tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54751952012-01-31T10:28:37.267-08:00written photography of the cityscape. and else. current city: Los Angeles. next city: unknown. this is federico's blog. when asked "what do you do besides blogging?" federico responds: "a bunch of stuff". this blog documents some of it. and the city, yes. always the city.federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.comBlogger2431100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-20288941750601695332012-01-31T10:24:00.000-08:002012-01-31T10:28:37.276-08:00

turns out it's not so easy to take pictures of this kind of work so please forgive the quality of the ones below.   this work was commissioned by a couple of friends who just had a baby and wanted a sort of stimulating experience for her.  they said they wanted bold simple colors and a palette of black, white and red which are probably my favorite colors to work with.  they thought my style

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-45349306322427993372012-01-13T15:46:00.000-08:002012-01-13T23:19:22.825-08:00

i would not consider this the crowning achievement of my obsession with homebrewing (that has been going on for a bit more than a year now, err, unblogged) but for some reason it feels like something to be mentioned.   this thing now inhabits my kitchen.  it is known among beer people as a kegerator and it's just a refrigerator that houses kegs with a convenient way to serve the beer.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-41826084671208791862010-12-02T15:47:00.000-08:002010-12-02T15:51:34.542-08:00

start with a useless, wheelbending bicycle rack. disassemble and arrange in a pleasing, stable manner. make it stick; if no welder i suggest zip ties. add the top of your choice.  i decorated mine with markers move next to your other DIY furniture, have coffee.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-54205689494283511042010-06-02T08:25:00.000-07:002010-06-02T08:26:28.866-07:00

this is just a miscellany of things i've made or repurposed recently.  i didn't want  to let them go undocumented. let's start with yesterday's build.  a few months ago my friends Joe and Bobby dragged this bench from the most recent remodel of the bowling alley down the street.  it sat around legless for a while until one day i decided to make it useful again with help from the welder and some

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-57054350312776686072010-04-14T14:26:00.000-07:002010-04-14T14:27:07.954-07:00

i think this is my favorite build to date.   it's a little noise box i built based on a CD4093 chip following chapter 20 of previously mentioned book Handmade Electronic Music.  the three faders control 3 oscillators that modulate each other.  the bigger knob is volume control and the smaller knob is a battery starver -  meaning it diminishes the voltage going to the chip making it behave in

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-15522276890336712492010-03-17T16:19:00.000-07:002010-03-17T16:19:48.710-07:00

a gift for my friend Irma.  size 2x4 inches.  acrylic on wood.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1511055579583643362010-03-11T11:12:00.000-08:002010-03-11T22:44:56.714-08:00

and no, i don't own the thing. it's the first car i laid a marker on with permission from it's owner. man i love those paint markers. the line work is similar to the stuff i posted the other day but it's so satisfying to do it on a big surface since your whole body is involved in the making of the lines. the van used to be a swat team vehicle which somehow adds to the glee of painting it.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-85141315741405967672010-03-07T15:13:00.000-08:002010-03-07T15:25:41.548-08:00

  i bought a cheap ($2) second hand usb controller the other day and gave it a new shell.  the first time i saw a project like this one was in make magazine vol 15 (and article written by Brian Schmierer).  there is a similar instructable and i also read about it on chapter 28 of Nicolas Collins's excellent book Handmade Electronic Music (seriously, Excellent book).    my controller was a saitek

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-8213270484722422342010-02-10T15:33:00.000-08:002010-02-10T16:28:08.337-08:00

i've been drawing stuff like this for months. i think i was obsessed with all the decorative patterns i saw in japan, specially the one that looks like scales or waves. i started replicating some of them and the lines became longer and longer. these were drawn with brush pens. brush pens are great. portable, they come in different colors and allow you to flow without stopping for ink and you

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-65223980682031602172010-02-08T15:12:00.000-08:002010-02-08T16:10:26.588-08:00

here is the atari punk console i just built,  also know as a "stepped tone generator".  it was a very simple circuit to build and painting the altoids tin was probably the most fun part.  i used the kaustic machines schematic with a little help from getlofi's diagram for reference since i'm kind of new to building this kind of thing.  i added a photoresistor in series with one of the pots that

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-7792479127741396312010-01-29T22:02:00.000-08:002010-01-29T22:03:15.411-08:00

the coolest thing from checking out R. Crumb's exhibition at the hammer museum was getting to see how much correction fluid he uses on his drawings.  the show has 207 well framed pages of his recent work "The Book of Genesis Illustrated" and some of the research material he collected for inspiration. you can still see pencil markings and lots of correction fluid used not only for, well,

