Saturday

Posted by Mike:
In my parents’ driveway about to head home to Houston.

Posted by Mike:
Almost 12 miles in the wrong direction. Passing parents house again.

Posted by Ali:
Are we there yet? Mile 45 of 1500 I asked Mike this question. Then proceeded to sing Staying Alive really, really obnoxiuosly loud.

THIS IS GOING TO BE SO FUN!

Posted by Mike:
Mile 58: Pennsylvania.

Posted by Mike:
MILE 108: Just passed Shartlesville,PA. Laughed like a 5 year old.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 148: On the Hershey Highway, Hershey, PA

Posted by Ali:
Mile 154: Small detour into Hershey, PA. The lamp posts are kisses and I’m standing in Chocolate Ave. Heaven.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 156: Found a Dunkin’ Donuts in Hershey! I am a big nerd.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 222: We’re in a tunnel. Blue Mountains, PA.

Posted by Ali:
Welcome to Pennsyltucky.
Mile 328: Driving for miles and miles seeing lots of trees and mountains with an occasional smattering of houses, gas stations, cows and Donut Connections. I have no idea how people function like this. This is some country bumpkin bidness right here.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 349: Making Ali turn down her Justin Timberlake at the tollbooth because I don’t want this guy to think I listen to this crap.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 357: No, I’m not eating at something called “The cookery” all lit up like the bastard child of Christmas and Las Vegas in the middle of BFE. I have, like, 1300 mliles left to go. I’d like to do it without a serious case of the poos.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 366: We’re on a bridge.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 407: Welcome to West Virginia. Wild and Wonderful. Yes, the sign actually says that.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 421: Ohai-o.

Posted by Mike:
(Almost) Mile 521: Missed our goal of reaching Kentucky for the night and we’re spending the night outside Columbus, OH.

Sunday

Posted by Mike:
Mile 542: WAFFLES.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 542: Having breakfast at the friendliest Waffle House I’ve ever been to. They sing HELLO! in unison when someone walks in and everyone is overly nice. BONUS: Most everyone has their teeth!

Posted by Mike:
Coffee run for Ali.
Bonus: You can see a very excited Ali in the bottom of this picture.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 542: Canadian treats in Ohio!

Posted by Mike:
Mile 647: Filling up just outside Cincinnati.

Also Midwest, what’s up with the Arby’s at every exit on the highway? Gross.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 657: Rainy Cincinnati.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 660: I hear Deliverance in the distance… Welcome to Kentucky.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 758: Ironic tourist “Hi Mom!”

Posted by Ali:
Mile 843: Anyone got an ark we can borrow? Driving through the beginning of the apocalypse heading out of Kentucky and into Tennessee. This rain is seriously messing with our driving mojo. Any minute now I fully expect to see a cow floating by.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 892: Every exit is either a Cracker Barrel, Arby’s or Waffle House.

Or adult stores. For the Bible-belt, you guys sure like your porn.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 911: The Colonel Is Ashamed. I see a Kentucky Fried Chicken sign. In Tennessee. Not one in all of Kentucky.

Even the namesake state knows that’s some nasty shit.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 912: Stopped at McDonalds in BFE, TN and this cat perches on the curb staring me down like I have pockets filled with Meow Mix. Mike rolls down the window and it meows at us and continues to stare. Like we’re on it’s turf.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 955: Ima die in Tennesee. Driving through devastated Nashville getting turned around by water and down trees. Passed by cops escorting military humvees. The apocalypse is upon us. But, for our dining needs, we have convenient Arby’s and Waffle Houses on every corner. Praise Jesus.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 992
Got stuck outside of Nasville, TN because of biblical flooding that closed major highways. We are taking a detour through Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana home to Texas.
Ugh.

Monday

Posted by Mike:
Mile 1048: BRB, refueling.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 1061: Almost got ran off the damn road by an ice cream truck. The driver was too busy talking on his phone to see us.

I would have fully expected free ice cream for life as part of restitution.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 1070: Welcome Alabama. And NASA…? At a rest stop?

