P I C N I C » Goings on

In a chair, flying through the sky

John — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 05:04:50 +0000

I think this is Coeur d’Alene lake, in Idaho.

On approach to Portland.

Somewhere in flyover country.

I love looking out the window on airplane flights. Partly it’s to reassure myself that the plane isn’t falling into an unrecoverable spin, an event which I have frequent nightmares about. But also I feel that this is such an extraordinary experience, cruising along 6 miles into the atmosphere.

Louis CK has a joke about airplanes. He was on one of the first flights with wi-fi a few years ago. He signed up and was quickly watching youtube and surfing the web. Suddenly their was a hiccup in the service and the stewardess announced that there would be no more internet. The guy next to him said, “oh that’s bullshit.” He thought to himself, since when do we feel entitled to things that didn’t even exist until recently? “You are in a chair flying through the sky!” I guess that’s how I feel on a plane. Everyone is watching TV on their iPads, or reading on their kindles. Of course I’m acting nonchalant myself. But really this feels like such an extraordinary thing, something previously reserved exclusively for the gods.

I took these photos on the two flights from Portland to Minneapolis for Christmas.

Still working on those wood boxes

John — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 19:57:29 +0000

The box frame is made of salvaged 4×4′s. The cuts, even with a miter saw, are never straight and so some slight alignment was needed. If I ever make a list of essential iPhone apps a knot reference manual will be there. One can never know too many knots.

The cuts were made both into the bit and across the bit.

Wood box

John — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:40:10 +0000

I’m building two wood boxes to store firewood in my living room. The wood is all from my scrap pile.

Mixed things

John — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 20:28:26 +0000

A photo of the calculator I was using in the cart next to my iPhone running the skeumorphic calculator app. After running the cart for a few weeks I felt that this summarized the before and during very well. Now that I’m taking a break over the winter I thought of this photo depicting two states of reality. The old and the new. The drawing of the viking was done by Martha.

I’m sorry for not updating the blog. I had gone into a sort of home organizing isolation, but I’ll put up some photos of Steve, who is doing well.

Empire builder

John — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:24:43 +0000

My good friend Chris has left Portland. He bought a 15 day Amtrak rail pass. He might get off at Whitefish lake and take a walk around it. He will certainly stop in Chicago to see old friends. His final destination is Baltimore. Goodbye Chris. I hope the trip is fun.

GW with some goods

John — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 04:12:07 +0000

I’m back at the cart, cooking food. GW showed up with some crazy booty. A plastic cowboy hat shape fitter he was using as a rain hat, two baguettes, a mini Ben and Jerries ice cream, and a bottle of water.

Parents

John — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 19:03:33 +0000

My parents have stopped by for the weekend. On Friday they came straight to the cart from the airport and ordered one of everything on the menu. They ate their lunch in O’Bryant park. Later my mother asks me, ‘who are those guys who ride around on the small bikes?’ I have to admit, it’s quite a scene downtown.

The Rueben on display

John — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:48:51 +0000

In addition to being a busy day generally, Douglas Gayeton and Kim Johnson showed up and took hundreds of photos for a project they are working on, called Lexicon of Sustainability. The result of the photographs will be a collage depicting Brett Burmeister, of foodcartsportland.com, eating a Reuben sandwich out of a Go Box. In the background will be a spatially dislocated interior, with Jen cutting Ham and me baking bread. For 5 minutes Gayeton had Brett standing in the middle of the sidewalk with half a rueben suspended just below his gaping jaws.

Martha makes an office

John — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 02:14:06 +0000

Martha came with me this morning to the cart. While I mixed dough, baked beets, and whipped mayonnaise, she worked on her manuscript. The cart functions well even with 3 people!

What me and Jen talk about

John — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 05:43:45 +0000

Jen and I have a lot of time to banter while doing prep or after the Rueben rush. What did we talk about this week?

I ran out of masking tape and was wondering if I could wrap my sandwiches using only folds. Jen said I should look into furoshiki, a Japanese cloth tying method. I found some helpful government resources from the Minister of the Enviornment. After 15 minutes of experimentation I made the first two sandwiches of the day for Alex, wrapping them using some furoshiki. Jen burst into laughter when she saw my attempts.
This reminded me of something I had read on Gizmodo years ago of an actual boat made of origami. Jen suggested making the cart into a boat. I suggested a hot air ballon and we could take off and land at will, anywhere in Portland, weather permitting.
Jen’s spirit animal is a rabbit. Mine is either a cat or a monkey. Lot’s of my friends also have a rabbit as their spirit animal. I should ask Jen if she knows any other monkeys.
We have named the the dust buster Zak.