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Kansas City's MK12 lets its creativity out in animated fashion

By THERESA BEMBNISTER
Special to The Star

The members of the Kansas City-based design collective MK12 stood onstage at the Screenland Theatre one evening last October, hands in pockets, shuffling their feet and looking at the ground like a group of elementary school students who had just been hauled to the principal's office.

...

Dressed mostly in sloppy T-shirts, hoodies and jeans, the members of MK12 looked as though they'd feel more comfortable in front of a computer screen than in front of a crowd. When the Kansas City Advertising Club asked questions about business models and industry prejudice against Midwesterners, MK12 responded awkwardly. Clearly, the members of MK12 were not excited to talk about themselves.

Fortunately, MK12's work speaks for itself.

Gah! Look at the gorgeous display behind them...



Kris247 and Klugarsh


Originally uploaded by courtneyp.

Applejack's movie.

[Getting Things Done Forum]:

Just wanted to let you fellow primates know that the new version of my do-it-yourself (paper) planner kit has been released. Currently, it's for standard 5.5"x8.5" paper, but a version for A5 is in the pipe.

Included are 50+ templates of ooey-gooey organisational goodness, some stylish covers, a receipt envelope craft project, a detailed handbook, undated calendars, mix-and-match forms, and more. It's mostly inspired by GTD, but plenty of generic templates and even a few niggly bits of Covey await the do-it-yourselfers who desire a highly tweakable and uber-configurationable (tm) set of dead trees that can help them waste as much time as they save.

As usual, the D*I*Y Planner is offered for free download under a Creative Commons license. Grab it from the million monkeys at:

http://www.douglasjohnston.net/templates/

or check out the blog at:

http://www.douglasjohnston.net

It's been a long few months of work, and the monkeys are so very tired. Be sure to drop me a line and let me know what you think.

all my best,

dj

I need something for the epigraph of the new Sensual Phrase column. I used this one last go-round:

No change in musical style will survive
unless it is accompanied by a change in clothing style.
Rock is to dress up to.
- Frank Zappa (1940–1994)

Anything leap to mind?

UPDATE: You people are amazing -- thank you! I'm deciding between Sting, Cyndi Lauper, Cole Porter and Dolly Parton -- or some combination thereof. Many thanks! (The Kinks bit is good, too.)

Patience writes:

Good website with living will information for many states -

http://www.uslivingwillregistry.com/forms.shtm

Tom is running an interview with Fraction. Go check it out.

[Edit: I thought this was a re-run. I was wrong. Bad wife.]

Keith writes:

Hola,

Just a quick note...

I'm back on Sirius Satellite radio. Monday nights
at 7:10PM EST on stream #149. You can call in
on 1-866-305-6887 and you can listen online
here: www.siriusoutq.com. The online
listening is limited, I believe. I'm doing
a 30 or 45 minute spot on the Derek and Romaine
show speaking about technology, the internet
and so on. The show can get a little racy, so beware.
This Monday will be show #3.

Sirius is a cool service. Consider subscribing.
You can check my Technology Culture blog
for the show's "agenda" each Monday.

Speaking of that blog...

I've updated the newsfeed capabilities. You can now
subscribe to the blog with a few clicks. In the sidebar
on the lower right-hand side you'll see buttons to
add the feed to your Yahoo! page, MSN page, Newsgator
reader or any other application you use (select the plain feed.)
Of course, you can also just use an old fashioned bookmark.

I'm having a great time writing and the comment
sections are open to all. Please feel free to call
me out on anything you think I'm wrong about
and feel even free-er to post when you agree!

...

Best,
KA

---
k e i t h a l e x a n d e r
www.keithalexander.com/blog
www.nootrope.net

I'm experiencing media overload already and we don't even have cable television, so no Sirius for me. But if you check out the show, let me know how it is, okay?

Philip Treacy: "When Philip Met Isabella"

See also: Party Girl: The Elsa Maxwell Story and How to Do It or The Lively Art of Entertaining.

I'm not really a tarot person, but I know a few of you are and I thought this one was really pretty:

I will be out of the office most of the day tomorrow, March 21st. If you need to reach me urgently, call my cell.

(I'm doing my ride-along component for the Citizens' Police Academy. I kid you not.

...I think the site info must be old...? It says it's five weeks long; it's ten. I am learning crazy much.)

I will be out of the office most of the day tomorrow, March 21st. If you need to reach me urgently, call my cell.