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-35840576275037325852010-01-25T17:06:00.000-08:002010-01-25T17:06:43.887-08:00

el Midas McAlister en la Hacienda Nápoles: "Dios mío, que no me adivinen  los malos pensamientos, pensaba, porque me cocinan a la brasa a mi también.  Y entonces Pablo se quita a las garotas de encima, me llama a un ladito y antes de despedirse me dice una sola frase que me abrió los ojos de una vez y para siempre, Qué pobres son los ricos de este país, amigo Midas, qué pobres son los ricos de

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-82324425372870980102010-01-24T13:56:00.000-08:002010-01-24T14:00:12.178-08:00

here are some characters i drew inspired by the cute mascots you can see almost everywhere in japan (the Cuteness in Japanese Culture article on wikipedia is very enlightening). they were drawn with a brushpen on  a small moleskine sketchbook (i'm starting to dislike that paper, maybe they don't make them like they used to). Sarariman   this particular one was inspired by this interview

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-33602194379483296532010-01-23T10:49:00.000-08:002010-01-23T11:00:23.920-08:00

Suddenly the baby started bawling in the next room and i heard the bed squeak as Ella Mae got up to feed him.  I wondered if they knew how well I could hear them through the thin partition.  If they did they didn't let it bother them.  I heard Henry mutter sleepily, 'Goddamnit! Goddamnit!' Then all I could hear was the sound of the baby sucking greedily, and I thought if they really wanted to

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-79082825802158336892010-01-21T16:52:00.000-08:002010-01-21T17:01:23.386-08:00

my friend Jimmy who works as a bike messenger (and who is also the author of a widely read story about bike theft in downtown L.A.) recently got a very light bike frame he wanted to decorate with a metal band inspired sign reading "messenger".  here are a few proposals i came up with. they are all symmetric.  i'm particularly fond of the inky-drippy one i colored to resemble an old xeroxcopy-like

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-74997373430422129262009-12-06T09:11:00.000-08:002009-12-06T14:11:50.849-08:00

this is my shadow trying to reach a Koi in one of the ponds around the Meiji Shrine. the Shrine is located in a quite sizable forest in the middle of Tokyo -although it's hard to say that Tokyo has a middle-. the forest is reminiscent of central park in New York for it's stark contrast with the throbbing cityscape. after spending a few days in japan coming back to Los Angeles is like visiting a

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-79482610316987008552009-11-15T03:40:00.000-08:002009-12-06T01:19:58.799-08:00

I just had one of the best dinners I have ever had.ever. Seriously. A small restaurant on a small street in tokyo called laughing cloud. Omnivore's paradise. The sashimi was superb. Tofu with seaweed.salad with gyoza skins.soup... Excelent company and sake. The clouds are in this place further than I have ever been.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-63703256302868517542009-11-09T17:20:00.000-08:002009-11-09T17:38:53.658-08:00

this strikes me as a very powerful/challenging piece. two artists get some sacrificed dogs in La Paz (Bolivia) and turn them into carpets. it's brutal and it confronts many things at the same time. read their interview here. i guess this is touching also because i helped a friend skin a dog once and because coming from latin america i'm used to seeing street dogs as regular autonomous

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-67315379117370905092009-09-14T15:56:00.000-07:002009-09-14T15:57:30.501-07:00

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-33462613699880966792009-06-29T18:03:00.000-07:002009-06-29T18:06:03.940-07:00

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-4613638276139651622009-04-25T17:28:00.000-07:002009-04-26T11:37:47.840-07:00

and this is how i spent my saturday afternoon.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-26353752893881661712009-04-21T19:45:00.000-07:002009-04-21T19:48:00.911-07:00

from my friend dave.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-63042807317279504302009-04-03T17:01:00.000-07:002009-04-03T17:08:57.568-07:00

i just got a new batch of stickers. i created a simple web page (http://urbansoil.net/hands) but i'm leaning towards scarce content. it has a gif image with things some friends wrote on the skinny sticker but i don't have much more. no manifesto, not so much into explanations. i guess this one is very graphic, very straight forward. any comments, ideas?

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-24032444243471358552009-02-02T20:44:00.001-08:002009-02-02T21:01:59.381-08:00

3 artists i'm excited about these days. i'm happy to have met two of them in person. joe linton, who recently started posting his drawings online (finally) at handmaderansomnotes, lots of interesting commentary about technique and process. eduardo recife who recently updated his website misprintedtype, his work is sooo great (yes, three o's). and michael napper, at mixedmedia, who's been

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-37499724330227164772009-01-19T14:37:00.000-08:002009-01-19T15:23:10.197-08:00

i think this is one of those things were science meets art meets technology meets hacking meets playing. i'm so awestruck. the image above depicts the top screen of a nintendo ds running a homebrew application called glitchDS which is described by the makers as "a FREE homebrew Cellular Automaton music sequencer for the Nintendo DS. It’s perfect for creating IDM and Glitch style loops" (i

