180colony

waiting with eager anticipation

2006-07-21T22:37:00.000-07:00

see below for titus kaphar, a young fresh fellow poised changing the world with paint and a scalpel. this is from his opening at Jack Tilton Gallery.

see below for some of titus's adoring fans. or are they just there for the free heineken?

well, we certainly weren't at the party below for the free heineken. nope, it was all about the new presence of the future reuben armstrong. what a star. check out aaron's old-school t-shirt. he's been around a time or two.

beam me up scotty

2006-07-21T22:25:00.000-07:00

behold. mark and sunny are pictured below in the final stages of bilocation. now you see them...now you don't. amazing!

after dinner with neil and kathy shimmield, bill cobbett, and special guest star sam maskell.

david zahl and will brown very nearly died after this battle...we had to nurse them back to health with replacements records and cold beer.

look! its the pooj and sunny doing the dishes. a picture of domesticity.

long beach

2006-07-21T22:18:00.000-07:00

there are three things that you need to know about long beach (besides the fact that ira lippke studios are based there).

1) hamburger dan's. its in a song.

2) lee's sandwiches. the fastest banh mi in the west. and cheap too.
this may be the only known picture of lee's...the guard nearly made me swallow my film when he saw that i was taking pictures. figure that out...a banh mi place with a 24-hour guard.

3) it is very close to catalina island. we took the ferry. it was lovely.

tejas

2006-07-21T22:07:00.000-07:00

so james mumford and i went to texas to do some research on a secret project which shall not be named. here's some evidence.

a rather excellent hat and boot shop run by the bear (pictured).

the crockett hotel. davy crockett. king of the wild frontier, etc.
respect.

everything is illuminated.
lights for la migra.

porn and wildlife. just a typical gas station.

who are those fine gents and what are they doing at the alamo?

train.

free pregnancy test.

this may be the brownsville girl homestead.

"we send it north for you."

la migra.

60 years and a watermelon

2006-07-21T21:54:00.000-07:00

here's a loving tribute to daddy tran from his kids. watch carefully...its da kathy code. the man is 60 after all. this is highly cerebral. try to stay focused.

christmas in july

2006-07-21T16:34:00.000-07:00

well. not a lot of blogging going on lately. we must change our ways. here's a slew of pics from the last...oh...seven months.

for starters, here's kathy "bunyan" maskell, chopping down our citrus flavored christmas tree...

and here's another tree picture. i took this in pennsylvania in the fall, on a walk with the maskell family.

and here's the happy family.

you came to take us (all things go all things go)

2005-11-09T12:09:00.000-08:00

"I fell in love again
all things go, all things go
drove to Chicago
all things know, all things know
we sold our clothes to the state
I don't mind, I don't mind
I made a lot of mistakes
in my mind, in my mind..."

"you came to take us
all things go, all things go
to recreate us
all things grow, all things grow
we had our mindset
all things know, all things know
you had to find it
all things go, all things go..."

"I drove to New York
in the van, with my friend
we slept in parking lots
I don't mind, I don't mind
I was in love with the place
in my mind, in my mind
I made a lot of mistakes
in my mind, in my mind..."

"you came to take us
all things go, all things go
to recreate us
all things grow, all things grow
we had our mindset
all things know, all things know
you had to find it
all things go, all things go..."

"if I was crying
in the van, with my friend
it was for freedom
from myself and from the land
I made a lot of mistakes
I made a lot of mistakes
I made a lot of mistakes
I made a lot of mistakes

you came to take us
all things go, all things go
to recreate us
all things grow, all things grow
we had our mindset
all things know, all things know
you had to find it
all things go, all things go..." sufjan stevens, chicago

all hallows eve

2005-11-01T13:42:00.000-08:00

kids. its halloween. and the 180colonists are taking on the puzzle.
see below for a theological reconciliation of masking and its discontents.

tell me what you see.
wait wait...its:

[bottom row]
simone weil as jackie o. (cousin of famous korean rockstar karen o.?)
martin luther as a goth
st. francis (w/o a bat mask)

[second row]
jonathan edwards as a west side pirate
karl barth as 'das nichtige'

[top row]
bernard of clairvaux as the white rabbit
hildegard of bingen as alice
c.s. lewis as a mandarin
fanny crosby as a gypsy
john howard yoder as sin
the prophet isaiah as a yale student

"west-siiieeeedddde, me hearties!" said the great Puritan divine as Lewis looked on.

the scripture tells us that sin will come cloaked in deceptive garb...is it camo?

fishheads and a knitting circle

2005-11-01T13:38:00.000-08:00

hey look. its a knitting circle.
you can't front on the 180colony knitting circle.
feel it.

and here are some fish heads.
blood, fire, and billows of smoke.

is your pomeranian too fat to bowl?

