June 17, 2008
100 things - get rid of all but. I'd love to do this, but think it's out of reach unless "hand tools", "computer" and "books" each count as one.
June 06, 2008
Pulitzer Photos (and more) - the photo Pulitzers came out recently, with two extraordinary photos taking first and second. That spurred a fascinating rundown over at the washpost chat house of recent past winners and what the pulitzer committee looks for. [so you don't have to wade through, photos embedded after jump.]
Jason Kottke links to this extraordinary slideshow of photos taken from RFK's Funeral train, narrated by the photographer.
Meanwhile, Bruce Scheier runs down the War on Photography -- this Guide to Photographer's Rights is well worth browsing through. Forbidding photography in a public place is almost *never* legitimate, and seizing film in the absence of an arrest or a court order is never permitted. [more inside]
May 16, 2008
Muto Wall Animation. Pretty fascinating animation created by the artist BLU in Buenos Aires.
May 13, 2008
Panopticist's Magazine Mashup Mishegas - I don't know how I failed to have previously linked the Panopticist's stellar magazine cover mashups. But now that Jezebel is picking up the slack with their Harper's Bazaar Index, please enjoy classic cuts like "The New York Review of Looks" ("Norman Mailer: `Kate Hudson's Too Thin'") the "Us! News and World Report" and "E!conomist" (`How the Housing Bubble will affect Desperate Homeowners`).
April 18, 2008
In an effort to increase the quantity of insipid drivel in my life, I have begun listening to Radio Disney, AM 1110. As surely as the sun rises in the east, I tell you this, boys and girls; Radio Disney is seriously pummeling my brain with fifty thousand watts of Pure Awesome.
I present the following as conclusive evidence of Pure Awesome:
[more inside]
April 14, 2008
The subject of odd punctuations came up the other day. I present for your orthographic diversification:
- Interrobang, ‽ ‽
- Octothorpe is the same thing as the hash (#, #), isn't the same thing as a sharp (♯, ♯), but does have a hilarious backstory.
- The ineffable Grawlixes include the Jarn, Phosphene, Squean, Nittle and Quimp -- they're how cartoon characters swear in print (seen earlier here). They don't, inexcusably, have unicode code points, but the superheroic MarkerMan typeface will do in a pinch.
March 31, 2008
NYT has an interactive gallery of Al Jaffee's MAD Magazine fold-in covers which is highly entertaining. There is also an article about his creative process. (via waxy)
March 04, 2008
I've been seeing the old HBO pre-movie animation go around the interwebs recently so I thought I'd collect the related bits here:
- HBO has a dedicated youtube channel now and put up the old school movie intro which definitely got my blood rushing (I remembered the song note for note). As cynical-c and the sports guy both pointed out, any time this music played it was MANDATORY that you watch all the way through to see if the warning would come up with SSC (strong sexual content) or N (the ever coveted nudity).
- A behind the scenes look at the creation of that spot
- The music video for "DVNO" by Justice features a riff on the HBO promo plus tons of others that smell like VHS tapes to me (like Cannon films) and old TV shows (like Stephen J. Cannell at his typewriter).
February 27, 2008
My Favorite Liar - I love this. Apparently also applied by Neil Postman (Teaching as a Subversive Activity). [thx kottke]
"...'let me explain how I teach. Between today until the class right before finals, it is my intention to work into each of my lectures ... one lie. Your job, as students, among other things, is to try and catch me in the Lie of the Day.' And thus began our ten-week course."
February 24, 2008
Over Time I Get Used To Everything And Start Taking It For Granted - brilliant. From subtraction.
January 28, 2008
Enjoyed this gallery of Chimpanzee and Baboon photos from the '70s and '80s by a primate researcher. Not only the great kodachrome toned photos, but also the fascinating bush stories: close encounter with lion, "helpful tips for sleeping in the bush part I", and helpful tips for sleeping in the bush part II. [more inside]
January 25, 2008
"[T]o photograph each of the nation’s 50 state capitol buildings and dispatch a postcard from each city, using postage stamps from a childhood collection. Each postcard would be mailed to the next state on his journey, where he would pick it up, continuing until he had gone full circle back to Indiana."
Well, that was the plan, until he got listed. [more inside]
November 28, 2007
If you've been checking in on the Writers' Strike, you may have the same question I did: Where does the unionista in a hurry find someone to handle her giant-inflatable-Corporate-Greed-pig-balloon needs? In the City That Works, natch: Chicago-based Big Sky Balloons has a whole menu of Union Balloons (dig the URL), including "Scabby The Rat" and a Giant Cockroach.
November 13, 2007
How to Paper Mache by Rob Cockerham. (Consider this an invitation for the crafties to linkdump.) [Ed: Fixed a glaring oversight in the list of crafties]
October 25, 2007
Interview with Sopranos' creator David Chase. I personally /loved/ the ending, but it's getting pretty hard for me to hold on to an alternative interpretation of the finalé.
I saw some items in the press that said, ''This was a huge 'f--- you' to the audience.'' That we were s---ting in the audience's face. Why would we want to do that? Why would we entertain people for eight years only to give them the finger? We don't have contempt for the audience. In fact, I think The Sopranos is the only show that actually gave the audience credit for having some intelligence and attention span. We always operated as though people don't need to be spoon-fed every single thing — that their instincts and feelings and humanity will tell them what's going on.
October 24, 2007
How Manga Conquered the US - or, "US the Conquered Manga How" as it were.
October 19, 2007
Improv Everywhere at it again - sending 110 shirtless shoppers to Abercrombie & Fitch. [more inside]
September 09, 2007
World Beard and Moustache Championships 2007 were recently held in England. In a sport traditionally "dominated by German beard clubs", Team USA made a strong showing. The next one will be in Anchorage 2009 -- surely two years of celibacy is worth these prizes!
September 02, 2007
Tom Lehrer called hers "the juiciest, spiciest, raciest obituary it has ever been my pleasure to read" - a promising composer in her own right, Alma Lehrer had relationships with, in her time,
- Jugendstil painter Gustav Klimt, famous for works such as "The Kiss" and "Adele Bloch-Bauer I" (current record holder, highest price paid for a work of art);
- Classical Composer Gustav Mahler
- Architect Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus school of design;
- Poet Franz Werfel, author of Forty Days of Musa Dagh and Song of Bernadette;
- Expressionist artist Oskar Kokoschka;
- ... not to mention Composer Alexander von Zemlinsky and theater director Max Burckhard.
August 11, 2007
Geography of Washington, DC deformed to show subway travel time/cost - right now you need your screen set to 'ginormous' to see the whole thing; a more polite version is coming RSN. Maybe wait a few more days before sending it around. [more inside]
July 11, 2007
In 1947, Life Magazine asked popular cartoonists of the day to draw their iconic characters while blindfolded. On the whole, not bad!
July 09, 2007
Terrorist Organization Logos - a taxonomy of designs. [via kottke]
"Although this entry focuses on a relatively trivial aspect of terror organizations, it is in no way intended to make light of terrorism. The guns, the blades, the maps of Israel, and other elements in these logos do effectively communicate with painful clarity what some of these groups intend. While my overview of terrorist logos is meant half-seriously as an examination of graphic design in a place we might not think to look, I don’t want to minimize the devastation these groups have wrought.