Who Dat (MIH 11)

We are in Austin, TX. We got here late Sunday night and then had a little adventure looking for Star Seed’s Café, which was “close” to where we’re staying.


But apparently close in Austin means several miles, not like close in S.F. which means you can walk to it. Soooo we ended up at Denny’s- but it was a totally rocking Denny’s all decked out fifties style with a big outdoor patio… it was cool, we swear. We’ve been slacking on the blog the last couple of days. We’re staying with Jeremey’s friend Shannon of Banana Farm fame...



and Shannon's girlfriend Amy (Buckshot) of the Texas Roller Girls. They’ve got a big tournament this weekend so if you’re in the Austin area go out there and show them some love.

Shannon and Amy just moved into a new spot and don’t have the Internet. So right now we’re lurking at Clementine’s Coffee on Manor using their free wifi.


Austin’s been pretty rad; we shot our first story on the road, Austin Craft Mafia. Now, there’s a ton of ladies who are part of the Craft Mafia… we shot three of them. The first was Hope Perkins who does amazing portraits of dead rappers.


She did not do one of Mac Dre for Jeremey…


(but she said she’d do it for $250.)

...Oh yeah and we saw the most bizarre bug outside of Hope's place...


If anybody can name it, we'll let you donate fifty bucks to us.

Tina Sparkles was next. She showed us how she makes the coolest guitar straps in the world. Last but not least was Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching who was gracious enough to let us interrupt her incredibly busy day to interview her and shoot her operation. She has so much stuff going on, we’re truly grateful that she let us bug her for a couple of hours. She dropped some very thoughtful and intelligent commentary about D.I.Y. culture on us and she even hooked Abby up with an embroidery kit.

Thanks ladies. And look out for some tidbits from those shoots coming soon.

We spent part of Monday night at a New Orleans Saints Bar with Shannon and some other Austin folks watching the Saints get stomped.


So then we headed to Long Branch to numb the pain. Everybody keeps telling us to go swimming in one of the creeks here, but we didn’t bring swimsuits and Wally World was a huge disappointment. Next stop Savers…

Oh yeah, and the Queso is rocking.

Roadkill, Roswell, Rain, and the Road. (MIH8)

It’s been a long three days since Las Vegas. We haven’t had the best of luck arriving at tourist destinations at a reasonable hour. For example: We managed to pull up to the Grand Canyon Park Entrance at dark, we arrived in Roswell less than one hour after everything (even restaurants) closed, and we missed traveling anywhere near the Marfa Lights because of a severe storm. The good news is we didn’t die in a flash flood. And we have some pictures from our adventures.

To our surprise (somehow we didn't realize until we were basically there) we drove over the Hoover Dam.



We stopped in Seligman, AZ, home of the Route 66 tourist capital.



The couple stores that line the main street are filled with memorabilia and cheap tourist trinkets. Don’t worry, we avoided purchasing any license plates or key chains with our names plastered on them. Jeremey however, bought a vanilla milkshake from Delgadillo’s Snow Cap Drive In. It was amazing. Oh, and we also drove past the Roadkill Café.



Roswell was, well, dead. Apparently there are no signs of life (alien or human) after 5:00pm.





The storm hit us between Roswell and (what we hoped to drive to) Fort Stockton. There was lightening on every side of us, thunder always getting closer. The rain was pouring buckets that seemed to splash in lakes on the increasingly invisible road. Luckily we found a small picnic area, and parked it behind a semi truck.



I was certain we were facing death by flash flood. No civilization for over 48 miles. Jeremey’s phone had no service- mine was spotty at best. Thankfully, we got through to Jeremey’s mom who informed us that we were about to hit a break in the storm. If we pressed on for 40 minutes, we might criss-cross through the calm, and make it out. Well, since you’re reading this blog, you know the ending. It was scary… but we made it to Pecos, TX, and gave up driving until the morning.

Yesterday was a thrilling and exciting day of driving across Texas. The good news is you can drive pretty fast.



We arrived in Lake Charles, LA late last night to pick up… a CAMERA! Jeremey’s Dad, who is an entrepreneur himself, came to our aid and gave us the funds we needed to get our second camera. We are incredibly thankful for his generosity.



