Art by George DeStefano

I am lucky to currently have not one but two pieces of art by George DeStefano hanging in my apartment. This up-and-coming painter/illustrator's style cannot neatly fit into a specific category - I would call it "chunky abstract realism" - and his work really needs to be seen in person to do these pieces justice. Some pieces are created using found materials, such as old doors and other large objects, upon which he applies layer upon layer of paint to create images that stop one dead in his or her tracks. While your eyes may linger over a piece for a few seconds on the web, in person you'll be standing in front of that same piece for a few minutes.

In the next decade, I expect big things from the New York based artist. If you are interested in seeing in person or obtaining one of George's pieces, feel free to contact either me or George directly. His contact info can be found on his site.

Great Sports Events - late 80's, early 90's...

...stream of consciousness style. Jessie just IM'd: "can you think of a great sports moment form late 80s early 90s? - goign to a meeting - im me if you think of one." I immediate replied: "how late?" and she then wrote "when we were 10-14ish."

This is what I came up with as quickly as possible off the top of my head:

* olympics in 88 - greg luganis cracks his head open and still wins gold
* 92 - dream team, nba - jordan, magic, larry legend
* 89 - earthquake during WS
* i think it was in 90 or 91 when the islanders won a 4 OT playoff game - that was awesome
* NY Giants winning the super bowl in 91 with Scott Norwood missing the field goal - that was awesome too

If you want to add to the list, post a comment

Malta & Yalta

Do you know the difference between Malta and Yalta? I didn't except for the fact that they are both small. I didn't know if one was a city and the other was a country, if it was vice versa, if they were both countries, if they were both islands, etc. I knew one hosted a very important Allied conference during WWII. Which one though? I could never be sure.

Today, Malta came up as a cross word answer in a puzzle I'm doing - "island nation south of Sicily" - I knew the last four letters were alta and I could not decide if it was malta or yalta for about 10 minutes, until i figured out the four letter word for ramble - "roam" - which happened to end where "_alta" began. So, "malta" was the answer to the clue and I decided that I would do some research and figure out once and for all the differences.

After checking with Wikipedia, here is what I found:

MALTA: The Republic of Malta is a small and densely populated island nation in southern Europe. It consists of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea directly south of Italy. These strategically located islands have been ruled and fought over by various powers over the centuries. It is finally its own nation, having fully divested itself from Britain, the last nation to hold dominion over it, in 1979 and it joined the EU in 2004.

YALTA: Yalta is a town in the Crimea in southern Ukraine, on the north coast of the Black Sea, that was the site of the Yalta Conference. It has about 77,100 inhabitants (2004). Near Yalta is the Livadia Palace, the former summer palace of the Russian Imperial family, where the conference actually took place. Throughout the Soviet era it continued to be an important resort for the Soviet elite. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union it has, however, struggled economically.

Who knows? Maybe one or the other or both will be on Jeopardy one day...

Zoomquilt Trippiness

I saw a link to this collaborative flash art project entitled The Zoomquilt a few months back, actually, it was when I was in LA last so I'm going to say October, when Chris posted it to his site. Today, I got it again from my friend Sam so now its been doubly verified and since I still think its pretty trippy and neat, check it out for yourself.

Thanks Sam

It Ain't Easy Being Geo-Green

I turned on NY 1 this morning to hear that the MTA has decided against buying more hydrogen-powered buses. The experient is over and gas won - a fleet of diesel powered buses is being purchased to replace the older buses being removed from service. That makes Thomas Friedman's column today in the NY Times even more important. Finally he's stopped talking about the Middle East and instead is talking about an even greater issue - the environment. He talks about implementing a "Geo-Green Strategy" for the US and this strategy is one that I wholeheartedly embrace and support. Here are the strategy's 3 main points:

1) We need a gasoline tax that would keep pump prices fixed at $4 a gallon, even if crude oil prices go down. At $4 a gallon (premium gasoline averages about $6 a gallon in Europe), we could change the car-buying habits of a large segment of the U.S. public, which would make it profitable for the car companies to convert more of their fleets to hybrid or ethanol engines, which over time could sharply reduce our oil consumption.

2) We need to start building nuclear power plants again. The new nuclear technology is safer and cleaner than ever. "The risks of climate change by continuing to rely on hydrocarbons are much greater than the risks of nuclear power," said Peter Schwartz, chairman of Global Business Network, a leading energy and strategy consulting firm. "Climate change is real and it poses a civilizational threat that [could] transform the carrying capacity of the entire planet."

3) And we need some kind of carbon tax that would move more industries from coal to wind, hydro and solar power, or other, cleaner fuels. The revenue from these taxes would go to pay down the deficit and the reduction in oil imports would help to strengthen the dollar and defuse competition for energy with China.

Heresy! $4 a gallon for gas?! MORE nuclear power plants?! Unfortunately, in a word, YES. In only 100 years, mankind has used up half of the world's oil supply by building the "modern" world. Our industrialized society, almost completely reliant on technology and computers nowadays, will come crashing down in the next 50 - 100 years unless we can come up with a cheaper and more efficient way of keeping it going. Using and abusing oil is not the way to do it. If you have a better idea, post a comment or let me know.

Lack of Posts

March was an incredibly busy month for me, I closed on my first apartment and spent a week in the UK (in essence celebrating), so my apologies for not posting in a while. I actually just noticed that it has been over 1 month since I last posted which I find completely galling.

So, this is to let you know that I'm back, I'm recharged, and there will be a slew coming shortly. Hold tight...