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-69411935821471791752009-01-17T13:20:00.000-08:002009-01-17T14:46:14.240-08:00

i wrote about the beautiful book "recipes for disaster" and the way it came to me some time ago. one of the lines of experimentation that came from that book was the asphalt mosaic technique, also known as "Toynbee-tiles" (named after mosaics found in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania).in brief, this is a way of creating permanent mosaics in asphalt by placing some kind of material on the road and

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-70655923498259729912009-01-06T06:07:00.000-08:002009-01-06T22:38:33.862-08:00

im absolutely fascinated with the work of Paul Robertson lately. animations in the style of oldish videogames - a sort of decade specific machinima. a work of genius. it's funny to think that it has stronger resonances on a very specific generation with very particular tecnological habits. i wonder if this stament is true for most art deemed genius.anyway, i cropped the image to the right

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-50557264534769243022008-12-15T06:31:00.000-08:002008-12-15T13:16:55.572-08:00

a quick cicuit bending weekend project we decided to test sunday night.  i'm particularly happy with the placement of the jack.  may all toy guns become "musical" instruments.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-33464204709630414692008-11-14T05:44:00.000-08:002008-11-14T06:04:30.947-08:00

here is a mental snapshot: its 5:45 am, friday, the last day of a pretty long workweek , i'm ready to go, ready to endure the last day of work.  and what i feel is hate, hate and despair, despaired hate. abstract hate.  i don't hate anything in particular, i just hate it all.  the hate is located between my throat and my stomach.   the despair a little deeper in my chest.it will all burn out by

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-78388047266555144172008-11-02T20:49:00.000-08:002008-11-02T21:04:05.535-08:00

this is my favorite piece of information for the week.  taken from the amanita muscaria article on wikipedia:Fly agarics appear on Christmas cards and New Year cards from around the world as a symbol of good luck. They also function as Christmas tree decorations, derived from their ectomycorrhizal relationship with coniferous trees. The ethnobotanist Jonathan Ott has suggested that the idea of

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-14812639158016133542008-10-31T14:29:00.000-07:002008-10-31T17:02:33.065-07:00

my work life is driving a copper rod through the rest of my life.   i've been working for a growing company that specializes in certain kind of alternative energy, it has been almost a year since i started.  a good learning experience, brutal ten hour days (four days a week) and pretty ok pay. but now, after taking a few weeks off work it has been sooooo hard to readapt.  and add to that a

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-10728488260003665472008-10-20T20:15:00.000-07:002008-10-20T20:23:57.079-07:00

this is a little stop motion animation Yuki and I made at my father's house near Capurgana (Colombia)

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-28855638090356929882008-10-18T12:10:00.000-07:002008-10-18T13:01:46.335-07:00

back in L.A. back from colombia la loca, colombia la desesperada.  back into the city of angels where people talk more about things happening, about the presidents and the crisis and the state of the world.  who would have thought that L.A would be less superficial?   well, L.A. is less afraid, L.A. doesn't have a recent history of state paid snitches and paramilitary being reinserted into civil

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-43645329232836198892008-09-27T21:12:00.001-07:002008-09-27T21:25:46.280-07:00

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-11407239798728306872008-09-25T20:43:00.000-07:002008-09-25T21:06:48.510-07:00

it has been a week and a half.   it has been a hard week.  between seeing family and friends, acceptiong all sorts of invitations, catching up and feeling again this city in which i grew up, i haven't had much time to rest.  the city has grown a lot, it's really really commercial.   new chain stores, new malls.   new public transit.   on the street people seem to walk faster.   it's a little

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-67177558788898387182008-09-16T23:10:00.000-07:002008-09-16T23:22:04.935-07:00

las time i was in colombia: december 2001.  i can't say  things have changed, though they have, i can say  my eyes have changed.   i was in too many places today, left LA at 2 am.  an hour in panama city, five hours in bogota and now, pereira.   graffiti in bogota has greatly improved, people still drive like crazy, althought it seems ever crazier to me now.   guys with army suits and big guns

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-75860256219758440932008-06-24T20:12:00.000-07:002008-06-27T18:16:18.750-07:00

if you are into meeting the bloggers behind the blogs you read, or if you are into meeting those bloggers who even got to publish books (but are still blogging faithfully), or if you are into gardening, bicycling, solar, graywater, ducks, chickens, and/or self-watering pots. here is my humble suggestion for your evening on on Thursday the 26th of June:check out a talk, slideshow and book

