bLog-oMotives: Travel

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St. Croix vacation poolside reading list

Several longtime bLog-oMotives readers have pointed out that I have become a lax in posting my vacation reading lists as a resource for book suggestions. I apologize for my tardiness in providing such a list. Upon returning from over two weeks away, catching up seems to take a priority to the many things I'd like to be accomplishing.

Here's what I read during my March 2009 vacation to St. Croix:

• Pig in Provence: Good Food and Simple Pleasures in the South of France, by Georgeanne Brennan • In preparation for a 2010 trip to Paris, and the south of France, I've been reading travel and food writing of the country. This book is a great record of an American family living on a farm in Provence and making the most of local relationships, customs, food and experiences. It also provides some great recipes.

• A Place of my Own: The Architecture of Daydreams, by Michael Pollard • I've always enjoyed Pollard's food writing. This tale, of his need to build a space of his own in which to work and relax, is very different than his previous books - but no less enjoyable. I wonder when I will build that studio above our garage?

• Venetian Stories, by Jane Turner Rylands • Venice is one of my favorite places to visit. I could return again and again. This book, written by the spouse of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection director (one of my favorite Venice museums)is like taking a walk along the canals and eavesdropping on all along the way. Each short story is somehow linked to others in the book. The sequel, Across the Bridge of Sighs: More Venetian Stories, is already on my nightstand.

• The Whole Truth, by David Baldacci • Our friend Bonnie, the owner of the house in which we stay in St. Croix, is an avid reader. When we arrive each year, there is a stack of books she's left behind. This Baldacci book was among that selection. It was an enjoyable, fast read - but it did come across a bit too much as the possible treatment for a movie.

• Death of an Englishman, by Magdalen Nabb (A Marshal Guarnaccia Investigation) • Death of a Dutchman, by Magdalen Nabb (A Marshal Guarnaccia Investigation) • Prior to leaving for vacation I visited one of my favorite local bookstores, Murder by the Book. In visiting with the proprietor, I mentioned that I enjoyed mysteries set in places where I have, or may, travel. She asked if I'd ever read any Magdalen Nabb books - and then told me they had none of them in stock. However, I was able to find used copies of the first two at Powells. The books, set in Florence, Italy (another favorite vacation spot), are detailed, well-crafted tales eventually solved by Marshal Guarnaccia. I'm currently reading the third in the series, Death in Springtime.

• The Customer is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles, by Jeff Martin • Not your usual business book. This volume is a collection of hilarious stories of situations that the authors have experienced while working in primarily retail situations. Anybody who has ever had a somewhat miserable retail job will appreciate the book.

• End Games, by Michael Dibdin (An Aurelio Zen Mystery) • I was saddened by the 2007 death of Michael Dibdin; due to the loss of a great Pacific Northwest writer and the end of the Aurelio Zen mystery series. Over the last 15 years I've read the intriguing 11 books, which give the reader an insider's look into the Italian way of life - and death. End Games did not disappoint; other than being the last from Dibdin.

• The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food, by Judith Jones • This was my favorite vacation read of all. In fact, I've been recommending it to friends and buying it as a gift for others. Cookbook editor (and writer) Judith Jones has led a fascinating life. For over 50 years, as an editor and vice president at Alfred A. Knopf, she has introduced readers to many culinary stars, including Julia Child, Marcella Hazan and Edna Lewis. Personally, I wish she'd spent much more time writing. The Tenth Muse tells all the juicy stories and thankfully provides the recipes to many of the dishes described throughout the book. Ed enjoyed the book so much it was filled with bookmarks when we got home. Four of the marked pages listed cookbooks that Jones edited for a variety of interesting cooks and chefs. I was able to track down used copies of three of the books for his birthday. One of them was released the year he was born.

• The Immaculate Deception, by Iain Pears (Jonathan Argyll Art History Mystery Series) • This book is the last in a series I've been reading over the past few months. Iain Pears has combined Italian locales, mystery, art, art history and great characters to create one of the best collection of books I've read in some time.

Vacations also give me an opportunity to catch up on the stacks of magazines constantly growing around my home. When you receive over 30 subscriptions a month it's difficult to keep up. On this trip I was able to take along copies of the following: Oregon Home, Out, Portfolio, Vanity Fair (each year I take the thick Hollywood issue on vacation), Entrepreneur (which included an article citing me as a design and branding expert), Fortune Small Business, Seattle Business, Fast Company, This Old House, Garden Design, and HOW.

Our annual trips to St. Croix are about relaxing. The island doesn't offer a great deal in the way of nightlife; especially when staying in a beachfront home outside of Christiansted. We usually take some movies, or DVD boxed sets of seasons of a television show, for nightly viewing. On this trip we watched two seasons - 44 episodes - of the highly entertaining Boston Legal.

The end of one vacation often means we start planning for the next. I suppose I should begin putting together the library for our annual summer gold-mining trip in the Wallowa Mountains of Oregon.

A Hawaiian escape for a non-holiday

My partner Ed and I ran away from home for the holiday season. We simply made the decision to escape for a couple weeks and not celebrate Christmas. No decorations. No gifts. No holiday craziness. Our friend Mike Smith, one of the owners of Joy Creek Nursery, joined us on our adventure. We rented the Big Island home of my longtime pal, and "HOW Conference wife," Jeni Herberger as our non-holiday getaway. The five-acre property is located in Captain Cook, just south of Kailua-Kona, on the western side of the island.

While in Hawaii, we not only missed having a traditional Christmas holiday - we missed most of the snow and ice that impacted Portland for over two weeks. We had an incredible time in the beautiful tropical location.

Our vacation photos are being shared in a Flickr gallery.

Jeff Fisher has a real "identity crisis!" in Chicago

Ever since my book, Identity Crisis!: 50 redesigns that transformed stale identities into successful brands was released last fall I have used the line "Jeff Fisher is having an Identity Crisis!" to market and promote the thing. I never expected that I would actually have a real "identity crisis" of any kind. Well, after several days in Chicago at the Hyatt Regency Hotel - where I was the closing speaker at the Creative Freelancer Conference - I was preparing to head to the airport and I had a major identity crisis!

I couldn't find my ID. My driver's license was missing

It was about 6:00 AM. I'd almost completed packing all my bags. I had plenty of time to take a relaxing shower, go grab something to eat and a latte, and be ready for the airport shuttle to pick me at 7:30. All I needed to do was print out my boarding pass, get my identification in order and I'd have plenty of extra time at O'Hare International Airport before my 10:30 flight home to Portland.

When I went to get my driver's license it was not where it should have been. I immediately grabbed the pants I'd worn the night before when I'd gone out to dinner. No license. Not yet panicking, I went through the pockets of any pants or shirts I'd worn during the conference. No license. I started to sweat a little as I pawed my way through the stack of business cards I had collected from conference attendees, speakers and vendors. No license.

OK, time to panic! I unpacked everything that had moments earlier been neatly packed. I went through everything - twice. No license. I even went through the waste paper basket. No license.

Then, I remembered the last time I'd had the license in my hand. I was at Macy's - in the great old State Street Marshall Field's location - buying a shirt. Because I didn't have my Macy's card with me, and qualified for an 11% sales tax exemption discount, the sales clerk had taken my license, placing it on his computer keyboard as he entered the necessary information. I don't remember him ever giving it back. A quick online search showed that Macy's would not be open until 10:00. Damn!

