2009 March | Summer Rayne Oakes

Archive for March, 2009

It is wonderful to feel the grandness of Canada in the raw

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

(subject title as said in the words of Emily Carr. Figured it’s nicer than Patrick Anderson’s quote of “America’s attic”).

This was my first [real] trip to Toronto. I say “real” because I did sojourn across the border from Buffalo for thirty or so minutes when my college roommates were set on having a beer. Pathetic. So yes, this was the first bonafide Toronto trip…assembled sort of last minute. And taken in by Kelly Drennan over at Fashion Takes Action. Thanks a bundle Kelly! Missed the Linda Lundstrom show – just couldn’t find a great last minute flight until the 18th, which was a bummer…but I have to say that Claire totally redeemed the entire trip; she took her whole day to show me around the town. We went to Indigo (for U.S. folks, it’s like the Barnes & Nobles of Canada), bumped into Heather Reisman (owner of Indigo) and whom is also opening up these awesome green concept stores called Pistachio; headed over to met Sid at Lileo (another must-see shop); and other great places along the way. On the last day, headed off with Kelly for her Fashion Takes Action auction, which had some pretty cool pieces you could bid on.

Signing copies of books at Lileo in Toronto’s Distillery District

Sid and his little munchkin had this cool acid-yellow graffiti wall that customers can come in and write on

I totally made my mark!

Please note I had to top the quote below mine, which was, “I bought a $3,000 tank top (for Brad Pitt)” – yah, me too.

With one of Sid’s fashionable colleagues. God I love her haircut!

On our way to Pistachio we saw this crazy house. Maybe Canada is America’s attic…

Get our your bonnet. Must be Easter!!!

At Indigo. I love how it looks as if Claire is sitting on my lap.

Think she looks a little like Neve Campbell, yes/no? Whatever, she’s the bomb.

the eyes have it

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

My friend Shepherd (fellow bug junkie from Cornell) sent these images along. He was working (forever) on a National Science Foundation grant to innovate new imaging software and microscopes. After two years of going through hoops, they’ve developed a program that takes multiple photos at various focal points (see picture below). I first saw this in Puntacana in the Dominican Republic and have a feeling it was done using the same software.

An algorithm is then run through the software and “stitches” all the in focus points together. The end result is an entire image that is perfectly in focus. This is pretty spectacular considering the weevil show here is about 5 mm in size. Shepherd says that it took 74 images to create this final image.

Style, Naturally: DC – party across party lines!

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

Juleanna Glover hosted a really lovely book launch party at her house the day after I gave my talk at the Corcoran Gallery. I know one of my enviro-buddies began hyper-ventilating when he found out that she was the principal advisor for John Ashcroft, Ex-VP Dick Cheney, la la la. (What can I say, you gotta play nicely in the sandbox with others!) But it was such a fabulous night; Juleanna knows how to throw a party; and it definitely was a diverse mix of party lines, which I loo-vve. It was kinda cool though, I must admit. I mean, how often do you get The Ambassador of Yemen, the founder of Tweezerman, Ambassador of Brazil, a host of environmental non-profits, some fashion folks, the CEO of Bono’s ONE Campaign, and a range of others in one room and walking away with Style, Naturally? I assure you, it doesn’t happen every day!

Photos: Pepper Watkins