Eric Barker is my namesake.  My mom and dad used to visit him and other fixtures up in Big Sur back in the 1950′s.  I have only recently discovered his work.  Here is a poem of his:

Lines for a favorite cat:

Escaping for twelve years

The nearly always imminent deaths,

My wary and beautiful cat

Pawtucket

Died last night

In the teeth of a masked

And murderous coon.

Loudly caterwauling his rage and terror

At the full moon

As she turned away

Her blandly betraying bitch face

From the floodlit death arena

Good-bye,

Roller of bobbins, balls, dice,

Devilish feather-strewer!

Old three-striker at gopher holes.

Good-bye.

This is the way things are:

I have carried your bedding of ferns

To the deep hole I have dug, crossed

Your paws in the way

You used to sleep.

This is the way life is,

And I must make do somehow,

Without you,

Even making a pet, perhaps, of your enemy

The coon, who has cleaned your dish

And is already picking the lock

Of the back door

With dexterous and beseeching hands

Only 11.5 went from Asia to North America… and a little less than half of even that, only 6.5, went the other way from North America to Asia.   So you can see that the largest amount of production activity in the world is in Asia proper… and the vast majority of what is being produced is staying there.  Kind of interesting.  The image seems to be missing the North America to Europe and visa versa numbers…. but it was in an article discussing asia’s rise so I suppose it isn’t needed.  I kinda would like to see the US and european numbers though… just to get a complete picture.

It was my baby so I am a bit sad.  The word came as I was watering my garden though… and it is tuesday… and it was the middle of the day… so I suppose I have very little to be sad about actually.

The Hindu’s believe that when you die… you reincarnate as something better. Hmmm.

During my ownership we produced 572 different ads. This one up above is one of my favorites.  I loved writing those ads and drawing the shoes.  I wasn’t so hot on all the travel though.

This Sears 3 speed bike, circa 1966 or so, is one I have had for a long time.  I sold it to a friend though about 3 years ago and today I bought it back as he wasn’t using it.  It is from Austria.   I doubt you can buy much made in Austria at Sears today.  The Saddle is a “Lepper” brand and is from Switzerland… the front generator light is a Soubitez from France… the rack and kickstand are Pletscher from Switzerland… the pannier bags are also from Sears… black vinyl… with white contrast trim.

It is a very basic but beautiful black bike.  I don’t know why I love bikes so much.

Just over a year ago a website called Taobao.com was ranked 23rd on the web… ie the 23rd most visited website on the net.  (Google is 1st, Facebook is 2nd, YouTube is 3rd, Yahoo is 4th, Blogger/Blogspot is 5th etc ) Today Taobao is 14th, up 9 places in the last year.  In January of this year, just 4 months ago, another website called Baidu was ranked 66th.  Today Baidu is up 61 spots to 6th.  QQ… a third site you may have never heard of… is 10th.  So in the last year… 3 websites you probably have never heard of… have joined the top 10 websites in the world list.  The trajectory of this rise… if pushed forward gets very interesting!

I had an opportunity to speak with Paul Fu last night after a speech he gave at the Cal Poly Innovation and Entrepreneur Center here in San Luis Obispo, CA.  Paul was raised in China but lives In the USA and got his doctorate at Purdue.  He is the Director of User Experience and Design at Alibaba.com.  Have you heard of them?  Maybe.  Alibaba connects manufacturers directly with people searching to make products.  Alibaba is ranked 80′th on the web… (and owns TaoBao)

Paul’s comments got me digging around on this subject.   I really liked him.  He spoke about something I really think a lot about (because of my own business experiences in China)… and that is that the Chinese people are in the midst of changing their mindset from building other people’s ideas… to creating their own new ideas…and it has already begun.  The Creative Class in China is on a trajectory that has now begun to add tremendously to the world’s braintrust… rather than just borrow from what has already been done.  A big change!

The point is that now we are going to have a huge HUGE group of fantastically motivated, talented, and educated people start to innovate, create and change the way things are done… and add their own twists and turns to the fabric of what new business and entrepreneurs and innovation mean on this planet.  I cannot wait to see this evolution play out… and it is happening right in front of us right at this exact moment.

Just twenty years ago I was first in China.. driving down single lane dirt roads… and I have watched as these roads have become superhighways.

History will tell us the exact point when China became the worlds leading innovator… I think it is going to be this year, 2011, it may have already happened. But most importantly… the trajectory of the rate of change on this planet is going to change very shortly… and very dramatically.  Change is going to start happening a LOT faster than it is happening even right now.

I have ideological differences with the Govt. of China but I have ideological differences with the Govt. of the USA too for that matter.  So my comments are not about the Govt. of China.. but about the PEOPLE.

To the Chinese people, as a fellow human on this planet, I say  ”CONGRATULATIONS on your achievements!  I am very humbled by this evolution of yours.

—–

The big trick now… AND IT IS A BIG DAMN TRICK!!!…for all of us… is to figure out how to live here on this round ball without stripping it of every last resource.  So I encourage all you new members of the Chinese creative class… to focus your amazing energy and efforts on sustainability right now.  Help the people of the world find a BETTER path than that path which has come before.  Let this new path be China’s legacy.

from  theSartorialist blog

It’s raining today… so I’m digging around looking at fashion trend watching sites.  Fun stuff.

Everyone thinks they are being so different… yet we are all just conforming.  I dare you to be truly unique… it’s quite difficult.

“Technohippies” shown just below… circa 2005