By this time, it was almost 7:00 a.m. Chicago time and I didn't have a clue what I should do. I decided to call my partner Ed in Portland and see if he had any brilliant ideas. Not that I really thought he'd be happy to hear from me at 5:00 AM on a Saturday morning in Portland. The answering machine picked up the phone and I started leaving my message. A groggy Ed then answered the phone and I told him what had happened. He suggested that he could scan my passport and email the file to me as a possible helpful piece of identification. Before we hung up I said I'd call him if I did not make it onto my plane.

It was then I thought I would call the hotel front desk and check on what I considered a very slight chance that I'd lost my ID in the facility. The woman who answered told me that she would page the assistant manager of the hotel. When I spoke to hotel assistant manager Scott Penny, he said there was nothing in the hotel lost and found. He suggested that he could write a letter on hotel stationery stating that I had been a guest and was who I said I was. He mentioned that he had worked for the airlines and what I needed was some kind of official documentation verifying that I had lost my ID. He told me he'd call the Chicago Police Department and get back to me.

My partner then called back to tell me he'd emailed the scanned image of my passport. He'd also talked to the front desk and I could print out the passport image and my boarding pass when the hotel's business services center opened at 8:00 AM.

I could hear a clock ticking in my head.

The hotel assistant manager then called back to tell me the police had suggested I get to a nearby station and file a police report on my lost ID so I would have an official document with me. As we talked he did an online search and told me that the nearest police station was 2.7 miles from the hotel - a short cab ride away. His letter would be ready for me at the hotel's Guest Services desk when I returned.

I ran to the shower, quickly rinsed off, got dressed and headed downstairs to catch a cab. The hotel doorman kind of gave me an odd look when I said I needed to go to the police station at a given address.

In the cab, I suddenly realized how ridiculous this whole situation was and kind of laughed to myself. I didn't know where the hell I was in Chicago. I had no ID with me saying who I was except for my boarding pass from my Portland to Chicago flight with my full name of James Jeffrey Fisher, my American Express card with my business name, and a "Jeff Fisher is having an Identity Crisis!" promotional postcard (below) - the only thing I had with a photo of myself.

At the 18th District - Near North police station everyone could not have been nicer. The officer at the desk asked a variety of questions, even attempted to place a call to Macy's with no answer, and then was having some difficulty with the computer (clock ticking in my head) as he tried to complete the police report. A female officer stepped in, saying it "took a woman to do the job properly," and had better luck with the computer. When the original officer handed me the completed paperwork he smiled and said, "Try not to lose this."

I then stood on a street corner for what seemed like forever (tick! tock!) waiting to hail a cab. One finally came by and it was back to the Hyatt Regency. As the cab came to a stop at the front door the doorman from earlier opened the door and said, "Welcome back to the hotel, sir."

I ran up the escalator to the Guest Services desk to retrieve the letter the hotel assistant manager had written. With the envelope in hand, I headed back up to my room. It was 8:45 when I walked in the room - over an hour past the time my shuttle was to have picked me up. By this time I wasn't really worried about making my flight - I was just hoping to get on any plane out of Chicago.

I went online to print out my boarding pass and saw that upgrades were still available on my flight. After all I'd gone through I felt I deserved First Class, so I cashed in 15,000 miles for the upgrade. I downloaded the boarding pass as a PDF, saved the scan of my passport from Ed to my hard drive, and loaded both onto a blank CD I had in my "portable office."

I then went downstairs to the lobby to do a quick kiosk checkout. Four sets of escalators later I arrived at business services center, where I quickly printed out the two documents from the CD. Then it was back upstairs and across the street to where the airport shuttles stopped every 15 minutes. As I walked up to the stop, I asked a bellman when the next shuttle would arrive. He replied, "You just missed one, The next shuttle will be here in 15 minutes." (TICK! TOCK!)

My shuttle left the Hyatt Regency at 9:16. After one additional stop we were on our way to O'Hare. Luckily, there was very little traffic on a Saturday morning.

As I was dropped off at the United terminal, I realized that without thinking about it earlier at all, my First Class upgrade would allow me to avoid the long line to the check-in counter. I walked up to the open station and spread my boarding pass, hotel letter, police report and passport printout on the counter. The agent at the counter looked at everything, then at me, and said, "Everything will be OK." It was 9:45.

She explained that she was putting a priority tag on my checked bag and that it would be searched by the TSA. While dealing with my bag, she told me I would have both of my carry-on bags searched and that I would be searched personally before being allowed through security. She pointed out that I would be going through priority security - right next to her desk - and as I walked away she said, "The rest of your day will only be better."

I had my doubts due to some past TSA experiences in some of my least favorite airports around the country. My fears were put to rest by incredibly pleasant and polite TSA representatives. Still, everything seemed to be taking frickin' forever. (TICK! TOCK!). A couple ahead of me were having similar issues - the husband's driver's license had been taken from him when he'd received a traffic ticket in Chicago. Finally multiple TSA staffers began to deal with the three of us. After looking over the result of my morning of document gathering, a TSA guy asked if I had a credit card with my full legal name on it. Of course, the only thing I had was an insurance card that was not acceptable. I explained that I don't go by my legal name, so everything makes use of the name Jeff Fisher.

The conversing TSA people then pointed out that my flight was to leave at 10:31 from the gate directly across the hall from where I was waiting to processed. I was then asked to sign a document that I didn't even read, providing a home address and home phone number. I suppose I signed my life away. After that, a female TSA representative made a phone call to who knows what government agency, relaying as much information about me as she had on the paper in her hand. I was asked how long I had lived at my current address and I told her. She then asked for the street name of my previous address and I told her. She then asked "Do you go buy any name other than your legal name?"

Hmmm...hadn't we already dealt with that issue?

She then got off the phone and said I was cleared to proceed through security. I was patted down thoroughly. My bags were all searched and swabbed. I quickly put on my belt and shoes, got my bags put back together and hurried across the hall - to a closed jetway door at my gate. It was 10:30. Just then the door opened and a United agent took my boarding pass from my hand. As she scanned it she commented, "We wondered where you were."

As I sat down in seat 1A I couldn't believe that I had actually made it onto my flight. The flight attendant came over and asked, "May I get you something to drink?"

Silly question.

My morning may have been a less than ideal experience. However, everyone along the way - hotel assistant manager Scott Penny, the Chicago Police Department, two cab drivers, the man running the hotel business services center, the shuttle driver, the woman at the United Airlines counter (I wish I'd gotten her name), and even all the TSA employees - could not have been more helpful and pleasant to me throughout the morning. Thanks to everyone who helped me out in getting home.

There really is gold in them thar hills...

This past week was our annual camping and gold mining trip to the beautiful Wallowa Mountains in northeastern Oregon. Our friend Mike's family has maintained claims on Eagle Creek for decades, and my partner Ed and I have been spending a week or two camping and mining with him for about 15 years. There's always a gaggle of great friends, lots of incredible wine, fantastic gourmet food and beautiful scenery. I've posted photos from this year on my flickr page.

With no cell phone or Blackberry coverage, each year presents a real opportunity for all participants to "get away." I suppose it's appropriate that Ed and I travel in the Get-Away Van. With the successful independent and corporate businesspeople in our group of campers, the vacation usually becomes an informal business incubator and therapy session as well.

The greatest pleasure of the trip for me is taking along the stack of magazines and books that have been gathering dust on my nightstand. This year I got to read four books during the week.

