KIOSK HELLO

LOOKING FOR WORK???

I, Marco, am looking for  a partner to do webstuff(*) with.  If you are someone with skills in the webby direction and feel like I do – that it’s sucky to work in the tech domain alone – please get in touch. I get gigs quite often – no BIG bills – but it’s something. The deal is simple – we split the income,we split the work.

*)  More specifically, it would be great if in addition to the html, css, js etc. you know enough programming to point out where I stupidly missed that semi-colon, or that I constantly divide by zero. I promise I’ll do the same to you! My current focus is to run php-webapps, backed by mysql or sqlite with some splashes of jquery on here and there. I dabble a bit with google’s appengine – no, haven’t looked into rails yet – and I favor pure html over flash any day.

Sounds interesting? Need work? Tired of working on a computer all day long alone with no human contact? Drop me a line at: marco@kioskkiosk.com. Thanks!

Florida Day 2:

We woke up early at the Swan Hotel and ran out without a swim. Driving around downtown Orlando we saw lots of banks and churches, a lot of new construction and many, many homes for sale.  Johnson’s Diner for breakfast, soul food, better for the atmosphere than the food itself, although not bad for eggs, grits and a biscuit, I can’t complain. Strait out of Orlando and one hour drive to the Kennedy Space Center, amazing, exciting…5 hour visit and it still was not enough. Take the “NASA Up-Close” tour, (love the hot pink badge) we did, definitely recommend it if you are into space, it was worth the time and expense. On the tour we got a close-up of the shuttle on the launch pad and a bunch of the facilities, not as close-up as you want but it’s cool regardless. The Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) is one of the largest buildings in the world. It was originally built for the Apollo/Saturn vehicles and was later modified for the Space Shuttle operations. Cool, it’s the most 2-dimensional 3 dimensional structure I have ever seen. If you are into geeking out you’ll love this…driving around NASA it’s definitely “I Dream of Jeanie” when you come to the 1960’s low rise structures, they are where the astronauts hang out just prior to going into space, how would it feel to go from a 60’s structure into a 80’s flying machine into outer space? We toured the ISS display where you get to walk through replica segments of the space station, essentially the structure is a mesh of a science lab and a boat interior. White on white. Compact and minimal. I found myself transfixed by the grow lab. AH SCIENCE….More to come on Day 2, this is getting long and rambling- A.

Orlando Food options:

Johnson’s Diner
595 W Church St
Orlando
(407) 841-0717

Queen Bees Soul Food Restaurant
3214 Orange Center Blvd
Orlando
407-299-1001- lunch

20 days and 4,100 miles driven inside Florida, we saw a lot of the state and there is still more to see. It was great. I think everyone needs to know. Do not be afraid…

Day 1:

Arrive in Orlando February 26th, both of us were surprised by the lack of green, the nature was quite brown. Thankfully very little Disney at the airport. We decided not to visit the M. MOUSE on this trip but as a concession we booked a room at the Walt Disney World Swan “Resort” within the magical zone. Designed by the architect Michael Graves in the 80’s and opened in 1990 the compound is described as “entertainment architecture”- interesting… I am not a fan of Graves even though I have always liked his teakettle, the one with the bird  from the 80’s not the knock-off he did for Target. I was hoping during the stay I would become more fond of his work,  however, the only thing I could think was, how does he keep producing such crap? Then I remembered Michael Eisner was behind this baby and I don’t have to wonder much more, but then again, what excuse does Princeton have? Jesus… the idea of “when it is 25 years old the building will look great, you will be nostalgic for that time” is totally out the window with his work. Paired with it’s sister hotel The Dolphin, I can’t say I remember much about the experience, beyond the scale being utterly massive, besides I was glad it was paid for with our Starwood Amex points and it was a pretty cool concept to sleep in “entertainment architecture”.  Anyway, was glad to get out of the mouse domain when we left even though the staff was hyper-nice the entire time. Out of the Disney compound and into the wilds of Florida. By the way, the reason for the compound being so huge was apparently because Walt was pissed hoteliers were opening their inns adjacent to the California location, Disneyland. Apparently he felt they were stealing from his glory, in a way WDW was kind-of the first gigantic gated community, you feel it right when you get there, which leads me to Celebration, Florida but we will come to that later. WDW is apparently in crisis now with 400+ employees being laid off last Friday and 600 executives recently being offered buy-outs.  That’s a lot of crying mice. Damn, will our government get involved in a Disney bail-out, imagine that imagineers! Mouse ears in the White House!

You are walking through the forest, imagine that as you normally live in a city, and suddenly you are hit on the head by a large object. It hurts. You want to start crying but you realize that’s the way it goes in the wild, no pain no gain, it’s survival of the fittest. The weird thing is you look down and realize what hit you on the head is not from nature, it is not stone or any type of flora. What hit you looks like a tree growth but it’s made of ceramic. Where are you? Is this forest inhabited by little creatures making pottery all day long? We are happy to host Sara Isaksson From, the Swedish ceramicist from the forest called Scandinavia to KIOSK March 26 – April 11th. On Saturday the 28th Sara will be at us from 2 – 6pm to have a chat with you. We hope you will brave the Soho crowds and stop by for a beer or just to look at the work and say HI.

This show was possible with the help of – Thanks!

This time in Switzerland, sent in by Jiyoni! Please send us your Kiosk pics! Thanks!

An image from Inauguration Day 2009. What inspiration comes from the canteen furniture! Something tells me that touring US military bases might lead to some new ideas…After visiting the Kennedy Space Center and hearing the Space Shuttle is going to be replaced I also asked the question, “Does our government need interior designers for outer space?” Who chooses the colors in the new Orion Spacecraft?

Florida has been no less than amazing…

Snorkeling in the Keys and kayaking with alligators in the Everglades and tubing down a crystal clear river with turtles and swimming with manatees and eating Apalachicola oysters strait from the burlap bag they are delivered in and the panhandle and lying on powder white sand and the people and Stiltsville and looking at funky Sarasota architecture and Waffle House and walking to the end of a boardwalk in nature and finding birds, a snake and alligators and realizing the tables are turned and visiting the oldest town in this country and the biggest concentration of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in the world and getting a speeding ticket from a Florida State trooper and seeing a space shuttle launch tonight, etc etc etc

Florida is exciting and we found some objects too. We can’t wait to share all of our finds with you. It’s all been so strangely good, is it the sunshine going to our heads or really, is it just FLORIDA? This picture of the trail the shuttle left behind leaves me with not only one but two big question marks. – a.

Some pictures from friends…I thought they were pretty funny. I love the yellow structure, what a dream. If we get enough kiosk images I think we should do a “kiosks of the world” poster  much like the “doors of london” poster or whatever it is called, you know what I mean? Thanks friends for sending! The first is from Portugal, the second from Spain.

Last week we went to see Tom Scott’s newest collection of clothing and accessories. It was great! I hope you will see me in these next Fall! Warm and cozy, jewelry to keep you warm! A necklace instead of a scarf! Earrings instead of earmuffs!

In a couple of days when we are really sick of cold weather and the warmth of the spring is going to make all our lives much better, we – KIOSK – will go to Florida and burn some gasoline going through the state, but I envision the rest of you to be more environmentally responsible and start picking out your bikes. Biking in the city during the day is dangerous – at night it’s almost suicidal. Unless of course you use this device from Finland (and they are found in Sweden too!). Here is how to mount it, but take my advice and don’t bike in corridors!