Emboldened by my friend, Laura’s recent and ingenious idea to offer advance prints in sponsorship of her grand Icelandic photo excursion, I hope that you too will lend a hand in support of photographic exploration!

How it works
1. Choose your sponsor level and corresponding print size, add check out via google cart.
2. I spend October in Japan submerged in photographic bliss (and possibly some hot springs).
3. I return in November and you choose your print(s) from a set of flickr photos.

Get on over to my sponsorship page and reserve your print now!

CLICK HERE !!!

1. go outside: all work and no play makes K a dull girl,
2. more books, any kind: been simmering in my own soup too much lately, time for some seasoning,
3. body respect: since what with the getting old an all some better maintenance might come in handy down the line,
4. cross-polinate: it’s been a while, let’s catch up. what are you doing these days?  yes, you. drop me a line and we’ll grab a cup of coffee.

recommendations on fodder for one or all of the above most welcome.

ps. the photo is from a recent trip over the sierres with ranjit and navid at the wonderfully preserved former mining town of Bodie, CA.

there’s more to see than a day can hold and the crowds were packed in to full capacity from screaming toddlers to white-haired totterers. but what struck me most is that while embracing all of the same fields of natural science, this is no museum of natural history, quietly cataloging away. this is institution with an agenda. writ large everywhere you look, the message is clear, “we are going save the planet, and we’re going to start by convincing you that it needs to be saved.”

with signage bigger than my head, and hands-on exhibits that do everything from measure your carbon footprint to shade a polar bear’s last failing iceberg from the sun, it echoed: global warming, climate change, extinction, do something!

as a confessed tree-hugger, i admit that i like this sort of brazen get-off-your-ass-and-do-something-about-it approach. natural science includes the human animal and we tend to forget that. change starts with awareness and choice.

let’s start with getting our food and products from more environmentally responsible companies.

right now.

Better World Shopping Guide

seriously, go.

how ironic to have this void exist beside the awe inspiring geometry and fluidity of alaksa’s natural landscape. if ever a people had an abundance of sources of inspiration, it’s here.

fortunately in a sparsely populated land that’s 1/5 the size of the continental US, there’s plenty of no one in between the tiny towns, and it’s easy to forget that there’s anyone else out there. mountains with snowy peaks, glassy lakes galore and sitka spruce as far as the eye can see hum with interconnectedness and a life of their own.

here, you’re just another one of the fauna.

and that’s good.

truly though, i feel like i’ve been devouring such vast volumes of information lately that i’ve hardly stopped to reflect. even when i sleep, i’m dreaming it over and over in other forms. so much cerebral, too little corporeal. so, tomorrow i’m heading out to the first of the so called “sunday streets” here in san francisco. a large swath of the embarcadero will be closed to cars from 9 to noon to encourage skaters, cyclists, and peoples in general to come and frolic about in the streets. Time to put the laptop down for a few hours and see if i can still propel myself on 8 wheels without breaking my neck.

wish me warm sun and a lot of luck!

~tolkien

S.2913 “The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008″

there’s a lot of hullabuloo about these two documents in my immediate circle of friends. still trying to figure out if it means what they think it means for artists’ copyright to their work.

your interpretations, anyone?

i’ve been living closer to hungry these days and it’s not fun. but my bowl of plain rice with salt and pepper is an abundance. my bag of 99¢ fritos is a luxury. my $2 worth of salad bar a freaking miracle! there are so many empty stomachs that stare back up at their owners like the hollow pits of parking garages at 3am. so hungry you can’t think of anything else. so hungry you’re not hungry anymore.

can’t we agree as a species to share what we have, regardless of what the price of rice is?

hungry sucks.

stop the suck.

what compels us to nest, or wander, i wonder.