Having spent time around Florence, Italy on several previous vacations, the book The Monster of Florence, by Douglas Preston, was an interesting - and perhaps a bit gruesome - account of a serial killer case that baffled authorities in the region for many years. It presents a fascinating tale of how the Italian legal and investigative work and don't work. Continuing on the Italian theme, I read The Lady in the Palazzo: At Home in Umbria by Marlena de Blasi. Her graphic descriptions of Umbria took me back to 1999 when Ed, myself and eight friends rented a villa outside of Perugia for a month. The book was a great follow-up to her previous volumes 1000 Days in Venice and 1000 Days in Tuscany.

Several travel books always seem to be a major part of any of my traveling "libraries" and this trip was no exception. I found myself laughing out loud throughout J. Maarten Troost's latest book Lost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man's Attempt to Understand the World's Most Mystifying Nation, or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live Squid. I had similar reactions to his previous efforts The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific and Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu - reads on earlier trips.

Popular mysteries or thrillers are usually part of the vacation mix as well. This time it was Executive Privilege, by Portland author Phillip Margolin. The book was enjoyable, face-paced (big print) and somewhat predictable - a really good vacation read. Margolin, an attorney, is someone I've met several times. We kept getting introduced to each other when he shared office space with my former business lawyer.

I did get a little off track there with my book mentions. Getting back to the gold mining - we did find gold. We always do on these adventures. However, we're not getting rich. I think I'll be keeping my day job.

I'll be coming back to Boston

Having never been to Boston, it's been tough having my schedule tied up so much with the HOW Design Conference where I am a Tuesday speaker. (I haven't had much of an opportunity to blog either.) Boston is an absolutely beautiful city - and the weather is certainly cooperating. I thought I'd post some photos of the incredible views from my room, and the club room, on the 29th floor of the Sheraton Hotel. Another trip to Boston will be a must for me, especially since most of my excursions have been limited to after dark adventures for dinner or drinks with other conference goers and speakers. I'll post more about my conference experiences later.

Ahhh...

Buona sera from Segromigno in Monte

There hasn't been much on the bLog-oMotives front lately because we've been in Italy for the past week. Home base is a beautiful house in Segromigno in Monte outside of Lucca in Tuscany. Last night we got back from three days in Venice - and I'm the third member of our four-person travel group that has come down with some kind of flu-ish bug. I'm glad we're going to be hanging out at Casa Mennone the next few days and seeing just how much of nothing we can accomplish. Hopefully we will get out to explore a bit more in the coming week. Now we're enjoying reading, home-cooked meals, great wine and napping in the sun.

I've posted some of our photos from the past week on my Flickr page.

Arrivederci!

An artsy message for door-to-door salespeople

I detest door-to-door salespeople. Well, not necessarily the people themselves. Not all of them. In fact, I kind of feel sorry for these individuals facing greater rejection than a graphic designer trying to get more than their foot in the door at a design firm in a major metropolitan area. What a horrible job. Still, for me, such an interruption at my front door is an invasion of my very private personal space.

No, I will not put vinyl windows on the 1929 Portland bungalow my partner and I are constantly improving. The same goes for vinyl siding. If you would just look around, you might notice that I don't have a lawn than needs any maintenance. I will not be allowing someone in my home to do an "inventory" of our existing security system to determine if their product is better. I don't want to talk politics on my front porch with anyone. I will not be buying steaks out of the back of a pickup truck.

If God, or Jesus, showed up to talk religion at my doorstep I would be interested in a discussion. However, those "selling" religion door-to-door annoy the hell out of me - especially when the church they are representing is somewhat vocal in opinions about my "lifestyle." I'll admit, I do get a bit of pleasure in seeing the looks on the faces of such proselytizers when I tell them, "I'm sorry; my husband and I wouldn't be interested." Funny, they seldom return to our house. We must get crossed of the great master list somewhere.

I do not make contributions to representatives of any nonprofits who come knocking on my door. I have my personal causes and they get more than enough of my time, energy and money. I'm certainly not handing over any money to someone at my door for a cause I know nothing about. The "representative" of a major environmental organization once came a-knockin' at our door. He immediately launched into his spiel. I had to interrupt his well-practiced performance twice to tell him I wasn't interested. He looked at me with shock and asked, "You mean you don't care about the environment?"

OK, that was enough. I was already annoyed - now I was also pissed off. I literally shut the door in his face, walked to my PowerBook to look up the cause and I reported the twit to the national organization. The next day I got a very nice email apologizing for their former representative's behavior.

Neighborhood kids are a different story - these are small people we actually know - selling candy, wrapping paper, magazine subscriptions, sponsorships for walks and runs, and more. Their art, sports and field trip programs actually need and deserve our support. I'm sure every parent on the street has trained their kids to always hit up Jeff and Ed first.

Every since we moved from the "salesperson barricade' of a secure downtown loft building I have looked for a decent "No Solicitors" sign to hang next to our door. Most were not created by graphic designers - and certainly not for the personal taste of a graphic designer looking to purchase such a product.

I've considered creating one of my own, in some tasteful typeface - certainly something other than Comic Sans or Papyrus - on a frosted glass panel; framed in copper or a rusted patina metal. Right, like I've had the time recently to design and create such a thing.

Thursday night we were at the home of our friends Shawn Jones and Greg Coyle (and their daughter Lily - there might be hell to pay if I didn't mention her!) for their weekly Thursday evening poolside "happy hour." Shawn informed me that while on a recent road trip to California they had discovered my "placeholder" birthday gift. (My "real" birthday gift, recognizing my May birthdate, has yet to be presented - among our friends we have something like a year to get such things accomplished.) Knowing my feelings about all I've ranted about in this blog entry, they found a rusted, artistic, wrought iron "Go Away" sign (photo above) for me at a store in Red Bluff, CA. It even has swirls on it - a design element that reoccurs in much of our garden art and home decor.

I love it! Now I need to figure out how to mount it to the outside of the house so someone doesn't steal the thing. Then we'll see how it works in making life a bit more peaceful at our aubergine front door.

A great weekend in the Bay Area & Napa Valley

This past week my partner Ed and I treated ourselves to a long weekend and jetted down to Benicia, CA to spend a few days with my sister and her husband, AJ. The get-together was to celebrate Ed's April birthday, my May birthday, Sue's June 50th birthday, and Sue and AJ's recent wedding.

We always enjoy our visits to Benicia. We usually fly into Sacramento, and drive the 45-50 minutes to my sister's home, rather than flying into San Francisco and dealing with greater traffic. Benicia is a great small town, with lots of art galleries, excellent restaurants and artist studios. It's also just a short drive to the Napa and Sonoma wine areas.

On Friday evening, Sue and AJ took us out to dinner at the Pear Street Bistro in the nearby city of Pinole. They had previously eaten at the establishment after seeing it reviewed on an episode of the Check, Please! Bay Area television show. After having a very positive experience, Sue and AJ thought we would enjoy a meal at the restaurant - and they were right.

On Saturday the four of us had planned on spending the day in Napa, coming home for naps and then Ed was going to prepare a seven-course Italian feast for us all. Unfortunately, AJ got called into work at the last moment. Sue, Ed and I didn't let that stop us from heading up to Napa. Our first stop was for an incredible lunch on the grounds of the V. Sattui Winery in St. Helena. The Italian deli at the winery has over 200 different cheese, excellent cured meats, fresh bread and lots of other goodies. Lunch at a picnic table under a 200-year-old oak tree was a fun way to start our day.

