor, contrary to appearances has some emotional crisis befallen me. Perhaps it's too, too easy a target, but VD screams for such a polemic. more...
Speaking of: Ed Shepp's "On Love" merits a listen.
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Love and Longing, or Dr. Guillotine versus Cupid
Valentine's Day
Guillotine
Oh, no story behind this one. And yes, I know guillotines never employ ratchets (spent an hour over coffee researching. purchase blueprints online? you bet you can.) Opted to disregard historical accuracy as this seemed more dramatic. Might come back to this for cleanup, but good enough for now.
Sorry for not including Mssr. F.Spaghetti Monster, might try to knock out a new one in praise of all things noodly later this week while on the train.
Check out the great retro VD Cards on flickr, terrifics!
Original sketch
If anyone has pointers on using Corel Painter IX.5, please let me know. Love it, right up until she drives me nuts.
Mainly it's organizing those gazillion pens, brushes, etc. Oh, and inking with nice variable line-weights. Perhaps a new tablet?
Did have a disaster; program crashed, corrupted the file. Had to start over. more...
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Double check calendar and... yup, another year passes
Quickie Christmas Card
Corporate job plus stupid-sick commute means not much to show for this past year, least ways, here on pizza, for which I've true regret. So, it's christmas and time to update the playlist. This year's adds include A Rubberband Christmas (Rubber Bells... incredible) and more Hawaiian Slackkey Guitar here doing the xmas standards. Below's probably the only card I'll manage to get out. Drawings, fewer and further between.
This year's stocking stuffer:
a matchbox filled
with tiny photos.
Doing photo matchboxes for stocking stuffers. Still working out kinks with the prototype; photos size about 2.25 x 1.5 inches so choosing photos is tough. However, the box itself is the biggest hassle. Trying to recapture a bit of the feel of those quick line sketches (conte sticks, 3-5 spot colors) 60's xmas album covers (Perry, Dean-o, Bing, Burl)
Ludlow's working on several sites and some print pieces: Love Serve "home companion services" and Gia Marakas, a great Pilates instructor he knows in Hollywood.
Santa/Christmas
bookplate
Books equal Christmas, right? (note: if I've sent you a book-shaped box you should not at this point jump to any conclusions, though, frankly, you'd not be far off if we just assume it's a book). Just decided to be (extra) lazy, repurposing this Christmas Card as a book plate/tag.
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Screw that dozen roses, print this instead
Forgiveness, 
that's the greatest gift: I failed to delivery the FSM Advent Calendar, and I apologize. Not that any action on my part can undo this undone deed, but it's time for some Valentine's Day Cards.
If you're like me (insert joke) you loved those cheap-o dime-store boxes of Valentines cards you stuffed into construction-papered boxes in your 4th grade classroom. Well, no need to abandon this tradition. All you need to supply is a dozen pink cup cakes.
2 card designs so far, but check back next week for the Teacher's Card!
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Merry Christmas Holidays
(screw you, O'Rielly)
Reindeer Jerky, now in Peppermint & Teriyaki Flavor!
When "research" takes one to [web] pages titled 'jerkymasters at work', 'ask the meatman', or 'jerky sampler' and you aren't perusing craigslist's personals you known a line's been crossed. When some of these very sites sell prescription drugs, bongs, or -- and here I kid you not -- or "adult toys" along with their various jerky products you gotta wonder what they know that you don't... "yes, think I'll take the 100 count of Viagra, those zig zag papers, a double roper dildo, in green, please, and, hmmm, oh, hey, how about the three pound assortment of Cajun mesquite deer and alligator jerky, oh, and a small vial of ground emu warts"
This year's xmas card.
Anyway, doing a reindeer jerky package was too damned tempting to resist, and while I really, definitely, without a doubt want you to think this was my idea -- it was all Ludlow. While shopping for something we definitely don't need (and moreover don't have room to store) he noticed the rack of road-kill-esque jerky at the checkout counter (I am one who enjoys a good jerky, yet, these neon-red junior high vivisection cast-offs seemed particularly over-the-top). From there we just couldn't stop. It had to be done.
Be sure to order plenty for your friends, and don't forget those Christmas stockings! Now available in:
Original Smokey Nutmeg & Mesquite Flavor (large, 420 KB)
and zesty Peppermint & Teriyaki
or sample our newest flavor: Cajun Spicy Pizza & Egg Nog
Bonus(?) Track: Like leftover turkey lurking in your fridge's unlit back corner weeks after Thanksgiving, here's two old, old coloring book pages (honestly, this isn't an obsession) hastily whipped together for a "kids' day" at the office, back when I was at an office. An office with kids. These are pdfs. Kids, as you know, love pdfs. Love 'em.
