Amsterdam by Water

The Saturday before last was Brenda's birthday. She did the most awesome thing anyone can do in Amsterdam- invite all your friends for a canal ride in an old timey 1915 canal boat. She was karmically rewarded for this fine act as Amsterdam provided the most magnificent weather possible. Luckily enough, the rest of us caught some of this karmic bounty.

Amsterdam is designed to be viewed from the water. It provides the perfect distance and perspective from which to view large segments of architecture through the intricate lattice of tree branches- an interest, that has become a passion for me. Furthermore, it frees one of the distraction of bikes, tourists and other such hurdles and thus allows for a good long stare into the powerful aesthetic.

Thanks again Brenda for such an awe-inspiring and beautiful experience!






Boat tour courtesy of the Saint Nicolaas Boat Club, a small non-profit group dedicated to preserving historic Dutch boats. World's better than the glassed in canal buses and their cacophony of multilingual announcements.

Sketches upon the Fluoro-Electric Calfskin

Randall Munroe's XKCD

Working away, reminiscent of an old-timey man building a railway, I thought- "Oh, imagine how marvellous it might be to write upon the Internets!". Behold and Low- my words do seem to dance upon this fluoro-electric calfskin.

Where does old-timeyness meet the Internets? Certainly not in the "Audio-Visual"/many-media'd/streaming this and that which seems to have spread itself upon such locales as the "http:". No, the fusion between the old and new is manifested in the web comic of the artiste. Of course one must sort through the chaff (your choice of threshing or wind winnow) , but scattered throughout lies the glimmer of momentary genius- or at least thought provoking obscurity.

I have oft written of Achewood, Chris Onstead's unfolding opus. However, recently I've stumbled upon several new gems of diverse impression and creation. They are all "weird" and need a while to get into- but resist the tempation to apply this hasty label for a moment or two and delve into the perspective being expressed. Or just click "next".

Well said indeed. From Randall Munroe's XKCD- "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language". Flashes of insight sketched upon his pad, always staying a step ahead of perception, each bite an honest expression of his unique individual perspective.

Ryan North's Dinosaur Comics is an execise in structure and liberation. Every comic uses exactly the same series of dinosaur pictures with totally different text, completely changing the focus and context. The best description I've come across is, "Picture watching the same movie again and again, where the dialogue is changed so completely, and with so much skill that you forget that you've seen these images before. Now picture that every day for two years. That's Dinosaur Comics".

Finally, my most recent discovery is far too large to add in here; both literally large in it's expansive and finely drawn artwork and metaphorically huge, in the tremendous depth of melancholy and wonderment I find each stand-alone tale bestows. A Lesson Learned is the unquestionably brilliant work of David Hellman and Dale Beran. Discover it.

Enough undecipherable ramblings from me, for it is now Saturday in fair Amsterdam and this tardy Spring beckons seductively from just beyond my window.