After our meal, Sue suggested we stop by the Wine Country Inn to check things out. She and AJ got married on the grounds of the beautiful bed and breakfast this past April. While she and I were enjoying the view of the vineyards from the deck of the main building, Ed was pawing through the Inn's recipe files to see if he could find some items to make at a later date. We had a nice walk around the grounds and then it was time to head off to our primary destination.

My sister is a huge fan of the sparkling wines of the Schramsberg Vineyards. She's been to the winery, originally established by German immigrant Jacob Schram in 1862, on several occasions and always has a supply of their wines ready to be served at her home. We were on the schedule for a tour of the wine caves, carved from mountainside by Chinese laborers, and a tasting that afternoon.

If you didn't know where you were going you would probably drive right by the private road up to Schramsberg - and then the road is currently under construction making it a bit of a challenge to get up to the appointment- only winery. Rounding the final corner you immediately get a beautiful view of the Victorian home Jacob and Annie Schram had built by a ship builder (without the use of a single nail) in 1880. Being a gardener, I had an immediate appreciation for the grounds of the winery with its lush vegetation; pond with lily pads, frogs and koi; and the sculptures in the gardens.

In the visitors center we met Tom, who would be our guide for the tour of the winery and caves. He was soon giving us a fascinating Schramsberg history lesson, including the fact that Schramsberg sparkling wines have been served 72 times at the White House - most recently for the white tie dinner in honor of the state visit of Queen Elizabeth. Although I have visited many wineries, including others making sparkling wines, our guide's presentation on the classic méthode champenoise was very engaging and interesting. It's hard to believe that the earthquake-proof caves currently house 2.5 million bottles of sparkling Schramsberg (The large photo above is one of the walls of bottles of aging sparkling wine). The tour of the cool caves was especially enjoyable with the heat outdoors. The lessons in proper opening of a sparkling wine, and the proper serving temperature, were fun and educational.

The tastings, conducted by candlelight in the caves, were great. We were each given four good-sized flutes of the excellent selections of various Chardonnay-based Blanc de Blancs and Pinot Noir-based Reserve, Blanc de Noirs and Brut Rosé. Each was exceptional, and I now join my sister as a major fan of the Schramsberg Vineyards. Our experience at Schramsberg is one of the best I've had at any winery I've ever visited.

After the heat, the wine, and the long afternoon we decided it best to head back to Benicia for our naps before Ed needed to start preparing his seven course meal. When we arrived at the house, AJ had returned from work and he presented Ed a special gift bottle of Far Niente Cabernet Sauvignon to be served with dinner - which had been delivered via FedEx earlier that morning.

We had a wonderful evening. Our meal began with an antipasti of Pizzeti con carciofi, salami and a selection of olives. The primi piatti was a Ribollita followed by Linguini al pesto. An amazing Chicken Parmigiana was our secondi, with a contorni of Spinachi con pinole e uva passa. The insalata mista prepared us for the final course. Our dolce was goat cheese turnovers with honey and pistachios - served with a properly chilled Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs 2001.

I do think it was the first time I had ever completed a dinner at 1:00 a.m.

(A few more photos of this trip are posted here)

My nightstand is buried with books

On the HOW Design Forum, a couple days ago, HOWie "kimburgerly" started a thread about summer reading lists. There's always a stack of books next to my nightstand for reading before I sleep each night. I posted my current selections on the HOW forum and thought I'd share it here as well.

Now that I'm finished writing Identity Crisis! I'm really in reading mode. I just devoured Suffer the Little Children, by Donna Leon. With all her books set in Venice, I feel like I'm walking the streets of the city while I'm reading the books. Right now I'm in the middle of Fresh Disasters by Stuart Woods - it's one of the Stone Barrington books that I find to be mindless pleasures.

For my birthday last week I got several books that moved to the head of my upcoming reading list:

• A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini - I thought The Kite Runner was incredible and I'm really looking forward to this book.

• Come Alive!: The Spirited Art of Sister Corita, by Julie Ault

• The Grail: A year ambling & shambling through an Oregon vineyard in pursuit of the best pinot noir wine in the whole wild world, by Brian Doyle. Brian is a friend of a friend - and the editor of the college magazine at University of Portland

• The Overlook, by Michael Connelly - another of my mindless, guilty pleasure authors

Still in the pile next to my nightstand:

• My Life in France, by Julia Child

• Too Much Tuscan Sun: Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide, by Dario Castagno

• Comfort Me With Apples, by Ruth Reichl - her other books were all great.

Work-wise I've been reading:

• The Graphic Designer's Guide to Better Business Writing, by Barbara Janoff and Ruth Cash-Smith

By the way, kimbugerly's posted suggestion of Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert, is a good one. I had been told it was a "chick" book. Still, I found her writing about travels to Italy, India and Bali fascinating.

Happy summer reading!

A reading list for poolside enjoyment - Part deux

Last year when I returned from two weeks in St. Croix I posted the list of books I'd read by the pool. This year, before I even left for the annual trip, people were already asking what I planned on ready. To be honest, the stack of books for this trip came together at the last minute with trips to Powell's and Borders the day before we left for the Caribbean.

For the most part, the reading list for 2007 was made up of books about food, about wine, about travel, or about food, wine and travel. Although I didn't leave the beachfront house for an initial period of seven days, I was not quite the reading maniac this year. Part of my vacation, with PowerBook as carry-on luggage, was spent finishing my own upcoming book, Identity Crisis! Somehow I ended up coming home with several books that had not even been cracked open.

Just prior to the trip, my friend Mary suggested that I read A Thousand Days in Venice, by Marlena De Blasi. Venice is one of my favorite places in the world. We plan on visiting the city again this fall. The author's writing took me there - I could smell the food, flowers and stinky canal water; I had been to many of the locations mentioned, and I'd walked the streets the author traveled. In her second book De Blasi and her husband move to a small village in Tuscany. A Thousand Days in Tuscany transports the reader there. As I usually stay in similar villages in Umbria, near the border of Tuscany, I could relate to many of the events and experiences described in the book - and look forward to being there again this year.

Our friend Carol (who has been our housecleaning person for over 12 years) recommended that I read Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, by Elizabeth Gilbert, even though she considered it a bit of a "chick book." She thought I would find the writing about food, travel, culture and spirituality interesting. It was a great book about the author's stays in each of the geographic locations. The reader can almost gain the 30+ pounds the writer put on while eating her way through Italy by reading of her experiences. Still, I'm not sure I can forgive GIlbert for not personally liking Venice. Having only been to Bombay (now Mumbai) in India, I found the writer's search for spirituality on a remote ashram a great contrast to my own experiences. I've always wanted to visit Bali and surrounding islands. Gilbert provided an excellent introduction to the culture of the island. Although I did occasionally want to yell "Snap out of it!" at the author, for being whiny about her life, I did enjoy the book and her search for solutions to the personal issues she was facing.

Two years ago, while in St. Croix, I read J. Maarten Troost's hilarious book The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific, about living on Tarawa, a remote South Pacific island in the Republic of Kiribati, for two years. This year I packed, and thoroughly enjoyed, his follow-up book, Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu. In this segment of his life, Troost and his wife, Sylvia, move from Washington, D.C., to Vanuatu, a nation made up of 83 islands in the South Pacific. "Getting stoned" refers to the altered state and pleasure he gets from drinking kava with the locals (I've had it before and the "high" is a bit bizarre.). The adventures, and misadventures, of the couple make a great read.

