i'm pretty sure cheerios weren't meant for this life

but does it still lower your cholesterol?

seriously, you gotta love iowa--it's cold as fuck five months a year but this kind of sugar-coma-disguised-as-a-meal can become just addictive enough to get even the least winter-worthy souls to haul their ass outta bed and punish their livers in a non-liquid fashion.

mmm, fruity pebbles and cavities

FYI: i almost got myself banned from the coralville hy-vee for shooting these pix. and without the hy-vee where would i get my ridiculously cheap wine, which is my preferred source of liver punishment? i definitely got many the iowa evil eye from those in the bakery department.

i'm so patenting the phrase "iowa evil eye."

backfat art

i'm not sure what this tattoo means, but i sent my father-in-law and his wife a christmas gift from omaha steaks titled exactly this. i don't think i've ever enjoyed a meal that necessitated a tattoo to commemorate it, and i'd like to think i've had some pretty good grub in my life. apparently i have not experienced the nirvana that is steak and cake.

in any event, i hope she at least gets a discount from the steak place.

katy's forbidden gardens, 1996-2011

flashback to july 2005: a sweaty boy and his equally sweaty mother (not pictured) out in 100+ degree weather experiencing the forbidden gardens in katy, texas

it is with great sadness that i read about the upcoming closure of forbidden gardens on swamplot. and its reason for closing is as absurd as any other in the ephemeral city that is houston: urban planners have decreed the need for a parkway to alleviate traffic, or as swamplot cleverly proclaims, to facilitate cultural exchange programs between the katy mills mall and the houston premium outlets in cypress. the houston chronicle has a bit to say about it, too. c'est la vie.

forbidden gardens is, in short, a 1/20th scale recreation of the forbidden city in beijing, china and a 1/3rd recreation of the tomb of emperor qin shi huang-di. each of the 6000 little terracotta warriors were made by hand to represent an individual person. it was financed by hong kong ex-pat and seriously reclusive businessman ira poon, who recognized a little of his homeland in the rice fields of katy (and who had a singularly impressive vision for a site). $20 million dollars later, the 108-acre forbidden gardens was born. it is site-specific and will therefore be destroyed once deinstalled; i'd love to know when the terracotta figures are going to be auctioned off as i could certainly use one here in the triangle.

if you are in the houston/katy area and have any interest at all in seeing this quite-cool-and-soon-to-be-gone installation, go by before january 30!

today's grocery list

zoloft and lollipops. seriously--that's all it says: 1. zoloft and 2. lollipops. i should probably take this more seriously but i'm too busy laughing my ass off about it. on the plus side, i guess that means they're working...

le jardin des plantes

thinking of paris today, and kinda berating myself for not working on these images sooner. i have a new series--jardin des plantes--that i shot while there and i think it might be pretty spectacular. the above is an example; i hope the images work together as well as i think they will. it should go up on argus gallery in the near future...and i totally don't trust myself to specify a date considering it took me four months to get just one image online. all i can say with reasonable certainty is that i will post more later!

i will be with you again...

...as nothing changes on new year's day. enjoy bono, the edge, et. al. rockin' a wicked early '80s look in germany. happy new year's day everyone!