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-53667328578859793852008-06-20T14:18:00.000-07:002008-06-20T14:50:12.794-07:00

some recent doodles i pulled out from my collage pile. i felt they were a little bit like abandoned creations left to themselves, dusty, almost forgotten. so here they are. maybe they will go places now.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-90117474001298551142008-06-20T14:02:00.000-07:002008-06-20T14:50:44.151-07:00

i was coming home from work the other day on my bicycle and i spotted these huge things. it was very surreal. here is the approximate location which attentive readers can probably infer from the pic.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-35835800062534236332008-06-16T14:25:00.000-07:002008-06-16T14:44:39.690-07:00

here are my first tries at this technique called panography (nice tutorial here). i looks kinda like David Hockney's work except he doesn't use software so his stuff doesn't have the transparency look (his is more painterly i'd say). i'm not big in better/worse comparisons so i think film and digital are simply two different formats that can borrow from each other. no hierarchy. i

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-53247092425920192702008-06-16T13:05:00.000-07:002008-06-16T13:13:44.467-07:00

pictures of some collaborative work i did with Y. on nearby walls. loving the bigger scale. all mushroom themed.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-46923594045104097502008-06-07T22:06:00.000-07:002008-06-08T22:04:58.547-07:00

i went to see Bomb It the movie today, a documentary about graffiti artists around the globe -and some graffiti haters too. it was very exciting to watch, beautiful stuff from all over the place. there was a Q&A with the director the day before and the theater was covered with these signs, it was kind of funny.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1573922044687799962008-05-11T10:48:00.000-07:002008-06-21T14:38:53.145-07:00

as if muteness was a precondition for these affairs i found myself -wait, did i find myself?- at the new ilcorral (self described as "an experimental all-ages artspace devoted to the periphery where you can be free to enjoy the strangest, newest or most familiar experiences and artists") now called ZeroPoint. although calling it the new ilcorral might be tactless altogether; some things Change,

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-62622375140006656822008-05-03T17:34:00.000-07:002008-05-03T17:38:13.796-07:00

political propaganda gets a makeover (click to see a larger image):

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-47051881436721127242008-05-03T10:13:00.000-07:002008-05-03T10:18:57.706-07:00

then again, the best thing someone told me about my latest birthday was: "welcome to the third floor", you know juan is way clever like that. but he made me feel welcome indeed, since aging sometimes feels like being pushed into the future like being pushed into a party one was not invited to. i guess the celebration has been going on longer than imagined.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-28747173161133479212008-01-28T11:55:00.000-08:002008-06-08T21:53:02.668-07:00

this is one awesome comic book. my friend Joe handed it to me and said “this is one of the best comic books i have read, ever”. i was very surprised, joe is a total old school comic book geek you know . so i took a good read at this. and guess what? it’s beautiful. it made me cry. it’s delicately narrated. a little distant, but it’s a sort of “sensible distance”. or sensitive distance. it’s

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-24620802926612807972007-12-28T16:14:00.000-08:002007-12-28T16:25:53.059-08:00

i can't believe it. so many months since i last posted something here. so sad. life changing. really. sometimes changes are hard to blog about as they happen. fast. and they absorb. suck. take you away. but it has been a brutally exciting, interesting and rewarding year i must say. and i'm debt with so many people. Thank you, Thank you all. those who cannot read me or hear me and those who can.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-18719915008261168552007-08-02T16:09:00.000-07:002007-08-02T16:53:02.574-07:00

i'm fascinated with vines in the city. i like the way vines borrow other structures, inhabit them, make them their own. trees, fences, buildings, lightposts. vines climb, enshroud, hide and dress.i've been thinking about taking pictures of vines in the city. morning glories are all over L.A. but this time i found this really striking passion fruit vine on hudson and 3rd street (link to map

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-79993424174418583202007-06-26T00:18:00.000-07:002007-06-26T00:30:40.124-07:00

i was commissioned to make some bike related Artist Trading Cards for a Bicycle Film festival related event. i made 24 of them and here are my favorite 8 cards. i wrote previous post on ATCs on this blog. enjoy!