Posted by Ali:
Mile 1116: Lunch.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 1301: Welcome to Mississippi. Mike says Mississippi is cool because it has “pp” in the spelling. He’s 5.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 1507: Awww, mah sha! Bienvenue Louisiana, home of my people! Ima try to make it to Best Stop in Scott for grateans and boudin.

Mike says that I started talking a bunch of voodoo gibberish as soon as we crossed the border and doesn’t understand a word. He needs to learn.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 1560: These are Ali’s people. Stopped just outside of Baton Rouge at a gas station to use the bathroom. I go into the hot, moist bathroom and am greeted by the smell of death and swamp-ass as some dude craps with the stall door open.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 1571: If I had a nickle for every Waffle house, Arby’s and Cracker Barrel we saw on this trip, I’d never have to pay for gas again. Ever.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 1586: The Mississippi River. It’s big.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 1615: Whiskey Bay off the Atchafalaya River Basin. I grew up fishing, riding 3-wheelers and drinking beer at a very, very young age there. My dad, his dad and all of his brothers hunted there. We had a big camp that slept something like 20 people there and we’d spend weekends and holidays there in the Spring and summer. We had chickens, duck, geese, quail, turkeys and peacocks there. I loved that place.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 1650: In Louisiana they call this “food.”

Gross.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 1651: Enjoying Best Stop grateans (cracklins) both eating them and grossing Mike out.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 1752: THE LONE STAR STATE. Just passed the “El Paso 857 miles” sign. I love how ginormous and awesome this state is! I need to live here in order to have space to house my attitude and sass.

Mike says sometimes even Texas is too small for that.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 1865: Home sweet home. Walked to find flowers from our landlord. How awesome are they? We may live here forever.

Now, my bed is hollerin’ for me. Night, y’all!

Posted by Mike:
Mile 1,865.4: In our driveway in Houston.

—

That was our trip. Tennessee ate up a lot of valuable driving time (about 3 or 4 hours of drive time) that made our trip so much longer and we didn’t get home until 10PM on Monday night.

Tuesday was a long day of work. Wednesday will probably be just as rough.

All in all, we had fun driving. Just like when we did this drive four years ago when I moved to Houston. We’d do it again in an instant, we just wish we’d have more time to go slowly and be able to stop along the way and enjoy some of America on the way.

Katie came to me a few years back needing a logo for her website, yarnlove.com and the design that I came up with for her fit the style she was going for at that time.

She has come back, asking me to update not only her logo, but her site as well. This new logo incorporates the modern look she was going for while still being fun and creative to fit the craft and artistic feel of her site using typography and the yarn ball graphic.

The mixture of chocolate, antique rose and sage green that will be carried over in the design of her new site which is currently being mocked up now.

Friday night was the opening of the 600 sqi mi: Hidden exhibit featuring two of my pieces.

First off I want to thank Ali for pushing me to do this and everything else she does for me, my parents and Aunt Michelle for helping me with the framing costs and Steve for always being willing to lend me his cameras.

When we first walked in I saw my first photo, “Happiness♥” was in a prime spot right at the door. From that moment on I did not stop smiling. Seeing something that I did hanging in a gallery with 60 other equally incredible photographs is an awesome feeling that I can’t even begin to describe.

It was a great night put on by the Houstonist and Xnihilo Gallery (pronounced na-hi-lo). I can’t wait to go back to the gallery when it isn’t crowded to really study each image.

There are a ton of pictures from the event online, here are some links to them (make sure you click through the sets and galleries):

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

]]> http://hellamike.com/dangerblog/600-sq-mi-exhibit-opening/feed/ 4 http://hellamike.com/dangerblog/600-sq-mi-hidden/ http://hellamike.com/dangerblog/600-sq-mi-hidden/#comments Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:17:48 +0000 Mike http://hellamike.com/dangerblog/?p=390

As most of you know, a while back I entered some photos for a chance for them to be shown in an exhibit here in Houston and two of my photos were chosen!

