Koi Pond

Company: Brandon Bogle

Category: Entertainment 

Price: $0.99

Version: 2.0

Cracked Format: .IPA

Application Description

This application 'Koi Pond', like an pond of crystal water with fish swimming through its shallow depths. You can touch the surface of your iPhone/iPod and the water ripples away and the fish disappears, but .. when you place your finger for a little longer, you can see the fish coming towards your finger. Also when you want to feed your fish, you just need to shake the iPhone/iPod .. it's cool isn't it?

This application has a newer version, version 2.0, These are some new features:

• Improved Water Simulation
• More pond colour options
• 3D sound (Try Koi Pond with you headphones!)
• Volume Control Slider
• Movable Lily Pads [Touch, Drag to move]
• And much more ..  

Enjoy 

The first edition of c60 radio ended up being a c120! The DJ after me never showed up, so I took the opportunity to play some full sides from Cursillistas, Plankton Wat, and the Jeremy Latch tape I just reviewed. The Latch tape really fired up the phone lines, with one night-shift factory worker describing it as "questionable," while another caller claimed that he and his boyfriend were making out to it.

_________________

Sam Goldberg - "Daytripper" Outer Body Experience [Self Released; 2008]

Koi Pond - "Ink Lloyd" Volcano [Night People; 2008]

NASA - Side A, Track 2 Bummer Daze [Not Not Fun; 2008]

The Nevari Butchers - Side A, Track 1 Arms and Everything [Hanson; 2008]

Sunburned Hand of the Man - Side A, Track 1 Locked / Loaded [Meudiademorte; 2008]

Raccoo-oo-oon - "Visage of the Fox" Death at Prospect Peak [Night People; 2006]

Attar Cups - Side A Attar Cups [Sloow Tapes; 2007]

Slurp Dogs - "No Snow No Snow" Postal Licks [Sloow Tapes; 2008]

Emeralds - "House of Mirrors" Allegory of Allergies [Gods of Tundra; 2007]

Pocahaunted - "Singing Color" Rough Magic [Blackest Rainbow; 2007]

Plankton Wat - Side A Alchemy of Darkness [DNT; 2008]

Cursillistas - "Blue Star" Fleece Face [Open Range Records; 2008]

Jeremy Latch - Side A Love Letters for Everybody [Yeay! Tapes; 2007]

_________________

I was really happy with the first hour. I'm trying to fit a lot of stuff in, so I have to just do excerpts of most of these pieces. I recorded the show as a 192kbps MP3 and split it into three 30 minute chunks that are bundled in a .zip file.

http://www.mediafire.com/?elcpqx9zenu

Enjoy and support your favorite tape labels! 

When I put my hands into the water, the babies come up to my fingers and nibble on them.  They are at that age they think everything is food, even a net!  People come over to our house, and when they see the pond they are delighted, and they all want one.  Once a person sits down on the bench at the pond, it is an instant tranquilizer.  We all need that about a dozen times a day! Minimum.

One can really just sit and watch the plants grow, and that feels so good.  This fast-paced life is not good for any of us humans.  Even the dogs and cats sit there and just watch the fish and enjoy being close to the rocks, plants and water, and hearing the waterfalls running.  Our cats walk across the bridge, stop to get a drink of water, and then swish their tails in the water on the other side, and then mosey on over to the backside of the pond.  The shade on the parts of the pond keep the water cool in a heat wave, and most of the time the fish are passing the time of day until feeding time. When it is time to feed them, they race around the pond with their tail fins swishing the water rapidly.  They move almost in a snake like wave pattern through the water, and once the pellets hit the water, they rush up and grab as many pellets as they can.  It is the most movement one sees out of the fish all day long.  Once the rush is over, they settle down, and wait for more pellets to hit the waterfalls, which shoots them down to the lower depths, and they grab more of them.  The rest of the floating pellets are left for the babies to fight over. 