Gingerbread Man & House
Santa & Reindeer
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Developer's Notes: Mailing Lists
I've adapted my customized editor that allows me to define more than one content area within a phpList Template into a plugin you can fairly easily install and run in about 20 minutes.
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Touched by His Noodly Appendage
Since 
converting and becoming a Pastafariani I've never been happier, but sometimes, say when my eye patch gets lost in the laundry, or someone tries to fob off Costco lasagne on me, well, I've wondered whether I was living as he'd want me to. Well, tonight I received a sure sign of His pleasure -- in my coffee.
Full story
Oh, posted a FSM Ministries pamphlet cover, too!
Hot off the presses: Flying Spaghetti Monster Manga. For the anime-inclined out there who need the cuter, snugglier side of Him, FSM now in a bite-sized glob.
Also, check out the slowly evolving (no pun) Flying Spaghetti Monster Coloring and Activity Book. Just added: Noah's Ark versus FSM
and He Boiled For Our Sins
(links to image).
Now a convenient Flickr pool at flickr.com/groups/FlyingSpaghettiMonster
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Whoops!
The Seattle Times reporters may have tastefully handled the story of a man who died from injuries incurred while having sex with a horse; their marketing/ad sales department? Not so much. Note the ad accompanying this story suggesting that readers 'do something different' and features men on horses.
Full story/screenshot...
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Freebies
Have had numerous requests for these since first making them for myself and Gerimi around mid-Z (mid-Z, or MZ, similar to CE, BCE, but Z-time is a function of burn-rate and virtual stock options, ok, converting, as Celsius to Fahrenheit, it's roughly 2000CE, more or less). Anyway, first up is a Microsoft Word document that's very simple to use for writing your screenplay, the poor man's Final Draft. (added some notes on proper margins and formatting) The other is a collection of a half-dozen storyboard layouts, DV and HD, in Acrobat (PDF) and GIF formats. Really encourage everyone doing video or animation to storyboard your setups -- might be shocked at how ambitious your plans are. Saves many headaches later. Full story and download links...
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Photo Gallery Script
Auto-Scrolling Test
OK, Ben, Steve, and you other whiners. Have added, am testing, an "oughtn't the photos..." feature: when you choose show "ALL" thumbnails subsequent thumbnail clicks don't auto-scroll the page. You're right, never said you weren't, this makes sense. Have finally added this. For those keeping score this is gallery version v2.2.8.
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Photos
Grand Performances, downtown Los Angeles. Combining Kung Fu, music, and those bendy-straw moves that just make you squirm, Thursday July 28, downtown Los Angeles' Grand Performances. And Mayor Antonio R Villaraigosa put in an appearance.
View photos.
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Poorman's World
A few folks have asked about the "soft lighting" in some photos here on Pizza. The answer: a juicy strobe bounced off a white or light color ceiling, however, sometimes bouncing is impossible or you really need front light (such as when the subject is wearing a hat, often due to having just awoken to find a camera in their face) - for this I have a silly, home-made hood I attach to a Canon 580EX Speedlite, with a piece of photographer's diffusion material clipped on (medal of freedom to whoever created the tiny binder clip!), though tissue paper would work, too (you may have a higher "shame factor" than I do). I've just posted a full set of instructions, but if you're impatient here's the PDF template (you'll need to cut-out this hood from some stiff, opaque cardboard).
Good question: a rubber band can be used to hold it on, but generally mine is snug enough that it stays in place fairly well (see photo) even if I slip it on/off several times during one session.
At right is the hood affixed to the flash sans diffusing material. The gentle back-slope does a fairly decent job of distributing light over the hood's entire surface, with a minimal hot spot at the throat's bottom. As an aside, people (aka subjects, or "victims" if you will) have actually thanked me for using this admittedly sad looking setup since it's much easier on the eyes than a full-strength strobe to the face.
Fine, you need proof? Here's a shot utilizing the hood. Subjects were a few feet away and the background quite dim, yet, the flash gives a very smooth, flattering light.
