After a 6 month hiatus, I'm back working on my own eCommerce entreprenurial effort, Jasper Road (www.jasperroad.com). In short, it's a portal based on all things rocks. Products, apparel, destinations, editorials, fine art -- bound together by a mild undercurrent of Zen. I've been told the business plan sounds as dumb as a rock. Coming Spring 2011.

After all the camping and travels (over, under, sideways and down...to guote the YardBirds) across the west, finally made it to Colorado for twelve days this summer. How could we have known? Yeah, no kidding, the state's landscape is flat-out stunning.

Picked off another three National Parks (Mesa Verde, Rocky Mountain, Black Canyon of the Gunnison)...and quickly discovered you overcome any lingering anxiety about driving the narrow mountain roads. Once out of Denver, you're seemingly up at 10,000 ft. everywhere! The favorite destination (Mesa Verdes' majesty aside) ended up being the quaint, mountain town of Ouray along with a memorable jeep ride up to Governor's Basin (12,500 ft.) A few snapshots below.

I love the site Ashes & Milk. It's an exhilarating example pushing the movement of "found art" that's creating tsunamis around the art world (see artist Damián Ortega below). The site is the vision of founder Nikki who publishes an online gallery of artists that are extraordinarily unique—and in her own words, "Our collection is a boutique of texture, organic materials, and nuances of white, brown, and gray. Each piece is made by hand - an original work of art. Created by one person, designed for one person.""

With so much talent and diversity to parse through in this site, two artists caught my eye with their over-the-top levels of discipline and craftsmanship—Bryan Nash who creates stunning, natural 1:1 relief prints from tree trunks and Yoran Morvant, whose precision drawings on rocks will astound...the closer you look.

I'd always thought salt water aquariums were the pinnacle of the hobby, one I knew little about except for the token one or two small tanks I had as a child. I'm sure colonies of fish were annihilated. Even the plastic plants and sunken pirate ship probably suffered too. Sure, I'd always take notice of an interesting aquarium when I came across one but basically had a laissez-faire attitude toward the hobby in general. After following a link from a design site, my perspective was instantly turned around after viewing the International Aquatic Plant Layout Competition.


It turns out the stratosphere of the Aquatic Landscaping Field is centered around creating fresh water scenes. Factor in the art of bonzai along with schooling varieties of fish (the smaller the better) and the scene is scaled for complete believability. My initial glance found the award-winning (aquatic) web site photos interesting enough, but I quickly passed them off as flat, one-dimensional views...not unlike pics found in any coffee table book of exquisite Japanese gardens. Then I thought, well it is underwater after all. Then the payoff. The realization that these are living ecosystems... a breathtaking, miniature world onto themselves.

Within a couple of weeks I had to mimic something. For starters I rescued my daughter's two orphaned African dwarf frogs and upgraded the pair to a 3-gallon cylindrical bachelor pad (left photo). Next I notched it up with a self contained 6 gallon Fluval™ (right stock photo) a cool starter tank and a design piece in itself with 360 degree glass views. Watch a video about it here. Bottom line, there's more maintenance than meets the eye (keeping the tanks healthy and all), but I'm enjoying both — especially the active frogs along with their buds, the ghost shrimp I introduced. If nothing else, maybe the live aquatic plants and circulating water is accelerating the home office feng shui.

The link for the competition came from AFA, an aquatic showroom in San Francisco owned by two Japanese brothers.

We needed a small end table to fit at the end of our even smaller living room but no luck finding one that 'worked', so tried building something. I'm not going to scare This Old House's Norm Abrams any time soon but the finished piece fits the corner well. OK, the glass top made it and a little illustrative photography ain't hurting either. Total cost of materials, fifty bucks.

I've owned seven VWs to date...and since I've mentioned them, gotta count 'em down. Three bugs, two vans, a Rabbit and a Passat. Again in the spirit of "found art", I offer up Mexican artist Damián Ortega, recently featured in a one-man show at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at the University of Pennsylvania. We've all seen the digital and CGI effects of cars being auto-built, deconstructed, etc., but here's one artist who has literally sung an analog note from that page. For all us V'dub fans, no doubt...it's a pure installation exhibit.

Doesn't every family room need an award winning example of industrial design in the form of a high tech foosball game? Take a close up look at this exquisite, crafted piece at www.eleventhegame.com.