We bought some baby-sized pellets for the little ones, and they gulp them down as fast as they can.  The babies are growing very fast, and all are getting quite colorful.   I'm amazed at how much they eat.  They also nibble at the algae growing on the sides of the pond.  We try a different type of food each time we replenish the supply, rather than feeding them the same thing all of the time.  Hopefully, the variety keeps them healthier.  The largest, firstborn fry are now two inches in length!

I already found one I like on ebay ($15,000):

and another cool one I like on gumtree ($7,700):

Get it HERE!

It all started a few monthsago when one of our many self-employed friends had to file bankrupcy....it's absolutely amazing how the wind has come out of the sails of so many of our friends in this economy. Not that we don't have our own struggles, but I am grateful to be able to make two mortgage payments in this economy (we bought my in-laws a home about 5 years ago)<----that's a whole other blog!!

So, when I heard that our friend's home, which was foreclosed on weeks ago, had koi fish living in their back pond, I started to panic....with no one to feed the little darlin's....how will they live? Keep in mind that a foot long koi averages for $150 retail, and you can understand why I was eager to rescue these little beauties, which were definitely off the immediate budget....I can't imagine when I'd realistically feel good about spending $750 on some fish for my pond again.

My husband built us a "water feature" when we landscaped our backyard. My husband is your typical 6'8" Texan....bigger is always better. I often feel as if our home is handicapped as far as the "altitudinally challenged" members of our family. That's just me.....our son is 6'9" and still growing (2 more inches, and mama's got a new HOUSE, as far as the NBA is concerned! LOL!)<--but, that's a whole other blog,.....

Keep in mind, that we started stocking our pond with 25 cent minnows. Guess what? tiny minnows are easily swept up in the filtration system that is needed to run our 25 foot double waterfall (photos to follow soon)

So, we tried tiny fish, and they were sucked into the filtration system, and foot-long koi were too much a risk for my pocketbook....but free foot-long koi is a horse of a whole different color!! We contemplated sneaking in in the dark of night to liberate the 3-5 koi that were in our friend's pond, but I am not as adventurous as I used to be, and jailtime does not hold the allure it once held in my youthful mind....

But, this morning, My Honey and I awoke at our normal 3am....we tossed and turned, walked the neighborhood, and finally decided around 7:30 that today was the day to liberate the koi. I even decided on a story....that we'd only recently heard of the poor koi's plight, and as the sensitive wife, I felt compelled to give the poor fish a proper cared for home.

So, thanks to our GPS, we arrive at the home and tip toed into the back yard. We were prepared: My husband had brought a 5 gallon bucket and a spa skimmer.....a spa skimmer is like a pool skimmer, only less than 1/2 the size....it was maybe 8 inches in diameter....

When we finally arrived at the pond, we realized that :

A) There were not 3-4 koi, as originally thought, but only one lonely gold and white butterfly koi lolly gagging in the tiny pond.

B) This koi was over a foot long, and not likely to be caught in our tiny skimmer.

But, we didn't drive 15 miles for nothing, so I filled our 5 gallon bucket with murky pond water while my husband stirred up all the debris from the bottom of the pond desperately trying to scoop up the lonely koi. Keep in mind that we are trespassing on bank property in a very nice neighborhood, and we don't want to draw attention to our plight.

Somehow my husband convinces me to take off my shoes and wade in the disgusting murky pond.....mind you, I can't see my feet, and the bottom is slick and uneven. At one point, he manages to braise the fish with his skimmer, sending it in my direction. Now, a foot-long koi is stronger than you can imagine, and it took every bit of strength of my inner being not to scream......I almost fell on my rear in sheer terror when the fish tried to dart between my legs.....the water was only calf-high, b.t.w.

So, it became apparent that the skimmer isn't going to cut it, but it is 8am on a Sunday morning, and there are no sporting good stores open. We decide to try Fred Meyer...a local one-stop-shopping place that boasts in it's jingle "What's on your list today? You'll find it at Fred Meyer!".....so we head off to the sporting goods section.....no luck....

