Looking For Camera Recommendations

I am in the market for a new digital camera. I've read all the
reviews on Amazon, DPReview, etc., but haven't found a clear winner
for the best DIGITAL point and shoot on the market now. If you have
any suggestions please post...

Farm House Renovation

For what seems like 15 years...oh, wait it has been 15 years, my family has been renovating and remodeling our 125 year old farm house in Iowa. This is an areal view of our property. For a partial, but extensive photo historyof the project, check out this ongoing photo essay here: http://www.stoakes.com/underconstruction.

The good news is that in the last few months, extensive progress has been made and we should have a new kitchen and bathroom by Christmas. Mom will be happy!

The Lightning Field

Do yourself a favor. Check out Walter De Maria's Lightning Field Web site. Get out your calendar. Plan a trip to Southwestern New Mexico and spend a few days in awe. Just don't tell too many other people about this special place. Enjoy!

The Bathroom Graffiti Project

Who thinks the face drawn here is Woody or God? Take a look at the BETA launch of The Bathroom Graffiti Project and tell your friends to do the same! Go to www.GraffitiProject.com for all the fun...

Other ways, you can help:

1) Submit your pictures of Bathroom Graffiti
2) Email your friends about the project
3) Join the BGP Sniper Team

Find out more at www.GraffitiProject.com.

Enjoy...

33 Legends

In my mind, these are the greats. My 25 favorite (famous) legends. Although I only know these iconic figures through their work, their writings, film footage, and images of them, these are the characters who make me dream, the thinkers who make me think, and the names that immediately come to mind when I hear the word legend:

(This list is not in order...)

F. Scott Fitzgerald
Jack Kerouac
Bob Dylan
Steve McQueen
Chief Seattle
Mark Twain
JD Salinger
Federico Fellini
Noam Chomsky
Winston Churchill
The Marx Brothers (especially Harpo and Groucho)
Stanley Kubrick
Thomas Edison
Johnny Cash
Sun Tzu
Albert Einstein
Hercules
Andy Warhol
Galileo
Henry Cartier Bresson
Frank Lloyd Wright
Helmut Newton
Frank Gehry
Charles and Ray Eames
Charles Bukowski
Phillip Johnson
Martin Luther King Jr.
Siddhartha
George Orwell
Ayn Rand and her character Howard Roark

Who are your favorites? Post here...

The Delta Queen

Just a few week's ago, I had planned to post a recommendation note about the Delta Queen Steamboat Co. and its Mississippi cruises that run up and down the river every week. These beautiful ships are the only remaining traditional paddleboats that still run from New Orleans to St. Paul through America's Heartland. They are grand old ships and offer the perfect way to discover small-town America in style. Although I have not yet had the good fortune to take one of their river cruises, I have dreamed of doing so ever since reading Huck Finn. So after a recent dinner discussion about the river trips with my friend and world traveler Prof. Gerry Powers, I figured by posting it on my own blog, it would remind me to actually book a trip into my schedule.

That was three weeks ago.

Makes one realize just how quickly things change. And how big things impact little things. Only a few weeks later, the company, their employees and the waterway they call home were hit hard by Hurricane Katrina. Sadly, the boats are docked and all future trips have been cancelled at least through this year.

Like the communities along the gulf, the Mississippi is strong. The Delta Queen will be back. I look forward to supporting the great Delta Queen just as soon as it is up and running again.

Beautiful Hands

My good friend Dr. Nitin Mathur married the lovely Dr. Binita Mandal last weekend. This is an image of the bride's hands painted in henna for the ceremony. Good luck to you both!
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The "Everyone in Oxford, Iowa" Project (1984)

This image was shot by Peter Feldstein in 1984 as part of his "Everyone in Oxford, Iowa" project. My younger brother, Cayenne, was one of the few people who had a mohawk in Iowa at the time. This was the era of Mr. T and the A-Team...if you check out the other images, you will soon understand how pervasive the Iowa Haweye symbol was (and still is) in Iowa.

Prediction: The Small Town America Real Estate Boom

We've already seen the trends of Suburban Sprawl and Big City Gentrification. At the same time we have seen the near extinction of Small Town America as more and more people left the countryside in search of greater opportunity.

My prediction for the near future is quite different: the mass exodus away from smaller communities around America has peaked and over the next 10 years we will see an amazing real estate boom occur in thousands of "ghost-towns" across the USA.

Three significant changes in our society have made this possible:

1) Technology innovation: the ubiquitous availability and affordability of new Internet technologies (Web, Blogs, Email, IM, VOIP, Virtual Conferencing, E-Commerce, etc.) are making it possible for more and more knowledge and service workers to be able to work virtually from anywhere.

2) New distribution models: a new distribution system makes it possible to easily move products anywhere, anytime. In addition to the Wal-Marts and Home Depots that have popped up to bring stuff to rural America, companies like FedEx, Amazon.com and Ebay have made it possible for the average American to have access to an efficient and cost-effective means to send, receive, and market goods from anywhere.

