GALFROMDOWNUNDER UPOVER

I'm suddenly the lucky owner of this homage to Mr Sulu/George Takei - since it's about art, go forth and read about it on my ChelseaGallerista blog .

The Cat Attack: A little remote controlled mouse with skittish attachment keeps cats on their toes  (shot on my iPhone, a bit of drumming by the Greenpoint Marching Band in Hudson, 2010) Let's face it: it's generally more fun to watch a white elephant gift exchange than a traditional Christmas gift opening. Same ole, same ole, given and received with gracious grimaces - sox, books, TJ Maxx gloves, scarves (OK I was guilty of gifting a few from my recent Peru video shoot ), tins of mass produced shortbread butter cookies ... oh wouldn't I kill to see someone gift a black velvet flocked painting to a serious art lover! But this year, after teaching a Christmas Day yoga class, I was generously invited by a student to a wonderful gathering and saw a particularly fresh stocking stuffer: It's called a CAT ATTACK: a remote-controlled toy with convincingly twitchy, skittish mousey moves. Three laser-pointer-blasé cats - a tuxedo, a tortoiseshell and a cali...

A Galfromdownunder Traffic Cone Bag in a pear tree! (More shots of this on my Traffic Cone Blog ) Avagoodone, as we say Downunder! Thanks to artist  Pamela Talese for taking these shots, and loaning me her silver Nutcase helmet. 

At Westville Cafe, NYC, Sep 2011 Ten Years After the Fact Dept:  I was delighted to meet Aussie ESPN Sports commentator and all-round creative guy Thai Neave ( Thai Neave Photography ) who brought his old, tattered Random House copy (circa 2003) of my book to brunch - and loaned me his GoPro helmet cam to try out in my upcoming Peru trip. Apparently Thai was inspired to make his own trip to Cuba as a result of reading my book! Here's Thai in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNlA7L_07Yo

Where I first landed: Bike Friday in Eugene, Oregon USA I had just arrived in the USA , and was interning at Bike Friday, Eugene, Oregon. Every morning at 8am was a sales meeting. I was transitioning from being a nite owl in Central America to a morning person in the USA, and judging from the empty chairs around the sales manager's cubeless cube, I wasn't the only one. Nonetheless, I managed to get to the shop by 7.58am, park my bike in the garage at 7.59am and wandered through the small break room where, unusually, the TV was on. One of the new salesguys, Michael Kelly, was standing in front of it, staring. "What are you watching?" I asked. "World Trade Center," he said simply. I saw the smoking towers on the old fuzzy box (even then, this was a clunky old telly with a bubble screen) but it didn't register. I thought it was a special effects movie and Michael was indulging in a bit of pre-work viewing. I mean, everyone in 'merica ...

I've just made a donation to an unsung and extremely worthy cause: The Children's Education Foundation - Vietnam . This tiny charity, run by the tireless Linda Hutchinson-Burn relies on a just a few donors who know about her tenacious, selfless work that strives to keep young Vietnamese girls from impoverished families in school - and thus out of the hands of traffickers. I was invited to a low-key fund raising dinner Linda organized in Brooklyn.  At the top of this post is the impromptu video I shot of her presentation. I urge you to watch it and learn of her amazing work. It started out like this: while holidaying in Vietnam 10 years ago, Linda saw that the mothers of extremely poor families literally worked themselves to death. "She died of tiredness" is a common explanation for death. Illness and premature death mean children must abandon school to look after remaining family members - making them a target for traffickers. "A child in school is...

Governor's Island - a little, flat Utopia off the bottom end of Manhattan I'm slowly discovering New York's intriguing chunks of itself scattered close to the "mother ship," Manhattan.  There's Fire Island (holiday favorite of the gay community off the coast of Long Island), Roosevelt Island (an odd little strip of suburbia in the East River between Manhattan and Queens),  Ryker's Island (the prison island), City Island (Bronx), Ellis Island (houses a museum), Liberty Island (on which stands the lady in the green dress) and just this weekend, I visited  Governor's Island .  It could not be easier to get to this "ice cream cone shaped island" (check out the map below!) especially on a bike. Cruise down the west side bike path to where the Staten Island Ferry takes off, go a bit to the left, and there's a FREE ferry from South St to this little car-few nirvana.  From Wikipedia:  Governors Island, a 172 acre island in the heart...