ahh-so-centric

q-tip - move

phils

While waiting in line at the post office earlier this year, I notice one of the postal workers eyeing me up and whipering to his colleague. I checked the "Wanted" signs to see if I resembled any criminals (My wife always begs me to grow my hair and one of her reasons is that many criminals in police sketches share my hairstyle. They look just like you. What if some racist cops pick you up for that? Please grow your hair!) As I approach the counter, the post office guy stares and smiles at me, "For a while there I thought you were Shane Victorino. I was whispering to my buddy that we should ask for an autograph or something..."

Why am I sharing this? I just want to give my props to the 5'7" "Flyin' Hawaiian" Shane Victorino for killin' it in the MLB playoffs. Grand slam off Sabathia in the divisional round and a game-tying homer against the Dodgers to help the Phillies to a 3-1 lead in the NLCS. And isn't Matt Stairs the perfect sports hero for Philly? He looks like every other portly middle aged plumber in South Philly.

lego of relativity

m.c. escher's "relativity" lithograph in lego form

creative (re)creation

Jim Kim's recreates sneaker classics from scratch in Photoshop. Great rendering here:

iphone coasters

poster boy

Poster Boy is an anonymous vandal/artist roaming NYC subways and switching up ads into political art.

filipino foodie

Nice article in The Wall Street Journal on Filipino cuisine. Lots of yummy details and thankfully it goes beyond the typical balut experiences that seems mandatory on any foodie travelogue to the Philippines.

As I've mentioned before, my dad explains the lack of Filipino restaurants in America through the theory that Filipino food is best cooked at home. Why would I pay money for food that I could easily find at a party. We lived in a sizeable Filipino community in Maryland and every weekend had a house party with potluck dishes overcrowding dining tables. Titas that you've never met before would pile food onto your plate chirping "Eat, Eat. Eat!" right after the kiss-on-the-cheek greeting. After making a circuit around the table, your plate resembled a culinary car dump with 15 different foods piled up on top of each other. Nonetheless it was always delicious. Meanwhile, a Filipino restaurant would open up only to close shortly after. Grand opening, grand closing! Perhaps "filipino restaurant" is an oxymoron to pinoys who share my dad's perspective. What are other factors? I've heard that maybe the food is too simplistic, inaccessible or not exotic enough for Americans. Can it be elevated without being bastardized?

As for me? I grew up associating Filipino food with home cooking. But living away from mom's cooking and outside a filipino community makes me more eager to patronize a Filipino restaurant. I was shocked to find a "turo-turo" place nearby and I've tried some fusion and upscale joints in Philly and NYC. When I tell my parents of these places, I can sense the good natured smirks on their faces saying, "You got suckered into paying how much for what?"

monkey waiter

Wow this is bananas (pardon the pun)! Check them out at the Kayabukiya tavern in Tokyo. I would tip them well.

pandora

Give me a late pass on this one (I actually discovered this on my iphone). Pandora is a free internet radio site that personalizes stations to your musical tastes. Basically it helps you find new music by suggesting similar music based on your entered favorites. Nice tool to reach out beyond your ipod playlists - even if you hold 20,000 songs.

how big is your carbon footprint?

Take this quiz to calculate how much land area is needed to support your lifestyle. If everyone lived like me, we'd need 4.2 earths to provide enough resources. Oops. My evil category was services - flying to Japan every other year doesn't help.

domo @ target

If you're familiar with Domo-kun - Japanese NHK tv station's mascot - you did a double take upon entering your local U.S. Target store. He's featured all over their '08 Halloween promotions! My favorite Domo-kun personality quirk: he passes gas when nervous or upset.

guido castagnoli

Guido Castagnoli has a nice exhibition at the Sasha Wolf gallery in NYC showcasing his photo series of small town Japan. The color and environment within these photos feel like a step back in time. Most interestingly, the images challenge typical outsider representations of Japan as either mega-metropolis or serenely minimalist.