- I finally finished Dance Macabre while I was in New York. I'm on page 119 of Cut My Hair, and expect to wrap that up relatively shortly. Fiction always goes faster than non-fiction, but my god, I am a slow reader now that I no longer have a commute. (I do recommend Danse Macabre, by the way, but if you're like me and you're not much of a movie person, you might just read the chapters on the three main archetypes and Horror Fiction.)

- Books stacked in a pile at my feet: The Everlasting, Reel Knockouts, Ghost Story, The Night of Morningstar, The Shining, Stitch 'n Bitch Nation, Sliver, The Birds and Other Stories, The Haunting of Hill House and Brooklyn Noir.

Daily Candy reminds you:

Cyclone Opening Ceremony
What: Coney Island's rickety roller coaster offers a free ride to the first 200 on line.
Why: Kick up yer heels — if only for 110 seconds.
When: Sun. at 11:30 a.m.
Where: Astroland Amusement Park, 1000 Surf Ave., at W. 10th St., Coney Island (718-372-0275).

Thank you, BarNapkins.org.

Alternet.org:

My friend Karl Warkomski is not only a Green Party member, but also the mayor of Aliso Viejo, Calif. – a remarkable feat in Reagan-swooning, Bushie-loving Orange County. At least part of his recipe for success is a Trojan horse strategy: he dresses like Thurston Howell III.

"We greens have to stop looking like we eat bark and live in a root cellar," says Warkomski, who sometimes accessorizes his preppy work attire with hemp canvas shoes, the eco-equivalent of bling. And his theory holds water: Aliso Viejo recently passed a seriously green building ordinance. I doubt Karl could have garnered support for it while sporting a "How did our oil get underneath their sand?" T-shirt (though he does wear that T-shirt underneath his dress-up clothes).

All I'm asking you to do is, like Karl, think about your image. Strategically . This doesn't have to mean selling your soul. There are manufacturers out there making ecologically-intelligent clothes. And if you can't afford or find a fair-trade, Italian-cut, three-button wool suit for that speech on the merits of wind power, try buying secondhand. I once found a pair of late-model Prada shoes in my Sasquatch size at a used clothing store, so you never know. If you're still at a loss for where to buy pleather pumps, ask Umbra. Help drive up the demand for ecouture. (Yes, I just made that up.) Stop complaining about capitalism and make it your bitch.

[ Via Treehugger ]

Sexy Voice and Robo is up on Amazon!

(Of course, it's "Iou" and not "Lou," but I imagine they'll fix that.)

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Found this guy on flickr and he's AMAZING.

I'm just crazy about the color saturation you get from a lomo, but I'm bad, bad, bad with the focus. Maybe I just need more practice...?

I just ordered this:

...I also got the Life-Sized Cherry Earrings.

Welcome to the world, Mr. Kramer. I shall continue to call you Bugbert.

AP has posted pictures from their Valentine's/Anniversary bash, "Knickers Forever."

See also, a Quicktime party/catwalk recap, including bits of a Dita Von Teese fan dance. This is obviously not work-safe, folks.

But She's a Girl released Tracks 1.02a, the latest version of her Ruby on Rails-based GTD app. [del.icio.us/merlinmann/43folders]

While I like the screenshots, I was very quickly able to determine that this is WAY THE HELL OVER MY HEAD. Perhaps you can use it?

Giles Turnbull article at MacDevCenter:

One of the main ideas in the Getting Things Done mantra is the idea of emptying your head of thoughts. Write it all down to get it out of your brain where will just ferment and stagnate. Get it into a state in which you can put it to use.

Another central tenet is that you should have a series of "inboxes" for all the incoming stuff but that it's important to minimize the number of these inboxes. Too many of them and stuff will build up.

Usually you need more than one inbox because incoming data comes in different forms: paper stuff that gets pushed in your hand and through your mailbox, and electronic stuff that arrives in your mail client and through your browser.

Our mission for the next 1,500 or so words is to find some (only some) of the tools that can help you with that last aspect of things—ways to deal with the incoming flood of digital information that has to be processed.

Like ya do...

(I would totally wear that coat, mind you, but I have an unfortunate tendency to dress for humorous effect.)

(Also: it looks warm.)

Oh, man. I spent too much on vacation, so no more shopping for me. But I could live vicariously through you...