Then I come up with a brilliant idea....why not use two basic laundry baskets? The Indians weaved baskets to catch fish, so why not use a modern version in modern times? We purchase two cheap white laundry baskets, and return to the scene of the crime.

I, of course, had to wade back into the murky waters of the friend's pond, and my husband, of course, looked on from OUTSIDE the pond. The basket was taller than the depth of the pond, so I used it to skim the depth of the pond....I could see the pale gold and white tail in the murky waters, and instructed my husband to turn his laundry basket toward me, in order to catch the fish in between the two baskets......It took less than 2 minutes to catch the fish in this fashion, because the laundry basket was so large compared to the fish and the pond.....I was actually pretty amused with myself for coming up with the whole laundry basket idea.

Did I already mention that of 4 koi, there was one lone fish left? So it flipped into my basket, and I quickly scooped it up, handed it to my husband, and filled our 5 gallon bucket with more of the murkey water it had gotten used to as home.

Then there was the 30 minute ride home...the bucket sloshing all the way, and my and my husband high-fiving each other the whole time.....it felt great to save this poor koi, who surely would've died if not tended to soon.

Long story short, we liberated the poor gold and white colored butterfly koi into our pond, and my girls have already named it, aptly, Creamsicle!

The next few blogs could possibly feature photos of Creamsicle, along with stories of it's eventual comfort in our little man-made pond.

For now, creamsicle remains a little shell shocked....he tried swimming in our pond, but it is evident that our pond is a bit larger, deeper, and definately noisier than he is used to. For now, he is content to curl up inside two concrete blocks that we placed in the pond ot hold pond plants and provide shleter from the racoons....he has rarely left in the past 8 hours.....

Just approved the production of my custom metal snap closures for the boys' jeans.  Like it?  It's actually a bit darker in person as the flash photography lightened it.  I'm pretty happy with them!  They should arrive from Hong Kong within the next 4 weeks.

I still need to decide which lighted key chains I'm going to be using.  Also need to order matte silver long-pronged snaps for my dress shirts.

My pattern maker received my sketches, fabric and assorted notions.  She told me I could expect them back by August 18th.  Yes, I'm cutting it close.  Very close.  My pattern maker is doing 6 different patterns.  I adore my pattern maker and have full confidence in her ability.

Once I approve my fit samples she makes, I'll have to have a sample maker  make my salesman's samples.  Oh wait...first I need to find a sample maker.  I do have a few contacts in NYC to check out.  Better call them next week and see if they can work within my timeframe.  I need to figure out how many salesman's samples I need.  I have 3 models sized 6 months, 5 years and 6 years for my photos.  I'll also need several size 5 years for my 7 mannequins and another 2 for my size 12 month mannequins.  These salesman's samples will be used to take orders at the upcoming trade show.  Guess I had better book the trade show booth, right?  But I still haven't send in my older samples for approval by the trade show.  I'll do that after the BBQ when I can think straight.  Let's hope I can get a decent location at the trade show.  Keeping fingers crossed.

I also need to have several graphics created for my knit t-shirts.  I'm thinking a NYC skyline or something like that.  Oh and then, I'll need to find a screen printer...easy enough.  At least, I hope!

Honestly, I am frazzled.  Too much going on within a short time period.  My big BBQ is less than a week away and I have tons of things to do, buy, plan, etc.  We're expecting between 130 - 150 people.  Oh my.  Like the logo my e-Bay friends made below?  LOL!

But most importantly, my daughter's kidneys are in very bad shape.  We just got home last night from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia after a 5 day stay and she is now officially listed for a new kidney.  It could come the day of the BBQ at any time.  Really.  Thank you for all your continued support and prayers.

I feel like a million things are coming at me at once and I just want to hide.  Seriously.

