Jay and I took to the woods last week, taking a Monday off to get lost and be together. We decided to run through to the Kinzua Bridge, which was toppled by a tornado in 2003. Not being content with the view from the top, we went down the gorge and went exploring…

Built from wrought iron in 1882, the Kinzua Bridge was once the tallest and longest railroad bridge in the world.

At the highest gap, the bridge stood 300 feet tall, and spanned over 2000 feet.

The bridge’s foundation eventually lent itself to disaster as the F1 tornado ripped it right from the ground in 2003.

tons of iron supports simply bent and folded as they crashed into the gorge.

We could have hopped the fence and walked to the edge, but the view from below was much better.

it was like climbing over a giant Erector set that God had trampled.

I think rusted iron is one of the most beautiful things in the world.

i couldn’t resist climbing on some of it.

check out the rest of the photos here on flickr

So uh… Randall (my tattoo artist) and I have this weird fascination with Juggalos. Maybe because they are the most honestly trashy individuals in America, or maybe cause we just wanna fuck a few of em. Juggalos are quite the interesting batch of folk. Each year, because Lollapolooza is fucking gay, Juggalos from all over converge upon Cave-In-Rock, IL, for “The Gathering.” To my Buffalo readers, imagine if all of South Buffalo went camping. To the rest of the world, imagine that kid in High School that was suspended because someone said he was gonna blow up the school, then imagine thousands of his kind, some with titties, cloned, and drinking Faygo. Faygo is the Ofishal drink of the Juggalos, mainly because it comes in “every fucking flavor.” Attached are a few photos, and after the jump, a video taken by Derek Erdman (more photos at his site), who may or may not also be a Juggalo (I don’t think so, the camera was pretty steady). (HT – Mishka Bloglin)

This event sponsored by Walmart, apparently
Dummalo and Dummerlo?
Intense. thats for sure.

So much more after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »

Last night was the Stiletto Run, a mercilessly hard .5k charity race down Elmwood Ave. Point Five Kay? Really? Let me explain.

These brave ladies and guys did it… in heels.

All of this was to benefit Ovarian cancer. Shops stayed open late on the 800 block of Elmwood, donating 10% of their sales to the benefit. Everyone gathered around Shoefly waiting for the race to begin, and at 7Pm, the streets were blocked and all eyes pointed down towards Bidwell as the runners hobbled, skipped, and made their way to the finish line…

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First off, the Mash Bash was nothing like it was last year (or the years before). The budget was severely hacked this go around and it showed. For 50 dollars, you get in with only 2 drink tickets. Sure, you can eat all the pizza, sausage dogs, and hot dogs in the world, but taking away the free beer just isn’t right. Things were different… there wasn’t the crazy rush for beer, the lines and frat boys (ok, me too) running with six cups of tepid Labatts every fifteen minutes…

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Wired has long been a fan of using neon inks for their magazine covers, and Pantone 805 Orange-Red Neon Ink is somewhat of a signature color. To celebrate, they doused the entire cover in PMS 805; I literally saw the thing sticking out of the mailbox from the other end of the driveway (and I live in a carriage house!). The articles are pretty swell too, a farewell to Bill Gates, BSG, and a bit about how to really cut down global warming…

Subscribe now (Only $10) and you’ll get this issue guaranteed, or go the the bookstore and look for the sore thumb… Its totes worth it.

• PS. CondeNast just acquired Ars Technica, meaning Wired has a geeky new brother in the Wired Digital family (Reddit, WebMonkey, HotWired, Wired.com, and more).

I’ll leave the sports coverage to Andy, but I wanna thank him giving me the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing affair. Running out on the field, bumping into very sweaty, adrenaline filled lacrosse players… dodging ESPN crews… pretty awesome.  I was a little hesitant to go and get my shots; I’m not used to press photography, or for that matter, much photography at all. I basically followed the pack and focused on the few players I knew were important. The Bandits 2008 MVP (which I got to cast a vote for) Steenhuis was pretty easy to spot, he sports bright orange Reeboks. I took some video too for WNYMedia, but I have absolutely no idea what Marc is doing with it. Hopefully he’ll put the mess of cloverfield-esque footage into something awesome.. like he always does.

