Three Things

I just have three things to say:

1-I love my new neighborhood! Or neighborhoodS I should say. My post office is in Chinatown, my bank in the Financial District, my petfood store in North Beach, our videostore in Russian Hill, our Friday night Indian restaurant in the Tenderloin, and our doorstep in Nob Hill—all within walking distance, I love it!

2-French press coffee rules. We are new to the FP, but definitely converts. We tried it with Peet's beans, but have had most success so far, taste-wise, with Illy's Espresso Cofee, Fine Grind, Medium Roast. Some say not to use the Fine Grind but it works & tastes great. We may branch out and try Blue Bottle since it is local & delicious and would cut down on transportation resources (but it is def. more expensive).

3-Lastly, but importantly, at our new building, the recycling only gets picked up like 1x/month. We are used to weekly pick up so we have started a collection in our living room since not all our waste will fit in the bins! I feel like one of those collectors who has to pave a path through their garbage to make it to the bathroom—yuk! Point being, it has forced, literally, P Beau & I to examine our waste and consider ways we could cut down. Even though it is going to recycling, it takes a lot of resources to make all that packaging and we just buy it and toss it out. If anyone has any suggestions, please share!

Camouflage & Dayglow

These pictures are amazing. I love each morsel of discovery. This one is especially astute, a wardrobe of camouflage & fluorescence!

Break On Through to the Other Side

Following our own posts about our hometown, I wanted to share the discussion percolating at the Shreveport Times regarding Shreveport's new slogan. The first piece written by a member of the editorial board, and the response by none other than my Papa Beau!

Generation We

Now available for free online download & pre-purchase ($19.95) from Amazon and B&N is Generation We, by Eric Greenberg & Karl Weber. This is the book I've been helping with the design & production of for the last couple of months under Creative Director Sandra Kelch at Designpool. It has been such an honor and pleasure to be a part of getting this important message out. I hope you'll find it inspiring!

Shake It Up!

P Beau & I went to the small, yet rich, Museum of Craft & Folk Art today for a show about Shaker Arts & Crafts. The furniture is beautiful, I love the simplicity, integrity of the materials, and the perfectionist craftsmanship. I was surprised to see examples of graphic design, including food product labels used to market foods to communities outside their own. I also appreciated hearing more about Shaker religious beliefs, including their "avant garde" philosophies regarding civil liberties. There are only 8 Shakers left today, and they live in Maine. We can't wait to rent the Ken Burns PBS documentary to learn more. Hopefully Netflix has it....
ps—above is a pic of Shaker molded oval boxes, they def. remind me of the type of containers my mom stores her arts & craft goodies in!

Who is Sarah Palin?

Abc News has some footage on Sarah Palin I found very interesting. What do you think??

Toast to QM

Happy Birthday to my little brother! My parents gave me the greatest gift 28 years ago when he was born and every year since: a playmate, a wrestling partner, a Dirty Dog club co-founder, a best friend, a stuffed animal wedding collaborator, an inspiration, a shoulder to cry on, a constant, a protector, a music educator, a rebel spirit, a best man, my confidant. His talent and commitment to his creativity and willingness to share it with the world will always amaze me. I remember the days when he (physically) looked up to his tall big sister, but now I'm the one doing all the looking up - on so many levels. Cheers to a wonderful life!

Imminent Georgia Execution of Likely Innocent Man

I haven't posted much, if any, about the work that I do, but I thought I would share this blog post written by my colleague, Chris Hill. Georgia is set to execute Troy Davis, a likely innocent man, in less than 2 weeks, short of a commutation or pardon from the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles. If you are so inclined, I would encourage you to sign this petition, also linked from the blog. Campaigns like this - especially with such national attention - are often successful.

Troy is not our client, but his case highlights some of the major problems pervasive in the criminal justice system, which are even more problematic when society imposes the ultimate, irreversible punishment. Among them are the fact that onerous procedural hurdles prevent defendants from presenting new evidence of innocence on appeal. If it wasn't preserved in the trial, it's defaulted (of course, it's more complicated than that, but that's the basic idea). Also, the fact that the criminal justice system can allow a sentence of death when there is NO physical evidence against someone, and almost all of the witnesses have recanted represents a gross injustice. People think all of the innocence cases are old; now that we have DNA evidence, and CSI-style forensic techniques, innocent people aren't convicted like they used to be. The fact is that DNA is still a rarity in murder cases, and sometimes crimes just don't present satisfactory physical evidence. Jurors, especially in the face of a heinous crime, feel that someone ought to pay the price. They're comfortable convicting someone who was "up to no good" anyway, even if he didn't actually do it. Never mind that "reasonable doubt" thing. Sadly, Troy's case does remind me of other cases we have in our office.

Also, while I'm at it, here is an article about one of our cases that resulted in our client's freedom after over 14 years of incarceration, shortly after I began working here.