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Tools for a Freer America
One nicety Javascript Photo Galleries lack that server-side-script ones -- such as the many written in PHP, ColdFusion, and Perl -- easily offer is a nice admin interface. The ability to simply click to upload images, easily sort them, add meta-data, all via reasonably responsive WYSIWYG interfaces, well, it's difficult to over state just how useful such features truly are. Fine. I'm willing to take this problem on and thus quell a few complaints (mostly my own, incidentally) by providing a Javascript editor that does offer a few of these niceties. full story or demo the editor now
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Best of the Best
Bill Moyer at National Media Reform Conference
Appears as though I didn't miss much this past month with one exception: this speech by one of my favorite rational, reflective voices (anyone who's endured my gushing over Moyer and Joseph Campbell's conversations in the Power of Myth series will attest that I'm showing considerable restraint by not rambling on and on about what a noble, insightful, and ... shoot, I'm doing it, aren't I?). Well, then, here: download this file and listen, won't ya please, uh-huh?
freepress.net/conference/audio05/moyers.mp3
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This American Life
Godless America
Yet another home run from Ira Glass and company, this time actor/author/humorist Julia Sweeney. Last week's episode Godless America, well, just listen and you too shall learn the meaning of the line "Jesus had a really bad weekend for our sins". Visit TAL
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Photos
Game On: First Peeks
Back and fully immersed in the arduous task of fixing the truly horrific photos I snapped (sadly unimpressed with my efforts, should have just used a disposable or used the Nokia's camera), but gotta keep going.
There are two random galleries, subsets of the complete photo extravaganza (zah-zah-zah-zahh -- see Country Links below): newest and Europe 2005: a Primer. Otherwise, if you need to eat your desert after the cheese course, here be the complete trip, pre-sliced, manageably chewable galleries in what seems to be a mostly chronological / by country order:
Update (June 16): Heaping praise on boingboing is frosting a Twinkie (just ask Ed). Cory et al have linked to
Pisa Pushers, a flickr gallery documenting the same phenom we noted: people getting photographed 'holding up' the leaning tower.
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Link to a Friend
Short Tripps
For anyone who has nothing better to do than read blogs (that'd be mostly myself and possibly, no, on second thought it's just me) here's Ben Tripp's Lulu Emporium and blog. His book, "Square in the Nuts", is a collection of some of his more provocative CounterPunch essays.
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Strange Visitations
Got to meet up with Scott's quite nice family at Venice Beach where we strolled about and introduced the miniature Ariagnos to the wonders of sand in the belly-button. Even better, under a softly overcast sky
a brief cameo by a pod of dolphins ended the trip on a high note. View photos.
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Freebies
I find bookplates truly cool and as such have started drawing them in my own books and sketchbooks. As time permits I'll scan and post some of them here, for your personal use.
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Nostalgia Ain't What It Used To Be
Archeologists Unearth Original PBTS Relics
Been
doing some cleanup -- including installing a 400GB drive (a "smaller" 300GB SATA is itching to be added, too, how times change) -- and while dutifully doing that typical soul-searching "gosh, haven't looked in this directory in years, do I really need this online -- or at all?" when, hark, I discovered some old Pizza websites. Now,
since the site at that time ran ColdFusion against Oracle (7 I seem to recall) the complete contents of the stories have been lost, but there is this odd screen-shot lying about in one directory. The lead story decries the appearance of a new, "lame-ass" website cluttering the Internet. That's me!!! Neato!
As the page's navigation icons illustrate, originally the whole "pizza" theme played a much larger roll year one's site, completely disappearing, however, when an unfortunate hardware upgrade blew away the web server. Yeah, backups are religiously run nowadays.
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Happenings
Gladys Brown's Birthday Bash
As 
usual when hanging
out with the older folks I went home exhausted and crashed for 8 hours whereas Gladys, at 85, went to bed at midnight and got up at 3:30 to make coffee for everyone else.
Rest now while you're young, apparently our grandparents never sleep. Here are the pics from Ludlow's grandma's nearly seven hour dance-eat-dance party. Enjoy. GrandmasBirthdayParty.com
Update: 
As part of our on-going on-demand printing
services research (obsession) we've put together a 60-page, 6x9" photobook of the party on lulu.com. Download the ebook/preview version for free or buy a hardcopy for under $14 bucks -- this, we suspect, is only of interest to those related to Ms.Brown, but ya never know. Our proof copy hasn't arrived yet -- we promise
to post impressions and full evaluation of lulu's printing as soon as it arrives and we've spent quality time with it in the restroom.