…This is Jeremey’s dad standing over his Christmas feast.
Thanks so much Dad (Randy).


Tomorrow, we head to Austin...

The Bees Bounce

Karl Rove isn’t the only one getting out of town; it looks like the Earth’s bee population is taking off as well. Up to 60 percent of bees have vanished from the West Coast and 70 percent from the East Coast and Texas. The mass exodus is attributed to a vague syndrome called Colony Collapse Disorder, but I’ll get to that in a minute…

What I think is amazing is that not very much is being made of this mysterious Bee vanishing. You might say to yourself, “what do I care if the bees disappear?” Honey is just bee puke and the thought of a bunch of bulimic bees collectively puking a jar full of thick amber throw up… well that’s just disgusting. Besides who likes getting stung? And an animal that hasn’t evolved past suicide as a defense measure is sort of suspect anyway, right? Plus they’ve been around for millions of years and their society hasn’t progressed one bit. Matriarchal totalitarianism, that’s hardly a meaningful contribution to civilization. And while all those statements are totally valid and understandable, it might surprise you to know that bees don’t just puke honey and sting people. They also pollinate a sizeable portion of the fruits and vegetables we humans eat.

According to Zac Browning the vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation, “Every third bite we consume in our diet is dependent on a honeybee to pollinate that food.” They pollinate at least $14 billion dollars worth of crops in the U.S. alone, including apples, nuts, pears, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash, tomatoes, sunflowers and cucumbers. Along with citrus fruit, peaches, kiwis, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries and melons. (From here.)

Einstein once said, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then Man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more life.” So no bees equals no food. (And no food equals no us.) So unlike losing Karl Rove, losing the bees is something that we definitely need to be upset about.

What makes matters worse is that nobody is quite sure what’s causing Colony Collapse Disorder, only that the bee’s aren’t coming home to the hive and they haven’t left a forwarding address. Some theories blame pesticides, some blame mites or UFO’s, and others claim that cell phones are disrupting bees navigational systems causing them to spazz out and get lost in the wilderness. (Steve jobs I’m looking at you.) There’s even a theory that claims the missing bees evolved into Namura Jellyfish causing the vast Jelly plague in Japan.













Some scientists doubt that theory.

Whatever the cause, one thing’s for sure. We can add disappearing bees to the long list of possible cause for impending human annihilation. Put it right after global warming, but at least three stops up from the Rapture. (Sorry Bushies.)

Think of the bees the way we should be thinking about the polar ice caps. And I don’t mean as inconvenient barriers to Arctic oil reserves, but as the metaphorical canaries in the coal mine. Without the bees, we’re fucked. What does it say about a society that is so disconnected from its food supply that it barely understands or cares that no pollinating insects equals NO food supply?

But hey why trouble ourselves with it too much? Big Love’s on tonight and that show is awesome. Instead lets take a collective walk through the park, and maybe even stop to smell those beautiful, fragrant flowers… while we still have them.

And speaking of (birds and) bees...

Funny. And Sad.

Funny. And Sad.



Funny. And Sad. (Murphy's Law at it's finest)





Funny. And Sad.



David Segal from the Washington Post wrote quite possibly the best article on how 15 seconds of fame has a whole new meaning thanks to online video. He starts:

There was a time, not long ago, when a 10-year-old boy could head to a neighborhood fair, get his face painted like a Halloween zombie and blurt out something utterly inane to a local TV news correspondent and nobody would ever think about it again... more.

Best [Pic] Week Ever.

I spent a good portion of last week being sick. Therefore, I spent a good portion of last week on the internet. Let me tell you, it was a week rich with visual stimuli.

I now present the top pics of the week:

1. Scared of Tobacco or Terrorists? (technically a graph, but go with it)
2. Phonetically Correct-ish.
3. 120 Calories. The British way. (Can anyone tell me what mini scotch eggs are? They look like chicken nugget balls.)
4. Really? Does your mom know you did that?
5. Funny, cause it's true. (and technically a comic, but go with it)
6. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. (That is not a typo)
7. Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu. (That is not a typo)
8. Best Anti-War Graffiti Ever.