3) Space: quite simply, rural America has the most space left. Big cities are expensive and cramped, and the burbs (which are already reaching into the countryside everywhere) are simply boring and bland.

While technology, distribution and space make this new shift possible, there are several trends that I believe will make it likely that a new boom occurs in the countryside near you:

1) The economy: it is way more expensive to live in or near a major metropolitan center or big city and consumers are demanding more for their shrinking incomes.

2) Corporate incentives: more and more companies are seeing that they can reduce operational expenses and increase productivity by having more of their employees work from home.

3) Family values: more families will want to move back near home to take care of their aging parents, or they will want to live in an environment more conducive to spending time raising children (just think – no commuting).

4) Education: depending on the particular community, many rural areas have stellar educational systems and can provide parents with a greater voice because there are simply less students.

5) Crime: there is less crime in rural America compared to major cities and suburbs.

So that’s my prediction. I’m already looking for buildings and land back near the farm where I grew up. You should too while the getting’s good…

Looking for wearable art? Buy a T-shirt...

Who would have thunk that something once as mundane as the T-shirt would become one of the most innovative and creative forms of fashion this millennium...?

The T-shirt market has been booming as its own category of fashion for a few years now. Trendy stores that sell nothing but T-shirts have been popping up everywhere including the American Apparel franchise which sells blank shirts, often to artists who slap their own designs on the shirts for resale. And according to an article this week in the Wall Street Journal ("By Accident or design, selling Tshirts ont he Web is big business"), many Web sites are generating hefty profits from selling T-shirts emblazoned with logos and humorous one-liners.

From hipsters and skate punks, to mall rats and college kids, today's Youth are crazy for T-shirts. We've all seen the shirts that chains like Urban Outfitters continue to pump out. But what are more fascinating to me are the artists and designers who are using T-shirts as an entirely new medium to display their work. Once confined by painting, photography or other more traditional media, more and more artists are creating Wearable Art. And more and more fashion designers are creating nothing but shirts. Legends such as Shepard Fairey (Obey Giant) have been doing this for years, and thousands of newcomers are now making a living selling their art via T-shirt distribution. Just this week I met the co-founder of Thank Theory who has an amazing line viewable at www.tanktheory.com. And yesterday I met David La Cross of Yes Laboratories in Brooklyn who is fusing currency, various patchwork and print silk-screens onto pre-washed T-shirts ready to wear. These guys are just an example of what's going on out there.

Do yourself a favor and check out what these innovators are up to and support your local artist: buy a T-shirt!

Luna's Last Shows

Here's the set list from Luna's second to last show at Bowery Ballroom on February 27th. Their last shows were moving, fun, and melancholy all at the same time. Thank you Luna for thirteen years of great music and shows. I look forward to Dean and Britta. Visit DeanandBritta.com for the next Act...
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Central Park Gates

One of my images of The Gates in Central Park. February 24, 2005.
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In Memory of My Beautiful Grandmother

My Grandmother passed away this morning at 8:30 AM central time. My mom was sitting by her side as Grandma let herself flow to another land, off to reconnect with the love of her life (Grandpa Stoakes) who passed away nearly 30 years ago.

Charlotte Stoakes, who would be 94 this August, lived a rich life. Like most things of quality and substance and style, she was paradoxically complex and simple at the same time. Born and raised in the center of Iowa, Grandma was a farmer, a homemaker, and best of all a Great Mother and Grandmother. As a farmer she dedicated her life to producing more than she used. As a homemaker, she baked fresh apple pie, tended to her geese and chickens, and sewed quilts for me and my brothers. As a mother and grandmother, she taught by example and shared her love and smiles and hugs to all around.

I have no way to prove it, and it doesn't really matter, except that it represents her character well, but it is very likely that Grandma never uttered a single swear word in her 93 years. There was no need - even when times got tough. Grandma was all about Gee Whiz, and For Heaven’s Sake. She was good to the core.

No stranger to adversity and challenge (like many from the “Greatest Generation”) she lived through many tough times: the depression, World War 1 and 2, Vietnam, and The Gulf War, etc. And back at home, deep in rural America, she even let a pack of fun-loving hippies (my mother being at the center of the group) create the Sunshine Farm on her land which should tell you something about her depth of tolerance, stamina, and experience.

My Grandma memories are endless. But mostly they all tell the same story: she was a good woman who sparkled with soul. To me, Grandma represents all that is good about America, about people, and about family. She was about honest hard work, the golden rule, the land, her community and her family. Simply put she was a giver, a faucet, a warm breathe of fresh air in any room.

The photo above is representative of her - always interested and eager to help, always smiling, always there, always glowing. Here you see her proudly watching mom make her Holiday Gravy recipe at my parents Oxford farm in 2001. Thankfully we will have her wonderful recipes and memories to share forever.

We miss you Grandma and thank you for all of the joy and life you have shared over the years.
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Grandma Charlotte Stoakes shares her beautiful smile.
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This Years' Basset Hound Litter Has Arrived

Click here to see more pictures and view details about this years' new litter of Basset Hound pups from the Stoakes-Hughes clan.
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