Well the show, 600 sq mi: Houston, is coming up on Friday October 9th and I’d love to have everyone who can come there.

After the show we’re going to go to dinner at Gravitas which is right by the exhibit. If you’d like to come with us let us know as soon as possible so we can make reservations.

Directions: Take I-45 into downtown and take the Allen Parkway exit and continue on Allen Parkway (going away from downtown) until you reach the first light. Make a left there, at Taft Street. You’ll go through 2 lights, one at West Dallas, the next at West Gray. Once you go through the light at West Gray it is about four blocks up on the left hand side.

The street address is 2115 Taft Street, Houston, TX 77006 if you want to do a Google Map instead of following my lousy directions.

Click the above thumbnails to see larger versions.

Mark Richmond needed a logo, business card and yard sign for his Real Estate business. Mark’s client base is high-end urbanites and he wanted that to be reflected in his logo and brand.

The fonts are nice, clean sleek fonts that reflect Mark’s brand image. The use of green and black is a very contemporary and simplistic color scheme that makes the graphic elements pop.

The business card was printed double sided on high-gloss card stock. The reverse side was Mark’s logo along with his tag line “Real Estate for your lifestyle.” The decision to print the information side vertically instead of horizontally as well as rounding one corner was to make it stand out from other business cards.

Taking The Planet Partner Plus logo from the previous update The Planet needed large booth banners for an upcoming convention. These banners were created in Illustrator and Photoshop and were printed large scale 4 feet wide by 8 feet tall each and will be hung at either end of The Planet’s booth.

I will update this post with a photo of the booth once the event happens later this month.

The Planet logo had already been created but they needed a variant for the sub-brand Partner Plus program to use in branding and marketing of this new program.

When Ali and I decide to do something we do it to the extreme. Especially when it comes to television shows.

We decided a while back to kick all of the movies out of our Netflix queue and only put in TV shows in there that we wanted to catch up on and start watching on TV regularly or just watch shows we missed. Over the years we’ve done this with Entourage, The Office, Scrubs, and recently Battlestar Galactica, Bones, and Ali is watching True Blood right now (I didn’t dig it all that much.) We got all the DVDs that we could, buy an episode or two on iTunes, DVR shows whatever we needed to do to get all caught up.

One of the latest shows we did this for was Mad Men.

From Wikipedia:

Set in New York City, Mad Men begins in 1960 at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on New York City’s Madison Avenue. The show centers on Don Draper (Jon Hamm), the agency’s creative director, and the people in his life in and out of the office. It also depicts the changing social mores of 1960s America.

The first season opens up at the tail end of the 50′s and as the blurb says focuses on Don Draper, the ad agency and his family life. As the show goes on more characters are developed. There is Don’s wife Betty, who is struggling with life as a housewife and who later finds out her husband is cheating on her. Peggy, who starts as Don’s secretary/assistant who rises the up the ranks to become a copywriter in not only a male dominated company and industry, but a male dominated world. Pete, the young account executive looking to make a name for himself in the agency. Sal, the closeted art director afraid of losing his status and job if his secret got out, Roger Sterling, co-owner of the Sterling Cooper agency who “lives like he’s on shore leave.”

Of course most of the characters smoke and drink (even the pregnant women!) and quite a few of the major characters cheat on their wives (Don, Roger, Pete)

The cinematography is gorgeous, and very much fits into the style and time period of late ’50′s early ’60′s films.

The set design and costume designs are incredible. You can watch the years tick by over the first two seasons. I want to say that the first season takes place in 1958/59 and the second season has news clips and stories from 1962 and Sunday’s (August 16) season 3 premiere kicks off a few months after season 2 ends.

There are product placements throughout the show and because Sterling Cooper is an advertising agency you’d never know what is a paid ad, and what is just story. There were whole arcs dealing with American Airlines, Heineken, Clearasil, Utz as well as others. They spent a whole episode discussing the Volkswagen “Think Small.” magazine advertisement. Was it a good idea? Was it bad? One member of the team exclaimed something about all the empty white space. (See the real ad here.) As it turns out the ad was revolutionary and was recognized by Advertising Age as the top advertising campaign of the 20th century.

