Young men dead

Vintage U.S. Parks Posters

National Geographic has put up a little archive of vintage national parks posters. Its pretty amazing now modern some of the posters look. I can Definitely can see how they have influenced modern design.

From the site:

Created in the mid-1930s in response to the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration and its Federal Arts Project were focused in part on providing artwork for public buildings while assisting struggling artists. Artists were tasked with creating posters that promoted the landscapes and wildlife of America’s parks. The program ended in 1943, and the largest collection of WPA-era prints—including the selection in this gallery—is now in the Library of Congress.

Out and About in San Francisco

Just arrived in San Diego after spending four days in San Fran. Had a lot of fun. I loved how unique all of the neighborhoods were. Got in a bunch of the standard tourist stuff. Saw the golden gate, went to Muir woods, saw the seals at fisherman's wharf, went to golden gate park and the science museum.

The mission was probably my favorite area. Dave Eggars pirate store was outstanding. Self Edge was cool to see even though everything is outside my travel budget. Meet Your Maker was pretty awesome, really enjoyed checking out some products that are totally made in the USA.

Some art at Meet Your Maker

A little nod to James

Pirate Supply Store

World Cup

2010 World Cup kicks off tomorrow. I'm in San Francisco right now, haven't picked out place to go yet but I saw a lot of bars that will be showing it. Most of the papers here have been promoting the Mercury Lounge as the place to watch, so I might end up there. That is unless I find a good hole in the wall to camp out in. For a guide to see it in my home city of Boston check here, and for a guide of all the placers in SF that are promoting the cup check here. The SF chronicle has a map up that breaks some of the bars down into teams if that helps you decision making, here.


I'll be rooting for the good ol' US of A for the start, and in case of a knock out, I'm hoping for Spain to finish on top.

Out and about in Portland

Hung out in PDX the last couple days. Stayed at the Ace which was awesome. The city was a ton of fun, everyone was super friendly. The beer and food were great, checked off a couple beers that had been on my list but are pretty hard to get back east. The Japanese gardens and Rose Test Garden were amazing. Made it out to the east side and hit up all the vintage stores on Hawthorne. Stopped by the Jupiter hotel for Goldsprints. Wandered around and window shopped in the Pearl district. Ate delicious cheap food at the carts downtown. All in all it was a great time. Portland is definitely on my list of places to go back too. Just got into San Francisco today after taking the Coastal Starlight train. It was a long ride but the views made it totally worth it. I don't have my camera cord, so here are some photo's from my phone.

Pictures will probably be clipped, so click to see full size.

By the Sea Documentary

One of my good friends, Jason Bergman, just finished his documentary on fishing in New England.

From his site: A documentary exploring the regulatory changes that occurred in May 2010 to the New England fishing industry. The conversion to a "sector" based system is being seen as either the savior or death of the fishing industry in this region. Filmed over the span of 9 months and produced/directed/editied by Northeastern University student, Jason Bergman, "By the Sea" aims to educate viewers about this quintessential New England industry that will be forever changed by this new system.

Quincy Quarries Reservation

I got my first day this year of outdoor climbing in finally. Went to my usual spot, Quincy Quarries. Its a pretty interesting place to climb. Its got a lot of historic value, being the location where stone was sourced for the bunker hill monument. It also has a history of being a sketchy cliff jumping site before it was filled in. I find the juxtaposition of the outdoor space and massive amount of graffiti to be pretty interesting. However it is hard to like the graffiti because it makes climbing difficult (super slippery) and does detract from what I guess would be called natural beauty even though the whole thing is man made.

From Wiki:

In 1825, after an exhaustive search throughout New England, Solomon Willard selected the Quincy site as the source of stone for the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown. After many delays and much obstruction, a charter was granted on March 4, 1826 for the construction of a railroad to help move the granite. The "Granite Railway" was designed and built by railway pioneer Gridley Bryant and began operations on October 7, 1826.

The granite from these quarries became famous throughout the nation, and stone cutting quickly became Quincy's principal economic activity.

Later use

The last active quarry closed in 1963. After their abandonment, the open quarries filled with rainwater and ground water. The flooded quarries soon became a popular spot for cliff jumping. However, many people were injured—and killed—while diving into the quarries from great heights. This led the police and the city of Quincy to grapple with what to do with this abandoned space.

During this period, the quarries were also discovered by rock climbers. In 1968, "A Guide to Quincy Quarries" by Willie Cowther and Tony Thompson was published by the MIT Outing Club, containing information about climbing in and around the quarries, with a second edition published in 1970.^[1] "Boston Rocks", a later guidebook by Richard Douchette and Susan Ruff, is now in its second edition.

During the 1980s old phone poles and trees were added to discourage cliff jumping. Unfortunately, these were quickly waterlogged and sank two feet underwater where they were not visible to the cliff jumpers above. The injury and fatality rate skyrocketed. Often, divers sent to look for missing cliff jumpers would unexpectedly find other bodies instead.

Quincy Quarries Reservation

In 1985, Boston's Metropolitan District Commission purchased 22 acres, including Granite Railway Quarry, as the Quincy Quarries Reservation. A solution to the public safety problem was finally found with the massive Big Dig highway project in Boston. Dirt from the new highway tunnels was trucked in to fill the main quarries. This opened up new sections of rock to climbers, and the site was subsequently improved to encourage public use of the reservation. The reservation is connected to the trail system of the Blue Hills Reservation and features hiking, rock climbing and views of the Boston skyline. Recently, scenes from the movies Gone Baby Gone2007) and The Invention of Lying (2009) were filmed in the Quincy Quarries

Historic photo's taken from Quincy Quarries Museum

Tomer Hanuka

Tomer Hanuka is an well awarded illustrator based out of NYC. Born in Israel, Hanuka moved to New York after serving his mandatory service in the Israeli Army. After the move he earned a degree from the School of Visual Arts. He then began to work for big name magazines such as The New Yorker, The Times, and Rolling Stone. His work earned him awards from the Society of Illustrators and the Society of Publication Designers. More recenlty he has began work on book and album covers along with comics. He co-writes and illustrates a comic with his identical twin brother.