Update (March 22): So the book arrived and was an instantaneous, big hit with everyone, BUT if you think this is going to be museum-catalog quality or appropriate for printing your coffee-table photo-retrospective book (which I was secretly hoping would be the case), well, you're in for disappointment. This is a fine product. The quality is
as acceptable as the generic non-art magazine might be; the colors a bit dull and dark. This all sounds terrible, and for your purposes it might be. However, since other sites charge $1.99 per page, versus Lulu's 20¢, well, that puts it in perspective: if
price is a bigger concern and you're cool with T.V. Guide quality print, then do this. Like I said, it made a big splash with Ludlow's grandma's friends, and with me, too.
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Scripts
Documentation for the current version (2.2.4) of the photo gallery script is at the 80% mark -- substantially more than had been available, so it's going live. New tutorials and a decent
function reference should quick-start your gallery-building efforts. Read, play, enjoy. Full story
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Photo Study
While combing the resplendent Brand Library's music collection we got some photos of the silk floss trees that surround the Moroccan-style building.
These tree's spikes have always been a bit of an oddity to me -- somehow never appearing menacing, but clearly one of the best defended plants around.
Perhaps it's because the thorns look like Hershey's Kisses. (maximize your browser, oversized photos)
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Rant
As 
if the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave weren't enough shame for one country, we've this new-old "debate" raging in
the schools over evolution. In the interests of fairness I propose this alternative: a sticker to be placed in all bibles that are in public holdings such
as libraries and schools. Full story
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Favorite Places
Berolina Bakery & Pastry Shop
On
the border of Glendale and Montrose is a great two-some: Berolina's where we used to have espressos after dropping off my Ducati three doors down and Schriener's Market. The bakery, in addition to being
the spot for the annual stollen drive (think Pamplona's diversion, but instead of bulls it's blonde housewives), has great breads (the olive loaf is highly recommended, no slouch; strong olives with a tangy
bite) and pastries, including delectable clafoutis, and the killer Swedish Delights -- cookies that melt in your mouth like baked cotton candy.
Berolina Bakery & Pastry Shop website
3421 Ocean View Blvd, Glendale, CA 91208
(818) 249-6506
Schreiner's Fine Sausages
Schreiner's
(directly next door to Berolina's) makes sandwiches but is really the place for fresh sausages, made on site and just the thing for breakfast or the grill. The ham is great, too.
3417 Ocean View Blvd, Glendale, CA 91208
(818) 244-4735
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Current Projects
Applying WordPress and SMF
Here's a quickie: currently throwing together a site for a ModCom fundraiser: Johnie's (Googie Architecture) Coffee Shop on Wilshire Re-Opens October 2, 2005. That's a temp page, final site launches next week (Sep 12th).
FilipinianaKalipayan.org serves alumni of the well-regarded Filipino dance group and, is just so happens, was once graced by Ludlow's roomie.
Looks like it'll be built atop WordPress blogging software and PHP BB for the forums, though haven't ruled out b2evolution or SMF. Still looking for DB photogallery, lead contender: Coppermine, but whoknows?
Simultaneously wiring WordPress into BasicFlowersLA.com. I did some photography for the basic flowers site and print pieces.
Thanks... These generous souls have made the tinkering oh so much easier: Dirk Zimmermann's XFish Meta WP plugin and
Denis de Bernardy's Static front page WP plugin
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Popular Photo Galleries
Complete photo gallery listing lives here.
All of those hours of Good Eats paid off big time when Ludlow cooked his first (brined) turkey, though the kitchen was a wee bit smoky.
Ludlow hits SAP training in Foster City while I camp out at the city's new, glass library (wifi!!), then into Frisco (SanFran if you must) to hang with Mark and June.
The obligatory trip to Mama's Girl, Mitchell's Ice Cream, and Farley's.
Lot's of photos of my family, friends, and KC landmarks. One evening we even ran into an old neighbor while playing tag: Every Wednesday at 7PM a group of strangers gather at the Nichols Fountain on the Country Club Plaza for a few hours of tag. The Tag Institute runs this awesome event. (a good write-up in this Star-Telegram story-- lame-o, but free, sign-up required or just bugmenot)
Lots of of other homey farmers' market pics, too.
Pulled some pics from the PDF album of the entire trip (will post the album in its entirety again soon as well as some galleries).
This parade, held in Brussels every two years, celebrates the city's 13 neighborhoods. A Burning Man aesthetic, with more kids and snails.
Sara's short "A Big Issue" got accepted at Sundance for online, so we all tagged along to take advantage of Park City's great boarding.
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