2005-10-17T09:40:00.000-07:00

here's a visual shout out to the family in san diego. can you feel the love?

"bonnie! get vina back on the treadmill! she's too fat!"

fighting for freedom in fort kim

2005-10-17T09:32:00.000-07:00

meanwhile, back at the ranch, kathy and caleb were perusing a series of jersey diners...and crashing the car...and....wait.....that's right! ITS THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS!

the chang occupation

2005-10-16T10:58:00.000-07:00

look out kids! here come the changs...

and here's the sushi expedition.

los hombres oxoniensis

2005-10-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

oligarchy in the UK! its john, kathy, caleb, frank, and james representing 180colony east at the old parsonage. yeeeeah!

shara

2005-09-22T18:35:00.000-07:00

this is shara. she is our new friend. she is a pilates instructor. we like her alot.
we met in pasadena for a meeting about a meeting in new haven.
its a bit like the israel-palestine peace process, but more confusing.
she can stay any time.

when she left, she hid $48,000 under the pillow. our kind of houseguest. we're going to spend it on our first annual 180colony leif-peeping viking roadtrip to the mountains of vermont.

like we said, she can stay anytime.

homegroup

2005-09-01T19:12:00.000-07:00

so its probably time to introduce our excellent homegroup. we have a brilliant meeting of revolutionaries at our place thursday nights, so if you're a robber and you've figured out where we live...don't try it on thursdays between 7-10. you'll be in for a shock dude.

the group is pretty much a revolving door of great folks. this week, scott dolff was talking about his trip to mozambique this summer...captivating stuff...

so here's a bunch of the kidz.

dolff

his adoring crowds

more adoration.

glorious heavenly light. note todd's sword of power.

glorious heavenly light, with flash

bunnies and boys

2005-09-01T18:59:00.000-07:00

well, my parents came to visit, but we completely forgot the camera. we must not do that next time.

however, there were a couple of non-parental prominent features.

the bunnies (powell and s'co-op)

and the boys of clan mcclenahan...benjamin, philip, and james, in descending order. the boys and the bunnies had a lovely time. or at least the boys did.

i throw down the gauntlet and challenge you to out-cute these children.

get up johns

2005-09-01T18:47:00.000-07:00

if you were the methodists of mt. kisco, ny. you might have thought that it was a good idea to have a three-day open air big ten revival this summer. not only that, you would have hired these guys to do the music. and i quote the organizers....

"The featured camp meeting preacher is no stranger to either of those strands within historical Methodism. Coming from Monroeville, Alabama, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Lane Butts is acknowledged to be one of the premier preachers in United Methodism today. As a young preacher, he marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to secure voting rights for minority Americans at Selma, and his powerful voice has been heard numerous times on the "Protestant Radio Hour". Dr. Butts is a pastor, university educator and noted author.

Rev. Butt's evening messages will be opened each evening at 7:30 p.m. with the progressive bluegrass fusion music of The Get Up Johns, a Minnesota-based duet whose guitar, mandolin, fiddle and banjo music recalls the "high lonesome" sound of the father of bluegrass music, Bill Monroe. One reviewer unequivocally stated that no one could beat The Get Up Johns "for calling up the old tunes in a beautiful, harmonious way". The revival gatherings will also feature a black gospel choir and local acoustical musicians during the nights of this Methodist event."

come on, pilgrim.

ladies and gentlemen, the get up johns.

they let me sit in on a couple of numbers too. i was doing my best david rawlings...thanks to k* for the cool pics.
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cate west and, oh yeah, david zahl.