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-4005020153873690902007-06-22T16:38:00.001-07:002007-06-22T16:38:41.092-07:00

Bre (his illustration above) from MakeZine.com did a video podcast building a messenger bag with plastic bags using the pattern i published on this same blog some time ago. it's really cool. i like that plastig bag technique. so many things for these bags came out of the trash that in a way using plastic bags was just a natural develpment.check out the podcast here:http://www.makezine.com/

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-47234905218260517532007-06-12T17:38:00.000-07:002007-06-12T22:28:47.715-07:00

how this book came to my hands. that's a story i must tell, or write. or something. it's a story like other stories. it's a story hypertext. which is like saying that no story lives on its own. or that stories are linked in mysterious manners. or this is just my fingers warming up to the keyboard.picture this, a huge plaza in mexico city, la Plaza de las Tres Culturas, the site where in

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-32101994523548528992007-06-02T23:38:00.000-07:002007-06-03T00:01:57.463-07:00

let me begin by saying that i have missed you. yes i have. they way i miss things back there in the corner of my mind, or my body. i've missed them, as in "i missed my wallet". but i found it again in an unexpected place. i missed you too. yes you. and i hope i didn't miss you as in "i lost you" for lack of attention. some things are just like that. lack of attention. i'll say it

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-62218223268193727612007-03-03T19:51:00.000-08:002007-03-03T20:21:39.184-08:00

more adventures on planting things. i like mint. fresh mint. so i set out to plant some more around me. since chain link fence is so underused, and no one was really going to complain about it (you know, around here garden space is prime real state) i planted it on a few found baskets. i lined the baskets with nearby found palm tree leafs and hung them from the fence. i wanted to save

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-61110873841693626242007-02-14T18:25:00.000-08:002007-02-14T18:31:21.920-08:00

i have been planting things. and today, when i cut a piece of sage (i read i could propagate sage by dividing a piece of the plant), planted it, watered the cutting and the original plant, someone came through the gate and gave me a piece of their mind. not because i had done something wrong. or because of the plant. really, i don't know why. but i listened, patiently. and the the person

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1165275237290138592006-12-04T15:08:00.000-08:002006-12-04T16:19:22.156-08:00

i've been redescovering the joy of small. i stumbled upon this website http://www.swap-bot.com/, it lets you organize and join mail swaps and found that a lot of people were swaping ATC's. ATC'? i said. holy bat-acronyms. and after a good search i found that it stood for Artist Trading Cards (click for wikipedia entry). oh, i've seen those, i thought. i've traded those before (once

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1161734854392107312006-10-24T16:31:00.000-07:002006-10-24T17:09:15.516-07:00

(above) electricians try to disguise their doings by using a lot of right angles. following the right angle based geometry of our built enviroment. cracks might be wiser.and how is this last picture electrical? well, the cute trans-wall cylinder comes the jobsite of our dear girl-electrician Murphy.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1161565142355721302006-10-22T17:21:00.000-07:002006-10-22T18:02:49.423-07:00

Signsthe thing that strikes me about this sign is the bicycle. it is not a car, oh no, it is a bicycle. i imagine you can say it's a symbol of freedom (death=freedom), whatever. above is the work of Invader, check it out at http://www.space-invaders.com/. he is one prolific, international and well organized street artist.SlantedPlants can make it anywhere

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1160906308578532662006-10-15T02:48:00.000-07:002006-10-15T02:58:28.590-07:00

364 Glendale Blvd (map).

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1155421570043024452006-08-12T13:28:00.000-07:002006-08-12T15:31:57.816-07:00

like a dancer in midair. maybe his soul was just leaving him. and in the middle of the spheres his body shared that fleeting aspect of souls. i do not know if dogs have souls. i can tell you the story of the time i saw a deer killed in the flats of kansas during a grey winter dawn. when the hunters opened his chest a steam rose warm from his insides. and i couldn't help but thinking: his

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1155101859911336382006-08-08T22:06:00.000-07:002006-08-12T23:45:12.213-07:00

it is asking me beyond existence: d? it was erased. erasure. writing on the street it's like that. you always risk it. it's not your canvas. it is no one's canvas. and they have as much right to erase it as i have to write on it. but... but it strikes you. i laughed when someone told me. your poetry. it was erased. i laughed. what else is there to do? i went outside. it wasn't

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1154506345551773452006-08-02T01:07:00.000-07:002006-08-02T01:12:25.560-07:00

it is really strange when it suddenly sets in. the finitude of things. the people that say goodbye. the last time you work at certain place. and that moment you return home half lonely half contempt because life is there and it awaits with a thousand surprises and a thousand forms of sadness too. but there is this emptiness that fills the air. how do you call it? like when things really

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1154452699906650982006-08-01T10:12:00.000-07:002006-08-01T10:18:22.150-07:00

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1153451143367084642006-07-20T20:05:00.000-07:002006-07-20T20:05:43.380-07:00

it is unfortunate. like too bright skyes or sick trees. and i feel sad. like i couldnt' honor certain relationships. like i failed to mantain connection. connector.this feeling of being unattainable, reachable, even despitemy efforts. i apologize to all whom at some point needed me and i was away. in another universe. i'm still in another universe. i might for-ever be.and i might for

