atlas(t): the galleon trade edition

yes, darlings and darlingettes! Our precious atlas(t) is all growed up! S/he is now popping out puppies!

If that's too cryptic, what I mean to say is that the long bloglessness is finally over. I'm going to half time at my job in July and will celebrate that fact by going on vacation in the Philippines.

But it's not just any vacation in the Philippines. I will be traveling with a group of fartists involved in the project Galleon Trade, an international artists exchange along the route of the old Spanish galleon trade: Philippines, California, and Mexico. July/August 2007 Bay Area artists will be showing work at three galleries in Manila. In 2008 Filipino and Mexican artists will be showing work at the Luggage Store gallery in San Francisco. And then in 2008/9 Cali and Philippine artists will go to Mexico.

It just sounds like a project, doesn't it? Oh, but, my dears, think of the urbanness, the cityscapes and infrastructures, the books, ideas, histories and arts that will pass before my eyes as I travel along. Think of the atlas(t)iness. Yeah, I thought of it too. And got very excited. So excited, in fact, that I wanted to redesign atlas(t) specifically for this occasion. Such things have been done before.

But then I thought: no, it is wrong. atlas(t) is s/heself and must not be tampered with (much). So instead, atlas(t) had a baby blog, atlas(t): the galleon trade edition, which will be the atlas(t) of choice for the duration.

What does this mean, gentle reader? I'm not sure yet. I do know that, for a while, I will be spending all my time bringing up baby. All my atlas(t)ian insight will be filtered through galleon-shaped frames. But as time moves on, I suspect I'll have things to say and do that are clearly shiplike and things that aren't. And perhaps I'll be sorting posts into atlas(t) proper and atlas(t): galleon days. Who knows?

I hope this new project sounds interesting to you and that you'll transfer your attention over there. Here's the link again.

See ya on the dark side. The shizzle begins after June 30.