Have you ever seen a purple Lego brick? Seriously, think about it. Have you ever seen one?

A couple of years ago, my friend Rachel gave us a big box of Duplos. We love Duplos, and this batch came with a few regular Lego bricks trapped in the nooks and crannies of the box. I happily integrated the entire lot into our family stash, and went about my business.

Over the next few months, this 8×1 purple brick kept turning up, and eventually it caught my eye. We have thousands upon thousands of Lego bricks, but only one of them is purple. How could this be? Lego bricks are some of the most creative, thoughtful, brain-growing toys out there. Had they simply neglected to make purple bricks? How rare are they?

Apparently, purple Lego bricks ARE very rare! As this Yahoo Answers thread indicates, the missing color has definitely been noticed by fans. I’ve learned that most of the purple bricks in existence probably came from a Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Bus Set. One observant brickhead noticed the purple cone lampshade in the Sunshine House Set. The color is noticeably absent from the Lego online store, so clearly there is some kind of concerted effort to keep purple bricks oppressed – right?

Hey Lego: Set the purple bricks free!!! People want purple Lego bricks, so why not make it happen? I mean, look how happy this woman was when she found some in a Chicago store.

Until Lego can make it happen, feel free to bask in the glory of my 8×1 purple Lego brick:

I totally dug this massive aisle of bobbleheads in Chinatown, SF.

There was no Big Ben, but I couldn’t help think of that line from European Vacation every time I walked by the Canadian Parliament building. Sitting in downtown Ottawa, this is a great building and property to wander around. I really dug the feral cat colony back near the river. More pics on my Flickr page.

These lanterns caught my eye near Chinatown on my latest visit to San Francisco. You can check the rest of my pics in my SF set on Flickr.

I bent down into one of the beds the other day, and came up with a spattering of chigger bits. I also ended up with this weird shot, where the wide open 1.2 aperature delivered some unexpected goodies. This is a like some kind of bizarro bokeh.

I spent most of last week working on Montréal (which was possibly the most fun I’ve ever had working on the road), and I’m thankful to have survived the city’s bleak weather and souring mood (The Canadians were eliminated at home that night). With the hockey Habs on life-support, my Canon followed suit and went through customs for my return flight with very few photos of the city. My only day off was a downpour, so I had no chance to really hoof it around Old Montréal. I still got a few snaps off while we worked elsewhere in the city, and here are the first three.

Ahh, another vintage odd-shaped children’s book – and only 29 cents! I found this morsel in the same stack as my Golden Shape Books, and it’s got a whole different vibe and style. This is probably because it was published in 1970, and was printed in the Netherlands (so how did I end up with it in Indiana?). It seems rather rare, as Google is only returning 10 results.*

*UPDATE: Now I’m the #1 result. Nice.

Each March for the last few years, I’ve been throwing down with some of the best designers in amazing PhotoShop battle modeled after the NCAA basketball tournament. I looooooves me some PhotoShop tennis, and adding a format like this makes it extra fine.

This happens over in The Arena at Flashkit.com, where the rest of the year you’ll find typical PhotoShop tennis-style battles happening. The regulars are incredible designers, and this tournament brings out their best.

A pool of 32 entries is seeded into a bracket by reputation, and designers share stock and go head-to-head in a battle of PhotoShop skills. The community members vote on each pairing, and after 4 elimination rounds, the final pairing competes to become the champ. Bragging rights and mad respect are the bounty, but the experience is always where it’s at.

These are my images from round one and two…not even close to my normal output and I pretty much got routed. So as usual, I was in way over my head (I’m 6-4 overall), but that’s what makes it…um, educational!

You can see some of my past March Madness entries here and here, and a couple of other battle images here and here.

I recently found an old stash of Golden Shape Books with my childhood stuff. These books were everywhere back in the day, but there is a suprising lack of info online. I really dig these covers though…the art has that distinct ’70s vibe (muted palette, no CG, simple). Very cool. I need to get some shots of the interior next…

While searching for a particular Dr. Seuss book the other day, I noticed there was a wide range of colors on the bindings. Inspired by chotda’s rainbow bookshelves, I quickly threw the Seussian volumes into their proper ROYGBV order (I left all the white ones on the right). Not a mind-blowing display, but Coop liked it!

Eeesh, I’ve been posting so much over at Go Green Charleston that this place is getting neglected. Here’s a nothing special shot of a dancer sitting in our art room. I just liked it’s weird, subtle color.

Sometimes things aren’t that complicated…that’s how I feel about this shot. I’m not sure why that peeling green paint and blue sky works for me, but it just does. Nothing was complicated in Callicoon Center.

Here is a detail section of the wall:

I dunno…

This image was made from a scrap pile shot. The flash didn’t fire, but something about that active sillouette is still cool.

More contact sheet fun. This is Ian Davis with a huge transfer under the covered halls of ye old Carmel High School, circa 1989. Those Midwestern winters would have been much longer had we not been allowed to skate there.

This is a detail from a scrap shot, but i thought it looked cool.
So, what color would you say his eyes are?

I’m in a 4-way battle with some of my co-workers, and here is my volley from round two. I kind of rushed through it, but wanted to get it up here anyway.

I found this image while going through old project folders. I designed it as part of the first Roll Canvas mural over at flashkit.com. The Roll Canvas turned out to be an enriching experience, and a great chance to collaborate with designers of much greater ability. Check it out – I really think the final product is amazing.

In the endlessly creative world of Photoshop Tennis, a design battle can take many forms. Over at Flashkit.com, we’ve just completed Rollcanvas III. This impressive collaborative design is possible only in today’s web-enabled world, and I am proud to have contributed.

The Rollcanvas mural battle requires participants to build horizontally off the previous image, but with a catch: they can only see the last 100 pixels of the previous image. I know it sounds confusing, but a good explanation can be found here.

This is all very exciting, as everyone must wait until the end to see the full mural. At over 20,000 pixels long, it’s truly something you should go see.

Below is my contribution.

If you want to see more, you can also check out Rollcanvas I and Rollcanvas II.

Yesterday, I recovered this sketch from the flyer junkyard.
Bob Evans, Ross Dagly, and Showermast – A winning combination since 1993.

Ever since our son could walk, we’ve had a wide range of chalky goodness on the driveway. He loves the stuff. In fact, we all like adding to the weekly mural. These two characters appeared last week, and then with zen-like timing vanished under an evening rain.

Round 3 of Flashkit.com‘s March Madness Tournament kicked off with some brilliant stock, clearly reflected in the work that followed. My battle with Hybrid Inc. was hard fought, and the closest of all eight pairings. In the end, his piece pulled ahead and rightfully won the round.

My image is posted below, but you should really check out the amazing work in some of the other pairings.

The annual March Madness Tournament is in full swing over at Flashkit.com, and I barely squeaked into the round of sixteen with this entry. In a rematch with NJP3, the voting was neck and neck for 2 days – he certainly brought some skills. I was lucky to escape to round 3, where I’m up against yet another mighty foe. No time to rest!

Todd Hinchman, 1989.
Straightup wallride in Indianapolis.

As great as this wallride is, I couldn’t keep my eyes off the deck art while processing the shot. Drawing on your griptape is a trend that, for the most part, ended with the 80s. However, through the wonders of modern technology we can obsess over Todd’s deepest teenage thoughts. His favorite bands (including our own, “Subject to Change”), girlfriend’s name, and even personal mantra are all on display for the world to see. Now, where are my paint pens…

Matt Gollnick, 1989.
A burst of flashes captures this layback on the indoor quarter.