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1152631705227858932006-07-11T07:34:00.000-07:002006-07-11T08:28:25.290-07:00

so my friend Rebecca sends me this email from this island a mile into the atlantic ocean. beautiful email. she read that last post i'm become death the destroyer of worlds, and wrote at lenght about the amero-centric worldviews that make up history to alleviate guilt, like that part that says"The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed at least 120,000 people outright and many more

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1152555221686997802006-07-10T10:53:00.000-07:002006-07-10T11:13:41.760-07:00

i'm fascinated by wikis these days. and so they have been taking up my online time. it happens that getting a wiki started takes a lot of time and effort and even if you are enthusiastic sometimes the results are not as expected. i started working on the Los Angeles Eco-Village Wiki some time ago, and after an initial abundant flow of content things started slowing dow. even if other

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1150254608061125872006-06-13T19:56:00.000-07:002006-06-14T19:14:35.043-07:00

i have cried twice today.the first time i was at the southcentral farm with two friends, very close to one of paths that was created by a buldozzer this morning. one of them put her bike on the road and sat down in front of a police car. the cop went around, dismounted, and came to ask my friend to move. she wouldn't move, she was asking, why do you have the right to block the access and i do

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1147764383283939742006-05-16T00:20:00.000-07:002006-06-04T22:55:22.190-07:00

as published originally in BikepLAgue #3 this is our sword.this is our tool for disarming the wars being fought across the planet. the magnitude of the weapons used grinds everything to pieces. bloody messes, and meat from all species torn across the land and the streets and the sky. this is no time to stand disarmed. the bicycle is the ideal weapon for the transnational citizen. a simple

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1147633483257915052006-05-14T11:15:00.000-07:002006-08-12T14:23:26.940-07:00

so my friend jen took me to this poetry reading in long beach. car filled with her friends (5 people in this little blue honda) which somehow justified using a car. small house, small venue, bunch people who knew each other and some food. jen was reading with another jen and another woman named india. i enjoyed their stuff very much. different styles, but they all had some appeal.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1147389488444639572006-05-11T16:09:00.000-07:002006-05-28T20:32:11.920-07:00

to me their decay is as fascinating as their beauty. now that i have some walls i pulled these drawings out of their hiding place and i put one of them up. white wall, corner by the window. the paper is getting even more yellowish, as old newspapers do. and the energy an vitality of the drawing is a contrast to that. for a second there i asked myself, what do i do to stop this process.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1147075370179215682006-05-08T00:59:00.000-07:002006-05-11T09:37:57.493-07:00

another box doodle, a la box doodle project. this one dedicated to my friend A., like the castle and the vine.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1146812812583030242006-05-04T23:53:00.001-07:002006-05-05T00:06:52.583-07:00

i think this is genius. from the Chicken Head Records Zine #17. from the hand of the inimitable Paul Francis de Valera. you see, last time i saw him he was riding this banana seated bike on L.A's critical mass and he was bitching about web-zines and blogs. keep it real, nothing like paper zines he would say. but anyway, i feel i can betray the rev Paul Dee 2 The Vee of the Choppercabras

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1146474874496796202006-05-01T01:52:00.000-07:002006-05-06T09:03:58.336-07:00

so people write what they are listening, right? well, now it is sepultura, the chaos A.D album to be precise. it came from colombia in my mother's suitcase from some CD's i left there. anyway. here is my proposed path for the night, a wikipath, well, it starts with this dude who came to the bicycle kitchen the other day. i was talking with him and he told me he belonged to the los angeles

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1144999225213376542006-04-14T00:14:00.000-07:002006-04-25T21:32:43.486-07:00

it is a sort of sadness that comes from below. i do not know how to describe it. it's like old unchanged face coffe drinking cigarette smoking clueless person in front of you. it's exhausting. and at the same time it makes me think about death and life and deep connections and my inability no navigate things sometimes. maybe it's just a mirror.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1144557082550102282006-04-08T21:30:00.000-07:002006-04-14T00:02:39.276-07:00

i found this in an old sketchbook.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1144530077458870942006-04-08T13:32:00.000-07:002006-04-19T03:01:50.133-07:00

so last night i went to see my friend scott aka vladimir play with his band glassel park 3. first time i heard them was through a cd scott gave me at the kitchen. scott is cook, wich is the way we call volunteers at the kitchen. the first time i heard scott was when he was playing the banjo on this old timey band he and other two cooks have called triple chicken foot. anyway. GP3 is cool to

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1144299706898955062006-04-05T21:44:00.000-07:002006-04-05T22:04:34.370-07:00

after reading much about stickers, specially the good "guide for public stickering" by he who made the smiling disease sticker i decided to print my own, here is the image:&these days i've been working on another format for online expression and documentation. and i find it fascinating. i'm lucky enough that i have a good subject and a group of people that are willing to collaborate. i started

