Another side project I’ve tasked myself with this year is to update a few things around my apartment, starting with the art on my walls. Obviously it needed a good ol’ fashioned cleaning too, but it doesn’t hurt to have nice things to look at and distract you from whatever crazy mess might be going on around it.
So over one weekend I finally mustered up the courage to put a bunch of holes in my 85 year old apartment walls, and hang up the signage type I bought recently. It also worked out to be a nice home for a few of my vintage cameras. I’m not sure how old the letters are, although I did get them all from the Pacific Gallery Antique Mall in SoDo Seattle, but I’m pretty sure the “E” is from a Blockbuster Video. Which isn’t very antique-ish. At least not yet, anyway.
Seattle is one of the few cities lucky enough to now have a Carhartt Store in its limits. Because of this, Wexley School for Girls and I were lucky enough for the opportunity to design a few t-shirts for this new store, one of which was picked to be given away during the Grand Opening held back on 3/22/12. And if that wasn’t awesome enough, they even invited me down to sign each and every shirt during the event.
It’s already quite an honor to work on and wrap your head around a great and historic brand like Carhartt as it is. But then for the opportunity be at the Grand Opening of only their fifth retail store, representing both the brand and myself as a local artist, was unbelievable. I still almost don’t believe it actually happened. Everyone who came through the door was directed toward a table with a big pile of black t-shirts, and me with a silver Sharpie in hand. And the coolest part was how happy everyone was about the shirt and to have my signature on it. I was sure people wouldn’t give two shits about me and my signature, but was I wrong. People were taking pictures of me, and with me. One with someone’s daughter holding up my shirt. Everyone had great things to say (a nice woman even complemented me on my dimples). People actually wanted me to sign it. And of the 120 total shirts, I’m positive I signed at least 116 of them (unfortunately a few people grabbed a shirt and immediately wandered off into the crowd).
Anyway, the experience was amazing to say the least, and I’m really happy with how the shirts turned out. And I hope everyone who received a shirt at the Grand Opening gets many happy years out of their new Carhartt Seattle shirts. You should also stop by to see the store in person. It’s beautifully decorated like an old logging camp, and the attention to detail is impecable.
If you weren’t able to be there for the Grand Opening, here’s a quick video to encapsulate things a little. And in perfect Carhartt fashion, the ribbon cutting was replaced by a section of drywall that was busted up with sledgehammers by baseball legend Edgar Martinez and Carhartt CEO Mark Valade. And if you watch closely, you can even see me pop up a few times when the camera pans to the left during the ribbon cutting, and in the store signing the t-shirts.
Perched atop the Swiss Alps exists the International Tennis Court, the game’s highest, oldest, smartest, best looking and most respected governing body. For over 138 years, people have trusted the Tennis Court to deliver some of the toughest decisions in the sport of tennis. They were there for the monumental cases between Borg vs. McEnroe, Sampras vs. Agassi, and who could forget the pivotal Wood vs. Steel trial of the late 1960s.
Now the watchful eye of the ITC has turned to the new and controversial Wilson Juice and Steam rackets. Do they create an unfair advantage with possible illegal amounts of power and spin? Only the Tennis Court can decide. Join us as we follow the trial of these two new rackets.
Since we’re in the thick of winter, I thought I’d dig up a little something from summer. This is Mr. Alex Smith, producer extraordinaire, showing off another one of his talents out on Lake Washington during Seattle’s Seafair. Unfortunately moments after swimming out of frame, poor Alex was hit by one of the hydroplane raceboats. This one to be exact.
I’m a little bummed out I wasn’t able to use a tripod (or have been a little steadier) to keep the loop a little smoother, but what the hell. It’s just for fun.
Recently I was summoned to jury duty and the experience, while pleasant, reminded me of this very short story I wrote back July of 2006, recapping the first time I was called upon to do what Abraham Lincoln described as, “the greatest service a citizen can perform for his country”. At least I remember reading something like that on a poster in the courthouse.
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Through the doors of the US District Court of Minnesota I go. Right on time too. Well, actually a couple minutes late, but that’s right on time for me. Then empty my pockets to pass through the ultra-tight security, only to find out I don’t pass.
“Next time take your belt off,” says the little old man as he waves his hand-held metal detector over my crotch. Was he coming on to me? I blush the rest of the walk up to the juror assembly room.