I just finished cleaning up dinner--Mr. Diva™ had the bright idea to invite 9 of my daughter's friends over for Shrimp Scampi and Shrimp Marinara.  My kitchen is trashed.  And to make matters worse, my son invited a few of the neighbor kids over to play video games.  Lovely.  I can't wait till they go home!

Unfortunately, I'm now only counting 13 of the 19 koi fish in my pond.  I found the top two pictured fish on the right cut in half.  Apparently, the great white Heron bird can back for a snack while I was away.  I was most upset about my prized 12 inch butterfly koi fish who had the most unique markings...red behind the gills.  This just sucks!  Oh and one of the two blue koi are missing, too!

Tomorrow morning I'm embroidering some tote bags which are due the first week of August.  But first I'll need to clear off all the new fabric so I have some room to work on my cutting table tonight...LOL!

With friendship,

Lisa

Today I ventured up to the West Side of Manhattan, just a mere 18 miles from my home.  First I noticed this SUV on Staten Island with vinyl signage for BottleBuddy.com.  And yes, I checked out their website, because I was just too damn curious as to what in the world a bottle buddy was.  It was great advertising.    Now, if I was to get one, would I get The Domestic Diva with my blog URL or DowntownJoey.com?  Think Mr. Diva™ would mind if I slapped something like that on the new Beamer?

Anyway, there was plenty of traffic as usual.  It is sad to look to the left (off the Gowanus Expressway) and see all the buildings which were once occupied by sewing factories are for the most part, empty shells now.  The thriving garment industry in Brooklyn has mostly gone offshore.  Sad.

So, I made it to the Fabric Sourcing meeting.  And it really wasn't good at all.  Certainly not worth $50 parking, tolls and gas.  Definitely not.  There was one lady in the audience who asked 5 or 6 questions without coming up for air.  It took me everything not to tell her to BREATHE...LOL

After the little seminar, I did a little sourcing of my own in the fabric district and found the zippers I was looking for.  I guess the day wasn't a complete waste.

On the way back to the parking garage, I noticed this awesome window at Lord & Taylor's on 5th Avenue.  Seems they hired Tats Cru (aka The Mural Kings) to do the background.  Think I could afford to have them do my background for my booth at the upcoming ENK Children's Club trade show?  Oh, how I wish.  This was one of several windows with NYC skylines...each one truly awesome.

Off to enjoy my air conditioning!  Oh and I forgot to mention...when I arrived home today, I checked on my Koi fish and there standing on the side of the pond was a Great White Heron or Great Egret.  I scared the huge bird away, but I know he'll be back wanting lunch my fish.  Oh no!!!  Hopefully my fish are bright enough to seek cover under the floating water lilies and other pond plants.

With friendship,

Lisa

Koi Pond 163/365, originally uploaded by Gallery32/Chocolata.

I went to a grown up cocktail party at my boss's house on Friday night and the have this lovely Koi pond. I took some photos and decided this one needed to be a digi painting. I love the water reflecting the sky and the hints of Koi. I now understand Monet's obsession because I took like 25 photos. Insane!

Restful.

T

P.S. this is for sale @Gallery32

Sometimes I use a computer to get ideas, as here where a collage of images has been alterred in lots of fun ways.  I use things like this as sources from which to draw and paint.  It's then that I fiddle around with the image using my own computer (the one between my ears).

As I have already mentioned I'm painting koi these days.  And the koi painting is a very abstract and free image since the fish are moving and their precise shape and anatomy is not visible.  My koi sometimes won't even come to the surface to greet me.  Then at other times they fly out of the water as though they've momentarily forgotten that they're fish.  Consequently I see them as fluid distortions that blend with the water in which they live, and their presence reveals both surface and depths.

So it seems odd that I should be thinking about little squares, but I am.  For a long time, I've had a complicated emotional relationship to the works of another artist, American contemporary painter Jennifer Bartlett.  (More about her later.)  While she certainly did not invent the square, to which delight I think we owe thanks to someone among the ancient Greeks, she did give the square rather more of a high profile than it had enjoyed in a long time.  Even there, of course, she borrows (whether knowingly or not) from a famous precursor Pierre Bonnard -- who saw squares everywhere, even in the foliage of the trees.