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1143447841328996612006-03-27T00:15:00.000-08:002006-03-30T08:17:07.813-08:00

sometimes i seriously think that it's not worth the effort. i mean, fuck it. the night comes and you expect a warm welcome into the realms of dream... oh, i get it, maybe night is hunger to some. like when you are hungry and get into the mood of fuckyouwhateveryousayousmellikenightmareinfleshleavemealone... night might be that to some. not to me i asure you. if anything i'm a creature from

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1143265269003666182006-03-24T21:39:00.000-08:002006-03-24T21:41:41.016-08:00

energy manipulationunder the house over the houseinside the houseinner membraneselectric nervous systemsectoplasmand memory

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1139327204187348112006-02-07T07:02:00.000-08:002006-03-25T17:04:19.673-08:00

maybe my friend jimmy lizama doesn't need an introduction. and in fact that's one of the things i like about him; whenever i introduce him i just say, this is my friend jimmy, and then his presence takes over. enchanting presence. he tells stories for love of stories and we listen. jimmy lives in a state of magnificent adventure. if i were to hire someone to dream my aspirations that'd be

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1139322666166010432006-02-07T06:07:00.000-08:002006-02-07T06:31:06.236-08:00

at six in the morning the buildings downtown blink with the rage of dying stars against a sky that is soon going to swallow them. at dawn everything blinks really. existence blinks, dubious of itself. identity blinks trying to reestablish its solidity. who am i now in the brink of the shadows of the palm trees cut in matte black from the L.A science-fictitious-sky?once i hated the roar of

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1137216231842606192006-01-13T21:12:00.000-08:002006-01-13T21:23:51.853-08:00

it had to happen at some point. you've betrayed me blog of mine. this concept of keeping a public archive of ones activities has to bite its tail. it has to come at you whipping with the passive rage of the unavoidable. but that's a risk i've chosen. and i acquiesce. i have not much to say about the details, lets say, they have the brightness of blue californian skyes. and i've said much

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1134764541559717422005-12-16T12:05:00.000-08:002005-12-18T11:42:58.220-08:00

they do not look as beautiful as they are. the scanner doesn't portray them accurately buy even the cat wanted to be in the picture (that's his paw, lower right). they were given to me by a friend more generous and unconditional than you can imagine. thanks, deep Thanks man.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1134354269991371362005-12-11T18:22:00.000-08:002005-12-14T16:40:43.130-08:00

6. is out again in all of its xeroxed handmade glory. this time is about travel, and cats, and bridges and friends and cities of the north. i can't believe it has been more than a year since the first one. how can one survive withouth making them more often?

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1133555403160026762005-12-02T12:29:00.000-08:002005-12-02T20:07:05.820-08:00

for an intimate battle, writing is much too glamourous most of the time. a world spreading its legs shamelessly in ones mind. but not really, just some aspects of a world. even insignificant ones. all around this barren battleground of letters and a blank surface quietly organized in a left to right horizontal and vertical fashion. upon the constrictions of this grid things cannot flourish, they

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1133300680565338542005-11-29T13:14:00.000-08:002005-11-29T14:03:49.426-08:00

L.A is like a heart of cement broken by a thousand freeways. if ever i had a love and hate relationship with a city here it is. i hate you L.A. i hate you with all my love and i love you with the hate of a million exhaust boxes. i love you with the 64 spokes of my two wheels and with this skin kissed a day too many by your implacable sunshine and the asphalt of your streets and the door of one

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1133031445410427432005-11-26T10:15:00.000-08:002005-11-28T05:05:45.286-08:00

i was in the area so i said, why not, and entered the city lights bookstore again. i was a little annoyed by the fact that they ask you to leave your bag in front but i did it anyway. now, the cool thing is that they open fridays untill very late, but even so, i'm starting to dislike it since it doesn't have the feeling of other neighborhood bookstores you can find in sf and its closer to the

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1132979450923666162005-11-25T20:27:00.000-08:002005-11-25T20:30:50.936-08:00

lehila has been drawing the shadow i left in the streets of bogota...