I interrupted the travel and food literary itinerary long enough to finally read Caffeine for the Creative Mind: 250 Exercises to Wake Up Your Brain, by Stefan Mumaw and Wendy Lee Oldfield. Yes, I actually took a graphic design book on vacation with me. A few years ago, in San Diego, Wendy interviewed me for the book at the HOW Design Conference. I was honored to be included in the book as one of a dozen industry professional profiles surrounded by great creative exercises. It was great to finally have the opportunity to read the book without the static of my normal work life. Every designer should get themselves a copy.

Many years ago I read a very rough draft of my friend Don Horn's book, Crumbs of Love: And That's All You're Ever Going To Get. He gave me a copy of the published book just after the first of the year. It's an amazing story of his early life, growing up in an incredibly dysfunctional family. The travel in the book is in the form of long-distance road trips, the food is far from gourmet and the accommodations are certainly not luxurious. I'm so proud of him for getting the book completed and out there for others to read. My partner Ed, and out travel companions Lisa and Bev, were all stunned and fascinated by the book.

I've always loved great writing and the New York Times restaurant reviews of critic Ruth Reichl were always a feast of words. Her book, Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, was the most enjoyable I read on my vacation this year. In addition to be an excellent writer, Reichl is a fantastic storyteller. I'm looking forward to a visit to Powell's to pick up her other books.

At a movie in January I saw the previews for a film called The Namesake and it caused me to seek out the book on which the film is based. Jhumpa Lahiri, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her book Interpreter of Maladies, is the author of the novel The Namesake. It's an incredible look into the cultural conflicts within one family, with one root of the family tree in India and another in the United States. As in many of the books I read while in the Caribbean, food and travel play a large role in the story. Lahiri's writing is so fine, I'm no longer sure I want to see the movie. I think any film adaptation may ruin the experience I had reading the book.

Shortly before leaving for our trip, Ed and I had a wonderful evening with our friends Bob and Norma. The conversation usually turns to books when we get together as Bob is an accomplished writer in his own right, having published his holiday story collection Mardi Gras at the Monastery And Other Stories, and the historical non-fiction books Fire Mission!: The Siege at Mortain and Enemy North, South, East, West. When Norma asked what I was currently reading, I explained that I was in the middle of the excellent Thomas Jefferson on Wine by John Hailman. She replied that I simply must read what she was currently enjoying - Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure by Donald and Petie Kladstrup. I took the book on the trip and it is an amazing history lesson on war, wine and French life.

Another book I read while in the Caribbean two years ago was Running with Scissors: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs. In fact, the film was one of six or seven movies we watched while in St. Croix this year. The oddest, and funniest, book I read on this trip was Burroughs' novel Sellevision. Take somewhat sick and twisted characters like those in Scissors and put them all together working at a cable shopping network and just about anything can happen. Sellevision would make a fun film.

Now I am reading the book I began prior to our 13+ hours on planes coming back to Portland. Barack Obama is the most fascinating politician today and his book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, details his thoughts on improving our country. If the election were held today, I'm not sure Obama would get my vote. However, I am enjoying learning more about him and I look forward to what will be a very interesting presidential campaign over the next year.

As I mentioned, several books didn't even get opened during our travels. I have not yet read Arthur & George by Julian Barnes, The Noodle Maker by Ma Jian, and Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky. Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford, My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'Homme, and Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals never even made it off my nightstand and into my luggage.

Oh well, there will be other vacations...

Il bel far niente - the island way

We're halfway into our two week vacation on the island of St. Croix. It's been six days since I've even found the need to leave "the compound" on the beachfront. You know immediately that you are staying at a nice house when it is referred to by others as "the compound." It's private and gated. It has a beautiful pool and the ocean view is incredible. In addition to my partner Ed, and our travel companions, the only other humans I've seen have been the pool boy, the Terminex man, and Carl (an abbreviation of a much longer local name that is impossible to pronounce) the gardener.

The gardener first came by yesterday to remove large palm fronds and numerous coconuts from the grounds; debris from the wild weather of the day before. He explained to us that it had just been a "big wind" rather than a "storm." Carl also mentioned that he would line up all the fallen coconuts for us and he then explained how we needed to place one sharp end of a pickaxe in the ground and bring the coconuts down on the other point of the tool to break the husk off the coconut. Our friend Lisa told him she would check the tool supply to see if we had a pickaxe.

This morning Carl was back, while we were all still in bed, cutting the large area of lawn with a weed-eater. The noise woke Ed and I. Soon we were up and around. Carl came through the gate yelling "good morning" with his thick Caribbean accent. Ed went out to greet him and was handed a number of religious tracts. Carl explained that we could read them later if we wished and he was asking for no money. (The exchange seemed oddly appropriate as we had just watched the movie Jesus Camp the night before. Oh, that Rev. Ted Haggard is a wild and crazy guy!)

What excited me was seeing that Carl was dragging a pickaxe. He quickly went to work husking our collection of coconuts. You know you are truly in vacation mode when someone husking your coconuts is the most exciting event of the day.

With a hammer and a screwdriver, Lisa then cracked the coconuts and salvaged all the milk for tropical cocktails. We had fresh coconut meat with our coffee as a pre-breakfast snack. Lisa and Bev then went for their morning walk. Ed was is the gourmet kitchen preparing a crustless Florentine quiche. I was on the beach doing my daily harvest of multi-colored beach glass for the jewelry I hope to design. (Hey, it's only been over 30 years since I've designed any jewelry pieces.)

This is how we've learned to vacation over the years - and we usually take two or three incredible trips annually. I've never experienced more pleasure than when we are really doing a great deal of nothing.

In the book I am currently reading, Eat, Pray, Love (Carol, our long-time cleaning lady, recommended it due to all the travel and food content - even though it is kind of a "chick" book), the author Elizabeth Gilbert writes that Americans don't know how to vacation and do nothing. In discussing this with an Italian, by the name of Luca Spaghetti, he explains that in Italy people do not have this problem as they "are the masters of il bel far niente" - the beauty of doing nothing.

Gilbert writes, "The beauty of doing nothing is the goal of all your work (for the Italians), the final accomplishment for which you are most highly congratulated. The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life's achievement."

Ed, our friends, and I seem to have mastered this art form. I remember that years ago Ed was telling his mother about the fact we had rented a 300-year-old Italian villa with eight friends and we were going to be gone for a month. Her immediate response was, "But what about work?"

Ed's answer was, "That's why I work, Mom."

And so we really do enjoy our vacations. We don't need to visit every tourist site. With numerous great cooks among our friends we seldom need to go out for a meal. None of us must be doing something all the time.

Several years ago we traveled to Italy with a woman who needed to be doing something from sunrise to late in the evening. No tourist site went unvisited. No hilltown left unexplored. She had two days of her trip scheduled for a visit to Rome. I asked what she intended to do while in the city and she took a sheet of notebook paper out of her backpack. On both sides of the paper was a list of all the sites she planned to visit - in two days! My first thought was: I'm sure glad I'm not going to Rome with her. A second realization made me kind of sad - I finally understood that her crazed schedule of events was due to the fact she had no intention of ever coming back to Italy. See it once, say you've been and then there's no need to ever return. We haven't traveled with this individual since.

