What I'm Up To

Bells

I'm helping Lead Pencil Studio with their temporary instillation they have at Seattle Center this summer, you can read about it here. For the most part I have been painting, drilling and tying bells, hundred and hundreds of bells. We have about 2 weeks to finish before we install. 

Annie and Daniel are in New York right now so we have been keeping in touch through pictures and videos showing them how we are progressing. I think I may do a time lapse of us working  if I can bring myself around to doing it because I already have a bunch of other time lapses I need to put together. For now you can see a preview of this project from the pictures and videos I have taken to send to A&D.

You can see the pictures here.

Here are some videos.

Uwajimystery #11

Double Kit Kat WTF

This weeks Uwajimystery features two Japanese Nestle Kit Kat flavors. Upon researching these two products I came across some knowledge that Japan seems to have a strange Kit Kat flavor addiction. The two flavors I found were caramel flan pudding and the other is some sort of special cookie Kit Kat. Other Japanese flavors floating around out there include edamame, pepper, soy sauce, watermelon, grilled corn, ginger ale, apple vinegar, green grape muscat, cucumber, green tea, wasabi, bubblegum, pickled plum, and the list seriously goes on and on.

Looking at some of these other flavors I think the ones I found are pretty mild. Although I don't think I have ever come across a caramel flan pudding flavored anything before.

Inside the large bag are these small mini indivually wrapped kit kats.

My initial reaction is somewhat mild, I was expecting a strong flan or custard smell. None of which was present. Mostly I could only smell caramel. Also it tastes more like caramel then anything else. The wafer is just your standard kit kat wafer with nothing much else to it.

Overall I would say the Caramel Flan Pudding Kit Kat is pretty good, still not as good as a regular Kit Kat, but good none the less.

The second Kit Kat is some sort of special cookie flavor. Maybe its some sort of popular Japanese cookie or something but I can quite tell from the packaging.

Its simmilar packaging as with the caramel flan kit kats with the indivdually wrapped pieces inside, although with these there is only one larger kit kat instead of the standard double kit kat.

This kit kat seems more like a regular kit kat to me both with the look and the smell.

I will have to admit I really like this kit kat, it is actually probably an improvement upon the standard kit kat. It does have less chocolate then a regular kit kat because some of the space it taken up with the special cookie.

I wonder why Kit Kats have become a vehicle for so many weird flavors over in Japan. Its hard to think of any product in America that would have so many different flavors under the same brand name. Maybe M&M's, but even with those you can only go so far, or so we think. Maybe Japan is just more creative or daring in their flavoring choices. Who knows I guess Kit Kats are the Jelly Bellies of Japan.

Here we go

I'm Back

Well actually I have been back for a little over a week but now I'm getting back to blogging. The trip was long and mostly filled with work or work related activities and I think over the next few weeks I will share more of just what I did on the way there and also while I was in New York.

I took a time lapse of our drive out there by mounting my camera in the truck on the dash. It took a picture about every 7 seconds from the time we started in the morning until we stopped for the night. I have started putting together all 20,000+ pictures but it takes a long time on my computer. I have up through day 3 put together and for the most part it looks great except for day 2 which came out a little blurry during the day and really blurry during the night. Almost all of the day shots were acceptable and will only slightly be noticeable when sped up but most of the night shots will have to be cut out because it is basically a shot of a blurry road with some lights off in the distance. Its kind of disappointing because day 2 was our longest driving day and was also the day we drove through the Rockies, thankfully most of that was during the day and is still visible. I think the video as a whole will come out really well, speeding up the shots tends to blur them anyway so day 2 will just appear slightly hazy compared to the rest of the video. Below you can see the first 1000 pictures from the time lapse. This basically covers from when we first started until we just get over snoqualmie pass.




So in the next week or two I should finish the rest of the video. I also took a time lapse of the instillation of the sculpture over a three day period. That too is about 20,000+ pictures that I should be able to put together in a week or two. So keep a look out for those two things. I'm also going to start up trying to blog every day here again so look out for a Uwajimystery tomorrow.