Then there’s the mystery of Don’s past that they hint around at for a few episodes and then give you something. Then they hint some more and give you something.

What I love most about the show is when the creative team is together working on some pitch. What’s the product? What’s the angle? Who’s the key demographic? As a creative and someone who is very interested in the way advertising and marketing works and the way they affect consumers, these parts of the show mesmerize me.

The other part I love about the show is seeing our country in a snapshots through this show. There was the campaign of Kennedy and Nixon, Red Scare and the Soviets moving into Cuba, and we may see the assassination of Kennedy this season depending on how much time is covered.

Ali wants to make sure that I mention that she thinks Jon Hamm is total sex. Whatever.

Mad Men also has an awesome theme song by RJD2 called “A Beautiful Mine.” Here is the full version: A Beautiful Mine

I can’t recommend this show enough. If you don’t watch it you need to start DVRing the current season, and buy season 1 and 2 on DVD, rent them from Netflix or get them on iTunes. Do whatever you need to do to catch up and start watching this show.

Now.

I just need a fly name.

Yesterday morning Ali and I were watching Breakin’ and I got to thinking about the current political situation. Stay with me here, it’s about to get a little funky.

I mean fun-kay.

No. No, I mean funky. Sorry.

Breakin’ from IMDb is about

A struggling young jazz dancer (Lucinda Dickey) meets up with two break-dancers. Together they become the sensation of the street crowds.

And during their rise to become the “sensation of the street crowds” they fight dance the rival dance crew. This has become the standard in dance movies as far as I can tell, anyway. Ali watches them all the time whenever they are on cable so I see bits and pieces of these movies and they all have some kind of dance fight in them. They may start out with words and shoves and some of the angriest stares you’ll ever see but they always end in dance fights and each team walks away with a little more respect for the other side.

There all the same. Breakin’, the one with the thug life ballerina, the one with that chick from The Fantastic Four and so on. The model can even be interpreted into other types of movies like the one starring that white guy from Detroit who was popular for a few months in 1999. They all use dance (or rap) to fight their battles and over come great odds like the closing of a neighborhood community center, proving the love of a tough down and out street dancer for the classically trained dancer, and other gripping cultural issues.

And that’s when it hit me. Dance brings people to together.

There has been all these town hall meetings across America dealing with health care reform, something this country desperately needs. Without getting too much into the politics of anything Ali and I have seen what the costs of not having (good) health insurance are and that is something that no American should have to go through.

Now at these town hall meetings I’m sure you’ve seen the news clips of people standing up and screaming their fears and opposition.

(There are many like this video, and worse.)

This is where my genius comes in. Yes. Genius. Are you sitting down for this? Go ahead. Sit. Brace yourself. I’ll wait.

…

All set? Cool.

Forget town hall meetings. By looking at the news all they do is devolve into screaming matches. The only thing that can bring these two sides together? That’s right. Dance.

No more town halls. Only dance halls. I have already written President Obama with my suggestions about dance hall meetings for health care and beyond. No more chairs, no more picket signs, no more battle lines. Only dance floors, pirouettes and pop n’ locks.

Imagine the two sides. Pro-reform, let’s call them The Sharks, and the Pro-Status quo, let’s call them The Jets. Now imagine them dancing. Singing. FOR AMERICA!

I like to be in America!
O.K. by me in America!
Ev’rything free in America
For a small fee in America!

Problem solved.

I even think President Obama should get out of his chair and dance while doing his YouTube videos. Nothing helps pass policy like jazz hands.

FOOL! Dancin’ don’t create problems! It solves ‘em!

The whole skit can be found here. If you can only handle a few seconds of this clip, make sure it’s the last 10 seconds.

More details to come later.

Again, I’m terribly sorry about blowing up your mailboxes.

Well, kind of sorry anyway.