Today Ed and I went skinnydipping in the pool, waving to the occupants of the seaplane flying a little too low over the neighborhood to check out the houses. Cranky phone lines and a dial-up connection make the desire to go online less than when at home. Each morning Ed performs his duty as "Crab Rescue 911" - saving the crustaceans that have fallen into the pool during the night. Our breakfast discussion was menu planning for future meals. Ed went online to see that it will be raining through the weekend at home in Portland. Naps were had by all. We played dominoes at the table on the patio. Ed spent some time as a chemist, making up a tropical cocktail concoction. We all read from the library of books brought with us - most on the topics of food, travel, or both. (I think I've read seven books so far this trip) An amazing dinner of pan-fried fresh sole (with my homemade tartar sauce), fries made from locally grown white sweet potatoes, Cowboy Jeffie's cole slaw (I'll post the recipe in the future) and assorted beverages is currently being prepared. After dinner we may watch a movie. Tomorrow it will start all over again. What we don't accomplish on this adventure may get done on our next visit to the island.

For some, it might be somewhat exhausting finding the beauty in doing nothing. For others it could easily become a way of life.

Why do I say "I like to travel?"

I'm writing this entry from a beautiful house located on the beach of the Caribbean island of St. Croix. Each February my partner and I, along with our travel companions Lisa and Bev, make the journey from Portland to St. Croix - to stay for two weeks or more at the house owned by Bev's sister and brother-in-law. We arrived mid-day on Valentine's Day and I feel as if I am just now recovering from the trip to get here. It's been three days of great meals, tropical cocktails, early-to-bed evenings and daily multiple naps poolside or in our bedroom overlooking the ocean.

When asked about my passions, I usually include "travel" on my list of pleasures. The journey earlier this week made me realize, it's not the travel I enjoy - it's the being at the final destination. I don't enjoy getting to the airport a couple hours early for any flight. I detest the lines to check bags, to get through security, to have boarding passes checked to gain admittance to the jetway, and then waiting to get on the plane for the pleasure of sitting in a seat too crowded for my 6" 1" height.

The inconsistencies of airline security from airport to airport bug the hell out of me. Some want you to remove your shoes before going through the screening equipment. Others want shoes removed afterwards to then be put on the conveyer belt to be x-rayed. This past trip included a debate about the tahini and almond butter being transported in the carry-on of one of the women in our group. Were they solids or liquids? In the end the TSA powers-that-be determined that almond butter was a solid and permissable as carry-on item. However, tahini appeared to be a liquid and, as the jar contained more than three ounces, required confiscation. In reality the contriband tahini was more of a solid than the almond butter.

Portlander's are lucky to have a beautiful, efficient, well-organized airport. The facilities in other cities are not quite as nice.

Unfortunately, many of our flights seem to require going through Miami International Airport. There's a reason it's called "MIA." A traveler could get lost in the rat maze of corridors and never be seen or heard from again. It's got to be one of the most poorly organized airports I've even had to visit. In all my years of journeys through Miami, I don't think a flight has ever left the gate initially posted on the departures monitors, and the luggage for arriving flights has never been delivered to the announced baggage claim carousel. Departing passengers are never told that the security checkpoint for one gate is closed and lugging your bags halfway across the terminal to another gate will be necessary if you wish to make your flight. All require additional trekking through the rat maze. Someone must be watching from above in a scientific study of the impact of messing with the minds and patience of exhausted travelers.

While wandering through yet another part of the maze I came upon the sign above: "It's all about design." The remainder of the text reads: "These stimulating works of art celebrate the elements and principles of design through line, color, shape, value, space, texture, form, balance, rhythm, movement, harmony, contrast and unity. The result is a sophistication of masterpieces that are pleasing to the eye."

I realize I was tired after over nine hours of airplane travel the day before, another hour of tracking down our bags from the furthest carousel in the airport to the first we passed by, yet another hour waiting for the shuttle to our Miami hotel, and only three hours of sleep before heading back to the airport for two additional legs of plane trips - but all evidence of art of art or design was MIA. The only things in sight were the three waiting area seats in front of the poorly designed sign. It was a cruel trick to play on a travel-weary and cranky designer.

Wandering wine wings around the west

I really never thought we'd see our bottles of wine again after being told by Southwest Airline that the bag containing the wine was missing. Sunday afternoon Ed tried calling the airline to get more information and discovered that the central baggage office is only open 8:00 to 5:00, Monday through Friday (I'm sure that's always really convenient for a weekend traveler who has lost luggage issues).

He decided to review the Southwest website and found there is no information, or restrictions, regarding transporting wine in checked baggage. In again calling the airline's reservations number, he had to specifically ask the agent about the (new) policy before she would even research the restriction. The policy even specifies how thick the plastic bag must be in which the Styrofoam clad bottles of wine and box are placed. I doubt if any customers are even aware such "rules" exist until they experience a situation such as ours.

On Monday morning Ed got a call saying the bag had been found - in Ontario, CA. Which means the wine we could not have in our checked luggage had in fact been put on a plane to another city for some reason. No one could tell him why a bag with no destination label, ended up in Ontario. He was told the bag would be put on yet another plane and flown to Portland for an afternoon pick-up at the airport. Hey, weren't we originally trying to accomplish getting the wine to Portland when the bottles started this odd adventure?

Of course, we still didn't know the condition of the wine - or if all/any of the bottles were even in the bag.

Ed drove out to the airport Monday evening and picked up the bag, which contained four well-traveled bottles of wine in excellent condition - and I'm happy to have my etched bottle safe at home...

W(h)ining about Southwest Airlines
and the lost bottles of wine

I don't usually use my blog to bitch and moan about things - but sometimes dealing with the airlines can be so incredibly frustrating - especially when they lose something due to complete stupidity. So, I will w(h)ine a bit.

Last weekend we spent a few days visiting my sister (and client) in Benicia, CA. It's usually easier to fly into Sacramento, and drive the hour to Benicia, than it is to deal with San Francisco International and the drive to my sister's town or take the BART trip to a nearby station. When we do so, we usually book our trip on Southwest Airlines - and most of our experiences have been quite pleasant.

Part of the reason we were visting my sister was to finally take possession of four bottles of wine purchased on a trip to Napa when last visiting her in April of 2005. She'd been holding the wine "hostage" until we returned to get it in person. Two of the bottles were incredible whites (for me) from an wonderful private tasting party (arranged by our friend Greg from Atlanta) at the Clos Du Val winery, another was a red from Clos Du Val, and the final bottle was from the small boutique HaGafen Cellars.

Due to the new TSA restrictions on liquids in carry-on luggage, we came prepared to check the bottles of wine in our luggage - which we have done in the past with no issues - for the return trip. We packed an extra piece of luggage within another bag - a sturdy new bag bearing the logo of Holland+Knight law firm where my partner Ed is employed - and also packed to strong corrugated wine shipping containers we had used to bring bottles of wine back from a past trip to Italy.

We had a great visit with my sister and her new fiancé. Actually, last Saturday night the two bottles of red wine were consumed during an amazing dinner prepared by Ed. My sister supplemented our wine shipment with another bottle of red wine for Ed and a special gift for me - a limited edition commemorative bottle of wine with the logo I had designed for the Benicia Historical Museum etched in the glass. The thing was beautiful.

