
Let’s get connected. . .
the website of Mark S Bailen. . . writer, illustrator, and fake-nature photographer

Let’s get connected. . .

so, I spent a week in Bali where I got to experience DREAM EARTH ALIVE FUTURE. . . or DEAF for short. . . Probably from the sound of all those motorbikes.

the canyon. . .


In the basement of the Salt Lake City airport are these oversized eco quotes. Everybody rushes past without glancing at them. Because I’m a dork, I stopped and read each one and pondered the universe. After the HDT quote, I felt like I won the lottery. . .

I had never been to a Rainforest Cafe, but while walking through the Arizona Mills mall, I realized that the restaurant filled an entire bingo card of topics for my website. Fake nature, wildvertising, greenwashing, crapitalism, vaguely apocalyptic. . . all in the same place? Wuh? So my wife and I braved the lush plastic jungle and now I’m convinced. . . Rainforest Cafe is a portal to hell.

great plains. . .


More Epic. . . More Journeys. . . More Joy. . . The great outdoors, brought to you by Mastercard.


variations on a theme

We flew to Portugal for the holidaze. For one week we rented bikes and toured the Algarve. For the second week we rented a car and zipped around southern Spain. So lots of time exploring old medieval streets where surprisingly, we found the feeling of nature?

When we arrived in Europe, we spent a few days wandering the streets of Lisbon, recovering from jet lag. Not sure what this ad is for. Nature?