Also, here are some pictures that I took while I was in New York. I didn't have much free time during the day because most of the week while I was there was spent at the gallery installing the sculpture. I did spend most of the nights wandering aimlessly throughout Manhattan and I did have about two half days which I was able to wander during the day which is when I took these pictures. http://www.flickr.com/photos/iangill/sets/72157623950897997/ I guess I didn't really take to many pictures of the iconic New York things and most of what I took was actually the small things that I found.

Anyway, I'm back.

New Home

Road Trip

This will be my new home for the next few days, its pretty spacious and calculation the square footage of the box and the cab its actually probably bigger then my apartment.

Its actually a really nice truck. Lots of bells and whistles inside. Pretty spacious cab as well, lots of storage under the seats and various bins and cubbyholes all around. It should be a fairly comfortable ride.

This may be my last post for a while. I might leave tomorrow, I might not. If I don't leave I may post something else tomorrow night. Although I am hoping that we get on the road tomorrow even if we can only drive for a few hours and get over the pass. I want to get this trip started. The sooner we leave the better off we will be further down the road.

Donate

The Ian Gill Fund

So I will be driving John's piece to New York next week. We are hopefully leaving on Wednesday but maybe Thursday. Pretty much everything is paid for except for food and a place to sleep. It would be nice if we could find people to stay with along the road but we are driving long days and will probably get to where we would stay for the night around 10 or 11 at night. It would feel sort of strange arriving at someones house that you don't even know that late and then leave in the morning around 6am. It seems a bit rude. So I think we might just get a hotel room along the highway when we are just tired of driving and need some rest. The problem with that is that it costs money, money that I don't have. So the other option would just find a place to park the truck and sleep in the cab for a few hours. Although this sounds really adventuresome, it's not something I want to do for three or four nights. So I thought I might create a "Ian doesn't want to sleep in a truck fund" All donations will remain anonymous.

Another thing is that when I get to New York I'm pretty sure I have a place to stay for at least most of the nights I'm there. If it so happens that those plans fall through I have come up with an idea of how to both feed myself for the day and get a free place to stay at night. Well actually I have come up with a few different ideas, but they all have their draw backs.

One idea is to voluntarily check myself into a mental health ward each night and then in the morning check myself out. I guess the only problem with this is A: They might not take me. B: The food might suck. and C: They might actually determine that there is something wrong with me and force me to stay.

Another idea is to commit small acts of vandalism or public disturbances as to get myself arrested. Nothing major, just something that would cause them to hold me overnight then release me in the morning. I could even try and shoplift food. If I got away with it then I would at least have something to eat for the night. If  I got caught I would get fed and have a place to stay. I guess the only problem with this is A: What if I want to become president one day, this would not look good. B: Getting arrested might not guarantee a meal when I get to jail, what if they take to long to process me and I miss feedin time. and C: I would need to watch my corn hole.

So I think my final and best plan is this. I will go out to eat at some moderately priced restaurants and order a huge meal that will fill me up. Once I am satisfied I will try and run out of the restaurant without paying but doing so in such a poor manner that I will get caught. Once they realize I can't pay they will call the police and I will then be arrested with a full belly. So now I don't need to worry if I will be fed in jail I can just sleep a peacefull night in the slammer. I'm guessing / hoping that New York's criminal processing speed is pretty slow, so much so that they release me the next morning with a pending court date that is a few weeks in the future. I guess the only problem with this idea is A: They might start to catch on after arresting me night after night. I would need to go to different restaurants in different police precinct every night. B: I would still need to watch my corn hole. and C: What if some New York Judge decides to make an example of me.

I don't know, what do you think of these plans? Any better ideas? Want to help me not do these things? I swear I will if it comes down to it. So feel free to donate to the "Help Ian not get himself arrested so he has a place to stay and something to eat fund"