(I wonder if you could shorten the strap so that it hangs outside a larger tote? I'm loving that multi-bag thing right now.)

I agree with the reviewer completely -- the tapestries are too heavy and the long dresses are somehow disproportionate -- however, I'm crazy about the cabled cowls.

...And the giant boots, of course.

I wish there were some close-ups of the eye make-up.

Oh, thank god.

Thus far, the fall shows have been -- for the most part -- as dull as the Oscars. But today -- Oh, today! -- Hamish Bowles reams Vincent Darré and Victor & Rolf offer the following. (Thank you, Victor & Rolf. Thank you ever so.)

...From there, the show careened downhill, however, and further experiments with the season's pouffy volumes sunk like overcooked soufflés. Even Darré's Diva draperies—a signature of the house for decades—looked clumsily cobbled together and would have shamed any self-respecting couture workroom.

The delightful Darré, who over the years has proved a witty and spirited stylist at houses like Moschino and Fendi, unwisely accessorized every look with his clumpy and over-scale take on Roger Vivier's iconic sixties Belle de Jour pump (the chic original was created for Yves Saint Laurent), which looked especially ungainly with the long evening gowns. Not that there is much salvation for a Diva-draped gown reinterpreted in dirty white leather. As his clownish models lined up, in dusty old-school fashion, across the back of a set evoking Ungaro's Avenue Montaigne flagship, the audience's stupefaction was palpable. Clearly, Darré, who has proved his credentials elsewhere, has a long way to go to inject fashion credibility into this line.

– Hamish Bowles

Offered without comment, Steven. Yes, I understand that studies are not fact.

From the BBC:

Passive smoking kills more than 11,000 a year in the UK - much higher than previously thought, a study shows.

The British Medical Journal study also gives a figure for people dying from second-hand smoke in the workplace - 600 a year - for the first time.

Leading doctors said the findings proved a complete ban on smoking in public places was needed.

But smoking lobby group Forest said there was still little hard evidence of the effect of passive smoking.

More in link.

My favorite New Year's Day Playdate and Dottie Danger colleague left our beloved NYC for California at roughly at the same time I moved to the Midwest. It's apparently gone to his head:

...I've been training since January 1, but I've just sent in my entrance fee, which makes it official: on May 1, a terrifyingly scant two months from now, I'm taking part in an Olympic-length triathlon up in Northern Cali.

Best of all, it's for a good cause: I'm raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click the link below for more information on why I'm doing this, and how you can help if you're so inclined. And please pass this email along to anyone you think might want to donate.

http://www.active.com/donations/fundraise_public.cfm?key=daveholmes

It's going to be interesting, that's for sure. Updates on my condition will be posted on www.daveholmes.tv as soon as I get that up and running.

Gotta go eat a Powerbar or whatever.

Be good,
Dave

polyphagia (pol-ee-FAY-jee-uh) noun

1. Excessive appetite or eating.

2. The habit of feeding on many kinds of food.

[From Modern Latin, from Greek polyphagia, from polyphagos,
from poly- (much, many) + phagy (eating).]

"Various diseases, drugs and even stress can cause polyphagia.
Your first step should be to have Buster examined by your
veterinarian and have the caloric intake calculated."
Bernhard Pukay; Various Things Can Make Puppy Eat Like a Pig;
The Ottawa Citizen (Canada); Jan 27, 2003.

This week's theme: words related to eating and drinking.

What to give to the person who has everything? Give the gift of words.
Here is a gift that keeps on giving. To enter a gift subscription of
A.Word.A.Day, please visit http://wordsmith.org/awad/gift.html
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sitophobia (sy-tuh-FO-bee-uh) noun

Morbid aversion to food.

[From Greek sito- (food) + -phobia (fear, aversion).]

The word is also spelled as sitiophobia. Two related words are sitomania
(abnormal craving for food), and sitology (the study of nutrition).

"By the time (Mollie) Fancher took to her bed, sitophobia had turned
into 'chlorosis', a type of anaemia."
Kate Bolick; The Girl Who Lived On Air; The Guardian (London, UK);
May 6, 2002.

"To lower a child's weight is important, but (Jitsuo) Kitada warns
there are pitfalls in dieting as it places children in danger of
contracting sitophobia."
Overweight Children a 'Growing' Concern For Japanese Parents;
The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo, Japan); Jul 6, 1996.

This week's theme: words related to eating and drinking.

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