Perhaps it is not strange then that I look at my koi paintings with an eye to discerning the grid that possibly overlays their pond.  If I sought a very precise rendering of the image that I'm painting, as I translate from a reference photo to the canvas, I might impose a grid over the photo and block it in square by square.  Since it's interpretation I seek and not a photographic idea, I have no motive to desire such precision.  However, the idea of the grid still beguiles me.  I think of each square as a window that opens up a more intimate view of that section of the picture as though we might open a door onto some little corridor of reality.  I want to peer into those squares to see what each one holds. 

But the grid that overlays reality, conceals as much as it reveals.  Ce que tu montre et que tu cache ... there is this elusiveness, this ineluctable something, this je ne sais quoi that persists.  It is the mystique.

[Top of the post:  Photograph of a shower curtain (with a design in blue squares behind which can be seen parts of a paper mache fish), photo by Aletha Kuschan]

I have been listening to music I hear coming from inside a small shell.  It seems to sing me advice concerning the painting of my koi fish.  Its music comes from a great distance, whispering from far inside its small architecture, and it winds round chamber upon chamber to reach the outer air of the world.  Yet the delight it produces is commensurate with something much louder and grander.  It's really quite an amazing little shell.

[Top of the post: drawing of a lonely shell, by Aletha Kuschan, ballpoint pen]

All my preoccupation with the koi is making me half fish myself.  This is not a dream from which one wishes to awake.  Here is a dream one wants to dream.

I'd like to go to the beach for real.  Or I'd like to dive into a pond somewhere with my friends the koi.  Can't do either of these things right now.  Well, actually I can't try door number two ever -- unless I'm willing to get arrested by the National Park Service.  But I am up to my eyeballs in water.  And I'm not referring to my afternoon at the pool. 

I've been working on koi paintings.  Will be making drawings of koi, too, because painting takes too long and I need instant gratification.  I remember how much I enjoyed making the drawing above, which is fairly large, made on two sheets measuring 60 x 88 inches overall.  I have an idea for a new koi drawing so I'm beside myself with eagerness to get started.  At some future time, I'll post them.  But for now I present these little teasers!

Work of this sort has its own frustrations, of course.  "Painting" with crayons means having to scribble or rub colors into shapes.  The upside is that it's very energetic and provides good exercise for the forearms.  Whatever frustrations to instant gratification exist, however, are more than made up by the delight in making lines.  Lots of 'em -- over very large sheets of paper.  It's great to be an adult and still have so much rationalization for long episodes of play.

[Top of the post:  Last year's Koi drawing, by Aletha Kuschan, crayon on Canson paper]

I'm busy painting koi these days, doing my own version of Monet's Nympheas idea, living as it were in imaginary pools of water, becoming it sometimes seems a fish myself, so immersed I am in a world of blue.  So, it's intriguing to reencounter a work like this drawing of flowers and to find so many similarities in it to the fishes and the pool. 

Though the colors are entirely different and the associations are quite opposite, this picture bears a mirror likeness to the koi ponds.  This similarity is made all the more mysterious by their oppositions.  One takes place outdoors, the other inside the house.  One is natural, the other is civilized and artificial.  One is vertical, the other horizontal.  But inside both pictures are formal means of ordering the visual idea.  Both images have a "swirl" of sorts as its schematic center.  The implicit visual movement of the flowers in their design, both the flowers in the vase and the ones arranged on the design of the cloth, echo the swimming motions of the fish in their pond. 

I've noticed this kind of visual metaphor before in my paintings.  I have no idea what it means.  Beneath the subject matter lies a process of ordering and arranging that is as much the subject of the painting as are the objects depicted.  Somehow in the precise ways I order things, my personality lies hidden. 