On Sunday afternoon, with all our luggage packed, we drove off to the Sacramento Airport for our flight back to Portland. When reaching the Southwest ticket counter the very nice agent asked if we had any wine in our luggage. We told her that we did and she asked to see how it was packaged. She took one look at the packaging and told us that Southwest did not allow for any wine to be shipped in checked luggage unless it was packaged in Styrofoam shipping containers and we needed to remove the wine from our bags. Of course, there was no facility at the airport (about an hour and a half away from Napa) to purchase such shipping materials or prepare a package for shipping in another manner. The ticket agent suggested that we put all the wine in the Holland+Knight bag, label it appropriately and have it left in the Southwest supervisor's office to be picked up by someone later. We phoned my sister and she agreed to drive the one hour to the airport on the following Saturday, or before, to pick up the wine and again hold it "hostage." Ed put one of his business cards into the piece of luggage and attached a label to the bag with my sister's name, her fiancé's name and my sister's cell phone number. We told the helpful ticket agent what was going on and she wrote on the label "will pickup on 10/07/06 or before." With the travel "speed bump" handled we headed for the security and our evening flight home to Portland.

Yesterday we had an email that my sister was heading to Sacramento to pick up the bag and our wine. Later we got a voice mail message to call her because when she got to the airport no one could find the bag in question at all. Ed called her and was told that the people at the Southwest counter "thought" that, due to the fact the bag had been unclaimed for five days, it had probably been sent to the airline's unclaimed baggage facility in Texas - even though a pickup date of 10/07 was marked on the bag's label. Excuse me, wouldn't that involve putting a bag of items that we were told could not be checked into the luggage hold of a plane? The airline made no attempt to call my sister - whose number was also clearly on the luggage tag. There was certainly no attempt to check inside the bag and find Ed's business card to call him at his office.

Instead, we now have a phone number for a facility in Texas and the search will begin for our bag o' wine. I've got to admit, with the recently released figures on lost luggage, I'm not too hopeful.

I'm probably pissed off about the loss of the bottle with my etched logo design more than anything else. To avoid such situations I have two scenarios of advice for fellow travelers:

1.) Just blatantly lie to the ticket agent if you are asked about wine in your luggage; or

2.) Use your car keys to poke the cork into the bottle (you certainly should not be carrying a corkscrew with you!), sit down on the floor of the airport lobby and drink the wine from the bottle. Perhaps you will be a bit more prepared to deal with the airlines, security, the crowded airports and your upcoming flight.

I'll keep you posted about the saga of the lost wine...

(Note: Here's the update on the wandering wine.)

Musings on underwear and "tooting" in Spokane

Quite a few times a year I am asked to make presentations on various aspects of the design business to education or business groups around the country. This past week I was invited to make two presentations in Spokane, WA. The flight up to Spokane, on Tuesday evening, was beautiful. The plane left Portland on a crystal clear day and flew up between Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams - with St. Helens putting on a little show with a steam plume. I was surprised at the size of Spokane as we arrived in the city. I hadn't been in the area since I was a teenager and it's grown just a bit.

Spokane Advertising Federation President Dean Davis picked me up at the airport and delivered me to the beautiful Spokane Athletic Club - my home for the night. After getting settled I went for a walk around the vibrant downtown area; checking out the Spokane Falls and the historic Davenport Hotel. Back at the athletic club I took a quick steam bath to clear my allergy-stuffed head, grabbed an incredible burger in the bar and crashed for the night.

Bright and early I was picked up and driven to the Spokane Falls Community College campus. Design instructor Greg Stiles gave me a complete tour of the impressive design department facilities, showed me examples of great student work, and prepared me for my presentation. In addition to Spokane Falls design students, I was speaking to students from the Eastern Washington University Visual Communication Design program. It was pleasure to meet Assistant Professor Mindy Breen, who was responsible for writing the grant to cover my visit, and I enjoyed learning more from her (and department instructor Tom Couraud) about the EWU program. Hopefully I will be able to check out their facilities in person in the future.

The topic of my discussion was Designing in my Underwear: Briefs on a career, the original vetoed title proposal for my book The Savvy Designer's Guide to Success. I shared anecdotes about my career, online resources of value to students beginning their careers, portfolio suggestions for new designers and answered numerous questions posed by the attentive audience. Greg Stiles told me he was especially pleased when I told the students "As you leave school behind, the door of that learning experience will hit you in the ass and your actual design education will begin."

Then it was off to my next presentation at the stunning Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture. I wish I'd had time to check out the entire museum and its exhibits. After grabbing a quick sandwich, it was time to speak to the members of the Spokane Advertising Federation. My topic, Tooting Your Own Horn, was probably a refresher course for many of the attendees - but I gave it that "it's better to be a smart ass, than a dumb ass" spin. I really enjoyed the time spent with the group and met some great people.

Following the luncheon presentation, group president and professional photographer, Dean Davis (you really should check out his work) got to "babysit" me for a couple hours before I jetted back to Portland. He took me to his wonderful commerical condo space in a renovated brick produce warehouse. The studio was in a bit of turmoil as it was becoming a gallery for an exhibition of "tramp art" sculptures and installations by Spokane artist Tim Lord. Dean and I escaped the studio and went to scout a location for his photo shoot the next day of pollinating red oak trees (not that I really needed a good dose of pollen). It was a great opportunity to see more of Spokane and enjoy the warm spring day.

When we returned to his studio, Dean took me upstairs to the offices of Klündt Hosmer Design - where his very talented spouse, designer Judy Heggem-Davis, happens to work. (By the way, "Happy Birthday" Judy!). I had the opportunity to meet most of the Klündt Hosmer gang, including principles Rick Hosmer and Darin Klündt. Darin was responsible for me speaking in Spokane. He recommended me after having seen me speak at the 2005 HOW Design Conference. Thanks to everyone at Klündt Hosmer for making me feel so welcome, for the copy of your new direct mail piece and for the popsicle!

Back downstairs in his studio, Dean shared some of one of his 40th birthday bottles of wine with me and then it was off to the airport. My visit to Spokane was just about 24 hours. It seemed much longer as so much was packed into the limited stay. I look forward to returning again - and now have many reasons to do so. Thanks to everyone who made my visit so enjoyable. Special thanks to Greg Stiles, Mindy Breen and Dean Davis for their efforts in putting together my Spokane adventure.

Via planes, trains & automobiles -
a gaggle of designers descends on Seattle

I'm sitting in my high-rise hotel room in Seattle, staring out beyond the bay to the snow-covered Olympic Mountains, getting prepared for a fun and incredible weekend. Chinese President Hu has left the Queen City and, in the spring sunshine, the city has settled back to a dull roar. That will soon change. Cat Morley - of Katz-i Design, Creative Latitude, Proscodi, NO!SPEC and Designers Who Blog fame - has flown into Washington from Thailand to visit family. I first "met" Cat on the About.com Graphic Design Forum in late 1998 and we seemed to bond immediately. Others in the profession also connected with Cat in a big way on the About.com, at the HOW Design Forum, and elsewhere in cyberspace.