2005-09-01T18:43:00.000-07:00

look. its david and cate. the best kids around. but only one pic. you get the idea.

it should be recorded for posterity that while david was herding teenagers on the vineyard this summer, cate was hanging out in london with the drummer from the libertines. now that's just wrong.

but, as if to make up for it, president george herbert walker bush did teach david how to ride the presidential segway a few weeks later. oh for a picture of that...

look! its dave and cate. again. i told you...only one pic. its not enough.

blueberries/dumplings/philosophy/more cowboy hats

2005-09-01T18:32:00.000-07:00

just a few days later, we had another wondrous slew of visitors.

joel and karen selking were in town for a wedding. jacob affolter was in town (sort of. well, albany.) for a philosophy conference. when those guys showed up, it was enough of a draw to attract ed gitre and carmen de rutgers to come give everyone a high-five, while picking blueberries. quite a feat.

here's the gang.

it isn't right or proper to let joel and karen get away from a celebrated gathering like this without imposing upon them a mandate to make dumplings. and that is exactly what we did. throw in a little michelle sieben and some todd for good measure. you can't beat this with a stick.

the house was so hot that kathy's face actually melted during dinner. incredible. don't ever say my wife isn't talented.

charlie crain / tievskys

2005-09-01T18:24:00.000-07:00

Charlie Crain is a friend of ours from college. He has recently resurfaced from a stint in Iraq as a war correspondent. That's where he learned these moves.

And these.

When Charlie came to town, Benny T and Ariella T came to visit and hang out late into the night. And wear cowboy hats.

Todd and Benny T also undertook a dialectic on the finer points of drinking beer with clean hands and an innocent heart.

chomno in

2005-09-01T18:10:00.000-07:00

when kathy and i were in cambodia in july, we met chomno in. chomno is a wonderful man who is doing an incredible work of transformative reconciliation and social empowerment in the villages surrounding poi pet with Cambodian Hope Organization, an NGO that he started. CHO was the only NGO that was entirely Cambodian-run that we came across, and it was by far the most effective. You should go and check it out. Send me an email if you're curious....

Under the burning landmined dirty heat of the Cambodian sun, Chomno informed us that he was about to make his first trip to the USA the week after we were leaving.

Us: "Wow Chomno. That's cool. Where are you going?"

Chomno: "Have you ever heard of Connecticut?"

Us: (stunned) "Well...yes. Its about 15"x15" and we live there. Want to come to our place next week?"

And that was it. The first visitor to the 180Colony was a man from a small town in western Cambodia. God is our travel agent. Can't front on that.

He was coming to CT to visit his sister, who had moved to Danbury 4 years ago when she married a Khmer-American. They were married a year before the INS would let her move here. They're such a romantic branch of our national infrastructure.
I guess it makes sense.

Anyway, Chomno hadn't seen her in 4 years, and had never met his new niece. Here's a picture of their reunion. Chomno is the guy holding the baby.

I'm so glad that they were our first guests.

class is in session.

2005-08-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

everybody loves a little retro. so here's the scoop on the our first couple of months worth of visitors. if you came, and you're not in here...send me a pic and i'll put it on...or better yet, come back a demand a recount. all yr friends are doing it.

get ready for yr history lesson, kids.

this ghostly image is mark and caleb at a diner in portland, january 2005.
a key visit...beginning to see the vision of the colony, though not knowing it.

march 2005, the jonases arrive in connecticut...looking for a house.

here is sunny, exhausted after looking for a house.

caleb and mark...also finding a house.

after months of research and hours on the internet, there was no house to be found. finding a house is hard. so, we did what seemed second best...got some new haven pizza and talked about it.

BUT WAIT!, said kathy and sunny. WE HAVE FOUND A HOUSE. A NICE ONE WITH A RED DOOR.

and so to the colony, in all of its hilarious glory, for a visit. the only visit.

the downstairs seems pretty cool...what's the upstairs like?

wow.

feel the power.

uhh....

re-entry.

and the rest is history. we bought the place.

and got to work.

brand new colony

2005-08-28T19:25:00.000-07:00

hi kids. caleb here. as you may know, the 180colony is open for business. in fact, if you're reading this, it is likely that you have stayed here a week or two.and we like that.

in fact, we like it so much that we've created this blog to record some of the images and thoughts of the days that we've spent here...like a virtual guestbook, a "who's who" of the way forward...

get fearless.

out.