It might seem that a person's way of ordering ideas would be the last thing about themselves that they would "hide," and yet I only discover these facts of self-hood for myself by this very indirect means.  And without even realizing I was doing so, naturally I reveal something of myself to others also by these tacit devices.

We project ourselves outwards upon the world in myriad ways.  Just that sense one has of knowing people, of taking the measure of them, even of people that we just meet when we make those crucial "first impression" judgements -- all these effects are signs of the self that is foisted out.  Even a shy self is thrust onto the stage of life despite one's efforts to seek shelter. 

We are all actors on the stage as William Shakespeare once keenly observed.  For the artist the picture is but another kind of garment one wears to demonstrate and manifest the self to the world.

A picture is a strange mirror because it distorts as much as it reveals, pressing ideas outward into the world in a thousand disguises.  Yet behind all forms of concealment, one person peeks through.  Paint.  Do paint, and I guarantee you'll gain self-knowledge though you may not always recognize the face you see in painting's strange mirror.

[Top of the post:  Drawing of Flowers in a Vase, by Aletha Kuschan, Caran d'ache on Canson paper]

The upclose of first marks on a canvas can be kind of exciting.  When everything is possible still...

[Top of the post:  detail of a Koi picture (see Anne Sophie Mutter and her Opposite) by Aletha Kuschan]

There's an episode of Seinfeld called "The Understudy" where one of Jerry's many girl friends gets her big break in a Broadway musical only to flub her opening number.  The very whiny girl friend turns to the audience and pleads with them to let her start over.  Violinist Anne Sophie Mutter would be the opposite of that.  I had a chance to watch Mutter perform once at the Kennedy Center in Washington thanks to the generosity of a friend (artists are way too poor to afford tickets to Mutter's recitals).  Anne Sophie Mutter's performance was so perfect, it's hard to believe she's human.  She is angelic or something. Oddly enough, she gets a certain amount of flak for her virtuosity.  Her performance is so perfect that people imagine her music lacks emotion.  The music is full of emotion!  It's just that we've almost come to equate emotion with imperfection!

I have a violin and started "fiddling around" with it some years ago, and when I'm very well warmed up I can play some jazz by ear that's not too shabby.  (It helps if all the planets are perfectly aligned.)  I doubt I could ever have been a performer even if, like Mutter, I had begun at age four.  In that area of life where I have the most freedom and fluency, I make mistakes all the time.  Big ones!

Maybe artists are just clumsy people.  One artist here at wordpress has the picture of a Julian easel toppling over in a stream as a kind of logo.  And I'll bet that WR Jones has some stories he could tell you.  I have painted things en plein air, thought my picture magnificient, stood back for the better view, and watched the whole thing go SMACK face down in the dirt by an ill-timed gust of wind.  I cannot count the unfortunate bugs I've picked out of other en plein air productions.  And I'm always dropping stuff, brushes and whatnot.  Or losing things (the precise photo, drawing, whatever, that I need for the project at hand).

What I absolutely love about painting, the reason why I know it was meant for me, is that painting is a performance that takes place in utter secrecy and the only notes that count are the ones visible on the top layer.  You can make a tangled mess of the bottom, you can change your mind a thousand times, you can miss your cue, falter on the first note, sing out of key, forget the words -- as long as you recover in that thin top layer -- you win!

[Top of the post:  First layers (learning the riff) of the latest project, by Aletha Kuschan, oil on canvas]

When artists go fishing, it's a little different sort of thing than when most people fish.  I've begun a series of koi paintings that occupy most my time.   Of course, the fish in the drawing are obviously not koi.  They are just fish.  They're friends.   My generic fish that swim in the notebook in search of a fine blue stream.   There are  rambling fish of imagination and dreams.  They come to cheer me on in my larger project that I'm just now beginning.

[Top of the post:  Swift Swimming Fish of Dreams, by Aletha Kuschan, drawing in a notebook]