So, this weekend, a gaggle of designers will descend on Seattle to finally meet Cat - and each other - in person. From Florida comes Dawn Burgess, owner of Advertising by Design. (I recently met Dawn while on a trip to Orlando). Neil Tortorella - another Creative Latitude founder, principle of Tortorella Design and writer of the blog Inside the Marketing Mind - will be jetting in from Ohio. Creative Latitude editor Derald Schultz, of the Atlanta-based firm Mediarail Design, will also be joining the gang. Alina Hagen, another of the Creative Latitude crew, will be arriving from Los Angeles. Driving up from Eugene, OR will be my friend Danita Reynolds of Creative Expertise. Illustrator extraordinaire Von R. Glitschka of Glitschka Studios, and founder of Bad Design Kills and the 3 Thumbs Up Award will be joining us all - via Amtrak - from Salem, OR. (If possible, catch Von's presentation at the Art Institute of Seattle next week).

Others joining in on the fun will be About.com forum members artist Celia Martin from Walla Walla, WA and Mount Vernon, WA resident Dana Chrysler. HOWies (those frequenting the HOW Design Forum) participating from the Seattle area will include my old friend Jason Holland, Curt Hanks of Archie McPhee, designer/copywriter Maria G, Sarah Beals, and Jonathan Spier of Brown Sugar Design.

It's going to be a great weekend of getting to know each other, sharing design ideas, playing tourists and having too much fun. I'll post photos, and some tales of our adventures, later.

Big surprises in a small art museum

When traveling - which I seem to do a lot (we've been spending a fourth to a third of recent years in hotels or other travel accommoda- tions) - I always like to check out the local art scene. I may visit local art galleries, pre-arrange visits to the studios of designers or artists, or take in current exhibits at a local art museum.

I hit the jackpot earlier this week in Tampa when I learned that the Tampa Museum of Art had featured exhibits of the works of Maurice Sendak and Keith Haring. I've always been fascinated by the work of both artists. To have exhibits focusing on both in one museum was almost sensory overload.

Many years ago I was introduced to Sendak's book Where The Wild Things Are. This exhibit, WILD THINGS: The Art of Maurice Sendak, displays preliminary drawings and final art for that book and so much more. Original book manuscripts, set designs, personal letters and over 100 other pieces of Sendak memorabilia are included in this beautiful exhibition. A detail description of the exhibit can be found on the site of The Jewish Museum New York, organizer of the traveling exhibition. The show will be available for viewing in Tampa until April 23, 2006.

My other purpose in visiting the Tampa Museum of Art was to view the installation Keith Haring: Art & Commerce, A Tribute to the Pop Shop. The exhibit is a tribute to Keith Haring’s Pop Shop, which closed its doors in 2005 after nearly 20 years in operation and 15 years after the artist’s death from AIDS. Keith Haring opened the Pop Shop in 1986 and sold inexpensive clothing and gift items that featured his unique designs, in a venture that critics viewed as crassly commercial, while Haring’s vision always had more to do with art than commerce. Over 100 examples of Haring's work are on display - from early high school drawings to his familiar T-shirt and poster designs. The show, organized by independent curator Jade Dellinger - in conjunction with the Keith Haring Foundation - for the Tampa Museum of Art, will be open through June 11, 2006.

A special treat was seeing works by designer and artist Ivan Chermayeff in a showing of print work in one of the museum galleries. Chermayeff is a principle in the Chermayeff & Geismar Studio, known for some of the most recognizable corporate identities and logos in the world.

The museum's ongoing permanent exhibit, The Classical World, is very much worth a good look as well. Across the Hillsborough River from the museum is the fascinating and imposing historic Tampa Bay Hotel structure - now the home of the Henry B. Plant Museum at the University of Tampa. Plant, honored by the museum in his name, built the incredible hotel in 1891. We were lucky enough to be given a tour of the beautiful building by Tampa designer (and HOW Design Forum member) Chris Baltzley. The museum and the old hotel are "musts" if you visit Tampa.

A reading list for poolside enjoyment

When on vacation I become a book reading fiend. Give me a stack of books, a comfortable chaise, a yummy tropical drink - with a great ocean view - and I'm happy. Recently, while on the island paradise of St. Croix, I read a great selection of books for anyone putting together a take-along library for their spring vacation.

The book I enjoyed reading most of all was Little Chapel on the River : A Pub, a Town and the Search for What Matters Most, by Gwendolyn Bounds. I read this thoroughly enjoyable book, by Wall Street Journal writer Bounds, on the multiple planes while traveling to the Caribbean. Bounds and her partner lived across the street from the World Trade Center and were getting ready to go to work when the planes struck the towers on 9/11. Displaced from their home, a friend takes them to Guinan's, an old Irish bar in the small, upper Hudson River town of Garrison, N.Y. The stories found in that small-town pub make a great read. For additional information check out the writer's personal web site. Bounds also writes about the challenges of small business and entrepreneurship most Tuesdays in the Enterprise column for The Wall Street Journal and the articles can be found at StartupJournal.com.

A book that should be required reading for any designer, advertising or marketing person, or public relations professional is Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcom Gladwell. This book about how we make snap judgments - in our personal interactions and career situations - offers great insight into how we are sometimes manipulated by marketers and others, and how we should often pay much more attention to our first impressions in many decision-making situations.

The most humorous book I read while relaxing poolside was Simon Doonan's Nasty : My Family and Other Glamorous Varmints. Doonan, creative director of Barney's New York, spins hilarious tales of growing up different and flamboyant in the England of the 50's and 60's with a fascination for the "beautiful people" of the time. We all come from interesting families. However, Doonan's relatives do seem to put the "fun" in dysfunctional.

Numerous friends had recommended The Kite Runner, by Khaled Husseini, in the weeks prior to my trip. I've got to admit I wasn't necessarily excited about reading a book set in Afghanistan, after years of hearing about the country on the national news and reading about it almost daily in the local papers. However, this stunning, fascinating, educational and incredibly well-written book should be required reading for all. Husseini presents an amazing literary "picture" of the actual Afghanistan not packaged for presentation by our news agencies. I could not put this book down once I began reading.

The most interesting and different book I read in St. Croix was Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The book cover, with the upside down die-cut poodle, was something that intrigued me from the first time I saw it in a bookstore window. Told by the autistic 15-year-old narrator, the story begins with the pitchfork murder of a dog and then takes the reader on a wild and entertaining ride.

Murder mysteries or thrillers have always been mindless beach reading necessities for me and I read my fair share on this trip. In the past I've been a big fan of the books of James Patterson. His efforts written with other authors have not been as good. Still I found 3rd Degree and 4th of July to be enjoyable reads which didn't require me to think too much. Others in this genre that I read included Just One Look by Harlan Coben, Lisa Scottoline's Everywhere That Mary Went, The Closers by Michael Connelly, The Broker by John Grisham, and David Baldacci's The Camel Club.

The most disappointing selection in my stack of books was Patricia Cornwell's Predator. The early Kay Scarpetta books were much better and would hold my attention. The later offerings seem to be a little far-fetched and the endings, which are really just lead-ins to the next book, are not as satisfying. This was a book that I had to keep searching for because I would leave it in different places around the beach house, rather than being glued to it until I was done.

The best detective book I read this trip was a golden oldie. John D. MacDonald's Dress Her In Indigo, written in 1969, was an excellent example of the adventures of his Travis McGee character.

Books about food and wine are always staples when I put together a vacation reading collection. A Good Year, a novel by Peter Mayle (the author of A Year in Provence), is the light and entertaining adventure of a recently fired English businessman inheriting a chateau and vineyard in the south of France. It's a great beach read.

Hope you have a great vacation this spring - and happy reading!

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