sage wisdom from a motorcycle shop in fishtown

a while back some friends and i were out on a friday night and ended up walking through this shop... there was an art gallery set up in the back corner. i had no clue what it was other than, really really amazing inside. the motorcycles chained to the rafters along side a giant disco ball were my favorite. Phil, a neighbor of mine posted this video on facebook a little earlier in the week. i think this guy is right on the money about the deindustrialization of america and how so few people know how to use their hands anymore.

Handmade Portraits: Liberty Vintage Motorcycles from Etsy on Vimeo.

good work still wins...

it's good to see that talent and originality still have their places in the motion graphics industry.
you don't see it often anymore, but it's nice when you do. maybe i'll rant about that another time...

watch it here

greensgrow

Haley and I are members of a CSA that's located a couple blocks from our house. Every other week we go pick up tons of fresh, local produce. Here's what we go this week. I'm glad Haley likes figuring out how to cook all this stuff. I'll just stick to cooking our eggs in the morning.

Heirloom Tomatoes (2 pounds)

Red, White and Blue Potatoes (1 pound)

Cabbage (enormous)

Kale

Basil

Nectarines (6)

Zucchini (4)
Spinach (1 bag)

Cantaloupe

1 dozen eggs

and mozzarella cheese

more origami

Origami_orchid from Jason Harmon on Vimeo.

Here's one more origami test. It's got some issues, but for now I can live with it.

origami

At some point in the next several months I'll be working on a project that's should have a lot of 3D origami in it.
Yesterday I folded up a little bird and tried to match it in 3D... here's what I got. The audio is a track from The American Dollar

Origami Test from Jason Harmon on Vimeo.

hello internets...

I'm back.

wedding paraphernalia...

I've been married for 3 months now. It seems like that's about the amount of time it takes for the rush of planning, preparation, and celebration to settle into the pace where memories find their stride . I wouldn't have changed a thing about our wedding and pulling it all off wasn't even that tough (thanks to all the help we had)... but still I think remembering is a little more my speed.

Here are a few pieces of wedding paraphernalia, or maybe memorabilia, for anyone who might care to take a look.

Here's a book we made, you can see a preview or on the off chance you'd want to buy one, anyone can. It's 65 pages long, probably has around 100 or so photos in there. Everyone who has seen it has been impressed, so either it's nice or our families have low expectations.





And here's a link to a video Haley's friend Michael Schwartz made for us. He did a great job capturing the feel of the day. We were really happy with it.

Jason & Haley from Michael Schwartz on Vimeo.

Im Married...

Here's the mural my friend Allen painted for the ceremony / reception.

Mural Timelapse from Jason Harmon on Vimeo.

Everything was perfect for the wedding. Thanks to everyone who helped. I'll have to write a little more about it all a bit later.

food in philly...

I've had several conversations with people since moving to Philadelphia about... how should I put it... the amazing averageness of most of the food the city has to offer. I'll go ahead and say it... I've had way better cheesesteaks in Birmingham. Birmingham definitely had better bar-b-q and even has better Thai food. There's no cheap Mexican food here... not like the stuff I'm used to at least. I feel like most of the transplanted Philly residents I've talked to have similar feelings. The food here costs more than I like paying and for the most part, its just mediocre. That said... I've been pleasantly surprised over the past few months to find a shining few exceptions. They definitely aren't going to top anyone's "must do list" for tourists, but if you just want some really tasty food at a fair price you should check out these places.

1. Hands down my favorite restaurant in the city... Que Chula es Puebla. From the moment Haley and I were seated and immediately served their refried bead drizzled tortilla chips I was hooked. The building is totally unassuming. It stands all alone in an odd little intersection of Kinsington / Fishtown with a plowed down empty lot on one side, and what seem to be abandoned or nearly abandoned buildings on another with row houses and corner stores rounding out the other sides. Nothing out of the ordinary for North East Philly. But inside there's the nicest people cooking up the best authentic Mexican food I've ever had. Chorizo, chorizo, chorizo... so good in whatever form you order it. I haven't talked to anyone that's been disappointed by this place... or who haven't gone back repeatedly. So good.