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1132554492364324252005-11-20T21:46:00.000-08:002005-11-22T16:15:01.723-08:00

i went to the chrome store yesterday. it is small and well kept but i wasn't particularly attracted to it. i guess i've grown into the feeling of small scale/handmade stuff. something funny happened thought, when i stepped outside i noticed that the container inside my bag with my lunch was leaking, and i had to take everything out to clean it. my gloves fell on the side and i didn't notice i had

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1132379964059846492005-11-18T21:39:00.000-08:002005-11-18T21:59:24.093-08:00

at some point you have to realize that silence wont last forever. and i have to confess, dear bloglosphere, that it took a change of cities to break my silence with you. but deep in my hearth i knew it was going to happen. even if my fingers feel that the keyboard is one strange instrument of creation. hands too used to threads and fabrics here and grease and nuts there, and in between some paint

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1127243939314162262005-09-20T12:06:00.000-07:002005-09-20T12:18:59.370-07:00

it is raining in L.A. no rain in a long time. it makes me believe in some sense of order. things happening in some preordered sequence. i'm in "reset" mode. as when you push the reset button on your computer. well, my souls is making those sounds prior to the computer being ready.i ask myself, should i update my soul-software?is the city doing that with the rain? washing the streets.i do feel

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1125645235455848652005-09-01T23:57:00.000-07:002005-09-06T12:57:32.953-07:00

a fine dude, mr.cadwell, avid cyclist as he describes himself, is working on a book about the history of messenger bags. he sent me some questions via e-mail for his DIY chapter and i'm taking the liberty of reproducing the answer to the first one in this blog for it describes some of my ponderings these days:1. I understand the coolness of Freitag bags, although their design is a bit dated now.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1125519361426009492005-08-31T13:07:00.000-07:002005-08-31T13:17:17.813-07:00

i changed the comments service provider from haloscan to blogger. as a result all past comments are not longer available on screen but they remain in my haloscan account. the reason i swiched is because i found that some comments in an older post i know very well just disappeared, yep, just disapeared. and so i don't trust haloscan anymore with the comments from my lovely readers. i apologize for

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1124386968717728652005-08-18T10:27:00.000-07:002005-08-18T10:54:51.816-07:00

so i was telling A. last night, the city... the city is like the sea. you treat it with respect and fear. you treat the sea-ty as something bigger than you, something of wich you are part. and it will feed you, and give you surprises. and it might take from you as well, even your life. last night A. and i were riding away from thomas's house and we found a wallet with some money an no id's or

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1122279499465456142005-07-25T01:01:00.000-07:002005-07-25T01:18:19.476-07:00

i built two bicycle wheels today. it is my first time building bicycle wheels. it is amazing. braiding wires in a circular manner to arrive at this incredible piece of engineering. very responsive, very subtle, and yet,very strong artifact. it is really like some sort of magic and at the same time a very simple thing goes on. i want to call it a circular ritual. there are circular

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1120849315458815622005-07-08T11:43:00.000-07:002005-07-25T00:43:47.290-07:00

isn't it strange how music pulls you out of the strangest moments? here i'm trying to survive the morning. lonely morning i might call it. tons of thoughts pouring through my head. i take a bath. when i immerse my head into the water i feel as if inside a coffin. sounds muffled. i manage to get out and turn on some sensitive black metal. its a cocktail of feeling in the air. i drink it and

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1120616690326924772005-07-05T19:13:00.000-07:002005-07-05T19:24:50.353-07:00

i've been sewing a lot. i made a bag for jimmy. i made a bag for thomas and another one for his friend in switzerland. jimmy's bag is the biggest messenger bag i've made, it can hold a messenger, but it was intended to hold a bike. keeping busy i guess. bikesummer ended. but the bici-life goes on. L. is in colombia and she sounds like a seeing string (miss you). there are so many details. and

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1119334632455583822005-06-20T23:17:00.000-07:002005-06-20T23:17:12.500-07:00

painted: poetry: "...and each of us must struggle to understand the lesson in the pain of their absence...."

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1119172810490459652005-06-19T02:08:00.000-07:002005-06-19T02:20:10.496-07:00

i saw her walking through a passage that said "careful, uneven surface". contained my tears the best i could. got lost in the airport. almost couldn't find the car. i cried and i cried. isn't it strange that it sounds like a song? i do not know about songs to describe this feeling. the world makes this strange sound. thoughts sound like they were inside a big building. i feel i can't even

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1117017287069279152005-05-25T03:30:00.000-07:002005-05-25T03:34:47.076-07:00

i have insomnia. thoughts swirling in my head. things are clear and yet they are not. the world is doing that thing she/he does, that trembling thing, that undefined thing. blur in the corner of the eye. my fingers feel strange. they want a rest from making.

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475195.post-1115440043920023952005-05-06T21:26:00.000-07:002005-05-06T21:36:19.653-07:00

today i attended a wedding. can you believe it? 8am, L. gets up, 8:30, lets go, and i'm no morning person i'm telling you. i put on my black hat, hop into the car, have two oatmeal cookies for breakfast. the sugar goes straight into my head ensuing headache. the sun is unbearable. the freeway is a bad dream. we get to our friend's house. drink some water, hop into their car. drive to the county

federico tbnhttps://profiles.google.com/110334450868322946367noreply@blogger.com0