Once there, me and the other 41 people selected got to watch twenty minutes of the most enthralling instructional video, “The Dos and Don’ts of Being a Juror” (copyright 1995) which was hosted by a wonderful lady in the brightest blue suit in the northern hemisphere. Of course she was accompanied by “The Asian Juror”, “The Black Housewife Juror”, “The Senior Citizen/Retired Librarian Juror”, “The White Farmer from Anytown, USA Juror” and probably a construction worker or something. The stereotypes all began to blend into, “who cares since you’re obviously all paid, bad actors”.
Now that the video was over we play a little game called “The Waiting Game” until the judge needs us up I the courtroom. It goes like this. First, you play it cool…and wait. Second, you go get a bottle of complementarity orange juice and continue to play it cool. Still you wait. Then, when things get rough, you pullout the emergency book, in my case it was “Barrel Fever” by David Sedaris. And after you’re three pages into it, “Okay, they’re ready for you all”. Damn, somehow I lost this round. But there will be more waiting to come.
We’re led up to the thirteenth floor, “Hey, I can see where Leena works from here” and then off into the courtroom. Inside we all sat on the wooden benches in the back and got the run down before our names were picked at random to see which 32 of the 42 would be widdled down to the final 13-14 actual jurors. I started doing the odds in my head. “Well, I have a better than 75% chance of at least getting picked to be questioned. Those are good odds and that will be fun.”
I didnt get picked. What are the odds? Oh yeah, less than 25%. Round two of The Waiting Game starts now, only I can’t read my book. The ten of us leftovers got the pleasure of listening to the judge get the whole life story of the other 32 jurors, only to find out that the video lied. There wasn’t any Asian or Black jurors. Although, there was a lot of old, retired, white people, one of whom was a farmer. As usual I was by far the youngest. Where the hell are all the 23, soon to be 24 year olds? I had an hour and a half to think this over.
After that we had a 15 minute recess (not the jungle gym kind, unfortunately). Mostly everyone jumped to their cell phones as we got the liberty to turn them back on again. I did the same.
When my text message recess concluded, we were all herded back into the big wooden room and asked to sit in our same seats as to not confuse anyone. Seconds later the judge began reading a list of those who could leave. “Mr. West-brook” was called off. Close enough I thought, and made my way to the exit
Back in November, we got to help Ford promote and run an awesome event they were doing in conjunction with the Seattle Auto Show. The plan was to let people test drive the new Ford Focus around the warning track of Safeco Field (which is across the street from the Auto Show) that uses all these fancy cameras and sensors to track you as you drive the course. Then after people do the drive, they get a video sent to them showing the whole experience as if it’s a video game. It’s very cool. So cool in fact, that’s it’s almost one of those “build it and they will come” situations. So our job was fairly easy.
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It should be added that getting to walk and drive around one of the most beautiful stadiums in the country is a pretty awesome feeling. It’s sort of magical with a side of, “I’m not supposed to be here.” Which makes it all the more impressive that Ford was willing to do such a thing, and do it for free. You can even check out my drive around the field right here:
A few months ago my writing partner, Andre Vriesman and I, were brought in to do some early concepting on a top-secret project that, in retrospect, we knew little about or were unsure if it would ever happen. But as luck would have it, the project later dubbed (at least internally) “The Big-Ass Phone” actually did happen just two short weeks ago. And looking back over the timeline and the event itself, I’m really proud that we were able to play even a small part in such an awesome and literally huge thing for the Windows Phone, Wexley School for Girls and all the people who were there to enjoy the show. Not to mention all the other talents that came together for everything to go so wonderfully.
I’ve been wanting a new logo for myself for quite sometime, so yesterday I just sat myself down and cranked one out. Bam. There you go.
It’s based off an icon I had been using for myself for a little while that always seemed fitting, but wanted something that was a little more fitting and striking. Obviously the “A” and “W” come from my initials, but the gear always seemed to be a nice representation of my hardworking, Midwestern roots. And the orange, black and white are a nod to my hometown and the school colors back in good ol’ White Bear Lake, MN. One should never forget where you come from.
It’s funny thinking about having to get to know a piece of equipment, but I’ve found myself having to do just that with an old camera of mine. People obviously have quirks and moods, but apparently inanimate objects can too. So a while back some friends and I made a trip over to Harbor Island in the Port of Seattle to do just that with my Toyocaflex TLR.
Being that it’s over a half a century old, it sort of behaves like an old man. The viewfinder is a little dark and cloudy, sometimes the shutter sticks at low speeds and it’s a bit heavy. It also has a bladder-control problem and eats dinner by 5:30pm. But I still love it, and I enjoy learning new things about how it behaves every time I take it out.