2. Ekta. I don't know the truth of how this place started, but all the stories agree that somehow the owners have connections to and had a fallout with the owners of Tiffin. I don't really care honestly, Ekta's food is delicious, it's not too expensive and if you're smart you can order one entree, which is enough to split and sometimes even have leftovers from, some non and you're set for under $20. Awesome.

3. Pichanha. Gene told me that he'd found the Brazilian section of town while looking for supplies for a Brazilian style BBQ he and Laura were having at their house (which was also very tasty). I was excited to go check it out. As soon as we stepped into the little grocery store way up on Castor Ave it was like I was back in Viçosa. No one spoke english, Guaranana was stacked to the ceiling and the butcher sold unbelievable cuts of beef at around $3/lb and chicken hearts by the bucket full. After getting the supplies we headed to Pichanaha for dinner. There are plenty of fancy Brazilian steak houses around... the kind you pay $50 for an all you can eat night of waiters bringing piles of meat to you table, provided you have the green card up. If you want to go that route, you can at Pichanha though I'm almost certain you can do it without the $50 price tag. But the smarter way to go is to grab a plate and go down the side buffet and load up on traditional Brazilian sides... rice and beans that are so much better than any I'll ever be able to make... and at the end of the line tell the grill man what kind of meat you'd like to try, he'll give you the cuts you want then weigh your plate and you only pay for what you want. If you want more, just hop back in line. I had a pound and a half of food for $12... which was definitely all I could eat. This place is definitely not the easiest to get to, but is definitely worth the trip.


food from Pichanha

I love that none of the food that's becoming my favorite in Philadelphia is traditionally Philadelphian. Next on the list is Ethiopian food in West Philly and hand made perrogies in either Port Richmond or Manayunk.

one month from today...

I will be a married man. Whodathunkit.

AA Bondy concert... *edit*

SXSW on NPR... I really love AA Bondy, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but whatever.

Listen Here

Just saw that he'll be playing in my neighborhood Sept. 11th. Anyone want to go to the Kung Fu Necktie with me?

I'm not making this up...

RIP Nicole

Haley and I were walking around Fishtown / Kinsington this afternoon taking some photos when we stumbled across probably the oddest thing I've ever seen. We found a really beautiful abandoned building and while poking around the side of it Haley ran across an elaborate arrangement of stuffed animals.



She yelled for me to come up and take a look. I was so in awe. I was really excited at first... what a find! Who would do something like this? So weird.




Then as we were talking, trying to make sense of this it became obvious what we'd found. Haley caught on first, "Rest in Peace Nicole," I heard her say. Then as I backed up I saw what she was reading. I'd been standing on it... spraypainted on the ground.




We stayed there for probably 15 minutes, maybe more, taking pictures and just looking at it. The longer I looked and the closer I got to the toys the more sad I got. It's almost stupid to say, but all the toys looked so full of emotion. Their eyes were haunting. Its as if all of them were lamenting the, obviously untimely death of their former owner.



Even the postures of the stuffed toys seemed dramatic to me. They remind me of the depictions of Hell in renaissance paintings. This memorial is probably the strangest thing I've seen... definitely the strangest thing Haley and I have found together on our walks around the neighborhood that we love so much.

simulating...

I've been doing particle simulations for the past 2 weeks.
You probably don't want to know how many hours have gone into making this water.

a question for all...

should I buy this?? I love these things and Haley found this one in DC. Its a good deal for what it is, but is still pretty expensive. Thoughts?

technology sucks...

so since sunday night... my laptop's display, graphics card / logic board, to be more exact has died... my iPhone can no longer tell me how much battery life it has... comcast has cut my cable line (literally came to the house and cut the wire with a pair of wire cutters)

what have I done to anger the technology mongers of Philadelphia??

banksy is the man...

seriously... the... man.

thrift store find...

I found this while in Ardmore with Haley. I paid $8 for it.

Retail price for a used Sony HD radio tuner......... $179!!!

I saved $171.

this is almost home...

I'm all moved in... mostly unpacked... and sometime in September it will be home.

Here are some pics. More are on my flickr page.

Birmingham with Haley

All the important stuff.