I also decided to take advantage of the new Animoto service to make a little video below. Animoto is a web based photo montage service that uses a pretty sophisticated AI to arrange your photos into a music video, complete with beat matching and top of the line special effects. the service is free for 30 second clips; full length videos that you can dl are $3 a pop, or $30 for a year. Use this referral link and you can get a year membership for only $25.

click above to visit the flickrset

John and I spent a good portion of our togetherness last weekend killing hookers, stealing cars and doing odd jobs for this fucked in the head Russian dude. Oh, and we also played GTAIV, the latest installment in the Rockstar platinum franchise. Everything is better: physics, npc interactions, mobility choices; but the Sentinal is still the best car to roll in. That being said, the game is a whole lot darker; morality is put in your hands and it can get frustrating at times choosing who lives and dies, who to bowl with and who to let get beat down….

Did I mention the game is frickin incredible to look at? Liberty City is modeled loosely after NYC, Algonquin being Manhatten, Bohan, the Bronx, and so on… but a few choice landmarks have been dropped in the game, and www.goodostuff.com has the flickr set…

So my story starts 2 years ago, March 2006, when I visit New York City. I take a bunch of photographs, do all the touristy things, fall in love with the city and then come home.

Flash forward to April 2008, a little game called GTA4 gets released, some of you might have heard it being talked about. It takes place in a kind of pseudo-NYC called Liberty City. I noticed that there were a lot of great similarities between the real life and the virtual city, so I set about putting together a short little photoset of virtual recreations of the real life photos I took. It was fairly easy, because all the buildings counterparts are basically in the same position, and a lot of care and attention has been paid to getting the details in the game really right.

These are awesome shots; it really shows how much work was put into the game, and how intense the realism can be at times. GTAIV almost has this muddy oil painting style effect added to everything… a beautiful blend of art and realism.

• Sighteeing in Liberty City [matthewj's Photostream]

It seems that the theme for gifting Buffawhat this Holiday season has been vinyl. I’m not complaining.. less I have to buy for myself!

Kevin, my buddy from Singapore (he’s from Buffalo,but he sold his soul to a bank for two years and they promptly shipped him overseas) gave me the 8-inch Ninja Dunny by MAD. He’s kinda baddass, not so much for the paintjob — pretty basic in that aspect — but the ninja sword and star are really beefy and make the ninja Dunny a great collect.  There are two more colorways: a black chase and a exclusive red Ninja, but the standard white with blood looks better than the chases.

The dunny is standing behind something else that Kevin gave me: a gold and enamel embellished coffee cup with saucer and lid. The crazy thing is that its made in Thailand by little kids, because their hands are so small they can hold the tiny brushes to paint the fine details. Once they reach a certain age, they can’t hold the brushes steady any more and have to find another career. All this for rice and a few coins. Child labor has never been so pretty. I’ll try to post a better pic of it on flickr once I get out of my office.

This brought my attention as I have most recently locked in an appointment with Randall at Divine Machine to get a tattoo for my birthday (Jan 16). I’m shying away from the normal tribal fare, and my goals are to get a design that matches what I am and what I do.  Possible choices are a copy of my Buffawhat logo, with a copyright tag, or perhaps the rooster from my favorite clothing line, Whiteboy. Whatever it will be, I completely identify with these science and Math geeks whose ink only further labels them into geekdom:

This flickr set stemmed from a old post by Carl Zimmer, as he was wondering “how scientists tattoo themselves with their science.” He got a great number of responses and a few months later dropped this set. I think I favor the DNA tattoos myself.

• via The Loom 

I fell off the map for a few days. It happens, I had it coming. I say “fell” because it wasn’t intentional. First, the weekend blundered, Monday and Tuesday were consumed with social events that did no good but waste time and lower my immune system. Wednesday and Thursday were spent in bed with a fever, body fatigue and chills. But today is Friday. A good day, cause its the start of Christmas vacation! At work, nothing really gets done, i get lots of gaudy gifts and a popcorn tin, hopefully I won’t be forced into wearing the elf suit again:

I hate getting sick, more so now because I’ve turned into a workaholic. I’ve managed to ignore every bit of christmas cheer up till now, and gifting has been nothing more than a nonchalant with-recipient after-purchase hand-off. Doesn’t mean I don’t care, I just don’t care for the pomp this year. I don’t have time. It’s totally my fault and I’m sick because I forgot to relax this holiday season, and I should make the time. I’m not even going down to see my folks, we are postponing everything till February.